Mini Festival

When Virginia graduated from college she bought a house.  Then she bought a rental, then another rental.  She befriended the real estate agent.  He became a sort of mentor.  Every year he invites friends and family of friends to a mini fall festival at his farm.  Joe and I went with them this year.  There was a delicious semi pot luck. (they provided the hot dogs, BBQ, beans, mac and cheese and drinks)
They had a hay maze, corn maze and hay wagon ride to the pumpkin patch. 

I managed lots of good photos of Sadie. 

Allie, not so much.  

The hay wagon went out 4 times.  It was full every time.  Joe and I just waited for them to come back.  They stopped by the car on the way back to drop off the pumpkins so I am not sure what they ended up with but they said they were big.  

This was the best family photo I could manage.  

It was a fun afternoon. 

 

Deworming Chore

A few days ago Joe found a sick goat.  Worms again.  He got it up and dewormed it.  Then there was another one.  Time to get the entire herd up and deworm.  

Monday night we herded them into the large barn lot so they would be easy to catch on Tuesday morning.  

We dewormed all of the kids and the yearling does.  

Hopefully, this will keep us from having anymore sick ones due to worms, at least until they are sold in a couple of months. 
 

More Ponies and Dresses

Virginia brought the girls over Sunday afternoon so they could ride Clyde.  

But first, Allie had to try to give Golden Boy a leaf.  She has really gotten very brave around the animals now.  

Then it was on to Clyde.  There was lots of brushing and combing going on.  Clyde is such a good boy.  

Allie rode first.   She is still content to just walk.  I took the lead rope off and let her walk around on her own.  She did really well.  

While Allie was riding, Sadie did poop patrol with Joe.  

Then it was Sadie's turn.  I think she has grown 6 inches since the last time she rode Clyde.  I might just have to keep her on Otoelene now.

Back at the house I had my dining room full of clothes from my mother's house.  There was a box of 60 year plus dresses.  Sadie couldn't keep her hands out of them.  She picked out one for Allie.  

And she chose this one with matching gloves for herself.  I think she will want to wear it to church.  Virginia might need to learn how to iron for this one.  But Sadie really did love the gloves.  
 

Sixth Annual G.O.A.T. Sheep and Goat Festival

Joe and I tagged along with Virginia, Mike, Sadie and Allie for a day at the Sheep and Goat Festival.  We were a little late for the best prizes at the wheel prizes.  Joe, Virginia and Mike got Farm to Feet socks.  I don't know what Allie got.  I got a $10 voucher that I used for lunch.  And I did my best to talk Sadie out of a coloring book in favor of a $10 voucher.  But she was not having any of my arguments.  She does not have enough understanding of money yet to make an informed decision.  She ended up with the coloring book.  

Next, was picking out pumpkins to paint.  

It took a lot of concentration.  A surprising number of adults painted pumpkins also.  

Sadie finished her pumpkin first and got her face painting while waiting for Allie to finish.  

Sadie is definitely the flower child.  

The hay maze was a big hit.  

The line for the horse buggy rides was too long so they settled for the barrel train ride.  

After lunch, we had to go pick up the painted pumpkins that were done drying so Allie got her face painted too.  

Can you tell she is a rainbow unicorn?  

Time for a framed photo.  

And of course we had to pet a goat.  Allie had milked one earlier but Sadie opted out of that.  But she was fine with petting it.  There was lots to do and see.  It was a nice afternoon.  
 

Five Minute Flowers

I had some time at lunch at work yesterday so I thought I would look up more videos on drawing flowers like the one I showed Sadie how to do. There is a teacher that has several tutorials. I think I am obsessed. 

I wasn’t trying very hard to make them look good I was just trying to keep up. But somehow they all turned out looking like flowers. Now I will have more choices for Sadie the next time she wants to draw. You can follow the link HERE to her YouTube channel if you want to try too. 

 

Memories

 As promised, here is a glimpse into what has been taking up a lot of my time recently. 

For the last few months my siblings and I have been getting together to go through our parent's house.  We are trying to get it ready to sell to Emily and Keiran by the first of the year.  My parents built the house in 1958 and lived there until their deaths, my father in 1990 and my mother this February.   They collected things from our childhoods, their interests, work, World War II and the Korean War, their parents, grandparents, sisters, aunts, and friends of  relatives.  There is a lot of stuff.  Sometimes we find a treasure, sometimes trash.  Sometimes a Christmas miracle, like when there was a missing piece from a Santa puzzle that was in an upstairs closet.  The missing piece was found in a box of stuff in the basement garage. Sometimes we find things that we don't know anything about.  Since it was saved, should we continue to try to save it?  Sometimes I wish I could ask Mama, "why was this special," why did she keep it.  But if I don't know why it was special why am I keeping it?  Will I just be burdening my children and grandchildren with things they have even less connection to?  Should I expect them to treasure something that has meaning to me but not to them.  Letting go is hard.  But our houses are full, our lives are full, and our hearts are full of all the love that we received from our parents.  The problem is my mind is full of the chaos that I am trying to organize and make space for. I have tried to set boundaries, as much stuff has to leave my house as comes in.  But I haven't been able to keep up with enough stuff leaving.  It is easy to bring home one or two things from a trip, from a thrift store, from a gift and incorporate that into the house.  But how do you incorporate 100's and 1000's of things?  Is it still my home then or is it a shrine?  We all work through it in our own ways.  We all have our own struggles.  But we have been able to share our time and memories with each other and that helps.  There is still more to go, more closets, drawers, cabinets, shelves.  More stuff.  And hopefully, more good memories.  

Reframing

I had gotten a pair of pretty frames at the thrift store a while back. 

But the pictures where fairly blah and mass produced. 

I also had some quilt blocks that I think my great grandmother made. I had framed some and given them to the subs for Christmas one year but never got around to framing one for myself. 

 I think they turned out pretty nice.