-SPRING BREAK-

Nine-year-old Marshall spent his spring break with us (April 6-11). He's "all boy" and enjoys the freedom and diversity of farm life. He loves animals and bugs and the great outdoors. He wants to be a herpetologist when he grows up!
One of the first things we did was bake bread. He chose a recipe called Johnny Appleseed Bread with apple juice, applesauce, and a chopped apple. Turned out yummy!!!! Each morning he chose the main course to make for breakfast: eggs, waffles, or "shape" pancakes. He's pretty good at breaking eggs and frying them and he's getting better at carefully reading a recipe. Those 1/2 and 1/4 measurements can be confusing.
Here is Marshall riding in the bucket of the Bobcat but, whenever he had a few spare minutes, he was out driving it around by himself (after asking permission, of course).
Marshall spent a lot of time in the milk barn because there were baby kittens to play with. There isn't a lot he can do to actually help with milking the cows, but he could take the hoses out of the milk line and remove the rubber cups from the milkers before we got started .
One day he was wearing one of my barn sweatshirts but he had taken it off because it was getting warm. I asked him to go find it so we could make sure it got back to the house. After quite a bit of hunting, he found it in with the heifers - totally covered in crap. He had hung it on a gate and those curious young girls managed to get it down to their level for further investigation. Marshall gingerly brought it to the milk house where Weldon hosed it down.
eeeuuuuoooo....
Marshall went with Weldon to get a load of feed in the big yellow dump truck, he built a tower at Grandma Edith's ,we went to see "Horton Hears a Who", we made pizza, he continued to learn how to wield a broom ,and some mornings he got to sleep in late.
Marshall remarked that he'd like to spend a whole school year with us. (Wow! Really? beam beam) "I could use the sleep!" he said. So much for the momentary boost to the ego :-)
P.S. I totally forgot to mention our visit to Papa John's goat farm. I also forgot to take the camera that day, so I don't have any pictures to post. Marshall got to run with the big dog, see the chickens, and play with the miniature goats. They loved nibbling the hem of his shorts. Marshall wanted to take a goat home but John told him he couldn't let one go by itself. No problem! Marshall said he'd take two! Check out Papa John's website and you may even see some of the goats in action on the live webcam. http://www.papajohnsfarm.com/
Coming up next: the quilt!!