A Fowl Tale....

Sadly, when we arrived home from the beach trip, we discovered our last Bantam chicken, Belle, had died in the chicken yard.  No evidence of any trauma.  She was a little over two years old, so not sure if that was her lifespan or not.

Belle, in better times.....

Her partner, Harley, our fancy pants Bantam rooster, has very quickly (scandalously, really) taken another partner,

a full size red hen.... which makes me wonder.....

a love triangle gone terribly wrong?

a jealous red hen, bent on taking out her barnyard rival while the "humans" were gone?

did they hire a hit squad of the other big hens to take Belle out? A few of those Dominique hens have been avoiding me lately....hmmm......

I guess we'll never know.  But if you aren't keeping a small group of chickens in your yard, you're missing out on the entire spectrum of avian life, relationships, and intrigue.  I swear, its better than a soap opera.

Beach Trip, Surfside Beach, Texas August 8-10

We were invited to crash the Koenig Family's annual beach vacation this year, so Friday we drove over to Surfside Beach, Texas, near Galveston, for a long weekend!  John and I came over a day early, and we stayed at the Ocean Village Hotel and Resort right on the beach!  It was nice, not fancy but they had plenty of big porches and a bar, a restaurant, and a nice wide pretty beach.

 One of the three hotel buildings

 The view from our little porch on the back of the room

 Saturday morning we sat on the big beach-side porch and had breakfast and watched this rain cloud move toward us....it didn't make it, but it was beautiful to watch.

 We took a long walk on the beach.  It was glorious, the sand was fine and clean, so pretty.

 Then we took a drive down the beach into Galveston, along the boardwalk.  It was BUSY!

 For lunch we stopped at the Red Snapper Inn -- good sea food!

 By the late afternoon, the Koenig's had arrived and we drove over to their rental house for a dinner and to just enjoy the sites from the cabana that the house had out by the canal.  The kids all got to see an oil tanker that was docked very close to the house!

 KT's got her fishing gear on and is ready to go out with her dad to see what they could catch!

 Jeff and KT

 This cabana and pool were right out near the edge of the property at the house that the Koenig's rented -- real nice!

A final view of the beach at our hotel just before we left on Sunday morning!

Summer Day Camp --- Day Eighteen

Thursday was a continuation of Beach Week, and we tried a new craft!  KT added some water to sand in a closed jar and then shook it (we sang the "Jump in the Line, Rock Your Body in Time..." song while we were shaking it!  Then we dumped the sand into a dish and KT pressed her hand in it.

 We filled the hand with white glue! KT thought it needed a little sand shaken on it, but you don't need to do that.  I like her creativity, though.

 Next, set it on a window sill to dry for many, many days!

 Next it was free time in the sand outside.  John had brought in a load of sand for a project he's working on now (a putting green....oy vey!) KT had a great time just making roads, molding things, burying her plastic animals, and on and on....and trying to keep Sydney off of her creations! ha!

 Next we went in for lunch -- KT is adding some purple Nerds to her Sprite here...uhm...no thanks, KT, I don't want any.

 Swim time in the afternoon, as usual!

 A snack or two...

 ...and a drive around the place on her pink car, then time to go home!

Summer Day Camp --- Day Seventeen

The theme was "Beach Week" since we were all going to the beach with the Koenig's at the end of the week.  KT worked on some of her worksheets when she arrived, before breakfast.

 After that we took our weekly trip to the library, where we read some books about fish and shells, and then took some home to read this week.  KT also did some work on puzzles -- she knows all of the puzzles that they have there.

After lunch it was time for some fun out on the pavilion and then swim!  She is getting more and more daring in the water.

 We took KT in for her weekly swim lesson today, too!

Mama

 My poor mom is slowly coming to the end of her life.  It's very painful to watch.  This is her body, her mind has really been gone for almost 7 years now.  She "checked out" right after Dad died, her mind slipped away in a fast pace.  I always felt that she was staying strong for so long, taking care of Dad who had so many ailments, that she didn't have time to take care of herself.  I wish I had paid more attention to her at the time.  That's one of the regrets I have, not paying more attention.

I miss the woman that she was very much, she was a smart person, very practical, always had advise when asked for it, she taught me so much. She loved movie musicals, like The Sound of Music, and Evita. She was a hard worker, I think more then any of us really knew.  I'm sure Dad was more than a full time job to take care of, in many ways.

The facility that she's at is wonderful, they all give her such good care.  Management of her pain is our main focus, and her Hospice caregivers have been wonderful.  Its just a matter of coming in and sitting with her, praying for her, and just spending time with her.

Someone brought her a beautiful bunch of yellow lilies this past week.  I found them there on Saturday when I went to visit.  Here they are, and then another picture of them after I used my new water color app on them.  Pretty, no?

Final (For Now) Pool Post!

I promised a photo of the gate when it was finished, so here it is! I'm happier with it now, it opens all the way, and he put a latch to keep it open while we're using the deck.  I still don't like that it opens back towards the stairs, but John says that's the only way he could do it. Sigh... it works and that's what counts.  We can lock it when we're out of town or gone for an extended time, which I like.  No more photos for a while, until John takes up the skirting project under the deck sometime when it gets cooler!

 Gate when closed.....

Gate when open and latched to the stairs.

Movie Review --- Guardians of the Galaxy

Young boy named Peter Quill gets picked up by a space ship on the day his mother dies on earth, her last words to him hint at the fact that his father is "not from here."
From there the movie flashes forward to a grown Peter Quill, who now calls himself "Star Lord", even when others won't.  He's flashy, brash and daring, and you just like him from the beginning. In fact, that helps makes the movie so good, you like all of these characters (and especially Rocket and Groot, a racoon/hybrid and a talking tree!!) I'll tell you what, if I'm ever in trouble, I'd sure like to have that Groot with me, he's got SKILLS!

 Groot, Rocket, Star Lord, Gamora and Drax (The Guardians of the Galaxy!)

 Michael Rooker plays Yondu, Peter's kidnapper and the alien who raised him. 

Groot is voiced by Vin Diesel, and it's one of the easiest voice over jobs EVER!  Various versions of "I am Groot." How easy is that?!

Very very VERY funny!!!  We loved it!  Go see it!  Best movie of the summer so far.

Summer Day Camp --- Day Sixteen

We really got into the sports today -- we went golfing with Grumpy to the Flying L Golf course up in Bandera.  We did this last year too, and KT remembered a lot of it.  She's such a good sport - she never got bored or tired, and she took her job as flag girl very seriously.

 Getting our golf cart at the clubhouse

 Grumpy's ball ended up on this Texas symbol made of rocks! ha ha!

 Watching Grumpy drive from the tee box

 Time for a snack and a cold rag around the neck!

 A few golf tips from Grumpy

 Remove the flag, and then put it back -- she actually had fun doing this!

On hole #14!

For today's craft, KT collected wooden tees on each of the tee boxes while we were on the course (golfers often just leave them there), so when we got home we created a frame with them and with one of the pictures I had taken. 

 Then it was time for some swimming!

 Look at her fly!

A rare break from the action to readjust those googles!

Summer Day Camp --- Day Fifteen

Okay, today was a bust.  It was supposed to be the beginning of "sports" week, but we had so many errands to run, we ended up doing a worksheet and then running around the rest of the day!

First we took the stinky dog to to the vets office for her monthly grooming (bath and pedicure! ha!)
After we got home we had breakfast and worked on KT's worksheet, watched a few cartoons, then were heading out to the library, but the vet's office called to say Sydney was ready to pick up, so we ended up there instead. When we got home, we had to run to Boerne to do some other errands, so we had lunch at Chili's, then home for some swimming.  I never even took one picture.  Too busy!

Today we had to take KT to her swim lessons in San Antonio, so here's Grumpy and KT waiting for her class to begin....

 ...and KT during her class.  She's doing so well!