Gramma

Today is Gramma's birthday.  

Once upon a time there was a little girl with curly hair.

Even though she was poor, she got to grow up on a lake and go swimming and ice skating whenever she wanted.

Then she became a teenager. (Glamour shot from the 60's)

Then she met a Handsome Prince who made her laugh.

And he hung around until she graduated.

And they were married.

Her new husband was in the Navy, so she moved to California to be near him. (Sigh)

And she made many new friends and had many adventures along the way.

And then she became a Mommy. Three times! (That other kid on the bottom right isn't one of ours.)

And she went on adventures with her children.(Some places required wearing of large hats.)

And while she raised her children she also raised dogs.

Lots of dogs.

Sometimes people gave her prizes for her dogs.

And she went on more adventures and met more new friends. And she became a Gramma. Eight times! (So far)

And she kept her Grandchildren in little cages. (Just kidding)

And here is the whole gang. (So far)

And here is Herself, "The Queen of the Land" with her little dog and her new toy and now she is on another adventure with horses and piggies and chickens and cats and of course, dogs. So we'll see where this one leads her. And the Handsome Prince is still hanging around just to see where it goes and to try to make her laugh now and then. And the little girl with curly hair is still there, you can see her when she catches a fish or finds an egg or plays with the piggie boys. And yes her hair is still curly. Happy Birthday Gramma, Mom, Cindy. We love you. Especially me, The Old Farmer.

Morning walk

This morning I took the dogs out about 5:30. (Slept in) I don't turn on the outside lights because in the summer it draws bugs. So the only light comes from the kitchen lights through the window. Well we're out there and the dogs are doing their thing when we hear a loud screaming sound. The hair stood up on my neck and the dogs got nervous. Went back in and got a flashlight and a gun, but couldn't see anything when I went back out. After they ate Heide had to go back out again, so I took the gun and turned on the spotlight over the deck cause it shines out enough to see the woods. Didn't see anything. I googled bobcat sounds and I belive that's what we heard. I know we have them around here cause I've found their tracks before, once right alongside the garage. I'm not worried about them, but that was one of the spookiest, and weirdest sounds I've ever heard. I'll be turning on the light from now on,You Betcha.

First Pumpkin

Yesterday I harvested our first pumpkin. Now we used to grow pumpkins when we lived in Ham Lake, But this is the first one from our garden at the farm. The Bayou Girls helped Gramma plant them.

Probably won't win a "Giant Pumpkin Contest", but it's pretty cute.

Might be a kinda hard to carve, but a magic marker could work to make it a jack o' lantern. I hadn't realized Gramma had planted miniature pumpkins until this one started to turn orange. She kinda forgot too. Next year we'll plant some regular ones for the Grandkids, but I think we'll plant some more of these too cause they're so darn cute.

Turkey lurkies

Today I had some visitors in the backyard.

A large hen and seven young turkeys walked through.

The hen never put her head down. She was totally on alert the whole time. They walked and fed across the yard and finally disappeared down the trail to The Boy's deer stand. In 21 days turkey season opens. In the spring you can only harvest toms with visible beards, but in the fall any turkey is fair game. I think a big hen will taste just as good. I have been seeing quite a few hens and young ones lately. Not sure yet where I'm going to sit., but the season is thirty days instead of five in the spring, so maybe I've got a chance. We'll see.

Simone's Eggs

Today Simone laid her second egg.

The egg on the left is Alice's then Lucy, then Simone's first egg. Smaller, as is expected of first eggs, but darker.

Alice, Ethel, Simone's second egg. We are very happy. Gramma says she is going to enter Maran eggs in the County Fair next year. Cool.

Labor Day Weekend

Well we had a good weekend. Gramma and I went to Minneaplolis on Sunday to see a play at the Orpheum Theater. It was called "Wicked" and was the musical story of the witches of "The Wizard of Oz" and how one became a bad witch and the other became a good witch. Gramma really liked it. I really liked the parts I could hear. Monday, The Boy and his family came up and the FD came over and we had dinner together.

Here is Bubba and the Princess. This was her answer to "smile please". That's chocolate cherry cake and ice cream Bubba is working on. Gramma made lasagna. Yum Yum.

Here is the rest of the gang sharing a joke that I didn't hear. (Probably about me:) Our FDIL wanted to shoot the Boy's shotgun, so we set up some cans on the pistol range for her. She had never fired a shotgun before and an 870 12 gauge is  not a toy. She did great! Very proud of her. Next up, rifles. On Tuesday our FDIL called and said her brother is interested in renting the FD's little house. Yay! So he's going to call me to set up a time to come and look at it. This would be a good thing. Also on Tuesday I found a chicken nest on the side of one of the hay bales in the barn. Lucy made a nest and laid an egg in it. I don't know how come she didn't fall out, cause it was actually on the side of the bale. Anyway when I found that I saw Simone sitting on another nest on the ground. well I discovered 6 eggs in there. I don't know how long they were there so we're giving those eggs to the boys. Simone went back to the nest and sat, so an hour later Gramma and I went down and looked and she had laid an egg. Yay! We now have 5 hens laying. We are happy. So it's been a good Labor Day Holiday for us. We hope it was for you too. Oh yeah, I got a coyote on Tuesday too. :-)

Chickens and pigs (Big surprise huh?)

Hey. Well I wrote this at lunch time, got down to the last couple of sentences, wanted to check my spelling on something and somehow deleted it. So here goes again. I was working on the haybine this morning when I heard a chicken cackling in her "Boy I'm mad" voice. So I went and checked it out. Turns out Alice wanted to lay an egg and Ethel was in the box. Now there's two compartments in the box, but everyone wants to use the one side. It's like having kids. I went back to work. In about two minutes I heard it again and this time Antoine came running to the barn , so I went and looked again.

This is what I found. Alice, sitting on Ethel. So I got my camera and got this pic.

Then she stood up and laid an egg. Can you see it? Then she hung around for a minute and then left. Ethel sat on her egg. She is our broodiest hen. She is also the only hen who doesn't mind if I pet her or take her egg when she is in the box. The other girls all get upset and make funny noises or bite me or both. So I took Alice's egg.  After awhile Ethel laid her egg and when she came out I took the divider out and made one big box. We'll see how that goes.

Here are the "Three French Hens" from the "Twelve Days of  Christmas                                                                                                             

Pinky.

                                                                                 Perky                                                                                                         
Perky is smaller in length and height than Pinky, but I think he weighs about the same. Mmmmm,  porkchops. Yum.