I have been working on sorting photos from our Alaska trip in my (nonexistent) spare time. We want to be able to share the photos with our friends and family, but we want to make a slideshow, so we don't have to show them all the photos!

Sorting and editing is going slowly, I am on day 12 out of 30. I finally went through my folders and got a final photo count…I took 14,802 photos on the month long trip! I usually take that many in one year!

Even though the trip was only two months ago, sorting the photos is like reliving the entire experience.

I've put together a few photos from the first 12 days of the trip that are some of my favorites. Which one do you like best? If you see one you'd like hanging on your wall, drop me a line! I can ship prints J

I've mentioned our family business a few times, so since that is where I am working today, for a our public preview days, I thought I would share some photos and tell a little of what we do :)

We have been running an auction company as a family since I was about 8 years old. We rented a building in the small town of Mayville when I was eleven and ran live night auctions every other Saturday night for several years.

When I was fourteen, we expanded to a second location in Sandusky, MI and then switched to running one auction at each location per month.

We did that for about a year, then we switched to running online auctions out of our Sandusky location only. Three years ago, we moved to our current building, which is just down the street from our old one. Including the fenced in yard, we have about 15,000 square feet of room here.

While we miss many things about the live auctions (and they are actually less work to put together), financially the online's are the better way to go.

Getting the items broke down and ready for sale is a very time consuming and labor intensive process. On average, each sale has about 2,000 items, and every item is handled 4-5 times per sale. 10-13,000 photos are taken each month.

We do one sale per month, though sometimes it can stretch out 5-6 weeks between auctions.

For our merchandise, we have usually four take in days where the public can bring in their items for us to sell. We also buy estates…full households where we go in with 30 foot trailers and several guys and pack up and haul out everything in the house. We can usually do a full house, including a garage and outbuildings in 1-2 days.

The items are then brought back to the warehouse, where the boxes are all sorted, each item is given a 3x5 card with a description and a consignor number, then they are put on shelves or lined up in rows.

Then we go through and assign each item a lot number and catalog all the 3x5 cards in notebooks. The books then go to a typist, who types all the information into the computer program while me, Seth and Dad photo all 2,000 lots in 5-6 days.

All of the furniture is moved so a white board can be placed behind it to eliminate distraction in the photos and all the items on the shelves are moved to a photo booth.

All the photos then must be edited and uploaded to the program (Mom's job) and the entire auction is gone through at least once before it is live to the public.

The auction runs for five days, from a Saturday to a Thursday evening. On Wednesday and Thursday of that week, we are open for a public preview, where anyone can come in and view the items in person. The auction takes about three hours to end on Thursday night, it starts ending around seven and usually is completely closed around ten, with furious bidding going on through that time.

Friday and Saturday are our pick up days, where all winning bidders are expected to pick up and pay for the items they purchased. We usually have 4-500 people come through the auction facilities on that day.

And then, the process starts all over! The first photo is the outside of our current building (these photos are not recent) and the rest show a little of what product you can expect to see online. When we are asked what kinds of items we sell, our answer is anything from toasters to excavators!

Today I am working at the auction for a public preview. The auction that running right now will end tomorrow night so we have a busy weekend ahead of us!

Here is the link to the auction site if you want to check it out! AuctioneersNow.com

Do you set goals? They are an essential part of life. They help us to stay focused and keep our lives organized.

But have you ever set a goal that you had  no hope of fulfilling?

I have. You set this really high goal, just for fun let's say it was to bake 10,000 cookies in 2015 (I know, that's silly, but you get my point J)

Now, I guess if you work in a bakery, you might bake that many, but if you are just a normal housewife, or daughter, do you really think you'll meet that goal?

It might be fun at first, but you would soon tire of trying to reach such an unrealistic goal. And then because you failed to reach that goal, you won't be motivated to set more goals.

I have found goals to be a huge part of my writing 'program'(if you can call it that!)

But I have to be careful to set goals that I know I can reach. They should stretch your limits a bit, but not be impossible.

For instance, my goal is to have Be Still My Soul, my latest book project, published by December. This means that I have a ton of work to do in the next few months, especially since the rough draft isn't even finished yet.

But it is possible for me to complete this goal. I might have to put in a few late nights and push myself a little harder, but I know I can do it. If I said my goal was to have this book published by October, that is probably an impossible goal judging by how much work I still have to complete.

Goals are great motivators and I like using them, a lot, but if I set too many impossible goals, I get discouraged when I can't meet them.

Don't stop setting goals! Just be sure that they are within reason J

Goals are also a great way to break down a seemingly enormous task into manageable bite size pieces.

Instead of looking at the overwhelming task of writing a whole 50,000 word novel, break it down into daily goals of, say, 500 words. Or weekly goals of something like 3-4,000 words.

I have found this to be a very effective way to keep me motivated. My overall word count goes up faster, thus encouraging me to press on.

What about you…do you find setting goals to be helpful to you? Have you ever set an impossible goal and felt discouraged? What are some way you use goals to help you accomplish things?

Today we visited the Octagon Barn, a historical sight that has been turned into a museum, with multiple out buildings and many different displays, many of which are live displays.
The barn really is an octagon and is quite a unique design. They were holding their annual fish fry, to which they expect 1000 people to attend. Tomorrow and Sunday there will be a flee market, with live demonstrations going on in many of the buildings including bread baking, wheat thrashing and straw baling, sawing lumber and a number of other activities. Many homeschoolers go to this event. I had not been to the grounds in several years, so it was wonderful to go again and dig up some memories.
They do keep a few animals in the barn, but I do not believe they live there year around. I think they just bring them in for events. There were a few goats, sheep, one donkey(a very noisy fella), a pig (who took an instant dislike to me for some unknown reason) a cow, and two miniture horses, the foal took a nibble of Lydia's hand!
Below are some photos of the barn and the old fashioned tractors and steam engines that filled the area.
Also one of the cute little sheep and the last picture makes me laugh. Pwease, will you be my friend? :)

For those of you who read last week's post and are wondering about the fate of Wild Willy, he has returned safe and sound!
I was extremely surprised that he found his way back inside the fence...the likelihood of him finding not one, but two places to squeeze through is a miricle. I really did not expect to find him. I learned today that a man we know who has hunting ground about seven miles away has seen cougers on his trail cam...not sure if it is real or not since I haven't seen the footage, but still...cougers in this area is not a pleasant thought. And even if there aren't really cougers around here, there are coyotes and bobcats...either one would be very happy to catch a young calf...alone and vulnerable.
So Wild Willy is back with his mama and she seems to be taking care of him. I tried to get photos this afternoon, but he is very good at hiding and I couldn't spook him up. Perhaps when he gets a little older and braver he will venture out into the open.
For now, the cow family is all back together :)

One of my goals as far as horses go has been to work with a mustang. I never really thought I would get that chance...it just never seemed feasible.
Well, I have a mustang!

Isn't she beautiful!? She is about 11 years old and has been off the range for 9-10 years. She has been with the same family for most of those years and gave them a mustang foal.

She is white, with a grayish mane and tail and some sable flecks on her neck. She is on the taller side...I have not measured her yet, but I think she is around 15-15.1 HH.

This girl is so sweet and responsive! I will have had her two weeks on Saturday and have been keeping her separate from the other horses so we can bond. She begs me for affection and literally wraps her head around me and pulls me in for a hug. The depth of emotion this horse is letting me see in such a short time is amazing!

Jacy's name was originally Star, but I renamed her Jacy, which is a Native American word for moon, in honor of my Native American heritage. (Ashwin is also a Cherokee Indian word meaning horse. Thanks, Lorna, for a great name suggestion!)
I purchased Jacy as a project horse and intend to re-home her in the next two months. It will be hard, as I am already in love with this girl! She is an amazingly loving animal and I am so eager to see how far we can go in the short time we have together.
Our training starts in earnest tomorrow. I will attempt to join-up with her and judging by the signals she is giving, I do not think it will be very hard. Cannot wait to ride her!
I will try to get a video of our session and hopefully post it on Monday.
What do you think of Jacy? Do you like her name? What do you think of when you hear the word mustang?

I am very excited to able to share with you my video trailer for Whisper, designed by Alicia Willis! Two minutes long, I love the image/music combination :)
What do you all think of it?

This week, as far as photo taking, has not gone as planned. It seemed like every time I thought I could snatch a few minutes to get some pictures it was raining or something else came up.

Therefore, I found myself dashing out before chores to snap a few. I was hoping to get some photos of my brother, Seth's, calves, but that did not happen.

My grandpa has been building a miniature old west town by his house. Last year he and my grandma built a rustic cabin to use for any company, but specifically for my uncle and his family of seven (soon to eight).

This year, Grandpa decided the cabin was lonely with just an outhouse for company (which we really use on occasion).

So he proceeded to build a western style building for his hit and miss engines. Then came a second building for his pedal tractors.

And we all thought that was the end of it. But, lo and behold, he began a third building, to be used a mock general store. He insisted the project would left until next spring….not so. It is almost completed as we speak.

Anyway, my brother wasn't ready to help me with calf photos, so I wander over to Grandpa Town and took some photos of the buildings and Grandpa working.

I also took some of the overloaded apple tree, and the cabin which started this whole thing J

Then, Grandpa left to get his cows up into the pasture for the night. He was having trouble with one cow, so I went to help.

Long story short, we ended up chasing them all over 35 acres. A couple days ago, one of the cows calved. She was a first time mother, and the calf kept getting lost.

He finally disappeared for good and he has been missing for several days. We all thought he was dead. No newborn can survive for four days without milk. And there are coyotes in the woods.

Well, running through the woods to help us, Lydia found him! Alive! Surpise!

But, apparently the mother has been feeding him, but keeping him hidden, which is unusual for cows to do. He was healthy as a horse!

Before I could think to jump on him, he dashed away and disappeared into thin air it seemed.

I walked the fence line and finally found him hiding inside a picker bush, nestled against the fence.

I thought I had him cornered for sure….but he jumped up and of course, found the only hole my grandpa and uncle had missed when fixing fence this spring.

As of right now, he is still loose on our neighbors property. He is a miniature cow (yes, there really is such a thing) so finding him is nearly impossible in the weeds and trees. He barely comes up to my knees.

We left his mother loose in the hope that he will get hungry enough to find her. We will try to find him again tomorrow.

So all that to say, I did not get the pictures I intended to this evening! Below are a few photos of the western town and cabin to tide you over until I can get pictures of Wild Willy, as my grandma appropriately named him!

Which is your favorite? Wouldn't you love to have this town in your backyard?

If you've read The Sparrow Found A House by Jason McIntire (Elisha Press, 2013), you'll already know his style: Real-life situations addressed with equal parts humor and biblical wisdom. It's a combination reviewers find powerful. They've used the words intriguing, believable, captivating, and unique - among many others - to describe his writing. The Sparrow Found A House (which is available as a free Kindle download from Elisha Press) was also endorsed by Exodus Mandate, the prominent homeschooling action group. It tells the story of the Rivera-Sparrows, a newly-blended and newly-homeschooling family facing opposition from without and within.

Today Elisha Press is announcing the release of a sequel to The Sparrow Found A House - and to celebrate, they're giving away signed copies to four randomly-selected winners. You can enter the giveaway here, or go ahead and order the book on Amazon. It's $2.99 for the Kindle version, or $9.99 for the 256-page print edition.

Flight School follows the Rivera kids as they meet new friends, explore careers, and encounter the challenges and choices that come with adult life. As a homeschool graduate himself, Jason knows the things that matter most to homeschoolers, and how to write about those things in a way that will edify, resonate, and entertain.

"If you like Flight School," Jason says, "thank God. If you don't like it, blame me."

Enter the giveaway, or buy a copy now.

I don't remember exactly where I first heard of Jason, but I downloaded his first book, The Sparrow Found a House, about a year ago and really enjoyed it.
I was thrilled to be on the pre-launch team for Flight School and I enjoyed it just as much as the first book.
The characters are well developed, and certainly relatable. I found myself chuckling quite often throughout the book.
I really like how Jason is able to weave lessons and share life difficulties in a teaching manner without breaking the reader away from the story.
Overall, Flight School was just as amazing as The Sparrow Found A House.
My Rating: Five Stars