Finishing August

There is a joke in our house, starting with my mom who was told as a girl that if she didn't eat her toast with her egg, she would get impetigo.  Her brother didn't and was plagued with the stuff. 

Jim has never eaten his toast with his egg.  He's of the kind that eats one thing and then another.  

So, here, by accident he is eating his egg, with his toast.  

It was one of those "who are you, and what have you done with my husband" moments.

Ha.

Paislee turned 4 this month.  We all helped celebrate and Christian helped with the decorations.

Jim is off ready to work on his chicken house/garden shed.  Metal on the roof is next.

This is the place to get BIG melons. 

Barry turned 9!!, believe it or not.

All the cousins celebrating together. 

I made these cakes.  Since they were celebrating Barry and Christian's birthdays together due to the covid situation, I made two small cakes and cupcakes.  Barry's cake was vanilla under the chocolate frosting.   

A favorite gift--a circuit board.

We've been planning another picnic at the farm all summer to get together with some friend with children.  It didn't start as planned since there little boy was stung 5 times by a very aggressive and chasing bumble bee, and Zane stabbed himself rather deeply with a pocket knife.  Since we had a certified EMT on site, all was well.   

We stayed behind to do a little four-wheeling around the farm, but midway on our way back to our picnic site, the four-wheeler started acting up, so Jim high-tailed it back, and it died -- a bit far to want to push, since we weren't at a convenient loading place even if Jim brought the pickup closer.  After fiddling a bit and putting on the reserve tank, we zoomed right to the pickup and loaded up.  So much for any time spent four-wheeling. I'm glad we weren't any farther away.  

Chicken House -- Part 2 and more

Jim worked long and hard getting these rafters completed and all the same size, now they are on after a hot morning's work.  

They got part of the sheeting on after lunch.

Good helpers on corn day.

A nice looking family.

Blogger is being extremely annoying just now.  It won't center my photos like it has always done and it has decided that I want blue underline as a default type and I don't know how to change it. 

New Chicken House

Jim's got a bunch of wood from a job he worked on earlier this year.  He did the gas main into a new facility and there was so much lumber leftover from the building that he and two other men brought away 2 trailer loads apiece.  It's nice that he won't have to spend as much money building it, since it's far larger than I expected.  

It's replacing the building on the left, half chicken coop, half garden shed.  

The rafters are already made, and he has the windows.  So, there is plenty more to be done. 

COVID-19

I don't think I can let 2020 go any further down the road without a post on the situation that is affecting our lives in so many ways.  

Pandemic:

an outbreak of a disease that occurs over a wide geographic area and affects an exceptionally hight proportion of the population

In our case -- the whole world.

I was reading a post on facebook that expressed in a few words the conflicting opinions concerning mask wearing, behaviors, gatherings, medical opinions and who knows what all. 

We have been little affected in the financial department having what is considered an "essential" business. We don't go out to eat much; we don't buy much; we have an emergency fund.

Other people have suffered much, loss of income, mental issues, coping with children learning at home or training them to manage alone all day.

I was very impressed with the way our grandsons learned to cope with each other and managing their time with a minimum of infighting.  They grew up a little during this time. 

Having my two daughters in the health care business, they were concerned for our welfare, reminding us to be careful.  Lorene did our shopping for several weeks, keeping her family away because working so much among the elderly, she didn't want to pass along the virus.  

And, Lynette in Texas, delivering babies in full gown from top to toes, masks and face shields, working with COVID patients, causing a bit of worry.

We live in an area of the state surrounded by meat packing plants with vigorous outbreaks, so we have been slow to go back to normal, as is our town in opening its doors to customers.  

This a curious virus, everyone convinced it is one causing respiratory illness, and it turning out to be one that wreaks havoc in all parts of the body by affecting the blood, or not, if one is asymptomatic. 

I have fluctuated between the idea that this whole thing is a bunch of nonsense, to not wanting to leave my house in case I get infected or infect someone else.  

I suppose the truth of the matter is somewhere in between those two ideas. 

Sensible caution, going forward.

Life Well Lived

Eight years ago I came home from the hospital after having surgery for my sinus tumor.  

I don't remember much of the time in the hospital and somehow I thought we came home from 

the hospital on the day before our 25th anniversary, but in checking the blog post of the time 

it was the 5th not the 7th of June.  

At one time we thought of taking a big vacation to celebrate 25 years, but instead I had cancer.

I found the following article in the June Reader's Digest.

"Life Well Lived

On our 13th wedding anniversary, we didn't go to Mexico as we'd planned.  Instead, on that day when we had avowed ourselves for better or worse, my husband helped me down the steps and into his car and took me to physical therapy.

This is the metaphor. Sometimes -- many times -- both in life and in marriage, you hope for the sunset overlooking the ocean off a deserted beach, but what you get is a drive to physical therapy.  That's OK. Maybe that's actually how it should be."

Excerpted from The Book on Being 40(ish) edited by Lindsey Mead

 

4th Annual Memorial Day Picnic -- At The Farm

Families are like pieces of art -- you can make them from almost anything, and kind of material  Sometimes they look like your DNA and sometimes they don't.  The only ingredient you need to make a family is unconditional love. 

--Mitch Albom, Author

Taking a nap on a plank bed.

Hunting frogs in the creek. 

 Gun safety, and shooting practice.

 

Hiding from the shooting range.

A better place to be safe. 

Checking out the camouflage. 

This is the fourth year we've gathered together to enjoy ourselves on Memorial Day weekend.  Three of those years, we've been on The Farm, one at our house, because it rained.  

The two other previous years at the farm, we left early because of threatening storm and rain.  This year, we were on our way home when the sprinkles fell.

In our experience, over our 30+ years of marriage, we've had more rainy Memorial Day weekends than not.  

Christian turned 7 during these crazy times of COVID-19k restrictions.  The plans are to have a party later with big brother Barry.  We brought him a gift on pool cleaning out day.

Christian still got a cake for the big day. 

Jim spent some time this month helping a friend with a sewer problem that turned out to be part of  the city's problem and resulted in replacement of both sewer and water lines.  Jim did some of the digging and got a thankful response.

Mother's Day.  

Lorene decided this year to give me fake flowers, since I've managed to kill every other plant she's given me.  The little one is a succulent.  They are harder to kill, since they thrive on neglect. 

May 16th -- Still too cold to go all the way in.