July 28

Well, it's been another busy week -- although I guess I should explain...
We don't get going very early in the morning now that we are retired.

So, one day this week, Jackie was cleaning.  She had the vacuum sitting in the middle of the room waiting.  J asked me what something was on the vacuum and I put him off.  He always wants to know how things work and I didn't feel like getting into it.

Well, it was time to vacuum and he said he wanted to do it.  Jackie helped him get started and then he said, "Can I do more?  This is my favorite job ever!"  Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could keep that going!

 

Bob and I were down at the small barn.  When we moved, there was only room in the storage locker for our household goods that wouldn't fit in our apartment.  Most of the things from the basement workshop and the garage had to pile in the small barn.  Now that the shop/machine shed is ready, we are beginning to move some of that stuff to the shop.  So, we were down at the barn and moving some boxes and found this nest.  There was a box on top of this and when I moved it, this is what I found.  I put the box back on top and Bob said when he was down there a couple days later, the bird was arguing with him about being there.  The eggs were about the size of my big thumbnail.

 

July 21, 2013

Busy week again.  The temperatures were HOT!!  I can't take the heat because I had sunstroke at some point in my past.  Bob decided to pull weeds in the potatoes.  Otherwise, how will Charley be able to find them to dig?  For a few minutes, I was holding an umbrella over his head, but I got in his way.  Then we went and got the canopy.  It is one of the telescoping kind, so is very easy to set up - Except that one of the legs got broken last summer, so we had to prop a rake under one corner.  It worked well, but that task was just to overwhelming.  We gave up.  The areas where we mulched and hilled the potatoes earlier in the season kept the weeds down there, so that section should be good.  In this area, I guess he will just have to hunt.

I went to a friend's house to see her garden and they use cardboard for mulch with straw over it.  I think that is a great idea.  Maybe we need to start collecting cardboard for next year.

We hope to break ground for our house this week.  We haven't been told that for sure, but the paperwork is all in place.  In the front of the house, there will be an elevation drop for the walk-out basement.  I drove past this rock outcropping and I told Charley I want him to build something like this for the front yard.  I'm sure he can come close.

The drive out to the friend's house that I mentioned above is a beautiful drive.  I think the kids said that John Michael Montgomery lives (or lived) along this road.  The Kentucky four-plank fences ...

And the old stacked stone walls.  Made for a beautiful drive.

On Saturday, we were privileged to attend Rachel Bradley's (now Reilly) wedding.  We had some time to drive around the city of Cincinnati and found it very picturesque.

Cindy (with her husband Nathan) was the matron of honor.

Rachel and her husband Kevin make a beautiful couple!  We had a wonderful time with old neighbors from Wheaton.

The wedding was held in the beautiful St Mark's Church.

 

This week we harvested the beets and some swiss chard.  The chard continues to produce for a while, but I will need to figure out what to plant in my raised bed where the beets were.  We got our first tomatoes, but there was a lot of blossom end rot.  Had to throw away as much as we were able to pick.  Had some orange tomatoes that looked wonderful, but couldn't eat them ourselves because we needed them for the CSA baskets.  Hopefully this week. 

 

Oh - also we celebrated our 37th wedding anniversary this week.  We went out to dinner today after church with Claude and Sallie and the kids.  Had a wonderful time.  Thanks!

 

Another week in the Bluegrass.

July 16

This past week, we drove up to O'Hare Airport and picked up Josh, Rachelle and the girls.  The girls have grown so much!!

 

B is walking and talking and has her own opinions.

 

 

We went to the park and fed cucumber peelings and watermelon rinds to the animals.

K loves to sing and dance.

While Josh and Rachelle went to the doctor to get baby brother checked out, Bob and I had a picnic on the deck with the girls.

Then they played in the yard.

Then it was good to get back home.  We went down to the barn to get some stuff and when returning, I stopped on this hill to take a picture back up toward the house.  It shows the house with the green shop.  We are loving it here.

 

Bob is really enjoying his tractor and is using the loader for a whole lot of things.  We are beginning to set up in the shop so we went to the small barn to get the parts for the workbench we had in Wheaton.  He carried them in the loader.

We were really glad to get back home.  We can see the sky.

 

 

Another glorious sunset in the Bluegrass.

July 9

I mentioned the wedding that we hosted a week ago.  This is the whole field that we mowed.  They had a tent down by the creek, porta-potties down there and parking up at this end by the driveway.

 

 

J is fortunate to have an uncle who is a policeman in a nearby large city.  We were able to meet him while he was on duty and J was able to sit in the car and even turn the flashing lights on.

He put handcuffs on Charley.  It was an exciting time for us all.

We have had a lot of rain for a week.  It has finally moved on but we had a beautiful rainbow.  The major rainbow was complete!  I don't think I have ever seen that.  And there was a double on both ends.  Absolutely beautiful!

And then the sky was beautiful.

The kids had a friend move away who gave them a battery-operated 4-wheeler for J.  He was absolutely fearless.  I used the zoom for this shot.  This is close to a quarter mile from the house.  After he had gone a little farther on the lane, he got off on the grass and kept working his way down the hill.  Because everything is so wet, he kept backing up to try for better traction.  Pretty smart - huh?  But then he got to a point he couldn't get himself out, so he had to be towed by Grandpa with the mower and tractor.  Bob put the "motorcycle" on the mower and J on the tractor and brought him back up to the driveway.  He made it back to the house but had to get off and push a lot because of the steep hill and the wet gravel.  When he got back, he said his legs hurt.

 

 

What a wonderful week!  Another week in the Bluegrass.