June!

Wow! School's out, and the first week of "summer vacation" is already gone! It's been a full week with various activities. Lots of mowing, some planting, chasing cows, fixing fences, walking every morning with Mom and Bobbie, and baseball games are just a few of the things that have kept us busy.
We finally decided that the bird pictured in the previous post was indeed a snow bunting. He's since moved on. Last night we enjoyed hearing the whippoorwills! Lightning bugs and whippoorwills....can it get any better than that? I love summer!
The pictures below just prove that some members of our family might be a little crazy! Tyler, and his friend, Michael are laying on the ground hoping Wyatt jumps far enough to clear them. You'll not catch me doing that!

Can You Help?

We are unable to identify this bird. It's about the size of a sparrow. If you know what it is, we'd love to hear from you! We think it may be a snow bunting, but it's not quite like the pictures we have in our book.

Wet and Windy Wednesday

We hear thunder rumbling, and know it's coming. We just don't know how long before it hits. We're really hoping that the "large hail" will not get here at all!
These past few weeks, we have enjoyed watching a family of cardinals. They built a nest in the bayberry bush right next to our front porch. We observed the mother sitting on her eggs. It wasn't long before they hatched, and we watched the parents feed their babies. Both worked constantly caring for the young ones. Today, the young left the nest! I noticed the parents flitting about and "clucking" a lot. After looking more closely, I saw one of the little ones hopping around in the bush, and then it tried to fly. My fear was that the dog would notice, and kill the babies, but that didn't happen. I expect we'll see them frequently at the feeders now. I'm adding pictures in no particular order.






























Isn't he (or she) cute!
Well, the storm hit, and we got less than a half inch of rain....so far. It really blew and rained hard, but not for too long. No hail, thankfully. Our Internet service stalled out, as it normally does during a bad storm. The sky is still very cloudy, but it looks like it might be breaking up.
I hope the baby birds were in a safe, dry place!

The Family That Works Together...

...gets a LOT done! And what a blessing it is to see grandsons benefit from the skills and knowledge of Grandpa and Great Grandpa! Zach's "Make It Happen" project is to build and place nesting boxes to be used by Eastern Bluebirds. We have yet to place them, but spent Saturday afternoon in Dad's shop, building birdhouses. It was fun, and the boys learned a lot too! We're planning to put the houses out one afternoon this week.


Zach's drilling the entry holes for the houses.


Here they are putting the roof on the first one.


Wyatt is using a file to round off the sharp edges.


Here's the first one finished! Only eight to go.


I'm in countdown mode at school. There are only 18 days remaining for this year! Yahoo!
Farming, for us anyway, has not yet started. We've had lots of rain, and expect more yet this week. When it does dry up, we'll be plenty busy until it's all done.
Our heifers should start calving sometime after the middle of June. It will be fun to have babies again, but they won't be "pets" like the goats were. I sure miss those little goats.

Prom 2009

The lovely couple. Off for an evening of fun!

And the Winner Is...

Dennis! He said the car was fast, and the competition was tough! Although he's said he won't be running for points this year, I'm betting that he will try to run the entire Dash for Cash series. It's just five races and a big finale in mid-September. The only question is: Will he be able to make the May 9th race? We'll have to see how the planting season goes.

Off To The Races!

Dennis is off to the races this evening. I was invited, but after thinking about it for a while, I decided I really didn't care to be sitting out in the wind and cold. I'll wait for warmer nights. It's the first time out for this year. As he was leaving I ran out to get a picture.
I think the last time the car ran, Tyler was driving it because his own car broke down. Tyler was going for the points in a special series. Dennis was happy to let him run it, and Tyler did win the championship. Of course, Dennis was tickled about it. Tyler built the car and made it fast.

In fact, there were times when Dennis wondered if Tyler might be sorry he made it so fast, because Dennis was Tyler's toughest competition. He even beat Tyler once in a while. Anyway, he's off tonight to see what it will do. Who knows? He might bring home a trophy!

Since it's been almost a month since the last post, I'll try to catch up, not that there has been so much to tell. Spring has arrived. Things are beautiful and green and the songbirds are all around. Zach helped me mow grass last weekend. He did a good job. I let him mow the level places, and he thought that was great!

Tomorrow is Resurrection Sunday. Our choir is doing a "mini-musical" and I'm really looking forward to it. We've been practicing for several weeks, and again this morning. Some of the songs are just so beautiful. One in particular really chokes me up when we sing it. I don't know how the soloist gets through it without breaking! It's going to be at Burnside Christian Church (in Burnside IL) at 9:45 A.M. and you're all invited!

Yesterday, while out walking in the woods, I noticed that the big water hole in our pasture is teeming with mosquitoes about to hatch. All the goldfish we keep in the stock tanks survived the winter, but there were too many in one tank. I decided to catch a few and put them in that water hole to eat those mosquitoes! Catching them was more difficult than I'd anticipated, but I did manage to catch seven. They seemed to like their new home. This afternoon I went to check on them, and they were all fine.

All four of our heifers appear to be expecting and we think we'll start getting calves late in June. They're not as fun as the goats were, but they're very nice and pretty. I still miss the goats. But, cows don't jump on cars! I still remember how upset Dennis was to find the goats walking all over our van! Still, they were so cute!

We've been doing a bit of fishing, but we've not had any luck. Today, while I was out around the pond, I saw a fish jump. Maybe the next time we go the fish will be more interested.

Well, I'm sure there was more, but I can't remember anything else at the moment. If Dennis comes home with a trophy, I'll have news tomorrow.

Thursday! Fun With Thomas the Tank Engine

It's a perfectly gorgeous day. We started off a bit chilly, with frost covering the ground, but it's sunny and 60 degrees, with no wind! I love it!
Wyatt has been spending every day with me this week. He doesn't have school. Kindergarten spring break! He told me just a little while ago that he likes coming here better than school. He's been building track and playing with my Thomas stuff all day today. Here's what it looks like:








Dennis has been keeping busy, and has been able to cross a few things off the "to do" list. The knee and elbow are improving all the time, and he's faithful in doing is exercises. It won't be long until he and Travis are busy planting.
With this absolutely beautiful weather, I'm going to stop typing and get out there!

Thursday's Thoughts

Today I enjoyed the time between bus routes hanging out with my cousin. Wow! How long has it been since we just got together for no reason, and spent some time together? One fun, and interesting thing we did was visit a couple of the local churches to look at (and photograph) stained glass windows. Can you believe that I didn't have my camera? What was I thinking? Ummm...obviously, I was NOT thinking! I hope Nanci got some good pictures. We met our friend, Pam at the First Baptist Church, and then went together to Calvary Baptist, where we stayed quite a while visiting with Pastor Heath. Both Nanci and I were raised in that church, but at the time, it was Calvary Community. We enjoyed reminiscing and sharing stories with Pastor Heath and Pam.
We had some serious conversations as well as a lot of laughs. It was a day well spent!
Have you seen the big, bright, and beautiful moon the past couple of days? Wednesday morning it looked like a huge ball suspended just above the trees on the western horizon. It was gorgeous! This morning it was pretty too, but not as spectacular as Wednesday morning.
Tomorrow is Friday the 13th again! How lucky is that, to have Friday the 13th in two consecutive months? It's also "Game Night" at our church. I'd think about going, but seem to be coming down with a serious cold or sinus infection. I doubt that anyone would appreciate sharing that with me! Our spring revival starts on Sunday, and I am hoping to make it for each night. The theme is "What I Didn't Know When I Was 12..." I can think of lots of things I didn't know when I was twelve!
We had grilled talapia for supper, and although I don't care much for fish, it was quite good. I was surprised. Now I'm being told that it's "movie time", so I better get to my recliner! We're going to watch "8 Seconds: The Lane Frost Story" ... again. We like it!

Just for Dobey!

Here's a cute picture for JCC's Dobey. I found it among some photos of a friend on Facebook, and of course thought of Dobey.

Not much else in the way of news here. Dennis has had elbow surgery, is healing well, and working to stretch his range of motion a little bit. We'd hoped for a lot more, but optimism was doused when we talked to the surgeon last week. He says that it's very unlikely that he will be able to fully extend and completely bend it, but at least he won't have the pain he had before!

Signs of spring are increasing daily, and I am excited about that! Every season is my favorite. I'm especially enjoying some of the "early birds" at the feeder. So far I've only seen a few spring arrivals dining with the regulars. Yesterday I saw a pair of towhees.

Our boys' basketball team is going to Des Moines for the playoffs. That alone is an accomplishment, even if they don't make it all the way. I'll be there Monday night along with most of our district, hoping that they'll be able to claim the title. Go, Hawks!