declaring summer!!!!

After all the yard work on Saturday...... Sunday was "get the docks in at camp"..... Ed and I planned to head to camp after church.... only, we didn't quite make it to church. Teresa and her David went off for the weekend, so we had barn duty, well, Saturday night after dinner, we went out to check on the horses, to find that Silver and Tonka had taken down the fence and were on the "wrong side of the barn". Since it was dark, and we had no idea how much of the fence was down, we locked them in for the night and went to deal with it in the morning. They did a "pretty good job" and it took us a little bit to get the fence all put back and up and running. Somehow the fence had been turned off, and it doesn't take Tonka too long to figure it out, and pretty much do whatever he likes!!!!


By the time we did make it to camp, Dave and Sean were already waiting for us.... it makes the whole job so much easier when there is extra help, so we REALLY appreciated them being there!!! but, then, we had an extra surprise, when Dale and Val showed up just in time to help out as well!!!

Val is an athlete and does all sorts of marathons and "iron man" meets, so, when she was looking for a spot to practice her swimming, I was more than happy to offer "wilson lake". When the girls arrived to swim (Dale swims too as Val's spotter) they jumped right in (literally) to help with the docks........ it didn't' seem like anytime at all, when everyone had the docks in place..... its just so wonderful to have such great friends that will come to your rescue!!!! And Moxie was the first "official swimmer " of the cocker crew this year... she usually is, other than Trevor, she is the dog that likes the water the most......

We had a nice cookout after the dock party and sent everyone home, full of good food.

Then Ed and I went down to the "farm" and check out the hay. It looks good, and the hay man will be getting there any day now. I think this is going to be a good hay season, and many of the fields are getting knocked down quickly. It's been a dry season, which is bad for wood fires (had a bad on in York over the weekend)... but it awesome for cutting and drying hay. Last spring was so wet, the hay men were scurrying to get it all in. I dare say, there will even be a second crop this year!!!! "Our" hay man (I need to get his real name... Ed knows it) said he will give us a call when he heads to our field, so I am hoping to get some good blog pictures and have a full report on the hay yield and quality to tell all of you.

And, just for the record......... we have declared that summer has begun..............................

peepers in the kitchen

On Friday, Ed and I went to the local grain store to pick up our turkey chicks. Last year, we raised 6 turkeys that we "named" the "Dinner Family"... we had "Thanksgiving (dinner), Christmas (dinner), New Years (dinner), Turkey (dinner) Easter (dinner) and Whatever (dinner). It was a fun project, and aside from shipping them off to the butcher, I can say it was a "fun" project as well. The turkeys were very good, and I felt that we had given them a fine life until the end.This year, we are raising the "Holiday Family".. and I know it seems hard to think that these cute little chicks are going to end up on the table... fortunately (God is very good) they don't grow up as cute as they are little!!! so, that makes it a little easier when it comes time for shipping them out!!!!
Because they are so little right now, and don't have all their feathering, they are living in a dog crate in the kitchen....... peeping away!!!!! Actually, they peep so loud, it is sometimes hard to hear the TV!!!!!
Then it was back to "project #436".... remember when we pulled those big shrubs out a few weeks ago, well, we're back to it again (course the sunroom is also awaiting its final touches!!! but there are only so many hours in a weekend!!) Anyways, we decided that we would like to cover up the cement walkway with a nice brick walkway. So, I went with Ed to the brick store, and picked out some pavers for the new walk.

The "new owners" of the house (ie: Kassy) said that she would give us a hand!!! and helped her Daddy unload the bricks from the back of the truck!!! I am glad that she approves of her new walkway!!! Though she keeps telling us to "leave a few projects for her and Nate to do!!!"


As with a lot of these types of projects, its the "prep work" that takes us most of the time... here, Ed has the stone dust done and all level, and if you look a little to the right, you will see a nice load of loam (brought to us by Coz) waiting for the walkway to be done. Ed is going to level out the whole front yard, and re-seed. It will look nice to have that all done, because from the old shrubs and just over time, the front lawn is full of dips and pots, that make mowing it....interesting.......


Now, I must confess that I wasn't much help with this project. Missing my mini, Mocha, found me spending the afternoon at the Flagg's, taking a nice hike out thru the woods with Deb and Alison.

But when I arrived home... here is the beautiful job all done and waiting for me!!!! Needless to say, Ed was pretty tired after all that work...so, I did get the lawn mowed!!!.. We still have the rest of the yard to level out, and I promise I will be more of a help on that part of the project!!!!

Ed keeps saying that this is good practice for all the stuff that we will do with the new house. Actually, its quite fun, because it does help me get ideas of what we will be doing up in Acton, and I also have the chance to get back into the "house stuff" stores and see what there is out there. We haven't done that since we bought this house and did all the work..... 25 years ago.... and lots have changed since then.

The next couple of weekends will be spent at camp... so, things will just need to wait a bit around here, again.