Hide and Seek

The girls, Hubby and I headed to the farm yesterday. It's not often we all have a clear schedule and can go out. Mr 18 decided to sleep in naturally, even though we left at 11 a.m. it was still much too early for him to get ready and get going. So we packed up a few things, like 2 bottles of mosquito spray and some sunscreen, cameras and extra clothes, plus my work boots and Hubby's cooler with water. (The water out of the tap at the farm smells like sulfur, seriously, it is nasty, nasty stuff! My hands even smell after I wash them with it!)

When we arrived the girls immediately headed to one of the empty buildings where just the day before Hubby thought he had spotted new kittens. They searched a bit, but didn't have to look for very long before they heard the hissing, looking down they found a small furry mass of 5 kittens with their eyes just open and bright blue. Their mother wasn't around, she was off waiting for us to feed her in the barn, so we were able to pick a few of them up and snuggle and love them up for a few moments. One of them was already too wild to be handled, he was a spitfire, literally, but the others succumbed to some ear scratching and petting. The photo above is of 2 of the little ones, couldn't you just eat them up?

Also on the agenda for the day was for me to go through my MIL's cupboards and refrigerator in search of those expired items that Hubby wouldn't want her to cook up and eat. She has a bad habit of holding on to things for YEARS past their expiration date. Oh, did I mention she is out of town? Yup, we do this project on the sly, I'm sure she wonders where some of her things have gone, but we feel it's both for her protection and for that of our children whom she may cook some of that expired/moldy/disgusting food for. I also went through some of her medicines just to be safe. I have to say, food expired in 2004, yeah, that probably should have already been disposed of... *shudder*

While I snooped through cupboards and fridges, Hubby and the girls headed out on another hide and seek adventure. They were in search of Juneberries from our sort of secret patch. We sprayed everyone down with sunscreen and mosquito spray, long pants were worn and water was packed up. It was 90+ yesterday with no wind, so not an ideal day to go picking, but their only choice. Me? Why didn't I help? Well, I'm not stupid, did you see what I said? 90+ with no wind to get rid of mosquitoes and horse flies! Plus, even though everyone else seems to find them delicious, I just don't like them. I don't like blueberries either, yes, apparently I'm crazy. The girls lasted out in the heat and mosquitoes until about 1/2 a gallon pail full of Juneberries (also known as Serviceberries I believe) before they'd had enough and whined and complained loudly enough for Hubby to bring them home. Hubby was hoping for many pails full, but he's a bit unrealistic when it comes to the help of a 15 and 10 year old girl. The picture above is of the berries as they are getting ready to be packaged up and frozen. Aren't they pretty?

After the picking was done Hubby and I headed over to check out our potato patch. I loaded up on bug spray and wandered through the hay meadow to get there, and guess what I got for my trouble: bit up by horseflies! I've got bites all over my back that I can't reach and now they itch like crazy. Anyone have a back scratcher they can loan me?