Horse Play

David out with Grace. She was riding Juliet. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Emily out with me on a ride.

Romeo is her favorite horse to ride.

Yeah, I know....the name thing again.

Yes, we have horses named Romeo and Juliet.

 

 

Grace and Grant headed to the barn to ride.

First they had to take a detour to see Ronnie's puppy.

 

 

 

 

 

This is Ronnie's dog named Socks.

He is a pet, unlike Ronnie's coon dogs which he raises to sell.

 

I think Socks has been around the farm almost as long as Ronnie has.

The kids like to play with him.

He likes to pee on their legs.

 

Not kidding about that one.

Tossing rocks into a bucket will suffice for fun when there is nothing better to do.

When the bucket got boring, he started trying to toss rocks between the boards of the shed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ready to ride...

Whinny got to do the honors this time.



Five days to go!!!

Just Another Day In Paradise

Lots of flower picking at the farm this summer.

Sometimes I don't know what we are picking....

 

 

 

 

Sometimes I do...

 

 

 

Either way, they are fun for the kids to pick and arrange while we are there.

 

 

Grant prefers his Lego's to flowers.

This was a pattern he and Grace put together one afternoon.

 

The is the spider my kids were unwilling to kill because they were grossed out by it.

Instead they opted to put one of my glass dishes over it.

 

What a lovely thing to find when I came in from the garden.

Thanks, kids!!

 

 

 

 

This was another lovely discovery...

 

That is Remington on top of the picnic table trying to drink the last of someone's forgotten lemonade from dinner.

 

Bad dog!!

 

 

Yep.

Just another day in paradise.

 

 

Six days to go!!

Summertime

Here is a sample of what we are still pulling from the garden the past few weeks.  We picked all of this right before we went camping. 

 

Other than just the enjoyment of taking pictures of vegetables that remain still instead of kids that are always moving, I like to take pictures of what we've grown each year to record how we are doing with the whole gardening thing.

This year has been a good year for us.  We even have a decent apple crop coming on.

There are lots of peaches, but not too many good ones.  They have some sort of peach scab on them.

Guess we'll try again next year with peaches!

 

The pumpkin might be a little early, but we knew it would not last until Halloween so we decided to enjoy it now.

 

David picked beans yesterday when he was down there and said all of them are loaded with blooms again.  Anyone want beans?

 

Overall, the garden has been a fun andsomewhat productive learning project

for both adults and kids.

We learn a little more and get a little better each year

but I have to say....

 

Thank God For Kroger!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Emily has been busy the last few weeks of summer.

She is doing a lot of babysitting and raking in the big bucks.

Talk to her if you need a cash advance.

 

I think she had four jobs lined up for this week alone.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a picture the neighbor lady took with some of the girls who live on our street.

 

They are a really sweet bunch.

These are some of the girls Emily watches.

 

 

 

 

 

Whenever we have a chance, we head for the pool.

The kids don't stay long with daytime temperatures hovering around 75 degrees lately.

 

 

 

Poor Grace seems to suffer the most.

She spends much of her pool time huddled under three or four towels on my lap

trying to warm up after the first hour of swimming.

 

Grant could swim all day.

I would say he is part fish, but I believe the correct comparison would be to say he is part manatee.

It just seems more fitting as I watch him lounge around in and under the water.

 

 

 

Sometimes I have to double check if he is okay because he can stay underwater for so long...

like a manatee!!

 

 

Today I took Grace and Grant to get a "back-to-school" haircut from a kids' salon.

It used to be a treat for John and Emily to get their hair cut there once a year. I thought I would give the two little ones the same fun.

 

We also went to the local kids' gym to use some free passes before the end of summer.

The kids got to do open gym for a couple hours.  John even tagged along and worked on his flips on the trampolines and vaults in the big kid gym.

 

Grace had fun showing me what she learned in gymnastics last year and Grant just had fun!

 

 

Counting down to the beginning of school.....

 

7 days to go!!



Rutledge Falls,Tennessee

It has been a busy few weeks for the Shupe family.  I thought life would slow down once baseball finished.  Instead the Shupe family bus just sort of careened through the intersection of chaos and bedlam and found ourselves smack in the midst of kitchen remodeling. 

I emptied the kitchen as John was finishing his baseball tournament.  We left for the farm the morning after his last game.  Kitchen guys arrived to refinish my kitchen cabinets while we were away.  What was supposed to take one week ended up taking two weeks plus several extra trips the following two weeks to get things right.  They are still working out a few issues, but most of it is now finished.

We have finished most of the gardening for the year.  Beans are still blooming, but I am threatening to mow them off.  I am tired of picking beans!!  Carrots and onions are dug.  Cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes and broccoli and cauliflower are still going.  Corn and peas are finished.  I put some corn in the freezer.

The week we returned was spent cleaning out the sawdust and cleaning off everything that came out of the kitchen before it went back into the kitchen.  Not fun.

Interspersed with the cleaning and sorting were several trips to the pool. The water has been SO COLD!!  The kids are loving the pool.  I am not.

In addition to kitchens and gardens and pools, we have been acquiring school supplies and uniforms for all four scholars.  John and Emily are now registered for high school.  We have been to school for orientation and tours two different times.  They have lockers assigned and stocked ready for the first day.  Grace and Grant have also registered and seen their classrooms for the new year.  We are ready.

So what else have we been up to?  A lot, actually.  We made a trip to Illinois to see family.  We celebrated Snickers' one year birthday.  We are awaiting the arrival of baby ducklings that our momma duck is sitting on faithfully.  We added goats to the zoo.  We are preparing for the arrival of a bull to see to the needs of many lonely cows.

See?  Busy, I tell you!

Anyway.  I have neglected blogging.  No excuses. 

Here are the latest pictures from this weekend.  We took the camper to Manchester, Tennessee, for the weekend.  It was a beautiful area.  We hung out at the campground and at a waterfall nearby.  Here are a few shots from the waterfall.

The falls were located on private property, but the owners allow access to the public.

I am so glad they do.  It is a beautiful place.

 

 



While we were there, many people came and went.  Most were hiking or swimming, but some were even doing photo shoots in the water along the stream.

A few brave souls climbed the falls.

If you look closely, John is in a green shirt standing at the center of the falls.

I did not seem him doing it, but David took a picture of John climbing to the top of the falls.  I was too busy helping Grace across the stream and falling down on the slippery rocks.

Here is one of John almost at the top.

 

 Hopefully, I can catch up on blogging as summer vacation winds down this week.  More pictures and stories about our summer adventures coming soon.

 

 

Goodnight!