Hot August Newsflash!

Jake's truck caught on fire and burned up! From the inside out! He'd parked and gone in the house. The neighbor later saw the truck on fire and called 911. Jake, being in the basement, heard nothing! Same neighbor called Amy, who then called Jake, and by the time he went out to check the blaze was nearly extinguished. Unfortunate loss of his truck, but so thankful that no one was hurt, and also that the flames didn't reach the house and cause damage there as well! Not yet sure what caused the fire. WOW!

SOT Kayaks = FUN

I love the way the color is reflected on the water in this photo.

The boys came over after school this evening to try out the SOT (sit on top) kayaks on our small pond. They're fun and safe. If you tip over, you fall off instead of being trapped in the cockpit. The water was refreshing after a very hot day at school. While paddling around, the boys spotted a big bullfrog. On closer inspection, the frog was being swallowed by a big water snake! Frog couldn't hop because Snake had Frog's feet in his mouth. We caught (and killed) the snake, and the frog hopped into the water and disappeared. That makes three snake encounters in the past two days! YUCK!
We're hoping to close soon on the property we bought in June. We're eager to take possession and start cleaning up. There will be MUCH to do! Watch for pictures and progress reports here.
We had so much rain in June we thought it would never stop. But, it stopped! I think we have gone about 5 or 6 weeks with no measurable precipitation. Everything around here is dried up, brown and withered. Sad for area farmers!
We celebrated our 40th anniversary last week. I also attended my 40th class reunion. WOW! Dennis has a birthday coming up soon, and we're be celebrating at the Keokuk Aquatic Center.
School is back in session and I'm again driving the bus. Not much change in my route this year.
That's it for this time!

Two Hundred Posts!

According to the "dashboard" stats, this is my 200th post.

I'll try to catch up with the happenings around here since my last post back in May.
JUNE: School dismissed for the summer, to resume on August 23. I'm not sure, but I think it rained almost every day. We had record amounts on several occasions. I had two students in the summer school program at Mar's One Room Schoolhouse (MORS). We learned about the importance of character qualities such as self-control, patience, discretion, truthfulness, humility and tolerance. We enjoyed a number of field trips. We went on a tour of the Heartland Dairy, sampled the cheeses made there, ate lunch at the Solid Rock Cafe. We especially enjoyed seeing and petting the baby goats, even though they almost ate Wyatt's hat! We also visited Oakland Mills Nature Center. Zach and Wyatt entertained us with a puppet show. We hiked across the swinging bridge, saw a live bobcat, and especially liked the glass beehive. We enjoyed a Burlington Bees baseball game, swimming, exploring in Sugar Creek, and closed the summer school session with a bus trip to St. Louis for a Cardinals vs. Cubs game. We got to see Albert Pujols his his 2000th career hit. In addition to our summer school program, we attended many little league baseball games. Both Wyatt and Zach had very successful seasons with their respective teams. Zach went on to play with the "traveling" team, but missed two weeks due to a fractured finger. On June 27th, we were the winning bid on the former Sugar Valley Campground property. Closing was scheduled to be on or before August 1.
JULY: Much the same as June, but the rain stopped! Once it quit raining, we really dried up and got very hot and humid. Lots of baseball games and summer school classes. Mowing grass and spraying weeds took most of my "free" time. Our refrigerator quit, so we did a little shopping around and found our best deal to be right in downtown Keokuk. The closing on the new property was delayed. Since it wasn't happening as scheduled, I went to Wisconsin (Camp Forest Springs) for a few days.
AUGUST: We're still waiting to close and get possession of the new property...as of August 16. I'm still hopeful that we can close before school starts on the 23rd. It's so dry that we have no grass to mow and have been feeding the cows hay already because the pasture is burned up. The creek is just a trickle and the water is warm. I've noticed that the days are noticeably shorter, and have seen some leaves already turning color. Summer is winding down and it will soon be fall.
Some of the things I've forgotten to mention: So far, three parties at the Keokuk Aquatic Center, and still one to go. Our 40th anniversary. My 40th class reunion. Fine dining at the Hotel Nauvoo. Sweetcorn! I actually lost count of how much we put in the freezers, but I do know that we won't go hungry this winter. Family reunions....one with Dad's side, and one with Mom's. And much, much more!
Summer seems to have gone by pretty fast, but it's been a great summer. I love summer.

It's Been Forty Years!

Yes! Forty years since I graduated at Keokuk High School, and on Saturday, it will be forty years ago that Dennis and I were married. Wow! How can it be so? I attended my class reunion Friday evening and totally enjoyed seeing many people I'd not seen since high school. It was such a nice time, I've decided that I will plan to attend any and all future reunions.
Pictured below: Anita (Cannon) Hood, Gail (Galbreath) Lewis, me, Connie (Howes) Mann and Ruth Lawson.

Eggs Hatched!

We have babies. Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal are very busy filling the mouths of their young. The photos are a little blurry. Hope to get some better ones in the days to come. Watch for updates.


Update: May 10
Cardinal babies are growing. Their eyes are open!

Workin' In The Rain....

Update: Finished the Hutch. Bugs is enjoying his spacious quarters.


Gettin' soakin' wet! Makes me want to sing. It's another rainy day, but the temperature is in the mid-fifties, so not all that unpleasant. It's a really soft, gentle rain. I can see the grass growing and the colors everywhere getting more and more green.


We started building a larger pen for Bugs Bunny on Saturday. Worked on it again today, but after getting pretty well soaked, we decided to finish it another day. It will be about 21 square feet of space, much more spacious than his current lodging. Bugs will just have to put up with his crowded quarters a little longer. The photo here was taken Saturday when we were just getting started. It was too wet to take the camera out today for a picture of our progress.




While the boys were looking for mushrooms, I stayed in the short grass. I like to avoid any potential snake encounters. I did see some nice frogs around the pond.






I did take a couple pictures again from the windows looking out. Everything looked so fresh and pretty. I especially enjoyed the red berries on the bayberry shrubs. They make a nice contrast to all the green. I also noticed we have two homesteaders in the bayberry bushes. One is a cardinal's nest and she's sitting on eggs. The other appears to be a robin's nest. We'll have fun watching their young hatch and grow. Just another wonderful day at our place! We're so blessed!

Spring Beauty....

Each window provides a view of loveliness! Days like today, it seems all I get done is walk from one window to another just looking out. We've had over an inch and one half of rain since we went to bed last night, with more coming. The temperature is holding around 40 degrees. Just not a day I care to spend outdoors!
Enjoy the view with me:




















































I love living here! We are indeed blessed beyond measure.

Since February...

We've enclosed our west deck and turned it into a four season "sun-room". Prior to that, the deck was practically useless. It was too hot to enjoy sitting outdoors most of the summer. The mosquitoes were to pesky to enjoy evenings on the deck. Of course, it was too cold to use in winter, and if it was raining...or snowing.... well, you get the idea. We love the new room!


We celebrated Mom and Dad's 65th anniversary on March 20. It was a beautiful day, and we grilled chicken and riblets. Almost all of our family was able to be there to help celebrate. Everyone brought a dish, and it was just a very nice day.
Dennis has kept busy hauling for us and a lot of other people. He's added several layers to our lane, so it's in pretty good shape. It should hold up well through the spring rains. We certainly hope we don't get rains like we did last year! It's actually raining here at this moment.
Farmers in the area have been busy too. Some already have their corn planted. Travis has been getting equipment ready and preparing fields, but as yet has nothing planted. It's still plenty early.
I've already mowed our lawn twice, and it's only April 15! We've also been battling the weeds. They must have grown under that blanket of snow. We certainly had a healthy crop...but they're not looking so healthy now. Hurray for herbicides!




I put out four new bluebird boxes, and am seeing bluebirds just outside the window as I type. I hope they're moving into one of the new houses. We enjoy all the birds, but are especially fond of bluebirds.








Most recent "news": We have babies! Bunnies. Yesterday I brought two bunnies home. We set up the bunny pen, complete with water bottles and food. Our dog was so excited! He really likes them...in fact, he really wants to eat them! We'll have to be very careful when the kids come to pet the bunnies. Rusty would have them in a heartbeat if given the chance.
Pictured is Wyatt with one of the CFS bunnies. I have not yet taken pictures of ours, but you'll see them soon!





Added Saturday, April 16th. Here is a picture of our bunnies. We're still working on names for them.




Summer plans include some form of "summer school" at Mar's One Room Schoolhouse, several short trips, Cardinal baseball, Camp Forest Springs, lots of home projects....mostly clean up stuff, and Little League games.
And, of course, blogging.....

Groundhog Day!

We spent a good part of the day digging out from the "blizzard of 2011". According to the local newspaper, we had 20" of snow. The county road crew is plowing through drifts as high as 7 feet! It's certainly beautiful. School was called off again for tomorrow. In fact, nearly everything in the whole area was canceled. Even some of the factories told their employees not to come to work. The news says that this storm was worse than the blizzard of '79. I believe this was the first time since we've lived here that we were unable to get out. Travis came down in his backhoe and got our lane opened up.
Even so, Punxsutawney Phil didn't see his shadow, so spring is coming soon! I took just a few pictures today.















Dennis put out a new bale for the cows:

















And, as usual, we had lots of activity at the bird feeders.

I'm a Bird Watcher...

and the birds are flocking to our feeders today.

We had sleet and freezing rain yesterday, and a little rain during the night. The temperature was 32* this morning and has been steadily falling with light snow. I'm very content to stay inside and look out the windows.