We Have a Long-time Vistor!!!!

With James being 9 1/2 years old, you've got to expect him to bring home "pets"! It's the rural life with a boy!! Over the years, we've had wild crawdads and snakes, and that's not to mention the FIVE fish tanks that we now house of "domesticated" tropical fish. And of course, first and foremost is our family member, Lacey.....or 2 1/2 year old golden retriever/border collie mix! Having grown up in a family that never had pets, this has been an adjustment for me!

I still give myself kudos for "putting up" with the snake phase as long as it lasted!! At one point we had 8 garder snakes, as the one we had found and brought home from a dry irrigation ditch ended up being pregnant and presented us with 7 babies!! It was a bit like living an "Indiana Jones" movie around here for awhile!!

And so we're now on to a new and different chapter! On Saturday evening, our next door neighbor, Su, called James over to her house. She had found a baby robin on her front walk and wanted to know if James wanted to bring it home and see if it would live. Well, needless to say, he jumped at the chance!! He jumped with both feet!!

James is now the proud father of a baby robin!! The first couple of days were touch and go, as we all learned and figured out how to take care of our new house guest! It was so little and helpless and a bit, intimidating at least for me!! James is fully responsible for the care of this little bird. It's a little bit older, moulting it's baby down with it's real feathers coming in. Thank goodness for the internet!! It's wonderful to be able to look things up, when you're completely lost!

We're now working on day five and the little fellow seems to be doing quite well! The second day we noticed that he (we're calling it "he", not really knowing it's gender!) had begun to hold his head tipped to the left. At first we thought he might have neurological problems, as it appeared that it couldn't hold it's head up. Then we realized that when it was hungry and feeding, it's neck seemed fine. That's when Dusty suggested that it possibly was blind in it's left eye. That's why he was holding his head that way, with the right eye pointing upward (the eye that does work). And so we're going with this premise, for now anyway. The last few days, he seems to be holding his neck straighter, so we'll see. We've named him "Patch" in honor of being one-eyed.

Introducing "Patch Chirp Ryan"!!

Patch is so homely, he's cute!!

Here's Patch's Dad! We keep laughing, that this reminds us of the kid's book, "Are You My Mother?" Patch certainly thinks that James is his mother/father now!!!!

It seems like Patch is always eating.....from sunrise to sundown! (Thankfully, he sleeps all night!) James now has a list of food that he rotates through when feeding Patch.....mealworms, night crawlers, softened dog food, strawberries and grapes. Patch is like a normal baby.....eats, sleeps and poops, just like he should!!

We keep reminding James that there's a chance Patch won't make it. He understands and is taking his "job" very seriously. So far, so good! With his disability, we doubt that we'll ever be able to set him free. He probably won't ever be able to fly well or take care of himself. Once it looks like Patch will be with us, I'll have to look into getting a permit for keeping a wild bird! In the meantime, our house is full of the chirping of a baby bird and our hearts are warmed by a new "pet"!!

A Quiet Memorial Day with Family

We had a nice day, yesterday, celebrating Memorial Day with Dusty's family. It's so nice to have family close by, especially on holidays! Memorial Day is a special day for the family and it's nice to be able to be together. We all miss Grandpa Charlie so much (he passed away going on 6 years now....hard to believe!) and Memorial Day is a perfect day for us all to remember what a wonderful man he was. He had spent 20 years in the Air Force, which makes Memorial Day even more special!

Our day started out with Dusty and James spending a few hours working in the garden. It was time to get those plants in the ground!! Dusty had already tilled the garden spot, but it was being overtaken by weeds.....why do the weeds always grow soooo well??

I had to share this picture, even though it doesn't show much! I'll be taking pictures throughout the summer to show the progress of the garden.

James tackling all those nasty weeds!!

Dusty putting on the final touches with the tiller.

James planting our "Olathe Sweet" sweet corn! It's grown commercially all around us, but we always try to include a couple of short rows in our own garden.

Dusty planting one of the Anaheim pepper plants. My mouth is already watering for those delicious roasted peppers!

When they were done in the garden for the day, (It was getting too hot and there were other things to do!!) we headed up to the cemetery to meet the rest of the family, to visit Grandpa Charlie's grave.


I took this picture in the "veteran section"....it was so pretty, with all the flags blowing in the wind. Grandpa isn't buried in this section, but we stopped to pay our respects.

In that section, there's a plaque with this wonderful quote from Patton on it. So perfect, and oh, so true! Gives us a different way to think about things!

Then we walked over to Charlie's grave. Grandma Stella had already been there, the day before, and placed new flowers on the grave. Here's Vonnie (Dusty's sister) adding a new flag.

Then we all settled in and sat for awhile, visiting quietly and remembering Grandpa.

James was only 4 years old when he lost his Grandpa, and still gets very sad at times about it. I know he misses having him in his life. He was pretty quiet, sitting there with us all.

Here are Dusty and Vonnie, sharing stories about their Dad.

Grandma Stella and her granddaughter, Katie.

We all miss you Grandpa!!!

After the cemetery, we all went to Vonnie and John's house for a BBQ, homemade ice cream and several games of croquet!

James gave it his all, but just couldn't win a game. Poor kid! He really tried, though, and we all had fun. I liked this picture, as I caught the ball in motion!

This picture says it all....how James was feeling about the game of croquet yesterday! Hehehe

And we finished the day, with homemade ice cream! Here are Katie and James enjoying theirs!!

We hope that your Memorial Day weekend was filled with family and love, just as ours was!!