The days of summer -- getting closer!

ONE MORE DAY!!!!!  I can't believe it!

I think I say this every year, and it NEVER FAILS!  

This year FLEW BY!

With every year-end, the 7th/8th grade students have a end-of-year party at the local skating rink.  And with every year, oooooodles and ooooodles of fun is had by all!!!!  (Two of my partners in crime shown here)

Cassie's first ball game of the summer was last night.  A year older, a year of tougher competition, and a year off to a good start!  

She had some hits...

She had some steals...

Lots of base time ...

and some fielding action.  

First victory of the season:  22-14.

Cleaning up my camera...... I didn't post yet about Paul playing around with a donut recipe on Monday. The outcome:  the best ones were ones left whole, not "donuted" open.  (Do any of you make up words too?)

SO.....

Last day of school tomorrow.

And summer officially kicks off with a full day of softball on Saturday.

And then.....

????

ahhhhhhhhhh............ 

Big Mama's been holding out!

So, yesterday I get a text from Paul saying that a surprise will be waiting when we arrive back home from the LAST of my graduation parties this weekend.  {{This graduating class is AMAZING!!!}}

As soon as we were in the driveway, Paul says....."Come on, and grab the camera."

We haven't seen Big Mama out-n-about so much lately, and we (okay ME) were beginning to wonder if something happened to her;  or if she was distancing herself from the rest of the clutch  :(  

But as soon as we neared her, she fluffed up allllll big...

That little turkey!!! She's been hiding eggs from us NOT in the coop, and she hatched out seven little ones RIGHT under our noses.

Yes, yes.....quite a fun little surprise!  Since we have lost some chickens to wild life lately, we are hoping some of these lil' ones are hens and not roosters.

"Peckers" is the only rooster in the yard right now, so we know who the daddy is.  

And since the camera was outside, we continued snapping other shots of the day.....

The clothesline in use again.  ((THANKS AGAIN Paul!!!!)

Dotty being lazy!  Plumping herself right in the feeding trough.... goodness.

And the party happening by the lilac bushes!

At one point, I counted 17 bumblebees (that I could see!).  

The sky is looking a bit overcast, but the radar is only showing a little cluster of (potential) rains, so we're relaxing this AM.  I don't plan on visiting my quilting room quite yet;  I have waited this long, what's one more week????  School's out on Friday, and then Cassie has a softball tournament Friday night and Saturday.  The days of summer are approaching!!!!  After this amazing weekend.....I can't wait!

Goats, Kites and Horses

The week began with two new additions to the Skattebo Ranch.  Two little baby goats ...

The first morning with them, Cassie set the alarm for 5:30 AM, woke her sisters, and had all of them eating and FINISHED with breakfast by 5:50 AM.  Why????  To go out and feed the goats, of course.

AND THEN.....tragedy......

On Wednesday, when the girls came home off the bus......

THE GOATS WERE MISSING!

Hearts sank and tears fell.  My goodness.....life was so sad around here.

And after a long 24-hours, word was received that they had safely been "chillin'" down at the neighbors.  

And once they were safely back at home, Paul FIXED the small hole in the end of the pen that he had forgotten about (one that he cut open last summer when we attached a short-lived chicken pen next to our fenced chicken-run area.

Fast forward to the weekend....

Yesterday (Saturday) was GORGEOUS!!!!!!!!!!  

Out came the kites......

With Grandpa and Grandma visiting, everyone had something to do.

Grandpa spent much of the morning fixing the kites.  It was WINDY!!!!!!!

Paul was prepping 8 holes for the new Plum (4) and Apple (4) trees.

Candace filled water bottles and kept us all hydrated!

I planted ....

And Grandma took amazing pictures of all the action happening.

After lunch, while we were in the process of planting trees, the traffic down our roaded picked up almost 200%!  And then.....two-and-two were put together when we saw a team of horses and carriage cloppin' down the road.  Our neighbor was getting married!!! And she decided to arrive in style.

I ran to the house to find the girls before the horses got too far past our driveway.  And sadly, my Mom only JUST got her camera ready to catch the tail-end of the carriage before it travelled out of sight. :(

AND THEN.......hours later.......

Shadow (our dog) started barking.  We were working in the lower garden, wondering what was making him bark up a storm, but didn't put too much thought into it, and back to work we went.

Suddenly, Cassie looked up and said..."We have a visitor, Mom."

The driver/owner of the carriage had pulled into our yard!!!!

I was so shocked that they would do such a thing!  The day was hot, and they had put in some long hours.  

These animals are amazing!!!!!!!

And then the owners asked "Want a ride?"

They had parked their rig up the road and were on the way back to load up the animals and carriage.  They had seen me run to get the girls earlier and thought they'd swing in to offer a quick ride since they needed to head back our direction anyway. (I just needed to pick them up up the road).  I mean....HOW AMAZING is that?!?!?!?

There are wonderful people in the world.

Lost Creek Ranch (Cameron, WI) -- you are wonderful!

Still no quilting, but lots and outdoor and "dirt" time.  Beautiful weekend.

Awaiting the days of summer!

Two beautiful days of 60/70's and sun!  

I'm thankful the girls play together ...

...specially when big sister "accidently" overthrows the ball to the make-believe 1st baseman so that Candace can run beyond base 1....

... and make an in-the-park HOMERUN!!!!!!!!!!!!

:0)  

After almost one and a half years of it sitting (waiting) on the shelf, Paul finally hung my simple clothesline today.  I put it to instant use with the glorious sun and wind present today.

And to close the day....a simple, short family bike ride.  Caitlyn and Candace are fighting for the most excited.

Quilting barely came to mind this weekend, but soon, I'll be back :0)

Full speed into the weekend

Spending some time repotting the seedlings this morning.  With assistance from my coworker (Ag teacher!), I think we have finally mastered growing seedlings!!  These seed-grown tomato plants are the best YET in our history of starting our own plants.  A couple more weeks and these will be able to be placed into the ground.  Now to research "cold-racking" plants in order to acclimate them to the outdoors.

We are thankful for our East-facing french-doors and this mini-greenhouse my parents purchased as an anniversary present for us a few years back.

And an update on Dotty and Pinky.  They are growing and starting to eat grass clippings out of our hands.  Pinky is a bit larger than Dotty, so she's playing the "big-bully" role often.  I always cheer for the underdog though, so Dotty gets my attention as much as possible.

OFF to the outdoors now!  Corn planting awaits.

Three weeks later...

No excuses (cuz I could some up with loads!)  The reality is:  I'm here, I've been here, I just simply haven't shared anything in the past three weeks.  SORRY!!!

So here are a few pictures from the past couple of weeks......

Spring starting to hit around the northern parts of Wisconsin.

The man and his machine; preparing the lower garden.

Left side of lower garden

Right side of lower garden

For those of you who follow me on Facebook, you've seen this picture.  Tsk-tsk.  Short story;  "Matthew was chasing me, and I turned to see if he was catching me and when I turned back around, BAM!  The pole was right there mom."

((Boys!))

No words necessary???? :)

Hmmmm....and now onto the work side of life.  Have you ever felt like this????    Ohhhh....I have been in a dark place for the past year, and was ready to EXPLODE with so much negativity present in my school building.  BUT.....two months ago, I HAD to do SOMETHING or I was going to go completely insane....

And although I have moved on with my new outlook and (partial) forgiveness, there are others who haven't reached my stage yet.  

If you really grasp onto the last line here....for me and my situation, it goes back to what Einstein quoted:

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

For the most part, you can't change peoples perceptions or beliefs, so why try...over and over and over?  If you can't change it, but keep trying to change it, you can go insane.  

I've learned to let go of things I have no control over.

I've learned to complain less and breathe more.

I've learned to work within my sphere of influence.

HAPPY SATURDAY!