Tilling the Land

James faced his fear and took on the Mantis under the expert tuition of Sal in the vegetable patch! How I wished I had had one of these at the allotment once I'd got all the weeds out. No more digging! Well the asparagus survived the experience and so did James, who also kept hold of all ten toes!

I Milked a Cow!

The milking of 35 cows was a surprisingly calm and peaceful event. Apparently that's the way you want it if the cows are to produce the maximum amount of milk. Mary gave us a lesson in hand milking and both Alexander and I were successful at getting some milk out but I wouldn't have wanted to milk a whole cow by hand let alone 35! Contrary to the impression the photo gives, (taken by Alexander), I did actually touch that udder and milk!

What was most fascinating was that each cow knows exactly which stall to go into and will go into the same stall every time to be milked. They sort of all positioned themselves before being hooked up to the milking machines. Also some prefer to be milked from the left rather than the right and here's a weird piece of information some farmers will play their cows music during milking and Sherwin reliably informed us that county is preferred to soft rock!

Mechanical Toys

Charged with the sole responsibility for a small child for 4 whole days and nights James set me the additional challenge of making very complicated mechanical models with the above mentioned small child. Alexander and I unknowingly chose the most complicated one to start with and a couple of days later had a working model. Alexander was very diplomatic and said if it didn't work it didn't matter because he would still have a model! What a charmer. However to our astonishment we flicked the on switch and amazingly the thing walked! Just call me a genius!

Raccoon Picnic and Appleby Hands

We packed a picnic and set off over the mountain with Alexander looking for some picnic tables we had seen advertised on the side of the road a week before. Two mountains later, two stops at Amish baked goods stalls and two water melons later we finally found the elusive picnic tables. Exhausted from our magical mystery tour we spotted a clearing at the side of the road that was perfect for our picnic. Alexander checked for poisoned ivy, I laid out the blanket and we wondered at the fact a raccoon had just run across our spot!

A rip to the library followed where Alexander found the tile hand print he had done about a year ago framed on the wall. Fame at last!

Blair's Mills Picnic

Determined to get on our bikes Sara and I cycled to Blair's Mills 14 miles from the farm, with the promise that the boys would pick us up in the truck. It was a hard ride through very pretty farm land and we saw some interesting road kill of a black and yellow snake. Alexander wanted to take it home in the back of the truck. As Sara and I were riding in the back of the truck the snake stayed on the road!

Had a lovely picnic by a stream relaxing, eating and generally feeling good about life!

Chambersburg

The guidebook said don't expect much from Chambersburg which I think does it a disservice. The residential and centre parts of the town are what I imagine Old American to be and really rather pretty. Right at the centre stands a fountain marking the spot where the Union troops stood and faced the Confederates marching on the town from the south. They had demanded a ransom in gold of the town which was not paid so the threat to burn the town was carried out. We stopped briefly and took photos and read the signs then carried on to Walmart!!! Now there's another experience!

Turkeys, Turtles and Muskrats.

The rain of the last few days has kept us indoors for most of the time but the wildlife has been out and about. New additions to my list of animals seen include a flock of wild turkeys, several adult and 5 or 6 babies, crossing the drive in the early morning to get to the soya bean field. Too far away for a photo but quite a sight nevertheless.

Down at the stream while feeding the fish garlic naan bread (!) saw a turtle the size of a dinner plate and what I thought was a swimming groundhog. That's the last thing James needs, for his most favourite animal (heavy sarcasm here) to be colonising the stream as well as the vegetable patch. However on further investigation this swimming mammal turned out to be a muskrat, picture above.

The hummingbirds come regularly to the feeders,trees and flowers around the porch and deck which is an amazing sight to see. The first you know of them is the hum of their wings, rather like the sound of a very angry wasp but much louder. Then they hover like little helicopters feeding from the flowers. Have noticed that they are very territorial and we often see them fighting each other off, though there is plenty of food to go round.