Everyone needs a warm spot in this cold winter snow

Our Christmas bunny that burrowed

under the Christmas bear. Another snowy day in

Dakota prairie country. Now this was right in front

of the house so I could watch him/her with its nose

constantly twitching. Now I realize that this is hard to see but there is a bear

with a red ribbon on his neck and the rabbit decided

this was a good place to get out of the snow and wind.

The bear was getting buried in the snow and his head

would no longer move so I dug him out of the snow

and brought him into the garage. The bunny has to

find a new home. There are a lot of snow banks where

that little rabbit can dig another hole.

Some Christmas Candids

Christmas Eve was a family evening with all the kids

and grandkids home. My mother also was here to

help celebrate the joyous birth of Jesus. What a joy

to have all my family here to laugh and enjoy one another.

With much good food and good humor the evening was a success.

Kristi and Jeff Kaitlyn seems happy with one of her gifts.Troy and Shirley

Ty and Deb
Everyone checking out the cameras and phones

A lot of good cheer going around here.

Nolan was happy with his golfing toy.

Not sure what was so funny but it seemed to
crack everyone up.

Some of the Christmas Eve photos

Our seven grandkids

Sean, Kimberly, Kaitlyn and Justin

Aidyn and McKayla

Nolan

Aidyn and McKayla patiently waiting for present time.Our three kids

Ty, Kristi and Troy

The sun dogs of Dakota

This was a very cold day with the sun dogs out.

This happens when it is extremely cold.

Where the deer and the pheasants......

This is just a couple of the pheasants that came up to

the house to eat one day this week. There were 15 of them.

Now the deer needed to eat so they too came up to the house.

There were 15 of them also. Not sure if there was to be a

gathering of the animals/birds or not.

Now this guy decided he needed to sharpen his

horns on one of our little trees. No wonder so many

of those trees die each winter.

Let it snow, let it snow. Enough already!!

This what it looked like here a couple of days ago.

Not bad for December in NDNow this is 11 AM Sunday. Notice the birdbath.
If the birds want some water they better hurry.
This is 1:30 PM

At 4 PM the birds will have a hard time finding the water.

This is only a snow bank in front of my door. Actually

we didn't get much snow, it just blew into banks where it

is not needed nor wanted. It is still stormy out there though.

I think that I shall never see - -

The Lone Tree

(by Sharon)

I am called the Lone tree by everyone around

I am here by myself as the rest of the trees

All were destroyed, rotted or fell down

I am here as a landmark as all you people can see.

Here I stand all alone and by myself

In the summertime heat and in the winters freezing cold

I'm here for a purpose besides being pretty and green

At least that's what most of the people are told.

Some years I have no leaves and am so bare

Then here I am and, "Surprise everyone!!"

I am all leafed out and have turned nice and green

I stand so tall and proud to enjoy the rain and the sun.

In the winter I am brown and very bare

This is the way God meant it to be

I still do my job when I am directing traffic

To those that don't know-- I am the directing tree.

If you are new to the area and not sure where to go

You are lost and have a need to find your way

Just call and ask and you will find

That the message is always the same, be it night or be it day.

The message will get to your destination

Just go to the "Lone Tree" and then you will know

That if you follow the instructions like you should

You will soon be right where you wanted to go.

Snow and more snow

Another picture out my front door this afternoon. It has snowed all day

today and it seems like it just wants to keep right on snowing. This is just snow in the weeds in the shelter belt

to the north of our house.

Now I think this is really pretty. I don't dare tell Jerry
what I think though as he doesn't seem to like snow
very well. Go figure.

A couple of bales of hay just waiting to be fed to the cows.

The days of North Dakota

Yesterday it was a beautiful day. Today it is snowing and blowing. Winter storm warnings in

parts of North Dakota. Some roads are closed.
Now I ask you, "What would you prefer, sunshine or snow?"

A story written by Kaitlyn

My Hero

By: Kaitlyn

One of the biggest heroes in my life is my grandma, Sharon . My grandma, as most grandmas do, has an opinion and I love her for it. She is never afraid to tell you what she is thinking. If she doesn't think the picture should be as high on the wall as it is, she'll tell you where it should be; if the person next to you in the check out line is too loud or obnoxious, she'll tell me later.

Grandma is also amazingly good at riddles, crossword puzzles, and mind bogglers. Whenever I need homework help she is the very first person I call. More than likely, I have been working on this question a long time. When I finish telling her the problem, she has the solution in a minute. Another thing I love about my grandma is that she spoils me. She is one of the only people in my family who will still let me get away with acting like a little kid.

I like to believe that my grandma is one of the most up-to-date grandmothers there are. The reason for this is that before my mom even started wearing carpis, my grandma did. She didn't call them "clam diggers" or "waders"' She knew the more modern term. When she told me this I just smiled, then she said, "What? Isn't that what they are called?" I told her yes, but I didn't know she knew that. Then she smiled at me. I will always remember this.

Another thing she impresses me with is her technology skills. Grandma has an e-mail account, a digital camera, a blog, and even a cell phone! Not one of those "Jitterbug" old people phones, a phone that would be acceptable to my generation.

Something else my grandma does is cook. Trust me on this: You have not tasted great caramel rolls until you have tried hers. She also makes these delicious cookies that taste good warm, frozen, fresh, or old!

The last bit I would like to add about Grandma is that she has beautiful white hair. I hope I'll have white hair like her someday. -Oh yes, and she swears. Not just under her breath when she burns herself, but whenever she is mad at something. Now how many grandmothers do you know that swear?

All of this is what I love about her and why she is is one of my heroes.

Love Kaitlyn

( Kaitlyn and her family had it framed for me and it is now hanging on my wall. What a great thrill to know that you are your granddaughters hero. Of course she is great kid. I love her to pieces!)

The weaned calves

The calves have been weaned and are enjoying a sunny dayYum, hay for dinner

A sunny fun Saturday afternoon

Jerry picking up bales to load onto the stack mover.In his grip and moving towards the mover
Putting the last two bales on. This tractor was the
one that I had the honor of driving.

A burning bush

I have tried several times to get a burning bush that actually turned red

in the fall. Finally one did what it was supposed to do.

This I planted this spring and it is so red

and pretty right now. With the wind today there will be no leaves left

but it looked nice for a couple of weeks.

Cowboy duty

It was time for the cattle to come home for their annual testing.

We only had to chase them two miles. This is

Cowboy Jerry with his horse.

They just walked home so nicely, munching on the grass as they went.
These cows decided as they were nearer to the yard

that they should spread out a bit and eat more grass

and not go where they were supposed to.

This is Cowboy Doug with his horse. I was the

cowgirl in the pickup with the radio and heater.

Just for Kaitlyn

Last weekend when we stopped to see Troy, Shirley, Kaitlyn and Sean,

Kaitlyn had to get ready for a concert at her school. This is Kaitlyn

ready for the concert.

Kaitlyn's friend, Chelsey, stopped to get her so they could ride to school together. These two girls looked very pretty all dressed up and ready to "rock and roll".

Warning!!! Snakes!!!!!

For those of you that don't like snakes-STOP- do not look!!!

Yesterday as I was walking to the mailbox, there was this little

brown snake with a red belly. I had never seen one before. Now my

kids would tell you I am an old person and should of seen one

by this time of my life but ,No, I had never seen one before.

This is a Redbelly snake that eats grubs and insects and also

is nocturnal. Now the only reason I could figure out as to

why he/she was out and about this time of day was that it

wanted to get to the other side of the road.

He/she was just a little snake, about 12 inches long.

The last of the bumble bees for the summer

If you look closely you will see this large bumble bee trying to get some nectar before

the summer is over.

Aidyn showing how to hang on her bars

Aidyn showing me how to hang on the bar. Now, she did not ask me to try this.

I am sure she knew that would be an impossible task for this g'ma.

Aidyn and I had a lot of giggles while she did this. What a great kid.

Some wild flowers

This summer Jerry and Justin built a raised flower bed at the Lodge.

Justin and I then planted wild flowers in it. They were on their own.

They are blooming now of course and some just started blooming

and there was frost so they are no more. This is what is left and they

are doing very well.

I don't know the names of any of these flowers
I would guess these might be sunflowers
And another sunflower

Ranting and raving

I need to rant a bit about the drivers around Bismarck area. I swear they think they are the only ones on the street. Twice lately someone has decided to move into another lane and oops there seems to be a driver there-- that being me. This means I get to slam on my brakes, turn out of their way and definitely I use my horn. Everything on the front seat flies onto the floor. Luckily there wasn't anything breakable in that mess that is now on the floor boards. They then look and see me, move back into their own lane and go on their merry way. Now I have always thought the drivers in Bismarck were meant to be out on prairie trails in the first place. I have grandchildren that are better drivers then they are. By the way, this has happened to me on the interstate too. Some dude just in la-la land tries to move into my lane with his pickup and trailer. I slam on the brakes and turn out onto the shoulder and lay on the horn. He then throws up his hands and realizes he should check his mirrors before doing that again. I like to drive but dislike the people that don't look before moving into the next lane. I should invest in a giant air horn.
Now, wouldn't that be fun to blow that thing when some dude screws up on the road.

More snapshots of the orchard

Jerry picking his favorite apple of the dayG'pa trying to be William Tell although without the bow and arrow
Jeff hoisting Aidyn to get an apple.
Nolan and Aidyn sitting with the pumpkins
Now this is an antique apple peeler. This would be something

that I would love as I dislike peeling apples. The biggest problem would be

to find a spot in my kitchen for this needed item. It takes just seconds

to peel an apple and it peels several at a time plus it cores them. Now

that is my kind of kitchen gadget.