A Country Party!!

 Saturday morning I woke up all excited!

Company was coming!
I moved a little bit faster than I normally do and was putting the last of my makeup on when Louis Dean called out to me, "Linda, your company is coming through the gate!"

Sure enough!

There they were!

My sister, Nita, and her daughter, Leah, along with their husbands, Mike and Patrick.

Nita brought a birthday card for me and some awesome honey themed facial masks and eye treatments!

They were so impressed with the changes here since their last visit which was several years ago!

This was Leah and Partick's first trip to the ranch.

Our first 'tour stop' was the horses.

I had a two pound bag of carrots and broke them all in half so everyone could feed them.

As soon as they see me, they know I have treats.

I think this is the very first time I have ever seen Louis Dean feed them!

Nita loves critters!

These two are mother and daughter.

This one is the odd girl out sometimes so I make sure she is included.

That must be why she allows me to pet her.

She's really pretty and has unusual eyes.

All three of the horses enjoyed all the extra attention.

I made all of us ladies a version of Mimosas.

Orange sherbert and prosecco......very nice.

We took our drinks with us and continued the tour.

When the ducks see me they think they are going to get some cracked corn and that's what they got -

even though it wasn't feeding time.

Patrick did his part in giving them some corn!

Then we moved on down to the goat pen.

Dean and Sherry had left in a hurry Saturday morning to do some errands in town so they were still in their pen. All in one place so we were able to take some good pics!

The baby goats are bigger now!

Nita remembers Buddy - what an amazing Billy Goat Gruff HE was!

I gathered up a can of eggs for them to take home and we continued our walk about.

Down through the meadow and up to the tank.

The water is up thanks to the over 11 inches of rain they got recently.

Cute CUTE couple!

I have a headache tonight as I am writing but it seems to me that on this post some of the pictures make us look thinner and some bigger. Then 'thinner' ones are correct except for Louis Dean's pic with the horses. He looked plumb skinny in that one and he is not.

Back up to the camper/cabin for a good lunch spread.

I had sandwich fixings and more and Nita and Leah brought a really good broccoli bacon salad, pumpkin bread slices and fruit and cheese trays.

While I was setting all this out.....everyone was visiting and talking and laughing.

I could hear them all and as my heart filled with joy and thanksgiving,

I stood standing by the table for a few extra minutes taking it all in.

I knew then that THIS would be my very favorite moment of the day.

After lunch we all enjoyed our afternoon.

Patrick went out on the front porch to snooze.

Mike went exploring.

Louis Dean came in and took a proper nap in bed.

Leah, Nita and I visited.

Later we opened the bottle of Hive and Honey wine and all sat together outside.

By the way - that wine was very good!

The cats came up to visit....

This one insisted on getting in Mike's lap.

What a wonderful afternoon - and we weren't finished yet!

I knew there were several ripe watermelons ready to pick so we went out to find them.

The stems that are attached will remain green but if you look closely you can see a little tendril that curls around. When THIS tendril turns brown - the melon is ready to pick.

Nita did the honors.

It was a good sized melon and we all enjoyed it - and most of us use salt on our watermelons!

(I say this for my friend, Debbi!)

When we finished eating what we wanted - 

we took the rinds down and fed them to the goats!

Remmie and Rugar came up to see what we were doing at the goat pen.

That's their job - to watch and guard the goats.

Cute things!

But they are strong!

The mops - as we call them - absolutely LOVED all the attention they got that afternoon!

It was all so much fun!

And the goats certainly ate up every single bit of melon!

 Leah took this photo of the two horses on our side of the dence and Mr. Jackson's donkey on the other side. We all combined our photos on a Facebook album Leah created so we could share.

Leah and Patick make mead - which is honey wine - and they brought us two bottles.

So we had a mead tasting.

By this time, Dean and Sherry had come back from their errands and Rosey joined us.

We ALL agreed their mead was SO much better than ours!!

Remember, we used the bitterweed honey from last year's harvest.

We needed to remove the chemical strips from the beehives.....

it was 42 days ago that we put them in to treat for Varroa mites.

Nita and Leah were both game to suit up and join us at the hives!

I couldn't get the tapper to open my phone so I could take pictures!

I know someone took a pic of us all in our bee suits but I can't seem to find it!

They did great and within 15 - 20 minutes we wre done!

We put out a second spread and ate some more!

Then we sat and talked until dusk when they had to head back to Fort Worth.

The rest of us visited until dark and then we did some fireworks.

I didn't even try to take pictures because they seldom turn out but we had a LOT of fun!

Sherry tossed the spent packages into the campfire and that's when we found out that the duds will still flare up and look pretty!

By 10:00 Rosey left to go back to her ranch and Dean and Sherry went home

Louis Dean and I sat outside still basking in the glow of such a lovely day.

This morning I took my prayer journal and coffee out to the glider.

This is the one I bought when Dee and I went thrift store shopping in Lewisville last month.

Then I came inside to watch Fellowship church live online.

I'm so grateful for modern technology!

Blue came up to see me this afternoon.

He knows I will have something good for him to eat....and I did.

Sometimes I give him slices of ham or lunch meat and I have been known to buy big 2 pound packages of roast beef slices just for the dogs.

They are my grand dogs and I get to spoil them!

I took a good long nap this afternoon and then set up my art table and went to work.

I hope to get a lot done over the next few days.

The weeked is over but the sweet memories of it will forever be with me.