Since I haven’t done a very good job of keeping up with the blog this summer, I’ve thrown the whole summer into this big one post. Whew!!  Spoiler Alert – This could be a marathon.

I’d like to start this one by showing Ken raising the flag on the farm. He always takes time to say the Plead of Allegiance after it’s on the pole. Annie looks like she is at attention and appreciates the flag flying as well.

I also wanted to share a picture of Bud. In the spring he looks so terrible. His long fur gets knotted and gets pulled out in clumps. Many times he has bare skin showing, but I guess that is cooler than wearing that heavy fur coat when the temperatures are rising. It always grows back!

We were so glad to have Carie and Steve visit us. We took them on a couple of hikes; one to Homestead Historical Park and one to the mausoleum near Fairbury.

Carie was a sport and climbed into one of the big cottonwood trees at Homestead. 

The mausoleum is a cool place to visit but resulted in us picking up quite a few ticks.  Teeny tiny ticks that were hard to see. We had to wash some of our clothing too. Next time we hike there it will be after a hard freeze.

One of the things we really enjoyed while Steve and Carie were here was doing ax throwing with them. It was so much fun!

Emma and Carie wanted to celebrate their birthdays together so we had a birthday party. They made a birthday cake together with a little help from Margaret. They had so much fun.

    

We have another goofy cat, Jazz. When I work in the garden she is almost always there. She loves the black garden paper. All of the mulch has been blown off or scratched off by the chickens so it ripples in the wind. Jazz loves to hid inside it.

Blaise and Jillian made it to Steele Farm for the summer. Emma and Margaret are anxious to visit them in the camper.

Garden looked very good at the beginning of the summer. It has not done quite a well as we had hoped. The watermelons and cantaloupe seem to have been hit by a squash bug. The tomatoes were turning brown and we think that may have been the result of the soaker hose springing leaks in a couple of places so some of them weren’t getting any water.  We have taken to watering them by hand for now and while they aren’t looking much better, they aren’t getting any worse.

AND, we have been burning wood. Since we have five more pine trees that have died and need to be cut down we have been trying to do a fire on Friday nights. That kind of ended when the weather got so hot.

Aaron and Ken went fishing one night and Margaret came down to pick mulberries. Aaron said I should try to lay a sheet on the ground and shake the limbs like him and Grandma Barbara used to do.  I tried that with Margaret while she was picking. She told me to stop shaking the tree that made it hard for her to pick. Oh well, I tried.  I think she had a good time though. She really enjoyed the mulberries. Later I made some mulberry jelly to take to her.

4th of July – Aaron and Kalie hosted for the 4th of July this year. Had a good time playing games, doing water balloons and lots of good food.

Emma wanted to watch the fireworks while sitting on Grandpa’s lap.

Did one of our Nebraska passport trips. It was a nice day for an outing and we got to spend a little time fishing at two rivers.

 

Emma’s birthday

 

One evening Jillian and I went to the Spring Creek Prairie – it was very beautiful out there but we did come home with a few ticks.

The girls came to spend a night with us. They got to swim (or float) in the tank and we watched the crop duster fly over.

 They can entertain themselves so well in the tank.  It’s fun to watch.

This is what happens when they come to the farm and spend the night. They are pooped!!!

The Rodeo:
We did some fishing at Calamus Lake before the rodeo.  Ken caught some nice size carp.

The Burwell Rodeo – I did a video montage of the special events at the Burwell Rodeo. (Warning – it a long one)

Playhouse renovation

Here’s what the playhouse looked like earlier this summer.

We got busy after we recovered from covid. Ken finished the  inside complete with electric lights and couple of outlets for plugging in a fan on hot days. I did the outside painting and created a little art work for the outside.  Auntie and Uncle Blaise gave Emma the mailbox for her birthday and when they were here, she and Auntie worked on getting it all painted.  It looks great!

That’s all for now . . . that’s more than enough, right! The summer has gone fast and it feels like we still have a lot of things on our “want to do” list yet but we have already had a very full and fun summer.