Language...I wonder....

Dear friends,
Please do correct my wild stab at Malay if you can. I am not sure correct or not.....(see on the right)
Supposed to be, if in english something like:

I have
A little Black Pepper,
A little Carrot Stick,
and a Big Pumpkin!

Welcome to our house....

If you could visit us, you would be welcome in our living room and kitchen. Welcome to our house-but lets go outside! Kids playing in the garden...

Agent Muffin, Chief of Vermin Extermination Efforts

Happy little Boy Henry and his even Happier Dog Hawkeye...

Ok, ok...these pics are from the summer. But aren't they cute!

Crooked Creek Valley

A picture from my hometown-notice the lack of, well, town. This is the valley just below the hills I call home. :) There really is a little town (a few houses, church, and a bar) but you can't see it in this photo. I think I took this in late summer, say, September or something. Maybe if I can I will go back to the same spot and get a winter picture for you! By the way, I live behind the hill in the distance there.

New Year, like this...

New Year at Lamperts

5:45 am-1/1/09-Checked the calf, it pulled it's feet away, so it is going to
be just fine. Let the birthing continue as normal.
6:00 am-Coffee, hot. Ready to begin milking. Milking went fine.
8:00 am-Checked the cow, calf did not pull it's feet away. Something
seems wrong. Must pull the calf.
8:05 am-Tied string around the feet to pull calf. Something seems wrong.
Advanced calf, no gag reflex. SOS!
8:07 am-Used the comealong to jack the calf. Calf was born dead at 8:07.
8:08 am-Tried to force a breath but the calf was fully dead.
9:00 am-Cow cleaned easily. Took dead calf outside in the sunlight, and
saw that the problem was the umbilical cord wrapped around a
forfoot. Therefore, dead calf. Really a beauty-all white heifer
calf with a little black on the legs.

I really don't believe in luck. However this was not a happy way to start the new year.

OH Bother! More weather....

Just to complain a little, we managed to get iced in for about 4 days over christmas. Now the roads are clear finally. Guess what? It is going to bombard us again tonight-80% chance of snow. BooHoo.

Its a good day, I say....

Today I had intended to go to work; well, the weather had some other plans for me. It iced over last night, but only after snowing. Then it warmed up, making the roads like skating lanes. Those not in demanding job positions should stay at home. Strangely, this means, hmm, only I am at home. Hmmm, why? Well, Dad and Robyn had to run to Caledonia while they can still get out. Ben is doing a nescessary trip for water heater parts for the barn, we can't make it without a water heater in the barn, or the pipeline is a mess. Even Laura is out and about (not even surprising) and she had to take Brea Anne to get her leg stitched closed again. She broke it open recently. Mom is in a demanding job role, so she had to go to work. She left around 4:45 to be there on time. We won't be seeing her until supper I'm sure.

So, it is just me and my kids here today. What did we do? We made a snowman! Yeah! Ellie and Joey couldn't agree on whether it was a snowman or a snowwoman. Joey advocated for a snow man. Ellie dissented. Well, I settled it easily, by naming said snowman Bai Fan (white rice) which we all said could be a boy?? or girl?? YOU decide! Well, Bai Fan looked kinda lonely all by h'self out in the yard....

So we gave our new friend a new friend. A snow puppy. Hehe. And that is our kind of humor! We wore ourselves out having fun in the snow. Besides making snowman and dog, we also entertained ourselves by throwing snowballs and the (real) dogs around here were happily busy chasing and sometimes catching them. When we finally got cold everyone came in (Joey last, who was enjoying burrowing a hole in the snowdrift south of the machine shed) and we had hot noodle soup, hot steamers and popcorn for lunch.

Now the children are enjoying Charlotte's Web on the VCR.

It's been a good day thus far!

Crabby Old Man

Crabby Old Man
This was written by an old gentleman who lived in a nursing home. Little else is known about him other than that fact. This was found in his few possessions after he died.

What do you see nurses? What do you see?
What are you thinking when you’re looking at me?
A crabby old man not very wise,
Uncertain of habit with faraway eyes?

Who dribbles his food and makes no reply,
When you say in a loud voice “I do wish you’d try!”
Who seems not to notice the things that you do.
And forever is losing a sock or shoe?

Who, resisting or not lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding the long day to fill?
Is that what you’re thinking? Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurse you’re not looking at me.

I’ll tell you who I am as I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding, as I eat at your will.
I’m a small child of ten with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters who love one another.

A young boy of sixteen with wings on his feet
Dreaming that soon now a lover he’ll meet.
A groom soon at twenty, my heart gives a leap
Remembering, the vows that I promised to keep.

At twenty-five, now I have young of my own.
Who need me to guide and secure happy home.
A man of thirty, my young now grown fast,
Bound to each other with ties that should last.

At forty, my young sons have grown and are gone,
But my woman’s beside me to see I don’t mourn.
At fifty, once more, babies play ‘round my knee,
Again, we know children, my loved one and me.

Dark days are upon me. My wife is now dead.
I look at the future I shudder with dread.
For my young are all rearing young of their own.
And I think of the years and the love that I’ve known.

I’m now and old man and nature is cruel.
‘Tis jest to make old age look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles grace and vigor depart.
There is now a stone where I once had a heart.

But inside this old carcass a young guy still dwells,
And now and again my battered heart Swells
I remember the joys I remember the pain.
And I’m loving and living life over again.

I think of the years all too few gone too fast.
And accept the stark fact that nothing can last.
So open your eyes, people open and see
Not a crabby old man. Look closer, see ME!

Feeling Poetic Again....

Dreams and Memories (Adults and Children) 12/20/08

Little child, little one, where have you gone in your dreams?
Did you color the wind or summit a mountian-
What are your grandest schemes?

The innocence of childhood is a wonderful splendor of illusion
Specifically locked into the memories of each person’s recollection
Giving rise the phrases such as “way back when…” and “In the good ol’ days”
Memory can color something pink like a rosebush and erase the sensation of thorns
Helping us look back, drawing on the days gone by, feeding like a thread of sugar
The dreams we hold for each other in the future.

My childhood illusion was grand and awsome
Like deep earthy smells like moccasins on black loam soil
Wonderfully drawn together with sunrises sunsets and all the colors between
Sticks and stones and walking paths and lilac bushes with perfection
When transferred from reality to dreamland world of memory…
Treasures in the black dirt of home and the tall trees in the wood

And I am now grown. There is little child in me that can be seen
But my own little ones come to me with dreams of what they saw yesterday
My yesterday, years ago, theirs, hours ago and almost right now upon us
They run and play a part outside to chase it again and create more!
More memories! More games and toys and stories! The next dreamIs at this very moment being dreamed in their fresh hearts.