Warmin' up America....one block at a time

Every Thursday morning at Bethany Home, Mom and I participate in the "crochet activity". They serve coffee at 10am and then when coffee is finished and all the ladies are sitting at the tables yet; it's a perfect opportunity to bring out the crochet hooks and yarn. Someone donated the yard from an unfinished project. In order to put a purpose to the project it was decided that the finished afghan would be donated to Warm Up America. WUA is a nonprofit which distributes knit or crochet afghans to those in need. You can check it out at http://www.warmupamerica.com/home.html . It's a fun project and I enjoy very much sitting and crocheting with "the ladies".

Here a chick there a chick everywhere a chick chick

One day after arriving home from Chicago, Les and I noticed that we were missing a chicken :/. We knew we had seen her once since we'd been home, but not lately. Rogue Chicken and Rooster were around, but not the pretty Red Hen. I think most of you know about Rogue Chicken and how she just showed up at our house one day about 4-5 years ago. Rooster is her son, and Red Hen her daughter. They're a scrappy bunch of chickens and have managed to survive on their own without much help from us! Every now and then when the weather gets colder, we throw some cracked corn out...puts a little fat on them and keeps them warm. So, back to Red Hen. She had gone missing and we feared the worst for her....coyotes abound around here, and a chicken really needs to pay attention to stay alive. Ah well, one down, two still around. Then, a couple of days ago...there she was, with a couple little surprises at her side! Awwwwwww......aren't they cute?

Visit to Chicagoland

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Well, the pictures pretty much say it all :) We had a wonderful time in the Chicago area with Jerry and Bernice. Since we were not able to be at James' baptism last fall, we thought it only fitting that we could make it for his first birthday. Providentially, Jerry and Bernice's new house also closed the week before we arrived and we were able to be a bit of help in moving and painting. I DO love to paint! Throw in some fun days spent at Starved Rock Park and the new Harley Davidson Museum in Milwaukee, WI., not to mention a little antiquing, and it was a perfect vacation. Didn't want to come home! Thank you for the wonderful time Jerry and Bernice :)

Dust makes a beautiful sunset

Well, after returning home from Chicago last night, we were unpleasantly surprised to find that the "work" across the road STILL was not complete! Ugh! If anything....it had just gotten worse.At one point it was so thick with dust that our light sensor controlled yard light lit up!! About the only good thing you can say about it all is that it does make for a beautiful sunset. Hopefully they will finish by Saturday, when the weather prediction is for RAIN...yippee!!! I hope it's a downpour.

Country Livin'......in the dust :/

Last week the corn was cut and chopped in the field across the street. It's always nice to watch it grow and then after our view of the Coast Range has been completely blocked by 12' corn....it's good to see it go again. Following the chopping of the corn, always comes the dust with discing and planting, only this year so far......we get double or triple the dust :/. After installing a new irrigation system, the farmer who owns this property now needs to level it out so the flow of water, for flood irrigation, will now be moving east to west. Previously it was north to south. In the last few days there has been a flurry of activity, pulling out the old concrete irrigation pipe and hauling it away, and now the levelers have come. When they're finished....they will be followed by further discing and then planting for the next feed crop...usually some kind of sudan grass. Thankfully we leave for a week's vacation tomorrow....the dusting will be over by the time we return! But, for now, it's "eat my dust" all day long!