Our Blue Bayou

Who wants to swim in brownish water when one can float about in a beautiful blue bayou?! We were excited when we found a pond additive that was safe for animals to drink, safe for swimming, and safe for wildlife. We chose to add it in the evening so that we could awake to a "new" pond! Trey poured the intense blue in several spots and we watched as it slowly dispersed. We were anxious to see what surprise would greet us in the morning.From the perspective of Rachel and Amanda's room on the second floor, there was quite a different pond. It had turned a beautiful aqua-blue! Doesn't it already look much more inviting for a swim? What fun!

Before

After

Music Lovin' Christians

We arrived home from Oil Belt Christian Service Camp last Saturday. It was a pleasure being with all of the familiar faces for a whole week. Our family was blessed to be able to help as faculty at the Music Camp Plus week of camp again this year. Trey is the string ensemble director and Amanda and Rachel help with it as well. There were several new faces in the string section this year, as well wonderful familiar ones. Our family also led the devotion around the flag pole each morning.

The camp begins with worship on Sunday evening; other activities take place later that evening. Meeting in the faculty lounge after the day's activities are over is always a highlight of the day. We have lots of good music, stories, encouragement, etc.
The next three days are filled with practice, whether it is Band, String Ensemble, Choir, Drama, Interpretive Dance, Art, or Sign Language. Three days of intense preparation gets the performance to concert level. Thursday evening, we prepared for our first concert at Cornerstone Christian church in Effingham. Everyone did a fabulous job praising the Lord with their talents. Friday evening's performance was held at the First Christian church in Fairfield. What a great time of excitement! Both nights were a wonderful time of worship!

Saturday the camp was cleaned and we all said our goodbyes. What a fun week we had with other music lovin' Christians!

Providence Prairie's Music Recital

As the time drew near, the church began to fill with people as excitement filled the air! There had been a lot of practicing taking place prior to June 22 and this was the big day.

More and more arrived as the music recital was about to begin.

We had such a variety of instruments and music style from guitar, bass guitar, violin, and piano to bluegrass, classical, hymns, ragtime and folk!

Over 30 students of all ages performed for the audience of over 150! We were pleased with the show of support from family and friends. After the concert, guests proceeded to partake of light refreshments.
Rhonda, Amanda, and Trey were proud of the accomplishments each of the students had made! It was also announced that Rachel was to begin offering mandolin lessons this fall.

What a wonderful performance by everyone! Keep up the good work! We are proud of you!

Sheep Shearing

Early in the month of June, Trey set about the task of shearing our sheep's coats. It is always an exciting event to watch Trey hand-shear our sheep. They become quite helpless when laid upon their backs. We did have a few stubborn ones who were new at being sheared, who tried to kick and get up even when on their backs, but for the most part, they laid there in quiet submission. The wool is on our front porch awaiting storage for later carding and spinning into yarn. There was a lot of beautiful blacks and lavenders in this year's wool. We increased the number of coats to shear from the two we had last year, to five this year. We had several younger ones who were sheared for their first time, so our wool count increased a lot.

Fish Fry at Dahlgren Baptist church

We were delighted to be able to sing for the Dahlgren Baptist congregation on June 1. With many songs and smiling faces the Lord was praised, and we were blessed!

And the fish was excellent!!! :)

Worth a Silver Spoon

Early one morning as Rachel and Amanda were heading up to the field to milk the goats, they noticed that one of the hives of bees were in an uproar. A cloud of bees flying in front of the hive, caused them to know that we had a swarm on our hands. Hurrying back to the cabin, they related the incident to Mark before he left for work and gathered the necessary supplies to house the bees. The swarm might possibly fly away to find a new home before we returned!

And so it was. . . sadly, the bees were nowhere to be found. With the mother colony still in it's box, the new swarm was off to find a new home.




As we were pulling away, Rhonda spotted the swarm in the honey locust tree at the old home site! Hooray! We were thrilled and Mark and Amanda quickly set to work. When bees swarm, they are a little more docile than in the hive, as they have gorged themselves on honey previous to swarming. While they may be pretty docile, it doesn't mean they can't sting- they are just less likely to.

In somewhat of a hurry, our "uniforms" were definitely not the norm for handling bees. A swarm of bees usually goes into a hive rather quickly. The queen loves darkness and will retreat to the dark cavities of the hive, her court following right behind.After the bees went into the hive, Mark placed the lid on and carried them to their new home, next to their mother hive. Needless to say, they are happily living in their new home, pollinating the surrounding area. What an adventure!

And as the old saying goes, "A swarm in June is worth a silver spoon."

Wedding Bells

Mark and Rhonda recently had the opportunity to make a very quick trip to Ohio to participate in the felicity of Mike and Cathy's wedding.

Congratulations and may God richly bless the union of your lives!