By Alena Mentink

Inside our house, everything is cool and quiet. The shades are pulled down, the fans are swirling, and only a couple of lights are on. Although we rarely run the air conditioner, by blocking the sun and keeping the air moving with the help of a few fans, the house stays nice and cool (at least by our standards). However, as soon as we step outside the door, we realize that summer is indeed here. A wave of hot air meets us and follows us through the door. Dust hangs thick in the air and keeps us constantly wiping the furniture. The animals cluster together in the shade of buildings and trees and languidly swat at flies with their tails. Summer. It has come at last, and with it, all the extra work and fun that inevitably follows the hot weather.

One summer activity which we have greatly enjoyed is swimming in the dam on Grandpa’s land. It has a mud bottom which bothers none of us, excepting Mom. Before Mom will enter the water, we either need to find an area with mud that isn’t too squishy, or have a tube ready and waiting for her. Aiden has been working on his swimming and is gradually making progress. Caleb especially enjoys teaching him new tricks to try out. Annika, who is three, is promising to be an early swimmer. Already she is trying to blow bubbles in the water and even paddle around in her life jacket. Asher is a little more cautious and prefers to stay near his mommy or daddy. Which is certainly not a bad thing!

We are very excited as we look forward to the arrival of the new baby. Since we don’t know if it will be a girl or a boy, we have both sets of newborn clothes washed and waiting. Annika ia especially excited and is already making plans for the future. “I will hold the baby in Mommy’s tummy while Mommy washes dishes.” she informs everyone. Asher has enthusiastic plans for all the toys he will share with it and all the games they will play together. “When it gets bigger,” he is always quick to add. Everyone in our family is eagerly waiting for the new arrival.

In May, we had the privilege of hosting our first field trip to our farm. A group of homeschoolers from Central City came in the early afternoon and first listened to a presentation of what we are doing on our farm. Later they took a tour of the farm, complete with a hay rack ride, and saw the different animals and projects that were spoken of in the presentations.

This year, for the first time ever, our family had a booth at the Stromsburg Swedish Festival. We have been thinking about this for a couple years, but it wasn’t until this year that we have managed to squeeze it into our schedule. On this particular year, it happened to land on Caleb’s birthday. We did our usual round of cake and presents a day early, and earlier in the day, we played several games with him. On Saturday morning, Mom and I went uptown and set up our booth. I sat with her throughout the morning, and in the early afternoon, Dad dropped off Kailey and Aiden. I went back home with him to make supper and get some other things ready for a fun evening. A couple hours later, Dad and I were on the road again, this time with Caleb, Annika, and Asher. After we closed down our booth in the late afternoon, we stayed for several hours to watch the parade and ride some rides. By the time that our busy day came to a close we were extremely glad when it was time to climb into bed.

One of our usual summer activities has become cutting hay. All of us help with haying in different ways. Dad drives the tractor during both the cutting and later the baling. This year, Aiden discovered a new way of being helpful. He follows the tractor during the baling and picks up broken strings, moves misplaced or scattered piles of hay, and keeps an eye on the square bales coming out of the tractor. This job has really saved Dad a lot of time. After all the hay has been baled, Kailey drives the van with the trailer out to the hay field. While she drives, Dad, the boys, and sometimes Mom throw the bales onto the trailer and later unload them into the hayloft or a shed. While they are out in the field, I generally stay home and make a meal or clean. For me, that’s a much more enjoyable job!

Lately, we moved the pigs to a cover crop that Dad planted for their specific use. They loved it and were frisking around the pen and even “grazing” on the plants. Grazing and pigs seem like opposites, but provided that the plants are tall enough, pigs will graze.

Another summer chore that keeps us busy is cutting thistles. Using shovels to dig them out and buckets to collect the flower heads (if need be), we drive around the farm on the four wheeler and chop down all the thistles we see. In some areas where the thistles have taken over, we move the pigs there and they take care of all the weeds, thistles included. The goats also eat a few, but not enough to make a very big difference. Consequently, we end up chopping many thistles in the pens where the pigs are not allowed to go. However, over the next couple years, we hope that by staying on top of the noxious weed, we will be able to banish them entirely.

This summer, we have also been picking and eating strawberries. Many strawberries have been hulled and packed into zip lock bags to be frozen for this winter. They will be made into strawberry cheesecakes,  smoothies, muffins, scones, and more. Still more strawberries have been turned into strawberry jam. That is a very popular treat in our house. In fact, if we didn’t ration the amount of jam that everyone is able to have, there is no telling how quickly we would fly through the jam.

With all the work and fun that summer brings, we are an extremely busy family. However, we all enjoy both working and playing together, and as summer whisks past us, it seems impossible that we are already in July. In all the business, it is sometimes hard to slow down and catch one’s breath, but in the middle of it all, we have the important things of life: faith in God, hope, and love.