Farm-sitting and a Sunday Walk

This past weekend we have been farm sitting for a family, and one of the animals we have to take care of is this darling little calf!

Hungry little fellow!

The "big-bad bull" Maverick.  He is a short legged Dexter bull. Emphasis on the "short legged".

Goofy little Kittens.

A week or so ago Josiah, Faith and I took our Sunday evening walk at Algoe lake.

There were pretty dragonflies everywhere....

And lots of snakes too.  Can you spot him?

I have some big blog posts coming up; we have lots of new arrivals around here!!!

~Chs

A Party Down by the River

Tuesday afternoon found our family joining Aunt Carmen and Uncle Tim, and Aunt Myrt down by the river for a party....

Celebrating the birthday's of these two beautiful Ladies who we are SO blessed to have in our lives.

Mom and Aunt Carmen, though they are twins, are so very different from each other, uniquely wonderful, irreplaceable, with their own extremely special places in our hearts!

The cake was made in the shape of the Fort Gratiot Lighthouse, partly in memory of Grandma who loved lighthouses.

The other reason is that we had plans for going to the Fort Gratiot lighthouse that afternoon and climb all 100 and some steps!  But unfortunately a storm blew up and we had postpone our visit for a later date.

"Happy Birthday to YOU!!" {Something only a twin can do}

Aunt Carmen's gift to Mumsie was a beautiful, super soft, blanket with Africa on it!  Stunning!

Of course a birthday wouldn't be complete without having a ship go by.  We actually had two go by!

It was an absolutely lovely day by the water, (even if we didn't make it to the lighthouse).   We thank God so much for a Godly family, especially our Mumsie and Aunt Carmen!

~Chs

The Last Hurrah

So this actually happened a little while ago, but it was simply scrumptious and rather pretty too.

The very last of the Strawberries were picked, and we just couldn't do something boring, like freezing them, so in celebration we made a strawberry cream trifle. 

It was delicious, a good choice for the last hurrah of the strawberries.  The official count was 185 quarts of strawberries.  We of course are very very grateful for so many berries, but our aching backs are just as thankful that they are finished! 

We were going to just eat half of the bowl (it was rather large) but.... cream and strawberries never hurt anybody right?, and it would have been a shame to take up room in the fridge, so it was all finished in one night! 

So there's the story of the last of the strawberries!

~Chs

Are You My Mother?

 As I have mentioned before, we are overrun with Broody Hens around the farm.  So when yet another hen got the urge to hatch out, we, not wanting anymore chicks, decided to try something different.

A chicken raising ducklings??  Well why not! :)  

The babies are so adorable, "squishy little marshmallows" as Charity calls them. 

Hey, they're the same color as their foster mom. That counts right?! 

They are currently infatuated with all the red parts on her face, and will poke and peck at her.  A little different from them. :) 

{Ducklings in the sunshine} 

 "Whatcha doin Mom?"

It will be rather fun to watch what their temporary Mother will do once they grow up and take an interest in swimming and the like. Hopefully it won't stress her out too much. :) Always something to watch around here!

"Are you my Mother?"

~Chs

Joy in Beauty

"You can complain because the Rose has thorns, or rejoice because the thorn has Roses."

Coming Soon #2

Josh and Theresa aren't the only ones expecting...   Our sweet Sadie Rose is due with puppies just one week after Theresa is due with the baby! :) 

(the monkey in the photo is Sadie's current "baby".  She tends to fixate all her love on certain stuffed animals, and the new one is "Baby Chee-Chee")

Sadie is 1/2 Australian Shepherd, 1/2 Labrador Retriever, and we have bred her to a very beautiful laid back Australian Shepherd named Wagner.  

So the puppies will be 75% Aussie, and we are planning on selling all of them.  Though it is kind of hard to tell in the photos, Sadie is quite.. well "large".  She is normally a very trim dog, and she has a big belly now. :)  

She is officially due on July 19th, so we made a welping box inside on our landing for her to sleep in and get comfortable with before the puppies come. (she is a mainly outdoor dog)

Sadie wasn't so sure about her box.  She kept running down-stairs, up-stairs, and we kept on returning her. :)

Finally we found a compromise.  She has decided to lay down "next" to her box... :D

Silly Girl.

So if anyone is interested in puppies... we will have some available in a couple months, and they'll be pretty cute!

~Chs

Fireworks!!

The celebrations continued into Saturday, when there was to be fireworks over Lake Lapeer (the best show around!!).  So we had a low key gathering before hand with hot dogs and 4th leftovers. :)

Mr. Reiche, Josh and Theresa all joined us for dinner, and hung around playing games and helping us water the garden while we waited for the time for the fireworks to arrive.

We were informed of this perfect spot to watch the show, oh, probably 4 years ago or so.  It's a little lawn in-between houses, and directly across from where they launch the fireworks.  The owners kindly allow anyone to camp out there to watch!

The performance was truly brilliant as always!  (and loud, Faith wore ear plugs during the entire duration. :) )

There was some creative ones that landed on the water and then exploded (don't ask me how) as well as the normal big colorful, booming ones, and smaller sparkly ones.

We even had a couple dollar signs, a star, and a smiley face (though it was hard to see, since it was smiling upwards....)

(had fun with my camera, playing around with what the fireworks looked like at different focus levels..)

The grand finale was indeed "grand", and we all cheered and then packed up and headed home. Another 4th celebration completely and officially concluded.

~Chs