Guest Blogger Alert: Heather here. Summer Road Trip 2010 Part 2 included a trip to the folks prior to visiting John in Toronto. In fact, I'm writing this from the train on my sadly, much delayed, way there. Long story short: my train stopped to allow another passenger train to pass from the opposite direction. Before it reached me, that train broke down, and before mine could go, a freight train needed to pass as well. After the freighter passed it was announced that we'd be towing the busted train with us to Toronto. Ah well, I'll make it sometime. In the meantime, I've got snacks, wi-fi and a quiet person as a seat mate so... all is well.
Up at the house a lot has been going on, but not all of it is visible to the casual observer. Some lovely things include LOTS of flowers, a growing garden and noisy chickens.
This is the butterfly garden which covers a patch of the driveway island. I didn't see any butterflies while checking out the flowers, but winged pretty things or not, the flowers were beautiful.
Next to the porch is a hummingbird garden. Again: no wildlife present when I was looking, but Dad affirmed that he'd seen a hummingbird the other day while taking the air on the porch. Right there. I enjoy that the angle of the picture has given Dad a midget arm.
On the other side of the porch is the trellis trio that was used during Becca's wedding and currently serves as a fabulous electrical meter cover. It was covered in morning glories of the Michael's variety for the wedding but as it has achieved a home it has acquired some natural ones and looks quite nice.
The compost pile has generated a veritable sunflower jungle. Perhaps only three or four stalks have turned into this ten foot tall extravaganza.
The chickens having sufficiently recovered from the trauma of losing some of their cadre to a predator (not a drone, but likely a weasel or raccoon) were enjoying the great outdoors and, in a strange twist, their new shade structures. The kiddie table and dog igloo (or dogloo, if you'd rather) provide some needed shade for the chickens during the heat of the day. I say a "strange twist" because the chicken yard has a quasi nursery school vibe now.
Also wreaking minor havoc on the landscape is a woodchuck. He's tunneled a hole under the woodpile out back. I suspect that his empire of the underworld extends to under the step up the mom's office, but I was assured that that was a home for snakes only. After leaping into the garage Pete assured me that they were not the biting kind. The mosquitoes were however so I went inside. Pete is looking forward to the annihilation of the woodchuck and the subsequent bragging rights. If it were a movie he would call it Apocalypse Woodchuck Now or perhaps Reservoir Chuck. 
The garden is doing well to my untrained eye. A plethora of tomatoes seemed to have the corner on the market.
The basement has seen some progress too. The addition of a door to the eventual back bedroom was hailed as mighty progress. 
The addition of a resident had something to do with that. Look! He greeted me with a fist bump from afar. I preferred to interpret it as "thanks for waking me up, Heather" instead of the more likely "what the hell? I'll hunt you down when I get the energy up!" that it probably was. 
The debatable progress was the seeming explosion of pipe insulation noodles and rolling chairs that seem to have multiplied in the presence of the ancient organ, perhaps in fear for the Chockley House of Haunts that can be the only outcome of the creepy musical instrument's installment in the basement. 
An extended family dinner and a market morning with Mom and Becca made for a very fun, if brief, trip to the farm.
There is a tractor gate and a man gate and so far the chickens seem happy. They do love the shade though.
We were all very thankful to have the basement usable for the Thanksgiving feast with all of Mom's side of the family over. We did manage to get 27 people happily fed. The turkey wasn't the only thing that was stuffed that day. Everybody rolled around for most of the afternoon and few had room for the desserts, though everybody had some anyway.
Mom's sewing supplies were put in the closet of the "back bedroom". When we ran out of room in the utility room and the closet, we began adding to the pile that was already in the "back bedroom". When the pile had been decimated the pool table was moved and the ping pong table was assembled. Additionally, Karen and Tim loaned 2 couches for the TV area and we went to pick those up. (Rumor has it that the pool and ping pong tables came from their basement as well.
