How Can it be September?

Whew, it seems like it was just April!

The milo in my compost heap is turning.... telling me that summer is over and the season of harvest is here. 

The salsify says the same thing (and I hope it re-seeds itself a LOT) 

You know I planted in containers this year, and I planted a mix from Burpee that I thought was wildflowers, but turned out to be zinnias, marigolds, and these lovely little sunflowers that have just opened. 

The coleus is leggy but still hanging on.  

Tomorrow, my helper, Grandson Jax, is coming and we are actually going to pull out the tomato plants in the tubs on the patio.  They were started from seed by me, and with one exception, the tomatoes were not to my taste.  I also have realized that the chickens do not eat them (strange!) and many went to waste, since you cannot give a tomato away around here. 

So... no more.  I may plant ONE next year (it will be a Burpee Big Boy) and that's it. 

I did have two planters on the porch with volunteer tomatoes, and I am hoping one re-seeds itself, as those tiny cherries were the sweetest ever!

You all know that I rarely post about my family.  I used to, but I grew to think that for the young kids, it was an invasion of their privacy.  However, I am going to brag a little. 

On Sunday, I drove down to La Cygne (Kansas) where my oldest son Jim has a lot at a lake development. 

He and his family have many friends there and they are all really close.  I have heard about them for years, but have not met them. 

I also had not met my newest great grandson, Wyatt, because his mommy and daddy, his sister Maci, and he all live down there in a house.  

My son Jim met me in La Cygne to lead me to the lot.  

Here are Wyatt and granddaughter Madison, his mom. 

Almost five Maci, and my daughter in law, Amy. 

Son Jim. 

Granddaughter Paiton, on her ATV.  Jax's was out of gas, so she was the chauffer. 

Jax in front of Clifford, the Big Red Truck.  Clifford is his, and that's why Jax is working for me in the yard.  He has to pay for the registration and license, and get his permit.... so he will be working for grandma for a while.  Since Ben left for school, Jax has become my main man. 

I did not get a group picture of everyone else, or Wyatt with his daddy, but by the time I left, they had started a fire in the fire pit, and everyone was gathering. 

Let me just say this... I am not a lake person... but it was nice to see what it was all about, and finally get to meet my little great grand.  I am guessing I won't get to see them again until Christmas time. 

Labor Day weekend, to my family, was going with my dad, a union electrician, to the Labor Day Parade in Kansas City, Kansas, on "The Avenue"... Minnesota Ave... where we celebrated union successes with many other families. 

Things are different, and I am not saying worse.  I am so glad the kids have a place to gather with their friends, relax, eat some good food, and have fun. 

Look who is back!

OUT OF THE BLUE. 

After eight days, I heard a noise while doing chores last week, looked down, and there was Mama at my feet! 

I did not even see from which direction she had come. 

You can see in this picture from the porch cam that she re-attached herself to me immediately. 

She is hanging on the porch or here.... 

You can just barely tell, but she spends hours laying under the bird feeder.  Needless to say, NO ONE is using this feeder. 

I have not seen a bird on it all day today.  I will scoop up the feed I put on it this morning and put it back in the bin so the raccoons don't get it. 

IF she does this for a while, Jax and I will store the feeder in the barn and bring it out when it is colder. 

While she is focused on this one, the birds are eating from the more permanent one in the garden. 

I am rarely seeing squirrels now, they are too frightened of the cats. I miss the squirrels, I admit it. 

Both Bullseye and Mama are lethal hunters. 

After literally a year and a half, the beautiful Cleo will let me stroke and pet her. 

I feed her at the Little Red Hen House, whose porch is slowly deteriorating.  I had to feed her up high, 

so the sheep would not get into her food.  There is a bowl out during the day, and I leave a little at night. That was a project I had for Ben to do that we never got to... rebuilding that small porch and tightening up that building. 

A week ago today, I looked out my bedroom window to see this in my front yard! 

A man keeps a small herd of cattle in my neighbor's pasture.  Twice before, his cows have gotten loose on the road, and I ran them into my yard.  Two years ago, he brought a trailer over, caught the cow and took her back.  Last year, despite my request that they not do so, his wife and daughter ran the cow back through the fence, and of course said "We'll come back and fix it".  They did not.  

I noticed when I mowed last Tuesday that the fence was low in the corner, but by Wednesday, when this big girl came through... it was down to the ground.  Why the rest of them did not follow her, I do not not know. 

My good neighbors from across the road came over and helped me run her back into her pasture... and then, Gary came back after they did an errand, and he and I (well, HE pounded) three tee poles in, and we pulled the fence up and Gary tied it to the poles.  No other cows have tried it since then, thank heavens. 

That afternoon, Jax worked for me.  He called out to me to tell me there was something black in my garden area.  I said "That the water fortex for the birds" and he said no, it was something else. 

It was THIS.  I came over and said "Cow pat" and he looked at me like I was nuts. 

I still don't know if he was pulling my leg or not. 

Can you see the hummer sitting on the light wire on the left?  They are feeding furiously now, getting ready to go.  As I type this, there is one sitting out there! 

I hung two tiny little feeders a friend suggested I order last week.  They have one feeding port on them, and that is one in the picture.  The hummers seem to really like them.  I have two regular feeders hanging too, but they have to be cleaned almost every day with our humidity. 

Regular scene.  I am going broke buying wet and dry. 

(that's Bully, Mama, Molly and Coco) 

Since I am making this about family, 

here is my husband Keith as a teenager.  One of his relatives sent it to me last week. 

His birthday and my stepson Brandon's, Keith's youngest boy, are on the tenth. 

Keith would have been 63, and Brandon, I think... would have been 30.  (I cannot remember his birth year since I wasn't there!) 

I remember all my loved ones on their birthdays. 

 

Back where she should be.