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For several years we did not have any squirrels here on the "farm" property. This past spring we had one show up (Fox Squirrel) and of course we started putting food out. Bob moved the feeder to a tree closer to the house so we can look out the kitchen window and check out what’s happening.
Low and behold one day we looked out and there were three squirrels. It turned out that our squirrel was a mom and she decided that we could be trusted and brought the little ones to feed. Bob began to go outside when they appeared trying to get them used to us being around. Eventually he got one to come toward him to get a peanut and he will stay close when we are in the yard. The others will run up the tree or across the yard. Our friend Tom Foutch was visiting one day and named the friendlier squirrel "Peanuts" so any squirrel we see in our yard is called "Peanuts". They are fun to watch, running after each other, up and around the trees, jumping from limb to limb. They built nests in the tree above the feeder. With the corn becoming mature and for whatever reason we have not seen them all together for awhile but at least one of the "Peanuts" shows up everyday. We also had an American Red Squirrel around for awhile but it hasn’t been here lately.
The other day Bob saw a hawk in the bird bath. He stayed for quite awhile and during that time "Peanuts" came to the feeder and they ended up on fence posts next to each other without a problem. Eventually the hawk flew off to do it’s thing.
The first part of August Bob’s sister Alice, her husband Gary, their daughter Shay and her two children Audrey and Garret came to visit for the month. Shay and her family live in Seattle, WA and Gary and Alice are from Casa Grande, AZ. Gary and Alice had been visiting Shay and drove to IL from Seattle and Shay flew to Indianapolis, IN about 90 miles from where we live.
The picture was taken at Kickapoo where you found us on Tuesdays and Fridays enjoying the music and an evening meal. They spent time visiting with Dad and Alice’s school friends. We also went to music in Lincoln Park on Sundays.
Gary, who is an excellent craftsman ask if there was anything that needed to be done around the house(he likes to keep busy). As it happens the breeze way had never been finished. The 2X4's were showing on the outside and inside and one of the doors needed to be replaced. Before leaving he and Bob finished it including the painting. They also replaced the attached garage, garage door, with a sliding glass door since it’s used for storage and may be converted to something else one of these days.
August was also a busy time for us with the amateur radio club. We had the hamfest, a club fund raiser, that was a success with the help of club members. Club elections were in September. I did not run for president but volunteered to run for secretary and since there was no opposition I was elected. I will continue as the newsletter editor.
Just the usual stuff in September, almost. We helped Dad work on getting connected to the City water supply, everyone in his little area had their own wells. Aqua Water brought a line into the neighborhood and four families decided to convert. Bob took our tractor over and it was used to dig the ditches (4ft. deep) at all houses from the house to the street (various lengths). One of the neighbors ran the tractor doing the ditch digging for everyone. It was a month long process and just this week the water was finely turned on.
I (Kathy) am in California for a month, visiting my family. I will be going back to IL November 8th.