Our trip to Kansas City and Independence, Missouri

Thursday evening Ian and I went up to Kansas City to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir perform! It was amazing! We caravaned up there with members of our ward consisting of Tom and Brenda Geeding and their family and the Claypool family as well! When we got up to KC we stopped at Crown Center Plaza and ate at Fritz's restaraunt. Fritz's is a hamburger place and when you order, your food is delivered by a small model train on a track near the ceiling! Awesomeness!!!

We had so much fun goofing off too!!

When we got to the Sprint Center we found a bunch of protestors...we weren't even quite sure what or who they were protesting...if they were protesting us, they certainly needed to do a bit more research on our religion and beliefs! It was funny though!

After the awesome concert Ian and I separated from the group and stayed the night while the others continued home. We ended up getting lost in the bad part of Kansas City but gratefully found our way to Independence where we found a motel room! Finally! :-)

Friday morning found us at 8:30 am and already 90 degrees! Boy we picked the perfect day to go sight seeing! HAHA! We started out trying to find the temple of the church formerly known as the RLDS church now called the Community of Christ. It was an amazing piece of architecture! Stunning to look at on the outside and like a beautiful art museum on the inside!

After the tour of the RLDS temple we walked out and in the courtyard they have map of the world layed in brick! Ian stood on Hawaii...I guess now he can say that he's been to Hawaii! LOL!

We walked across the street to the Church of Christ and the empty lot where Joseph Smith had a revelation that a temple should be built there. We had a great conversation with a guy that says he's an apostle of the Church of Christ and got to see the actual stones that were uncovered at that sight! Ian bought some booklets and some postcards from him and we went out to take some pictures! We were awesome tourists!

We were going to go up to Liberty Jail about 20 minutes north but by the time we were done here we were so hot! It was in the upper 90's and we don't have A/C! So we decided to head back....but got side tracked when we saw an antique mall up on Noland road! LOL! Had to stop in! Ian found a really old catcher's mitt and I found a ton of stuff that I'd love to decorate with! Well, that'll be the day!

Fun with Ginny and Savannah's graduation!

p>Yesterday, I took a little break from editing some photos and Ginny and I went outside for a "photoshoot"! She was the photographer...unfortunately all the pictures that she took didn't turn out...we forgot to switch the camera off of Manual function (my bad). But we did do some pictures of us by ourselves and I caught a really funny look from her.

Then last night we attended Savannah's Kindergarten Graduation...it was sweet. They played a slideshow of all the kindergarteners in it and then they brought up the classes one at a time and presented them with their diplomas. Savannah is excited to be going to 1st grade next year! We're so proud of her...even though it makes mom sad to see her grow up so fast!

H.R. 875 New Farm Regulations

There has been a lot of buzz recently about H.R. 875, it seems that a lot of people here in Farm country are scared to death, afraid that they won't be able to grow their own gardend. They are trying to blame Obama for it. First off, President Obama's wife started a small farm at the White House. Why would he want to eliminate them?

I recently started research on H.R. 875 on the suggestion from a sister from the ward. I found some interesting things on it. THere are some good and some bad. While some farms might be negatively effected, it won't be the really small farms, or the home farmer. I found one website ran by an organizaton called "Food and water watch", a group that has been around since 2005.  And according to their website www.foodandwaterwatch.org:

Food & Water Watch is a nonprofit consumer organization that works to ensure clean water and safe food. We challenge the corporate control and abuse of our food and water resources by empowering people to take action and by transforming the public consciousness about what we eat and drink.

Food & Water Watch works with grassroots organizations around the world to create an economically and environmentally viable future. Through research, public and policymaker education, media, and lobbying, we advocate policies that guarantee safe, wholesome food produced in a humane and sustainable manner and public, rather than private, control of water resources including oceans, rivers, and groundwater.

On their site they discuss H.R. 875 and they give some good information on it. Here is a cut and paste from their site. http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/food/foodsafety/background-on-h-r-875

Here are a few things that H.R. 875 DOES do:

-    It addresses the most critical flaw in the structure of FDA by splitting it into 2 new agencies –one devoted to food safety and the other devoted to drugs and medical devices.
-    It increases inspection of food processing plants, basing the frequency of inspection on the risk of the product being produced – but it does NOT make plants pay any registration fees or user fees.
-    It does extend food safety agency authority to food production on farms, requiring farms to write a food safety plan and consider the critical points on that farm where food safety problems are likely to occur.
-    It requires imported food to meet the same standards as food produced in the U.S.

And just as importantly, here are a few things that H.R. 875 does NOT do:

-    It does not cover foods regulated by the USDA (beef, pork, poultry, lamb, catfish.)
-    It does not establish a mandatory animal identification system.
-    It does not regulate backyard gardens.
-    It does not regulate seed.
-    It does not call for new regulations for farmers markets or direct marketing arrangements.  
-    It does not apply to food that does not enter interstate commerce (food that is sold across state lines).
-    It does not mandate any specific type of traceability for FDA-regulated foods (the bill does instruct a new food safety agency to improve traceability of foods, but specifically says that recordkeeping can be done electronically or on paper.)

So, while some farmers may need to worry, the home farmer or the farmer who grows their own goods to sell for themselves need not worry. 

The Obama administration most likely does not represent the end of the world. Sorry to dissapoint. :-)

Two new additions to the family!

Today we welcomed two new bunnies to our family. It was kind of a spur of the moment decision. I had a random thought, "I wonder if the farm supply store has their annual bunny litter yet...". Well, we decided just to go and look, because that's what we do, we look...but this time, we bought! It was sweet! Hyrum had gone with Grandpa fishing on the Arkansas border so we brought them home and surprised him.

Ginny and Savannah named the white one "Katie", from the movie, "Horton Hears a Who" and Hyrum named the black and white one, "Bunnicula". I guess it's a book.

They have warmed up to us...but as for Maggie...well, I think that they know that she wants to eat them! Maggie will lay there staring at the cage for hours...probably thinking, "Now why on earth would they bring two things that I'm bred to kill into this house and not expect me to actually act on it?"

She's right, it is rather ironic that we would have a dog that was bred to hunt rabbits and have rabbits too. Well, she'd better make friends really fast! Because these bunnies aren't going anywhere! :-)

Oh and Congratulations Amy and Joey! I'm excited for you! We love you and wish you all the very best with baby Kaitlyn!

Composting!

On Wednesday, the weather was beautiful! Ginny and I were able to get out of the house and do some work in the the garden and start our compost bin. Ginny loved making the newspaper into shreds! While we were doing it, she learned what to and what not to put in the bin. She even found a worm for me!After we did the compost bin, I had some trees that I had cut down and pulled out of the ground just lying around the yard waiting to be put on the street to be hauled away...I had an idea...I am going to be planting peas and beans and they need trellesses to climb. I have saved myself some money now because I have stripped those trees of their dead foilage and I'm going to put them inot the garden as the trellesses! I'm excited!

Thursday, before it rains I'm going to get out and plant these lettuce seeds...Spring is on it's way!

YAY! My Garden is Tilled!

Well, today has been a busy day...The car broke down again and the Hale's graciously came and rescued me again! Anyway...
The good part of today was that we got the garden area tilled and ready to be planted...I need to go get some compost and manure and start my seeds! I'm going to go get some buckets too, so that I can have patio tomatoes and i'm going to do the same with my cucumbers as well...I took some pictures of the tilled area and the dirt looks so good and rich! I'm so happy with it!

HAHA! What can I say...

Well, the Shop called about the car! Apparently our gas gauge is broken! They said that all they did was put a couple gallons of gas into it and it started right up...So, yeah we paid someone out the ears to tell us that all we have to do is put gas in the stupid thing! Curse it all, but hey at least it's not something expensive! HAHA! I just laugh at it and say, such is my life! Whatelse can I do? It is almost at 200,000 miles, so yeah...I'm sure we'll have more days(or weeks) like this!