Small Rewards

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My husband is one of those people who always makes friends no matter what.....sooooo because of that we are always treated with company off and on, all day long, each and every day.  All of our friends know that the evenings are reserved for 'us' so company in the evening is rare.

The evenings are special to us.  We will surf the web...each on our own laptop ... hee, hee,  we will watch a t.v. program together, read a book, knit, challenge each other to a board game or just spend the time talking about chores, goals, projects and dreams....but always, always...we will have our our small 'rewards'.  

We each have our own 'small rewards'. Hubby's 'small rewards' are usually food.....or his favorite t.v. program that he follows online since we do not have cable or satellite television.

My 'small rewards' are quite simple as well but oh so very special to me.  I have flavored tea and coffee specially reserved for those times or sometimes I will have a new magazine to explore....my magazine subscriptions are bought and paid for with coke reward points....love, love, love that I don't have to buy magazines anymore!  Some nights will include those little, itsy, bitsy chocolate bars as a treat or a bowl of my favorite ice cream.  

After a long day of working it is wonderful to look forward to something enjoyable, especially if that day wasn't.  

We treasure our evenings and we treasure our 'small rewards' as simple as they might be.  What are your small rewards at the end of the day?  Remember to give your loved ones a hug!

Four-wheeling

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Yesterday was one of those perfect autumn days. Bob worked in the shop all day on a customer's vehicle, Luke gave him a hand and I sat and crocheted while watching them work. Around 5pm Bob locked up the shop and said... "Let's go wheeling!" Yippee!






First, we took a ride around the property and the guys just had to try out the swap pit! Luke managed to get himself stuck in the cattails and tall grass.







After some struggling and standing ankle deep in swamp muck, he was able to pry himself loose and we took off once again.



There are beautiful state trails around our area so after visiting with a friend close by (I will post pictures later of her beautiful fruit trees) we headed for the trails. In order to get to the trails, there is one little hill that needs to be conquered first! I walked down that hill!!!

It's not much fun riding on the back of a wheeler with Bob when you are climbing down a hill over rocks that big and trying to dodge ruts! Luke also walked down part of the hill as he had never been on this trail before so he was a little nervous.

We did some sightseeing and enjoyed the wildlife.

Crossed bridges and took lots of pictures.

As the sun was setting, we headed for home. Didn't feel like attempting to go up that big hill again so we took a different route past a gravel pit and through a field of wildflowers. I tried to take a picture of the wildflowers but it turned out blurry as Bob had the wheeler going at top speed!

I am glad we headed out. There won't be too many more nice days such as that one and it was a fun, family time. When we finally reached home, each one of us fell into bed exhausted from riding for a few hours.

Ducks are so much fun!

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This past spring we decided to get 6 ducks to add to our collection of animals. A sort of dabbling into raising farm animals. I realize that ducks are not usually part of a farm scene but we do have a pond on our property and we thought that they will most likely fly away once the cooler weather comes. We thought it would give us an idea on the amount of work we will have to dedicate to other animals besides our Rottie and two cats which some days are quite a handful!

Here they are when we first got them this spring. Aren't they just adorable!

We had a large plastic tub and they stayed in there for the first couple of weeks. Can you believe we kept them in the kitchen? Yep, and they were so cute to listen to during the evenings. The cats didn't bother them and Sampson our Rottie would just peek through the top of the container and watch them. I think he thought they were one of his lost squeaky toys! As they grew, we began taking them outside to stay in a screened-in area of the yard. In that area we placed Sampson's old doghouse and the ducklings were quite content to dig for bugs and waddle around their space.

Here they are getting bigger already.

Their first trip to the pond was a joy to watch. Not having a Mother to teach them (and I wasn't about to go in the pond!) they had to learn how to swim, dive and watch for predators. We would worry about them those first few times and it was quite difficult to get them out of the water when it was bedtime! After the first night they spent outside, they peeped at me so loud the next morning as if they were saying... " You left us out here in the dark all by ourselves!"



Teenagers!



Now they run around, play and don't leave the pond even at night. We lost one to a predator but all the rest are doing quite well. We know now we have 4 females and 1 male and the male is so handsome! The male does have an injured wing but seems to do alright. They have brought much joy to our lives and now we wait to see if they will leave us soon. If not, I will be hauling water this winter!



All grown up!