Random Shots

A Blast from our Past... and makes my heart sing and hurt at the same time...

Abby, Gertie, with Hannah resting on them, in the living room at the old place. 

What wonderful little girls they were, along with our first pug, Addie Mae. 

How we miss them! 

Sedum gone by in the garden yesterday. 

Bittersweet in the fence line yesterday.  We never had any until last year... 

and it came back despite a summer of neglect. 

When I went to pick Keith up at dialysis yesterday, I took the back roads back to our house.  We followed two combines for five miles.  

Notice there is a ditch at either side of this road. 

The few cars that passed us waited in driveways for the combines to get by, as they took up almost the whole road. 

Guess who didn't pull over? 

Just a minute before I took this picture, a full grain truck (corn) had been in the opposite lane.  He didn't even slow down and there are no shoulders here. 

This is a mile from our house. 

Last night when Keith came home from work... he came upon a big grain truck on 

it's side in the ditch to the left, or south, of this picture.  There were two 

fire trucks and the fire department chief there responding to the wreck, and 

the road, we are sure, was eventually closed.  

Remember I took the picture of the grain truck in my rear view mirror last week? 

I can't tell you how many times they have whizzed by me in the last month.  

Tornado siren test. 

To this day, after almost three months... we have never heard Jester bark or howl. 

He does whimper, when excited. 

He whimpers every single time we go by this pasture daily. 

The horses and cows get him all excited. 

These are just about the last flowers to bloom after two hard frosts. 

They are fading now.  

In fact, the tiny little pink mum bush behind them was still blooming, too. 

There is still some color, just not as much as last week and the week before. 

Little Macey, about whom I wrote yesterday, must go back 

again next Tuesday to the medical center for yet more tests. 

Please keep her and her family in your prayers as they 

wait to find out what is going on with her. 

Our Weekend

We had quite the weekend. 

Cleaning up all the construction debris, and Troy came over today and cut the yard... it looked beautiful!  

Keith is out there taping off the windows for painting... but... unfortunately, they 

are now forecasting wind for tomorrow, and rain all day long, and through the night. 

So.. we wait.  I'll be here, priming trim in the garage and puttering around the house. 

The old place, though, looks SO MUCH BETTER! 

Here's the kitchen at church this morning, in between shifts of workers... I had just 

"gotten off" after filling coleslaw cups for 2 1/2 hours.  Yikes! 

I couldn't even eat any. 

See the lunches?  Yum! 

Couldn't face the coleslaw, though. 

There were lots of wonderful gift baskets to bid on. 

And the country store was not going to last for long... I took this picture just as the crowd was 

coming in, and people already had sacks and boxes of homemade jams, pickles, other baked goods, and handsewn goodies. 

I went from the bazaar to the birthday (with a stop at home to eat our turkey dinners with Keith). 

The birthday boy Jax, and the birthday girl, Paiton, are not twins, though people think they are. 

Jax and Paiton are one year and three days apart. 

Doomed to celebrate together! 

Jax turned seven, and Paitie, six. 

The slugger got his new bat! 

And Paiton, a doll house.  

I ran home to get these guys, because they had been in the last four or five days with little exercise.  

How they ran and ran and ran.  

Lil has a large callus on her leg... can you see it?  It's time for a visit to Dr. Scott. 

This little guy minds so well... Jester spent his first three years being a house dog, who had a big yard, but never went anywhere.  He LOVES to run full tilt boogie in the pasture, and we went over to Troy and Kathy's and they ran and ran over there. 

The tree that split this summer. 

A closer look. 

Troy has cut up a lot of it already... and he will be burning this wood after it cures. 

See the sycamore down on the fence in the upper left of this picture?  It is also 

cut up... he is still working on it... and he told me today he will pull the fence fabric up and re-staple it when he has the tree finished.  

That's a relief. 

He is truly the best neighbor one could have. 

These folks have a haunted house in their barn every year... and their front yard... I will try to get a shot of it... it is full of Halloween things. 

And the Halloween Grinch was in Basehor, on the way home, and made me laugh. I had to stop and take a picture, of course. 

I snapped this on my way home from church last night, and leave you with this beautiful image for the evening! 

A Clean-up Day

There's Brandon, my nephew, working on the caulking of the house this morning. 

He got there at 4:30, and did the whole exterior. 

See that pile growing behind him? 

Grandson Jacob and I got there, and drove over to the storage buildings and 

the shop, and began loading out debris. We loaded the car 

and drove it around to where the trailer was going to be parked. 

We filled this dump trailer... filled.  There is still stuff to throw away, but not near what there was. All the construction and demolition materials are now gone. 

Papaw was not feeling right, so he got to hold Baby Carson. 

While Big Brother Jace picked up a LOT of worms from where 

a pile of wood had been sitting.  He and his daddy are going to go 

fishing with them. 

Papaw gave him his tackle box. 

Keith's youngest daughter Amber took over Carson duties... 

and helped husband Jesse get the tarp over the trailer. 

Notice the Royals outfits???  

Keith supervised.  

We had a gorgeous day for it. 

There is supposed to be rain again tomorrow and Monday.  See the water standing in the driveway? 

Weeds coming up through the mulch.  I am going to go out to the middle of the pasture and 

SCREAM. 

Jacob and I grimaced... and frankly, I'm going to rake the mulch aside and dig up this area and try again to get the weeds out. 

If I have to, I'll get more mulch at the end of the month and we'll put another inch on 

the darn beds. 

Here's something I miss so badly... I have only seen geese over here at the new house ONCE since we moved here... we are not in the flyway like we were at the old place. 

These were honking loudly enough that I looked up. 

When I dropped Jacob off at home, I found Paiton and Jax busy in the kitchen. 

You see... Jax turned seven yesterday, and Paiton will turn six on Monday. 

They are one year and three days apart in age. 

Their birthday party is tomorrow afternoon. 

Paiton did not play with dolls as a little girl, but asked her parents for a doll house. 

Jim put this together for her... it is hidden in big sister Madison's bedroom. 

Her eyes are going to widen out of her head when she sees it tomorrow! 

Jim and Amy got Jax a special bat from a sports store... he has wanted it for months, and 

doesn't know it is coming. 

I'll be at church tonight, as I am signed up to work our annual turkey dinner at church 

tomorrow morning on the early shift... 8 to 10:30 AM, preparing turkey, mashed potatoes, dressing, green beans, rolls and cranberry sauce for the turkey dinner/bazaar tomorrow.  

Depending on the time the party starts... I'll get a turkey dinner for Keith and me to share... and then drop it at home on my way to the party. 

Now that the house is all caulked on the outside, Keith will tape the windows and start the painting. 

Then comes the deck railing, while I work inside.  Brandon will also come back in a week or so and hang the outside trim. 

We're getting so much closer! 

I still have stuff to move out of the big storage building and the shop... but not that much. 

We need to make some decisions about the contents left in the shop... donations and possible things to sell at the auction on Thanksgiving weekend. 

I'll work on moving those last things this week, and putting them away right away when I get them here.  No more clutter in the garage!!! 

I guess everyone is aware the Kansas City Royals pulled another one off last night, and won 

game one of their series with Baltimore. 

Keith is out doing an errand right now so he can come home and watch the game in peace and quiet this afternoon.... and the whole metropolitan area is alive with Royals Fever. 

I thought you might be interested in seeing what I just paid for gas about an hour ago: 

That's 2.91 for regular... incredible!  

And last... here's my big brother Pete yesterday.. he is looking SO GOOD!  For the first time 

in months, he was able to have a simple conversation... he can't really "talk" anymore... the way we used to visit... but he was able to converse about some simple things.  He is getting along so well at the new nursing home, and I couldn't be happier (unless it would be to see him with no dementia and at home!).... and I'm SO glad for him.  

I am trying to think of things to do to enrich the folks at this nursing home... he lives in a special area with folks who are wanderers, and would get out if they are not restricted to that area of the building.  I am trying to put songs on a CD for them from the 50's and 60's, and I'm going to donate my mom's old boom box for them to play music in the dayroom.  I have some other schemes too, that I'm working on.  More about that as they get closer. 

I hope everyone is having a beautiful October weekend! 

Beautiful October

I had lunch with Friend Jill today, and we had SUCH a good time talking. 

It's so good to see friends, and have a one-on-one. 

Yes, we dished. 

Then, I ran to the feed store. 

It is all dressed up for fall... doesn't Marti, the owners wife, do a good job?  Crows are looking out of those cornstalks... and Neil was not able to keep cornstalks in stock! 

Yes, they mill their own feeds there, right in Bonner Springs, Ks. 

I got four bales of straw, and a fifty pound bag of bird seed. 

I went down a grade in birdseed, because I realize the sparrows and 

doves are not touching the peanuts and safflower and some of the other goodies. 

The less-expensive blend will satisfy them.  I did look at hummingbird feeders too... I am going to increase them next year. 

Four bales of straw will just fit in the HHR.  Anthony, the hardest working kid in Wyandotte County, knows how to load.  I need to get a picture of him the next time I am there. 

(Straw is at 7.00 a bale, in this time of abundance... too high!) 

Look at the gorgeous milo along Evans Road in Leavenworth County, on 

my way to the old place. 

Isn't it beautiful!  

This is really corn and bean country... but I love that some farmers are still planting milo... 

my uncle always planted some milo and some sorghum. 

And here's some of that corn waiting to be harvested.  When I was 

a little girl, I often read a story about the witches at Halloween, who made the cornstalks come alive and dance around their fire.  I always think of that this time of year.  

Five years ago, I found this very book in a book sale and bought it! 

Everywhere you see bits of green in this bed, I tried to dig it out. 

The dirt is glorious... a combination of paper, dirt (good dirt brought in) and 

straw that has composted from last year.  I never got this bed planted, remember. 

Here is the bed, and four bales of straw was just about right.  I laid it on 

thickly. 

Clearing the weeds out has helped the perennials so much. 

The mondarda "Jacob Cline" is really expanding! 

And can you see the new growth on my white lilac that was so buried in weeds this summer 

you couldn't even see it???

I am so happy about this, I have raised it from a six inch tall plant. 

I went over to the backside of the north bed... it is the only bed I haven't touched. 

Look what I found on the second spadeful! 

I dug out a little of it... and then stopped for the day. 

We are to have rain the next few days, and next week, the dogs and I will 

go back out and I'll get busy in this bed and get it all finished. 

I could go on and on, but, as Keith reminded me.... we are renting it... so I won't. 

I am going to sprinkle wildflowers in this bed. 

(Thank you, Jill, for the idea!) 

I saw only two small butterflies today... none of the larger ones, though I did see some bumblebees working on the buddleia. 

There were plenty of these guys. 

As I started out the gate, I took this picture: 

The trees are beginning to turn!  

I can't wait to take some pictures in the next two weeks, while the color is good. 

Now... I am changed and have to start priming the next set of trim! 

Isn't October wonderful?