Spring Visit

My sister, Bonnie, from North Carolina visited for a week, and my youngest sis, Sandi, from Denver came for Memorial Day weekend. It was grand to have my sister "fix".

Bonnie marveled at all of our babies--- horses, wild birds and chickens, and was found regularly outside with her video camera. I'm including some of her work below and it might be very interesting to those of you who haven't spent time recently, or ever, on a ranch.

A must-do for everyone who visits is
to gather eggs. Buddy always helps.

Bonnie surprised a Cuckoo Marans in

her nest. She lays chocolate brown eggs.

Showing off the Dots bounty

Kids aren't the only ones who love

to swing. All our guests tend to take

a turn on the double swings.

Our lovely mare, Boone, and her baby

girl. Isn't she an adorable filly? We've

had about 12 baby horses born on our

ranch this spring.

(NOTE: The video below is best without the sound. Buddy was excited about the horses so he was herding them and you can hear me repeatedly trying to get him to settle down... evidently without success!) The video is of some of our horses and babies but front and center is a 24 hour old colt. Love those long legs!

My regular blog followers know that we have guineas on our ranch to help keep the bug population down. Some people don't like guineas because they are so noisy. Bonnie took a marvelous video of the guineas in the pasture so you can see and hear them as I do as they circle around the house and yard every day doing their job. I've learned to enjoy them, sound and all.

Mark stumbled upon a guinea nest so it looks like we will have baby guineas one of these days! That is exciting news for us. The guineas lay their eggs in the brush, not a nest box in the barn, but once the babies are born, they will bring them into the Guinea Shack in the barn for safety. I'll keep you posted.

A tradition for all guests who arrive in Omaha is to tour the pioneer sculptures downtown. I've included a few pictures and a closeup of one of the pioneer faces so you could see the fine detail. I never get tired of visiting this sculpture park with guests. Omaha is a lovely city and has several sculpture parks.

Bonnie and I went to Kearney to visit the MONA, Museum of Nebraska Art, which I love and to lunch with two dear friends who went through the Master Gardener program with me. We had a great day.

Bonnie, JoAnn, me and Pat @ the MONA

Fabulous lunch @ the Bistro in Kearney,NE

Speaking of babies, see the bluebird sitting on top of Sydney's hand made and hand painted birdhouse. The bluebirds are building nests in all the bluebird boxes. It's great to see them back. Baby birds of different kinds are in many of our birdhouses around the ranch.

Happy sisters; Bonnie, me and Sandi at lunch together

My summer project is painting the barn...I'm excited to get it done. It will make our place look so much better.

Black hollyhocks next to the barn

Delores