Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater

We planted 104 pumpkin plants and that is just a start.  I decided to plant some corn at the bottom of the pasture since the pumpkins didn't even take up two thirds of the space.  I bought the seeds today.  The package said plant in June and allow 75 days to harvest so they should have time to grow into corn stalks for decoration.  Fingers crossed.  Figuring out the watering system is another story.  We are on the second type of sprinkler and we got a timer.  Trying to cover the most amount of ground with each move.  Then there are weeds to pull.  This is going to be a lot of work.  Good thing I have excellent helpers!

Dad's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads in my life: my Dads, my kids Dad and my son who is an great daddy to Wyatt.  I have two Dads as do many kids in today's world.  I never have thought of them as "real" Dad, "birth" Dad, or "step" Dad.  If anything they have been California Dad and Oregon Dad.  Oregon Dad was Utah Dad for awhile.



Harry Richard Lee Jr. is my Dad.  I was named  Stephanie Jeanne Lee because they liked the name and then they used "S" names from there.  If I were a boy I would have been Brian Scott.  Jeanne is my mom's middle name.  I had a teacher at college comment on how pretty that name was and how well it went together 9 letters, then 6, then 3.  Each name having 2 e's.  There are four of us kids with this dad.  Me, Sandra Maur Lee, Stephan Richard Lee and Suci Jeanne Lee.  When he remarried he got two kids with the deal and then he and Elsie had four more.  His oldest son was killed in an accident at age 23.  Losing a brother is awful but losing a son is so much worse I'm sure.

This is my other Dad, Antone Venard Pedro.  He's been my dad since I was 7.  He already had three kids in his home and he agreed to take on four more.  Then he and mom had two together.  Being a parent myself now I see what a big decision that was.  He's done a great job raising 9 kids.  His oldest son was killed at age 23.  I can't even imagine the hurt and loss.

 We learned good old fashioned hard work from him.  I'm a farm kid and I had chores.  He also "hired" us to swath hay, buck bales, move sprinkler pipe, and build pivot systems.  We raised animals and had pigs to show at stock show.  He is a hard worker himself.  He will also help anyone that needs him and his expertise.  We sure needed him to get our shop built.

 We spent part of our summer vacations with Dad in Porterville, CA.  He would drive up and get us or Mom and Dad dropped us off.  We would go boating, swimming, camping and to the theme parks.  Disneyland is a special place to me because we went there with him so many times.  As I have had my kids we continued to go to see him and go to Disneyland.  We went to work with him some days.  We hung out in the hot California sun and waited for the ice cream truck to come around.

 Always working on something.  He's a neat man and I'm glad he's one of my dads.

 Many memories in the making.  I'm glad he stayed my Dad.

Catlike Reflexes...

Oh my goodness!  Look what happened.  I was hoping to give you pictures of the finished shop today.  I was up on the ladder painting the trim.  The ladder, mind you, is on a incline.  I tried to keep my heavy side on the uphill slant.  I guess both sides are heavy and as I was starting down, the ladder fell sideways.  What's a girl to do?  Fall sideways with the ladder or jump off backwards and hit the ground on your backside.  I went off backwards and the full can of paint hit the ground too.

Look at that wasted paint.  Now I have to buy a new can of gray AND a can of white to cover my mess.

These are big, thick splatters and I was afraid it wouldn't cover very well so I had to wipe them out.

Now look at it.  People driving by are going to think I'm trying out some new painting technique.

Paint splattered my plants, pots and metal birds.

Meanwhile back at the ranch Gareld was spraying weeds.  He mowed the grass and then anything the mower can't get to is going to get the weed killer. Our rock wall is hiding behind all the tall weeds.  There's alot to do to keep up with the property.  Luckily I have no broken bones and I can get back to work.