Pigs and toads and chickens

Yesterday I was out doing stuff and the boys were in the outside pen. Pinky was stepping out of their pool when I noticed he had a toad riding on his back. Bareback. No saddle or even a blanket. Of course by the time I got the camera it was gone, but I sure had a good laugh and I don't think he knew it was there.

The boys and their pool.

You can see there are two toads in the pool one sitting on top of the other. We have had lots of toads around this year.

Here's the new hens in the coop. We started letting them out a few days ago. The first day they disappeared and I couldn't find them anwhere. We were pretty worried cause we thought they would hang by the barn pretty close. Well, that evening they were back and since then they stay in the barn mostly all day. Whew.

Turkeys and the garden

Yesterday morning Gramma spotted some turkeys by the house.

There were three hens and at least nine young ones.

They were just on the edge of the field where we stop mowing grass. This is the fourth or fifth time we've had hens and young ones around. This is exciting. I was lucky enough to get drawn for a turkey license for our land this fall. It's a thirty day season, so I might have a chance to get one.

The pumpkins and squash in garden are doing well. This is the pumkin patch.

This is the squash patch. It has gone crazy. This makes The Farmer's Wife happy. Squash. Yuck.

Little one.

Big one. There are quite a few growing in there.

There are also some pumpkins growing.

This year the Grandkids can come up and pick out a pumpkin at Gramma and Grampa's. Yay.

Fishing with the Grandkids

On Sunday I drove up to the lake. The Boy and his family took a short vacation up there and were going to go home, so I thought I would spend a couple of days fishing. When I got up there, the Boy fried fish and taters and we had a nice lunch. Then we all went fishing.

Bubba, the Princess, Mom and Mickey dock fishing.

We went to "The Spot" and everyone caught fish. Bubba's first of the day.

The Princess and one of her many keepers.

Bubba looks like he's "Going Walkabout" Down Under.

Even Grampa caught some fish. This is one of the nicer bass I've caught on our lake. We all had fun. After the kids left I didn't go back out. Mistake. The next day was one of the windiest I've seen up there. The forecast was for storms and more wind,so I came home. I think Gramma was glad. Thanks guys for taking me fishing.

Patio and cats

Here is our view when sitting on the patio. Not breathtaking by any means, but it makes us happy.

Another view.

The cats like the patio and the landscaping. They like to lay on the rocks and the patio. Here is Brother playing with the downspout, which he does quite often for reasons known only to himself.

Here is Sparkle watching Brother and wondering what's wrong with him.

Here's Sparkle's tail sticking up between the rocks as she waits to pounce on Brother. They seem to enjoy stalking each other, although Sparkle usually gets her butt kicked. On another note, I wrote about Simone's eggs awhile ago. Well it turns out that Ethel was laying these eggs. I don't know why, other than she is just having some sort of screw up in her system. So we're still waiting for Simone's first eggs. Hopefully she will lay them in the nest box. When it happens I'll post it here of course.

Mystery bird and corn

On Friday when The Boy and his kids were here I sent some corn home with them. I thought that they were the last of the ripe cobs. Sunday I went out to clean off all the other cobs. Surprise! With all the corn laying down I wasn't able to see how many cobs were really left. Ended up with two shopping bags full. About half of these are ripe and good for Gramma and I. The others will go to the piggy boys and the horses. The horses really like the small tender cobs. Nice treat.

Tuesday when I was doing the dishes, (Yes I do dishes) Heidi was whining at the front window. I didn't pay too much attention cause she does this when the cats are out there. Well she seemed much more excited than usual and kept looking at me like I was supposed to do something. So I took a look and found this bird out there. Took some pics cause I've never seen one like this before. First thing I noticed was the beak and the feet, so I assumed some type of shore bird. I spent some time with my bird books and online and the best I can come up with is it's a baby Green Heron. I've seen adults in the ditch and swamp West of us, so I'm pretty sure that's what it is. Must have hit the window. I opened the window for a better pic and it hid in one of the green bushes and totally disappeared. It was gone later and I hope the cats didn't get it. The light colored feathers that look white are actually a very light Baby Blue. Cool. Life on the farm is always interesting.

Fishing with the Grandkids-Truck trouble

On Friday our son came up with our Grandkids and we attempted to go fishing. On the way to the lake we saw lots of trees down from Thursday night's storm. Blew two trees down onto one of our hayfields. We passed  two trees that had fallen across a power line and snapped a pole right off. Someone cut part of the tree tops off so we had a path to drive through. Otherwise they were completely across the road. When we got the landing my son said, "Oh Oh, I forgot the life jackets". So back home we went to get some. Back to the lake. I was showing him how all the stuff in the boat works because they are taking vacation at the lake next week. Well just when we were going to start fishing it clouded up and lightening started to flash. Off the lake, hippity hop, back home. So they stayed and ate lunch and The Princess and Bubba and I played cards. We played War and Go Fish. It was fun. Yesterday Gramma and I drove down to Fleet Farm in Blaine and then to Cabela's in Rogers. On the way home just as we passed Bock the truck died. It would start again, but not stay running. I think it's most likely the fuel filter which I believe is in the fuel tank. It's lucky it quit where it did, so close to home. Of course there is cell-phone "Dead Zone" right there, but if you hold the phone out the window high up it picks up some signal. Anyway I was able to get ahold of my cousin Bruce and he came and towed us home. He towed us to the neighbor's who has an auto business at his house. On the way there the battery in the truck died. Dead. Flat. Muerto. Morte. Now this battery is the original that was in the truck when we bought it. 170,000 miles, so I guess I got my money's worth. Anyway Wes wasn't home so all I could do was leave a phone message. Still waiting for him to call me back. The two auto stores in Mora were closed when we got there, so now we wait till 11:00 for one of them to open so we can get a battery. Ain't life grand? I know the picture doesn't really have anything to do with the story, but it is my truck and that is the boat we used to try and go fishing.

Dog, Frog and Antoine

Last night I was doing something in the kitchen when I see Heidi go on point at the window. A perfect foot up, tail out, point. I grabbed the camera but she turned and looked at me and put her foot down when I turned it on. Bummer. She was pointing a tree frog that was on the window.

Here it is from the outside. Pretty cute.

Here it is from the inside. Not as cute, but pretty cool how they can just stick there.

Antoine has started eating from my hand like Lucy. Hopefully this means he will be more friendly than Frank. He is much wider than Frank was, but so far not as tall. The eggs we thought were Simone's may not be. We're not sure yet. They may be Ethel's. She may be having a glitch. We need a "Chicken Cam". Oh well, I guess I'll go fishing.