May

 We drove out to Burlington and back on the first Saturday to see our new grandson.  He is a cute and good baby, and we had a nice drive.We got back in the evening in time to attend a testimony, followed by a baptism on Sunday. It was a blessing to be there, and we need more of these!  In the evening we had family birthday parties for two granddaughters.

Saturday evening of Mother's Day weekend, we went to bed with the windows open.  A storm rolled through in the night, so I woke up and shut the windows.  After the storm passed it was stuffy in the bedroom, so I opened the windows again.  Awhile later I was again waken by a second wave of storm moving through.  Again I got up and shut the windows.  I woke up to a stuffy room again after the second storm passed, so I got up again and opened the windows.  It was a fitful night.  It turns out that that is the last measurable rain that we have had.  The storms had some wind that did a little damage, that included blowing down one of my shed doors.

The next Saturday evening was Cliff''s graduation party.  The weather was beautiful, so the party was mostly in the garage and outside.  Because it was so nice out, everyone, including out of town family stayed around a long time visiting.  It was a nice time.  Congrats to Cliff. 

When my Grandpa bought our farm in 1927, the house and buildings were back a long lane.  He wanted to move the farmstead down to the road.  One of the first things he did was hand dig a well where the new building site would be.  During the record heat and drought of the 30's, that hand dug well never ran dry.  The oldest farmer often told us the story how neighbors would come and ask Grandpa if they could get water from his well (theirs dried up) during those years.  He never turned anyone away.  The last couple of years, I noticed that the poured concrete cap was cracking and settling.  This spring it had obviously settled more and a chunk broke and fell into the well. It had become dangerous. So Nephew Troy brought the LT backhoe down and we removed the cap.  The top two feet of bricks had caved into the well, probably due to freezing and thawing over the years.  I put a sump pump down into the well and pumped as much water out as I could, then filled the hole with yellow clay.  The well didn't quite last 100 years, and I'm glad the oldest farmer wasn't around to see us fill it in.

On Memorial Day, we gathered at Firefly Woods to do some hiking and creek wading.  They are having some of the biggest and oldest trees logged off for cash, so we hiked some of the logging trails to see their work.  Then with Prairie Creek low because of no rain, we let the kids spend time in the water.  I was surprised to see the number and size of fish in the creek.  After wading, we had a picnic snack before departing.

For all the wells which his father's servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth.                   Genesis 26:15