Unexpected Day

Today was what I consider a bonus day. The forecasters had predicted a rainy day. They were wrong. The day turned out beautiful, with blue skies, a little breeze and warm temperatures.

We passed on our usual Saturday morning library run and stayed home instead. The day was too lovely to waste anytime indoors.

Farmer Bob took advantage of the nice day and mowed the field across the road.

Gabe had his friend Daniel over for the afternoon. Gabe and Daniel have a great time together. Their temperaments match well and they always enjoy each other's company. With Gabe still unable to do so many active things, having Daniel here was a pleasant distraction.

The rose bush is in full bloom. The arbor Brian built last summer worked great as usually this bush hangs down over the path and makes walking through a bit of a challenge. Now we can enjoy the gorgeous flowers without all the thorns.

Bess and I mowed the lawn. With the mixed days of rain and then sun, the lawn had gotten quite long. Bess likes to do the front and I prefer the back, a perfect arrangement. I even tackled the "children's yard" today and was able to get almost all of it mowed. I got a good workout doing that. It looks so nice now. I love a freshly mowed lawn.

While I was mowing, I noticed that there are many, many little green plums on the trees this year. Hopefully we can keep the children and the critters away from them and we will have a nice crop of plums later in the summer.

The garden continues it's late spring rush of color. This is by far the best time of year in our gardens. I'm working on a better mix for summer into fall, but there is still a lopsided leaning toward spring and late spring. I guess after our long winters, the push for so much color early on makes sense.

This pot of pansies is always the first I put out each spring. The pansies can handle the cool nights, even frost. I love the splash of color when things are still looking pretty gray and barren in the garden. If I remember to keep it watered well, fertilize and deadhead, this pot will look great all summer.

Sunny Winter's Day

Today was a deliciously wonderful day. The sun was bright, the sky blue and the temps teased us by climbing into the 40s...a veritable heatwave by recent standards.

After church and lunch the children headed outside and for the first time in a long time, the snow was packy enough for snowballs. They stayed out for a few hours, sledding, building forts, throwing snowballs and soaking up the warmth and sunshine.

Despite the warm temps, Rachel is still bundled up. Poor dear, I don't think she is ever really warm, until mid-summer. Dan was content to eat pails of the white stuff.

Hannah and Gabe worked on a fort. They often team up for building projects. And yes, Gabe is in short-sleeves. He is always warm and most days wears short-sleeves and goes barefoot in the house. Today was so nice and warm, he shed his coat quickly and seemed quite comfortable with bare arms.

Brian and I made a quick run to the feed store for chicken feed, bird seed and shavings for the chicken coop. I also picked up a new birdfeeder for the window near my sewing table. Brian made a few modifications to it so now it holds birdseed, suet and peanuts. Hopefully the birds will discover it soon.

Even our Kittie enjoyed the sun today. When we first brought him home, the folks we got him from told us he was a she. We named her Tiger Lily. We soon discovered she was a he and have been sort of calling him Willy...as not to confuse him too much. Well, Bess started calling him Punchy Larue after a character in one of her Nancy Drew games and it has stuck. He is definitely a Punchy! He has lovely markings. Isn't he gorgeous?

10/13 - Closing the Pool

I'm still trying to catch up on some older posts, but because I also use my blog as a form of memory keeper, I want to get these in.

Columbus Day weekend found us closing up our pool for the season. We usually do this earlier, but Brian's schedule has been very busy this fall.

Brian cleaned up the leaves from the bottom and began dumping water to lower the level for winterizing. Lower the water level can take a few hours.

We got out the tarp and spread it out. We used to have a spring loaded safety cover which is nice in that it lets all the water go through, but it was more work to put on. We may get another one eventually, but with replacing the pool liner this summer, there was no money left for this expense, so a pool tarp works fine.

Bess helped us fill the jugs. These are old chlorine jugs that we use to hold the tarp in place.

It has been a family tradition that Bessie is the first one in the pool in the spring and she has to take a swim before we close it up. I wasn't going to hold her to this as it was quite late in the year and the water was very cold. She was determined to take a swim.

The look on her face says it all...that water is cold. We had many nights in the low 40s, high 30s.

She said that once you were in, it was actually pleasant. I'm quite sure I won't be giving it a try.

Gabe would not be left behind. By the looks of him here, he also is not sure about the logic in all this, but tradition is a very important thing.

He's still smiling, but hasn't quite gotten all the way in yet.

Well, I guess once you take that leap, there is no turning back.

After that, they had a great time. They stayed in the water for about 30 minutes.

Bessie is our resident frog catcher. She can swim right up to them and snag them out of the water. They don't have a change with her in there. We wanted to make sure we didn't have any frogs wintering over. They can not get out of the water with the cover on and would not survive. This little guy was put in our garden pond which is much more suited to his needs.

Gracie was not to be outdone and took her last swim also.

The Littles were not sure about this whole swimming in October idea, but Hannah soon joined in the fun.

This is Dan taking his very quick dunk. He wanted to be included, but was not thrilled with the cold water. Rachel declined to join the others. I can't say I really blame her. She gets cold in July.

Back to the task at hand. We cleaned up the pool enclosure, picked up all the pool toys, mowed the grass and secured the solar cover.

We blow out the water lines with the air compressor, added RV winterizer and plug the lines. The pump and filter will be put down cellar for cleaning and will be ready for spring.

The tarp is brought in along side the pool and stretched across. We have been doing this for many years and it takes no time to finish the job.

Laying out the jugs and the job is just about done.

It is always nice to have this accomplished, but also makes us a bit sad . The summer goes by so quickly in the north. May will bring the reverse of the operation and the children will once again make that plunge into very cold water. Our pool, one of the many cycles of our family life.

Late Summer Dip in the Brook

My kids like water, a lot! I'm not a nervous mother when it comes to letting them get wet. I figure they will get out if it is too cold.

After one of our walks over Columbus weekend, the kids were hot and wanted to take a dip in the pool. I offered to take them to the brook.

The water was very cold, but four of the kiddos took the plunge, if only briefly. We have sort of family "rule", you have to go all the way under for it to count.

I think we have a litter of baby polar bears on our hands.

The intrepid dippers

Brian finds a feather

Calm after the swim

Gone Fishing

We love going to the canal. Each lock park has picnic tables and a nice grassy lawn area. They are very well maintained and are a great place to eat, fish, bird watch and watch the boats. It doesn't hurt that we have one of these great places pretty close to home, so we can run over, grab some take-out of some sort and spend a few hours relaxing.

Hannah and Bess wait for a "hit"

Bessie caught this bluegill
Rachel brought in this nice catfish
This is a catch and release area, so all the fish go back into the river.

We watched a boat lock through while we were fishing.

The big doors open

The dark area is the distance the water goes down

The boats slowly exit the locks

And off they go down the river

Campfire Cooking

We have done a lot of burning this summer and the back yard is looking so much better. Gabe, in true little boy (or girl) fashion, loves to play with the fire. He made his own little campfire with old bricks and whenever the big fire is going, he works on his little fire.

He wanted to cook hotdogs outside over his fire. We grabbed the roasting sticks and the kids were ready to go.


Bri even got in on the fun.

Bessie really likes the new kitty. Lily is so friendly and purrs so loudly. There is no question of whether she is happy or not.

The younger crowd enjoyed their lunch up in the new tree fort.