hello summer!

I’m sure enjoying the hot weather that’s coming our way. Right now it’s actually perfect-I prefer the 80’s over the 90’s-but they are on their way.

I’m not too great at keeping this up to date lately, so I’ll try to catch up a little bit. I must warn you, there are many pictures ahead…

We had the annual Open House for the University of Missouri Veterinary School, which Josh was the head tri-chair of. Overall it went really well! Here are a couple pics from the day…

 

Josh was invited to play with a local rugby club team. They were playing against the University rugby team. There were a lot of guys with very little experience. Josh was having a good time—it’s been many years since he played. He’s the one in the black shirt and scrum cap…

                                                        Here V 

And here, in the white and orange socks…
                     V

And then the game was maybe close to have over…the worst happened. He fell down and didn’t get up. Then he got up and fell down again. He was helped off the field hopping on one leg. I knew that he is one guy who refuses to look like anything is wrong-so I was worried about what was wrong. He said it felt like a horrible cramp in his calf, but it wouldn’t go away. He was worried something had torn. We ended up at Urgent Care and he tore his calf muscle.

The pictures below are from a few days later…there were many bruises, and they really don’t as bad as they really were in real life. They also looked worse before they got better…

One fine Saturday we were able to go out with the University of Missouri Mule Club (Josh is (now was) the VP and I participated as a community member. We headed to the one and only Budweiser Clydesdale Breeding Farm. It’s only about 10 minutes from our house here…

One of the breeding stallions…

3 day old foals…

This yearling below was having a grand time teasing me. First we were posing for a picture. You can see his eye watching me…then suddenly he grabbed my hair, then snuffed my ear! Josh got all of these pictures over those few seconds.

Here’s the group that went. Josh and I are under the word ‘Warm’          V V

Look, they saved a stall just for me!

These pregnant mares are about to pop any day! They have 40 foals a season here.

It was a lot of fun seeing all the beautiful horses. It’s an amazing (expensive!) facility.

This was random…but I came home one day and there was this GIANT turtle out in the road. I couldn’t believe it was still alive-but it was-I saw it move. So I was headed out to try to dodge cars and move it out of the road…when I realized how big it really was…and that it looked an awfully lot like a snapping turtle! I’ve never seen one in person but knew they were dangerous. I hesitated and ran back inside to google pics of snapping turtles. Sure enough this guy could have taken off my hand. I learned there’s no safe place to grab them-they can still swing around and bite. The only trick is to have them bite something like a broom handle first, then move them while they are chomping that… As I was trying to decide what to do-a big truck ended my dilemma and sent that big guy to turtle heaven.

It was sad…but I’m glad I wasn’t dumb and tried to help something that would have kept part of me as a snack. It’s hard to tell from my little crappy cell phone picture…but the shell was literally almost 3 feet long! His neck is actually really long too, he just has it sucked in. See his chompers? And his long alligator like tail in the shadow?

 

Just this past weekend my work had our 5th Annual Luau party. It’s a client appreciation party with food, fun, tours, and prizes.

I spent the afternoon there getting set up and helping and cleaning up. Josh showed up for a while with Sassy, both dressed for the occasion. We managed to sneak in a picture…

 

I started some seeds a few weeks back-behind schedule. Well about 1 1/2 weeks ago I moved them outside on the deck and today we moved a few into the garden. Here’s some that haven’t made it out there yet…

Bell Peppers and Jalapenos…

Summer  and Spaghetti Squash…

Of course I had to stop to get a picture of Luna, enjoying one of the chairs on our screened in deck. She demands to go out. Sometimes she lets us sit in her chair.

Today was beautiful. In the 80’s and humid. This was a shot from next to the garden, looking up at the sky…

We tried something new with the garden this year. After a nice guy driving by saw us digging out there one day a few weeks ago..he stopped to see if we’d like him to till it! So, we let him do it and paid him. This was so much easier and cheaper than renting one like we did last year!

Then, from the advice of Josh’s mom Jackie, I covered the whole thing in black plastic. Last year the weeds were our downfall. There were too many growing way too fast to keep up with on our busy schedules. I left it that way for a couple weeks. I read on gardening websites this will actually help the little plants because the ground will be nice and warm when they go in and it will help them grow faster!

We placed a couple cattle panels and a bunch of tomato cages and transplanted tomatoes and cucumbers outside in the garden today. I just had to cut holes for the plants in the plastic and move them in! Hope it all works!  These cucumber starts look a little sad after transplanting, but most baby plants do.

Here’s the tomatoes…looks like quite the mess since we just watered them and there was extra dirt everywhere…

So one day I got a little excited because there was a hole patch of plants growing out behind a lilac bush and a tree that looked just like a strawberry patch. There were even little buds forming. I had josh leave them (we’ve always mowed them under before) and they blossomed yellow flowers. I was confused-cuz strawberries have white flowers! But they looked  JUST LIKE strawberries. So of course I googled them and decided they were probably native missouri wild strawberries! But, they are no good to me because they are itty bitty with lotsa seeds. The birds and the bunnies are the only ones who enjoy them. Darn! Below is a berry that finally grew and ripened.

Can you believe I JUST painted the deck last fall? Sassy runs up and down those stairs like somethings chasing her!

And here’s the other cat Stormy…usually sleeping somewhere. Here she was lounging in the middle of the floor under the ceiling fan-coolest place in the house.

Tonight we enjoyed a nice 3 mile or so bike ride (like nothing for Josh-but a small work out for me…hey-there were hills!) and I was happy my knee didn’t hurt too bad. I got my fair share of bugs in the nose and eyes though. We enjoyed the company of a white tailed deer, some bunnies, and plenty of squirrels.