Our 18th Grandchild has arrived

  Grandad and I got to hold Caleb Micah 10 lb 5 oz. yesterday afternoon.   Mama and baby are doing very well.  He is soooo soft!!

The Mother comes tumbling down!

Well I have a story to tell today!!  My neighbor and I have been concerned ever since the landlord had tall trees removed along our driveway up to our apartments.  The old tree stumps are sending up new shoots and poison ivy, wild raspberry briars and undergrowth are taking over now that there is lots of sunlight to this area.  The bird feeders are on that side of the drive and we are not keen to have varmints and snakes that near to them or us.  That is what you get when you have a thicket.  Sooo we were talking a few days ago and we each had the same idea of bit by bit cutting away the new growth on the stumps and clearing back the viney stuff at least from the top of the hill to keep it looking tidy.  If this can be accomplished before everything greens totally up and starts growing like wildfire, we would be happy.  That way the Landlord won't come through and use weed killer on stuff that might hurt the birds as well.

This is the area we are concerned about.  We have done a lot of clearing out here already.

This is the kind of stuff we want to cut back.

We both have worked at this for a couple of days with pleasing results.  However, today I decided to go out just long enough to work on one stump.  I was out there all of five minutes and caught my foot in a vine and tumbled rag doll style head over heels down the hill part way.  Just one revolution...that's all.   Uhhhhhh!  While in revolution I was thinking, please Lord don't let me break anything.  Well I didn't break anything but I pulled a chest muscle under/behind my right breast and I could feel that right away.  I am sure it is not a rib and it feels more like muscle than cartilage if I have that feeling sorted out....How WOULD I KNOW!....Uhhhhh! Looking around.....did anyone see that???!!  I didn't notice anyone staring at me or anyone around at all.. :-) Pwhew!

I ended up down about the center of the pic where that limb is. This is about a 45-60 Degree slope.

I had previously set my timer for 15 minutes so that I wouldn't work too long.  I went ahead and clipped a few starts on the next stump and decided I had better go in and tell hubby.  He had no clue.  I was a bit shaky.  I scratched my forehead, chin, neck, thigh and right ankle.  I didn't even notice that before coming inside.

He reminded me this is the 3rd accident in three years and perhaps I should stop doing such physical things at my age (69).  Then he told me to go take a shower because I was covered in dirt, twigs, and dried grass.  Now I have ice on my pulled muscle.  Maybe he is right, but I like to work outside!!  :-(

I need my Indiana friend R. Parker to come and take care of this work for me :-) She is an outdoorsy, get dirty kind of hard working lady.

We will see if I can move at all tomorrow.  I sneezed a little bit ago and I could definitely feel it.

Isaac feeding Lazarus

Someone asked Isaac to smile

Click on the pic to enlarge

The baby goat's name is Lazarus.  He is the sweetest tiniest little goat I have ever seen.  He is runt of a set of triplets born to Marci, his mother.  He nearly died the first night.  As soon as my daughter-in-law discovered he was losing ground, she brought him into the house and gave him a bottle and warmed him up near the wood stove.  By next morning he was standing and looked like he might make it. The change was so dramatic that they named him Lazarus.  You can see for yourself that he is doing well right now.  He goes outside with his mama and brothers during the day but mama does not allow him to nurse.  So Lazarus gets fed by whoever is available every 4 hours or so.  He comes in at night so that he can be given his 3:00am feeding more easily.  Grandson Isaac is giving him his bottle in the photo and Lazarus is loving it.  Isaac will run through the kitchen and Lazarus chases after him.  They have a lot of fun together....or so it seems.  Isaac and siblings will be getting a new brother or sister within about 4 weeks.  By then Lazarus will probably be staying outside.

Walking on the Percival Island Riverwalk

My husband and I have been regularly walking on this really nice walking path in Lynchburg, VA.  Percival Island Riverwalk.  We usually only walk about 2 miles.  So we walk 1mile onto the trail and 1 mile back.  It is much longer, I think possibly 6 miles one way.  

The past few times when we walk in the late afternoon we usually see a deer in a particular spot.  I saw it this day and was ready to take a picture when the dear turned his head away and all I got was the tail end.  

There haven't been many flowers to view but I happened upon this flower that I have heard call Passion flower.  I thought it was a cultivated flower rather than a wild flower.  There is some legendary story about how the flower tells of the crucifixion of Christ, thus the name Passion flower.

Roses

Lovely Roses from Daughter-in-Law, Amber, in honor of my husband and my wedding anniversary.  

47 years on December 30,2013.  I have been enjoying them very much. Thank you, Amber.  I guess my hubby should have been included in the pic, but he was taking the pic :-)

God's Creation speaking to those who will listen

Pretty colors of an evening sunset in December 2013

God's Creation looks different now than since my last post

The First day of Summer

It is amazing that Spring has come and gone already.

Today is a beautiful perfect day for a summer day.  Temperatures in the high 70's low 80's

I will post some of the beautiful flowers that are round about us.

Day Lilies just outside travel trailer.  We use this as a headquarters while we are developing our property .  Perhaps next year we will be able to move into our tiny house yet to be built.

Flowers in small box are impatiens.  Clicking on pic will give a larger pic.

The above are some of Amber's Roses

This is the first bloom on some that I planted this spring.

And another.  I have one other yellow and a pink one that has not shown signs of buds yet.

Amber has tried to build a rock garden here to keep soil erosion at a minimum.  It is getting better each year.  Day Lilies, rocks, some low spreading evergreen and I planted a few impatiens here this year as well.

The view out the trailer front door first to the left and then to the right.  I love the woods!!

This is a very curious sort of thing.  It is a rather ferny moss with these flower like protrusions in a coral red color and in different sizes or stages.  I know nothing about moss and spores, etc.  But a very interesting find outside my front door.  Note cicada wings and some of the body left after the great 17 year revival  this year.  A very noisy time during May but endearing as well.  Those woodsy sounds, you know?

Twin Baby Goats!!

Last Friday I had accompanied Amber and the children to their homeschool co-op class day.  It begins around 10am and ends around 3pm depending on which classes you are enrolled.  Amber has been watching mama goat Anna for a week or so thinking that a birth was imminent.  Nothing was happening.  The old saying a watch pot never boils seems appropriate :-) When we arrived home on Friday Amber noticed some extra movement in the special birthing pen.  Twins had been born moments before our arrival home.  These little twin bucks are sooooo cute and their coloring just adds to their beauty. Their father was called Black Jack.  What a wondrous thing are babies of all kinds.  Thankful to God for His work of Creation for us to marvel at and enjoy.  Haven't heard of any names as yet.

My granddaughter Rose is holding one of the twins.

A New Purchase since our move

We are now in Virginia and looking to develop some property we have owned for several years now.  Our plan is to use a travel trailer as a headquarters and place to stay until we have other living quarters ready.  We purchased this trailer from an individual.  A 1994 Mallard 24 foot.  It has a nice floor plan.  Now we must get it cleaned up and some things moved in.  Also need to down size some more.  This could take a while.  It is hard to get rid of stuff you have had for years especially if you like it.  Is the stuff really necessary?  Do I use it? How is it important to me? Is there a good reason to keep it?  I came from a family that never threw anything away.  I am not that bad but I do have some things that I need to think about.  One person I read about said it took them 2 years to down size sufficiently to live in a smaller space.  I don't want to take that long.  Anyway here are the pics of the trailer as it is being delivered by the previous owner.  He was gracious to do this since we did not have a proper vehicle to do so ourselves.  We would have probably had to rent something.

Sword Play 2 with Big Bro Gavin

Sword Play

Thad just loves the sword play and we cracked up at his wanting to sheath this very long sword.

Visit from the VA Sullys

Next weekend we look forward to a visit from our son and his family from Virginia.  It is always great to have them in our home and spend time together.  They have a full schedule planned.  The cousins love spending time together.  It sounds like there will be a boy cousin sleepover at one home and a girl cousin sleepover occurring at the same time at another home.  What fun!!  We will have a family reunion on Saturday.  It is wonderful for us all to be together.  We pray for traveling mercies for Tom and Amber and children.

Our new used car

This is the new/used vehicle we purchased a week or two ago.  It is a 2005 Mitzubishi, Lancer ES 4 dr sedan.  We got it for a good price and had all the maintenance issues taken care of i.e. timing belt(included water pump and other belts) , transmission flush, corroded battery connectors, and a tune up.  Oh yes,  add in there a co2 senser, not included in the estimate :-(

All in all we are happy with our purchase.  I think it is funny that when we looked at it my hubby didn't even drive it because he was unsure about purchasing this small of a car.  So he said to me who will be driving this? and I said I will.  He seemed satisfied with the answer until after he drove it a couple of times..... it seems he has logged more miles on it than I have.  Soooo we jokingly fight over who will drive it each day.  It is fun to do drive and it looks pretty nice as well.

A day off

It was wonderful today to have the day off from my employment at the shoe repair shop.  I was able to accomplish all of the laundry, vaccuming, tidying up most areas of the house, made the bed, spot mopped the linoleum/floor covering....only the dishes remain.  I have them under control but need to finish them.  It is late enough tonight that I may finish them in the morning.  I will be off tomorrow until 1pm and then Thursday half a day as well. 

The weather was very cool this morning around 50's and got up to the low 80's and then cooled down again.  It was a beautiful day!!!God is gracious and merciful in allowing me to be experiencing a measure of good health today after an exceedingly difficult weekend of excessive fatigue.  Thank you Lord!!

Recent Birthday #2

We sang Happy Birthday to Ethan, Thad, and Bryan, however Bryan declined any candles to represent his age.  I wonder why???

Recent Birthday

Thad was celebrating his first birthday but not with cake.  He had a blueberry crumble made by big brother Gavin.  Thad looooovvvvveeeessss blueberries as does his daddy Bryan.  We actually celebrated three birthdays all at once.  Bryan's was August 26, Thad's August 31, and Ethan September 1.  I have a video I hope to post that has Ethan in it.

I have given all my grandsons their first haircut and I was invited to give Thad his first haircut on the celebration of his first birthday.  He did very well.  Mama gave him fresh blueberries to eat to keep him busy while Grandma did the haircut. :-)

He was a cuddle bug here.  He has a sober look much of the time but he does know how to smile.

Birthday for Stonewall

This is a picture of the vehicles to be made from this lego-like kit.  A Carz cap and a Carz shirt inside a Carz drawstring bag that I made.  This was our gift to Stonewall.

What Kerry is laughing about is-when Stonewall opened the gift of lego like army vehicles to make, Sam said "Stonewall I am going to have to help you with those!"

We all just laughed.

Lovely clouds in the east at Sunset with bright moon shining in daylight

I took this outdoors.  But I took another indoors first.  I was positioned looking out the kitchen window at an angle and I got a cool and very mind boggling reflection from the living room lamps in the photo.  Check this out.

Flower beds for end of Summer beginning Fall

After

Before

After

Before