FOR SALE - Aunt Bob's Pumpkin Patch!

It will be 2 years in February since the hubs and I purchased 20 acres just north of town. We have had many a night pondering what we will do with this little chunk of land besides harboring my goats, horses and our grand dogs. And now that we have the old house torn down we are thinking we might like to build a nice little house and make a move to the country.

To do that we have to get rid of the house we live, Jeff's work shop and my 3 acre garden. We will be putting it up for sale soon.

Every time I think of it I burst into tears. I worked the soil, put up fences, planted trees and perennials, built a toy house for the grannies, put up a small green house and spent many hours tending my garden of pumpkins.

How will I ever let it go? My grand kids have played in the corn field, harvested the fruits, picked sunflowers, road 4-wheelers, had picnics, hosted birthday parties. So many memories have been built on this little piece of heaven.

On of my besties home borders my garden. We sit by her pond and enjoy drinks, visit about our lives, jobs, dreams, births of our grandchildren and even death. Who will sit with me in the country and help figure out life?

Well - I guess home is where the heart is and if I want to make our little Kennedy Farm a home I will have to let go of my garden, hang onto my memories and start making new ones.

The start of the first garden. Holy hocks from seeds I have stored from my mother's garden before she passed away in 1983.

Pumpkins - in the south patch. And look at the lovelies below - it has been such a big part of my life for many years - Aunt Bob's Pumpkin Patch.

I hope I find someone to love this place as much as I do.

Photo shoot of Three - OR How NOT to make a Christmas Card.

It seemed like a good idea in theory. Take a photo of my 3 little goats to use for our Christmas card but in actuallity - it wasn't a good idea at all.

The props, 3 stockings, a Santa hat and scarf, a couple of ornaments and the goats favorite stand to crawl on. 3 people to man handle the goats and take the photos and 3 dogs to help keep herd.

Tuffy didn't mind wearing the scarf. Tuffy is the smallest of the 3 goats and quietly moves around the other two - he usually gets his way, just the other two Lula (my only little girl) and Billy as in Billy the Bully.

And after a bit of a tussel it was decided that Billy would wear the Santa Hat instead of the 3 Christmas bulbs that were attached (at least a dozen times), to his horns.

While getting Billy ready Tuffy and Lula thought it would be fun to play in the barn and on the hay bales.

So Jeff decided to entice them with a little grain. By this time Lulu had a small wreath on her head and Bill had a large wreath around his neck. But poor Tuffy, no one would let him on the stand.

Nor would they let him eat.

So he started munching on Billy's wreath.

Which had fallen around Billy's chubby tummy. Tuffy did make it to the top but the other two, by then were off. Copper, lower right was trying to herd them but they wouldn't listen. Deuce and Nugget (the two horses) wanted to get in on the fun but alas they were on the other side of the fence.

So I thought "Why not see if we can get a shot of the 3 horses." By then Tuffy had managed to get the stand all to himself and well to also moon the camera man...or lady as the case may be. My daughter Brandi, when not laughing, was taking the photos. So Deuce was to get a scarf around his somewhat chubby neck.....

...and Nugget got a smaller wreath on her ear as the large wreath wouldn't go over her long nose.

And they were looking pretty good, except Deuce looked like he was choking and Nugget looked like she was trying to talk and we had yet to get Hickory (the 3rd horse) into a photo.

So Jeff suggested a photo from behind as no one cared if they had a scarf and ribbon on their tails or a Santa hat on their rump. He had to give Hickory a little shove to fit his bum into the photo and then...

And then, there you have a "tail" of 3! 3 Goats, 3 Horses, 3 humans taking photos which took about 3 hours and this was the best we could get.

Merry ChristmASS to all!

Historical Christmas Dinner 2015 - Celebrating 1891

One more for the books - the 21st Fort Robinson Historical Christmas is now a thing of the past. Celebrating the year 1891 was rather exciting as that is the year Fort Robinson expansion built one of it's new Officer Quarters. And in 2015 we celebrated the re-birth of that building in a dedication celebration earlier in the year.

So we fed 200 people pork loin, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, bread, yams, pickled beets, cake, & pie.

Here is our centerpiece this year.

The colors of course for a military dinner - red, white and blue.

It was a wonderful night and now, plans for 2016 are already in the making.

Blame it on Pinterest

No  matter how hard I try I just can't find time to update my blog. I have a lot of reasons why not such as, the little acreage we just purchased that requires tearing down buildings, mowing, cleaning, building fences. Then add 11 grandchildren that live in 4 different town doing every sport available, then having a JOB!!!

But NO, I am going to blame it on Pinterest! I can work around everything else but when I pull up Pinterest it is like being in a world all my own. Ideas swarm around my head, visions of decorating, gardening, photography, sewing, crafting and scrapping engulf me and pretty soon hours have passed and there is no time to blog, no time to surf the wonderful world of blogging that kept me so busy before.

I think I need an intervention. YEP a full blown, can't touch a computer, pull up a site on my phone, intervention. I need to quit living vicariously through Pinterest, get off my duff and experience the magic of DIY projects.

So here is to living the dream instead of dreaming the dream...........and my first project, to work on my cottage garden studio!!

Almost November...it can't be!!

   I just can't believe that 8 months has passed since my last post, seems like yesterday. Soooooo much has happened over spring, summer and now fall that I won't even try to play catch up.

   So I must say goodbye to all my  flowers. I sometimes feel ever so sad about that and then I think of the running game, where I run to the house from work to water, and then to the garden and water, and then to the farm and water and I think "there are good things that come from frost" and I start to relax and my mind.........starts planning for next year. What's up with that???

  Probably the most exciting news is.................we bought 20 acres in the country. Just 2 miles from town, it just perfect for our retirment home. This is the main reason I haven't posted anything, we work our jobs from 8-5 and the rest of the time is spent, cleaning, mowing, moving junk. This little place IS a work in progress. To date the hubs has taken almost 70 ton of old iron and junk from the place......before and work in progress photos to come soon.

  This is the old house that needs to come down so that we can put up something new and start living out there. The prospects are so exciting that I constantly have my nose in floor plans, garden rooms, etc. This house is NOT a fixer upper, maybe if we were 25 years younger and were, well good at those things. But we aren't, just taking off the asbestos siding before razing it seems like a LOT of work to me. Soon...it will happen.

Catch Up

I think this is the story of my life, it is called "Catch Up". I don't know where the time goes but I do know it goes fast so I will try to catch up with the events going on in the Kennedy family.

 

So starting with youngest to oldest, our little Mr. Brody is fast approaching the six month mark. He is the happiest baby and is rolling everywhere, getting up on a knee and loving anything his big brothers do. They can make him laugh like crazy or sometimes cry when they scare the beegeebies out of him. He is a big little guy at the 95% percentile for his age.

Little Miss Libby will be turning 1 year old in  just a month. She is just a little dolly and recently started walking. She too is just such a happy little thing and loves chasing her big brother Lucas around or being chased my him. Libby was dedicated to the Lord just before Thanksgiving and we were blessed to be able to attend. It is a five hour drive to visit the kids so we don't see them as much as we would like.

 

Lucas had his 4th birthday party just before Thanksgiving. We had a good time at the YMCA watching him play with his cousins and friends. He is a daddy's little helper and can get into all kinds of mischief. He is always a happy little camper.

 

My little Cash Keane turned 4 in 2013 also and was so excited to attend Pre-school. We had a little party and a cake waiting for him when he got home. A fall while playing with his brother cost him a broken leg, it was a bad break and he had been in a cast for several months. It took him awhile to get back to being rough and tumbly but once he did he was involved in his first year of soccer and loves playing football with his big brother Jaxon.

 

Emma Jean is a mini me, she loves to craft and spend hours in the garden planting seeds and pulling weeds. She also is a little tom boy and keeps up with her boy cousins, and is sometime a little bit of a daredevil. Her mind is as bright as her spirit, she recently won the Spelling Bee in first grade. She tells me she really isn't into sports, she likes to read. She is also my little beautician and when she comes to visit I not only get my hair fixed, my nails polished but a relaxing little hand massage.

Next on this little step ladder of grannies is Jaxon. He turned 8 last year and is in the 2nd grade. I sometimes think his head is in the clouds but then I realize he has been doing some studious thinking. The kid has a mind as sharp as a tack and is Mr. observant. Jaxon is in his third or fourth year of soccer and is getting pretty darn good at it. He made many goals for his team this fall and is now involved in his schools program called "Skipping Cats". He and his little brother Cash were also in a community play at Christmas and they both did a great job acting.

My little buck-a-roo Adrianne is in the third grade. That is just so hard for me to believe as I was a para for the third grade for almost 10 years and she just should not be that old already. She has Jeff's and my love of animals and spends as much time atop her horse Hickory as possible. We follow her around the softball field, attend dance recitals and this winter watched her play in her first basketball games for the 3rd and 4th grade team.

My soon to be step grandson Brandt is an all around little athlete. He played quarter back for his young Crawford Ram team, rides horses, bikes and is at this moment wrestling in Jr. Federation competition. It was fun to have a quarterback to take photos of because...they always have their hands on the ball. It wasn't unusual for me to take 300 or more photos when he was on the field.

Austin Wayne is in 8th grade this year and we so enjoyed following him around to his football and now basketball games. He has just really sprouted this past year and has gone from a boy to a young man. He has the kindest heart and when our family gets together he helps keep the little ones entertained. He has many passions, besides his football and basketball sports he also rides motor cross, rides horses and shares his dad's passion of hunting.

My soon to be granddaughter Spenser turned the big 14 this year. Of all the grannies she is the most domesticated. She is also a little entrepreneur as  has her own cupcake and cake baking business. She stays busy with volleyball and basketball but a knee injury kept her off the court for a bit this past year. She also enjoys doing mani/pedi's for her friends and family and loves to ride her horse.

 

Last but not least is my handsome grandson Taylor Michael. A junior in high school, we have traveled the panhandle of Nebraska and into South Dakota to watch him play football and basketball. He is not only a great athlete but just a great person. He was chosen for many school honors, is on the National Honor Society, recently joined FFA and really has so many things on his list of accomplishments  that I don't know what they all are.

 

So here they all are, all eleven of them. This photo was taken in South Dakota near two of their ski resorts. The whole family spent the weekend for New Year's Day in this most awesome cabin in the woods. It was wild and crazy, noisy to the hilt and I loved every moment of it.

 

I just had to include this picture of Greg's family because it shows all the snow we had surrounding our cabin. It was at the top of a canyon but the end of a road so we had the perfect place to go sledding. Greg and I took Taylor, his girlfriend Page and Emma to one of the ski resorts for an afternoon of skiing and sledding. (Just the kids did the activities, Greg and I sat on the porch watching). It was dropping inches of snow at the time and was just a sight to see.

 

My story wouldn't be complete if I didn't include a little blip about my animals. This is Copper Todd, my little mini dachshund. I enjoy this little mutt more than ever. He is my constant companion, just wish I could bring him to work. My boss would probably let me cuz his wife has two or three of these little critters but I work in a building that has a restaurant and, animals just aren't allowed in.

 

 A picture of Adrianne on her horse Hickory and a picture of my new horse Deuce with Brandt giving him a ride. We have a little bit of a menagerie of animals, four dogs, a cat, four horses and two goldfish. We love each and everyone one of them.

 

Jeff and I got a new bike this summer. We made it on only one ride to Sturgis but are determined to get more time in this year on the darn thing. We have also purchased 20 acres of land and some day move to the country. As it is now there are many buildings in need or repair or just plain demolished, trees to plant, fences to build or mend, grass to grow it should keep us plenty busy. I hope to start a new blog about this adventure as we surely do have some fun re- purposing in store for us.