Stella's Addiction

We have discovered that Stella is addicted to milk. LOL!! Our new refrigerator went out and the only 2 gallons of milk we had went bad in it. We didn't get any milk on Sunday so we are TOTALLY out of milk. Stella is acting like "A coffee addict without coffee!!" Its actually kinda funny.

STATE!!!

YEAH!!! State went pretty good. We left at 4:25 or so on Friday morning and we didn't stop till we got there.(even though a restroom would have been much appreciated) Triple jump was first I jumped 3 times and made it to the finals!!! On the following 3 jumps in the finals I jumped off the wrong board and barely made it in the sand. UGH!! How I did that I don't know?!?!?!
Triple Jump ( not a great pic but the best we got)

High Jump was next. Starting height was 3'6". I got second place clearing 4'6". The chick who got 1st cleared the same amount of heights as me but in less atempts and that is why she won.
High Jump

100 hurdles I got 4th but I don't know what my time was, because my friend/teammate Megan got disqualified because of a false start. We were all upset about it because usually they give you 2 chances and they only gave her one chance. Also another chick false started at the same time and she did not get disqualified because the starter didn't see her. So about the time I finished running my Coach was protesting and all that good stuff. Mom didn't get any pictures.

400 I got 6th place with a time of 1min.11 sec which is my best time by 1 second. About that time my instep on my left foot was bothering me really bad. Immediately after that I ran the 300 hurdles. My instep hurt REALLY REALLY BAD I tried streching it but it wasn't helping. I got 4th place. I twisted my right ankle on one of the last hurdles. OW!!! I could hardly walk because my instep on one foot and my ankle on the other it was not much fun.

State went very well overall and we competed well considering that TLC has 33 people in the whole high school and most other schools at the State track meet had 33 people AT THE TRACK MEET!!!

Cheese

Well I had another cheese making day on Sunday. Here is what was used to be four gallons on milk.



It has to age for about a month, before we can try it. I also made some more Lemon Cheese, and some Queso Blanco yesterday. Which turned out good, because one of our refrigerators went out. All the milk that was in it spoiled. We also ordered some wax for cheese, and starter and a press. Fun I can't wait for it to come in. You have to be a weird teenager to be excited to get stuff like this in.
Annie

Our Playlist

We have a playlist now!!! I can't figure out how to actually put it on the blog like some friends have it BUT if you go to "Our Favorite Links" on the right hand side and click on the link our playlist. You can listen to it. We have a couple songs that at first you might think "Why in the world is this on here?" But I'll explain:
Solfeggietto: Is for Annie she plays this song on the piano and played it at a contest getting a supeirior!! YAY!!
Veggie Tales: All these song are for the kids! Ya gotta love Veggie Tales!!!
Amos Moses: Yes it is a really wierd song. This song is for Dad he loves it.
International Harvester: Is for all our Mengers Cousins down in Tynan, Tx. This is like our motto when we go to work down there. So this is for the Mengers.
Live like you were dyin: Is for Patty. There is a video by Stacy Westfall of Westfall Horsemanship. You can find it at this link http://www.westfallhorsemanship.com/index.php?page=seeus&action=category&id=2
Its the link on the left. So this song is dedicated to Patty. We all hope one day she can do this with Ace!!! GO PATTY AND ACE!!!!!

Funny Happenings

Yesterday I was in town and did the big grocery run. I came home with Patty, Jenny, and Joy. We ate supper and started putting groceries away. We put everything away last night except for the soap. This morning Patty was smelling the soap and she got Stella to smell them. Stella was so funny, she would try to stick her nose in the soap, we got some pics,


Here is a cute picture of Stella.


We also got a new refrigerator last week. It has really came in handy since we got a lot of milk on Thursday, so we can make cheese, and we picked up produce today. It is pretty full, Mommy says what a blessing.





Mommy got a new school toy, or tool. A time line, it is really cool, because it folds up into a book, here are some pics of it . It is really long, it stretches across most of the living room. Here it is stretched out.



Folded up.

The best part is that is also has biblical stuff in it.
Annie

Turkey's Survive the Twins

Well, for those of you who don't know, all of the first batch of turkey's died, except for one. Daddy got a new batch of turkey's on Saturday
(hatched on Friday) and the kids love to be right beside the cage watching them for long periods of time. On Sunday, after supper, I was trying to find Joy and Jimmie, so that they could unload the dishwasher and dish drainer. I looked out the window to where the turkey's where , thinking that maybe Joy and Jimmie were with the turkey's and I saw Michael and Matthew beside the turkey cage with the water hose. That is not good I thought, so I grabbed a towel and went outside. The twins had soaked the turkey's with cold water, and it was starting to get cold outside. Remember, the turkeys are only 3 days old. The turkey's were shivering, soaking wet, looking as if they had just been plucked. Most of them were shivering so hard it looked as if they were having convulsions. I grabbed the turkey's and put them all together in the towel and took them inside. I told Michael and Matthew to come in too. I got the turkey's inside and told Matthew to go tell Mommy what they did while I tried to dry and warm them. The message didn't exactly get relayed the way I intended it to. Patty came and helped me, and we started to get them a little dryer. Patty thought about a little heater that we have and she went to get it while I held the turkey's. We put them in front of the heater and then I went to ask Mommy and Daddy if they knew where Joy and Jimmie were. They did not, and as I was leaving Mommy said "I don't think that you should have those Turkey's in front of the heater too long." You have to understand that at this point hardly any of the Turkey's had fluffed up at all, and I thought that there was a great possibility that they were going to die. So I explained to Mommy what had happened, and she came and saw what was truly going on. We held them and brain stormed, and we thought of many things, but Daddy thought that they would not work. We finally thought to turn on the gas heater in the boy's bathroom and put three of the turkeys in a styrofoam cooler with wood shavings in it. We held the other two to try to warm them with additional body heat because they were the worst off. The Turkey's started perking up,and stopped shivering, though they were still very lathargic .We later took the cage up stairs and put them in that for the night with the heater on, and they are now doing good.!!Yea!!They have all survived the twins. Here is a picture of them today.

District Track Meet

Here is me at my district track meet


High Jump
Triple Jump


On Saturday, Mom and I left the house at 3:30 A.M. to go to my district track meet in Euless, TX( For those of you who don't know Euless is in between Dallas and Fort Worth) We got to TLC at 4:00 or a little after and left at about 4:30. We got to the track meet at 9:10 or so. I started my field events at 11:00. High jump was first the starting height was 3 ft 6 in. Every one was telling us to just think of it as being 3 ft 6 in and not think of it as being really high.( I found out today that i jumped 4ft 6in) So anyways I got first place in high jump and I will do it at state. Triple jump was next. I got 4th place and may do it at State maybe not. I think my farthest jump was 29 ft 1 1/2 in. Next was the 400 m run. I got 4th in my heat and made it to the finals I'm not sure what my time was. After that was 100m hurdles I ran a 21.56 seconds and got 3rd. We later found out that we had run the 110 hurdles and I later had to run it again getting a time of 19.66 seconds and 3rd place possibly making it to state. Next was the 400m finals i got 3rd place and will possibly go to state with it. Immediately after that was the 300 hurdles. I got 2nd place making it to state I'm not sure what my time was I may update this later when I figure out my times. The High school chicks got 2nd place overall at district. YEAH!!! GO TLC!!!!

HurdlesAll the varsity Lady's posing for a picture. 2nd place champs

***UPDATE*** I just found out I made it to State in all 5 events.

Cheese Day

On Friday was my big cheese making day. I made several kinds; Lemon Cheese, Keifer Cheese, Fromage Blanc, and Ziergerkase. All the cheese's have turned out good so far, the kids really like the Lemon Cheese. The Ziergerkase is a German Cheese, it has to sit for a couple day's before we can taste it, so we will see. The Ziergerkase is made from mainly whey, and I did not get that much cheese out of it this time, but all my whey was from soft cheese's with which the separating process is much better, so I can't wait to see how it will turn out if I use the whey from a hard cheese.
Annie

My Crazy Day

Today was a really crazy day. I knew that I was making bread today, and since we made cheese on Sunday, I had already fermented part of the flour for the bread with the whey from the cheese. After I had cleaned up breakfast, I got the liquids going for the bread and got everything ready( nothing weird yet) I started mixing the dough and adding flour, and everything was going good, I was counting the cups of flour and 17 cups came and went, but the dough was not beginning to start pulling away . I asked Mommy to come look at it and she said add more flour, I did and she came and looked at it again and said "Annie did you subtract the 3 cups of whey from your total liquids?" "No"I said " You did not tell me to." " That is your problem" Mommy said so we made another batch of liquids minus the 3 cups of whey, and split the dough and the extra liquid add flour and mixed the separate batches, and made two batches of bread, and it actually turned out pretty good. Here are some pics of my great mess.


Concentrating on not making a bigger mess:)



Annie

Saturday With the Zeschs

This Saturday we had a Zesch work day. we picked up the yard/property, and made piles farther away from the house. We also sprayed Round Up in the flowerbeds to be, and the garden. We also picked up all the extra metal left over from the roof and put it in a neat pile away from the house.Joshua and Jimmie went into town with Daddy, to get chicken wire, and more turkeys; since our turkeys have taken to dying by walking into the dog pen , and walking into the dog pen. Palmer's didn't have any more turkeys right then, but were getting some more in soon. Daddy got the dog pen secured against turkeys, and Mommy and the littles planted Tomatoes. Here are some pics of the work day.

Hamburger Buns

On Monday, we made bread, since we were having hamburgers the next day, I also made hamburger buns. After the buns had cooled, I bagged them and put them in the freezer . The next morning I got them out to defrost, and set them on the counter. I left and went into town, and was talking to Mommy later and she said that they could not find the Hamburger buns. I said,"I put them on the counter" "I know" she said "but we can not find them" So Mommy looked everywhere, and they finally just used bread for the hamburgers. When I got home later I went looking, because I wanted to find those hamburger buns. Mommy had questioned everyone, but I asked everyone again just to see. Nobody knew where they were, so I went looking and by chance thought to look in the utility room, under the clothes chute. I found them , someone had thrown them down the clothes chute, we have sneaking suspicions that it was Michael or Matthew, or perhaps they were partners in crime, but they aren't telling.