Busy Summer

This summer is about completion. Completion of the studio. Completion of having all horses very bombproof. Completion of ordering Rakieta a new leg. Completion of the tree line. The list goes on and on. What else is going on is that I am coasting on some things. It has been a very long time since I just coasted. Especially since 2003, when Rakieta became part of our lives, life has had an urgency or seriousness and while the situation with the grandparents is more seriousness, there is room this summer for some r & r.
Now maybe it is the loss of the carefree coming and going that we have always experienced that is forcing some of the r & r, I don't know. But even though I am overwhelmed many times, things are peacefully clicking along.

Something in the Air

There must be something in the air...or water. Every squirrely person or situation I have ever encountered is off the wall right now. In a way it is good I have no time for anything except putting one foot in front of the other because if I actually had time to care about any of the insanity going on around me I think I would be completely overwhelmed right now.

This is going to be a great summer with horses. I am very excited.
This is going to not be such a great summer with the grandparents. No peaceful, uneventful summer there unfortunately.

Now to just get the grass and garden caught up.

My Little Peace of Heaven

Wild flowers near the property line

Chives

It seems I am destined to spend the rest of my life on our measly 2 1/3 acres that are attached to this house. That is the one thing I have lamented since buying this farm. No matter what we have done to try to change the acreage situation we have been stuck with we always end up right back where we started. So not being the quitting sort I have been planting trees and trying to improve this dastardly plot of land since we first moved in. In the process some lovely surprises have taken root. The 2 pictures above are some examples.
We have more land, but we no longer use it since it is too far away and this is HOME. Luckily, where we are keeping the big horses we have hundreds and hundreds of acres at our disposal. While it isn't ours to keep it is ours to borrow and that works too.
Why, you ask, do we only have 2 1/3 measly acres for a whole farm. Well, we live in BIG farm country. The farmers here farm in hundreds or thousands of acres. So they gobble up everything. Our farm happened to be separated from it's tract shortly before we bought our place. However, the neighbors are pretty darn gracious about letting us play on their large tracts of land.
Now if things ever settle down with GM, the plan is to pick up more land within a few miles since the prices are finally reasonable.

May God Bless You in Heaven, Didier!

I was informed this evening that Didier, the father of 2 of our girls passed away on May 31. He died of complications from an injury. He was not a healthy man and had a multitude of physical problems. Here is a picture of the 4 of us during a meal at Didier's brother's house. "Rest in Peace Didier and enjoy your new healthy body in Heaven and I am sure you are eating lots of HAM."

My 2 Sons

Kassoum in his compound yard.

Kyle driving the float in one of the parades.

I have not been blessed with sons. Our home is totally estrogen driven. Poor Matt. However, he is a good dad for girls.
Anyway, I do have 2 adopted sons. One is American and the other is African. My African son is Kassoum, Rakieta's brother. He, too, is a minority in his very estrogen driven family. He doesn't speak English, BUT he has a dry sense of humor that just cracks me up as Rakieta translates. I have very deep respect for him because of all the running he does for the family, especially his baby sister Rakieta. This year we are sponsoring his education so hopefully he will get his baccalaureate. (high school diploma)
My second adopted son is Kyle, Jeni's sweetie. He is a fellow Capricorn so we tend to think alike in some areas which is cool, especially since he is our handyman this summer. Kyle is entering his 2nd year at Mott and plans to transfer to Kettering for engineering.

Captain's Log Stardate June 2, 2009

I am writing today in my usual funk. I am tired of being scared and mad. I am tired of worrying. We can't make any big decisions because the future is so uncertain. I so wish we could go back to 10 years ago when we were much more innocent.
Grandpa had another spell last week and now he is much more tired. Grandma is getting nuttier and nuttier too. A bit of a problem since she wants to direct his life. I burn out on this stuff sometimes. I'll be pretty busy with the horses the next couple of days so that will help.
The chicks are all doing very well. I threw 5 more out of the nursery pen today since they no longer need the protection. 2 hens are roosting very well in the nursery pen and 2 more have made good personal nests in spots in the coop. 1 more in the wings waiting to go into the nursery pen. I'll move her tonight.
I have hired Jeni's Kyle to be my handyman/Mr. Fix it for the summer. He needs the job, Matt has too much other work to do making the house grandparent friendly and me and the girls just can't get to everything since we have the grandparents to care for. So this is a good thing for us.
Things appear to be status quo for the moment in Africa.

Happy Birthday Jeni!

Happy 21 to my favorite # 2 daughter. I can't believe my girls are all getting so grown up. This concludes the litany of Kalinowski May-June birthdays.