Good Times On The Fall Farm

Old Bloom Old Barn

Wooly Bear White Tiger

Zinnia, Barn, Flannel

Lookin, Playin, Rollin

Lollygagger

New Bloom Old Barn

Bullets and Ice Cream

Real Deal

Front Porch Shoot Out

Target Practice

Two Boys With Boo Boos

We were in Iowa recently for a friend's wedding. The weather was prime time (except for her wedding day...boo)and we were fortunate to stay an extra day. Eric's run-in with a 9mm in St Louis is healing well. He is still unable to walk but is enthusiastically cleaning up the farm in his over-sized motorized wheelchair (AKA excavator, skid-loader, and 4-wheeler). Everyone, minus me, was excited to operate the previously mentioned excavator.
Mom grew pumpkins this year, and they were perfectly ready for picking. The kids carved pumpkins, picked a bushel basket of pears, and hand-fed Gloria. She is going to be the Christmas pig. That we eat.

American Gothic House

And although the American Gothic House is only 45 minutes from my farm, I haven't been there. They provide costumes and pitchforks. We made Grant Wood proud! And after Justin peeked in all the windows, we found out someone lives there. Oops!

Balloon Glow 2010

We woke up Friday morning with Judy and Stella all up in arms, barking at something outside. It was a balloon landing a block over. I am not sure if it was an early test run, but we enjoyed the balloon weekend of the Forest Park Balloon Race. We had a picnic across the street and watched the balloons glide gently up and away.

Our Mantis Laid Eggs!

Dew Drops on Wheat Grass

The wheat grass sprouted overnight. Which was amazing, but this morning each one was capped off with a tiny dew drop from the open window.

Happy Flower

Pirate Festival

Jeff and Erin gave us some tickets for the pirate festival in Wentzville. The kids went on a treasure hunt and then become honorary pirates. Thanks you guys!
http://www.renstl.org/main/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=65&Itemid=161

September 11

And despite all the hate the whirls around each country and race, we have constant reminders of goodness and Truth.

And the friendship we have with this Afghan family is one.

Today, (coming home from Seema's and being reminded by Justin) my prayers are lifted up for all of the people missing loved ones. The ones that were lost 9 years ago and the ones that continue to die in the conflict today.

The differences between us and our Afghan friends is great.

Sometimes too great to bear.

But it is how we learn to love one another.

Polyphemus Memory

I was reminded of Daniel tonight and since it was before blogging days, i must share the excitement with you now.

Years ago we found a fat, green, wriggly caterpillar trucking across the path in Forest Park. We snatched it up and it was so strong we nearly had to pop it's legs off to get him into his new home.

He spent a bit of time munching and crunching but made his chrysalis rather quickly. We found him in Sept and by late April I started thinking maybe it was a dud.

I made a mental note to throw him out.

But one morning, Tullaia was first to go out on the front porch and she shouted for me to come quick.

Daniel was Daniella. There she was in the butterfly house in all her beautiful Polyphemus glory! There were also 5 or 6 males perched nearby her.

The males can "smell" the female pheromones from miles away and make every effort to get to her. There they were and had already done the deed through the mesh of the cage.

Daniella laid hundreds of eggs the next day and we were fortunate to continue the cycle with her babies.

Why why why would anyone want to burn a Koran with this type of activity available?

Judy Update

Judy came home last night without a fever and will be staying home until next week! She is barking at people she wants to bark at, TRYING to steal food off the table, hassling Stella...back to her normal puppy self.

Now we need to plump her back up again. No small task.

They think it is a case of pancreatitis and unsure of the future repercussions. For now, a special diet, antibiotics, taking it easy.

As for me, i am sick with a sinus infection. So it goes.

Sick Girl

Judy is really sick...

For a week now she has been vomiting and lost 10-15 pounds just in the last few days.

Her fever is hovering around 104.

She is sad. We are sad.

So after all the many x-rays, blood work, IV, antibiotics, lots of money, tests for this and that. We still do not know.

She heads back for more IV and antibiotic treatment tomorrow. Initially they thought it was an intestinal blockage. But several x-rays and Barium came back normal. Now, they think it might be pancreatitis although the test came back negative for it as well.

It is often caused by eating too much rich food. She has been known to eat entire sticks of butter (still in wrapper), entire hams, entire PB toasts, Littlest Pet Shops, pencils, plastic dinosaurs...the good stuff.

Visions of Peace September 2010

I know feet gross out my Aunt Phyliss. But what about feet on moss?

Old Acorn Waits

September 2010

Justin surprised me with something wonderful! He told me to leave and be quiet. He set it up and I left in a spontaneous way for Visions of Peace.

http://www.visionofpeacehermitages.org/hermitages.html
And as important as our jobs

and places in life may be,

nothing

is more than this.

Watching. Waiting.

Listening. Praying.

Michigan Lady Style

My Mom and I are back from an almost relaxing vacation! As parents of young children may know, vacations are usually needed after vacations. But my kids are getting to the age of self-sufficiency and it is nice.

We were able to stay at Great Gramma's house and the kids reveled in their explorations of the crawl space. I remember feeling the same way. They even dressed up in the same old and colorful clothes. I remember that too.

We went to the beach, specifically 7 different beaches.

After a day of South Haven swimming, we were able to wave at Cousin Sarah on the Friends Good Will Tall Ship as she sailed out of town.

http://www.michiganmaritimemuseum.org/

She was leaving for Chicago's Tall Ship Festival. Sarah is 16 and home schooled and it allows her the opportunity to do this. Amazing.

We were also able to see Cousin Charli after she was released from the hospital. She has endured a long month of ICU, skin grafts, blood transfusions...

It was so wonderful to see her running around with the kids and doing well.

On our way back home, we hoped to swim one last time. But the riptide warnings were in effect all the way down. We thought we would head south until we found a calm and gentle place to swim...nope. And Indiana's beaches were closed for swimming altogether.

We ended up at New Buffalo City. The red flag was up, but we were able to get in the water and let the waves beat us around a bit.

We made some pretty sweet sand castles at all our beaches. We also had some beautiful beach collections which included: driftwood, sea glass, bones, butts, straws, a Christmas tree cookie cutter, spoon, shells, plastic cow, fossil rocks, regular rocks, string, feathers...

We listened to Where the Red Fern Grows a couple times (much to my Mom's dismay). It is an incredible story and a wonderful way to while away the day.

Weko Beach

Boardwalk Walk

Cousin Sarah's Ship

South Haven Sunset

A Boy And His Driftwood

Warren Dune Climb

Great Gramma

They Made It

Sappington Market

My favorite place to shop. This is a small, but not too small store that is farmer owned and carries all the best local products.

www.sappingtonfarmersmkt.com

On Thursdays spend $50 get $10 off.

Some of our favorite local staples:

• Good Earth Eggs $1.39 dozen
• Heartland Milk $3.19 gallon
• Legacy Cheese
• Mangia Pasta $3.20
• San Luis Chips $1.99 16 ounces
• San Luis Tortillas .89 12 pack

Forgotten Cucumber

Cucumbers are my favorite thing to grow. Everyone in the family loves them, they are refreshing, easy to care for, and scrumptious.

Today the kids found a straggler. The one on the right must have been hidden from sight in previous pickings.

Hot Day Hike

One of my favorite places in Forest Park. We collected some more pond water and will take a look today.

Elephant Rocks

We stopped by Elephant Rocks on our way back home.

We scurried around on large rocks and shimmied through small passageways.

The trail also winds around an old quarry site. The red granite was used as building material and paving blocks on St Louis city streets and the levee.

I hope to go back again in Fall. The rock will be cooler. It was hot hot.

http://www.mostateparks.com/elephantrock.htm

On our way home, we stopped in Caledonia at the Caledonia BBQ Company.

It was delicious and we enjoyed getting to know the couple who run the place. If you are heading back to Stl on Highway 21 stop in and explore this tiny town.

http://caledoniamo.org/index.html