Parade II

                                 
             Back to the parade.

Here's a guy on a scooter with a dog on his head. I think I could train Heidi to do that, but I can't think of a good reason why I would want to.

Here's some ladies in a carriage. We don't know who they are, but they are dressed sorta like "Old West" saloon girls. Nice horses.

Here's some more of these ladies and they got a cowboy. Huge horses.

There were clowns.

There were little kids being towed in barrels. I think they were having the most fun.

There were hot cars.

There were old cars.

There were big trucks.

And more big trucks.

There were old trucks.

 And even older trucks. And through it all, candy continued to rain down and excite all the kids and cause all the adults to worry about them as they ran out to grab the pieces that didn't get to the curb. More to come.

Buck

Last night as I was going to take the dogs out I saw three deer in the field next to the house. Two does and this buck. He's still a young deer, but if he makes it through this season he'll be on his way to having an immpressive rack.

If you look close you can see his front tines are going to split into two. That's going to make him an eight pointer.

He's still young and dumb, as I took this pic while he was on the mound behind the house and I was on the new patio. Then I took some more as he walked across the back yard and disappeared down the trail past our son's deer stand. His brow tines are pretty long, but as you can see his rack doesn't stick past his ears. I hope he makes it for a couple more years cause I really think he could be a big one. Hmmm, maybe a trail-cam.

Parade

This afternoon Gramma and I went to the parade in Mora. It's Kanabec County Fair time. I'll have to do this in more than one blog cause I actually took 83 pics. Yikes. Don't worry I won't post them all. We had fun. On the way to town our Grandson called me, and I ended up talking to two of them. It's always nice when your Grandkids call. Unfortunately I had to cut the call short so I could navigate Gramma to where we had our chairs set up. Traffic was bad because of the parade and because Hwy. 65 is detoured through town right now. So thanks for the call boys.

Here we are looking North down Union as the parade starts.

Here's Gramma and Mick waiting for the parade. Heidi didn't get to go and she wasn't happy about it. Mick went poo as soon as we sat down. We forgot a poo bag but we had some grapes in a sandwich bag and Gramma used that. Fun!

Here is the Sherrif's Dept. followed by the American Legion.

A Model A Ford.

Mora's old fire truck.

Smokey The Bear.

Braham FD

Ogilvie FD. Candy was flying everywhere. I managed to snag some Tootsie Rolls for Gramma. (Her favorite) Stay tuned. More exciting things to come.

Garden

When the Bayou Family was here the girls helped Gramma plant the garden. I spent a long time weeding yesterday cause we kind of let it get away from us. I don't know why they planted those weeds in the first place, unless they thought I needed more to do. Who knows.

Anyway the stuff that grew, grew well. The tomatoes and peppers and carrots did not come up.

The squash came up and is doing well. Yuck.

The muskmelon is up.

The potatoes are doing good, both hills.

The pumpkins are doing good.

The pumpkin flowers just opened yesterday.

The corn is doing very well and already has some cobs. Yum Yum.

Here you can see the silk on the cobs. Kinda looks like some of the hairdos we see at Coborns. When it's harvest time I'll let you know how everything tastes, except the squash. You'll have to ask Gramma about that. Hopefully the deer won't eat the pumpkins and our MN Grandkids can have some for Jack-O-Lanterns. I wonder if you can make beer from pumpkins? Hmmmm.

Chickens after Frank's Adios

Frank is gone. We expected "Major Chicken Trauma" and a halt in egg production. It took me awhile to coax the hens out of the barn Tuesday morning, but they finally went out for awhile. They still spent most of the day huddled together by the hay bales in the barn, but they laid eggs. By the time Gramma got home that day the other chickens were starting to try and mingle.

The new chickens started to come out of the paddock yesterday and the girls were still laying eggs. I also opened up the two coops making one large one Tuesday. I did this once before but had to close it back up again because of Frank. So this morning when I went down to do chores all the chickens were together in the smaller half. Yay. So Frank's departure seems to be a good thing not only for Gramma and I, but for the chickens also.

Driveway & patio

Yesterday the concrete guys came and got started on forming up the driveway and patio.

This morning they are going to pour the patio and if all goes well they might pour the driveway too. If they don't get to the driveway it will probably not get done till next week as it's supposed to rain tomorrow and Friday. Gramma and I are pretty excited. I'll post more when it's done.                                                   

I also managed to get the egress window cover made. Now we won't get anymore rain, frogs, toads, mice, or rabbits down there.

Weather and chickens

Well we are sitting here happy because the worst weather missed us. Tornadoes to the West of us, South of us, and North of us. They missed the Farmer Daughter and the Boy and his family too. Thank goodness. Some places West of the Twin Cities got softball size hail. Yikes! Gramma and I unplugged the TV's and computers and played some cards. Cards are fun. Of course she kicked my butt, but it's still fun.

Here are the Marans out in the paddock. They are going a little farther each day.

Here is Frank and the girls in the paddock.

Here I am feeding Lucy from my hand. It's one of her favorite things.

Right after Gramma took this pic we headed back to the house and Frank attacked me. Drew blood on my leg and bruised my shin. I know I was wearing shorts, but I should be able to do that without fear of injury.

So this is last pic I took of Frank shortly before it happened. This is the last pic I will ever take of Frank. He goes to that "Great Chicken Coop In The Sky" on Tuesday. I promised Gramma I wouldn't do it till she was at work. Oh well. Bummer. But I've had enough. I would like it if she could walk down to the barn without a stick and without fear. Goodbye Frank.