This week started with my trip to Florida, mainly to get a
four generation photo with my mama, son, and granddaughter. But I was
equally excited to see Mom and sister Jean, and for them to see Dan and
Val and to meet Ava for the first time.
The photos of us four together will be available for Ava when she grows up and possibly for generations to come. How cool is that.
I have no expectations of this blog being saved for a later generation to read. But I often wonder if one or two entries each year were saved and read a hundred years from now, what my great, great grandchild might think. They would definitely get a feel for life as it was in the early 21st century.
Friday 6/18 - I hate traveling. It is nerve racking and it hurts my sciatic nerve to sit for long periods. Joe and I left home at 7am, headed for Knoxville Airport. We got caught in traffic for a bit, making me very nervous, but we were OK. Once Joe dropped me off at the airport, I had no bags to check and zipped right through security, and had 30 minutes before boarding.
I sent Jean this photo of what to look for when picking me up.
She had her own set of problems getting to the airport in Orlando, mainly running out of toll money, so was 25 minutes late picking me up. Our drive to Winter Haven was sometimes bumper to bumper and stop and go. Did I say I hate to travel?
Jean in this second photo pretty much depicts how I think we both were feeling (during the drive and after a beer).
I was working a crossword puzzle with Mom while Jean was in the kitchen fixing veggies. I got so sleepy, Jean had to take over for me when she was done with food prep. I know I napped, but I am not sure about Mom.
We (Mom, Jean, and I) had a lazy afternoon just hanging out, talking, and playing solitaire.
We were kind of waiting on Dan, Val and Ava, to see when they would arrive and what they wanted to do for dinner. When we got word that Dan and Val were going to be much later than expected, and just go straight to their Air-B&B, we carried on without them. Mom went to bed, and Jean and I made a yummy, big Caesar chicken salad for dinner. And it wasn’t long before we went upstairs, watched an episode of Heartland together and then went to bed.
Saturday 6/19 - Up before dawn and sipping tea out on the lanai, I watched the sun rise over Mom's lake.
And then when Jean put food in the bird feeders, there was lots of life (mostly birds) to watch.
Even though the day started out kind of slow and lazy, it was a fun, and fairly busy day. Jean and I ran to the store to get some snacks and drinks for later in the day. We played Bananagrams, a fun word game, especially when you don't keep score and are allowed to bend the rules.
This is the game board once we had finished. Everybody used all their tiles and Grandma Beverly had some creative compound words going on as you can see. It was all fun. 
Mom (Great Grandma Beverly) was thrilled to meet Ava for the first time. She so enjoyed looking at her, talking to her, watching Ava's silly faces, and holding her hands and feet.
This photo was taken during a wardrobe malfunction while posing for our Four Generations photos.
Great Grandma Beverly and Ava are both really good sports.
First on our list of things to do, was take the Four Generations photo. We wanted the pretty hibiscus in the back ground and also the old oak tree and lake, but this presented problems with sun in the eyes sometimes.
After getting photos of Great Grandma (Beverly), Nana (me), son (Daniel), and daughter (Ava) together, we did other combinations of shots.
My son and his daughter with her great grandma.
The Daniel Villhauer family with Great Grandma.
The Daniel Villhauer family with Nana and Great Grandma.
And then of course we needed a photo of all of us girls.
Jean and I had offered to babysit Ava so Dan and Val could go out on a date. They gladly took us up on it. Since Ava is better during the day than the evening, they decided to go out to lunch, their first date since she was born.
Jean cooked dinner and I had the pleasure of holding Ava while she slept.
What a cutie patootie! 
About the time Jean finished in the kitchen, and had dinner in the oven, Ava woke up.
So it was Jean's turn to hold Ava, and she shared her 'Ava time' with Mom. We had fun talking with her and making her smile and just enjoying her.
This little girl is starting to come up with so many cute and funny faces.
At one point Parmesan was getting a little jealous and he asked (by putting a paw on Jean's knee) if he could join Ava up on Jean's lap. It was a resounding and definite 'NO'! Poor kitty.
Jean had to help me do a diaper change because I couldn't figure out how to do the Velcro strips to get a good fit around Ava's legs. It didn't help that she was kicking them a bunch. This reminded me of the movie Three Men and A Baby, with us fumbling around. Lol
Not only were we entertained by Ava and the cat, there were all sorts of birds and some critters outside. This is a pair of Sandhill Cranes and their offspring out near the water and a White Winged Dove on the railing.
Once we were done with lunch, we all (except Mom who wanted to nap on her daybed) suited up into our swimwear and went to the condo pool. It was delightful. The air was quite warm but a little overcast and we probably were out there for an hour and a half enjoying the pool.
This is not a good photo of Ava in the Otteroo, which is a funky little neck floatie that helps in infants' motor development. This (video) shows it much better and how relaxed Ava is in the water. She was moving her arms and legs and actually turned to see our smiles.
Once back to the condo and cleaned up we had libations and snacks, hanging out, talking, reminiscing, and telling stories.
Dan and Val headed back to their Airbnb with Ava and I checked out Britney's housing up-date.
This is the before photo.
Don Randall, the property maintenance man, helped Britney take off all of the astro-turff from the side and put up a lamina siding.
This is a during construction photo.
And here is the after, finished photo. 
Britney plans to paint still, and remove the astro-turf from the roof and put lamina up there.
I watched another episode of Heartland with Jean and then we hit the hay.
Sunday 6/20 - Father's Day and Summer Solstice
Daniel is such a good Dad to Ava.
Val posted this photo collage on Facebook.
Joe is a great father to our three children and now a wonderful Papaw. These photos of Joe and Ava were taken on Mother's Day.
Jean drove to the Air B&B and then rode with Dan, Val, and Ava to Clearwater Beach where they spent the day on the sand and in the surf. I chose to stay home with Mom, not liking the beach nor wanting to do the nearly four hour (round trip) car ride.
Mom played her favorite solitaire game (Four Corners) while I blogged.
I went to the pool for 90 minutes while Mom rested. I had the place to myself, except for these ants that I found very interesting. I took this (video) the day before when noisy kids (heard in the background) were playing.
Mom and I had lunch and worked a crossword puzzle together. There was more card playing by Mom and computerizing by me. I always check up on family and friends.
Tyler had helped Britney move a load of stuff to her tiny house the evening before, and she then camped there overnight. 
Britney has such a great network of surrogate family, friends, and acquaintances abroad. Tyler works with her. What great help he was.
Britney spent part of the day 'setting up house,' both outside and inside.
It is definitely starting to look like a home.
How cute and cozy it appears inside.
It will be even better when she has electricity and water.
The "kids" sent some beach photos. Dan had a big tent they set up to keep Ava out of the sun. Jean reported that the beach was packed. It looks that way in this photo.
Ava appears to have had mixed feelings about the sun and surf. She was a good sport though.
This family photo of Ava's first beach outing could be kept for generations to come. 💓
Jean got home about 4pm. Dan and family had gone straight to their Air B&B for the night, too tired to come back to visit. Besides, they had a hot tub there and could put Ava to bed when she conked out.
We had leftover meat loaf and potatoes for dinner and at bedtime watched another episode of Heartland together.
Monday 6/21 - It was a travel day for us Tennesseans so once awake at 4:30, I got up.
Jean left for Hope Equine Rescue (Facebook Page) to work for three hours. I did some blogging and then Dan, Val, and Ava arrived for one final visit with Mom. I had to go upstairs to tell her to come down for her visitors.
We enjoyed a late breakfast, early lunch, or snack... depending on where we were with our morning.
Jean got home at noon and enjoyed a little more Ava time. Parmesan was so offended to be demoted to Second Cutest in the house and have to share Jean with First Cutest.
Jean has a memoirs mural on the garage cabinets so we added Ava's foot print to it. Then Dan made a flower with his thumb print and Val added her hand print.
This may not be around for generations, but it was fun and cute for the time being. Here is a series of photos of Ava's art work in progress. While Val painted her foot, she reacted as if the cool paint tickled.
After many toll booths, we arrived at the Orlando Sanford Airport, where Jean dropped me off.
My flight went well although it was packed and we had a little turbulence before and during landing.
I was in the SUV with Joe, and we were down the road a few miles before the first set of three thunder storms hit.
Driving was slow at times because of poor visibility.
Joe
dropped me at the oil change place to pick up my car. He went on home
to feed the dogs and I hit Food City real quick to grab some food items.
All
was well when I got home, although not as ship-shape as I like it. And
we were out of cat food. Apparently Tango had discovered the finer
things in life and helped himself numerous times. We are not used to such a tall dog that can counter surf and reach cat bowls that are up where Maggie can't get them.
Tuesday 6/22 - It seemed like it rained most of the night. We had run out of cracked corn, so when mama and fawn came bye, I couldn't treat them to a snack. Raindrops on the window distorted this image.
I was quick to get to town and buy the feeds, cat litter, and other supplies we had run low on or out of. Once home with everything stowed away, I went to the gym. 2-4:00 is not my usual workout time, but it went fairly well, especially since it had been twelve days since my last gym visit.
Joe had taken Tango home to Nashville and then went to a poker game on his way back. After feeding the gang at 5pm, I headed to the barn and rode Amiga bareback for awhile. She was pretty wound up.
Wednesday 6/23 - Once ready to get up from my computer, I played pick-up-sticks (in the yard) for over an hour. It isn't back breaking work, but all the bending and squatting does take its toll.
With yard work taking longer than expected, I was short on time when I arrived at the barn. I had decided to do some trailer work with Amiga since it had been so long. She did great, and I didn't even have any grain or feed for her, just hay which she didn't even eat.
I left the trailer partially open for others to practice and went for a short 30 minute ride bareback. Mostly I worked Amiga in the little arena across the street. Then I was off to work at the pool.
My 1:30 - 6:15 shift was busy, just how I like it.
It was a quiet evening at home because Joe was off playing poker again.
Thursday 6/24 - The only photos I took today were of my afternoon riding adventure.
I woke with a horrible sinus headache and tried my nasal rinse while waiting on my tea. It didn't help, and it just made me feel like I had entered the deep end from the high dive forcing water up my nose.
I ran to the barn to fill Amiga and Zorro's feed container, which I had planned to do the night before. Then I worked at the pool from 9:00 - 1:30.
Once Mike came to take the second shift, I changed and went straight to the barn. I was going to try the Holly Trail and ride to the ranch. Seen in this photo, the fly wisp which was sorely needed.
Amiga was refusing to go down the Holly Trail from the landing at the #14 tee, so I got off and walked her. There was debris that needed clearing off the trail so I was on foot all the way to Stratford Circle.
I rode straight to the ranch and un-tacked Amiga in the barn. She was kind of sweaty under her saddle.
Then I put her in the stall designated for her. She was raised head, big eyed, and flared nostrils to begin with. But she soon settled down after surveying and smelling the whole space.
I got our pitch fork from the machine shed, turned the compost pile, and then moved Amiga to the round pen. She was thrilled with the grazing out there.
I walked around some, to see all the clearing work Joe has done. There is lots of rock in several places (and some concrete) that needs to be removed to better clear the ground.
I had to tack up Amiga a second time, to ride her back to
Wildwood. On the way home, we encountered this big tree down that we
couldn't get over or around, so we had to turn around and go a different way.
I was back to the barn by 5pm, and had Amiga hosed, cooled down and cleaned up, while chatting with a few of the ladies. I had my horse back in her stall by 5:30 and headed home.
I quickly did my pet chores and shower and was at Food City by 6:45 where I met Jan, Yvonne, and Moria. We all rode with Yvonne to town to see the movie Dream Horse. It was a good, inspirational, heart wrenching, and exciting film.
I decided to go to the ranch to work first, and then the gym. As tends to happen though, I worked at the ranch way too long (9:30 - 4:00) and didn't have time or energy for a weight workout later.
After spending some time cleaning up and doing a little more spraying of the back trail through the woods and power line I went out into the small pasture that is by the house. Donkey has gone to a great rescue organization and Sunny has been moved in with Smurf and Little Sweets (the three horses seen here getting along well). So the little pasture is now available for our use.
This photo was taken from the NW corner of our property, looking across the pond that is in the little side pasture. The loafing shed can be seen in the center of the photo and the house to the right. That is a duck house in the pond.
Our long term plan is to eventually put Amiga and Zorro in this pasture. But for now, we will use it for them when trailering them to the property for a few days and overnights.
This is what the inside of the loafing shed looks like. There is tons of room for both horses.
And this is a little storage room on the side of the loafing shed that can be used for feed and horse supplies. It could also double as a little green house if Joe wanted to start plants early in the spring.
I took a lunch break after finishing in the side pasture. The barn cat visited me while I was sitting in the barn. He is kind of a scrappy old Tom, but fairly tame and a nice boy. He has recently recovered from an injury. It seems he gets kind of beat up during mating season because of altercations with other cats.
My next task was to continue clearing this hillside. I trimmed back the briar patch some more (seen left). Joe had done a lot of work where I had left off last week (before photo below left). Now I wanted to trim things up a little more. I removed the big shrub (as you see in the after photo below).
In addition to the brush I had trimmed, I picked up broken wood pallet pieces and hauled them to the burn pile. I also picked up chunks of cinder block, rocks and buried trash. I stacked the rock and broken blocks on top of this concrete barrier wall (where Joe had started a pile).
Here is a panoramic photo of the whole hillside once I got done for the day. There is still plenty more to clear but it is looking much better and will be usable space in the future.
The burn pile had been completely burnt down. All of this brush is what I hauled today.
Joe and I had tickets to the play "Driving Miss Daisy." I was expecting more of a comedy. There was some pretty heavy and thought provoking dialogue intermixed with light hearted and funny moments. The story focused on the racial, political, and social (southern, Jewish and African American) cultures and issues occurring in the 1950's and 60's, but was also a play about aging.
