Babies

Momma Kingbird had a nest on our porch again this year. Aren't they adorable??

Duck Go-Round

All 6 of the girls in the kiddy pool...makes it a bit full!

Harvest 2009

Just a few pictures from our wheat harvest this summer. We were lucky enough to get home from work just as they were starting, so we got to ride along for a while the first night. Then the second night they got started a bit later, so watched them cut as the sun set and then into the night. Farmers for a day!

Wheaty sunrise

So this is rather old (I'm trying to get caught up) and the wheat pictured here is just starting to change colors (it has now been harvested and is on its way to feed the world), but I thought it was a gorgeous picture of the sun rising over our big field.

Gobble Gobble

One afternoon we were surprised to look out and see this turkey hen walking along the north side of our house. She hung out in the yard for quite some time until the ducks spotted her and ran over to the fence to 'chat' with her. This is what I 'LOVE' about living in the country...you never know what you will see.

Silly Horsey

It's a bit hard to see, but the horse standing in the drive is supposed to be in the pasture with the others...being mostly blind gets poor Chelse into lots of trouble. Luckily this time after she went over the fence it stood back up so the others couldn't follow along. One winter day in early 2008 we weren't so lucky and spent several hours hunting all over the area trying to find them.

a real garden

We are hoping to have one anyway...if successful it will be our first beyond a few tomato and pepper plants. Got everything planted a few weeks ago, and then one night a couple weeks ago I go out to check on it to find cucumber beetles have devoured the cucumbers, watermelon and beans. A bit of replanting later plus nightly check for more beetles and it is looking better. We are hoping that we'll have enough veggies to can/freeze.

One last look at San Fran

We had an awesome room at the Parc 55 hotel. We had a corner room, but the corner actually jutted out a bit so that we had windows on most sides of the room. The room had a sitting area, a desk, a dressing area and then a huge bathroom. Behind all of the curtains below are windows, so we had great views of the city day & night.

San Fran activity #3

On the third day we headed North for a walking tour of Muir Woods. As you can see it was another dreary, overcast, rainy day...and we were out in it. We were both soaked and cold after our 3 hour hike, and again I didn't get very good pictures.
Golden Gate Bridge
The sign at the entrance into the woods, you can see our tour guide below the sign.
About the only picture I have of the redwoods since it was so dark once we got into the woods.
A banana slug crossing the trail.
K and I inside a burnt out redwood tree.

San Fran activity #2, part 2

The Monterey Canning Company on Cannery Row
An adorable see otter statue
Honestly, there are several sea otters in the picture out amongst the kelp.
Our tour guide with a piece of bullwhip kelp.
The lone cypress at Pebble Beach.


It was a very long day and not all of the sights were thrilling to us, but next time we'll rent a car and stop where we want to.

San Fran activity #2, part 1

Day #2 saw us headed South for a tour to Monterey. It was cold, rainy and rather dreary. Most of my pictures out the tour bus either are blurry from the speed or the raindrops on the window. But I did get some worth sharing.

A sea stack seen on our way south.
A lighthouse between artichoke fields and the ocean.
Gorgeous bougainvillea at a Thai restaurant in Monterey.
Several cormorants on the rocks outside Monterey aquarium.
These sweet geese swam their gosling right up to us.

San Fran activity #1

Our first evening we went on the Alcatraz tour. It was fun, but quite cold. And some idiot (yep, that would be me) forgot to bring the spare camera battery, so I didn't get many pictures.

K's favorite part of San Francisco

Yep, he could spend all day watching the silly sea lions on Pier 39.

Rockies from above

This was my first time to fly over the Rocky Mountains during the day without clouds...here are some of the ski trails.


And some neat scenery.

all 4 boys

Karl and Lenny in the pool, Darth and DB on the outside waiting their turn.

2 of my boys

Lenny & Karl enjoying a swim in their big pool. The Khaki's are decent flyers, so they don't typically use the ramp to get into the pool.

My babies are growin' up

Here are the girls a few weeks ago taking their first swim in the kiddy pool. The one outside the pool took a few more days than the others to figure it out, but now they all enjoy splashing in the pool.

sunrise over the flint hills

Now that we are driving in to work as the sun is coming up, we are witnessing some gorgeous KS sunrises.

New 'pet'?!

This little skink has been living many days lately under the straw bale in the garage. She's actually one of the few critters around here who doesn't run for it when they see Dr. Mommy coming! (yep, 'my' cat is totally afraid of me most of the time)

I don't eat lamb

Except for this one. A family tradition when I was growing up was that my grandparents came to visit for Easter and Mom and Grandma always made a lamb cake. I haven't had one in years, but this year my youngest cousin was getting his first so mom was inspired to make me one. He was waiting in the kitchen cabinet when we got home from Wichita.

Lucky Sam

Last weekend we were in Wichita for K's step-nephews' wedding. Friday night K's family and some friends enjoyed a lovely production at Mosley Street Melodrama. One of K's HS classmates was lucky enough to be selected to go onstage and participate...he was quite the good sport, seen here showing how 'low' he could sing!

4 of the 5

Four of our 5 horses anxiously awaiting feeding time. From l-r we have Sparky, As You, Streaker and Twister. Sparky is wearing a fly mask to help keep the light out of his eyes to ease his recurrent uveitis, aka moon blindness.

the hills are burning

It's spring in the Flint Hills, and that means time to burn the pastures. It's a good thing for the environment as it keeps trees and other unwanted things from growing without the use of toxic chemicals, but it does create quite the layer of smog for a few weeks. The other day on our way home a pasture was burning right next to the road. A bit disconcerting to drive through, but I did get some neat pictures.

Catching up

Ok, so I've not been doing a very good job again lately on the blogging thing. For some reason this time I seem to be a bit more motivated, so hopefully that motivation will stick around...maybe it's because several people have emailed wanting to see pictures of different projects, and I'm tired of emailing everyone seperately! I know I have only included 2 crafty things in my pictures, despite the fact that I have actually have been doing many crafty things. We've made several bears in the last few months, but the pictures are on Mom's computer, and I have done some scrapping, but I tend to not take pictures of those things. But now that we have most of the floors replaced and most of the painting done, I'm hoping to have more time to be crafty...and blog about it. So, now that it's April, maybe that can be my New Year's resolution!!

How can you tell when it's time for the ducks to move out of the bathtub?

When you open up the door and see this:



Yep, Maude managed to climb out yesterday. Since it is still fairly cold outside and they are still downy, this meant that we had to create a duck 'playpen' in the garage for them.


They seem to really like their new space though, and despite the cold weather today have spent the morning out and about.

A little snow

It's a bit blurry, but yep, that's right, 9" of snow on the last Saturday of March. And this was 2 hours before it stopped!
And then as soon as it stopped the sun came out and it started melting. By Monday the only snow left was in the shadow of the barn.