Thoughts...

I had a birthday and our 24th wedding anniversary this week.  I also attended a funeral on my birthday, which is something everyone should do at least once.  It makes you appreciative.  I have always tried to live by the quote, "Do not regret growing older.  It is a privilege denied to many."  It is kind of my mantra.  Birthdays are to be celebrated, not shunned.  I am older and wiser than I was last year.  I always think of Susan, a fellow blogger, on my birthday.  I hold her dear to my heart, as her daughter, Kelly, was born in October the same year as me.  Her Kelly, passed away from cancer.  Susan's loss makes me grateful for every birthday I'm lucky enough to get.  

How does one celebrate a birthday?  By eating a big slice of chocolate raspberry cake (made by my loving husband) for breakfast with coffee.  Then towards evening enjoying some Chubby Chipmunk Truffles and Calamity Jane Wine from the Prairie Berry Winery.  Probably not the healthiest way to celebrate, but I had my doctor, dentist, and optometrist appointments today and was certified as very healthy.  I even disclosed my recent indulgences to the doctor.   She said as long as I kept that habit to once a year she thought I was safe.  I always have my yearly checkups all on one day around my birthday, so I don't forget.  It also makes it super easy to schedule next year's appointments.  

Well, that is all I have.  I made it another year and my husband and I are still happily married.  I hope everyone had a great weekend and for those of you that cringe at birthdays, I hope I changed your mind a little.  

An old hay cart is new again...

My husband is always doing something special for me.  He saw this hay cart on Craigslist and knew I would love it.  It is a small world because when he picked it up the guy selling it had worked with me years ago.  The cart was in terrible condition.  The boards were rotten and none of the bolts matched.

Always fixing things, my husband took it apart, sanded it, and repainted it.

He then replaced all of the boards and the handle.  Luckily the weather was warm so the stain and the paint could dry.

There you go.  One brand spanking new hay cart.  I love it.

It works like a charm.  It is not only utilitarian, but pretty enough that I could use it as decoration.

I had a lot of questions about the painted rocks on my parent's hillside.  It is their brand, the Diamond J Bar.  You can't see the bar very well in this photo.  When I was a kid every few years we would have to repaint the rocks.  You needed to be careful because those rocks have no problem rolling to the bottom of the hill.  It doesn't look that steep, but trust me it is.

That is all I know.  I love my new cart.  My husband is a pretty special fella.  I hope you all had a good weekend.  The weather has warmed up here and we are enjoying a bit of a fall.  

Bird is the word...

My husband and I made a quick trip back to my parents last weekend.  A person hates to leave the hills during the fall.  The colors are so amazing and fall is very short lived.  

I was able to add a few more birds to my birding list.  The grouse were hard to get a photo of.  They move pretty fast.  This one stopped for a second on the electric lines and I got a quick photo.

Sharp-Tailed Grouse

I already have a red tailed hawk photo, but this one posed, unlike the other one.  We saw tons of them on the drive home and back.  It was heartbreaking that I missed a photo of a bald eagle on the coolest rock sticking up out of the prairie.  By the time we realized it was real and got turned around it had flown off.  We will forever have the picture in our head. 

Red Tailed Hawk

 As you can see, the leaves are just starting to turn at my parent's place.

I think I have a song sparrow photo also, but this guy kept taunting me for a photo. 

 Song Sparrow

 My mother's flower bed. Is always amazing.  Those petunias are all volunteers.  Our short growing season and shady yard would never encourage this type of growth.

It is snowing again and my crab apple tree is filled with robins, flickers, and turkeys.  They are very happy to have some food during our latest snowstorm.

 Northern Flicker

I have looked and looked.  I think this is an orange crowned warbler rather than a yellow warbler.  Yellow warbler's have bars on the wings and the orange crowned doesn't.  If I have mis-identified please let me know. 

Orange Crowned Warbler

 We got about 5-6 inches of heavy wet snow.  The trees are all bent over, because they still have their leaves.  It is supposed to warm up this week.  I hope so.  I'm not quite ready for winter.

 

I hope you are having better weather.  It was a good trip home last weekend and I did enjoy taking it easy this weekend.  I needed a quiet weekend.  Hopefully the roads won't be too icy tomorrow.  

Tired...

It snowed.  No big surprise.  It got me into gear and I tidied up the garden.

I harvested my pumpkin, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, and garlic.  I planted more garlic.  Next I tackled the kitchen chores.  I made more caramel apple jam. The garlic went into my favorite Pinterest find.  I quartered the cloves and put them in ice cube trays along with basil, oregano, parsley, and rosemary.  Then poured olive oil over the top and froze the cubes.

 I packed my crabapple wine and bottled my dandelion wine.  The dandilion wine turned out atrocious.  I have no idea what happened.  

Then to end out the weekend my husband shot a deer with his bow and I needed to get it butchered before it warms up.  I finished up tonight.  I'm looking forward to fresh venison.

Somewhere in the middle of all that I made sour cream donuts.  They turned out great.

I really need a weekend for my weekends.  I'm wore out.  I'm sure things will slow down when winter hits.