Pictures of Family

This is the fort that my brother is working on building. So far, only the swings are completed. The fort structure will have a floor (halfway up) with railing around it and a ladder to climb up into it and a big green twisty slide to come down. It will be lots of fun! My Dad pushed my niece and nephew every morning we were home and it put my niece in her "happy pink place" (those were her words and pink is her favorite color).

Here is everyone standing around the tree that my niece's "treasure" was found in (placed there earlier by Dad in a tractor bucket (driven by my brother who lifted him up to place it as high as he could--they had to get it down with the "snake grabber" (long aluminum stick with a grabber on the end)).

Here is Brynna showing Grandad (my Grandad, her great-grandad) her treasure she had found.

And here we all are around the hole where my nephew is digging to find his treasure. (Yes, it was quite an exciting event. I only wished there was some treasure around that I could dig up.)

My little family--Pooker, Brownie, and I. It is always so fun to be home, but can be pretty busy, too!

Bear on a stump

This cute little bear is sitting on a stump. When asked last year what he wanted for Christmas, Dad said, "I want a bear to sit on my stump." Well.... Thankfully, my brother-in-law accepted the challenge and when we were home for Christmas, he went driving around searching for a log that he could use to make the bear. It's not just everyone who can look at a log and see the possibilities inside. He used his chainsaw to free this little bear from inside the log. I watched him doing it several times and I was amazed (it was kind of like what I imagine Michaelangelo did when he released David from a flawed slab of marble no one else would use, minus the chainsaw). This was the first time I'd actually been home to see the little bear sitting on the stump since it had been sitting in the garage waiting for some varnish before he was sent outside to his stump. I was impressed all over again when I saw him outside. (And if you say "stump" enough, it doesn't seem like a real word anymore.)

Gorgeous sunset

Wow! What a gorgeous sunset we were treated to on the farm on Saturday night. And yes, I really have only just now finished up with Saturday of Labor Day weekend. A stunning finish to a wonderful day spent with family. I'll finish up tomorrow with our last day spent at home!

Farm Girl

Here's my sweet girl, relaxing in the shade of some posts because it was a little sticky before it rained and she was hot. I love her big smile and with her eyes mostly closed, she looks so content.

Then, with her eyes open and her mouth in a slightly smaller smile, you can tell she is just enjoying life on the farm.

Continuing our walk after the rain

We continued our walk after the rain. I wanted to show you the clouds that continued to roll overhead.

I know you see what I mean about a 360 degree view. I love it! Sometimes in the city, I feel a little trapped and need the wide open spaces to be refreshed.

Our walks often take us down the road towards the mailbox. On the way, I usually try to look for rocks to see if there are any interesting ones. We weren't able to go rock hunting this trip because there were too many other things going on.

I had to show you the "Oops" bale. I guess somehow the twine to wrap around the bale got mixed up in the bale.

We had a great walk and both took a lot of pictures. It did end up raining again probably an hour later, for maybe thirty minutes this time. I love those rains that come and go, sprinkling you with goodness. It just seems to me that there is a difference between a hard, driving rain and a gentle rain. The one I like to walk in with my face turned up to the sky. The other is brutal and chills me to the bone. These were both the refreshing kind, a kiss of blessing upon the land.

Taking shelter from the rain

My sister went with me for an afternoon walk and she took her camera with her as well. She was fascinated by this pile of tires and by this one tire standing alone. Well, you won't see those tires here because they didn't strike me like they did her but I sure wish she'd start a blog so I can see the world through her eyes (she is a very talented photographer--she loves to take black and white photos).

While we were taking pictures, these heavy clouds were rolling overhead and it started raining. I said let's take shelter in the barn and she followed me (I didn't want to relinquish her company since we'd only been out for maybe ten minutes and I didn't think it would rain for long.) So even though my pic above doesn't look as if it is raining, it is!!

Of course, my Bippa was with us! She goes where the action is.

I thought this dented, dirty old milk can was interesting. It made me think of days gone by, things forgotten.

Bip was pretty interested in the calves in the corral and I had to keep convincing her not to climb under and join them because I really didn't want her to step in anything (or roll around in anything) that would have necessitated a bath. (I've had to give her a bath several years ago when she rolled around in fresh cow poo. She'd never seen it before and didn't know what it was. When she doesn't know what something is, she lowers her head and shoulders and simply rolls over it. If you're going to stop her, you've got to be quick when you see the head drop/shoulder roll. It was pretty gross because I didn't have gloves or anything and I was having to stick my hands in her poo filled fur and..... Let's just say I really don't want to repeat the experience.)

We'd probably only been in the barn for ten minutes and I said, "Don't worry, I think it's almost done." The second after I said "done," it stopped like someone just turned off the faucet. We looked at each other and I thought, "Well now." We left the barn and continued on our walk.

Interesting Pics from the farm

We were standing outside and Pooker noticed this large spider in the yard near the house. My brother-in-law got a shovel and picked it up and moved it away from the house. Kind of gave me the heebies the darn thing was so big (and I had been standing the nearest).

I don't know what this "berry" is, but it is growing wild and I thought the colors were beautiful.

I liked this rusted farm equipment, standing tall and proud. On the center of the wheel it says "No. 4 BIG." Not sure what that means, but I like it.

Loved this jumble of rusty fence posts and colorful electric fence wire holders. (Did not love getting shocked when I was younger when I'd try to carefully cross over an electric fence and one thigh got hung up on it---BBBZZZZTTT.)

Flowers, Flowers, and more Flowers!

There is such an abundance of flowers growing on the farm. I love the profusion of color, the wildness of running into them here and there. You go around a corner and there is beauty growing among the rusty pipes. You look at a planter filled with purple flowers and you see a yellow butterfly. A beautiful sunflower growing beside a corral. Vivid pink and purple flowers, wet from a sudden rain that came and went as quickly as the clouds were passing overhead. And the cheery little yellow flowers just say "I'm happy to be alive!"

I've got lots more pictures to post from the farm, but have to stop for today as I still need to get my suitcase unpacked and put away. Plus, I need to water my own very thirsty houseplants.

Sunrise on the farm

Now you know I don't normally catch many sunrises, but we were woken up by the sound of little voices in Nana and Papa's room. The conversation went something like this:

"Nana, Papa, time to wake up! The sun is out. Let's go play."

Then after a little bit came the sound of our door shutting all the way (for a minute, I thought we may get a little wake up call, too). It was too late. I thought I'd better go ahead and get up because Brownie loves going to her Nana and Papa's and I knew she would be chomping at the bit to get outside and start her sniffing. When I went back inside after taking this picture, she waited on the porch, hopefully wagging her tail so I would go back outside and go for a walk with her (which I did after I had some cinnamon rolls for breakfast!).

Going home for Labor Day weekend

As we were leaving town to go home for Labor Day weekend, it seemed like the clouds were rolling in.

An hour outside of town, and we ran into the rain. It rained off and on for several hours.

We were surrounded on all sides by sporadic rain and dark clouds, then when we looked to our left there was this break in the dark clouds and the bright sky and light, fluffy white clouds were peering through. It was pretty amazing.

We didn't make it back in time for me to take pictures of the sunset. I could have taken some from the car, but I was tired and worn out from the past two weeks of dealing with vehicles/no vehicles and I was just ready to get home. I did notice on the drive that the scenery was lush and green and I was thankful that they have been getting rain.