Sunday
Linda
Now that the Air Force has transferred my son Harold and his family to a closer location we will be able to visit more often. They came for a visit this weekend and we had a great time. I had not seen them since last November when our grandson Duke was born and its been even longer for Sonny. He was able to hold his grandson for the first time Friday night. They hit it off right away and Duke already loves his Pop.
Duke was a lot smaller the last time I held him, only two weeks old. He’s eight months old now and a firecracker. Everything is a new learning experience for him and he is in those first stages of turning from an infant into a toddler. It won’t be long before he will be walking and we were excited to see his first bottom tooth pop through. Its nice to have kids toys strewn across the living room again, and to hear the joyful sound of squeals and laughter. We’ll even take the occasional tears and screaming along with the sticky messes and sprained ankles from stepping on plastic obstacles that emit annoying sounds. We are looking forward to making some family memories in the Pot Hole Farm house. I hope its walls become permeated with the sounds of life.
Duke already loves the PHF chickens and wasn’t a bit afraid of the frat boys. He got to take a ride in the RTV with his mom and me down to the pen at feeding time. Pop introduced him to the Kubota tractor too and he immediately grabbed the steering wheel looking as if to say “how do you run this thing. I’m ready to do some plowing.”
He is a pure joy to watch and we are so glad to see Harold and Clarissa. Its nice to have the family together again.
Love that binky.
Duke listening to one of Pop's silly jokes.
I guess Pop told a funny one.
Remember the tree last year that Sonny miscalculated when he cut it and it fell into the crook of another tree? Yea, that one. Well he has been obsessed with cutting it up like Captain Ahab harpooning Moby Dick. Harold came to his rescue and helped him get the job done. He is such a good son and I have no doubt he wanted to make sure his dad didn’t have another disaster and end up hurting himself again. I will put up some pics tomorrow of the job.
The rest of the day was spent relaxing under the shade tree with a glass of iced tea. Harold made us a great dinner on the grill and Duke kept us entertained. It was also nice to see our daughter-in-law who is more daughter to us than in-law. I look forward to many thrift shop and antique outings together. I hated to see them go home today, but its different when you know you will be seeing them again soon instead of another whole year.
Clarissa brought some organic plums and we were not able to eat them all. They were getting to where they needed to have something done with them or they would go bad in a few days. So after everyone had left I decided to make some plum jam. I didn’t have quite enough plums to make the recipe so I added some apple juice. We now have nine half pints of plum/apple jelly.
Plum/Apple Jam. Yummy.
Its been a wonderful weekend but of course it flew by too soon. The kids have gone home but not empty handed. They left with grocery bags filled with squash, zucchinis, and cucumbers. We also threw in a jar of squash conserve to try, a jar of black raspberry jelly, and some frozen sausage. They may grow up, but we still try to take care of them. Thats something they will experience with their own son. No matter how big he gets, he will still be their little boy.
Off-Grid in West Virginia 
Duke will be MINE.
Your gonna have to share.
Ill fight ya for him! We had a blast and can’t wait to come out again real soon! Duke’s gonna be a farm boy before we know it!
Yup, he’ll be collecting eggs and pulling the flowers out of my weeds in no time.
He looks just LIKE his dad. the last I saw little Harold was in 1984 or 1985, and that is excatly what he looked like. I bet he had a great time at PHF, how did he take to the animals there?