Trying to Keep Up

I so love being back on the ranch, but my time here frequently reminds me of how I am so out of shape. Yesterday, J and I spent a few hours hoeing and hilling up and watering trees. By the end of it, my arms were practically non-functioning, due to the lactic acid buildup, and my back ached like no one's business. This morning, J's mom and I dug up sand burr plants with a shovel. My hands are callused even though I wore gloves and my back continues to rue my existence. I am such a weakling! I'll become stronger over time, but it's frustrating to feel what an office job will do to your body...

Anyway, highlights from the trip thus far:

A family game of Monopoly • Hearing random murmuring sounds and trying to figure out what it was, only to discover Poppa Parsons holding and talking to a kitten • Momma Parsons' homemade cornbread and banana bread • The five or more kittens that have taken over the ranch and mudroom • Hanging out with Sadie • Manual labor • Finding an empty turtle shell while tromping through the meadow • Sitting in the hot tub under the night sky

Tiny, happy trees

Friendliest kitten ever...even more so than Bob

Kitten among the corn

Chickens on the loose -- one of my favorite things about the ranch

Pumpkins! And lots of watermelons too...Momma Parsons has an

incredible green thumb

J at work moving bales

The new rooster, to replace the one that kept charging Poppa Parsons

Wildflowers in bloom

Why, hullo to you too!

Butterfly in the sky, I can fly twice as high...