Days at the Beeli's

Thursday we walked early and came home for Evelyn to ready herself for her Bible study. I watered the plants. I took her to the church before 9:30. I came home and called Emily to see if she wanted the grapes Gene had offered. She said she did so I went over to his house and trimmed grapes into our Playmate cooler. I came home and showered after packing most of the things into the car. I also ran the vacuum cleaner. I went to get Evelyn right at 12:30, and she was ready. We came home, she changed clothes, and we left for Xenia. We stayed on I-40 and joined I-75 in Knoxville. We stopped just before they joined at the Russell Stover outlet and loaded up on much needed chocolate. :-) We had an uneventful trip except for eating our Blimpie sandwich as we drove. We shared 1 at 1:30 and saved the other until 5. We thought we would not have supper. When we got there, however, she had hamburgers waiting for us. They had agreed to “sheep-sit” for some friends and were milking all 4 when we arrived. The friends had brought a portable solar powered electric fence. We talked with the father while his sons and Andrew played in the pool. We had also brought many transparent apples, so E&E had to peel and process them before they spoiled anymore. We had a good visit and then went to the motor home Emily had borrowed for us again. We were up until almost midnight.

Friday was the big day for the play. Emily took Noah, Rosalie, and Elizabeth to their final rehearsal. Andrew worked on his computer while Stephen and I played cards together. Evelyn and Emily went to a farmer’s market until time to bring the kids home. Stephen and I painted 3 door surfaces in their barn. That took us around 2 hours. We had lunch and then Emily and Andrew went to play miniature golf with some other home school families. Evelyn, Elizabeth and I took the grapes off the stems and ran some of them through their juicer. It made several quarts of very good grape juice. We couldn’t do all of them because there weren’t enough containers for them. We dressed and went to the play, “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” based on the novel by C. S. Lewis. It had a great Christian theme. Noah was one of the leads and the girls had minor parts. Rosalie even played 2 different characters. It was really a blessing to see them in the play. We had to go in 2 different cars and Pieder, Evelyn and Andrew went home in 1. As we started home, Emily said we should go for the ice cream I had offered. We had everyone else in their Suburban, so we went to the Cold Stone Creamery for the treat. I took one home for Evelyn and Andrew to share. Pieder is still on the low carb diet, so I didn’t take him one. We went to bed a bit earlier and were surprised to find that Stephen joined us in the motor home. He slept on the couch.

We slept until almost 9 on Saturday. The planned menu was French toast but first the sheep had to be milked. Sheep are cantankerous animals. They have to be lured into the milking stall with grain and sometimes have their hind legs tied to be milked. They also have a strange configuration of their udder and teats. They stick out to the sides, making it difficult to perform the function. They also try to get out each time 1 of them is brought out for milking. I have spent several minutes chasing them down in the yard and dragging them back to the pen. I even had to get a wooden club and smack them in the head and body to get them away from the gate opening. They are heavier, more aggressive and stronger than one might expect. Rosalie and Noah do the milking. He has had much experience with milking goats but not sheep. They really dislike the chore. Noah had spent most of the day helping a divorced woman with some of her chores. He is very dedicated to helping her for no remuneration. He is a delightful Christian young man. We had eaten a very late breakfast and lunch, so we had no supper. I tried to make popcorn but burned it. I used 3 different pans with almost the same result in each. I missed my StirCrazy! I never burn popcorn when I use it. The boys ate the pizza we had brought from home. I had spent the day mostly playing with Stephen and Elizabeth. For a while Pieder and I played Foosball against them. I am not good at the game.