Mama, Don't Let Your Fencelines Grow Up to be Grapevines

To wit: 

Oh, yes. 

That's a fenceline. 

My bad. 

There's a pasture behind there. 

I cut and I cut and I cut. 

That's what some of the grapevine trunks looked like. 

Those are grapevines!  Whew. 

You can see the pasture again!  

That's the brush pile way down there. 

These are mushrooms growing on a dead tree.  I'm going to take a better picture of this tree tomorrow. 

I worked on the pasture side of the fence, too.  This tiny beautiful little red plant 

is a young Virginia Creeper vine. 

Several of these guys were on the house porch (wooly bears). 

I stopped to take this picture on the way home... got out of the car.... The trees are getting so beautiful.  This pond is so peaceful. 

This barn sits above the pond. 

This farm is right across the road from the pond.  There are several barns and a granary. 

But the house is gone... it clearly was in that copse of trees... and the pasture had 

peacefully grazing cows in it.  There was an additional barn, I didn't get it in the pcitre... it is behind the trees, and would have been behind and a little to the west of the house. 

On the way home, I went by my friend Diane's to give her a sack of egg cartons I had found in a storage building at the old house.  This made me laugh out loud.  It's a BIG Angus bull.  

He is standing in between the supports of a sign that says "New Haven Angus", large 

cattle breeders here in Leavenworth County. 

There was a truck behind me and I couldn't stop (see him in the side mirror?) 

Here is what's really funny... he turned around pointing NORTH in the time it took me to deliver the cartons and chat for a minute... so he was facing me again as I came down the road.  This time, I pulled into a driveway, and calmly took the picture as I got the stink eye. Now you can read the sign that says "New Haven Angus". 

He's pretty photogenic. 

Jester likes his daddy a lot. 

Keith is going back into the hospital either today, tomorrow or Monday, he is finding out now. 

This is getting to be part of our lives.  

Please remember him in your prayers if you think of him this weekend. 

And these guys live about a mile from us, right down the road.  How I always would 

have loved to have had some alpacas.  Maybe in my next life.  

 And now I'm going out to cut grass for the last time this year. (I 

HOPE) 

Saturday Night and a Tiny Rant

As if I am not worn out watching out for THESE GUYS

I have never, ever in my life, seen turtles out heading across the road in 

mid-September!!!!  Yes, I helped this little guy... and held up three cars while I did it. (It was on a gravel road on the way home from the old house, not on a highway, thank heavens) 

He was heading for a very deep ditch, too, so he got a lift up. 

And now... THESE GUYS are going back and forth across the road. (though this is our driveway) 

Yes, it's a wooly bear... and yes... it's almost black, you can hardly see the bands. 

Old wives tales say that that means we are going to have a harsh winter again. 

I am seeing scores of them, so if you see me swerving suddenly in Leavenworth County, Kansas, this is why. 

Good gravy.  

I'm going to end up being an agoraphobic at this rate. 

I thought you might be interested in seeing the roots on a few of the plants I have 

been digging out of the beds.  This is an elderberry.  They are NOT fun to dig up. 

But, as you see... I have made HUGE progress.  

This is the back side of the south bed.  See the piles of debris? 

I hauled them all away today, and built another compost heap over by the old garage that you see in this picture. 

This is how I moved them.... one load by one load.  It was 86 out and 86 percent (nearly) humidity.  It was very tiring, if I do say so. 

But, it's all finished.  I am going to rake the bed over, get the rest of the little weeds out 

of it... and then add a little dirt, and a lot of mulch. 

This dog, whom we love so much, will not let us groom her.  There must be a thousand stick tites on her. 

She is going to have to go to the vet and be sedated, because she literally will attack us if we come near her with a brush.  

Many of the bean fields around us are ready to be harvested.  

Ditto the corn. 

This year, Leavenworth County farmers are going to have a good harvest, unlike the last two when the corn and beans burned up. 

After I got all the weeds out of the south bed... I was rewarded today. 

The orange zinnias are so bright that you can barely see the phisostegia. 

Exposing the flowers also brought beautiful visitors. 

I wish I knew my butterflies, but for some reason, I think this is a moth. It's beautiful, though, isn't it! 

The pear tree that has turned. 

The pear tree that didn't bear this year, and has not turned. 

Strange. 

Keith insisted I go home after cleaning up all the debris from the two beds, he told me I was 

not looking very well.   I had started the day not feeling well, and the humidity got to me. 

In fact, I had put the dogs in the house for the last half hour I was there... they were suffering, too. 

We turned the air on for them (and us). 

Storm clouds began building, and by the time I went to church,it was 

very dark. 

When we came out at six... it was sunny again... no rain! 

Tomorrow is our grandson Jace's 3rd birthday party... we can't believe the 

little guy is already three years old!  He's even a big brother to baby Carson now. 

In the evening, we have Jaxton's third baseball game with his new team, so 

it's a full day for Grandma and Grandpa, but doing things we love to do.