Big Family Weekend!!

It was a big Mother's Day weekend on the Hoosier Country Homestead!  Daughter #2, Son-in-Law and the granddaughters came Friday evening and stayed through early Sunday afternoon.  It had been four months since we had seen everyone, and Christmas since they had been here.  We all had a great time.

I got the lawn mowed (OK - I confess - for the first time this year) just as they were arriving, and then it was "off to the races" for the whole weekend.  I was too busy 'living' the weekend to 'document' everything we did, but I do have some highlights. Most of my pics, for some odd reason, focus on grandkids.  :-)

There was a little bit of garden work done. Another confession - I hadn't started on the garden work yet, but when little girls want to work in the garden, Papa makes sure at least a little work gets done.

Let the gardening begin!

As always, where is digging there are 'helpers'.  When the girls figured out the chickens were after worms and bugs the real fun began.  Bugs were out (of course - eww!), but they dug up a few worms and wanted to feed them to the chickens.  This, of course, requires actually touching the worms which brought on a great deal of city-girl consternation.  In the end, after a short exploratory session with Papa holding a worm and a little encouragement, worms were handled and the chickens were a little happier.  One more step from city-girls to country-girls!

Son-in-Law helped me finish the shelving in the hoop house.  I would have struggled in my 'normal' state to finish off the top shelf since it's almost 8 feet in the air.  In my current, somewhat degraded, state it would have been nigh impossible.

The bottom shelf is 10 feet wide by 4 feet deep.  The top shelf is 6 feet wide by 4 feet deep. Like everything else on the place its not very square and does the job nicely.

Stuff from the barn already moving in!

Simple as it seems, that shelf was one of my big spring projects. Getting it done, and barn cleared, is the gateway to a handful of other tasks.

Last year I got De a reel mower for her Mother's Day gift. (Ya gotta love a woman who asks for a reel mower for a gift)  The granddaughters have, of course, seen gas driven lawn mowers but had never seen a reel mower.  Both spent some time trying it out.  I love being able to offer them some new experiences, especially the 'homesteading' kind.  Both thought it was great fun.

One of the highlights of coming to the "farm" is helping to gather eggs.  De made both girls "egg aprons" - aprons with pockets for individual eggs - and, of course, they got a chance to try them out.

De and the girls gathering up the eggs.

There were of lots of other things that didn't get pics.  Steering the tractor and the truck around the homestead from Papa's lap as we hauled stuff out of the barn, countless rides rolling down the hill in the wagon and other kid's vehicles, chicken chores of feeding and adding bedding, playing ball, and the like.

Big days make for tired girls, and just a moment of 'downtime' was enough.

Naptime! - Pic doesn't show that Papa was snoozing away too, moments after taking this pic.

 More to come, but tomorrow is a 'day job' workday and morning comes early.  It was a wonderful weekend.  De and I are so blessed to have such a wonderful family and have them close enough to see them several times a year.

Col. 1:9-12,

Mark