Soil Toil

Danny and I spent less than an hour hoeing the corn and carrots in the 90degree heat. It was a lot of work. Thank you to everyone who weekly mows the lawn, tends to the garden, fixes the tractor, kills potato bugs, picks berries, fixes the plumbing, cleans the kitchen, washes the sheets, stacks the firewood, and many many more activities that I don't even know about. Your hard work is not going unnoticed or unappreciated.

Oh, and I broke a hoe. Sorry.

The Drizzle

The Barn is used for many celebrations, and Denise and Brian's wedding shower was a very special occasion for the family.



Norb and Jon were willing participants in a contest to see which team could create the best wedding dress design from toilet paper. They were great sports and we all split our slides laughing at the results.



Congratulations Brian and Denise! Thanks to all the hosts who made the party possible.

Alisa's Brithday

Alisa allowed us to celebrate her birthday at the farm for 25 minutes. Kristin baked her a Macaroon Berry Tart.


So special to celebrate with you Lis!

Phillips Chain of Lakes Triathlon

For the 3rd year in a row, the Tennessens placed at the Phillips Chain of Lakes Triathlon. Below is a picture of the competitors, without Uncle Norb who finished the full triathlon two years ago. Also, he is the only one to bring home 1st place in an age group. Thanks to everyone who participated and especially to our huge cheering squad. It was a super fun event.



Danny, Dee, Kristin, Tracy, Marilyn, Dennis


Alisa, Norb, Mariann, Pauline, Kathi, Maurice, Monica, Denise, Brian, Muppet, Tracy, Barb

A Farmtacular Weekend

We had about 25+ people at The Farm July 8-10 and fit in many different celebrations. The weekend opened with a big bash for Susan's 30th birthday. Congratulations Susan! Here she is making a wish before blowing out the candles on her cake from Ovens of Harmony.

A report from Barb informed us that much of the garden is up and the potatoes are up. We have had new pototoes in Ireland on our trip.

Owl Pellet

Another great time had by all at the barn party. While walking in the field helping Lola Bea look for snakes (she was on a mission to find a snake), I noticed this sitting on top of one of the hay bales in the field. I knew it was some kind of animal digestion by-product, and wondered if it was from an owl perhaps. After doing some reading online, and some input from Rachel (Lola Bea's mom) I am sure that is what this is. Owls cough these big hairballs up after they've eaten something. It's all the undigestible stuff--hair / bones etc. I didn't take it from its place, though maybe I should have. I saw online that many people like to dissect these owl pellets because they have all the little critter bones in them. I even saw a site that sells them ($6 a piece). I'm thinking this pellet might be from a Great Horned Owl, but I'm not sure. It looks like Great Horned Owl pellet pictures I found online. Maybe that Snowy Owl my Dad saw last year is back hanging around. It would be a bigger rather than a smaller owl. You can see the little grasshopper in the left of this picture which gives some perspective. This pellet is ~3" long I bet.

If anyone is heading up there soon (Dennis and Marilyn next weekend?), it may still be there, you could put it in a ziploc bag and save it if you think of it. Not critical though. As you head out for the woods straight through the field, the second row of bales you come to as you are walking out, the first bale in that group is the one w. this owl pellet on it, and it's on the near end of that bale. I wonder how quickly the rain would disintegrate this, or if they stay pretty intact.

Owls are quite fascinating. I'm glad that in our eating habits, we humans are not required to cough up these massive hairballs as part of our digestion regimen.