This and That

I'd have to say we are car people. We like cars, both functional and fun. We found ourselves with five cars this summer and Sean decided he wanted to consolidate two cars into one daily driver so we sold our big Ford F-250 tow vehicle and his daily driver Land Rover and purchased a Toyota Tundra. It will be his daily driver which we were a little unsure about with the gas mileage on a truck but it does at least as well as the Rover did. It has a 10K pound tow capacity (the same as the F-250) so we should be fine hauling hay and machines. He's really enjoying it!

We were pretty late in the season to get our yearly load of hay but we finally got it home and unloaded. We went with the same hay guy as last year which has turned out to work well. He loads for us, all we have to do is pull the trailer out into the field. We tried something new this year (to save an entire trip) and put a round bale stacked two high. We've seen many people do it and the truck had no problems hauling it. We strapped it down well but nearly lost the entire load after a turn onto the dirt roads. It was so top heavy and unstable. Those bales are 1100 pounds each. We won't be doing that again.

 I've decided that chickens are not the brightest creatures on the planet. We have one particular hen that routinely jumps into large bodies of water that she then can't get herself out of. I keep a water bowl with fresh water out at all times so I don't know what makes her fly into the stock tank. Both times I've found her she was near death and shaking. I take her and dry her off with a towel and then blow dry her on the deck. She seems to enjoy the attention and heat (perhaps that's why she does it?). Silly chicken.

It can't be a random blog post without a picture of Greta eating sushi. She's still having problems with wheat and eggs causing stomach problems so she is still avoiding them. It leaves not many places to eat out successfully....except sushi! So when we have a girls day out it usually involves the local Japanese restaurant. She's got some mad skills in the chop stick using department. Love this girl and her expressions.

Our church does a painting party two or three times a year (I usually teach one of them) and this fall they did a new idea....wood signs for the front door. It was a nice break from the usual canvas paintings. The idea is to paint pumpkins on one side and then come back closer to Christmas, flip it over and paint a snowman for the Holidays. Two decorations in one. I thought it was a great idea! Greta and I had a lot of fun. Looking forward to painting Frosty on the other side.

Greta's Birthday

Miss Greta celebrated her 10th birthday today. She had Abby, Evie and Alex over to celebrate. She wanted a bug cake and dirt cupcakes for school. She's very into scrunchies, squishies, slime and metal straws (to save the turtles). She's my big kid and growing each day (I think she'll be taller than me).

Happy Birthday Greta and my Dad! I didn't get any pictures while my dad was over for his birthday but I did get a shot of Greta peeling apples for his birthday pie.

Playing the "raise your hand game". Last with arm in the air wins.

Carport Clearing

Our car situation has made it so that we needed to build a carport to house the vehicles that are left outside. Hail happens quite a lot and a carport is far cheaper than all the deductibles. The problem is that a large portion of our acreage is covered in a walnut grove. So we decided to clear one of the trees to make room. Sean bought an electric chainsaw and head gear and went to town. He did a great job, you'd think he'd have chopped down trees before.

First Day of School

I'm a little behind on blogging so I am going to play catch up over the next few weeks. I can't forget to post the first day of school pictures! Wesley is going into 7th grade this year and Greta is going into 4th grade. They are getting so big and I'm often hearing "Are they twins?".

Odds & Ends

The boston terriers had to go in for their shots which entitles sitting in a packed waiting room for an hour restraining them from trying to murder ever other dog in the room. Luckily they are little and it's only once a year.

Having the kids home for the summer is great. It's also great to get out of the house by myself and have some alone time with a good book and sushi. I found a great little sushi place next to the grocery store and it's easy to drop in there and have some zen time. I also found sweet potato sushi which is SO delicious.

The little Mini Cooper is getting lots of use! Boy is it a fun car. It's always got a fine layer of dust on it since we live on dirt roads but that doesn't stop us from putting the top down and taking the kids for a ride.

Last spring I "saved" six blueberry bushes at the feed store that were on clearance after going through a freeze and loosing all their leaves. I planted them in the back of the property and put all the old/used hen house shavings on them all year. They like acidic soil and pine shavings can help with that so that's what was dumped all around them. I also read that coffee grounds can help so I asked my friends husband to save his coffee grounds that I spread around the bushes. This spring those bushes were LOADED with blueberries! I was amazed. The blackberry bushes are also producing in abundance.

Greta loves to take my phone and create strange pictures of herself and others. It's pretty funny what she can make from a simple selfie.

Art Museum

The art museum had many of Georgia O'keeffe's famous works on a traveling display and I wanted to see them. I thought the kids might enjoy seeing the art museum too. I've found her work to be interesting and was excited that it came to town.

Glass bridge with glass artwork displayed under. Wesley was cautious, Greta was dancing.

My favorite.

Carhenge

After we left South Dakota we got back on I-80 going through Nebraska and had to stop at Carhenge. We packed a lunch and it was a perfect stop. Cars all arranged exactly like Stonehenge is not something you see every day.

Took the kids to A&W (for the first time) for root beer floats.

South Dakota: Wrap Up

We had a great time seeing all the family! It's wonderful to get together and let all the cousins play. It was like having a herd of elephants in the house at times but they all wore big smiles and there was so much laughter. The house was a beautiful place to gather and sit and talk and catch up. Lots of good memories were made.  

 

In the reviews for the cabin one person said you can see the Crazy Horse memorial from the back deck. I took my camera with zoom out and found it one day. It's pretty cool to see!

We loved the fire pit there! Made smores and lots of happy kids. It prompted us to come home and purchase a fire pit for our own back yard.