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.