~ The Beauty of it All ~

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This post, The Beauty of it All, has been moved to my new blog.


~ Mara

~ Country Life ~

Country life is a life of satisfaction.

To wake up in the morning with chickens clucking softly, kittens playing in the grass, and the Pileated Woodpecker crying it’s haunting call through the misty pines. Walking through the dewy grass on your way to feed the ducks, strolling down the drive with the early morning warblers cheeping as you go by, and fresh animal tracks telling tales from the night gone past.

Country mornings are like a different world, far away from the noisy vehicles and the hum of the city life.

By late morning into the early afternoon, picking fresh blackberries, blueberries and wild strawberries is a peaceful job. Then comes deciding whether or not to attempt jam or pie first. Or perhaps a juice of some kind, though how to do that I do not yet know.

The warm, sunny afternoon shows all the beautiful wild flowers in bloom. A large bouquet of these in hand, strolling through the enchanted forest and meeting a handsome prince who lives only in my imagination. Perhaps I was wrong when I said people over-romanticized country living. There is a romantic sort of feeling when you pick your own fruits and vegetables, tend to your very own animals, and chop your own wood to feed your fire on the coldest winter nights.

On summer nights when the moon is shining bright through the oaks, and the breeze causes the leaves to cast dancing shadows on the ground, sitting on the front steps listening to the tree frogs and crickets is the best kind of lullaby ever created.

Sleeping with the window open, listening to the far-off train whistle and the “who cooks for you all” owl sitting in the tall fir right outside… sleep comes quickly and refreshes you for the next dewy morning when the romantic country routine starts over again.



~ Mara

~ Life is a Beautiful Thing ~

God gave us life. Life to live, free as birds and not puppets on strings. We can choose to follow Him or we can choose to follow the world. Life is more beautiful when we choose to follow Him. Far more beautiful than when we choose to walk the path of sin, sadness and despair. When we meet with the bad things in life and we don’t know God, everything falls to pieces. When we meet those same things as a Christian, we can ask for peace and it will be given.

God gave us love. Love enough to give to him and the people in this world. There are different kinds of love; love for the Savior is sweeter than anything. Love for our family members and friends is gratefully received and more given in return. And the love for that one important person in our life is something different from the others. We love that person with all our heart, through the good times and the bad. When we have love for God and love for that one person, life can throw all of those bad things at us and we won’t budge.

God gave us hard work. We weren’t made to sit around and have things done for us. God created souls inside of machines and those machines are our bodies. We take care of them, both physically and spiritually, and they’ll run just fine. Men work to take care of their women and children, the women work to take care of their men and children, and the children work in their own little way to make this world a happier place to be.

~ Mara

~ Happenings Here ~

Oh, how often I neglect my poor Cranberry Crane. Allow me to go over some things that have happened as of late . . .

We have had some gorgeous sunsets ~



I found the biggest snails I have ever seen. They were very neat ~



Our ducks are now full-grown and should soon produce eggs ~



Our chickens are almost as big as our ducks now and should also soon produce eggs ~



Right now we are attending VBS at our church. It is lots of fun! :)


~ Mara

~ A Visitor ~

A nice fuzzy-antlered buck visited our yard the other day and I was able to get a good video of him. Enjoy! :)

~ Dusty ~

My bunniest friend for over 7 years.

I love writing short stories about my life and my blog is my online diary. Writing is a good way to get things off my chest and I don’t have to bore anyone who doesn’t care to listen. This way I feel like I am telling someone and the people who care can read it for themselves. :)

Tonight I am writing about my pet rabbit, Dusty. I do not remember the day or the exact year that we got him, but I do remember picking him out. As soon as I saw that little white and tan bunny I knew he was perfect. We got him from a feed store in Richland Center, Wisconsin and I rode home with him in a little cardboard box. Oh, it took all my strength not to peek in at him just a teency bit. For 3 years he practically sat in our dining room. There was a small porch right outside the dining room and a window close to the ground. His cage fit perfectly so that it opened up into the room. That meant not having to go outside in the winter and I would open the window to let him have our heat and air conditioning, depending on the weather.

When it was time to move to Black River Falls, Dusty went to live with Grandpa and Grandma in Tomah. Though Grandma loved having him, I now wish I could have kept him for those 4 years. It doesn’t feel very fair to have only visited him once in a while. Last year when we moved here to Tomah, I could not wait to have Dusty moved back here with us and I got the necessary things done quickly so he could. Unfortunately, winter came too soon and stayed too long and I only got short visiting times with my bunny. After the weather turned nice this spring, he went into his summer cage out in the grass, and until yesterday he was the happiest, most care-free rabbit in existence. I am very sad but also glad that he had just gone to sleep like any other night. He never got mean or fat or cranky. He never started biting like my very old rabbit, Whiskers did. It was so cute to watch Dusty trim his own toenails and I was happy that I didn’t have to do it. And his little teeth were even and always in good shape. It hasn’t really sunk in yet… seeing him laying still in his cage and having to put my favorite pet in the ground seems like a terrible dream. But I just think of all the times he made me laugh and I feel better. Or I look at the pictures my siblings drew of him and tell them it’s all OK.

Well, I hope this story did not come across as a terrible tear-jerker but I feel much better after writing about him. I never thought I would grow so attached to a rabbit, they’re so quite and you can’t teach them anything. But maybe that’s what makes them so nice; they are so dependant on their owners.

I’ll miss Dusty a lot and probably for a long time, but I am very happy he lived a full bunny life. And I feel better still that Momma is going to give me our male breeding rabbit when we get them. Even though no rabbit will ever be as wonderful and nice as Dusty.

I loved you, my little Dustbunny. <3

~ Mara

~ Back in Jackson County ~ 310 Fillmore Black River Falls ~

~ 310 Fillmore ~ Black River Falls

That’s where we lived back in Jackson County.

Sometime before…
The company Dad was working for was branching out and one of the places they chose for a store was Black River Falls. A small town of around 3,000 people. I don’t remember much about the discussions we had as a family but I do know we talked about it a lot. We were living in Richland Center in Richland County, Wisconsin. We had a nice big house with many rooms and, for us children, many hiding places for Hide-and-Seek. But though the house may have been large, it had a few issues. It didn’t seem like long before we had decided we would move to Black River Falls and a new life - and was it ever a good choice.

We traveled to Black River Falls to go house shopping and met 310 Fillmore, a cozy square house that always reminded me of a cottage. From the outside it looked to be half the size of our house in Richland Center, but once inside it was spacious; with good-sized rooms and knotty pine walls in some of them. 4 bedrooms, 2 baths and what seemed like a huge kitchen compared to our last. It didn’t take many discussions before we decided - 310 Fillmore would be our new home.

I guess I always took that house for granted. After a while it seemed too small, with not enough cupboard space and I couldn‘t have my own room - I had to share with 2 siblings. But now I look back and I wish I could somehow pick that house up and set it down where we live now. When I think about it now it seems huge, with that big white kitchen that had 7 windows… and now I share a small room with all of my sisters and have only my bunk to call my very own. There are good things and not so good things about this home. But that is what it is; our home. Here we live right next to our grandparents, have plenty of room for numerous gardens and we can have animals. We don’t constantly have neighbors screaming that they are going to commit suicide like we did in Black River Falls, though there *is* a crazy lady that lives across the road and she gets visits from the Sheriff. We can go outside and not worry that someone will walk down the sidewalk and carry us off. We can yell at the top of our lungs if we want to and nobody can tell us to be quiet. And best of all… we don’t just do our homeschooling in our pajamas - we do our chores in our pajamas! Shocking, isn’t it? ;)

So… to wrap up my reminiscing post… I am content here with our 8.5 acres, dog, cats, ducks, rabbits, and chickens. Perhaps some dairy goats, maybe even a mule someday. And I know that when I get married and move away I’ll be reminiscing about this home.

~ Mara