Fast Forward

… and somehow here it is July! Everywhere you go – outside – you smell delicious freshly cut hay. I’m hearing that although it has been dry – making the cutting easy going – it has been dry making the hay short. Some are saying they are getting half the cut they did last summer. Our season is too short to get a second cut. I’m glad we have a barn full of hay and an order for two hundred more bales to easily get us to next summer.

It is also the season of ‘Gramma Camp’! My helpers are back. We’ve been spending the mornings doing chores here at home. Then we beat it to the beach to spend the afternoons reading, swimming, and playing volleyball and soccer.

This morning we tackled clearing out the Goat Cafe. Kyla drove load after load of old bedding to the compost bin. I dragged roll after roll of it out to toss into the tractor bucket. Ede and Lexi made a run with Miss Daisy to the corner store to get fresh bedding bales. MayMay and Dottie kept a close eye on the whole process and gave it a thumbs up when we were done.

I love when the girls are here to help with that chore. Having Kyla to drive back and forth certainly cuts the time it takes at least in half! And the new wood chips smell sooooooo good!

It has been interesting spending time at our local beach. On Canada Day there was a pretty good crowd there. But people were also doing a good job of staying spread out. There are some great old oak trees all along the shore. They create some very welcome shade. We set up our chairs and towels and spent hours cooling off – and getting hot again.

I know we are awfully lucky to live where there is lots of space – both at home – and at local lakes. Our area is called the Land O’ Lakes region. If you were to look at a map – or better still fly over us – you would see there is more water than land. There are tiny and big lakes spread all around us. We are within ten minutes of four beaches and twice that many lakes with rocky islands and shorelines we can canoe to for a dip.

All the lakes and the wide expanses of hay fields … also bring deer flies … and horse flies …

… and sprinting granddaughters trying to escape them!

The solution is quite simple. Just swim!

Hugs from the Meadow Mice – and the next generation too.
xoxo