Well a month has passed. I've been in Toronto and Grand Rapids. The folks have been at the Farm. Let's see what's happened in the intervening time.
The flowers are still blooming.
And wonder and enjoyment of the flowers is still blooming as well.
Some sort of bug enjoys this particular tree. What evildoer is it? Only the master gardener knows....
Inside the house things are similarly invigorating. There is now tile and a door in the downstairs bathroom. This blogger hopes the plumber has installed the toilet by the time this post is up.
The progress, however, seems to have angered the house which threatened to eat Dad as he worked on the ceiling in the basement bedroom.
Pete attempted to help the situation. Both were too near the maw for my taste.
Since Pete was spared the fate, I was forced to assume that the ceiling appreciated his Michigan shirt but didn't like dad's political shirt. Mom, fearing neurotoxin, wore all the appropriate safety gear.
She was mistaken for a terrorist just once...well...only by dad. But if he would stop arguing she wouldn't need to try to look scary. 
Eventually the ceiling was finished!
But not until shortly after the carpet was installed!!
Here Pete enjoys the floor Hoff-style. All he needs is some BK and he could end up in YouTube hell too.All joking aside, the basement bathroom and bedroom look fabulous and will look even more fabulous with furnishings and working plumbing. The folks should be proud. And Pete should be happy because now, not only does he have the QUIETEST room in the house, but he doesn't have to live in his birthday hockey bag anymore. 
Happy first day of Fall, y'all. Heather out.
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.
