Several Days

I may not have a picture for every day last week, but I have a fair

 representation of what went on last week.  

We have been trying to get to one of the boys' ball games once a week, judiciously planned so that we get to the closest ones.  Zane is in his first year of "real" baseball meaning the boys pitch and do all the work except referee.  Zane being one of the youngest on the team hasn't had much playing time, but we were all excited to be there when he got his first hit, and he made it to first, just ahead of the ball, for the other team had a very 'good pitcher to first baseman' team. 

Sev

Proof that we were there. 

One day Jim and I picked up a roll of 'black with red stripe' 4" pipe, one of the necessary pieces of our work.  It was cheaper to pick it up than to have it shipped and we had a nice little road trip together. 

Jim, with the help of some employees built this reel trailer and pretty proud of it he is.

When you build it yourself, you can make it just how you like it. 

June 7 

A Rose and Coral Bells.

I had the boys on Friday this week.  They got it in their heads to collect ash tree seeds by the bucket full.  They spend a good portion of their time beating the branches with tennis rackets and pulling branches down to reach more. Why they chose to pile them by the front door, I have no idea.  They eventually ended up in a box. 

Ansley Parade

June 8 

Flowers at home 

This is the letter I sent out to family on this day. 

Jim and I went out to Valentino's for dinner today, lunch for all those except us, because our anniversary was yesterday. It was such a nice day that we were busy inside and out so we saved the celebration for Sunday. 

Jim and our neighbor took their restored tractors up to Ansley for the parade up there.  It's Jim's second parade and he is taking his tractor to a John Deere show in Grand Island next week.

I spent the day cleaning up from having the boys on Friday.  They do most of the toy picking up, but we had craft day, including glitter, toilet paper rolls, spruce cones, beads and hot glue. The blankets they used for forts were folded and still out. Things generally get out of place or forgotten or something and there is always something that needs doing.  I spent most of my energy on the

  5 loads of laundry.  We didn't have that many clothes, but a blanket, a load of rungs, and a load of towels* were the extras and if I would have remembered two of the times to push the "on" button, I would have been done sooner and not had to hang the jeans on the line at 4:00

Jim finished the mowing in the outlying places.  Our place sure looks nice when it is all mowed up. I put an hour or so in the flower garden.  The weeding isn't a bad job, since I put in a lot of effort last year to keep the weeds under control  The big thing going forward is dead heading so I don't have the seeds from the current plants taking over. 

It is COLD today, cold for June anyway.  It's not supposed to get up to 70 and it's windy, but I hope to get out for a bit of a walk to combat the overeating at Val's.  We don't eat as much when we are there as we used to, but we still eat too much. 

The boys were knocking ask seeds off the ash tree for part of Friday's afternoon entertainment, which is all well and good since it means a few hundred seeds from the several thousand that tree produces won't end up in my flower beds.  Unfortunately, there was a caterpillar among them that was the same color as the seeds, so Christian and I beat a hasty retreat and i assume the caterpillar made its way someplace else.  I was analyzing my (somewhat) irrational fear of the things, and i think it's partly because they are so unexpected.  I don't like snakes and spiders in my space either, but they don't cause quite as much trauma as caterpillars. 

*We had extra towels because when they boys play in sand, they play in water also, and baths are in order at end of it.