Fall is turning into Christmas

Jack, Maddie and Emily came to visit Grandma and GrandBob and this time they brought along their mom and dad too. Everyone helped to decorate the Smiley Farm to get things in order for Christmas.

Grandma takes everyone for a walk, Jack is disguised as a ghost, but he's not too scarey.

Fall on the Smiley Farm

GrandBob decided he wants to attract Barn Owns to our backyard. He researched what kinds of nesting boxes Barn Owls prefer and then Jack and Maddie helped get the nesting box painted.

Uncle Ryan, Jesse, GrandBob climbed on ladders and on top of the beehive cover to put up the nesting box. It was pretty difficult.

Jack helped Grandma pick all the vegetables that were still in her garden on November 25th. He pulled a lot of carrots and found some pretty decent tomatoes.

Grandma babysat Emily while Mom and Dad ran an errand. Looks like she was having fun.

Walking the Benicia Bridge

Grandma decided she wanted to walk across the Benicia Bridge for her 60th birthday. She was able to talk a few other people into going with her. We had a great view of the Delta and the railroad trestle.

We also were able to see some oil barges.

All in all a very successful outing, once we located the secret entrance to the bridge access.

more fun things

Uncle Ryan shows Maddie and Jack how to decorate for a July 4th parade

After working hard decorating the wagon and Jack's bicycle, Jack and Maddie take a water break to play in the sprinklers.

Mommy teaches Emmie where the good blackberries can be found at grandma's house.

Grandkids are wonderful!

Baby Emmie flies around the kitchen table, having lots of fun.

Jack and Maddie race to the barn to see if the chickens have laid any eggs.

adventures at Grandma's house

Jack and Maddie try to find butterflies at grandma's house, but mostly they only find bees.

Zoey finds a snake in grandma's bushes. Grandma and Mommy locate the snake, it is a king snake, which is a good snake because it kills rattle snakes. But grandma doesn't want it in her yard, soMaddie tries to chase the snake out of grandma's yard.

Grandma teaches canning and piano!

Grandma had a very big harvest of raspberries, so she had to teach Jack and Maddie how to make raspberry jam. They were great helpers and after dinner had ice cream with warm raspberry jam topping, delicious.

Grandma loves to play piano and hopes that she passes on her love of music.

A Swarm Shows up unexpectedly

Grandma heard a strange noise outside her window, it sounded like a waterfall. She ran outside and discovered the biggest bee swarm hovering over her fence, looking like it was going to consolidate in her neighbor's pear tree.

GrandBob and Uncle Eric hurriedly clean up the old unused hive, trying to get rid of the ant infestation that we've had for a year.

The bee swarm did end up in our neighbor's pear tree and was about 3-1/2 feet long hanging from a branch. GrandBob and Uncle Eric were able to knock the bee swarm into grandma's camping box and bring it over to our bee hive. You can see them dumping the bees into the top of the bee hive. We hope the bees like their new home and give us lots of honey.

Life on my Tennessee farm

what a beautiful piece of rolling land in green Tennessee

Anyone want to come out and stay in my house? The house is still standing and there's a well in the side yard for fresh water but don't knock too hard, it might fall down.

SNAKE!!!

Grandbob almost stepped on this snake that was hiding under the bushes. Watch out Zoey! Grandbob said the snake was over four feet long, that's a pretty big snake.

Grandma was telling grandbob that we should weed whack the back hill because snakes hide in the long weeds. Grandbob and Grandma have been working on the hill this week so snakes don't have anyplace to hide, but one sneaked in our yard after we whacked down the weeds.

Grandma has a pretty nice chair!

Grandma has a pretty chair with red leaves on it, she loves it! She also has a new couch for taking naps, she's pretty pleased about that too.

Lemonade for Sale

Grandma helps Jack and Maddie make a lemonade stand. It was so much fun. Jack got to saw the wood and nail up the sign, good job Jack!

More painting at Grandma's house

Grandma painted her living room, what do you think?

Painted cabinets

These are the drapes that grandpa likes

Here are a couple views of the family room now that I've painted out the oak cabinets,what do you think?

Smiley/Dosters help the Greens

Uncle Eric, GrandBob and Uncle Ryan put up the chair rail in Maddie's room. They tried really hard to make sure it was level so Grandma could put up the wallpaper bead board very straight. they knew if it was crooked she was going to blame them if the wallpaper looked bad!

Maddie checks out the pictures mom took of all the jobs we helped them with, she especially likes what we did to her bedroom.

Jack is such a great worker. He is helping Uncle Eric roll the wallpaper on the walls in Maddie's room.

Bad Zoey

Zoey is a silly dog, but the chickens are pretty dumb, so maybe they don't know Zoey is hiding under the rose bush waiting for them to fly into her yard.

Zoey really, really, really wants the chickens to fly into the yard, so she can play with them. But we know the truth, she really wants to eat them, look at her licking her mouth just thinking about eating a chicken dinner!

Zoey has competition

oh boy, Zoey doesn't know it yet, but a new puppy has come into the family and is going to compete for jack and Maddie's love! Jack and Maddie are in love with Archie, Uncle Eric and Auntie Katie's new little puppy. He visited them last week and had so much fun he wants to go back as soon as possible.

Archie hung around Maddie and Jack and wanted to sing and dance and play musical instruments with them but he wasn't sure about all the noise, so he stayed very close to Auntie Katie until he figured how that Maddie was making music with the saxophone, not just noise.

Who loves Uncle Ryan?

There is always competition when Uncle Ryan is around to see who gets to sit next to him. Zoey wants to hear the story but she doesn't get to sit on the couch with Jack and Maddie.

grandma decorates her walls

Grandma is trying out new looks, what do you think?

Peck gets a visit from Jack

Peck was so happy to see Jack again but he was so confused because Uncle Ryan was chasing all the chickens in the garden. Uncle Ryan was showing Jack how to catch chickens and was finally successful. Ruby the chicken was not happy to be caught, she does not like to be held upside down!