Goodbye July

Goodbye July... and off to a busy start for August.

We had two fantastic weekends in a row with the Ohio relatives! First Mike's parents joined us for a visit before Momma Keenan has to start back to work. We spent a lovely weekend together and crowned it with an exciting trip to the Mackinaw Bridge and the Soo Locks. We made the Keenans into Fudgies and treated them to their first UP experience.

The very next weekend we took a day off of work and traveled down to Sedwood for Cousin's Weekend 2007. To say that we are proud of ourselves might be an understatement. A half barrel of choice beverage consumed in a little over 24 hours was an accomplishment! We had lots of fun Dodd family bonding. Can't wait for CW '08!

The garden is exploding with produce. Summer squash, peas, beans, cabbage, peppers, carrots and lots of other good stuff is appearing! I'm excited that the sweet corn will soon be ready and I can't wait for the first tomato to ripen! Tomato sandwiches... yummmmmmmy!

August will continue our busy summer as Samone and I get ready for our Annual Auntie-Niece Trip. We will be off to LA this year to visit the final American Girl store! Then we have two more weddings for the season. Check the new photos below.

Click on the picture to see the album.

July 31, 2007

Memorial

A small memorial to the chickens that have moved on to the big chicken coop in the sky.

We had a rodent (of some type) get into the coop and take off with 3 chickens. It puts our loss at 4 for this year including Lucy.

A small tribute to the great chickens that didn't make it. We shall miss you.

Tribute to Spice, Sugar, Salt and Lucy...RIP

Busy 3 Weeks

Well it certainly has bee a busy last couple weeks. We went to Josh & Leyna's Wedding. Then Down to Myrtle Beach for a little Bachelor/Bachelorette mayhem and then Will & Renee's Wedding this weekend. Whew!

Unfortunately my grandmother also passed away and we had to deal with funeral and wedding at the same time. That was certainly stressful.

Both weddings were absolutely beautiful and we had a great time at both despite the added stress at Will & Renee's.

We also got the chance to make something of all our extra goat milk! A very tasty and successful wild blackberry ice cream was made and feta cheese. The feta actually hit tragedy last night. We discovered that we had left it out at room temperature for too long with no ventilation. That made for a moldy mess that had to be chalked up to cheese making experience for the next time around.

We also got a little surprise when Juliet decided to crow last week. Please note that he is officially re-named Jules and does not like discussion of his former life as a girl.

There were other untimely endings in the last few weeks also. Lucy, one of the chickens, met her maker. She got picked on by the larger chickens and couldn't recover. This is only our third chicken death in the family and we are sad to see her go. Also the Suburban saw the end of the road. Something terminal in transmission / transfer case was the end of it.

All in all it sure was a busy time! I've added some highlight photos below.

July 11, 2007