Happy Father's Day to the Father-of-my-children, and Grandfather of theirs!!

Canada fishing trip - just the guys!

A big Welcome-to-Brasil from Josh & Debora's son,Thomas!

A kiss for luck, and I'm on my way!

Mara and Mike's son, Rohan, tickling his Grampa's fancy!

Daddy's girl - or, another shot of those 80's sideburns!

Showing Sally and Scott's son, Sam, the proper way to enjoy a sand....box!


I couldn't have wished for a better father for my children -

and he has proven to be a Super-Grampa, too!

Happy Father's Day, Dan!

[Do you know how hard it was to find pictures of Dan with the kids, when I gave them all their photos?? I'm sure they have their favorites, but this is what I had to work with.]

Happy 61st Anniversary to the Folks!

After 61 years together,

they are still each other's "catch of the day"!

Mom couldn't remember if these photos were taken

before or after they were married, but somewhere around that time.

Happy Anniversary to two very important people in my life!

Fun Weekend with Friends and Family!

I am a bit pokey about getting my posting done lately - sorry!

This slide show is, again, a mixed bag, with most of the pictures being from our visit with Sam this past Sunday. We had gotten him a sandbox for his birthday, and decided to give it to him early so that he could enjoy it for the entire summer. It was a huge hit! We kind of figured that it would be, after hearing about all the fun Thomas is having with the sandbox at his kindergarten. I wish we could see the two of them playing together, but we will have to wait until Christmastime for that. Even this Grandma probably won't allow a sandbox in her living room, though.....maybe the front porch if it isn't too frigid outside. ;) By then, Rohan should be almost big enough to participate, if he and his family are able to come home for Christmas! It would be SUPER-FANTASTIC to have all the grands here together - Sally's babe will be here by then, too! I'll start wishing on the stars tonight!! ;)

There are also pictures from when my friend, Suzi Sannes, was here this past week. They came from North Carolina to bury her father-in-law's ashes over in Appleton, and to see family. (and friends!) Suzi was able to come over for lunch with me on Friday, and then we got invited to go to a bonfire over at Marlene and Owen's on Saturday night. It was a lot of fun! I even got to ride on the horse-drawn wagon - pretty smooth ride! Thanks Owen! We stayed out til 11:00 that night - it has been quite some time since we did that (probably Brazil!) I really enjoyed my time with Suzi - it went too fast, though! Back to email and Facebook...

Oh, I also had taken a picture of the tractor with chopper and wagon that I drive during haying. I can handle it just fine in the field, but it gets a bit hairy driving it down the road sometimes. The roads around here can be pretty narrow in places, and this rig is pretty wide. Sometimes the guys move it from field to field for me. They don't seem to worry about the on-coming traffic like I do, or those that sneak up behind you and think they need to pass.

Well, that is all I have for this time! Oh! I went over and helped Mary move some stuff down from the attic above her garage. When we were done, I guided her in opening her own blog. If you would like access to it, please contact her, as it is limited access only.

Have a wonderful day!!

Oh! I saw by Kailea's Facebook that it is only one more month til their wedding! That means one more month til I get to go to Phoenix and see Rohan - and everyone else, too, but he gets top-billing! :)

Sally reminded me, in her comment, about how Sam says sandbox. At first all I could get him to say was 'sand'. Then he would say 'box'. He never actually put the two together - except with a brief pause between them: sand......box. It was cute!

Ranadom Pictures.....

As usual, I didn't check through my pictures very well when I posted Dan's K'ville pictures! I forgot that he was there over 2 days, and when my camera downloads pictures, it puts them into folders, according to the date they were shot. I only posted pics from the second day he was there, so here are a couple more from then, and some random ones following. The last two are from this past weekend when the kids were here. I know I took quite a few pictures, but apparently I was doing it on Sally's camera! Check out their blog for some more cute ones!

Apparently, this is one of Rohan's favorite napping places!


Grampa Bacon with Rohan

Auntie Shell telling Rohan a story. At least he is sure listening to her!

Mama and Rohan having some play-time!

Grampa Syring with Rohan (and Dan's thumb!)

We have some trees growing too closely to the foundation of the house that need to be cut down. There are a couple of problems with this: they are prime habitat for our songbirds that we so enjoy feeding and watching; how to cut them down without hurting the house; is stump removal even an option?? How much of the foundation would come out with the stump? Otherwise, they will just re-grow. This one is on the east end of the house.

This is the one at the front of the house - the smaller trunk is where it had been trimmed back before. It just re-grew in front of that. The wire is our old TV antenna, so obsolete.

There used to be two pine trees growing in the lawn directly in front of the house. We took one of them out a few years back, as it was leaning so much, it looked funny. This one was dying so we took it down on our last Sunday off. I could easily lift any of the chunks that Dan cut up - it was that dead and punky. It looks different, but strangely we don't miss it very much. We still have the large pine at the west of our first driveway. That one is doing okay, just yet. We also took out a clump of locust trees, in the fenceline between the two houses, near the gazebo. Dan wants to try morning glories there again, but I fear we are getting too late. It didn't get very much sun before, but taking out those trees opened it up some.

Sally and Scott all ready to head out for Sally's 10 year Class Reunion, this past Saturday night. They had a good time, but I think we had at least as much fun, watching Sam! I ran home after the milking chores were done and got Sam so they could leave. Then Sam and I headed back to the farm to 'watch' the guys do the clean up chores. Sam was a little hestiant/nervous at first, but I think he finally realized that the cows were on the other side of the gates, so it was all good. He loved checking out the skid steer as it sat at the end of the barn. First he timidly touched it, then would back away and grin. Later I was able to get him to sit in it, which would have been fine except that his 30 lbs. or so was just enough to make the buzzer go off! He could not get off that skidder quick enough!! 'Grau' (Sam's new name for me, at least this weekend!) had all she could do to grab him and help him to keep his balance as he stepped down over the bucket! He had fun running between 'Rog' and 'Boppa' who were cleaning in the parlor, and 'Ja' who was scraping in the holding area. We had been hoping for nicer weather, as there is a big pile of sand, used for bedding the cows, that would have been a lot of fun to play in with his trucks and diggers. Oh well, next time! We headed home and made a birthday cake for Mommy's party on Sunday, then into the bathtub. I had picked up some new tub toys (would you believe I hadn't had any before this??) so Sam had to check them out thoroughly. 'Grau' had to add warm water to the bath a couple of times, because Sam just wasn't ready to get out yet - and yes, I did remember to wash him while he was in there! ;) I also got to read him an entire book - something he needs to be just tired enough, but not too tired, to do. Then we rocked and listened to 'Soundscapes' music on the TV. He finally crashed around 9:30. Oops. Bad grandparenting....but I got to hold him for a while before we put him in our bed, where he slept until Mommy and Daddy got home. It's been a long time since we had a kid in bed with us - brought back lots of memories! Sunday mornings we always wondered if the bed frame would hold all of us, especially when they joined us with a leap!

This is our Sam.

I tried NUMEROUS times to get a candid shot of him, but he would hear the camera and turn to "cheese" at me just about every time! I would snap the photo, just to look at it and see his cheesy little grin - see one photo of my mom reading to Sam, on Sally's blog.

Coming Attractions....

I will be posting pictures from Sam's weekend here (and Scott and Sally, too)....
Just finished up with the farm bookwork - took longer than usual this month! The rain has kept us from haying, so I may have some time in the next day or two.
We are still here!

Old Post - Syrings Move from Kirksville

This is a trip that Dan made down to Kirksville in May. He drove the farm pickup down, with Larry and Michelle as passengers. The three of them helped to load the truck and Rav4 for the long haul, then Dan and Larry headed back to WI with their washer/dryer plus some other odds and ends they couldn't take with. Michelle drove to AZ with Mara, Mike and Rohan.
It was a long trip, hot weather, busy time there but they were glad to be of help to the kids. I stayed home to help out here on the farm, as I knew that Dan was going to get to return the favor to me when I go to AZ in July for Jordan and Kailea's wedding - and of course to see the kids!

Lazy Blogger....

FIRST: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR "BABY"- SALLY, yesterday!!!
Also Mike Syring had a birthday on Wednesday - busy week in our family!

Okay, so I haven't done this in a while. It has been busy around here: first getting the crops in - done - as of last Monday! Then the very next day Roger started knocking down hay, so I got to jump in the chopper on Wednesday. Looks like that will be my MO until it is all in. There is already talk of making some big bales, though, so I won't have to chop all 200+ acres of it! Whew! Oh, and Dan is busy doing the spraying - he has a good start on that, if he can just keep it going. There is always something - wind, rain, breakdowns - to contend with. In otherwords, to quote a new country song: "Sounds like life, to me!"

Our household is adjusting to one less cat. It's hard to realize how big a space a little cat fills up! And no, I don't want to get another kitty, thank you. Four is a great plenty. I keep thinking each season, that this is Racé's last winter/spring, etc., but he keeps plugging along. He can't hear a thing, though, so I worry about him when he goes outside. At about 15 years old, he is our only indoor/outdoor cat. I was rather hoping that I would be finding less fur around, but Fozzy and Toquinho are both long-haired, so that hasn't changed much. Or I should say, Fozzy WAS long-haired. He has been getting a hair cut from Dan, bit by bit. I took a picture of him, but he was too embarrassed to let me post it. Fozzy, not Dan. He is a black cat, but looks gray where Dan has trimmed him. So sad... ;)

I'm typing this, waiting to hear that it is time to head to the field to chop. There is something other than the weather holding things up today. It is absolutely gorgeous out! I went out finished mowing the lawn a bit ago - took me 4 days of bits and pieces to get it done! I was using the push mower, mainly because I prefer the job it does, but also because the rider is torn apart at the moment. Looks pretty good, except where the dandelions are poking their heads up already. Oh well. The daisies, on the other hand, look fantastic!! They are my all-time favorite flower!

Oh! We have Sam, Sally and Scott coming tonight, for the weekend! Fun times! Especially since we get to babysit for Sam tomorrow night while Sally and Scott go to Sally's 10 year class reunion - ouch! Where did that time go?!? Sam is growing by leaps and bounds and learning new things about every 5 minutes - it will be awesome to spend some time with them this weekend! We will get to celebrate Sally's birthday, as well.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend - remember, it's what you do and who you spend your time with, not the weather (which isn't supposed to be all that nice around here)!