Ouch.  I have
heartburn.  This is CORN FESTIVAL week/weekend in our local
metropolis and we, being the wildly innovative and pleasure-addicted
people we are, busted out and went to the Chili Supper at the 1st
Presbyterian Church in town.  Wow.  It doesn’t get much
better than that.  We dragged our friends, Liz and Louis, with
us.  They are celebrating their first anniversary of moving out of
The City (Chicago) this very day so eating chili at the Corn Fest
seemed oddly appropriate.  Somewhat of a come-down for them but
they were unstintingly polite about it. 

I was going to enter my famous Corn Salad in the Corn Festival Queen
contest today but somehow just didn’t get around to it.  Instead
of a beauty contest for the Queen they have reverted to the old
tradition of whoever bakes the best cornbread becoming Queen. 
Only they widened the field to any recipe using corn.   I had
visions of me riding in the limo as Grand Marshall-ess of the
parade.  The vision only lasted a nanosecond.  Make that a
picosecond.  Think I’ll just sit here at home on Sunday and look
at our cornfields…while we have them.

The Villain requested a picture of our chewed-up duck.  Here he is:

You can’t tell in the photo that most of his wing feathers are
missing.  Note the double-walled fence to keep him in and the
puppies out!

Here’s a pic of my lime tree that has gone bonkers this summer. 
It apparently loves being outside.  It has 14 limes on it at the
moment!

And yes, for the very first time I’ve added a Currently Listening because I actually am listening! 

Y’know…I feel really stupid
when I read both my husband’s and son’s Xanga blogs and don’t
understand a word they say.  Yup, old and stupid.  Someone
needs to start a blogging site for middle-aged people of marginal
intelligence. 

Conversation in the sandbox, building sand castles this morning:
Me:  You did that so well, my dear!
Sloane:  Am I your dear?

As we put four dandelion “candles” on a sand cake:
Me:  This looks like a birthday cake.  Do you know anyone who is four?
Long pause…
Sloane:  I think I might be four…

Sigh.  I love little kids. 

The View from My Kitchen Window
This cat just showed up at
the farm one day and never left.  He’s balanced on a little bar
that pushes the window open (he’s on the outside of the screen).  He likes to keep his “sniffer” close
to the kitchen window, especially when I’m cooking.  When he gets
tired of balancing there he retreats to the grill (located just below
the window) and curls up for a nap.  And yes, he did get a little scrap of the chicken I was baking…

Sometimes it’s hard to see
how God can make things work out for good.  And sometimes He lets
you have a glimmer of what He’s doing.  Today I got a little
glimmer.

For four months now we’ve been living with the knowledge that our home
and farm are under the threat of annihilation by the proposed Prairie
Parkway.  We’ve done everything we can think of to influence the
decision away from our neighborhood but right now it’s out of our
hands.  The decision is probably already made but we won’t find
out until October 4 which way the wind is blowing.  Through the
whole thing, however, we’ve had opportunity to meet lots of people who
live in our neighborhood and whom we’ve never really had a chance to
meet or get to know.  Today was another example.

Out of the blue we got a phone call from a near neighbor that we hadn’t
met (I have no idea how he got our number).  We ended up talking a
long time on the phone and finding out tons about their personal life
and problems.  I had a chance to introduce an idea our church is
using…a small group discussion of the book Purpose Driven Life.  
He was very interested in reading the book and possibly coming to the
group, he and his wife.  Later he stopped in to pick up a copy of
the book – he was so eager to get a copy of it! 

So even though I don’t want to lose our home and farm I am thankful
that the road issue came up.  Through our efforts of fighting it,
we’ve gotten to know so many neighbors.  It reminds me that even
if we lose the farm and have to move, God is in the business of using
our lives for the kingdom and He’s free to move us wherever He
wants.  Makes it easier to hold everything with an open
hand. 

The culmination of the bee-keeping year (and one of the hardest jobs) is getting the honey supers off the hive.  These
are the “boxes” that contain the honey the bees have made during the
summer.  Since they are loaded with honey they are quite heavy -
about 60 pounds each.  I only got honey from one hive this year
but there were four supers on it.  Pete and I suited up in our bee
suits this afternoon and tackled the job.  You know someone loves
you when they are willing to put on a bee suit, brave thousands of bees
who are not happy at being displaced, and lift those heavy boxes for
you!  Pete lifted each super off and I blasted it with compressed
air to blow the bees out the bottom.  It went pretty smoothly and
we got the supers loaded, out of the pasture and into the shed in
record time.  Of course there are quite a few bees left in there
but that can’t be helped.  We’ll exercise caution when we go to
the shed for the next few days, that’s for sure.  In time they’ll
either escape or die.  We probably won’t get around to actually
extracting the honey for a few weeks.  That is undoubtedly one of
the messiest jobs in the world but SO worth it when you see all that
golden honey. 

I started my second beehive late in the spring by splitting the
established hive.  They struggled to get going all summer and I
had just about given up on them when suddenly they seemed to be doing
quite well.  I’m currently feeding them sugar water to help them
store up enough fuel to make it through the winter.  If they can
make it through the winter with enough food they should become a
productive hive next season (big “if”).  Of course it never pays
to ask myself why I need two hives when one hive produces more honey
than I can use up, share with friends or even sell.  It just seems
to make more sense to have two hives – you can always use one to help
the other. 

Of course we had to tie the puppies up during this whole
procedure.  It would have been rendered infinitely more
“interesting” with them on the loose but what the effects of their
foolishness would have been doesn’t even bear imagining.  We spent
over an hour last night devising a puppy-proof refuge for our lone
duck.  They seem to have developed an irresistable urge to chew on
that poor duck and being quite defenseless against them he was at a
distinct disadvantage.  He’s safe now.  Bored, but
safe.  And I’m wondering what the pups will think of next for
entertainment…

I never use the “Currently
Listening” feature because, unlike every other person in our family, I
am not addicted to music and only occasionally listen.  I think
it’s because I’m usually so busy scurrying around that it’s pointless
to put something on the player – I’d only catch a few bars here and
there.  I don’t use the “Currently Watching” feature because I
simply don’t…watch, that is.   I don’t use the “Currently
Reading” feature because, well, mostly I read books by old authors or
stuff wouldn’t be the least bit interesting to most people.  BUT,
this morning I glanced at our nightstands and thought it was rather
amusing, the contrast between our current bedtime reading. Here’s what
I was reading last night:

Here’s what Pete was reading:

Yeah…it would put me to sleep, too….

I went for a walk this evening and saw a caterpillar crawling on a thistle plant.  Ouch.  What kind of hard life is that?

Bees are amazing.  I was out working with my hives this afternoon.  I don’t know why but bees make me happy.