SAM IS 300 DAYS OLD TODAY!

Sounds impressive, doesn't it? He will be 10 months old in a few days, but 300 days sounds like so much more! I don't think I will figure out how many days old I am....
Hope your day was special Sam!! Love you!!!!

Tidbits from yesterday

I had quilt-on-the-mind last night and didn't mention a couple of things.
First and foremost, Dan spent most of the day sick yesterday. Not sure what he tangled with, but think it was probably the flu - achy all over and running to the bathroom (yes, you needed to know that). Eating wasn't a problem except that he didn't have much of an appetite. He was able to milk last night, although I steered him away from scrubbing up by having him repair the float for the gimps' waterer. That needed doing anyway, so everybody was 'happy'. He was a bit wiped out this morning, but made it through chores and cleanup okay. He's down for the count right now, but that is his usual MO after breakfast.

A big CONGRATULATIONS goes out to our young friends, Brian and Jill Huenink! Jill gave birth to a beautiful little boy on April 28th! Weston John joins 'older' brother, William Brian who will be 2 in August. Reminds me of how close our little ones were - Josh and Mara were 21 months apart and Mara and Sally were 20 months apart. It is hectic for a couple of years, but nice in the long run to have your family close in age. Lots of dark hair on this little guy, too! Will had quite a heed full of dark hair when he was born, although it has lightened up some now. Jill and Brian were at Josh and Debora's wedding in Lake Tahoe, and in Brazil, too. Both of them attended Madison and both work for John Deere in Iowa, although not real close to Josh and Debora, as they live in Hudson, IA. Josh and Debora also stood up in their wedding, so very good friends.

Back to today. Looks like I should make it to the field, if Dan gets the oil changed on the 8910. Roger wants me to head over and chop stalks on a couple of fields the other side of highway 10. I'm ready....

Another note: We talked with Josh last night. Sounds like Thomas' shots were giving him a bit of trouble yesterday. Hopefully he is more like himself today. Usually quite a happy boy. Also, while Dan was talking with Josh, I started to undo the quilt so I could spray it. I had to have Dan come in, with the phone in hand, to give me a hand with it. We got it done and it is rolled back up on the frame again. The buttons are something I can work on in small increments of time, so will tackle it piece-meal as I can.

What I"ve been up to....

Thought I would take a picture of my work-in-progress. This is my Crazy-Gatfly Quilt. It is made up of the leftovers from baby quilts, plus I had to purchase the burgundy that I used to connect the blocks. There are 255 of those blocks, and I am putting a button in the center of each one. I have one row done so far, the second row up from the 'bottom' of this picture. I took it at an angle to try to get a closer shot of the entire thing. At the 'top' of the picture, most of the quilt is rolled on the quilting frame. I'm not sure that I am using this right, but it is working well for what I am doing. I don't have the proper type of chair to set the frame on, as they used to do. I have one side of it propped on canned goods so that I can reach underneath it to do the buttons. While I was milking tonight, I remembered that I hadn't sprayed between the layers to meld it together - bother! I will probably undo the rolled part and spray it, as it will hold it together better for when I am 'quilting' it. Guess I got the cart before the horse, once more....
I decided to share this picture now as I was told I would be chopping stalks tomorrow. Thursday I go to do Doc Debbie's monthly statements, and who knows what will happen after that. One of the 'blessings' of working on a farm - sometimes you don't know from one day to the next what you will be doing. Weather dictates a lot. There is one thing - you rarely get bored. I have to figure out some way to protect the quilt when it is on the frame, though, as when I came home from chores tonight, Stella was using it as a hammock! I had put a vinyl tablecloth over it, as I was afraid something like that would happen, so it isn't all full of cat hair - yet!
I am still in need of some buttons! I have to get those from Connie, but if anyone has any cool buttons and would like to share with me, I'll take them! They need to have only 2 holes and preferrably be between 1/2 and 3/4 inch. Thanks!

The Upside of Rotten Weather

With the beautiful snow that we had today - and it really was beautiful! - I got the chance to go down to Mary's for coffee this morning, guilt-free! I wish I'd had my camera with me in the car as the snow on the trees hanging over the road between Hartman Creek Park and Mary's house was absolutely gorgeous - a fairyland tunnel! She also had her friend, Barb over - I am not even going to take a stab at her last name. Quite different. The name that is, she is a very nice person and we had a lot of fun playing a game of Scrabble. Barb was a good sport and went along with playing it, even though she admitted it was not her strong suit. She did well even so, but I managed to pull off another win, with Mary tight on my tail - two in a row for me! Wow! Mostly Scrabble is the luck of the draw, because if you don't get decent letters, it doesn't make any difference how good a player you are. After a couple cups of good coffee, a good game, and even better conversation it was time to head home.
I also raided Mary's button jars for my quilt project. I'm getting quite a collection, but still have a ways to go to have enough. I haven't gotten the buttons from Connie to look through yet. I should be able to get quite a few there. This afternoon I started to putz around making pillow shams to go with the quilt. I need to get to a fabric store to get a batt. I think I will use a queen or king size flat sheet, if I can get just the flat sheet, to use for the backing. I keep thinking I won't have time to do this now, but Mother Nature keeps giving me a bit more time.
Stopped to say hi to Mom on the way home. Hit that one pretty good - she was making rice pudding and sent some home with me for our dinner. Yum!

"April Snow Brings.....

...May.....hmmmm....let me see, what rhymes with 'snow' and is desirable??" Dan suggested 'flowers', but he must lean more towards prose than poetry....

We woke up to a dusting on the ground, and it hasn't let up. In fact, it looks to be getting a bit more serious out there. Bummer! Ah, but my new mantra is "no complaining!" So, anyone for a snowball fight?? Enjoy your day and hope this 'stuff' doesn't interfere with your driving to work today! Luckily, I have all-terrain tires on my bike!

Visiting 'Sam I Am'!

I love these kind of photos - he is concentrating so hard!

"Walking" with Daddy's help! (my pants are a bit long....)

Gatfly and Grandpa were so happy to visit Sam!

We decided to take full advantage of not having to be there for milking on Saturday evening and spent the day with Sam and family! Or rather, most of it traveling to and from Baldwin (3 hours one way) and the balance of the time enjoying our older grandson. At nearly 10 months old, Sam is learning something new, just about every minute! I couldn't get him too interested in patty-cake, though or the "Home Alone" hands-to-his-face gesture, either. I wouldn't have thought, before this visit, that Sam would be capable of condescending looks - but that it what I seemed to get out of him when I tried to get him to do the above-mentioned things. Oh well. He has plenty of 'tricks' up his sleeves, as it is.

He wasn't quite sure what to make of Gatfly crawling around behind him. He would take a few creeps (? - they weren't steps...) and turn around and look at me like, "what on earth are you doing? why are you following me??" I think he thought I wasn't much good if I wasn't going to open doors that were shut or reach things for him that he couldn't/shouldn't. Unfortunately, the bruise you see on his forehead isn't just a smudge on the photos. Sally wasn't sure just when he got it, but watching him ram around the room it isn't hard to know why he got it. If there is something in his way, he just goes up and over it, with his eyes on the 'prize', so to speak. His Daddy had rigged up the gate for the opening between the living room and dining/kitchen area to give Hunter an assylum, and also a place wherethe dog food and water could be left down for him and not Sam. Why are barriers such a magnet for little ones? At one point, Sam had it pulled catty-wampus and was on the verge of 'escaping' into the dining room. It is no barrier for Hunter, as he leaps back and forth between the two rooms. [We had found out this was no problem for Hunter at our house. I had put him in the hallway, that has a gate into the dining room, but a full door into the kitchen area. I walked around to the door into the dining room from the kitchen and was met by Hunter. It was as if he was saying, "that was a fun game! let's do it again!" Even though I know that Lucy and Linus can jump that gate too, they seem to respect it and stay in the hall. Not Hunter. I had to stack another gate above the other one to keep him in there.]

We went out for lunch and had a really good meal. Thanks Scott and Sally! Sam was a very good boy at the restaurant, munching on Cheerios (at least the ones that made it to his mouth!), and chowing down on peas and applesauce. I was willing to share my french fries with him, but Mama said no. They had forgotten to bring a sippy cup, and Sally was trying to give him a drink from her water glass. That was too funny! He would stick his tongue WAY out (see earlier post on their blog) and kind of 'chew' on the edge of the glass. Not very efficient. It went a little better when Mama spooned him a bit of water. He charmed everyone who saw him there. We had the dining room to ourselves, but there was a group of senior citizens in an adjoining room, and when they had to go through for something, they would stop and ooh and aah over him. Of course he ate that up! The waittress thought that he was pretty darn cute, too!

Just before we headed to go out to eat, the power went out at their house and soon we heard sirens. When we went past the firehouse, the faithful were gathering and we met a couple of emergency vehicles. When we went back to their house we decided to see if we could see where they had gone, but they had all the streets leading to the north side of town blocked off with vehicles and firemen were directing traffic. We assumed it was an accident that took out a power pole, but never heard anything about it while we were there. The power came back on shortly after Scott relented and went downstairs to build a wood fire. I think it had been out for a couple of hours. Hope no one was hurt.

We left there a little after 5:00 and got home before 9:00, having stopped for a bite to eat on the way. The dogs were happy to see us, as they got left inside for the day. They hadn't wanted to stay out, and we figured they would be okay this time. They were fine - no messes. I hadn't asked Linda to stop in, but that doesn't mean that she didn't, and I couldn't make out what Jack was telling me....

Post Script: We went to my folks' for dinner today. Cari had mixed up a Taco hotdish from all the leftovers of when my Mom made tacos when she was there. It was pretty good, although quite cheesy. Cari had put quite a bit of cheese in it and Mom decided to add some more to the top before baking. Dan liked it quite a bit.

Dan was able to help Dad do a couple of things and Mom and I had a game of Scrabble (go figure). [This was the first win that I referred to on Monday's post.] I had brought my quilt-top along to show Mom and raided her buttons for it. It's always good to see the folks. They are doing quite well and have been busy with spring work around their house. Hopefully they are pacing themselves, but I know they feel really good about all the things that they can do.

Haircuts - 50 cents!

Every once in a while I get to that point where I just can't handle my hair and the way it is behaving anymore. Lucky for me (unlucky for my hair) I have hair-cutting equipment! Sooooooo, last night after chores I headed into the bathroom for my "appointment" with that hairdresser in the mirror. In view of the fact that we have two weddings coming up in a month, I opted to not give myself a razor-cut. For that I generally clamp on the 1-inch guard and go over my entire head. It is very freeing, but also a little scary to take that first look at the finished product. Even so, I generally do it at least once a year. Call it starting fresh - kind of like cutting your lawn. Maybe the quackgrass (gray hair) won't come up this time. Of course, it always does and seems to bring company with it! But my vanity says that the shorter my hair is, the less the gray shows. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it! Like I said, I didn't do that last night. I decided to try and scissor-cut it. That is always a challenge. Ever try to do something in the mirror and everything is backwards? Okay, so most of you women do makeup and such (that's an art I never mastered), and most of you men shave. Maybe it's not quite the same. I'll grab a section of hair and hold it up. Then comes the hard part - holding the scissors the right way to do the cut. Not as easy as it sounds! And probably the hardest part of my hair to cut is the back. Duh! Not only can I not figure out which way to hold the scissors, but I can't see what I am doing. I have tried to do it in the upstairs bathroom, where I have fold-out mirrors, but that makes it even more confusing! Why not go and have someone else cut it, you say? Generally, because I want it done right now when I decide to do it. Not in a day or two, or even a few hours. (Did I ever mention that I have little or no patience?) Anyway, I cut it about 2-inches long all over. It doesn't look too bad, considering...and I will take the scissors along to Sally's today so she can trim any blaring spots. She just loves to do that! (right....)

Oh, I didn't say earlier that we get to go and visit Sam, Sally and Scott today! This will probably be the last "extra" day off on the weekend we will get until late fall when all the fieldwork is done, so thought we would take advantage of it. I don't know if I explained this before or not, but our work schedule is this: we get every third morning "in" - that means we don't have to get up and milk the cows. This goes for all of us, in a swing schedule: when John has in, we milk and Roger does barn chores; when Roger has in, we milk and John does the barn chores; and when WE get to sleep in, Roger and our "bestest buddy" Linda milk the cows and John does the barn chores. Every time we have off, Linda comes and milks with Roger - we wouldn't know what to do without her!! (probably get very grumpy!) Then, because there are 3 of us (Dan and I count as a unit for this application) every third Sunday is our 'morning in'. Then, we get to have the entire day off, with no chore duties. Very often, the person "off" opts to skip town and be really unavailable. So, for a good portion of the year, we only get one day in 21 where we have no farm duties. That doesn't sound like much, but when you consider the alternative (farmers used to work ALL the time, with no time off) it isn't so bad, and you get used to it. But after the Fall work is done, we get a little extra time off: if you have Friday morning in, you get the night off; Saturday morning in, Saturday night off, but this is only for the three days of the weekend. That way, everyone gets a day off each week. That is wonderful, and we are so glad that Linda is willing to go that extra mile for us! I've thought it would be nice to keep that up all year round, as we could really use the time off - especially during our busy time - but we haven't done it yet. Linda and Tom are crop farmers and are also very busy during the growing season, so she isn't as available for us then. Of course, if there is something special going on, a day-off can be managed (with some juggling, and depending on everyone else's schedule) but we try not to abuse that. This is why we sometimes drag our feet if someone wants to schedule something on our "day-off" - because it really is one day off. There are times we try to pack too much into that day, and end up feeling more worn out than if we had worked, but usually that involves fun so we suck it up. That's our life, and for the most part we love it!

Oh - back to the haircuts for a minute. I did say, cuts, because when I got done with mine I called Dan out to the kitchen to get his hair cut. He remembers going to the barber only once or twice when he was a kid. Othewise, his Mother cut his hair all the time he was growing up, and beyond, and the she taught me how to do it. (so my hair-cutting is all Ma's fault....) We have been married almost 32 years and he hasn't been to the barber in all that time. (explains a lot, doesn't it?) Well, last night I got started on his hair and clamped on what I thought was the 1/2" guard. After a swipe or two, I looked a little closer and realized that I had put on the 3/8" guard that I always used when I cut Pa's hair. (he liked it good and short as his hair grew so fast) Well, I had started right up the middle in the back, as usual, so there was no turning back. Now, there is only 1/8th inch difference between those two guards, but WOW! He has a very short haircut! I guess I won't have to be doing that again real soon....It will probably be grown out to a nice length by the time of the weddings.....

Have a great day - we intend to!!!

Happy Birthday to Matt!

Happy Birthday to nephew Matthew Kolb! He is the son of Alice (Dan's sister) and Steve Kolb. A student at UWSP, he is majoring in Paper Science and I think will be graduating this Spring. (Hard to keep all the students straight, although there are only few left in school now!) If it can be hunted, he's tried it and the fish swim away in terror when he heads their way with a fishing pole in hand...have a good one Matt!

Night crawlers anyone??

And I am not referring to Sam abandoning his Dad in the living room the other night to go and find his Mama (who was trying to take a rest on the bed), pull himself up on the side of the bed and 'ask' to come up and nurse!

No, this is the worm-variety. On my bike ride home from chores this morning, I had a hard time maneuvering around all the night crawlers that had escaped from the soggy ground. Dan mentioned when he got home a bit later that Marina was out 'harvesting' them. That reminded me of years ago when Nina Pipe would do the same thing. She loved to fish! I didn't know that about Marina, but there are a few things I don't know about her. Maybe she has a buyer for night crawlers. My brother, Mike, and I used to sell worms. Actually he raised them in beds in the woodshed (always smelled like dead worms in there!) and I got roped into 'manning' the stand out in front of the house when he had better things to do. I think it was when we would dig for earthworms that they figured out that I needed glasses. We always got more for the night crawlers, as they were harder to find (and bigger!). I don't remember going out to pick them up on the roads so much, mostly digging in the garden.

Oh the memories a bunch of soggy worms will dig up, huh???

More on buttons....

I have the top of the quilt all assembled! Yippee! I started looking through my small collection of buttons and found quite a few with 2 holes, but decided that I would like them to be closer to 3/4 inch size and I don't have very many that fit that criteria. Also, colors are preferred. Connie has offered me the buttons to look through, and my Mom also. Hopefully I can come up with enough, but if somebody has any they'd let me check through, that would be great. Like I said before, not sure when I will be getting to the point of putting them on. I'm a bit tired of dealing with it right now.

Buttons anybody??

I've been working on my latest quilting project, trying to wind it up before I have to head for the fields. It is not going as well as I anticipated, but I think it will turn out okay. It is just for our bed anyway. I am using up all the scraps from the baby quilts I have made, plus I had to get some material to go between those blocks (each block is 4-2½" squares sewn together). It is not as easy to keep things lined up as you might think.(or at least as I had thought) I'm too cheap to have it professionally quilted, and I think it would be too bulky to try to do on my sewing machine. Thus I came up with a third option: I will tie it by sewing a button in the center of each block. I will then machine stitch around the outside borders. Challenge: there are 255 blocks in this quilt! I would like to use 2-hole buttons and attach them by tying them on with warp. (that's why I want only 2 holes) Problem: I only have a few buttons around. So, I need your help! Does anybody out there have boxes of old buttons I could look through? I know Connie has the ones that Ma had collected, and I will talk to her. Also I need to check with my Mom. I think I will use a variety of colors and sizes, but probably try to keep them between ½"-1", maybe a few about 3/8", but no smaller. I will need to get a darning needle through the holes, as that is what it will take to thread the warp. They don't have to be fancy, or even especially pretty buttons. Certainly not rare ones. The quilt is quite colorful, so I should be able to use just about any color. Shank or wire-loop buttons will not work, the holes need to go through the button for this.
Thanks much to anyone who can help me out. I will probably not be finishing this completely now, but will work on it as my free time allows.
Now you know why you haven't heard too much from me lately....

O Descobrimento do Brasil!

Today marks the discovery of Brazil by the Portuguese in 1500.

Just thought you'd like to know!

Beautiful (and productive!) Day Off!!

Before and after pictures of the back porch. It's nice to have it enclosed over the winter months, but feels so refreshing and open when we remove the plastic in the Spring! A couple of years ago we put clear vinyl sheets on the northeast end of the porch to provide rain/windbreak for the dogs and also bike storage. That stays on year round.

It was such a gorgeous day yesterday! We slept in, just because we needed it. Then after a leisurely breakfast and a little R&R (what are days off for, anyway?) we headed outside to work on removing the plastic wrap from the porches and around the foundation. It went really well, and the dogs enjoyed having us out in 'their' yard. Definitely, their yard, as Jack especially has been digging holes again! Ugh! I stepped in several and I don't know how I kept from turning my ankles, but they are fortunate that I didn't. I was threatening horrible things if I had. (ever see a dog without front feet??)

After we got all the plastic off, we went out to our new garage and created storage space for the 'doors', plastic and lath above in the rafters. The builders had left, amongst other things, several long 2x4's that we placed up in the rafters so that we could put that stuff up there. The other 'things' that the builders had left were mostly garbage: cardboard, cut-off ends of 2x4's, boards that had separated the tin, tin trimmings, plastic shrink wrap from whatever, and some decent-sized pieces of 2x4's and 2x6 's. The latter I saved to try and make some wooden vehicles from (another one of my pipe-dream projects...), but the rest was trash. We got that all picked up and the garage looks pretty good. We will need to pour more cement in there, as the garage that we ended up with was somewhat bigger than our original slab. After that gets done, we would like to put some sort of workbench, along the back probably, for putsing. That will require electricity to be run out there, but we need to do that anyway because of the garage door. We are currently running an electric cord from the weavery - not ideal. I would like to get some hooks to hang the bikes from in the off-season. Also there would be other things that could be stored in that manner. Just looking to try to organize.

After we got done with that stuff, Dan got the chainsaw running and we lit into the lilac bushes on the east side of the property. We really thinned the two bushes north of the apple tree and they look much better! They are always such a pain to mow around - should be better, at least right away. Lots of dead stuff in the centers of them. After Dan ran the saw out of fuel he had to go and get some from the farm. When he got back it ran for a little bit, but then he couldn't get it re-started again. So, that was the end of our trimming for the day. There was a bit more to do on the apple tree and I wanted a branch trimmed on the willow. We never even got to the lilac by the deck. Not sure what I want to do with that one. The birds really like it, but the dogs have dug around it so bad that I don't think it would take much to pull it out of there. We also have some trees to trim that are growing too close to the house. One by the weavery, too. And Dan wants to take out a bunch of the locusts between us and Roger - especially out near the road. We need to do something about the gazebo, too, as it is leaning quite a bit this spring. I'm wondering if tightening the bolts we used to put it together might not straighten it up some. Worth a try. I have my morning glories started upstairs, in the west window, so hopefully we will have pretty flowers out there like we did the year M&M were married. Hope so. Also have some other climbing flowers started for there, and Dan bought a couple more grape plants to try again. Don't think the others made it.

I think we need another day off....

To top off our day, Debora called in the evening and we visited for over an hour. I could hear little Thomas in the background. :) Josh is in Germany for the week, and so Debora and Thomas are on their own. She said she took him out for a walk yesterday afternoon and ended up standing and talking with one of the neighbors for quite a while. Glad she's getting to know some of her neighbors. It's hard for her to be alone, not knowing very many people, but that will change as she makes new friends. She is looking forward to an upcoming trip, with Josh, to California. It will be a trial flight for Thomas, as they are planning a trip to Brazil in December. And, they wondered if we wanted to go, too (to Brazil, that is). Oooohhhh....so tempting! We will have to see what we can get tickets for - at the moment they are over $1,000! They plan on being there for a longer time, but I think if we were able to go it would only be for a week or less. We have to justify the cost of the tickets by staying at least that long. I better start saving up for that now....and hope some deals show up!

Happy 4th Birthday to Elyse!!!

Happy Birthday to you Elyse!!

Sorry we missed your party - your card is in the mail!

Love you much!!!

Happy Birthday to Paul Smidansky!

Happy Birthday to Paul Smidansky! He is the husband of my niece, Heidi (Hansen) Smidansky - Mike and Lorrie's daughter.

They live in the state of Washington. My folks will be going out to visit them this spring by train. Sounds like an adventure!

Interesting fact about Paul: he is a licensed pilot.

Hope you have a great day Paul!

My Turn!

Don't hate me because I'm beautiful....
There, is that better??
Here I am, in action! (Stella is watching)

Well, it took her long enough! Considering I'm her favorite cat I thought I would show up sooner than this! Although I am a bit younger than Fozzie (who will be three sometime this summer), I came to live with Holly and Dan about a month before him. I 'moved in' in October, while Fozzie didn't come until November of 2005.

Holly likes to tell the story of how I 'begged' to go home with her. Before (and after) the cows came in for milking, I would creep into the parlor from the barn and drape my little body over the barrier that keeps the cows from kicking the ones who are milking them. I would get into that position and mew - very pathetically, while beseeching her with my eyes. Well, it worked! Here I am, thank you very much, and living quite well. It took me a little while to gain my strength and start to look healthy, but even less time than that to worm my way into their (Holly's, at least) hearts. Right from the get-go I was her cat. She would let me, as a little kitten, crawl up her pantleg to sit in her lap, or crawl all the way up to her shoulder. I didn't realize, until later, that she was being indulgent with me at that age because she already had plans to have my front claws removed! I wasn't real happy with her for that, but I have adjusted. The 'other' surgery that she put me through didn't bother me near as much, because Fozzie and I had it at the same time. That was the wierdest time of Fozzie's and my relationship though. After our surgeries, when Holly brought us home, we wouldn't have anything to do with each other - and we had been the best of friends! It's my contention that he just didn't smell right - and he might say the same about me. It took us a good week to get 're-acquainted', and we have been good buddies ever since.

You would have thought with the two of us - really, I would have been plenty of cat all by myself! - they would have been content. But no. Last year they brought another one home! And a female, to boot! [Prior to this, I haven't mentioned Racé's existence. He really didn't figure into my picture until this last winter. He had always been mostly an outdoor cat, but this year he opted to stay in the house. We get in each other's way once in a while, but mostly ignore each other. He has front claws...] Stella will have her own chance to tell about herself, some other time. She is the youngest of us all, by about a year, and will be the last one of these entries.

I call myself a cat, because that is what Holly and Dan call me. I have many attributes of a dog, even so. I will come when I am called, and I 'kennel' on command. I do draw the line on things like 'sit' and 'stay' though. Thus the problem Holly had trying to get a picture of me for this entry. I kept following her around and coming up to her when she tried to snap my photo. I just wanted to be close to her! One of my favorite things to do is sit something about 2-3 feet off the floor and reach out and touch Holly's arm or leg as she walks past me. It is a sort of game with me and I am very good at it. Kind of like a 'coup'. Sometimes when I am sitting on Holly's lap - something that occurs just about every time she sits down on the couch - I will lean up against her and reach up and stroke her face with my paw. I don't hurt her at all because the of the claw-thing. I also like to jump up on the chair when she is working at the computer. She sits forward enough on the chair that there is room for me to sit behind her. I just like being close!

If you come to visit, I may or may not come out to greet you. It depends on my mood. If Holly calls, I will probably come out and say hi, but I may not stick around. That's my prerogative. Oh, if you really want to be my very best friend, forever and ever, bring me some catnip! (but don't let Holly see it....) Wow! That stuff is FANTASTIC!!! Only Holly doesn't let me have it very often. There is a certain toy floating around the house that has some inside, but I keep losing it. But when I find it - PARTYTIME!! Speaking of which, I think I will stop here and go look for that....tchau!

Oh! I almost forgot to tell you who I was! My name is Pelé! I am named after the famous soccer player from Brazil, and for good reason. I am VERY good with my front paws at batting just about anything around. I like bottle caps, wads of tinfoil, cat toys - really anything that will scoot across the floor when I hit it. You would have to ask Debora exactly how to pronounce my name. The accent is on the second syllable with a short e on the first and the second syllable is kind of like sticking out your tongue and going 'leh'. Holly has shortened it to Pe, which she pronounces (wrongly, I might add) 'Pay'. But Pe it is, most of the time. She nearly had a laughing fit when I was at the vets' and they called to say that 'Peely' was doing fine! That is pretty funny...

Well, I'm really gone now!

Happy Belated Birthday to Roger Aho!

A very Happy Birthday to "Grandpa" Aho, yesterday!

Now you are on my calendar!
(Sam's Grandpa, Scott's Dad)

April Showers....

....will hopefully bring May flowers! I heard a bad joke on the radio yesterday. Bad, because I just caught it now! One of the announcers said 'April showers', and the other one said, 'brings Pilgrims'. Duh! Hopefully the rest of you are more 'with it' than me!
Actually, I love a rainy day. As long as it isn't one in the line of many. It allows me to work on those little projects that I want to get done before the field work starts. It's not raining very hard so the dogs are content to be outside right now. They can get onto the porches if they need to get out of the weather. Both porches are still enclosed, but we hope to take care of that on Sunday. Sorry to miss out on Elyse's party, but we only have limited time to do around-the-house chores. And it goes so much better if we work at it together.
Doc Debbie called a bit ago and told me I could stay home today as she didn't have things ready for me. That's fine. But I better make use of my time. Talk to you later!

EEEEUUUUUUWIPE OUT!!

In case you are wondering about that title, none of us could figure out how you write the opening of the 'Wipe Out' song....and why, you might ask, were we wondering?

Last night on the way to the barn, I did something I haven't done since I was a kid....wiped out on my bike! Luckily it happened right after I had put something into the mailbox, so I wasn't up to speed yet. I had just gotten my feet back on the pedals and was turning into the driveway at the farm and all of the sudden I was lying on my side (really my hip) trying to figure out how I had gotten that way! Other than my pride, nothing got hurt. I quick looked around to see if anyone had witnessed my gracefulness, and it appeared that only about 50 cows were privy to it. Dan didn't even see it happen as he went on ahead, although he did turn around to see how come I hadn't caught up with him and also to see what the heck the cows were watching so intently. While they may have drawn attention to me, the cows would never tell on me. One of the many reasons I like dumb (in the sense they can't speak) animals. Like I said, no real harm done.

Instead of heading out to the weavery yesterday afternoon (it really doesn't pay for me to make plans), I went down to the farm and cleaned out tractors! Generally I use the 7120 so I headed for that one first. It's amazing how much dirt and whatever gets tracked into a tractor! Sweeping the floor with a whisk broom went fine until I opened the door to sweep it out - whoosh! Right back in my face. That tractor sat outside, so it was in the wind. I got most of the dirt to go out the door, anyway. I washed the windows, inside and out and all the mirrors. Caked on liquid manure re-constitutes to that same lovely smell when it is fresh! Yuck! Then I wiped down all the plastic console surfaces - I don't think that had been done before! Looks better for the moment, but it probably won't stay that way for very long. At least I will start the season with a clean tractor. After doing that one, I headed into the back part of the shed where the 7140 and the 8910 were parked. I did both of those, inside only. My rags were getting pretty dirty and wet and I figured the windows would just get mucked up again with the dust and birds so I will wash the outside of the windows when they are outside. John was using the MX to spread manure, but I caught it being loaded so was able to sweep the floor out before he needed to take off. As a parting shot, with each tractor (except the MX), I sprayed some Glade air freshener - Waterfall Mist - but it will be completely dissipated before I get back in there. The guys would probably complain, anyway...

NOTE: If you haven't checked it out, take a look at Heather's blog. She has some pictures of her grands on it, as well as a couple of the kids. I'm sure she will be getting the rest up soon. Also check out the Aho blog, as there are new pictures of Sam up! He is getting to look like such a little boy - less baby! Poor Inga! We all need to let the Bacon Family know we want new pictures!! I'm sure Thomas is changing fast, too. I hear he has taken up talking this past week. I asked Josh if he spoke in English or Portuguese, and he was quick to reply in "Thomas"! Most of the other blogs I keep track of have fairly new pictures on also. It's so much fun to see the kids developing, especially when we don't get to see them in person very much. Thanks to the parents for doing this!

Another Beautiful Day!

It is 55 out already and they are calling for 65! This weather would be absolutely perfect if it was slightly less windy - gusts to 30 mph today. I plan on doing stuff in the house this morning and be out in the weavery this afternoon. I love it when I can have the window open while I work, but since that faces south I may not, cause that is where the wind is coming from. At least I am not having to let the dogs in and out of the house all the time. They are content to stay outside when it's nice and they can get out of the wind if they want to.
It's our Sunday off this weekend, and by the looks of the yard we should spend it here at home. Maybe it's time to take the plastic-wrap off the house (weatherizing), but I would hate to jinx this nice weather....
Enjoy your day!

Making a New Friend

I was privileged to be able to meet Andy Wilson's new bride today. Her name is Ani, and she is from Guatemala. Like Debora, she is not a big fan of Wisconsin weather, at least before today. She and Andy live over by Appleton somewhere, I'm not exactly sure where. Andy had bought a condo that he rented out while he was in the Peace Corps and they are living in that now. Ani and Sue were down at the Pipe School, which Becky and Trent have purchased, scraping paint on the inside. Yuck! What a job! When I biked down they had given it up for the day and were feeding the donkeys a carrot. Or rather, Ani's finger - there wasn't enough carrot to go around and Nestor decided to see how Ani tasted. He wasn't making any brownie points with her, but she didn't hold a grudge. Ani is a beautiful girl and a sweetheart, but I don't have any pictures to share. If Sue ever sends me some I will post one. (hint, hint)
The bike ride was quite a bit of work on the way over, as it was mostly into the wind. And what wind! I had hung my sheets out this morning and I came in and put the timer on 15 minutes. After that went off I went out and one of the sheets had come loose, but the wind was blowing so hard that it didn't touch the ground. I'm not sure how the one pin still attached held it there, but I'm glad I didn't have to chase halfway across Portage County to find it! They went from the washer to the bed in about 20 minutes. The rest of the clothes dried fine also, but nothing else came undone except one pant leg. The sheets offer so much resistance they were pretty much straight out. My ride home from Becky's took only a couple minutes, I think, as I had the wind at my back. I just flew, even the last part that is up a slight grade. That was kind of fun! All in all, I had a wonderful day!

PLEASE TAKE NOTE: Heather has joined the Bloggers! The link to their blog is listed at the right side of this page, along with the kids'. Check it out!!

It's a Beautiful day in Wisconsin!

At 9:30 it is already 46 degrees, with a promise of 62 for the day! Yippeee!!! I went out to the garage when I got home from chores this morning and got the bikes out. Can't wait for that first ride! It is supposed to be pretty windy, so I may not go very far, but I will go! Also, with Dan's help, I moved the clothes line from behind the weavery to the northwest corner of the house. I had the perfect spot for it last year, out on the garage pad, where it could catch the breeze from any direction by moving it to face the wind. But with the garage being built, I had to find a different spot. It was nice to have it there because I never had to move it to mow. Now I will, but that's okay. I really enjoy having the mobile clothes line. That is the best gift that Dan ever gave me. I need to go out and take off the clothespins (forgot to do that last fall) and bleach them and wash the lines. I hate it when I forget to do that and get the clean clothes all dirty, just hanging them up! Clean sheets tonight, dried outside - that's the best - if I can keep them on the line! We could have gusts up to 40 mph.
Well, I don't want to waste this beautiful day, so I better get at it! Enjoy!!

Good Friends - Good Time!

I don't want to call it our 'annual' lunch, but it's getting nearly that bad! Pat swung by in her van, already loaded with Anita and Sue, and picked me up to whisk us all up to the Golden Corral in Plover for lunch. We made a quick stop at Spee-dee Delivery so I could mail out a package, and then on to lunch! As always, our conversation ran from the quite serious (Sue's daughter-in-law, from Guatemala, has a brother-in-law that was detained at the airport, treated shamefully and had his Visa confiscated and was finally sent back home. He makes about 4 trips a year to the states to sing in Catholic churches. Sounds like a terrorist to me) - to an in-depth discussion on potty-training (where'd that one come from??) - to my sharing a weird dream I had a couple of days ago about our lunch today, where they had all ostracized me for having bad breath! (I was traumatized in the dream!!) - to Anita telling about the movie that Johnny Depp (if only we were younger...and drop-dead gorgeous...and single...and he wasn't happily married with a family...) is shooting near where Bobbie works in Oshkosh. All the while we were watching a slide show of Andy and Ani's wedding (beautiful!) on Pat's laptop computer. Oh, and eating lunch. All of this was interspersed with much laughter and eye-rolling, and the occasional sigh. While it wasn't especially cheap place to eat, no one can say they went away hungry. It was very good food, and at lunch time on a Monday, fairly quiet. I guess the weekends are a little crazy there.
We had time constraints as Pat has lessons starting around 3:00 pm, but that was okay. Sue had gotten a call from Becky asking her to stop over at the Pipe House, so I got off there with her. After checking on everything, and even poking our heads (okay, the rest of our bodies, too...) into the Pipe School (Becky and Trent have bought that, too) we walked over to my house. Or most of the way. Sue turned around at the end of the old garden at the farm and headed back to Becky's and I went on home. All in all, a very nice day. I even got to work a bit on a new project that I started yesterday. I may tell you more about that at a later date.
I knew we had to sneak our luncheon in quick as things are going to get pretty busy around here pretty soon. Even though it gets hectic in the spring, it's a good hectic. Maybe because we know there is an end in sight. After all the ground is worked and the crops planted, it usually just slides on into haying time. Meanwhile, Dan gets busy spraying. The hard part is that the cows still have to be milked twice a day during that time. Long days. But that's farming for you!

Not too much going on today around here.
We did have a little excitement the other night that I forgot to mention: I had already turned in and was working on a Sudoku puzzle (yeah, I'm addicted!) when the dogs started barking and wouldn't quit. They were outside, as Dan hadn't put them in for the night yet. I looked out the window at the head of the bed (yeah, that is really cool, especially when there is a full moon...) but couldn't see anything out of the ordinary other than John had left the utility room light on down at the farm. While that was unusual, it really shouldn't have set the dogs off. Well, they didn't let up and apparently Dan couldn't hear them over the TV that he was downstairs watching. So I shut the light off and looked down towards the farm again. This time I thought I could make out dark shapes out back by the shed. Big ones. Cow-sized ones. Yup. The cows were out. And I was already in bed. Not for long. I hollered down to Dan that we had cows out and jumped out of bed and ran downstairs to pull some clothes on over my pj's. Cow chasing doesn't call for formal dressing. While I was doing that Dan quickly put something on his feet and grabbed his jacket. We quick kenneled our dogs - they are not very helpful in the cow-chasing department, even if they could get out of our yard. Dan was out the door before me and had time to stop and rouse Roger out of his easy chair before I met him down at the farm, out back. The dark shapes I had seen were indeed cows, but there weren't as many out as there could have been - four at most. Good thing, as it was pretty mucky out there! It took a bit of maneuvering, and one old girl decided she had to take a section of fence down before surrendering, but we were able to steer the ones that belonged with the dry cows back into their pen and headed over to put the gimps back in the barnyard. One of them had already 'curled up' next to the haybine and the other one, Jerzey, was standing a little ways off like I wouldn't be able to see her if she didn't move. She had something there, as she is pretty black, but I saw her eyes and she reluctantly headed back into the barnyard. After we got the two of them where they belonged, Roger (oh yeah, he showed up after we had the two out back corralled) hooked up the fence and went in to turn it on. Hmmm....wonder why they got out???
We headed back to our respective homes, we gave the dogs some treats for the good work and I went back to bed. The End.

Okay - new strategy!

No more complaining - it wasn't helping anyway....

So, how is everyone doing today? Lovely weather we are having, isn't it? We really do need the moisture in the ground, and it seems to be seeping in and not doing a lot of flooding, so that is a good thing. While I am a little tired of the white stuff, it is slightly less messy than all the rain. The dogs actually seem to be enjoying it, too. Go figure.

Hansen Family News: My Uncle Don Lewis (my Dad's brother-in-law) is in the hospital and not doing very well. According to my Dad, he has a bladder/urinary infection and his kidneys seem to be shutting down. He is around Dad's age and has Alzheimer's. Probably not a good sign. Aunt Phyllis had to have him moved to a nursing home last fall, as she wasn't able to take care of him anymore. Besides the Alzheimer's, he is quite a large man, and was proving hard for her to handle, I think. Will let you know if I hear more.

This "beautiful" weather has given me the opportunity to work on some indoor projects. Of the two secret projects that I was working on earlier, one is completed and the other has been put on hold for a bit. It is coming along nicely, though. A while back I had ordered, through eBay, some wooden cars, a train and a couple of tractors for the boys to play with when they are a bit bigger. I have one of those rugs with the roads so wanted something for them to use on it. The wooden vehicles came unfinished, and were a bit rough in places, so I have been working on sanding them and have to decide if I want to paint, finish or leave them raw. The jury is still out on that one. Dan bought me a new dremel with all kinds of bits, and I just started playing around with that. I may even try to make some of my own vehicles. Like I need another hobby....

When the weather gets a bit warmer, and if we still can't get into the fields, I will get out and warp up my loom again. At least if it has warp (strings) on it I can go out in short spurts and get something done. The warping-up is a day's work and since I don't move around too much doing it, I like to have it a bit warmer, otherwise my hands freeze. The dogs like it when I work out there, especially if I am able to have the window open, as they will come and 'visit' me and 'talk' for a while, then run off to do whatever dogs do. Dusti even came in with me for a while the other day, but Jack doesn't like the banging of the loom when I am weaving. He will come in for a minute or two and then want out, so it is just easier to leave him outside.

Bacon Family Tidbit: There is a small group of us that is getting together a reunion for the Bacons - Grandpa's siblings and descendents. You will be getting a Hold the Date postcard in the next few days. Please mark your calendars, and if possible, plan on attending! If you have any questions about the event, or want to be involved in the planning, please let me know. There's always room for more input. It's a ways out (September) but it's amazing how the calendar fills up! There will be a formal invite sent later in the summer, with more details.
Also: if you check your email regularly, you will notice that the date has been set for Grandpa's burial. The interment (I misspelled that on the email - sorry!) will be on Saturday, May 31st at 10:30 am. This is a FYI - everyone made it to the funeral, and there is no obligation to come for this, but if you want to be there I wanted you all to know about it.

Well, I better get at some of those indoor projects before my day is completely shot. Hope you are all having a great weekend!

Ugh!

Cold, drippy weather.....and that's inside my head, as well as outside! I think this particular cold (probably a mutant blend of all the colds I came in contact with - and there were a few!) must be feeding off the cold meds that I am using. Oh well, it had better start it's retreat pretty soon! You will all reap the benefits, though, as there will be no long post today. There are plenty of things I should be working on, but the couch and a blanket are calling me.....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to LINDA JENNER!!!

Linda Bacon, a number of years ago...about age 4.

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday Deeeaaarrrr Lindaaaaaa.....Happy Birthday to you!!!

A super-fantastic day to one of our favorite people!

Muffins for Brains...

I didn't leave out this post on purpose, blame it on the cold drugs (they are taking a lot of heat this week!).

Sunday we went over to Mary and Ed's for dinner. Actually, it was more like a feast! Turkey, stuffing, the works! She claimed she had to clear some stuff out of her freezer for the upcoming garden season. I hate to tell her what she would get for dinner if I did that! Ed was a dear and took the pressure off of me by knocking over his wine glass and smashing the bejeebers out of it. I don't think I so much as dropped a piece of silverware after that! The folks were there as well, so of course there was the obligatory Scrabble Game for the women after the meal. I have no idea what the men did, as the Game pre-empts any other goings-on. Again, I did not win. Mary was the clear winner this time. I say clear, because Mom was trying to cheat again! I actually caught her counting up a word I had made as well as her own! The nerve! (hee, hee) She nonchalantly told me I wasn't supposed to watch her so closely. There must be something wrong with my makeup - I have been the scorekeeper at the last couple of games, and I still don't win!

After the game got over we had to leave and make a quick stop at Fleet and then head for home and chores. My big purchase was some seeds to start for climbing vines to put out by the gazebo. I got them planted Monday and I think I saw sprouting yesterday! On arriving home, we were disappointed to find out that we had missed Jim, Tanna, and Titus Bacon stopping in for a visit! Try again, please! They caught up with Roger and had a chat, but we didn't get home in time. After chores I headed for bed pretty quick, to try to sleep off the cold. It helped, but it didn't knock it out. It just has to run it's course, I guess.

April Fooled by Mother Nature....

Cruel hit by Mother Nature this morning - and I even let it melt a bit before taking this picture!

When we got up this morning and headed to the barn (at 5:00 am) we had nearly 2 inches of wet, sloppy snow on the ground! Yuck! At nearly noon, it is still out there, although it is dripping pretty serious off the eaves. The thermometer says 35, but our forecast says it should hit 45. Better get moving there! Wonderful day for the dogs to want to go in and out and in and out and....you get the picture. Both of them have nice big feet, too! Oh well.

I did get out to the weavery yesterday afternoon and finished off that warping. After I finish a project, I put a thin line of glue to keep it from unraveling when I cut it off the loom. I didn't have time to let that dry yesterday so will get out there today and cut everything off. I will try to get some pictures then as I had to recharge my batteries overnight - again! I don't know if it is old rechargeables, or a charger problem, or something with the camera. Annoying, anyway! We have had this camera for a number of years already, maybe it is time for a new one.

I just checked the weather forecast, and they are calling for chance of snow over the next couple of days, through Saturday! NOOOOOOOOO!

Early Birthday Celebration!

Connie and I took Linda out for lunch today, to celebrate her ??th birthday. It isn't until Thursday, but Connie has to work that day. We were a pretty tame crew today (note: Alice wasn't with us!) and I didn't even tell the wait-staff at IHOP that it was Linda's birthday. I behaved myself, I must say. I only bumped my coffee cup once (didn't go over) and any silverware that flew around was the waitress' fault, not mine. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!
Before we stopped for lunch, we went and saw the puppies at the mall near there, Pups 'n Stuff. We walked through the entrance, and this little black ball of fur came barreling at us! What a doll! I can't remember what they said he was a cross of (probably something extremely expensive) but he was very energetic and friendly. He kept tackling my shoelaces and even got dragged along behind me when I tried to walk. He didn't bother Linda's shoes, and Connie didn't have any laces. I figured it might have been the animal smell on them, or maybe it was just because they were a little long. There were 5 other puppies, of various breeds, in the showcases - so cute! No prices on anything, but I can just imagine. They want to get you hooked on the animal first, I think.
After lunch we went over and checked out Michaels Craft Store where Connie and I each picked up a couple of things, but Linda just "window-shopped". Then we went next door to PetCo. I wanted to check out the guinea pigs, but they didn't have what I was looking for. After browsing through that store for a bit we hit the road and came home. Like I said, pretty low-key, but we had a good time visiting.

I have come down with a head/chest cold and am feeling a little bit dopey. I had to run over to Appleton this am (9:00) for a dental x-ray, so Dan went with me. I was glad, as I really didn't feel like driving that far. It was a follow-up appointment on some dental surgery I had done last spring. They want to check it again next spring - hopefully that doesn't mean it didn't work like they wanted it to. I really don't want to go through that again....

Maybe I will have to get my butt back out to the weavery this afternoon. It is 39 degrees, so not overly warm, but I don't have that much to do out there. I better get moving!

It's About Time!!

I've been waiting and waiting for my turn at the computer! Finally!

Hi.

My name is Fozzie, Fozzie-bear or to my very best buddy (Dan) I go by Fozzle-gate. He is the best because he will brush me whenever I feel like having it done. All I have to do is catch him in his chair. Then I walk s-l-o-w-l-y by and he smooths out his lap and invites me up. Once there, I am in cat-heaven! He reaches over and opens the drawer next to his chair and pull out "my" brush and proceeds to brush me ALL OVER MY BODY! That feels sooooo good! You can't imagine the hassle of having long, beautiful hair like I have that gets matted up at the merest provocation. Some might say that I am on the lazy side (they rarely say it more than once!) and don't bathe near as often as I should. Tell me the truth, would you like to try to keep dingle-berries from forming on your backside if you had long hair like me? I thought not! The hair on my paws and around my face is just like black velvet - shiny and smooth, but the hair on other parts of my body does get tangled so. I absolutely love to roll over on my back and have Dan brush my underside. I may have gotten into the kitty chow a little more often than the other cats, so it is a bit of an exertion to have to try and reach all those places. I am quite the armful, should anyone attempt to pick me up. Oh, go ahead and try - I am friendly enough about it, but there is more to me than meets the eye, if you know what I mean. Holly sometimes tries to catch me along with Stella when I am being playful and don't want to turn in yet. Then she knows she has an armful of cats! Then I have to laugh, because she may have caught us, but she has no free hand to open the door of "our" room. Yes, we are important enough to have our own room in the house. It is where we eat, drink and well, you know... At night when they want us to go to bed (they try to refer to it as "kennel" - but that is for dogs!!!) they just holler out "who's hungry?" and we usually go running for our room. Sometimes it's fun to run the other direction though - then just watch the two of them! They are so clumsy and slow! Unfortunately I am quite trusting, though, and usually fall for their ruse to lure me out of hiding. At least they think they are in charge that way (ha, ha!). And I know I won't get anything to eat if I hold out. I have tried it a couple of times, and it isn't all it's cracked up to be - staying "out" all night! Oh sure, there are litter boxes outside our room, and water, too, but no food! Speaking of water dishes - I have a lot of fun perplexing my people by fooling around in the kitchen water dish. I dip my paw and splash before I will take a drink, and if the dish happens to be empty I behave really strange - like it is going to attack me! I could tell you why I do it, but then they would read this and find out. Sorry. You have to mess with their minds....

Oops....somebody is coming! I'd better skedaddle!! Tchau!

Rewind....for a minute!

First - rewind to yesterday so I can wish Sam a happy 9-months milestone!

I had thought about it when I was over there, but it slipped my mind yesterday.

(I swiped this picture off his family's blog!)

Now - back to the present - Thomas is 100 days old today!

I don't have a current picture of him, so hopefully he hasn't changed too much

in a couple of weeks. (but we all know they do!)

This and That:

For those of you not in our area, we have had absolutely beautiful weather the last couple of days - in the 60's! On Thursday and Friday, while it wasn't quite that warm, it was balmy in the 50's and I got to spend some time in my weavery. What fun! That is one of my favorite things to do, but I like to have a good-sized block of time to devote to it. I was out there Thursday afternoon and again on Friday morning. I was able to get a couple of small projects done, but have about a rug-length of warp left on the loom. I have rags prepared to make one, I just need to find the time to get out there and weave it off. My other projects will stay on the loom until I do, so that is my incentive. It wastes too much warp (thread) to be cutting every project off individually. I have to re-tie to get going again, and every time I do that it 'wastes' about a foot or so of warp. That doesn't probably sound like that much, but it also adds time to the next project if I have to do that before I can start weaving. When possible, I like to weave off an entire warping (at least 30 feet) before cutting everything off the loom. That is fun, because when I as unwind the front beam I see the items I have woven for the first time in their entirety. I only see about 12-18" at a time as I am working, so sometimes it is hard to visualize what the completed project will look like. Next time I go out there to work I will take some pictures to show you. Oh, the things I could make if I had no other responsibilities....or other hobbies....and unlimited income - pipe dreams!!

Hope you are all enjoying this beautiful weather!!!!

Body Worlds I Exhibit!

STOP HERE IF YOU ARE QUEASY OF STOMACH!!!

Wow! Connie, Mike, Dan and I spent about 2 hours wandering through the Body Worlds exhibit at the Milwaukee Public Museum. If you ever have the opportunity to see this - do it! It was a little pricey, at $24/person, but that included admission to the rest of the museum as well. We got there around 10:00 and picked up our tickets right away so we had time to browse the Rain Forest exhibit and a few other things on the first floor before lining up for Body Worlds. That place was pretty well packed, although with patience we were able to see everything. After viewing the first display or two, you kind of forgot that these were real bodies and it was absolutely fascinating to observe all the muscles, nerves, tendons, and even blood vessels! A lot of the displays were in glass cases that you were able to walk entirely around to view from all angles, but there were quite a few that were not encased and if you wanted to (I didn't) there was nothing stopping you from touching them. Besides all of the full body poses, there were lots of organs displayed in glass cases - some diseased/deformed and some healthy. After viewing the many blackened lungs from smokers, I don't know why anyone would continue smoking! Not good! It was interesting to see the different joint replacements, as we know folks who have had that done. If I had it done myself, I may not have found it as interesting. There was a horse and rider out in the middle of the floor that was rather fascinating to study. Talk about muscling! Sally had told me to watch for the duck and chicken that had been formed just out of their blood vessels - they looked to be made of pretty solid red mesh, their vessels being that dense. There was a separate line for those who wanted to go into a partition and view the stages of fetal development and a pregnant woman. We went in, but it was so crowded and warm in there that we didn't stay too long. It was easy to see why when one is carrying a child that you feel like you are running out of room in there - you are! Everything gets squished together and it is amazing your body continues to function at all. If you would like to learn more about the exhibits, visit www.bodyworlds.com .

After leaving that exhibit, we spent a little over an hour visiting other parts of the museum. Or rather about 45 minutes, because at least 15 of that was trying to find Dan! We had headed into the middle/south America section, with Mike and Connie going on ahead. Dan looked at a couple of displays and decided that he needed to sit down for a few minutes and rest his back. I continued on through that section without him, but C&M were no where in sight anymore, having kept moving. If you have ever been to the MPM, their exhibits wind around and around and you don't really know where you are in short order. Apparently there was a place where you could go either left or right - well, C&M must have gone left while I veered off to the right. I was kind of watching for the section on Brazil (never did find it!) and ended up - finally - coming back around to the bench where I had left Dan. Well, I never told him to wait there for me, so I shouldn't have been surprised that he wasn't there when I got back. There were 3 or 4 choices of directions for him to head, so I decided it wasn't going to do much good to look for him. I poked my head into the African exhibit, but decided maybe I had better stay put in case he came back. After a few minutes of anxious waiting, Mike and Connie appeared out of the African exhibit. We sat there for as long as Mike could sit still, then he and Connie went to check out the arctic part, with the plan that I would watch for Dan and when he showed up (hopefully soon!) we would meet down on the ground level at 2:30. I don't think they had been gone 5 minutes and Dan came strolling up from the arctic side. They had run into him as well, so it was all good. We didn't have a lot of time but hit a few exhibits on the other floors and beat C&M to the meeting place. We decided that we all had museum-overload and would call it a day.

We got out of Milwaukee without incident (as we had gotten in - only circling a few blocks when we missed a turn), and stopped in Fond du lac for lupper (that's lunch and supper combined). Got home sometime after 6:00 and now Dan is relaxing in front of the TV and I am doing this post. All in all a good day-off, probably one of the last few before we get to work in the fields (at least on a Friday or Saturday - we always get our Sunday off, every three weeks).

The dogs were extremely happy to see us get home and were telling us quite a story. Unfortunately, we didn't understand, as usual. The cats were even happy to see us, as I got a head-rub from Pelé when I reached down to pick something up. It's always nice to have a welcoming committee to meet you when you get home!

April Birthdays/Events!

I realized that I hadn't posted these yet, but I haven't missed any, either, at least according to my list!

APRIL DATES

10 - Linda (Bacon) Jenner

20 - Paul Smidansky (niece, Heidi (Hansen)'s husband)

21 - Elyse Helen Ramseier - a big 4 years old! (niece, Cariann's older one)

22 - o Descobrimento do Brasil (Discovery of Brazil)

26 - Matthew Kolb (Alice (Bacon) Kolb's youngest)

30 - Lulu Turner (family friend)

Tomorrow we are heading to Milwaukee, along with Connie and Mike, to see the Body Worlds Exhibit at the Milwaukee Public Museum. We are really looking forward to it and I will be sure to post our impressions. We are leaving about 7:30 am and don't know when we will get back. No strictures on the day other than being at the museum at the proper time to pick up our tickets.

[* I'm old-school and I always let my kids play on the floor and probably get into things that they shouldn't. (Sorry Sally!) Sam was having fun and I didn't let him put the bowl into his mouth - it got taken away and set up as soon as I snapped the photo. Also I was blocking Hunter with my left foot. And trust me - I don't plan on operating a daycare! I love doing it occasionally, and kudos to those who do, but I don't know how they get anything else done. I also have a better understanding why our bodies work the way they do and stop us from having babies when we are too old to keep up with them! Short spurts I can handle, but everyday?? I know I used to get tired while taking care of the little ones, but I think I bounced back quicker....now I just bounce. :) ]

Another Day of Sam-care!

Checking out Hunter's bowl, in front of a concerned Hunter.

How many chins does Gatfly have??
(I'm not very good at self-photography!)

Sally called up yesterday morning at the farm (I just happened to be in the office when the phone rang) and said that Sam had a fever and couldn't go to daycare. Was grandma available? So it was GATFLY TO THE RESCUE! I finished up chores and headed up to Baldwin for the day. Well, sort of for the day. I got there at 11:45 so Sally could go in to work for the afternoon. She had a bunch of care-conferences (with families of residents) lined up for the afternoon. So Sam and I spent the afternoon together! Even though he still had a fever (his trip to the Dr. in the morning revealed that it was just a cold/teething), he was a very good boy! He played hard until around 3:00 and even sat still to listen while I read several books to him. Then I gave him a bottle and he settled down for a 2-hour nap. He was sleeping when Mama got home, so we had time for a nice cup of coffee and a chat. Daddy got home sometime after 6:00 and we had a delicious meal of grilled chicken and potatoes! Thanks Scott! While we were finishing up supper, Grandma and Grandpa Aho stopped over (delivering Scott's snowmobile so he could store it at his place) and brought Sam his Easter Basket - what fun! Lots of neat stuff! I greeted them and then headed out, as I still had a 3 hour drive ahead of me. The trip home was uneventful (as was the trip there) and I got home a little after 10:00 pm.

Sam is very close to crawling on his hands and knees, although he tended to creep up in the sleeper and would flatten out to get his feet back down where they belonged! He didn't seem to get too frustrated with the process (I would have!), just switched back to his army crawl. I had him out in the kitchen with me when I was baking bars and he zeroed in on the grill at the bottom of the refrigerator. He had that off in no time! Just grabbed it and removed it - and turned to me and grinned. I would put it back and he would take it right off again. After doing this about 3 times, I diverted his attention. Apparently not very well, as he found a piece of quarter-round that Scott had laying in place but not nailed down yet. He yanked that up, and for fear that he would put an eye out (Red Ryder style!) I took it away and stood it up in the corner. Later Sally and Scott told me that was the first time (and last?) he got to be on the kitchen floor. I always had my kids in whatever room I was in, on the floor. I didn't have a saucer seat like they have so didn't think about using it. Oh well. Mostly he just got a little dusty from the floor. Guess I won't start doing Daycare for a job out of my home! Sally already told me my house wasn't Sam-proof. Guess I'll have to work on that one for the next time he comes to visit. I think I need to get an oversized sleeper and mittens for him and spray them with Endust and let him go! With four cats, our floors are never clean for long.

On another note: Josh has an upcoming trip to Germany in the next week or two (can't remember the dates) and we are trying to convince Debora and Thomas to come up and stay with us while he is gone. And the cats, too, of course! We would love to have all of them - and oh, the blog postings I could write! Pleeeaaaasssee come!

One other tidbit: When I came home from chores in the morning I found a surprise on my back porch! Susan Enz (from the election polls) had stopped in and dropped off some hickory nuts for me to try - yum! I don't remember having them before - are they ever delicious!! Her brother shells them as therapy for his arthritic hands. Also she dropped off a Reminsce magazine as it had a story about the 96th anniversary of Oreos. One of the clues in our puzzle on Tuesday! Thanks Susan!

Pictures from John and Marina's Cruise!

John brought down their picture album (see them for the rest of the pictures) and told me I could upload a few for the blog. Looks like they had a fabulous time!

I"m baaacckkk....

Boy, what a sloooowwwww day at the polls - we had a whopping 66 voters between 7:00 am and 2:00 pm! Got in lots of good visiting, though, as I worked with a couple of great people - Susan Enz and Dan Konkol. (The voter shown will remain anonymous - read: I can't remember who it is!) I had taken along the Sunday crossword puzzle from the paper and we spent most of our "down" time working on that, when we weren't just talking. Nearly finished it!

I got "April-fooled" a couple of times today: the first being M&M's blog! Nasty!!!; and the second one being a voter coming in and asking if we had heard that Hilary had stepped down! Oh, and Mother Nature pulled one on us, too, with fresh snow on the ground this morning! Noooooo!

For pure cuteness, check out Aho's blog! Got to love that Sam!

Election Day - again - That's no April Fool!

Hey folks! If you live in Wisconsin, get out there and vote today! It is a judicial election, plus we have county board, school board (uncontested - woo hoo!)and a state referendum. I think that's all for today. Anyway, I have to be there at 6:30 am and work until 2:00 so I have to get moving here. Have a great day and no April fooling!! (just 'cuz I couldn't think of anything.....)