Doing some work on clearing fences, we put in a couple hours a day every couple days. DD is helping with cutting and pulling the brush out of the fence. She saves me a lot of time not having to move every stick myself. Being only 12, she does get distracted rather easily! We found two batches of wooly bears today, each contradicted the others in winter with color predictions. These were the first 4 color wooley bears I have ever seen! Brown nose, then 3 segments of black, six or so of brown, with a black tail. Winter will be INTERESTING with those predictions! They were also very fast crawlers, I have NEVER seen wooley bears hustle across the ground, usually they just roll up in a ball. She also found a couple of Walkingsticks and various other wildlife that needed to be observed and poked, relocated. We have filled the manure spreader (40bu)three times with the brush to haul out of the field, piling it onto the brush pile. Lots of honeysuckle, grapevine, some rosebushes that we cut out. Getting a pretty fair sized brush pile! Fence is looking VERY NICE. Can't burn, way too dry. Whe have had some showers, they just lay the dust down, no measurable precipitation for any of them. Raining off and on all around us. Foal is growing like a weed, almost armpit high. He is getting handled a lot, led in and out to field a couple times a day, been to the vet several times trying to get his mom bred back. He came home this time with a bald forehead. Obviously was greeting everyone at the vet clinic and they rubbed his face. Not actually hairless, just shed off the new coat color. Going from red to dark brown, very distinct, peculiar looking marking right now. So far no luck with her. Foal is leading very well, getting a little independent from mom. She has moved up from one field friend to 3 now. We put the young gelding in the group last night. She had no problem with him in the group, just got quite angry with him as her only friend at turnout time today. She is turned out in daylight as much as possible, no night turnout. Very cool today, cloudy 70F felt good, so out all day. Foal thought gelding was COOL, wanted to visit him. It turned into quite a circus, Foal following gelding, with snarly looking mare following him! She moved forward, gelding tried keeping his distance from foal, who ran faster as gelding trotted away, then mare got cantering to catch foal. Gelding is moving MUCH faster as mare races after foal with her ears pinned, head snaked out!!! She was actually flying along behind foal who was STILL trying to catch the gelding! Gelding is zipping along now with his head turned to see behind, trying to prevent being cornered, running up the other side of field. I have NEVER seen that mare run so fast except in competition! She looked scary to us watching! I would have run away myself! Foal finally got tired, slowed and stopped after a number of circles around the whole field. We turned out the other 2 buddies a little later, no crabby problems then. All 4 big horses spread out to eat, foal visited everyone, mare just grazed or walked nearby. No chasing, running at all as foal ran all around field alone. Funny old mare. Foal really likes having other horses to visit, they are pretty nice to him, no hurting him, just correcting inappropriate shoving or biting with a nip. Foal is getting really mouthy, tasting everything. Wants to hold his own lead rope on walks! Husband and DD are going off on their getaway vacation. Husband needs a break from summer work pace, DD starts school next week. Heading up north to Lake Huron to campout on the beach for a couple days. Got some new swimming masks, snorkels and fins to do swimming with. DD did swim camp earlier this summer, got a bunch of new strokes, improved speed, so she gets to show Dad her stuff. Maybe some fishing too. He thinks just vegging out, sitting on the beach will be fun for a couple days. I will be getting some time off just staying home! No meals or cleanup!

Hey Everyone! Just got home about 3:30, am totally wiped out, wanted to post about my package before I fall asleep standing up! Jayeanne sent a really nice package, two packages actually, she forgot to put the dog treats in the first one! I got what I think is a leash holder, shaped like a dog bone, with 3 hooks on it; it says "good dog" but that can easily be changed to "good Kitties"! Pink also sent a cinnamon pumpkin candle, a backpack size hand sanitizer (I use these ALOT), and a very sweet note, with baby Pugs on the front. And then there were the seeds she sent. I AM SO EXCITED! There were Coleus, sweet peas, California poppies and acorn squash. AND THEN, there was Broom Corn, Fleabane and Bishops Flower, all three of which great for attracting Butterflies!! I have one lonely little patch of Fleabane show up in a different spot every year, Now I'll have it where I want it! All three of these are new to me and I can't wait to get them planted! Jayeanne, thank you very much for a great "Dog Days" package. Loved it! If I didn't think I would wake up at 3 am and be awake for the rest of the day, I would go to bed NOW! Tabs and MyrnD were really good for me, but now I know why Chris sounds so tired sometimes, when I call. Gonna miss them, tho! Jeanne, thanks for hosting a great swap! Take care of yourself, please! Shirley!

Hello Ladies, Happy B-day Jen, I hope you had a lovely day and got some time to relax and enjoy it. Maddie- sounds like you are busy but having a great time, I have a friend that goes nuts over led trinkets based around St Patricks day, he looks like a goofball to start out but after a few beers he appears almost normal ;) I used to enjoy corn dogs when I was able to eat them, little mustard and ketchup mixed togeter to dip them in and I was in heaven, yummay! NHSuz- Sounds like you are enjoying whats left of summer, my GF's family has a cabin we use in VT near Barton, it is nice up there. The interesting thing about VT though is you will see a wide variety of wealth in the same towns. We would drive past run down mobile homes right next to 1/2 million dollar homes/camps. They say land is selling for 3 or 4 times its worth to people moving up from Mass and NY. Im with you on not fearing wild life, there was a black bear warning where we went camping, animals used to people make me nervous but out in the wild they will leave you alone unless they are cornered. Im back to work after our camping trip, it was fun but wore us out. We did 43 miles in the kayaks and camped along the sandy beaches. The first day of the trip was filled with drunk college students in canoes, they kept on asking us where we fit the beer cooler in our kayaks :) The second day was a lot quieter and we logged a lot of miles so that we only had about 3 left for the last day. On the third day as soon as we got off the river for our pickup it started to pour, we jury rigged up the tent fly and called the pick up service to come get us early. They showed up, but about 5 mins down the road the guys truck died, so we had to wait on the side of the road for help.. after that we decided to take a break and get a hotel for a good nights rest and hot showers :) We stayed in North Conway and had a fantastic meal at a place called Coyote Rose. We had all kinds of interesting and delish items, ostrich, boar sausage, and New Zeland lamb chops were divine. They also served a prickly pear sorbet that was very spicy and yummy! I ate the whole thing though I probably shouldnt have. I also had a peach margarita that tasted like fresh peaches, it was a nice change from all the camp food we had for 3 days. We then spent 2 days camping and hiking in Franconia Notch. We did a 6 mile hike up one side of the mountain and back down the other. There is a lake at the top of the mountain and a couple water falls along the way down, it was a tough hike but lovely. Of course on the way back to camp I was worn out and winded and my GF got mad at me because I wasnt chatting with her. Bah women :P it wasnt because I just hiked 6 miles and over 1500 feet of elevation that I wasnt talking, it was because I didnt care about what she had to say, you know! ;) All and all we had a nice trip and learned a lot. We know what gear we can do without and what we need to get for next time, and have a better idea of how much food and water to bring. My compact air mat has certainly got to go and I will make the room next time for my real air mattress, my back paid for it and sleeping on the hard ground doesnt cut it anymore, im no longer a boy scout. Other than that not a whole lot is new, this weekend its the boys time to play. We are golfing on Sat and Sunday going to a Red Soxs game. Its rare the 4 of us can all get time to spend together. With wives, kids and work keeping everyone busy this will be a treat. I hope everyone is having a good week, come out and say hello if you are lurking! John

katie, I've missed you too, I was blaming canning season. Alexa and amck, I can't even tell you how much I'd like to be in Maine, or anywhere there was that much lobster. I've read that lobster is cheap this year, $2 a pound in some places. not here in Michigan, that's for sure. Enjoy your vacation, Alexa, and your weekend visit, amck. Pam, I'd rather have a tooth pulled than go furniture shopping, my condolences, LOL. Skip the housework, it's summer, it's....um.....too hot. Yeah, that's it... Here, Amanda/David/Ashley/The Monkey Princess/Bruvver are all leaving with me after work tonight. We'll spend the night at Elery's and go to the Toledo Zoo tomorrow to see lions and tigers and bears, oh my. Oh, and hippos and polar bears and elephants and giraffes. (grin) The kids will all ride back together on Sunday, I'll ride back with Elery. He'll be here for a couple of days, so I took Monday and Tuesday off, a long weekend! We'll pick beans, the ducks need to be taken to the Amish to become, well, frozen ducks, LOL, that'll happen Monday. Tuesday I'm meeting a new forum member for lunch, hopefully, I'll post about that when it happens and then out to dinner Tuesday night with a co-worker of Elery's. With me here and him down there, not many of his colleagues have met me, they are accusing him of having an imaginary wife. (snicker) I'll bet he wishes that were true, some days. Anyway, this co-worker is doing some kind of long motorcycle ride for the cancer society and is going through Big Rapids, so we're having supper. Wednesday it's back to the grind..... Annie