I am constantly amazed by my grandparents.

I know people half their age who would never be able to send an email with scanned attachments,

or even know that it is possible.

This is the email:

We thought these would give you some ideas!

-Grandma

They are great ideas!

I am looking forward to a weekend of 80 degree temperatures and lots of yard work!

We had the opportunity to see how our tractor would do pushing snow.   Before we purchased the tractor, we saw You Tube videos showing the impressive power that it had pushing snow; but we had never tested it ourselves.  It was great!

Ryan got the tractor out first thing yesterday morning to clear out a spot for Sport to use the bathroom.  As you can see in the Photo of the Day, he could barely walk in the snow, much less squat

Later in the day, we both went out and took turns working on clearing the drive way.

The little orange tractor did great!

I moved all of the snow from the driveway into a little snow mountain!

I love our little tractor!

To see previous posts about our tractor, click here.

If we do in fact get 12-18 inches of snow, it will officially be the most snow I have ever seen! Yay!

Oh, and don’t worry about us. . .

Ryan has made sure that we will have everything we need if we lose power–

he put the bucket on the tractor, got out the lanterns, checked the propane, got out the snow shovels, got a couple bottles of wine.  . .

Autumn Blooms

Doesn’t that look delicious?

The most important things, I’ve learned when buying a tractor is:

1.  How good does my wife think she will look on it, since it will be her new toy!

2.  What color does she like the most

3.  What seat is most comfortable.  (and which one reclines)

4.  Make sure it has a neat forward and reverse pedal that makes it easier for her to maneuver

5.  It needs to be able to run accessories, such as:  post hole digger for her new fence, front end loader so its easier for me to spread mulch and so we can play in the snow with it.

6.  Last but not least, (and yes, she did actually ask the salesman) “if I put my beer in the cup holder will it shake it up?”  All we received with this question was a dumbfounded look from him for about five minutes and then he finally said  “They are still working on that one! ”  Sorry Sweetie!!!

But. . .

when I opened the box, I looked in and said, aloud, those idiots forgot about dirt!

Then I saw these:

When I saw them I instantly realized that they must be compressed dirt.

I have seen compressed saw dust briquettes used for fire started logs, and learned about tea bricks in US History, but never have I seen compressed dirt!

The directions said to add water.

So, I added water:

Then I added a little more water:

Those two little dirt tablets completely filled a mixing bowl of moist soil!

They were interviewed for an article about their fig crop.

Please check out the article! Click here.

Grandma’s Fig Preserves:

Fresh Figs:

Monday night my Mother-in-Law brought us some flowers;  as an extremely fair barter for a fresh batch of green beans and potatoes.

We received some lilies and blossoms from her Hardy Hibiscus.

Although the hibiscus does not produce much of a cutting flower, they are absolutely gorgeous while they last!

The Hibiscus blossom in this photograph is nearly 12 inches in diameter!