The Prodigal Blogger Returns

With stories to tell, photos to share and much catching up to do.

Our sweet Bea is doing well. Sam noticed that every morning she made a beeline ( ha!) for the same spot in the woods. He discovered a well-camouflaged nest of eggs under a gooseberry bush. Which lead to yet another discussion of her reproductive status that went something like this:
Me:  How sad--she's going to all that work for nothing
Sam:  I don't know, there's a lot that goes on here when we're gone all day. There are wood ducks and other ducks passing through.
Me: Conflicted: Infertility vs Anonymous encounters with unknown species. (A bit like last call at the VFW bar)


I had noticed earlier this summer that she was showing signs of being broody

 Hiding in plants.

Then the heat wave hit and she and Karl became obsessed with waiting for a blast of cool air when we opened the door.

We love her.

Company's coming

Sam and I are at the love shack in Okoboji and are having our friends Dick and Marlys over for dinner. We bought some wild salmon and picked up some things at the farmers market this morning. The furniture and contents here are best described as "early old geezer" which suits me just fine. I have the table set-it's a combination of my flea market finds and what was here . It took about 5
minutes and makes me happy.
Painfully and slowly typed from my iPhone

Peace

I am totally into these baby chicks. Look at them sleeping

Rhubarb muffins

Because its Sunday morning,  the coffee is ready and every time I copy this recipe I forget an ingredient (yes, Audrey, it does call for an egg)  and one of these life-altering-too-delicious-to-just-be-called-a-muffin awaits me, I attempting to post a photo of the recipe

OK, that seems to have worked. I do not add nuts. I started leaving them out of baked goods because Zac didn't like them and eventually realized that I agreed with him. Our grocery stores carry the half pint cartons of buttermilk and I try to keep a couple on hand at all times. Mom often used the dried buttermilk. I haven't tried it. For me this recipe makes about 20 muffins.

Helpers

For the love of all that is good and holy, I cannot get these photos in order. I've entered a dark place, a very dark place.
Of apps
and google plus
Instagram
published posts
lost posts.
So before these children are taking their SATs I am going to post these pictures.
Hopefully with captions.
If not,
Well, let's not go there

Harrison is helping Opee put fresh water in Bea's pond. If there's water involved, count Harrison in

Olivia offered to help clean the duck poop off the deck. There was a hose, a spray nozzle, Harrison and a dinosaur

Harrison thought Ms. Bea's pond needed some ambiance--like sticks, rocks and a dinosaur

Ms Bea trying to be patient and wait her turn for the pond

Ready

Sam cleaned all the grass from the north fence. Curt ran through with the disk. Of course, Sam had to make a call to Blackie who worked his magic on the tiller and he began the tedious process of  breaking up all the clods to get everything ready for planting.

Doesn't it look inviting? It's so much bigger after "reclaiming" the edges that had filled in with grass. Sam also burned off the asparagus and the rhubarb is up.

 

These two

Should have their own reality show

 Share well with others

Make me smile every day

Want me to learn how to correctly upload and edit photos from my phone