Abundance

An abundance of laughter.

Pepper has this Lambchop toy she loves to play with.

We were tossing it around for her to fetch and retrieve.

She was having a blast, until it landed on the roof.

Pepper walked over to the side of the house and looked up.

Nobody wanted to get the ladder.

It was fairly close to the edge of the roof.

So I went fishing.

It's been a while since I went fishing.

It took me a few casts to get the hang of it.

I only caught the gutter twice.

Eventually, I retrieved the dog's beloved toy.

Everyone was laughing at me, but I got the toy.

An abundance of chickens.

We do enjoy our chickens and ducks.

Our rooster, Zeus, started crowing last week.

My father-in-law has been telling me how pitiful they sound when they start crowing.

Boy was he right.

It's almost hysterical.

I'd love to share what his crow sounds like,

but he doesn't crow on demand.

He seems to grow mute whenever I've got the camera.

As soon as I'm back in the house, I hear him crowing.

Frustrates me.

I think he's doing it on purpose!

He's not a terribly mean rooster.

We're still able to pick him up.

He tries to boss the ducks around though.

They immediately turn on him and snap their beaks at him.

Makes me laugh.

So, for now you'll have to use my description and

your imagination on how pitiful his crows are.

Imagine a teenage boy's crackling voice and a duck being squeezed.

He is getting better.

And one of these days I will get it on camera.

 

An abundance of water, still.

It rained again this morning.

An abundance of thankfulness that our basement is still dry.

An abundance of apples.

This poor tree is loaded with apples.

It's being propped up because we found it

leaning due to the saturated ground.

We're hoping the tree and it's apples make it.

  

An abundance of black raspberries.

There's so many!

Pepper eats them right off the branch!

Goofy dog.

Behind the old rotten-falling-down-house,

resides oodles of raspberry plants.

They are so full of berries that we picked five quarts and didn't make a dent.

Signs of berry picking.

An abundance of yummy goodness in a black raspberry cobbler!

And an abundance of blue stained mouths!

More Rain

Last night we had a couple of nasty storms that dropped a little over two inches of rain.

We're so thankful that the basement is mostly dry.

Our yard, however, has more water in it now than last week.

It was just starting to dry out too.

This along the front of our property.

This rainwater has no place to drain.

It's so deep that one of our wooden posts blocking the bottom of the gate floated away.

This is the ditch just south of the house.

The culvert is covered again.

Flood Water, Frogs, and a Blessing!

This has nothing to do with this post, but I had to show it anyway.

Nolan was supposed to be doing his morning chore.

He looked silly so I took a picture.

I know, no big surprise that I got my camera.

How's the flooded basement?

Well, day three and still the same.

We pump, sweep, and squeegee two to three times a day.

The water is clear, not funny looking like in these pictures.

I think the flash caught the bubbles. 

I call it "family squeegee time".

Fun times.

Actually, we're very thankful we didn't have much in the basement.

Here's a video for you viewing pleasure.

 On a lighter note, we have some very tiny frogs/toads.

About a month ago we captured these tadpoles from a drying pond.

The next day the pond had dried up,

which is so hard to believe now.

These are the tiniest baby frogs/toads.

I have no idea what they are.

They're so small, it's been difficult to identify them.

I'm leaning toward toad.

~

And now for some awesome news!

Connor's eating soy!!!!!

His first sunbutter and jelly sandwich on store bought bread.

He didn't really like the taste at first, but now he loves it.

He's also had gold fish and graham crackers for the first time.

I made a chicken casserole for the first time in years.

It calls for cream of chicken soup, which has soy protein in it.

He ate it, loved it, and didn't have any reactions!

My mind is swimming with all sorts of new foods for him to enjoy.

We're so excited!

One Year

Today marks one year since my brain surgery.

What a year.

This is Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis.

The place that removed my AVM.

The place that took such good care of us.

We are so thankful for how God provided for us in this adventure.

For those who prayed for us.

For those who waited with us in the waiting room.

For those who brought meals.

For those who visited.

For all our needs that were met.

We're so thankful for a clean bill of health.

A year later I feel fine.

Able to do all the things a normal person is able to do.

Today, I'm homeschooling and cleaning a flooded basement.

And I'm thankful because I am able to.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Ugly:

So we've had some flooding around here.

The worst we've seen in the 15 years we've been in our house.

Many roads are closed, including ours a mile south of the house.

According to my father-in-law, we've had 19 inches of rain in June.

June still has thirteen more days left.

I really hope they're dry ones!

This was one of the times it was pouring.

All of the chickens are under the carport while the ducks are in the puddles.

Only a duck would love this kind of weather.

We've never had this many large puddles in our yard for this long. 

This puddle was almost deep enough for the duck to swim in.

She tried.

One of the storms that missed us.

Unfortunately, later that evening we had a monsoon hit us.

~

The Bad:

Our entire basement has 1 - 2 inches of water.

That's a first for us.

She thought she was getting a treat.

You can't tell, but she's sitting in water.

Thankfully, it was clear and sunny on Tuesday.

This gave us a chance to catch up draining the basement before more rain came.

It's rained twice so far on Wednesday.

This is the whirlpool above the culvert at the ditch.

Now whenever we go outside the mosquitoes attack us.

I have a feeling they're only going to get worse.

~

The Good:

No better time than now to clean out the basement ;)

Nothing like a squeegee clean concrete floor!

We got a sled out and the boys jumped on it to "surf".

Might as well have some fun in the puddles.

There's one other cool thing we've discovered from the flood.

Frogs have moved into the water in the field behind the house.

They sing a loud chorus every evening.

We'll miss it if and when the water ever dries up!

Homeward Bound

We didn't want to but we had to say good-bye to our dear friends and their mountains.

We like to make lots of stops on our way home.

It took us almost twelve hours instead of the normal nine.

We found a pair of binoculars, among other things, at a flea market.

We made our usual stop at Clinch Mountain.

Walking the wall in deep thought.

It seems like there's always someone there who's willing to take our picture.

And we do the same.

The tunnel at Harrogate, Kentucky.

One of the last mountains.

Yes, that's me driving.

I'm not fond of it, but decided Dwayne could use a break.

The boys tease me because the last time I drove on

vacation we sat on the interstate for a while.

I ended up driving almost all of Indiana, including Indianapolis.

Since I was driving, Dwayne took the helm of the camera.

This is part of the reason I don't like to drive.

I want to see everything.

The cool bridge in Madison, Indiana.

We stopped for a short visit in Madison.

We had burgers from this place.

Good stuff.

Eventually we made it back to our neck of the woods.

The tallest things around here are windmills and cell towers.