Mom's Birthday

Last week we had a 3 day celebration for mom's 92nd birthday. She was able to go back home - where she had lots of visitors and callers wishing her Happy Birthday.

Here she is doing what she loves the most....playing cards! She was able to get in several euchre games with her grandchildren.

Of all the shots we took with her great grandchildren, this is the best I ended up with... Morgan had not made it to the group and Aiden was ready to leave the group!!

Aiden, snuggling up to his great great grandma.

Lately.....

It has been awhile since my last post...so this is what has been going on - this pic is of Bob scraping his windshield after a frost on AUG. 30th.. a frost in August...how crazy is that???? Bob is still working on the bell tower..caulking all the cracks...painting..etc. I have spent a lot of time trying to get ORGANIZED....which means filing, filing, filing....thank goodness I had some help. Missy was right there in the boxes telling me where to put things!

The other day, while having breakfast, mom said - is that a cat on the barn roof? I grabbed my camera, to get a shot of Baby..

It appears this is her new favorite pass-time. My only concern is the fact that we have a BALD EAGLE that visits every once in awhile...if he catches her up there, she won't have a chance --- be very careful Baby!!!

Now that summer is almost over my morning glories are looking pretty darn good!

And this is hubby - about 15 months ago, while watching those darn infomercials, he bought a juicer. Today, with a fridge and garden full of fruits and vegetables, he finally took it out of the box. He had carrot (from our garden) juice and made mom & me a delicious drink of fresh strawberries and peaches...mmmmmm! Here he is reading the directions AFTER making the juice and have a little problem with the tomatoes.

The Yard - For Jamie

This post is actually for Jamie, our friend and former neighbor. While visiting her a couple of weeks ago she asked if she could stop in with some ladies from the garden club. It seems she has a trip planned for our area and wondered if they could add our place in their places to visit. We said sure, that would be great, we will be ready with lemonade and cookies.....THEN we got home and started looking around....with the eyes of 40 some women.... who had been on a bus for about 3 hours.... all we could see was the look of disappointment in their eyes as they stepped off that bus!! So Jamie, we hope you will keep us in mind a year or two down the road, because it really would be cool to someday see a bus full of ladies from our favorite town stop in for a nice leisurely stroll through our yard and gardens!!!!!!!!!!!!! Our front porch - a great place rock away an hour or so - Front yard

Side yard

Side deck

Side yard

Side yard berm - in progress

More Flowers

Wow - summer is FLYING by - it is August already!!! Time to post some flowers....look closely into my gazing ball and see the fruits of Robert's labor - This is one of the pots beside the driveway - the petunias are going CRAZY!

Robert LOVES his lilies....they smell even more heavenly than they look!

My sunflower....I planted lots of sunflowers, but a FAMILY of ground hogs ate most of them as seedlings. I was planning on going out this morning and taking this ones picture again with the sunshine on it....BUT a storm last night SNAPPED it off....do you know the song Gone like a freight train, Gone like yesterday, Gone like a soldier in the civil war, Bang Bang......yea, you get the idea. To say I'm upset is putting it MILDLY!!!

No More "Rolling Pins"

So the other morning I hear something and and look out the window, to see this truck by the road....

soon this guy is putzing up the driveway with his load of lumber...

soon things started happening....

Bob's latest creation....

is this pergola...a VERY LARGE pergola....stay tuned for the finished product.

This evening............

It has been a rainy day. We woke up to thunder and no power this morning and it has rained most of the day. I decided to take a walk around the yard this evening - so I put on my RED rubber shoes and headed out the door with my camera.

The sky looked pretty creepy...we have a thunderstorm warning and tornado watch.

The swans were in the yard and did not head for the water when they saw me. One of them hissed at me, but I stood my ground!! (If the day comes when one of them chases me I will be running for higher ground!!!!!!)

This is the overflow tube - the pond is surely overflowing.

Next I went in the barn and Baby came just close enough that I got a shot of her peeking around the boat trailer. I used the flash because it was so dark in there - and Baby's eyes are glowing green!

Snapped a pic of the tractor just because all the rain had made it soooo bright and clean looking.

Couldn't take shot of the yard without including Bob's "sculptures" I call them the giant rolling pins!

The garden. The raised beds are great. The ground, on the other hand, is waaaay too soggy to plant. Cold or soggy - I don't think we will have a bumper crop of anything this year!

As I headed back to the house Toe-Toes greated me on the deck.

I stopped at the door and took a few shots

of the Hummingbirds....

They are loving this rainy evening!!

The Project Continues

Just the other day Shelly asked me about this and I told her it appeared Bob's latest project was on hold. BUT when I got home yesterday he had made a lot of progress (with Mark's help). Hopefully more pictures will come SOON! Can't wait to see what it turns out to be!!!! Just kidding- I know, I just don't know exactly what the finished product will look like. Now the pictures below were taken the other day when Bob stopped in to a very small nursery to see if they had any weeping willow trees (I LOVE weeping willows). I stayed in the truck because they had only about 10 plants (yes, slight exaggeration) - soon I saw Bob out in the field where a tree was down and the trunk was "sprouting" suckers and there was my husband breaking them off. The owner had no willows for sale and told him to help himself to the branches.

Here is a very happy Bob with his "free trees". They are currently rooting (we hope) in the pond.

And AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We got a storm last night and when we woke up this morning, the yard was again flooded....yukkkkkk! Yesterday, Bob started yet another project. I thought I knew what the plan was, but after seeing these posts in the yard I thought maybe the plan had changed....here Bob is explaning ( with his hands) just where everything will go!!! Just another "can't wait to see the finished product"!