Suet Isn't Just for the Birds

We have several bird feeders on the side of our house where we can look out our dining room windows while eating our meals and watch the birds. We buy several types of food for the birds which includes suet. The woodpeckers seem to really enjoy the suet feeders and we enjoy watching both the Downy, Red Belly, and Harry Woodpeckers.

Recently, we discovered that the suet is not just a favorite of the birds. While Lisa was upstairs folding laundry, Gracie was downstairs playing and found the five packages of suet I had just bought the night before and had left on the kitchen counter. She pulled a chair over and helped herself to the suet. She opened a package and started eating it. Then she carried it upstairs to show her mom what she had found. Lisa wasn't too happy when she saw the half eaten suet package with the evidence of where the other half had gone all over Gracie's face, hands, and clothes. We now keep the suet out of Gracie's reach.

Then, yesterday, we noticed that one of the suet feeders that we had just filled was completely empty and the feeder on the ground. We couldn't figure out what had happened to it, so we just filled it again and hung it back up. It wasn't long before we discovered that Checotah, Ryan and Lisa's German Shepherd dog, was standing up on the bird feeder pole and knocking down the suet, opening it up, and eating it. She loves the suet. We don't know what we are going to do. We want the birds to keep coming, but Checotah won't leave the suet alone.

Checotah isn't a year old yet and she is our most challenging. Last Thursday evening when we got home from Vacation Bible School, Matthew let Checotah out of her cage and then he went out to the barn to check on the cats and kittens. Checotah went with him and when she saw one of the kittens she grabbed it and there was quite a scurrying to save the kitten from Checotah. The kitten had several puncture wounds, but was still alive. We hope she lives. Checotah does not like cats and she wants to be the Alpha dog, which Punkin has allowed. Checotah is a sweet dog, but she needs to learn a few manners. Especially when she is the guest.

Now days, life is never boring. When bedtime comes, the dogs all have their places. Both Molly and Checotah have a wire cage in the back room that they go into. Punkin sleeps in the bottom part of the garage and Lola sleeps in the slammer (Lola won't sleep anywhere else). When Shannon comes over to visit she brings Cooper and he sleeps in the upper part of the garage.

All in all the animals are being very good and we are thankful that we have a lot of land for our furry friends to run around on. They are really smart. Bob won't let them in the garden, and they know that. They run all around the border of the garden, but won't step foot in the garden. I'd say that's pretty smart.

Gardening Update!

We have a huge garden this year and we are beginning to pick some of the fruits and vegetables. One of my favorite things to do in the summer is to go into the garden, after coming home from work, and eat my dinner fresh. I love raw cucumbers, okra, tomatoes, green beans, black eyed peas, green peas, and corn. Right now we have tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, green peas, cabbage, zucchini, peppers, onions, potatoes, blueberries, boysenberries, and raspberries. My favorite vegetable is fresh green peas. I love sitting on the porch in my metal rocking chair with a big basket full of green peas to shell and eat. It just doesn't get any better than that.

Ryan and Matt are very helpful in keeping the weeds pulled in the garden.

Ryan and Matt helping pick raspberries.

Bob is just getting started with the raspberry picking. There are lots of green raspberries, so we should have raspberries for several weeks. I'm hoping to make raspberry jam.

The boysenberries are huge.

Cabbage and cucumbers. I took cabbage salad for potluck at church today and it was a big hit!

More of our garden produce.

We had fresh green beans Friday evening for supper.

The Snitchers

This afternoon Matthew and I decided to do some baking. So we made a chocolate cake and some brown sugar nut cookies. While we were busy cleaning and waiting for one cookie sheet of cookies to bake in the oven, two little snitchers helped themselves to some of the raw cookie dough. I love raw cookie dough and let my children have some whenever we made cookies. However, I'm not sure I want my grandchildren to have any, because of the raw eggs. Funny, nothing ever happened to me and I'm, well lets just say I'm old enough to be a grandmother, and all six of my kids are adults and appear to be quite normal. It's probably a good thing these cookies are just for the family.

Adventures of Babysitting

I love Friday's because I'm off work and usually have a million things to do. Today, I'm watching the kids and grandpa is home too!! After lunch, I needed to run a few errands, so I was going to take Hannah and leave Gracie home to take a nap. Then plans changed. Grandpa and Ryan decided to go and work in the orchard. So, I asked Matthew to stay home and watch Gracie which he willingly agreed to do.

When I got home, there was no one in the house, and then Matthew came in and wanted to show me something. He and Gracie had been having a great time together while I was away. Just look at what Matthew was doing with Gracie . . .

Matthew had tied the wagon handle to the back of his little motorcycle and pulled her all around the property. Gracie was having a great time. She was laughing and did not want to get out of the wagon.

Even More Blessed!

Since Ryan and Lisa and the children have been living with us, everyday brings more and more blessings. On Tuesday I took off work and watched Hannah and Gracie while Ryan and Lisa took care of some business. While Hannah and I were eating lunch at the dining room table and Gracie was having her lunch in the high chair, Hannah turned to me and said, "Grandma, when I grow up, I want to be a grandma." I told her that she would have to be a mommy first and she responded, "But grandma's have so much more fun than mommies, I just want to be a grandma." Hannah played like she was going to a tea party and got all dressed up. She wanted her hair curled, so I curled it for her. Then she wanted to wear stockings, so I put a pair of my pantyhose on her and pulled them up high on her legs. She just loved it. She wore a long dress that was Lisa's when she was a little girl. Then we topped the outfit off with a white patten purse that was mine when I was a little girl. Inside the purse she put a mirror, old beautiful handkerchief, and three peppermint candies. We then looked through my box of old scatter pins and she picked out the perfect pin to wear on her dress. Now she needed a hat. So she looked through my old hats and found one to wear. Then she wanted gloves. I couldn't remember where I put mine, so I told her that when her mommy and daddy got home we would go shopping for some. And, that's what we did. She went all dressed up in her tea party outfit to look for gloves. We found the perfect lace pair at one of the local antique shops. Then she thought we should look for a tea party dish set. We looked, but were unsuccessful in locating one, but we did find a box full of hats that she enjoyed trying on. She found one she just had to have so she went and asked the clerk how much the hat was. The clerk told her it was $1. So Hannah purchased the hat and her outfit was complete. Before going home, we had to make a stop at Walmart. The smiles and looks that Hannah received was amazing. I don't think people see little girls dressed up like this very often, because she got lots of sweet comments. And Hannah always responded with, "Thank you!" in her sweet little voice.

Hannah ready for a tea party.

When I come home in the evenings after work, I like to go for a walk. I usually load Punkin in the car and drive down the road and we walk for three to five miles. Now, all that has changed. I now load the wagon, baby stroller, Punkin, Matthew, Lisa, and myself and off we go. It takes most of the evening to load, walk, and unload, but well worth it. Wednesday evening, Lisa, Hannah, Gracie, Punkin, and I went for the walk. We were walking up a hill. I was pulling Gracie in the wagon and she kept wiggling around. There was noise from the wheels of the wagon on the pavement, Hannah was walking beside us and talking, and Punkin was leading the way on the leash. All of a sudden we realized that Gracie had fallen out of the wagon and was on the street at the bottom of the hill. It was a good thing this was a country road and hardly any cars on it. We all ran to Gracie and picked her up, put her back in the wagon and started back up the hill. It didn't bother Gracie too much, and we all had a good laugh about it.

Yesterday, Gracie received a birthday present from Auntie Natalie and Uncle Adam. She opened it and immediately loved it. She got her first American Girl Doll!!! It is the baby doll and before Gracie went to bed, she dressed her dolly in pajamas (she shared hers with the doll) and placed her in a cradle next to her bed. She covered the baby and kissed her good night. This morning she was caring her new baby and wanted the cradle brought downstairs.

Gracie showing me her baby in the cradle.

The boys are always busy helping around the place and riding their three-wheeler and little motorcycle. They have lots of land to ride on. All the animals are doing well.

So far this year, I've made strawberry jam and frozen strawberries. We'll be picking blueberries in about a week. Out of the garden we have had cucumbers, cabbage, potatoes, and onions. The garden looks great and we are all anxious for the tomatoes and corn to be ready to pick.

It's nice to have a house full of children and enjoy the smiles, hugs, and joy they bring to us everyday.

Until next time . . .

Updates

With camp meeting over and almost everything back in its place, I'm having the time of my life with Ryan, Lisa and the children living with us. There is never a dull moment and I don't come home from work to an empty house. On Friday Lisa and I went to pick strawberries and soon Ryan and the four kids arrived to help us finish. The strawberry stained faces of the children was priceless and several of the other brave souls that were picking commented on the cute faces. When we arrived home, Lisa and I began making jelly. Lisa made 24 jars and I made 8. We each froze ten quarts of strawberries, too!!



Friday evening, we had a birthday celebration for Gracie who's birthday was July 5. We had quite a guest list starting with the eight that are now living here and then we were joined by Lisa's mom and little brother Johnny, Lisa's sister, Caroline and her two children, and Shannon and Madeline. I had made homemade marshmallows Thursday evening for this event, and on Friday I made potato salad. We roasted corn and veggie hot dogs in the evening. And the kids loved roasting the marshmallows. Bob even had some and shared with me. Yum!!



Gracie's birthday cake was fresh strawberry shortcake with real whipped cream and she blew out the candles all by herself. Twice!!! It's hard to believe that she is two years old already.



At the home front we not only have increased in people, we have increased in the animal kingdom too. We now have a total of four dogs, two rabbits, five cats, two birds, and one extra visiting dog. Shannon and Madeline brought Cooper with them for the weekend. This morning, Cooper escaped so everyone was out looking for him. Ryan and I found him running about a half mile from the house. He doesn't hear too well, so he just kept running. Ryan stopped the truck and I got out and started running after him and was able to catch him and then Ryan carried him back to the truck and sat in the back with him while I drove his truck back home. I was pleasantly pleased that I can still drive stick-shift.

The extra help here at home is wonderful. The boys had the whole house cleaned when I got home from work on Thursday. They have also been helping grandpa in the garden and there are no weeds!!! It looks wonderful. Soon we'll be enjoying the produce and we are all anxious for that day!!! Little Ryan is working in the orchard today. He wants to surprise grandpa when he gets home tomorrow evening.

Rachael summed up her life in six words and of course it's great. Shannon asked me what my six words would be that summed up my life. So here are the six words that sum up my life. Rachael, Ryan, Shannon, Lori, Francie, Natalie.

It just doesn't get any better than that!! Until next time . . .

Cherries and One More

This is Jack's plate after he ate supper. For dessert he had cherries.
Kristen is posing for a picture featuring her new duck bill made with two pringle potato chips.
Some of the leftover cherries.
Another type of cherry. I think they are called Queen Anne.
This is the last of the left-over cherries.

The kids and grandpa had fun picking cherries. They have eaten several bowls full. I sure hope they don't get sick.

I have to get back to the camper and dry these children off (they have been playing on the slip'n'slide) and get them ready for the evening meeting. Jack and Madeline will be singing with their primary friends in the big tent this evening at 7:55 p.m.

Hoping to have more to follow, depending on the cooperation of the internet service here which is very limited.