This and That

We are still in a state of construction here on the Range.  I think the crew is going to be here until Christmas, well at least Thanksgiving!  They are a good bunch though and didn’t even flinch when I asked them not to have a radio blaring while they worked.  To have it loud enough to be heard over sawing and hammering it has to be LOUD and seeing as I don’t have real doors right now, only plastic, it doesn’t filter out much of the sound.

These are pictures I took off Dad’s camera.  The outside of the addition is now all sided and painted and the left hand side deck is torn off.  The poor raccoons must have been surprised when they came by on their nightly visit!  Sorry this is a little blurry.

 

The babies on the railing and Mom on the right corner.  Notice they have already taken a cushion off the chair.


Peeking in the window.  This deck is all gone now and we are waiting for the new one to be built.


Here is Mom and Dad’s cat Buffy.  She is about ten or eleven years old and they rescued her in Florida when she was on deaths door.  She has thrived ever since and has been such good company for them.



Noodles likes to sneak in and sleep on the bed.  It was much to our surprise when he and Buffy were on the bed together.  Not that they fight but they keep a safe distance between them most of the time.


Here is a shot of Dad in front of the front garden.


And a picture of Mom.  The flowers don’t look this good now after Irene blew through.

We have been picking up from Irene’s destruction.  We just had one hydrangea tree like the one behind Mom to stake up as it had blown over.  Son had several trees down at his house that will have to be sawed with the chainsaw.  It is blocking the path to their house from ours so I have to make a detour and go under a thorn bush.  I think I am going to take my clippers with me next time a trim them back!  Other then a few branches and leaves down it wasn’t bad.  Lots of rain though but that will soak in fine.  Not like Vermont that just got hammered by the storm.  I feel so badly for those people!
On a good note Scooter continues to blend in with the family. Actually I think this is Kipper and Nick with their fly masks on.

Here he is.  He’s a Big Boy!

Well it’s almost midnight so guess I will hit the hay.  I never stay up this late, must have gotten a bottle of Diet Coke with caffeine instead of without!

Hurricane Irene

Well we made it through the storm without too much damage.  A few branches down, one hydrangea tree tipped over but I think Dad and I can prop it up, most of the apples on my trees are on the ground unfortunately, we lost our power for ten hours but we have a generator so that was okay.  No big trees down, no damage to the house, the barn is fine, the boys had fun out in the warm rain so we have a lot to be thankful for.




A few places around town got a little more damage but nothing serious.  The American Folk Festival was in town and they had to cancel all of Sunday’s performances due to the high winds but managed to squeeze a lot of them into Saturday.  Son and DIL were at Gillette Stadium at the Country Music Festival and came home Sunday morning and didn’t hit heavy rain until about a half hour before they got here.  Again lots to be thankful for!!!!






Today is bright and sunny, with that awful humidity gone! Yippee!  The day before the storm hit it was like walking into a wet blanket it was so humid.  The men are here working and happy for the cooler, drier air.  The construction project continues on………..I keep telling myself IT WILL BE WORTH IT…..




I didn’t get any pictures as my camera batteries were dead but Saturday morning four of us went trail riding.  All four horses in my barn went out together and loved it.  No one likes to be left in the barn when we go out but I always give them some hay and treats to keep them busy.
Miss T was on her pony Kipper,  I was on big Scooter,  Funsize was on Nick and my nephews wife to be was on Lil’ bud.  She had never ridden before but did a great job.  She practiced in the ring for a while before we left.





Funsize and Miss T did some racing and even though Kip was running as fast as his short little legs could go he couldn’t keep up with Nick who is half Thoroughbred! :o)  When we got back Mr. D and a friend did some riding in the ring so the horses got their exercise for the day.  They loved being out in the heavy rain yesterday.  It was a nice warm rain and warm wind so they were happy as a clam as there were no bugs to bother them and they got a good bath.




Hollie over at Life In A Small Town had a good post today that was about what I have been thinking about a lot lately.  So many people that I blogged with for a long time are now either on just FB or have stopped all together.  I miss them and their comments and keeping up with their lives. I know the reasons for some of them stopping but some I don’t and probably never will and it makes me sad.  I am so thankful for all of you that have kept with it and continue on even if it’s not as often as we all once posted.  I know when I started four years ago I posted every day!  Every day!  How did I do that and what did I write about?  I’ll have to check back!!!
 

Horses, horses and more horses.

Another weekend, another trip to the coast.  It was a beautiful day, a bit humid here but nice on the coast.  We met up with 12 other members of the family on the Hubs side and had a wonderful time at The Jordan Pond House eating lobster stew and popovers.  FIL went with us and we gabbed all the way down and back.  I forgot my camera which was a bummer but it’s the first time all summer so guess I can’t complain.  :o)

Have been riding about every day except when it’s too hot or raining.  Scooter is such a sweetheart and learning more every ride how to be a western pleasure horse although he does try to herd Kipper once in a while.  Kip is about the size of the cows he used to herd.  :o)

Nick heading out into the pasture.

Cousin K on Scoot.

Funsize loving on Lil’ Bud.

Grampie, Kipper, Miss T and Son.

Mr. D giving Daddy a ride in the Gator.

Scooter and Lil’ Bud look so much alike except Lil’ Bud has a white strip on his face.

Cousin K and Miss T getting ready to go on a trail ride.  Doesn’t seem possible Lil’ Bud is almost 24 years old!

One day Mr. D and I went to the tack shop.  He needed a new helmet and some new boots.

Trying on boots.

 

Trying on helmets.

This is the one!

He was all ready to ride now with a little help from big sis.

There are always chores to do…..

The flowers are still blooming but are past their peak.

Cone flowers

Cleome

Purple coneflowers.

Just starting to bloom.

More coneflowers.  I have them in pink, purple, white, yellow and mango.

 

Brown Eyed Susans.

Son and DIL.

 

I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend.  Tomorrow after church we are headed for the lake.  I bought some plants on the way home from the coast today and want to get them into my lake garden.  Summer is fast fleeting so we are trying to enjoy every single minute of it!  :o)

Busy, busy times.

Yay!  Football season, or should I say preseason has started! I knew they would settle their differences before it was time to start.  There was just too much money involved with too many people to let a season slide by without playing. 

Son, Mr. D, Cousin K, Jo-Lynn’s hubby and son all went down for the game.  It was exciting as the Pat’s won quite easily.  The highlight of the night was meeting the players!  D, Cousin K and Cousin D got a chance to go down on the field and high five the players and chat a bit.  I got a call from Mr. D that he got to meet Tom Brady and got a hug!  He was pretty excited about that!

D is number 70, the little one!  Here they are waiting for the team to come out.  Tom Brady told him that he likes his leather helmet.  There will be more pictures to come, we haven’t downloaded them all yet. 

 

Here they are waiting to go on the field.

 

Some of you asked me about the doughboys.  I guess in other areas they are called funnel cakes but it’s always been doughboys here in Tundra Country.

You take a couple loaves of frozen bread dough and let it rise.  It takes quite awhile so sometimes I even set it out in the sun to help it along, covered with some saran wrap.  When it’s big and puffy heat your cooking oil in an electric fry pan if you have one or just on the stove in a heavy pot.  The electric fry pan works better as you can set the temp at 400* and they don’t burn.

You pull pieces off the loaf of dough and flatten it out like in the picture on my last post and put it in the oil cooking both sides until they are lightly browned.  Have butter, cinnamon and confectionary sugar ready for everyone to put on their own doughboy.  The butter melts in with the cinnamon and sugar and it is just delicious!  Calories optional…………. Let me know if you try it!  :o)

On the way home from the team penning last week we took the back way looking for some nice photo ops.  We hit the jackpot.

Fields of corn were everywhere.

Beautiful streams.

 

What kind of tractor is this Donna?

Cat tails.

I had a bit of a mishap this week on my lawn mower.  I was about a mile from the house mowing the carriage roads when my mower slipped down a little slope pinning me to a tree.  I didn’t have my cell phone (first mistake) and I only had on sandals (second mistake) and I couldn’t get the mower dislodged from the tree.

Finally I got myself out, without a scratch, (thank you Lord!) and walked home to get some help.  Dad was there and two carpenters who offered to come help us get it unstuck.

If you notice the limb that is half way through where I sit you can see my dilemma.  It was touching my ribs but didn’t make even a scratch!  If it had slid further I most likely would have had some broken ribs or worse.

Dad had to cut the limb with a chain saw as there was no way to move the mower.

 

Next we had to pull the mover out but couldn’t find out where to plug the wench in.  We WILL find out where the plug in is for future reference!!!

We finally got it out and I went on my merry way, very thankful for not being injured other then my pride!  I will wear boots and have my phone with me from now on.  If I hadn’t been able to get out around that limb that was sticking into me I would have been in big trouble.  Guess this was a wake up call!

 

Well we are off to the lake later for the pig roast.  First Funsize, her boyfriend Paul and I are going for a trail ride while it’s cool.  Scooter is doing really well and enjoying his laid back lifestyle!

Scooter and me, Kipper and Miss T and Funsize and Lil’ Bud.