Birthday Blessings!

Happy Birthday to my 86-year-old young dad! I'm so thankful to be your daughter.

(I was going to put a neat picture here, but for some reason my blog is not uploading pictures right now; oh, well!)

What's the Forecast? Etc., etc., etc.

Our squirrels seem to be working overtime this fall, gathering all the acorns and walnuts available, "planting" some around the yard but also in my flowerpots on the porch and the decks (grrrrr!). It's making me wonder just what's in store for this winter. We don't remember them being this furiously active anytime in the past. Maybe it's just a new generation of Xtreme squirrels or something, or maybe we're in for a harder winter! They sure keep Abby busy chasing them out of the yard or barking at them from inside the house. (We did have a heavy frost yesterday morning -- 31 degrees -- so my tomatoes are all done for the year.)

I drove down to Dick's mom's yesterday just to spend the day with her. When I went by the cattle pens just a few miles southwest of Emporia on the turnpike, there was a major roundup going on, bringing in a large herd and getting them ready to load on four semis. It was fun to catch a glimpse of that as I sailed by on the turnpike. I would have liked to stop and watch for awhile, but they definitely frown at stopping along the turnpike just to sightsee so I resisted! The Flint Hills pastures were all really pretty with lots of fall dark greens, rusts, and browns waving in the grass that's higher and lusher than normal as a result of our wet summer/early fall.

Mom and I had a really good day together, just piddling around the house, doing a few chores, working around outside a bit, chatting, and looking through some old pictures. We need lots more time to travel down memory lane with the pictures that Mom has!

Thanks for all the congratulations on Dick and me becoming grandparents next April! We are absolutely thrilled and are looking forward to spending a few days with the Shaffers and Kings in Erie for an early Christmas-at-Thanksgiving. At least that's the plan so far -- Dick's just beginning the always-dreaded refueling outage at work, and the Erie trip will be dependent on their completing the outage close to on-time. We're really praying that will hold together!

Lunchtime is over, and it's time for me to get back to work. We send our love to all of you!

Invisible ink?

Grandma Gimple has been spending the week with us, and we've had a wonderful time with her -- a little shopping, a little tomato-canning, a little Colorado-peach-eating, quite a bit of card-playing -- just a good relaxing time!

Since Daddy and Lois were here for a terrific visit last weekend when Grandma first came, we had Grandma settle into Kim's room. It worked great for her as she had an easy chair, a dresser with empty drawers to unpack, and a desk to work at a bit as well as the comfy bed.

At night, Grandma especially enjoys the glow-in-the-dark stars that Kim had placed all over the ceiling back in her high school days. However, this time Grandma also discovered some other things on Kim's walls that we had no idea were there! At one end over Kim's bed is written "Prayer". At the other end of the room over the closet doors in large letters is "WWJD" (What Would Jesus Do). Scattered around the room is a crescent moon along with a multitude of stars on all the walls!

Okay, Kimi; when did you do this and what did you do? It was so much fun to go in the room last night with Grandma and turn out the lights so I could see this. We laughed and laughed that we never had found this before! You light up our lives! :-)

Hummers in Action

Here's the video!

Family Fun

I decided I'd better get this done tonight or it might not happen for another week as the workload will be very heavy making up for the time I was gone.

Bob and Ann did a great job journaling about the time at Rainbow Lake with Daddy and Lois (and yes, we certainly did miss Larry and Galena!) and also about the end of the week with the Fair events.

I'm putting some pictures here to add to what was seen on The Wiles Farm blog:

The Rainbow Lake gang for 2009 -- Jo and Dick, Lois and Daddy, Ann and Bob

Here's the picture of Bob "petting" the hummingbirds. If I can get it to load, I'll put a video on of Daddy, too.

Here are Daddy and Lois waiting on the fish to bite.

A closeup of a Rufus Hummingbird. One of the R. Lake managers said that these come through for only a 2-3 week period and are more aggressive than the ruby-throated hummers that are predominant to the area. The rufus hummers would come around the feeders and drive everyone else away whereas the ruby-throated hummers would be more apt to line up all the way around the feeder like people bellying up to the bar!

Now on to the Parade!

Here's the Grand Marshall banner that was right in front of Daddy and Lois' carriage (below). They were co-Grand Marshalls of the parade with another couple from Leoti.


The "Cinderella" carriage was used to transport the Grand Marshalls through the parade route.

Here's a better picture of Daddy and Lois in their matching outfits to serve as Grand Marshalls of the Wichita County Fair Parade on Saturday morning. They drove to the starting point in "Goldie"!

And that's it! I'll try to add the hummingbird video on a separate blog in the next couple of days. I already tried once here, and it glitched.

As always, it was a wonderful time with family and friends, and we just wish we could have had all of our family together with us!

Recommendation

Last week we decided to go to see the new movie, Night at the Museum - Smithsonian, this weekend. So in order to get up-to-speed with the story line, we watched the first one, Night at the Museum, on Friday night here at home. We enjoyed watching that one again and were really glad we had done that. The new one is delightful -- fun, clean, great story -- we highly recommend it.

Also, our prairie sage (purple salvia) is really pretty this spring so I just thought I'd share a picture of that with you too!

Memories of This Beautiful Time of the Year

Eating the first radishes out of the garden! (I distinctly remember my mom coming to pick me up from High Plains School so we could go to my piano lessons, and she brought along a little bag with a couple of little radishes in it for me. -- That's a mother's love!)

The first sunbathing -- you brought back memories for me, Aubrey!

Finding the first pullet eggs that were hidden on the farm back when we were raising chickens!

Lilacs in bloom -- my lilac bush is covered!

Discovering that first litter of kittens hidden in the loft in the barn, behind the ivy in front of Grandpa's house, in a stack of bales ... I guess Bob and Ann have lots of experience with this!

And of course, that first baby calf to be born (even though that's way past from very early spring)!