Today

Cliff and I went shopping for a new drill press, since the ancient model Cliff has used for years finally shot craps.  I took my Nook along, so while Cliff shopped for drill presses, I read my latest Harlan Coben book (Live Wire).  However, when he was shopping at Sears, I went in to look at blouses that might be considered decent to wear to church.  Why?  Because most of my "tops" wardrobe consists of T-shirts, and that's a little too casual to suit even me.  
I went looking for mushrooms this afternoon.  I picked up five morels and one tick (that I know of).  
This evening we watched Secreteriat on TV.  I warned Cliff before we watched it that it might make me want another horse; I would never have ended up with Blue had I not read Seabiscuit.  Sure enough, after Secretariat ended I found several very cheap young Foxtrotters on Craigslist.  Cliff didn't seem agreeable to another horse, which is probably a good thing.  
My back is fine.  I'm pretty sure my only problem was the stooping and bending I've been doing working in the garden.  
About Titan:  I guess none of us realized that you are not supposed to walk a Great Dane puppy.  You aren't supposed to play roughly with it.  You shouldn't let it run.  What kind of freak dogs have we humans bred, that you can't play with a puppy?  It's a shame, because he is so lovable.  We'll see how he responds to the meds.  All I can say is, do not get a Great Dane.  They will break your heart.  
Tomorrow looks to be a perfect day for a motorcycle ride.  Let the good times roll!

Not in the mood

Cliff tells me I had better do a blog entry for my "clamoring public", so here goes nothing.  We expected bad news about my grand-dog, Titan, and that's what we got:  He has dysplasia in both hips.  That is pretty much of a death sentence, although the vet put him on a twenty-two day regimen of anti-inflammatory supplements to see if that would help.  


I, who absolutely never have back pain, have really been troubled by it for the past few days.  It especially hurts when I bend, even slightly.  This is making me very grumpy.  
On the positive side, I have gone a whole winter without having a single cold, flu, or case of the sniffles.  I hope I'm not bragging too soon.  However, I think I would trade this backache for a cold if I could. 

I love my spring mornings.  As soon as it's barely daylight, I go outside with my cup of coffee and just walk around, looking for flowers that might be blooming or vegetables that might have come up in the garden overnight.  

Bonnie is usually waiting for some grain when I go outside.  She normally only gets grain when I milk her, but she lost so much weight while she was away that I'm still in the process of getting her back to her normal condition.  She's become quite accustomed to it, and will likely be unhappy when I stop the daily feeding. 

Most of the daffodils are finished for the year, but there are a couple of stragglers left.  

I can never remember what plants I've put in any location, so I'm waiting to see what this is.  Perhaps some kind of lily?  

Bonnie lets me know when she's done eating by standing at the gate, which I closed to keep the other cows out while she has breakfast.  

I feed the cats while I'm on my morning rounds; the kittens are moving around a lot now, and are beginning to eat a little cat food.  

As the sun was showing itself, I went back in the house to find Cliff lying in bed awake, (im)patiently waiting for somebody to take him his coffee.  

random

I just finished a page-turner of a book by Harlan Coben, "Tell No One".  There were twists and turns in the plot right to the last page.  Wow!  


Today I got to thinking about fleas, and wondered if my barn cats had them; cats are notorious flea magnets.  I'm not really sure what people do for fleas on cats, but I went out and checked them.  I was pleasantly surprised to find no evidence of fleas on Mama Kitty or her babies.  They all have white bellies, so fleas (or their leavings) would show up if they were there.  
I'm amazed!  I wonder what keeps them flea free.  
The kittens are starting to act like they're glad to see me when I hover over their nest now.  

Mama Kitty is hard to photograph:  She will either put her tail in the air and walk away from me, giving opportunity to catch a good shot of her rear end, or else she comes quickly to me and rubs against my leg, which of course makes it impossible to get a decent picture.  
It takes a cat of a certain disposition to work its way into my heart, but Mama Kitty has managed to do it.  She isn't pushy.  She stays away from the house.  If I want to pet her, she allows it, but she doesn't insist.  
Here's to Mama Kitty.  May she have a long, good life.


Oh, here's something:  Don't let anybody tell you that Obama is terrible because he took the red, white, and blue colors out of the Oval Office.  Only one President used red, white, and blue in the color scheme of the oval office, and that was Bill Clinton, who had a rug in those colors on the floor.

George W. Bush

Bill Clinton (that rug is hideous)

George H.W. Bush

Of course, since I got this information from Snopes, I imagine some people will assume the pictures are doctored.   
I'm not a huge fan of President Obama, but I don't really enjoy seeing lies circulated about him.

Life is good

Perhaps you wonder about all the short posts.  Everything is dandy here, I just haven't had anything happen that was "blogworthy".  Our weather is warm one day, cold the next.  I run into at least two people a week who say, "No wonder everybody is sick."  
I always have to smile at this negative statement because everybody isn't sick!  Cliff and I have not even had the sniffles this winter.  If we come down with something at this point, I would still say we beat the odds by going so long with no sickness.  Yes, I realize that some schools have had to close because of some sort of outbreak of an intestinal virus.  Things happen, germs are everywhere.  I truly doubt it was the weather that causes it.   
We have been spoiled this winter with unseasonable warmth, so when there's a chilly, windy day like yesterday, I freeze.  Ticks will likely have a heyday this summer because of the mild winter.  My main concern is about the extremely dry conditions.  Again, it's the weather and it is going to do what it's going to do; there's no use worrying about it.
Bonnie-the-Jersey-cow is still at Higginsville with the bull.  Cliff's brother suggested we leave her and her son there a month, so that if she is indeed cycling, she will have had two chances to score.  I do miss the old loudmouth bawling at me any time I approach the barn, and I hate buying store-bought milk.  She will return home next weekend.  

  Mama Kitty has three kittens:  An orange male (who looks like her tail in this shot, but her tail is gray), a calico and a gray tiger-striped (both females).  Their eyes are starting to open now.  Since Mama Kitty used to live with a little girl who handled her a lot, she doesn't mind at all if I touch the babies.  In fact, she purrs with pride when I examine them.  


The books I've read this week:  Dark of the Moon by John Sandford and Holy Ghost girl, written by a woman whose mother left everything to follow a Pentecostal tent revivalist, David Terrell.  She started as an organ-player and ended up being one of his "wives".  A rather upsetting book, really.  I know he's still preaching, because I googled his name.  There are clips of him on Youtube.      

Nothing new

It is 69 degrees right now.  I have spent considerable time strolling around the yard, watering garden seeds I have planted, and searching out the daffodils that are pushing their leaves up out of the ground.  This morning I went and had an echocardiogram, which will probably show the heart murmur my doctor was concerned with is harmless (benign).  I would be very surprised if it turned out otherwise.  It was interesting to watch my heart beat steadily on the monitor.  
Cliff has spent most of his spare time the last three days messing around with the old one-ton truck he found on Craigslist.  It was a service truck at a station, originally.  He sold our old 1988 pickup, and it has been a real pain to have to borrow a truck every time we need to transport livestock, so he bought another 1988 truck!  However, he did sell hid old truck for more than twice what he paid for this one.  Let's hope it holds up for the few jobs we will ask of it.   

He needed some sort of sides on the flat bed

The hood wouldn't latch when he bought it.

It didn't take him long to get that fixed.

You can see the old truck isn't the prettiest thing ever.  Pretty is as pretty does.


Having not much to blog about, I am going to share a quote from "The Art of Racing in the Rain" that really hit home.  Keep in mind it's a dog doing the talking here. 

“Here's why I will be a good person. Because I listen. I cannot talk, so I listen very well. I never deflect the course of the conversation with a comment of my own. People, if you pay attention to them, change the direction of one another's conversations constantly. It's like being a passenger in your car who suddenly grabs the steering wheel and turns you down a side street. For instance, if we met at a party and I wanted to tell you a story about the time I needed to get a soccer ball in my neighbor's yard but his dog chased me and I had to jump into a swimming pool to escape, and I began telling the story, you, hearing the words "soccer" and "neighbor" in the same sentence, might interrupt and mention that your childhood neighbor was Pele, the famous soccer player, and I might be courteous and say, Didn't he play for the Cosmos of New York? Did you grow up in New York? And you might reply that, no, you grew up in Brazil on the streets of Tres Coracoes with Pele, and I might say, I thought you were from Tennessee, and you might say not originally, and then go on to outline your genealogy at length. So my initial conversational gambit - that I had a funny story about being chased by my neighbor's dog - would be totally lost, and only because you had to tell me all about Pele. Learn to listen! I beg of you. Pretend you are a dog like me and listen to other people rather than steal their stories.” 
― Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain  


The reason it hit home is that I catch myself doing this ALL THE TIME, ever since I read it... interrupting someone and stealing their conversation.  

The things I do not blog about

While I try my best to be honest on my blog, my readers don't know everything that goes on around here.  I keep many things hidden, as much for the benefit of others as for myself.  If I think some activity would be upsetting to my readers, I keep it to myself, within reason, of course.  I realize the fact that we butcher and eat animals that we have raised from birth bothers some people, but I am not going to hide the fact that we do it.  I grew up watching my mother butcher a couple of chickens almost every Saturday so we'd have a good Sunday dinner.  It's the most natural thing in the world to me.  
Animals are more dispensable around here than they are to city folks.  This is sometimes a necessity in the country.  I alluded to one of the darker aspects of this fact of life when David was visiting, and he said, "Don't blog about it!"  
Trust me, I wouldn't.  I've spent years following Pioneer Woman's blog, and I've seen city folks criticize her for pictures of her husband and the hired hands roping calves and castrating them.  When people criticize Ree Drummond, they do it in a BIG way.  I have seen whole blogs dedicated to bashing her.    
My husband butchered for over twenty years.  It may seem like a cruel way of making a living, but until the whole world becomes vegetarian, somebody has to do it, .  One thing Cliff always made sure of, though, was that the animal died instantly and without pain.  He is the one who put Blue down for me, and when he was finished with the task, said, "He never knew what hit him."
My family could tell you about various things I don't include in my blog, and not all of them have anything to do with animals.  Sometimes I'm just avoiding the judgement of others.    
When I take pictures in the house, I sometimes crop them so you don't see certain things:  clutter on the end table, for instance.  Or I'll pick things up hastily so people don't see what a lousy housekeeper I am.  If that's dishonest, so be it.   
If you have thought of me as totally honest, loving, and hard-working, I'm just letting you know that this tarnished angel flies pretty darned close to the ground.  
Moving on:  I had another wonderful day yesterday.  Great-granddaughter Kami spent several hours with me while my daughter and her girls went to the beauty shop.  This is the first time she's been here alone with me, and it was great fun.  I held the camera at arms length and took this picture.

Isn't she beautiful?

We read all the "Spot" books, ate bananas and PBJ sandwiches, and watched some kid TV shows.  
Good times.  Things I can blog about.
  
(How about the fact that I am wearing the same sweatshirt two days in a row and it's on my blog for all the world to see?)

Autumn

Yesterday we once more set out on a motorcycle ride.  Cliff needed to get some stuff at Scott's Bargain Barn in Excelsior Springs.  I've mentioned it in this blog before; that place definitely isn't a lady's idea of fun shopping, so I took my Nook along, and while Cliff meandered through the junk aisles, I read.  Presently I'm reading an excellent book that I checked out of the library's e-book selections.  Stargazer, a school teacher in the state of Washington, has reviews of books she's read on the right-hand side of her blog.  She highly recommended "Cutting For Stone".  Somehow I'm having trouble finding time to sit down and read it, but the two hundred pages I've read so far keep me on the edge of my seat, and I spend lots of time when I'm occupied around the house wondering what's going to happen next.  Between motorcycle rides and other interruptions like laundry and cooking, I'm just going to have to make the time.  One problem I have is that I can't read in the evening; even the best of books put me to sleep after 7 PM.  And of course this perfect autumn weather lures me outside often.  There's an idea!  I should take the Nook outside.  
After Cliff was done shopping it was lunch time, and the GPS directed us toward a Subway.  Unfortunately, there was a Chinese place in the same strip mall, so you can guess what happened to our healthy, low-calorie lunch:  it went down the tubes.  
After sinning eating, we went to Cameron to visit with my cousin and his wife.  

The leaves are changing color quickly.  We can see a difference every day.  

The autumn color is supposed to peak in this area around October 15.  

Mother Cat and her brood of two are staying in the barn most of the time, but sometimes Mom likes to try out my lawn chair.  We saw her carrying a mouse or mole to the barn the other day, and the biggest of her kittens practically fought her for it.  It's good to know they are doing the job for which they were intended.  When I go out to milk the cow, they lead me to the barn as if I might lose my way, and meow constantly until I feed them some cat food.  Then they get a drink of warm milk when I'm done milking.  

Random

In our efforts to cut spending, Cliff and I went to Aldi's today.  Now, I'm not all that familiar with the place, but I've been in there enough to know their stuff is cheaper than Walmart's house brands.  We got a lot of stuff and spent only $41.  
However.
Because their coffee is half the price of what I usually buy, I decided to try it.  Don't do that; it isn't good.  It doesn't even have that wonderful coffee smell you expect when you open the can.  However, there's a fairly worthless store in Lexington called "Save-a-Lot" that has wonderful coffee.  I don't know what the price is like, but I know it's cheaper than the 8 O'clock coffee I love so much, and it's almost as good.  I tasted it when we were visiting Cliff's cousin, Edna.  
We used to get name-brand bread.  Since Cliff retired, I've been buying Walmart's brand.  Today I bought a loaf of bread at Aldi's; it will be the last bread I buy there; it seemed like week-old bread.  Now, we don't use a lot of bread, so we keep it in the freezer and I get out what we need for immediate use.  But I don't like putting stale bread in the freezer!  
Speaking of saving money:  In spite of the record-high temperatures all through the month of July, our electric bills have gone down.  Yippee!  I'm only doing two things differently:  I seldom use the dishwasher, and I hang clothes on the line whenever possible rather than using the electric dryer.  
Cliff and I are expecting friends this evening.  Celeste and Pat, from Georgia, are riding their motorcycles across country, and they plan to spend tonight here.  I became acquainted with Celeste through her blog on AOL Journals, and one time on the way home from visiting our son in Georgia, we met the couple briefly.  Celeste seldom blogs these days, but we are Facebook friends.  Celeste had a broken clutch cable on her bike about the same time they crossed into Missouri, so that will delay their arrival somewhat.  They are, however, on the road again.
I visited my orthopedist today for a followup, just to make sure things are going OK.  X-rays looked fine, she said.  I told her my knee still swells often, but that it doesn't hinder me from doing anything I want to do.  I'll see her again in six months.  

pictures on my computer

When I leave my computer for awhile, a slideshow of all the pictures on the hard drive begins, and it keeps going until I come back.  Sometimes I'll just take a seat and watch in awe, looking at pictures I had forgotten ever taking.  This morning I saw a picture taken not so long ago of a couple on their anniversary, holding their cake at an angle so you could see the picture of them atop the cake.  
They're divorced now.  
Or I'll see one of the twins next door helping Cliff several years ago, back when they were little and cute, before they started chasing girls and before one of them had cancer.  
I don't know where to find the pictures on my computer, so I watch until the slideshow moves on to another picture and then stop the show.  
I only wish there were some way to stop the slideshow at a certain point so I could yell, "Hey, Cliff, come and look at this; here's something I hadn't thought of in a long time!"  
But of course, you can't stop it, and there's no way to find the location of the picture.  If I touch the mouse or keyboard, the slideshow is done.  
It's very frustrating.  
We went to Sedalia yesterday, intending to see all the things we missed at the state fair when we went on Monday.  
We should have watched the morning news.  
There had been 100-mile-per-hour winds, blowing down tents and shutting off the electricity to much of the city.  We noticed lots of billboards down as we approached the town, and then saw that many of the stoplights weren't working.  We weren't allowed onto the fairgrounds, so we went to a city park, ate our picnic lunch, and came back home.  

Various things

This is why I love the window hummingbird feeders:  I stand inside as still as possible, like a statue, and within minutes I get a nice shot of a hungry hummer.  It would help if I'd wash that window!  

There was thunder to the south of us earlier, enough to make Iris head for the safety of the bathtub, and enough to create a lovely sunrise.  
Someone expressed surprise, after reading the previous entry and watching the video, that Iris reacted to dogs on TV even when they weren't making any doggie-noises.  I'll tell you a better one than that:  Iris has been known to react to a still picture of a cat or dog on TV that has no movement whatever!  In the evening she curls up across the room and watches the TV for any excuse to attack; believe me, she seldom misses an opportunity.   
I am finally back to my normal energy level this week.  Before surgery I gave blood for myself, in case it was needed after the knee replacement.  The doctor had me start taking iron tablets then, because she said I would need them after giving blood two weeks in a row.  In fact, she told me to take two a day, which I did.  After surgery, they kept finding out I was still anemic, so they gave me my two pints of blood and kept me on iron.  Before checking out, I was still slightly anemic, so I kept taking iron pills until the ones I had at home were gone.  Then I stopped.  
I've felt fine since surgery, but my energy level (which is never anything to brag about) was low.  Last Monday I picked up some iron pills at the drug store, thinking perhaps I shouldn't have stopped taking them when I did.  Well, either those pills really work fast or the timing happened to be such that on Tuesday I felt like my old self, and I've continued to feel fine ever since.  I've never had a problem with anemia before, so this is new territory for me.  
I had one little glitch before I went to the hospital:  Five days before surgery my doctor's office called, informing me that the pre-surgery tests had revealed a urinary tract infection.  Antibiotics were called in and I immediately started taking them, because the operation would be postponed if I had an infection of any kind.  
Several times in the past I've been plagued by bladder infections, but I always had definite symptoms.  This time I had no idea there was a problem until I got the phone call.  Of course, this caused me some concern, because here I was prepping for surgery, but I didn't know if the infection would be gone by the big day.  Thank goodness it was, although we didn't find this out until I had checked into the hospital that morning for surgery. Then things proceeded as expected.    
Things seem to be going well for me.  I'm able to meet the demands of my therapist.  I've walked our full course with Cliff twice this week.  I've done a lot of garden work, pulling up the peas and getting rid of weeds, little by little.  I have very little pain in my knee, although I can tell it is somewhat swollen after a forty-minute walk; but I think that's normal.  
We'll see what the doctor says next Wednesday.  


Meanwhile, poor Cliff is worrying himself silly about retirement.  Yesterday he said, "You know, if I changed my mind, they wouldn't have a problem with that; I could keep right on working."  
He's always worked, he's always been the provider, and he just can't imagine not going to work.  He's driving me nuts!  If anyone ever needed to retire, it's Cliff.  It's been over five years since his open heart surgery, and who knows what tomorrow will bring?  I don't want him to end up dying at work because he was afraid to retire and enjoy himself.  
Oh well, if we can get through one more week, we'll have it made.    

Not much to say

I haven't been able to think of anything blog-worthy for a couple of days, if you wonder where I've been.  I may continue my silence for a few days more, but you can bet I'll be back with plenty of stories to tell when the time comes.  The weather is unseasonably cool (make that COLD), and when I'm outside, I've been wearing my winter coat.  It reminds me of 1967, the year my son was born (on May 10).  It stayed cold for so long after he was born, I began to think I was never going to be able to take him outside without bundling him up in blankets!  
Missouri weather:  You never know what to expect.  

Assorted things

All those tomatoes I raised so carefully and pampered in my bedroom?  Not doing so well.  One of my readers said they had tobacco mosaic, a form of blight; could be.  I set a bunch of them out, and some were absolutely being reborn as they grew new leaves.  Others, not so hot.  And then something, perhaps cutworms, decided to take them all down, the good, the bad, and the ugly... like a lumberjack chops down trees.  I've never had a cutworm problem before, but there's a first time for everything.   So today is our shopping day; I believe we'll head to Blue Springs and buy some tomato plants.  Hey, I tried.  I think next year I'll skip all the mess of trying to raise my own seedlings and let the professionals do it.  Oh, and when I set my new plants out, I'll be putting paper cutworm collars around them.  At least my pepper plants are thriving!  
Morel mushrooms are loving this cool, damp weather.  Nephew Michael is finding lots of them every day; I get to pick through them when I want morels for dinner, and he sells the rest at the going rate of $25 a pound; we all win.  Trust me, anybody who is physically able to climb those hills and hollers on the back of our place deserves $25 a pound.  
Cliff and I had planned to travel to Le Sueur, Minnesota, this weekend to one of the biggest tractor swap-meets ever.  However, there's a  50% chance of rain for Saturday, the main day we'd be there; Cliff doesn't want to drive eight hours (he hates travel) when there's that much likelihood of rain.  So we'll pass.
On the up side, Friday looks like an absolutely perfect day for a motorcycle ride, so that's what we'll be doing if the weather-guessers know what they're talking about.  Temperatures near 80, not too windy, sun shining.  I would love to have taken a three-day weekend to go to Arkansas on the bike, but they are being flooded so badly, I think we'd need a boat to travel there.    
I have day lilies and iris getting ready to bloom, and my pink hibiscus is sending forth shoots.  The Crimson King maple tree Cliff bought me for mother's day last year is leafing out nicely.  At my age, it's good to be able to see another year and notice trees actually making progress year by year.  Cliff made fun of me for planting trees because of our age and how slowly they grow; I told him if I'm lucky, I may even live to see the Golden Rain Tree bloom.  That will be my next goal; I have no idea how long that will be, since I only became acquainted with this type of tree two years ago.  
So that's your update on what's happening around here.  I'm going to put on some clothes, get the dog, and go for a walkabout around the yard and garden.  

Rainy-day thoughts

We're supposed to have four days of rain and clouds, with highs in the mid-40's. We were about due; these past few days probably were the longest span of time we've done without rain all year... all of eight days.

I reinforced my theory that you can substitute butternut squash in any recipe that calls for pumpkin by making some butternut squash bread. It goes down real easy accompanied by a cup of hot green tea.

I was looking over the roster at the high school football game yesterday and was amazed that over half the last names were the same ones that were on the roster when my kids were attending over twenty years ago: Schaberg, Hough, Thilking, Strickler, Lohsandt, Ward, Niendick, Willard, Wieligman, Seitz, Beckemeyer, Bowling, Register, Good, Bryant, Reismeyer, Beissenherz. It's a small town, the size town from which people usually escape in order to find jobs; but we're situated close enough to Kansas City so that many young people choose to stay here. Or, like my daughter, they return. Notice there's predominance of German names on the list. A huge percentage of the old-time farmers were German, and the U.C.C. Church in town held services in the German language until, I believe, World War I.

I took a few pictures of a couple of little boys at the game. They entertained themselves so very well, and I had fun watching their antics. I had every intention of posting those pictures in a blog entry, but I hesitate to do so. Now, if it wasn't in my own community, I'd think nothing of it. But I know some people don't want their kids' pictures on the Internet, and when it's somebody so nearby, I think I'll pass. I found out who they were from Tracy, who sees all and knows all that goes on in my town (you may think I'm kidding, but it's TRUE). But I don't know the parents at all. I'd feel pretty funny calling strangers and saying, "Hey, I have a blog and I took pictures of your kids. Can I put the pictures on my blog?"

I also had a lot of fun yesterday listening to snippets of conversation amongst the teenagers behind me on the bleachers. I wish I'd taken notes.

Question for the people in charge of music that plays over the speakers at local football games? Why are you only playing rock songs from the 80's? Don't you have any Green Day? Geesh. If you're going to play old rock, let's go on back to the Beatles while we're at it. (I kid; I like 80's rock, having had it forced upon me by my children back in the day.)

I'm getting along better and better with my Mac, finding lots of sites to help me with questions that arise. There's even a Mac Mini forum.

The Ipod is on shuffle, playing through the speakers of my stereo system all my favorite songs. This is a good place to be on a rainy day.

A productive day

The temperatures today have been ideal. Cool this morning, warming up to the low 70's this evening. Cliff took a paid day off work and we got some things done after our walk.

I got Bonnie into the barn and in the stanchion for the second time. I haven't closed the stanchion with her in it yet, because I don't want to spook her.

Meesha posted an ice cream recipe that doesn't need a special ice-cream machine, which got me to thinking about the ice cream I'll be able to make with the cream that will rise to the top of each gallon of Bonnie's milk, after she freshens. This got me wondering whatever happened to my old White Mountain Ice Cream freezer. I don't recall moving it when we relocated, last year. (My mind wanders like that.)

So I went to old faithful Craigslist and typed "white mountain freezer" into the search box. Someone in Richmond (where we often grocery shop) had a like-new one for $30! On Ebay they bring well over $100, and I was ecstatic... until I called and found out someone had already bought it.

Once Cliff got out of bed, he told me we still have all the parts of our old freezer except for the wooden outside bucket, which pretty much disintegrated. You can go to the White Mountain website and buy the bucket for $100. I don't think so; not for something we'll only use twice a year, tops.

Dinner (the noon meal here) was catfish supplied by a neighbor, wilted lettuce from the garden, and a baked potato.

Cliff did a lot of mowing, and then this afternoon I helped him straighten up some fence posts the horses have leaned on a bit too much over the past twenty-odd years.

I'm a little bummed that we didn't get a motorcycle ride in, on what will be a four-day weekend for us. Of course we have another four-day weekend coming up for Memorial Day; maybe then? If so, I'm sure we'll only be away for a couple of days. So if anyone should drop by on the proper day, they'd catch us home (that's you, Meesha).

We got two inches of rain last night in about an hour's time, so all the plants are happy, and I am too.

On that note, I'll close and say "Good night, John-boy!"

It's been a nice family day

My sister came for dinner; it's the first time I've seen her since her return from Texas. The daughter's family ate tacos with us, as well as Cliff's sister and her son. Oldest grandson arrived later, still in time to see my sister before she left.

Once everyone left, I went outside, and pretty much stayed out. I tried tilling in the garden, but it's still a little too wet. Probably tomorrow, if there's no rain. I spent some time "hoeing around" in the flowerbeds and garden, nipping some weeds in the bud. I also spent some quality time with the new heifer, Bonnie, brushing her to get rid of some of her winter coat (and to get her used to me handling her). She's starting to grow a belly now, and I'm pretty sure I saw her calf moving inside her.

Since I haven't been on the computer much, I thought I'd better check in. But there are still a couple more hours of daylight, and it sure feels good strolling around outside!