A visit to the farm, leaving the Upper Peninsula

Wow! I guess my blog has turned into a scrapbook of our recent Michigan trip... sorry about that! I hope I'm not boring you!!

On our way out of Marquette, we stopped for a quick hike at the Dead River Falls, a place where we've hiked many times over the years. I believe my first time at the Dead River Falls was when Matt & I went running one evening, back when we were transitioning between just being friends and starting to be "something more". So there are lots of fun memories for us at the Dead River. :)

Here are Matt & the kids before our hike. We brought along my Bible and read Psalm 145, which was very appropriate, being out in nature like that. (verses 3-7 really fit with God's greatness and His works.)

Naomi, being her photogenic self, by the Dead River. I'm not sure why this river is called the Dead River. Sometime I'll have to look that up.

We've been friends with Steve & Heidi (above, in their kitchen) since we were all newlywed students at Northern Michigan University. They live on a 40-acre farm with their 9 kids (#10 is due in September!) and have their own small dairy farm. Steve goes into the woods two days a week and works as a logger. We got to experience an afternoon on their farm a couple of weeks ago, on our way out of the Upper Peninsula.

We all went out to the hayfield to work on haying that evening. Matt got to drive the tractor, and David & Marissa helped some with loading hay onto the wagon. The rest of us either sat on the wagon or rode around the field in their 15-passenger van, watching the whole thing. It was really quite social.

Steve & Heidi and their family have lots of animals on the farm. Here's Naomi with Magdalene, holding one of their bunnies, wrapped in her special pink blanket. Heidi said that none of their animals were used to such royal treatment!

We also got to see the "J" family in action during milking time. They have 27 cows, 8 in the barn at once, and with their milking machine & milk line that takes the milk directly to the bulk tank, it takes about 1 1/2 hours twice a day. Steve said that by the end of milking time, the milk is already chilled to 40 degrees! He took a quart jar and filled it up straight from the builk tank so we could sample some of the 70+ gallons we'd just watched being milked. Mmmm... it was *delicious*!!

Here are the dynamic trio, Hannah, Marissa & Lydia, ready for milking time. Marissa has been pen pals with both Hannah and Lydia since we moved to Arizona, and they all write quite faithfully. It's so sweet to read their letters about farming and the things they're learning, and to see the drawings they all make for each other.

Marissa is a farm girl at heart, and she jumped right in with helping get the cows ready for their milking. She loved it!

Here I am in the yard with our son Jesse and with Simon Peter, whose birth I was privileged to witness 9 years ago when I was studying to be a Bradley natural childbirth teacher. It was such an honor that Heidi invited me to be there. :)

We had a great time visiting with our friends... it was so great to see all of them again!