Does this make me a Great Great Grandma?

Donya purchased some baby silky chickens at an animal swap a year ago, and had hoped to get at least one rooster. As luck would have it, she did get just one rooster and the rest were hens. Last night when she was closing the little chicken coop, the little white hen refused to go in to roost. Donya got her Grandpa to help her lift the tiny pen so she could put the hen in the door. After the hen went in unwillingly and clucking all the while, Donya heard 'cheep cheep cheep'. There were 2 tiny little silky chicks left in the pen. They had to lift the pen again and move the babies in with the mother. Donya was so excited.. she came in exclaiming 'I'm a Grandma'. So that makes me a great great grandma, right? To some chickens.
If you are wondering what a 'silky' is, it is a small chicken (banty size) that has feathers that look more like fur then feathers. It grows on their feet and legs and they look like a tiny llama.
Mama with her babies. Tonight Don and I had to close the chicken hut, and the mama was sitting in the yard up close to the door of the hutch, all fluffed out with her babies under her. They are so tiny they can not get up into the hutch. It is about 3 inches off the ground. She pecked me when I grabbed her (didn't hurt) and pushed her in the open door. Then I had to feel around in the grass for her babies. My, they were tiny.
That is mown grass those little darlings are hiding in.
The rooster is in the back, by the hut. Actually this is our 'chicken tractor', we built it to fit between the rows of the garden, with wheels on one end so we can move it along each day. The chickens then can scratch and eat the weed seeds and bugs in the garden. The chicken house is under construction and will soon be ready for a photo. We will move them to the chicken coop for the winter.

Silkies make excellent mothers and even the rooster will help set on the eggs. Lots of fun for a cheap hobby. IF you can get someone to build the little pens and huts they need.
Donya brought home a new basket and Gabby took it over. Makes a real cute photo, AND it keeps her off the chairs and sofa.. and that is not a bad thing.

Company from Colorado

Surprise !! Fall has arrived. Never mind it comes every year at this time, it's still a surprise when it arrives. We had to replace all our mums, due to an icy winter. Sure missed having them the year we skipped setting out the new plants. Now, to the business of setting these new plants.
The birds must have 'planted' a wild grape seed. I might be making a mistake by leaving it to climb on the trellis. It looks nice there, right now. Don't know how big of a job it will be to remove it when it gets too wild.
Have you ever seen a sorrier looking tomato plant? This has not been a very good tomato year. It has been way too cold all summer. I have plenty for canning because we had set out so many plants. I am so mad at the jerk that messed with our global warming. Give it back !! We need that warmth for our plants.
We were happy to have Harold visit for a few days. Don took him to an auction (Don and Fred's most favorite hobby). Then the 2 brothers traveled to Wisconsin to visit their sister, Darlene. I remembered they would be going through Gays Mills (the famous apple orchards in Wisconsin) so called Don on Big Red's phone (his pickup) to ask for a couple dozen cider doughnuts that are made at Sunrise orchard in Gay's Mills. Yum! He also got a half bushel of his favorite apple, honey crisp, and a couple gallons of fresh cider.
Here are some Etter boys looking for trouble. Brothers Don and Harold, with Fred and Alfie. Too early for snomobiles and only one Harley motorcycle, not enough to share. Guess they could have gone canoeing if they would have had time.

Harold left for Colorado this morning, anxious to return home. Time always seems to move by so quickly when vacationing. It felt like Harold had just arrived and then he was heading out with his suitcase, already.

Davis Rally 2009 part 2

Lou Ann's photos are much better then mine. She was kind enough share them using e-mail.
Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois and Missouri all represented in this photo. Packed and ready to head out. The weather was perfect this year, for the rally.
I TOLD Lou Ann the camera hates me, when she asked us to come on out for a photo. Alfie's picture is good, the rest of us ?!!!
Meet Red. He demands our guests to pick an apple from the near by tree and give it to him.
And this is Bud. He is a pen mate with Red. These 2 ponies have not been broke to ride. Anyone interested in playing rodeo??

Our saddle horses are named Skipper and Dude. Their home is in the lower corral.

Thank you Lou Ann for the photos.

Davis Rally 2009

A motor cycle gang visited our bed and breakfast this past week end. I had to chuckle when I thought about them all being baby boomers, riding trikes. One couple arrived in a corvette! Most have stayed at the Barn before, and helped welcome a few first timers. I took some photos this morning after breakfast. FANCY trikes..and corvette.

I am grateful that everyone reserved a room for 2010 rally. hmmmm I better start working on the menu.

The day ended with Don's brother, Harold, finally arriving for a nice vacation/visit. It has been over a year since his last visit.

End of summer is close

Fred likes to attend the Mennonite auctions that are near our farm. When you bid, it is on a pallet full. The grocery stores are there bidding against you, so you rest assured you are paying wholesale. The local farm wives have decided to buy their vegetables for canning at those auctions. Well, me too... next year.

I heard Fred had gone to the auction last Saturday, so I made a call to him to bring back mums for fall planting. It is a good thing his friend's mother in law was also interested in mums. She took 2/3 of the pallet and I got 1/3. It was lovely to see Fred drive in with a pickup load of blossoms. 12 huge mum plants. I had to take two photos to get them all in.(well, only because the sun was on the East side so most of the plants were in the shade.)
I think I am finished canning green beans. I made some dill green bean pickles, too. I hope they are as good as my mother in law's. My mother had never made any, so they were new to me. We had to rip and pillage a lot of our wild plum bushes when we put tile in that part of our farm this spring. So I made 'enough' plum jam for this year, and did not feel guilty for letting extra plums go to waste, there weren't any. I could not resist taking the photo when the morning sun flooded my counter top this morning.
More goodies brought in from the garden. The trees are starting to turn bright colors, as well.
The neighbor to our scrapbook shop told Donya and Michelle to help themselves to the pears. They were starting to fall off her trees and call flies. I plan to can them as soon as they get ripe.

A funny story: When Don and I were married 3 short years, we made a trip to the "Western Slope" in Colorado to get tree ripened peaches (they are the best! yum). I also wanted to get some tree ripened pears. The orchard farmers got a good laugh at me for that. Said there is no such thing as a tree ripened pear. They fall off before ripening. Besides , there is absolutely no way to transport ripe pears.

Highway 127 2009 adventures

Don can not help himself, he is attracted to 'junk'. He ran onto this pickup that is for sale, sitting near a few yard sales. He was tired of looking at my kind of 'junk' but got a kick out of this one. This is the good side.
This was the other side of that pickup. It was turned toward the trees, so the only way you would see it was to get out and walk around the thing.
Don spent a lot of time just watching people. He is the only one of us that did not carry a cell phone. I made the girls hunt him down when we were ready to move on. I wish he would agree to carry a cell phone, but he a stubborn old farmer. He sure counts on mine when we travel together.
There were quilts for sale. These were hanging on a porch rail.. and if you look closely you will see the kitten laying on the porch floor below the blue skirted girl quilt. The quilt makers were sitting in a row on the porch behind the quilts. They were looking at us, while we were looking at their quilts.
Donya is a gourmet cook, and has made the best pizzas on our grill at home. She brought all the makings for a couple pizzas, but had to experiment with cooking them on Fred's tripod over a camp fire. The first one came out a bit dark on the bottom side but still tasted great. Rhonda stood over the second one and it came out perfect.

It was a nice end to a busy 'sight seeing, shopping yard sales' day.