Spring Break, Morels, Chores

It's been quite awhile since I've been to the farm.  We went to Florida for two weeks for spring break with the Grands (kids and parents).  But I'm back now and the weather has been glorious. There were over 10,000 shots on the trailcams - it will take me awhile to sort them. But here's what we've been up to.

These are my amazing 96 year old parents who will be celebrating their 75th wedding anniversary this month.

After some visiting with them we went on a Disney cruise with this crowd.

And enjoyed some beach time.

And we also had some time with the other side grandkids.

Including a little fishing trip.

After Florida, Elliott had his real spring break so he and Eric got away for a couple of days in Mason and the farm.  On the way to the farm, we stopped at the taxidermist and picked up some recently completed mounts.

The redbuds are started and spring has sprung.

Elliott in front of a crabapple.

I introduced Elliott to morel hunting.

He got the hang pretty quick.

We just got a fraction of our regular hunting spot but we did pretty well.

The bounty for about 30 minutes hunt.

And back to the ranger for a ride - always Elliott's favorite.

We covered a lot of ground.

Out of order shot.

He even got out the mini-ranger.  Getting kind of small for him.

Eric had purchased a new Bergara in 308 so we wanted to get is sighted in.  My regular range collapsed recently so we improvised.

Pretty good job on the bore sight - on paper immediately.

Nice looking rig.

It helps to have a good spotter.

I continue to collect mylar balloons.

Where do they all come from?

First meal in Joan's new gazebo.

Back to Mason then home to Chicago.

The carpenter bees are the worse ever this year.  I bought two kinds of traps.  This style from the Amish - Keims (Yoders).

This style from Tractor Supply.

This is a growing season's worth of minerals.  I put one of these bags out about every two weeks starting now.

I sprayed all of the clover fields.  I'm using Octavio which is quite expensive.  It is supposed to control both grass and broadleafs.

Action shots - I'm wearing a dust respirator in case of a gust of wind in the wrong direction.

I spent another 30 minutes looking for morels in between chores.

Elliot did some driving with the bush-hog this visit.  He used to fall asleep in the tractor.

Photo of me on the John Deere a month ago.  It's not running great right now.

I have thousands of great trailcams - hope to get another post up soon with some of them.