Squash anyone?

The kids and I worked in the garden today.

We picked tons of squash.

These big boys must have been hiding for awhile.

The pigs got them.

Pumpkin.

I don't think this one will get too big..

(wow, look at those weeds)

An English cucumber..

And the dreaded Colorado Potato Beetle has arrived

on the potato plants..

What the heck is this?

Small tomatos on a potato flower?

Our tater harvest for today..


We had some very nice rain today.
You could practically hear my garden gulping it in.
I may need to get out the lawn mower soon.
Actually due to lack of rain I have not mowed the front yard since
the end of June and the back yard since July 3rd.


Side note... Caden has learned how to tie his shoes!!
We are very excited about this new development!!

Garden stuff

I don't know what these flowers are,

but they sure are a beautiful color.

Tonight we picked some onions and they were delicious in

stir-fry with fresh carrots and peas.

Look how tall that corn is!
It is a bit dry, hopefully we will get some rain this weekend.


The carrots are fantastic too.
Caden is eating an apple from one of our trees.

We have also been having some problems with the rotten cows
getting out. Yesterday they were out twice.



So, Cal stopped on the way home and got this new electric fencer.
We had to whack weeds growing up around the fence,
re-do some insulators and stretch some wire.
Hot job that was!

It's a good morning indeed when
all the cows are in their pens, as they were today.

And what in the world is that?


Found that little sucker in our pool scupper.
YUCK!!!

Pea Soup...

It is so foggy this am and so thick I can barley make out the huge willow tree 30 feet from my kitchen window. I can hear birds chirping, but they sound muted. Strange how everything seems muffled and distant, even the vehicles on the road have a quiet not quite there sound. We are expected to have temps in the mid 80's today. So I imagine the fog will burn off in no time.

I watched Krissy's goats while she was in MN. AND I know I locked the gate when I left!!! BUT she came home yesterday and the gate was wide open with no goats in sight. Happily I can report that they were hanging out in her barn all safe and sound, but she about had a heart attack! I feel bad. Did the goats get bored/lonely and mess with the chain that hooked on the gate? I know they were VERY happy to see me, trying to climb me and giving me the occasional head-butt. Kris is going to worry now if she ever has to go out of town again...

To ROCK or not....

and the answer is....

ROCK FEST 2009

We really debated about going to Rock Fest this year.

I had pretty much decided we were not going and

at 4p, Cal says "Let's go!"

Rock Fest is in Cadott, Wi. About a 40minute drive east of our house.

It is a four day music fest with four to five bands playing each day.

In years past all the bands were from the 70's and 80's, but

now about 2/3 of the bands are newer groups due to

classic rockers not touring much (old age).

Anyhow, yesterday The Whigs, Los Lonley Boys, Hoobastank

Judas Priest and Journey were playing.

Since we didn't get there till 7p we hung out at some of our friends camp

until Judas Priest began at 845p.

The shot spot is a popular place in the camp.

The gals setting us up with some shots.


Me playing drinko - I ended up with a shot of tequila.


Part of the group got in this picture.


We went to the fest grounds for the Priest.

I'm not much of a Priest fan, but my brother is a HUGE fan.

One of our friends with VIP seats took these pictures for me.

This is the best picture of Ron I had.

They were pretty cool, during the encore the band

rolled a Harley up on stage and really reved the engine

and left it idling during the last song.

Judas Priest only played about four old songs and the rest were from

their new album.

Then Journey took the stage at 11p.

Their old front man Steve Perry is gone and the new guy Arnel Pineda,

he is from the Philippines,

sounded almost just like him.

I did not get any great pictures of Journey playing,

but they sure rocked the house!

They played ALL the popular Journey tunes.

There was probably 20,000 or more folks at the concerts.

It only took us six minutes from starting the car to getting out

on the highway, so traffic wasn't bad at all.

It was sure a long night. We didn't make it home till 2a.

Loved Rock Fest!

Hope it works out that we can go again next year.

Colton will get to go too if we do...

P.S. The weather sucked! It was cold and drizzly - coat/sweatshirts were the norm.

Walkabout cows

I got a late start on my day today

sleeping in till an almost unheard of

750am.

I was enjoying my first cup of coffee and reading my book

trying to wake up when

I notice a few vehicles up on the main road slowing down and

one or two honking their horns.

I'm guessing it is our neighbors dumb dog Emma

up on the road again.

Why she hasn't been hit yet is beyond me,

because she will lay right on the center line.

Vehicles will honk at her and some folks

even stop to pick her up and deliver her to our house

thinking she is ours.

Anyhow, I'm running behind now so I head out to the barn to

feed the animals before I have to get ready for work.

As I climb the ladder into the barn I hear a cow moo,

turning around what do I see?

Lily and baby Molly up on the freaking road!!

SHIT!!

I race back to the house and wake Colton up so he can help me

get them back in before they get hit by a car, escape into the woods or

trample through planted fields.

I get a bucket of corn to lure them with. Lily is not interested in

anything but the fresh sweet grass, so I get

up behind her and Molly and start trying to shoo them in the right direction.

It took about 40minutes and a few wrong directions,

but we finally got them back in their pen.

The fence was not down anywhere, but there was a stretched out area that

must have been their escape route.

Funny Cal and I were just ragging on a friend the other day that

can't keep his cows in. That's Murphy's law for you I guess.

The little Houdini herself..


I wasn't late for work, but I really had to scramble to be on time.

Also, I delivered the Chief his stuff and did not tell him about the pants.
He gave me some more sewing today so all must be well.

Smooth move ex-lax....

I have a story to tell and those of you who sew (and those who don't) may appreciate it.

Our local police department is in the same building as the library I work at and I've gotten to know the chief pretty well. The Chief has recently hired some new employees and has asked me to do some sewing for him. Now I like to quilt, but by no means does that mean I can sew clothes. Yes, I have in the past put together a robe, cape, a vest or two and miscellaneous Halloween costumes. But something a professional has to wear in public? Nope nothing like that. I told all this to the Chief and he said give it a try and see how it works out. Basically it's all been easy stuff like sewing on patches and such. About every other week he has a stack of stuff for me to do, so it's not like I'm real busy sewing for him.

Last week he had three shirts that needed patches, a bullet proof vest that needed tails and two pairs of pants that needed to be hemmed. Sounds easy right? Well, I've never hemmed pants before. After reading my trusty sewing machine instruction manual on how to sew hems, I jumped right on that first pair of pants.

I had KISS playing on the old cassette player in my sewing room and was singing along, hollering at kids once in a while and got that first pair of pants hemmed up! I decided to do the patches next, no problem. On to the vest tails (picture a short black vest with a 4" x 8" piece of fabric hanging from the middle in the front and back - to tuck it in and keep it snug, of course) no problem.

Last pair of pants to hem.... Still listening and singing along to KISS, reminisced about seeing them at Rock Fest a few years ago and how much fun that was... Remembered how my brother got me hooked on KISS when we were kids living in Wasilla... Recalled the funny things we said way back then.... And OH SHIT!!

I was measuring one pant leg for a 33" inseam, thinking about Krissy saying measure twice, cut once and cut off 2" from the pant leg so I could turn it back and hem it. I then went to get the other pant leg up on my ironing board to measure it and cut, but the pants slipped off the ironing board. I picked them up and did my measuring and cut again.

Next step would be to do a zig-zag stitch around the cut to prevent it from unraveling. Did the first pant leg and on to the next, but low and behold that leg had not been cut yet!!!!!!!!!!


Can you imagine what I was feeling and thinking right then?

The phrase smooth move ex-lax was rolling through my mind along with dozens of swear words..


Long story short I thought about just scrapping that pair of pants. But I decided to see if I could sew that cut off piece back on and hem it from there. So, I did. Then the next problem was could I make the other leg match that one? It took a while but I finally got them matched.

What a day... It's Beer-thirty...

P.S. Should I tell the Chief?

Saturday...

Today was nice and busy.

My favorite flowers and horse thing.

We got the garden all weeded again...

Yes, I have a chair in my garden.

I like to sit down and pull weeds.

Less wear and tear on my poor knee.

For those of you who don't know, I dislocated my right knee

four years ago (got kicked by a horse) and it's

never been the same.

Colton taking a break.

Anyhow, look at that corn!!

Around here we say if your corn is knee high by the 4th of July

it's doing good. Ours was a little taller than knee high on the 4th,

so hopefully we will have a bumper crop this year.

Chyann found this little bird in the yard on the way to the barn.

The parents were flying around our heads really making a racket.

We looked all over for the nest and finally found it about 25 feet up
a pine tree.



Chyann climbed the ladder and put the baby back.
The nest was tiny, about the size of a small coffee cup and
in it were two other baby birds. They were so cramped that
the one Chyann put back had to stand on the backs of the others.

We watched until ma and pa bird came back.
They didn't get in the nest, just stood on the branches next to it.



You can't really see the nest, but it's up there.


On another note..
One of our neighbors showed up with a pair of pheasants.

Apparently Cal decided the turkeys (I forgot to mention that the kids brought them
back from OK when they came home), needed some friends so
now we have pheasants.



We have put them in a mobile outdoor pen.
They needed some shade so Cal cut a plastic barrel to hang in the pen.

But first the kids decided to roll down the driveway in it.




You should have heard the screams!
I was sure someone had gotten hurt...





But no, they said it was better than a ride at the fair!





Did you notice in the first picture that Chyann was by the opening?
And now Caden is the first one out?

They got pretty tossed around in there.

BBQ Fun

We went to some friends house for a BBQ last night.

We had hot dogs, brats, pasta salad, chips and dip, watermelon and smores.

The kids had so much fun.

Don has this crazy little truck that he let Chyann drive all over his property.

It is a stick and the steering wheel is on the left hand side, but no problem for her.

Must be all her experience driving the go-cart that enabled her to pick up what to do so fast.

Caden and his buddy were fishing and catching frogs.

He got tangled up occasionally.

How cool is that, to be able to go out in a paddle boat and fish.




Jack the dog broke out of his pen to come play fetch with the girls.

Jack loves to fetch sticks, but the boys were irritated because he kept the water too stirred up for catching fish.

Nothing like getting soaking wet

when Jack shakes all over you.

Marshmallow eating..

A little watermelon..

They kept us stocked up on wood for the fire.

Chyann drove the truck to the wood pile and the rest of the kids

loaded her up.

As you can see the boys were being brave trying to sit on the side.

But Chyann hollered at them and they sat down again.

Caden didn't catch any fish, but got a bucket of frogs that he released and Chyann

thinks she is ready for a drivers license.

Colton was at a friends house and missed all this fun.

Cherries Anyone?

Today was cherry picking day.

My pickers don't look too excited do they?

Oodles and oodles of delicious cherries.

We only picked two bowls and there are still tons left.

So, if anyone wants to come pick, feel free.

I forgot to take pictures of the jam process, but it was easy.

2 1/2 cups chopped cherries, 4 cups sugar, and 1 box sure-jell.

Let it sit 24 hrs, then freeze or refrigerate.

How easy is that?