Busy busy

Monday was a day of surprises.....

It started out with a text from my youngest son.

"Call me when you wake up. I'm bored driving home." He and his wife and their daughter were on their way home from Colorado.

I called since I was up at my usual time: Hannah Time ----->> which translates to predawn.

We talked for a little bit and then he said he had to pull off the road for gas...and "WAIT wait! Oh my goodness the sunrise is amazing!" 

As he said that, I was about to pour a cup of decafe when I took a peek towards the NE direction. The fog was heavy but there was a slight color threatening to brighten the sky. 

I texted back: Later! I'm headed towards the ridge to see our sunrise! 

My phone pinged once more: See you mom in about 5 hours!

I passed our mailbox on the ridge and saw a typical driftless region sunrise where the valley was thick with fog. The cool waters in the rivers and streams often produce amazing fog.

I pulled out my regular camera with my long lens. 

The shape of the land I live has wonderful shapes. When we have valley fog, the ridges and the trees appear above the fog creating an unusual sight. Meaning, I'm still not used to it after living here for 30 years.

The fields are not flat and even, our world is uneven and wonderfully rough. Contour farming is the only way to farm.

I thought I'd drive down into the valley and take a peek around. Sometimes the valley fog hangs 40 or 50 feet off the ground.

Not this day! However, the swallows were so busy at the bridge over Black Bottom Creek that I just stood in the road and watched them for a while.

[Yep, I could stand in the road on the bridge and not even see any traffic at that time of day!]

They were literally swarming the area. You can see that the sun is ready to dip into the valley from the light on the top left of the photo.

Depending on the season, it can take up to two hours before the valley sees the sun.

Back up on the ridge the sun was shining brightly. I was able to see across the valley fog to the dot on the map that is called Folsom.

This is one of the Folsom Lutheran Churches on the next ridge over.

I stopped back at Linda's Tractor on the way home. I taken a sunrise shot through the tractor and wanted one afterwards. It is rare that she leaves any equipment in the field. In fact this is the first time in 30 years that I can recall she has left one parked on a field she rents.

Linda still farms and is in her later 80's. She hires help of course, but still does quite a bit of field work on her own.

The heat and humidity set in by the time my son and his wife showed up but I had to walk them back to our 'campground'.

They were amazed at how cool it felt in the grove of trees and the definite lack of bugs.

Here is Mari who is 5 she was having a blast playing with Charlie and Hannah.

<--------------->

Today [Tuesday] I got to go to a birthday party for the grand daughter of a friend. I went to help and take some photos for fun because I was asked to.

Everyone was smitten with my friend's mini horses!

We came up with the idea of a birthday party with the idea of the kids decorating the minis. 

Safe to say, it was a huge hit.

All I can say is that it was a blast! I think the little girls are going to remember this as the coolest birthday party ever. Homemade cake, homemade ice cream, decorating mini horses, and so much laughter.

Grandma Pat is obviously the coolest Grandma Ever!

 

As it happened....

This is my favorite view in the whole wide world.
The view between a mule's ears.

Of course this is Sunshine's ears and her mane is wild and wooly just like everyone else's on the farm this time of year. I don't roach the manes towards fall as the mules need that extra insulation on the top of their heads.
Well, at least that is what I think.

Molly texted that she was coming for a visit and bringing two friends. I was properly surprised to find that one of her friends was a guy. Nope, he wasn't a boyfriend of Molly or the other gal, but they are all pals at school.

More interesting was the fact that as we talked a bit Friday night I noticed his t-shirt and asked him if Glenbrook North Highschool was indeed the one in Northbrook. He said it was. I was stunned. And then I laughed.

"I graduated from Glenbrook North 45 years ago!" We spent a few minutes discussing a few streets and I told him what Northbrook was like when we had moved there when I was a kid.
And...we both went to the very same grade school.

I had one more intramural CrossFit 'game' 20.5 to do Saturday morning and I told the 'kids' that they could clean out burrs from the mules' tails and manes if they wanted to do some bareback riding when I got back.

All the mules had been cleaned up of burrs and brushed, well, all except Fred who was his usual anti social self.

Everyone was eager to try bareback riding. Only Will hadn't done it before. I decided to just stay in the adjoining pastures. Everyone would get some more experience on the two young mules with nice round backs...and some experience riding the bony backs of Mica and Fred.

I allowed them to switch mounts to see how different each animal was. Siera behaved as expected. After a while of riding in her pasture she decided to test her riders by putting up a little mule protest.

Mules generally don't like doing the same thing over and over so it was no surprise. Plus Siera felt she could get away with refusals.

I explained to Will and Sonya that these were not 'lesson' animals like they had at their school. These mules were more into trails and doing difficult things, not an open pasture where walking was boring to them.

Everyone enjoyed themselves and I imagine there may be some sore butts and legs this morning.

I brought out their cell phones after the ride was over so they could all get photos of themselves on mules to share.

I'd requested the phones be left in the house before riding. You should have seen their faces when I said that! Shock! [Well Molly wasn't shocked]

All in all we had a fun time and Molly's friends got introduced to mules.

Unexpected Wonders!

Saturday morning and the sky promised to put on a show...

However...

When I got outside and walked towards the shed to grab my bicycle, I saw a white truck parked in front of my Subaru.

I was all set to have a fit until I read the plates.

Missouri.

No.

Really?

Could it be?

How wonderful! Kristi and her husband Jesse showed up to surprise us with a visit! 

Jesse said that they decided to take off and surprise us. If we weren't home they were prepared to visit our portion of the state anyway.
We rarely travel out of the area for anything ... except doctor's visits now so it was a pretty sure bet we'd be home on the weekend.

And where else but the creek would we hike to?

It was very surprising too as to how chilly it was Saturday. The temperatures never really got up to 70 degrees.

Our evening was filled with laughter as we all sat around the round table and played UNO.  The rules changed with each hand and since we didn't keep a number score it was even more fun.
Rich really enjoyed himself.

Too soon the time came for them to leave. They said next time they would plan better and spend a few days. After all, it is an 8 hour drive one way for a visit.

The boys left me some toys to take hiking with me for 'stories' of adventure in the woods.

And you know I can't resist a good toy adventure!

We promised each other that it wouldn't be three years between visits next time. And the boys cried, they didn't want to leave. And they really like Charlie and would miss him.

Charlie was a superstar. He fetched for the boys and tried to figure out what they wanted to do and sat patiently while they played with his ears and nose and...gave him endless hugs.
.
I said it was a long drive but perhaps I could convince Rich to go. I quipped, 'Oh I suppose I'd need someone to watch Charlie'.
And Jesse said, 'Oh you can't come unless you bring him!'

See?
What an unexpected wonderful surprise.

Today will be more rest and relaxation for Rich while I take out the newly sharpened scythe and make a test run.

This afternoon? Anything goes.

We love company!

Saturday morning was very busy, we had the Tesar farriers at our place doing 5 trims.  I am happy to report that Siera's frog issues are almost resolved and she is nearly back to 100%. 

Of course Dan's recommendation is that she get more exercise.  I am very happy with that!  I even planned on riding her in a One Mule Parade on Memorial Day but that didn't happen.

I nabbed this shot of Danny trimming Sundance.  She gave him a bit of grief but I think some of her irritation was due to the fact that she was in heat.

Girls!

I'll be making an 8X10 for Danny out of this shot.  He liked it and so did his father, Dan.

After the trimming was done, I showered and decided to sit on the new 'porch'  and relax by sanding some blocks I'd picked up from the construction crew.

I had finished gluing the scrap table and it was drying.
I had a small box of blocks already hand sanded and thought I'd just sit and watch the animals and listen to the birds and do some more.

A van pulled down into our hollow and stopped far back where we had parked our vehicles to stay out of the mud and construction mess.

I stood up and tried to see if it was just a wrong turn or someone lost. That does occasionally happen around here. 
I thought I recognized the woman getting out of the van, but still...

Then Morris saw people and off he went at a dead run.  It dawned on me who was in the van and I couldn't believe it.
For them to come visit, they would have had to drive at least 8 hrs from the northwest corner of Missouri.

I kicked off my flip flops and began to run like Morris to greet our long time non-biological 'daughter' and son in law. [We sort of like to think we adopted each other over the past 20 years.]

Jesse said he heard me let out a soft curse and then saw me run like the dickens.  I ran up to Kristi and Jesse and threw my arms around them.

Kristi held Gunner and said, "Good, I hoped you guys were home, we wanted to surprise you!"
Oh they did!

When we got to the house, I took Gannon's hand and asked if he'd like to go wake up Rich.  He did.
Rich had laid down for his afternoon nap and talk about not believing his eyes when he opened them and found Gannon in the bedroom.

When we sat down in the living room after a construction tour, I brought out the newly sanded blocks and gave them to the boys.

Wooden blocks and tiny cars = happy little boys.  I sat back rather proudly and proclaimed, "Hey, my blocks work!"

Everyone got a pretty good laugh out of that.
We eventually moved outside and let the kids play.

I think Rich's face shows how much he enjoyed the visit.

Jesse and Kristi had rented a motel room so they wouldn't impose on our house that was in upheaval. They promised to come back Sunday.

When I got home from work on Sunday they were there, the kids were playing under the Hickory tree and the adults were visiting and supervising.

I think the 4 wheeler parked in the yard was the main attraction.

We visited and did the evening chores, Gannon helped Rich throw flakes of hay to the mules and we decided to go out to eat.

We ended up eating at Culver's in Viroqua. We had hugs and hugs all around in the parking lot before they went back to their motel.

They stopped by in the morning to say goodbye.

I sure do enjoy it when company comes and so does Rich.  It didn't matter that our house was torn apart or that our yard was in need of a mowing. 
We stopped what we were doing [well, I still had to go to work] and enjoyed the visit.

Jesse and Kristi also had the forethought to get a room in town. Last year they stayed with us for a few days and that was pre-construction and Gunner was only a week old.

What a difference a year makes!

What can I say? Rich loves company, he loves it when we get visitors.
Of course I do too.