A Week's Worth of Pictures

I had Paiton and Jax for six days, the "gap week" in between the end of school, and the 

beginning of their wonderful summer day camp at Turner Recreation Center. 

It was early mornings for a week, as they come at 6:30.  You notice that Jester

is even still sleepy. 

They went to the National Agricultural Center with me every morning (aka "The Ag")

to take care of the little chicks and the big chickens... and then in the afternoons, we 

loaded the dogs and went to the farm to work on the garden.  Jax cut down almost all the 

high grass in between the garden bed with loppers.  Paiton did not think she was "Into" gardening, but after watching us for a while, she got with the program and worked HARD. 

He's posing here, but wow... he cut and cut and cut.  The guy cutting the 

yard has been ignoring the area behind the henspa because there was 

so much deadfall and vines and thick weeds. 

The minions took care of the job. 

We have a huge pile now at the trashburner. 

So... this week, Brandon, the mowing guy, 

will be doing the pasture, and at LAST we will be able to get 

all the debris down to where I used to have a brush pile. 

Not sure how we are going to accomplish that, since I have 

no access to a truck anymore and it's a LONG walk. 

Wednesday, we went to the zoo.  

Notice Jax has his hoodie up?  It was in the fifties, and he had 

worn shorts.  It was CHILLY! 

But lots of fun. 

Jax had a ball game on Thursday night, and I saw this guy on the way home. 

He saw me, too. 

Jax pitched part of the game. 

The Sluggers lost by one point. 

We were back at it on Thursday and Friday afternoons. 

I'm a hard taskmaster. 

The globe thistle is still gorgeous.  

Lillies are about to start. 

Keith's mom and dad came down on Saturday, and we went to the cemetery on

Sunday morning.  They started back to Ames after we had lunch, and it was 

so good to see them and have a good visit with them.  That was the first 

time they had seen his stone.  

The cemetery looked beautiful, but I did not get good pictures. 

Every grave had a flag, courtesy of the Boy Scouts.  

In the afternoon, it was back to the flower bed.  I know all the little trees need 

to be dug out, but for this year, I am cutting them at the ground.  Then I'll work 

on re-doing the whole bed. 

The dogs were smart, and stayed on the porch in the shade. 

Here I have to interject something. 

See that cat food?  It's for the three cats, four raccoons, and two 

opossums who are eating on my deck, gratis. 

Yesterday was the FIRST time I found 3/4 of the food left 

in the bowls.  

I can only surmise that the cat food I got from the feed store 

is not to everyone's liking.  

Someone knocked the camera over, so I could not 

see today who exactly is eating it. 

This may get the wild critters to leave me alone! 

(Today there was feed left in one of the bowls, quite a bit, in fact, so I may keep buying that feed) 

The babies at the Ag are doing great.  

Can you see that their wing feathers are developing? 

There are five different color patterns, but they are 

all cochins. 

There are 24 bright eyed babies. 

I took some pictures of the goslings after I finished the chicks and chickens. 

Can you tell the difference between the younger and the older babies? 

The clue is here. 

See the regular feathers appearing on the wing of the chick? 

(the gosling closer to it's mom) 

This is the older gaggle.  

I think they are about a week older than the other babies. 

They really mimic mom and dad; nature is so wonderful 

This guy was waiting for me to leave, so he could go back and graze on the rich, green grass.