I have been at Stone Ridge for three weeks now and it has gotten easier. I have callouses on my hands again, and the rest of me has toughened up too. It is still hard work, but I can keep up now, at least.

Enrique had a mishap with the riding lawn mower. It was a zero turn mower, that they had begged for, for years. They have had it for the three years that I have been gone, but on Friday he was mowing around the large pond and got too close and drowned it in the pond. He went in too, up to his armpits. They had to drag it out with the tractor. It is completely out of commission and we don't know if it is totaled or not, until it is taken to a repair shop for an estimate. OOOPS!! Mrs. G was away at the time at her mothers funeral, so she doesn't know yet. I'm just glad it wasn't me!

Friday a week ago, Ed and I were standing in the kitchen looking out the window and saw a cat creep up under the bird feeder, stalking a bird. I walked out onto the front porch and she came right over to me. I started to pet her and she was so skinny that there was nothing under the fur but bones. I went into the house and got her a bowl of cat food and she ate and ate. She was the most skinny cat I've ever seen. She was around all day, eating and wanting to be petted. While we were doing chores, she disappeared. About 20 minutes later she reappeared in the yard, along side the garden fence. And she had brought a little black kitten back with her! The kitten was skittish and we couldn't get near it. The mamma cat sat out in the yard a little while and then she and the kitten were gone again, back into the woods along the drive way. It seemed like she brought it out just for us to see her baby. The next morning the kitten was asleep in the hay in the dog house that is on the front porch. After work when we went to do our feeding she and her baby were in the garage. Ed was standing nearby, waiting for me to finish what I was doing at the time, when he said"we have another one"! And there were two babies with her! Both of them black and very skittish, most especially the second one. She moved them to the tall grass, weeds, and brush that is behind the barn, for a couple of days, bringing them into the barn to play and eat, then taking them back at dark. After a couple more days, she took them under the house, bringing them out and letting the eat and play, while we were out and about. Now they are on the front porch most of the time. She hides them during the day when no one is home. One of them is friendly and approachable now, but the other one doesn't seem well. It is very skittish, but it doesn't play much, and just sits or sleeps. I just might take it to the vet, if I can catch it, as the vet is open late on Tuesdays, I think. Here are some photos of them.

Here is a photo of a nest of barn swallows at the horse farm. They were just a coupleof days from leaving the nest. There are about 24 nests of these birds scattered around various places in the barn. This one is right in the center of the stall, above the stall light fixture. Aren't they cute?

Here is the flower garden that I made last summer. Some one had put down plastic bags, then a 6 inch layer of dirt and on top of the dirt were this large limestone rocks. Some of them were as large as my fist. I dug all of that out, dug down and turned the hard yellow clay and put old rotten horse manure and rotted shredded leaves in it and dug all of that in. Then I planted it with garden phlox, purple, pink and one called Bright Eyes. Several different hostas, and purple coneflower. Also yarrow, (a pink one), a yellow lily, columbines, a few gladiola bulbs, and a few other things that I can't remember. These were all 'found' plants. At the home where I worked with my little boys, some previous owner had made a large perennial garden. Then when I went to take care of my boys at Grandmas house, I was told I could have what I wanted of the plants. So this is what it looked like when I started.

This was (above) last fall, just after planting it. And this one(below) was taken yesterday.

This is the planting of hostas, that I had planted earlier this year that I wrote about before, that the dog got into and tore it all up and dug out all of the plants and some of them were in sad shape, shredded and broken. I took this photo yesterday and they are slowly growing back to their former beauty. It will probably be next year before they get as large as they were before that fiasco, but at least they are alive. These came from the same place as my other flowers in the above photo.
Any one hungry for homemade pizza? It sure was tasty! Had sausage, pepperoni, ham, mushrooms, green peppers, onions and mozzarella cheese on it. I made the dough too, but would use a different recipe next time. There was too much of the crust. Yummo!