surprise party

I should mention that the reason I went to Cleveland in the first place is that my brother Zach was putting on a surprise party for my mother's 71st birthday. She ended up making other plans for that weekend so he had to tell her, but she really had no idea that I was going to be flying in. It was a great surprise! Someone mentioned that they only remember her being speechless once before, although I'm sure that's not completely true. The point is that it really was a surprise.

Because I hadn't talked to or seen many of my siblings in a long time, I really wasn't sure at all what to expect. What was absolutely the coolest was feeling like I was meeting them for the first time and really liking them. I have certainly changed over the years and so have they, and they are really cool people. We'd have some excellent bonfire fun if they lived close enough to The Goat. My brother Zach and sister Tammy seem to be the only other siblings into the farming life, although my niece Heidi is also raising chickens and is in love with horses. Hopefully she'll get the chance to explore her passion for them.

Here's a few pics:

My sister Cyndi and 2 of her children, Katie and Neil.


















Sisters, brothers, and nieces and nephews:








A few (out of 11) of Les and Tammy's kids:














The four of us younger kids; David, Charissa, me and Zach. I'm the oldest AND the shortest. What's up with that?

cleveland

I also had a great visit to my home of origin near Cleveland, Ohio. It was a fabulous trip. Although I really love to fly, I get a bit freaked thinking that I really could choose more graceful ways to meet my end then on a plane, but I made it back in Houghton safely, so all's well.

I saw some of my siblings that I hadn't seen in way more than a dozen years, so that was pretty fabulous. The old homestead sure has changed. Growing up there were nothing but fields all around us. We could hike into the woods across the street or cross the creek behind our property to pick berries. I almost drowned once when I fell off the bridge behind one of the fields during a very wet spring. Pretty amazing I lived through that as I hear the water was really rough and there were lots of debris to get caught up in.

So it was pretty shocking to see how the fields had disappeared and neighborhoods had sprung up all around. I seriously would not have recognized where I was if I hadn't known that I was heading for the place. I'm not really sure what I think about it other than I'm loving where I live even more and hoping that we don't lose all the fields and woods around us. We are somewhat isolated and protected by our land, but who knows what might happen?

Here's a few pictures of the place now taken from high up in my brother's bucket truck thingy:

The house, although it is certainly different than when I grew up in it. It's been expanded and fixed up a whole lot:



The used-to-be-fields from the perspective of the house entry way:



Looking at the back of the property. My brothers expanded our pond, and the developers created a new one. I never thought to ask if the creek was still running or not. Perhaps they put the pond in to divert the creek. Hmm. I must admit it looks nice, although it's very weird.



My mother:

yo!

Can't remember when I last wrote, but it's been a while. Oh yeah, sometime after Halloween. Nothing major has been going on. The weather has been great, actually, and today it is supposed to hit 40. Can't beat that. Wish that I had more time to go outside and play, but that's ok, stuff will get done eventually.

The goats are doing great, although I have to fix the fencing in their cage. They are pulling it all apart. I'll stick a few 2x4s in there and it should be fine. We try to take them for walks as often as we can. They really want to run and jump like crazy, and they pull us along like we are rag dolls. It's cool. Here's some pictures:

Me and Nutmeg:



Benj and Nutmeg:



Rio and Hershey:


Shady getting a ride.



I guess they're pretty spoiled already. Oh, and if you want to make a goat adore you, feed them a few raisons every once in a while. Yep, the way to wrap them around your little finger. Or is it the other way around, I wonder?