It's Always Something

Several years ago, my son and DIL bought a fixer-upper farmette nearby. They've been working diligently to get the house, yards, paddocks, and stables in good shape. By last week, the house and yard had been improved by about 50%, the barn/stable was looking really great, and their three pastures were green and lush -- about 250% improvement. With this hard work behind them and with a house/horse/dog/barn cat sitter engaged, they decided to take a much needed and totally deserved trip to Florida for a week. I don't think I've seen them this happy since the day of their wedding! They left last Sunday for Florida and we planned to pick them up this afternoon.

Last Sunday night, a neighbor from their street allowed his handicapped nephew to drive his van for the first time. Unfortunately, the young man lost control of the car, crashed through our son's gate and into their barn, taking out the front two stalls. Luckily, the driver was not injured and the horses had been put out to graze. The barn, however, is uninhabitable; the insurance adjuster is to come out this week. I feel badly for my son and DIL as they work so very hard. In good spirits and happy to be home, they seemed to take it all in stride. Here are a couple of photos I snapped after picking them up from the airport.


FYI -- My surgery on wrist #1 is this Thursday the 20th.

Let the Planting Begin...

I've done a lot -- still have some left, but wanted to share what I've done before the *&^%#*^ rabbits eat all of my efforts. Even with the strongest repellents on the market, they love my impatiens, verbena, and roses. Mind you, the impatiens and verbena are in pots! They're climbing in and feasting. Time to borrow one of the grand dogs. Keep in mind that nothing is in full color, yet. Our weather hasn't been consistently warm enough, but I know it's coming.

These lovelies are waiting to be planted.

My Turtle Garden

The Back Garden


Lemon Tree; Gerbers; Verbena, Red Geraniums, and Creeping Jenny; and a pot in waiting. These are the steps the bunnies live under.

The garden that got away -- we'll be reworking this beginning this weekend.

Heirloom Tomatoes and the patio corner garden

Plants on the patio steps
So now you know that I haven't been spending ALL of my time on Facebook!

Avoidance

I'm going to the gym -- at least I'm dressed and supposed to be there. I will when I finish this...maybe.
We had an exciting Christmas Day. Middle daughter is now engaged. Her fiance' took her dad and I aside on Christmas Eve and asked our permission and blessing. He said, "I love your daughter; she makes me want to be a better person." No plans, yet. I think she is still in shock.
I thought this might be a good time to introduce you to some other members of our family both two-legged and four-legged. Our son and DIL have a small farm with three dogs, four horses, and a herd of barn cats.


This is the whole brood minus the horses and Deuce (middle daughter's dog). Luke is an American bulldog; Lilly is a rescued wolfhound/Great Dane; Beau, on grand daughter's lap,(2 months old in this photo) is a harlequin Great Dane. Leon, in front of my son is our youngest's dog. Not sure of the breed; suffice to say he's big. All four are sweet, gentle, dogs.


Zoe (the cat) and Leon belong to our youngest and her husband.


Zoe has special talents.


Lola on her birthday.


Our youngest daughter (the one on top :)) teaches riding and trains Lola.


Our youngest was married last July. That's Leon, who was the ring-bearer, at her right.
Oh, something I thought you'd enjoy: our son's fire house does the Santa thing every year; they ride Santa around on one of the trucks, waving and yelling , "Ho, ho, ho." You know the drill. This year, the only firefighter who would put the suit on (evidently it needs to be laundered) is Jewish. So they're on the truck riding through the community, but Santa is yelling, "Shalom, mazel tov!" :)

I do believe it's time for me to go workout.