...where the deer and the antelope play

I had the privilege of going out to our daughters....where the deer and the antelope play

 ...from their back yard...

 ....between the development and apartments near them....

....again from their back yard....(hopefully no developments go in there for a while!)

A few other pictures from my recent time there...

 ...with Grt. Uncle D....

 ...I think this one is self explanatory!..

 Big brother ready for the first day of school....

 ...already to walk to the bus stop with him....

 ...and here is the bus....

...and home again home again...first day is done!

Was special to have the trip out there (except that Farmer Marv wasn't able to go this time).  I got to see family, extended family and special friends.  Weather was nice and I managed the 15 hr. travel time out and back with little fanfare!  (its been a long time since I did that...).  So another summer season is winding down...and definitely signs of fall but what I think is harder to see is the distress of so much vegetation because of draught...maybe this week will bring rain!  Saw some pretty sunrises and sunsets  but kind of sobering to think some of the beauty lies in the fact there was lots of smoke in the air from forest fires...I'm sure the people nearer the fires are hoping for rain, too.

special summer days

First someone had a birthday....

....hmmm...that cake was good!

...some of my fun stuff!


Lets see now...who is going to drive?

...hmm...looks like Zayda got the keys!

Z & Z in the wagon!

And a few video clips from earlier this summer!

You will be missed...

This week brought some news that we weren't expecting when hearing of a friends death....she will be missed by many....appreciate pleasant memories with her...this is a picture of her and her husband when they visited us when Aunt Agnes was here a couple years ago....

neighbors

Life is always interesting...it is interesting some times to see who our neighbors are...sometimes they don't really want to see us...others don't mind...they might even fly over...here are a couple resent pictures...

I thought this was kind of neat...

Farmer Marv's cousin sent this photo and I thought it was kind of neat....wouldn't we love to have this now...in mint condition, of course.  The cousin who sent it is on it along with one of his sisters...their Dad owned it....

Farmer Marv was looking at this and 'corrected me'....it didn't belong to his Uncle but to his Grandpa...Grandpa also to the children in the picture

Found pond...

No wonder I was having trouble knowing if I had water or fish in my pond....this is what we removed....

(I did kind of like it in the spring with its yellow flowers)

...now we can see the pond again and know there are fish and frogs in it.  Had 5 fish last year...this year we counted 8 (one did die though)...so wonder what has been going on in the pond!

 

Summer marches on

Here we are almost to the end of July....I had big plans for getting lots of stuff done this summer....and well there isn't much I can cross of  "The List" yet....that being said it hasn't been that there has been a lot going on that has been special...was special to have the first month of summer with special people here and now they are back to 'their place' getting ready to move in to their new home..(more on that here) and we are so happy for them...Also in June it was very special to have our other Princess and Prince #3 move in next door to us...along with their Mom and Dad as well...that being said there needs to be a couple pictures!

...from July 4....with Uncle Will....and such a pretty dress.....

 ...playing with Ophie at family picnic....

 ....all excited about the animals at the little zoo in the park...

Was nice to have a day with extended family...guess I wasn't good at getting many pictures .... would have been nice to have more of the family there but guess that is how it always is so just glad for what we did enjoy.
Our summer turned dry (although other places have it worse) which has been sad to see...the corn and soybeans not having the development that we would like...we do have 3 crops of hay done...not sure we'll get much more unless it rains...

...but we still are part of 'America the Beautiful'.

The garden is doing fairly well...since I'm watering it....

..Farmer Marv's favorite vegetable...(this comment could be 'grounds for divorce' but he'd only have coffee grounds!)

This 'season' has started as well....yummy!

Since two and a half years ago when both our sons told us they would like to become involved with the farm...Farmer Marv and I have had to change our plans for 'limping off in to the sunset'...one of them being this....

..another addition to the barn.  We have the cows to fill this coming fresh starting next month and in to September.  With this additional amount of animals we pretty much max out our parlor facility (Changing that I'm sure will come after we have 'limped' off!) It has been nice to see our sons come in with enthusiasm for doing the necessary upgrades and focusing on being progressive (more about that here). 

Zoie...where are you when they need you?

And of course, I need to add some flower pictures....
...this first one is for Prince 1....he helped me plant them and they are just starting to bloom...

...and this for Princess 1....

and I could go on and on with the flowers...maybe just one more!

So this is just a little account of our summer so far...there is much more I could share but need to 'wrap it up' for this time!