I know the title of this post is June, but I had to show the gift my friend Chris Roesler gave me for my birthday.  She knows I love horses and she said they had an old cabinet upstairs that used to be Mark’s before they were married and it had this door on it.  She took the door off, gave it a coat of varnish and glued on the horse shoe.  It is absolutely beautiful.  I can’t wait to hang it in our new addition.

The first weekend in June, Ken made is annual trip to Calamus to fish and camp with some of the other Steele’s and anyone else who wants to go.  Ken and Mark left on Thursday which was earlier than the rest of the crew so they were able to do some fishing in a little bit better weather.  I guess by Saturday and Sunday it was pretty chilly and a little rainy.  Ken and Mark came home Saturday night.  Ken had to dry out the tent and since we have been getting so much rain, it was time to mow again.

While Ken was gone to Calamus I decided it was time for the baby chicks to leave their little pen and join the rest of the chickens.  They were getting way too big for that little space.  They’ve really grown and thankfully they are all still alive.  Bud did try to chase them, a little half-heartedly, and we got after him about that.  We have 10 chicks, two will lay blue eggs and two are bantams.  One of the bantams has feathers on his/her feet.

Speaking of Bud.  He is such a lovable cat.  Every time we go for a walk, he likes to go along too.  The only problem is is that he goes about 6  feet in front of you and then just plops down so that you have stop and pet him. He even rolls over so you can pet his tummy and both of his sides.  Here he is taking a nap on the patio while I was working in the flower garden. Looks like he’s had a rough day.

Last Thursday night Ken and I went to The Stage Theater.  Its the community theater in Hickman, and they turned the old hardware store into a nice place. They have seats that look like they came from some old movie theater. The show was Bonnie and Clyde a new musical. It was terrific, the casting was great and the set was amazing.  I knew the names of some of the actors, but I don’t know them personally.  Robert Wamsley was the director.  We saw Dave and Torey Dudley walk in before the show started.  Of course, Torey was very fashionably dressed as she always is.  At intermission we talked with Dave a little bit.  He said they have been to almost all of the productions and, in fact, Torey played in the previous production of Steel Magnolias. Can’t wait to see what the next show will be.

Then early Friday morning we took off for North Platte to see the Buffalo Bill Rodeo.  The weather was a little stormy Friday night while we slept in the tent out a Lake Maloney.  The rain poured and after we had fallen asleep a huge clap of thunder made us jump. But we fell back to sleep pretty quickly.  Can’t beat sleeping in a tent!!!

We did a little fishing on Friday, meaning we caught little bitty fish. Headed into North Platte in the evening to watch the rodeo with Judy Gragg. Jim had to work:) Saturday morning we went back into North Platte for the great pork breakfast they have at the mall parking lot.  A huge pork chop, scrambled eggs, biscuit and milk.  There is always a guy there playing music, some of it patriot.  The cub scouts go around and ask if anyone wants more coffee.  It is really quite an event. Then we headed back out to the lake to fish some more.  We spent all morning and didn’t catch a thing.  We probably should have guessed that fishing was going to be good because there was hardly anyone else fishing and usually you can barely find a spot to fish along the bank.  But it was definitely time well wasted.  Its so nice to just sit and listen to the water flow and the birds sing. After the Saturday night rodeo we drove home. Got here about 2:30 a.m. and after getting everything put away we were in bed by 3:15 a.m. Good thing we went to church in North Platte Saturday afternoon.  I don’t think I could have kept my eyes open Sunday morning at our church.

Well, not only do we have the Wieskamp/Vanderbeek subdivision going in east of us but someone is building a new house across the street. They started the basement some time ago, but with all the rain they just started framing the house this week.  They have been working long hours and they have made some good progress.

With all of the rains the yard looks great, but that means Ken has to mow every 5 or 6 days.  We have three apricot trees and two of them have fruit.  We picked up all of the fallen apricots. They are so good.

We’ll see how the rest of the month goes and then we will be heading to Fairbury for Independence Day.