Grandkids' Visit

Grandkids is a misnomer for young men 18 and 19 years old. Ian has grown up. So has his friend Kellin who came for the first time to visit us with Ian. It was great to get to know Kellin, especially since he is an animal and nature lover who fell in love with all our animals and they with him.  Ian cooked two delicious suppers for us. We hiked to the creek and through the woods and fields. They camped in a tent in our arena, where we all saw the comet, Comet Neowise, the first night they were here.

Photos preserve their visit...

The 3 guys cutting down and feeding blackberries to the goats, who were very appreciative...

Annie Puppy was quite interested in this activity. Well, in all activities...

The three guys cut and put together pieces for the steps into the garden Ian is constructing at home. They used some of the cedar my dad had milled with his sawmill. Cool to have it being used 3 generations later.

Ian wanted a start of a rose that could tolerate shade to put over the grave of their pet chicken, so I took cuttings from Playboy after he researched shade-tolerant roses on the web. I learned that best results come from starting them under 2 liter plastic pop bottles. Johnny has lots of those he saves for putting apple cider in each fall. So Ian cut the bottoms off, as the youtube video instructed, and I dipped the ends of the stems in rooting hormone and put them in pots with our composted soil. Ian took two pots of rose-cuttings-under-bottles home with him and I kept these two pots to try here. Hopefully at least one pot of roses will root!

Afternoons meant hikes to the creek and wading in the cool, well, cold, water...

Of course, I had to take photos of creatures along the way, like this Common Wood Nymph, which is common but not in woods... it likes grassy meadows... Go figure.

Day 2 we hiked to a different part of the creek... the 3 guys waded to the far side over slippery rocks... hiking poles needed...

I went upstream to watch birds and take scenic photos...

And photos of the three of them...

...a scenic photo...

Lots of Cedar Waxwings...

Back in the barn the next morning, Annie Puppy was a star. Here she is with her good friend April Starlight...

... and good friend, now, Kellin

Ian has always loved the goats. Here he is with the young buck I'm keeping for a herd sire: Mocha Knight

Johnny sat down and found himself in the middle of the very friendly goats...

One of the April kids came over to join Kellin and Annie...

Before leaving to drive home, Kellin had to say goodbye to big Mr. McCoy

It was a fun couple of days. Hope they come again when their schedules allow...