Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Hope everyone has a safe, joyous, and fun Christmas season.

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope everyone has a wonderful day with friends and family.

Poor Little Critter In The Road

Latest Hapnins

They even make rednecks in Yankeeville; gotta learn em young.

Not a bad shot

Brett painting his way into the house. The front is almost done for this season.

Caroline at the church "talent" show. She is performing "dog training" with Tater. And yes, he is wearing a tutu.

Riverton Fair, awaiting the ride to start.

Cider pressing 2010. Brett showing off his "special" outfit...camo + flannel plaid with sleeves cut off, and "bubba belly - obviously forced".

Big Week of Firsts

Caroline had a visit from the Tooth Fairy Sunday night.

Today was Caroline's first day of school.

Getting on the bus for the first time.

And there's still more

First we expanded the width of the front steps.

Had a visit from two of my cousins and their kids. Fun, but too short a time together.

Painted alcove area with the new color and tried out the future new front door.

Most of the font painted. Caroline helped paint the first railing. Still haven't changed front door.

This is what the front of the house will eventually look like. I'm still a bit rough around the edges with the program I used to do this.

What have I been up to...

I figure I'll let the pictures tell the story.

The town pond was reopened this year and I assisted with the swimming program.

Went to GA to hang with my Mom and Brother.

Took my Aunt (whom I hadn't seen in about 30 years) to see a nature show. Caroline was enthralled as usual, Aunt Janie...not so much.

This one was displaying for another of it's buddies.

Tried my damnedest to capture the one adult male that frequented the feeder, but only captured what I think is a young male we named Red Spot. The other had some sort of radar and flew away whenever I had my camera.

First night of Fireman's Carnival

Historical Society Booth

Caroline trying to win a prize with her friend Tova

Caroline was CRAZY for the gian slide

She only rode this one because it was within view of the HHS booth I had to man.

Fountain Again

It's in the hole.

A little time to gain perspective (Caroline took this picture)

Happy Caroline

Just need to get some plants in.

Fountain

Daylily season begins; Fountain progress report

View from bench toward road

View from road toward bench

The tub has been set. The bricks are to make the substructure for the catch basin; it needs to be wider than the tub to collect over splash from the water dripping from the larger bowl of the fountain.

This is one of my favorite day lilies. It is a dark rosey pink with a green throat.

This one is huge, about 8" across with thick petals with ruffled edges.

Pinkish Peach

This is the only one I remember the name, "Pink Baby" It is quite small in comparison to the others.

Memorial Day

It was a busy weekend. The high light of which was a VERY moving sermon by one of the deacons of our church...basically, I was a sobbing mess after service. I can't truly put my finger on it, but I was touched by the words she chose to express her gratitude to our service men and women past and present, forgotten or remembered.

Our town's tradition is to have the Memorial Day Parade march to the cemetery to honor our fallen heroes through music, prayer, and speeches. As president of the historical society, I suggested we dress in varying period costumes to kind of liven things up and not seem so dowdy. It was a lot of fun.

The Past Week or So

"Artsy"

Yellow Globe Flower

Lady Slipper, I started with three and now have four.

Early day lilies getting ready to bloom

Caroline on "picture rock" (the girls that grew up in our house told me they always used to take pictures on this rock so I named it "picture rock")

Caroline before her recital

We had the eye sore stumps removed from the front yard. They needed two loaders to get these two mighty oak stumps over the side of the dump truck. The guy on the truck unchaining the stumps is about 6 feet tall, just to give a size reference.