I've been awarded!

I was awarded the 'Beautiful Blogger Award' by Abagayle M. @ For the Love of Animals.... and Amy @ AmyWegnersBlog!  Thank you girls so much!!!!

The Rules:

If you choose to accept the award you must:
 

1) Thank the person who nominated you and link to their blog

2) Copy the award and paste it to your blog

3) Tell us seven interesting facts about you

4) Pass the award to fifteen(ish) awesome bloggers you've discovered

5) Contact your nominations and let them know they've won

Seven interesting facts about me are:

1. The love of my life is Jesus Christ!

2. My family means the world to me.

3. I love AG!!!!!

4. I very much dislike shopping. :P

5. I love to eat! :D

6. My favorite season is spring!

7. I can't figure out if I want to purchase a tractor or a truck first. :D

Okay, for my nominees......

Sorry if I don't contact you, I don't have time right now.  Hopefully you will see this!!!  Oh, and I'm just going to do 5 tonight.  If you would like this award, follow my blog and write a comment on this post and it's all yours! :)

1) Jenna @ Where the Heart Remains

2) Hannah Paige @ Trusting in His Love

3) Rebecca @ The Life of a FarmGirl

4) Emily @ 15 Smithies

5) Jenna @ Feminine Farmgirl

Thanks again girls!

~Bethany~

For the Beauty of the Earth.....

Spring on Asher Acres!  I love this time of the year.  Fresh rains, beautiful flowers, adorable babies.  Winter is fast dying away and the earth is awaking once again.  As I am writing, the sun is shining its bright morning rays upon our farm and the dew is heavy upon the plants.  At times like this, I can't help but marvel at the Lord's beautiful and wondrous creation.  Only the King of Kings and Lord of Lords could create such beauty and tranquility. 

Underneath all this beauty however, much is going on.  Life is rushing past and I must occasionally stop myself and enjoy all that I have been blessed with.  An awesome God, a wonderful family, a marvelous home, a sound mind and body.  Oh, how I have been SO blessed! 

As to what all is going on here at Asher Acres.....I'll start with the bad news.  Mandie aborted.  So far, she delivered one aborted fetus, however she is retaining the other for some reason.  She is not dilating, so therefore we can't go in and pull it out (though we have tried several times).   It's saddening and we're afraid we may have to sell her or put her down.  This is the second time in a row that she has had difficult deliveries and won't dilate. 

To the more enjoyable news however, we're getting ready for our first show of the season!!!  We will be going to an Ohio show Friday/Saturday/Sunday.  I'm taking a total of 15, six milkers (1-9 yo, 1-4 yo, 2-2 yo, 2- yearlings), one dry yearling, one buck kid, and seven doe kids.  We may all be going down as a family, but that has not been decided yet.  We'll see how it all works out.

 
May the peace that only the One True God can give, come upon you during this beautiful day.  His love reigns forever!

A sister in Christ,

~Bethany~

P.S. If you were wondering anything about the pictures....I took them the other day after a rainfall.  The camera I took them with was my parents Konica Minolta 35-420 mm 6.0 megapixel.  I love that camera! :)

Regional Camp!

FFA Regional Camp was one of those great experiences that I will never forget.  As you know, I was elected Vice President of my FFA chapter and all of our officers were sent to Regional Camp.  There we were taught our duties of each of our roles and did fun activities to come together as a team.  I also ran for Regional officer, so that was something else to look forward to.  Here are some pictures of our time there!

The 2010-2011 BACC FFA Officer Team (from top to bottom) - Parliamentarian, Historian, Sentinel, Reporter, Treasurer, Secretary, Vice President, President.

This is right after I found out my slate and the person I was slated against. Yep, I was slated PRESIDENT/VICE PRESIDENT!!!  I was so excited!

Ashley and I!

The flag raising ceremony in the mornings.

Our whole team around our chapter poster.

In front of the lake on the camp.

Our chapter officers in a pyramid!  Those are so much fun to make! :)

I left Wednesday after school and we got home Friday after school.  I gave my speech and was elected to the Vice President position on Friday morning.  It was a great time to learn more about leadership, our duties as new officers and form strong friendships.

Have a great weekend my friends! :)

~Bethany~

Emma......

I forgot to mention one very important detail yesterday.....Miss Emma.  The other evening I came home from Livestock Judging and noticed that Emma was in labor.  This was about 3-4 weeks early so I knew immediately that something was wrong.  She delivered premature, and we're not exactly sure why.  We have had three goats this year abort and we're pretty sure it's due to a toxin in the feed from last year's wet harvest.  However, our heifers have all been on grass and hay this whole winter.  We think it may be from her falling when we dehorned her about a week ago.  However, while her bull calf was dead, but Emma did come into milk (thankfully it was close enough to her due date that the hormones were still strong enough to send her into milk) so we are now milking her.  While we have had a few slight issues because of her being a first freshener (kicking, moving around a bunch, the whole nine yards) she's actually a very nice heifer.  I don't have any pics of her yet, but I'll try to get some once her edema goes down.  Right now, her udder is very large and hard because of it.  So anyway, that's our biggest addition around here. :)

Enjoy your evening!

~Bethany~

Just livin' Life

Howdy folks!
Yep, I'm still around.  With the sun shining and life busy, there is little time for the computer and all that fun stuff.....so I've been slow on getting around to posting. 

My weekend was pretty fun, starting with Friday.  Abigail and I were out of the house at 6:15 on our way to an FFA contest.  We have a team of five that competed in a contest called Agriculture and Natural Resources Communication (ANR Comm.).  Each one of us had different practicums, News Article, Press Release, Graphic Design, Web Design, and Broadcasting.  I did the Press Release, which is a paper about 250 words.  Short n' sweet. :)  Our topic was "Wind Power", a pretty hot topic here in Michigan.  However, there's not much controversy, so that's makes it a little more difficult to write on.  Anyway, our chapter brought up over 80 students, so that was pretty cool!

Saturday I got to babysit two very adorable little ones, a little girl of 4 and little one-year-old boy.  They were here from 8:30 in the morning until about 5:30 at night.  It was fun to have a baby in the house again!  That evening, Abigail, Rachel and I went to a fondue party with a church youth group.  We had meats, veggies, bread, cheeses, and fruits/chocolate!  It tasted great! 

Sunday, I attended a livestock judging competition.  I haven't judged and given oral reasons since Nationals, so it's been a while.  I ended up getting my two best sets of reasons, a 46 and a 47 (out of 50).  I placed 3rd overall in reasons and 5th overall score.  I was really excited, as it my best judging day ever. 

Today I cleaned out the pole barn and we got 60 new chicks!  We're working on getting ready for our first show which is coming up in a few weeks.  I also have FFA Regional Camp this week, so I will be finding out the results of Regional officers and hopefully our new chapter team will become a real team.  :)

Here are just a few pics I took today!

Chicks!!!

Athena, one of my fav. kids from this year.

Several of our kids getting their supper!  Notice the two brown does nearest the top of the pic have their necks crossed! :D

Just one of my sweeties!

Hope you week is going well!

In Christ,
~Bethany~

Steer show!

I'm back!  Many thanks to Abigail for getting a post up to keep you all updated. :)

So I now have a steer show under my belt and have found it to be a lot of fun and very educational!  I think they already have me hooked. :)  This was also my first show of the spring/summer ( I attended the Green and White hog show earlier this year ) and it gets me all excited for show season!  Anyway, back to the steer show.  I competed in judging and placed 8th.  We judged Angus, Chi, and Shorthorn heifers and Herford Bulls.  We also did two sets of questions.  Our steers arrived around 1:30 and then we spent the afternoon and evening washing, blowing, clipping, feeding, bedding, walking and practicing showmanship.  Sunday morning we were up and back at it.  We had showmanship at 9:00 and I was told we did very well.  I think we kinda surprised 'em!!!  The judge picked out two and then told me that he could only pick two, so I would have been next.  Ah well, at least I was paid a complement of sorts by the judge!  My steer behaved perfectly, so that helped a ton.  Mom, Abigail and Elizabeth came up and saw what was going on for a while.  They had some delays so unfortunately missed showmanship.  They left around 11:00.  I showed in my market class around 3:00 and placed....last.  It was a very competitive class and my steer is still very green.  I knew he wouldn't place well, so I wasn't very surprised or disappointed.  By the time we pulled out of there I was exhausted!  I slept most of the way home so I would have enough energy to do chores. Ahh, it felt good to sleep in my own bed though that night!

Sooooo.......

A few things I learned about showing:
1) If you are ever going to show, learn how to fit your own steers well.  You can spend a lot of money of paying people to fit them for you.
2) You need a generator.  Oh, and they are really loud when you have about 5-10 of them running at once, along with a bunch of blowers.
3) You can make a really bad steer look good if he has hair. :D
4) It gets really competitive at these shows.  And I don't mean just inside the show ring.
5) The youth don't care much about showmanship and worry a ton about market classes. :(
6) Just relax and have fun!  Don't worry so much about how you placed.  Enjoy your time and learn all you can!  Thanks Mr. B for that tip! :)

So, that was my weekend!  How's everyone else faring?  Anyone else have a spring break last week?  How did that go?  Are you all glad/disappointed/okay with going back to school?  It sure makes it quiet and structured around here. :)  Hope all is well with each one of you!

~Bethany~

P.S.  I forgot my camera, but a friend of mine should be getting me pictures.  I'll post them when I get them.

Beef Expo, New Kid, and Hair!

  Hey everybody!  This is Bethany's sister, Abigail writing for her!  She has been busy lately and has really not had a chance to "do" a blog post.  So I am just going to tell you all on what has been going on lately and put up some pictures up!
  This morning Bethany hit the ground runnin' early.   She, along with another girl from the Careers Center got chosen to go with their steers to the Beef Expo show this week-end.  They will only be showing on Sunday, but today they have a livestock judging competition there, so she is going to be doing that with a few of the kids that she did livestock judging with last year. So she will be spending the night there and showing her steer in the morning.  I am hoping be going up there to watch her show tomorrow with mom.  Anyway she had to be out of the house by six o'clock and so she had to get up at four o'clock to get done with milking and feeding kids. 
  Our First Lamancha kid was born the other day.  Her mother was very small and so we where thinking that she would only have one kid.  We where also HOPING that it would be a doe and tada, tada.....it was a single doe kid...yay!  She is sooo cute and has kinda weird coloring it is like a silvery brown color.
                                                

                         Bethany's hair in a bunch of tiny braids and Elizabeth's hair before we did the braids

                                       Elizabeth's hair all in braids!  They looks really good on her!

                                                                            

Well, hope you all are having a GREAT week-end!

~Abigail~ 

Spring has Sprung!

So everyone ready for a few pictures? :)  We've been having some beautiful and unusual weather here in Michigan, such as 70s and 80s and sunny!  Usually this time of the year if we hit 60 we are looking good.  No one is complaining though, especially during spring break!!!!  Over the last few days we've gotten so much done around our place, barns are clean, garden is tilled up, fences are fixed, dog kennel is finished, new animals have been added to the farm, and flower gardens cleaned up.  We still have more to do, but we are getting close to having this place lookin' spic n' span!  :)  Anyway, here are a few pics that I've taken over the last few days.

Daffodils!!!! 

Lilacs!

We got our first thunder storm on Saturday.  There was a faint rainbow later....

My new fair hogs

Our starter calves.  Rebekah's is on the left and mine is on the right.

Did everyone have a great Easter?  We didn't do anything too special.  Went to the Easter church service at church and had lunch there.  Then we came home, I took a nap, we played some yard games, cleaned up a flower bed and did chores.  :)  It was a good day though!

My Christ be glorified,

~Bethany~

He has Risen!

So our Dear Lord was placed into a sepulcher and officers were sent to guard the tomb.  The sabbath was upon them and the were unable to go to the tomb before then. 

 ¹In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. ²And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.³His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow:⁴And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.
 ⁵And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. ⁶He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.  ⁷And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you. ⁸And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word.

Can you imagine their great joy?  Their Master and Lord had conquered death and was LORD OF ALL!  How they must have rejoiced. 

Today it is nearly 2000 years since our Lord walked on this earth and died in our stead.  It has been nearly 2000 years since He rose from the dead and yet now, "...that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in the newness of life." Rom. 6:4.  God's forgiveness and love is still the same today as it was 2000 years ago.  Praise His name!  

Rejoice, for He has Risen!

~Bethany~

Good Friday

Good Friday, the day that we celebrate the sacrifice our Lord gave to us, His life.  It may seem like a sad event, yet we shall see that Christ, the Kind of the world, dying like the worst of criminals, has given us life!  Blessed be HIs holy name!

 
¹¹Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?"
      "Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied.
 ¹²When he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer. ¹³Then Pilate asked him, "Don't you hear the testimony they are bringing against you?" ¹⁴But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge—to the great amazement of the governor.
 ¹⁵Now it was the governor's custom at the Feast to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd. ¹⁶At that time they had a notorious prisoner, called Barabbas. ¹⁷So when the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, "Which one do you want me to release to you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?" ¹⁸For he knew it was out of envy that they had handed Jesus over to him.
 ¹⁹While Pilate was sitting on the judge's seat, his wife sent him this message: "Don't have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him."
 ²⁰But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed.
 ²¹"Which of the two do you want me to release to you?" asked the governor.
      "Barabbas," they answered.
 ²²"What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called Christ?" Pilate asked.
      They all answered, "Crucify him!"
 ²³"Why? What crime has he committed?" asked Pilate.
      But they shouted all the louder, "Crucify him!"
 ²⁴When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. "I am innocent of this man's blood," he said. "It is your responsibility!"
 ²⁵All the people answered, "Let his blood be on us and on our children!"
 ²⁶Then he released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.
 ²⁷Then the governor's soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. ²⁸They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, ²⁹and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. "Hail, king of the Jews!" they said. ³⁰They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. ³¹After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him. ³²As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. ³³They came to a place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull). ³⁴There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. ³⁵When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots. ³⁶And sitting down, they kept watch over him there. ³⁷Above his head they placed the written charge against him: THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS. ³⁸Two robbers were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. ³⁹Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads ⁴⁰and saying, "You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!"  ⁴¹In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. ⁴²"He saved others," they said, "but he can't save himself! He's the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. ⁴³He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, 'I am the Son of God.' " ⁴⁴In the same way the robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.
 ⁴⁵From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. ⁴⁶About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"—which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"  ⁴⁷When some of those standing there heard this, they said, "He's calling Elijah."
 ⁴⁸Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. ⁴⁹The rest said, "Now leave him alone. Let's see if Elijah comes to save him."
 ⁵⁰And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.
 ⁵¹At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. ⁵²The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. ⁵³They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus' resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
 ⁵⁴When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, "Surely he was the Son of God!"
Matthew 27:11-54

 May you take today to praise God for all He has done for us.

~Bethany~