Dear Reader,
It's been a LONG time since I've written! And of course, a lot has happened.

First and foremost, as it is 8:12 pm on December 31, 2017, I want to wish you a very Happy New Year! May it be a great year for you and yours!

Now, to go back over the last two months...

I spent Thanksgiving with Jeff, Angela, Jack, Katie and Chloe (see above). It was a fantastic vacation, and so very warm! The weather made new highs, and we all enjoyed the warmth. The kids are growing up so much! Jack is into Legos big time and lots of riding of bikes for Katie and Chloe. I pitched the softball to Katie and Chloe outside in front of their house, and both were really good at hitting the ball.

Unfortunately, I don't have the photos of Chloe because I lost all my pictures from the trip except for the few that I had made up. So if these pictures seem a little blurry, it's because I am taking pictures of my pictures!!

Chloe lost her 4th tooth in the middle of the street in the dark on our return from eating at a fun restaurant. She fell off her bike and out popped the tooth! We didn't know it at the time, just saw lots of blood. It was gruesome but Chloe handled it very well. Then next day I found her tooth in the street and returned it to her. The tooth fairy came that night.

We did a lot of cooking while I was in Denver - first with the sugar cookies the kids helped me bake and then decorated. They did a super job! I also made a delicious ham and bean soup along with corn bread. Also Jeff's favorite oatmeal cookies, too! I was just a cooking fool! I had no idea I could even cook that much, so it was a surprise to me as well as to everyone else! Angela appreciated it as she is working at her job as a social worker more and more. I had a blast in the kitchen!

Too soon Thanksgiving was over and it was on to Arizona to see Linda and Pat and family. The extended family is growing  - as you can see! Hailey is such a good baby! Kelsey and Lauren (with a lot of help from Nicki's mother-in-law, Stephanie) and I made some more cookies and decorated them for Christmas too! The girls were great decorators! It's so cute to see how they play together. Lauren is quite devoted to Kelsey! When Hailey gets a little older, it will be quite the girl party around Nicki and Jeff's new home!

The whole family came over, so I was able to see all my nieces and nephew(s)!  Linda and Pat have a lovely family. We need to get the entire family (including Jeff and Angela and kids) together for some quality cousin time! We're working on it!

Then it was home to Illinois. It is now so frigid!

Jack had his tonsils and adnoids (?) out on December 9th. He seems to have recovered well. Angela's whole family - Nana, Papa, sister Kary, Dan, with cousins, Gavin, Jake and Olivia, came to visit for Christmas. That helped Jack recover! Kary and the kids are still there, but Jeff took Dan to the airport today so he can go back to work. Katie, Chloe and Jack are having a ball with their cousins.

The big news for me since I returned home is my new phone - an IPhone! And an IPad! So now I can Facetime with everyone! What fun it is! In fact, as I was working on this blog, Jeff and Angela called tonight! I was able to see everyone and even the neighbors they had over for a little New Year's celebration! It makes me feel such a part of everything. Earlier, Linda called and we Facetimed, too! Such miracles!

I am also happy to report that Chris and Smitty, my two intrepid crazy fishermen were out here a couple weeks ago to ice fish (when the ice was barely forming!). They brought 5 gallon pails, and instead of setting up their ice fishing tent, they each turned a bucket upside down and sat on it...very close to shore. They hardly moved at all, because the ice was VERY thin. But they got some ice fishing in!

On Christmas Eve we had the most beautiful snow so I was able to capture the chapel just at dusk. I titled this picture, "Silent Night, Holy Night."

Dear Reader, have a very, very Happy New Year! I hope 2018 will be your best year yet!

Dear Reader,
On Sunday, Frank Mylan, the builder, came out to install the cross. Meanwhile, Dave Haury was already mostly done with the beautiful sidewalk - and what a work of art that is! So...by Sunday night, after everyone was gone... I drove down to the chapel and took some photos. It truly is a beautiful sight at night! Such a soft light emitting from behind the cross! Enjoy dear Reader, enjoy! And please come to visit!

We still have some more landscaping to do, and a light to hang in the little porch area, but other than that, the chapel is ready and open to all!

The chapel dog - Maggie - must have known the chapel is nearly complete, because she showed up today, and has spent most of the day sleeping close to me on the front door rug.

Other things going on this month: Fall has come and so have the geese! Jack would be so happy! I've never seen so many geese on the pond! Truly a neat thing to watch from the cottage windows.

Other pictures show my chicken tractor that I bought for Chris Hildrith's use for his (and supposedly my organic chickens) which never came to be here at the Land. So when he told me he was moving, Dave and I picked up the chicken tractor and brought it "home."  There are also pictures of the hazelnuts getting bigger and turning red in the cold weather, as well as some cottage pictures. And other pictures show the giant oak tree at the farm in Iowa and the pond there.

Other news: My neighbor had a huge plane fly in - not sure how it made it in on that small short run way, cause it is quite a sizeable plane. When I drove around my property and could see it, several guys were quickly  turning it around so that the side didn't show. Just the front of it. I've never seen pilots and everyone moving a plane around with just their muscle! It almost looked like they were in a hurry. Thought you might like to see it.

And yes! there are three little sweethearts in Denver who are celebrating Halloween tonight! Aren't they adorable?!!! 

Have a Happy Halloween, Everyone!

Dear Reader,
It''s been an interesting month. We had a cool August, and September (up until today) has been HOT. We set a record with a string of 90+ degrees. On September 22nd we were hotter than Phoenix and Las Vegas, at 95 degrees! My!

The most amazing thing that happened was finishing (or almost finishing) the chapel. It is now unofficially open. Unofficially, because we haven't dedicated it yet. I would like to get a few more things done to it before having a little ceremony to christen it. But it is beautiful and so serene.

Dear Reader, you - as my friend or family member - are always welcome to the chapel. Just to sit and reflect, or renew vows or anything you would like to celebrate or for the solitude to remember a loved one. The Heim family built it to honor JJ, with the inheritance money that Mom (Nonnie) left to me. In fact, we are honoring Mom and Papa, JJ and Jack with this little chapel. And all our loved ones.

Please feel free to make a trip here to see it. We welcome you!

I have included a few more pictures of the chapel, as well as a few favorites from the kid's visit in August. I realize I am repeating some of the pictures from the last blog entry, but as a doting Grammie, I can do that!

Today the weather has turned - still beautiful and oh, so dry. But Fall is truly here and a beautiful time of the year it is! Enjoy, my dear Reader, enjoy!

' 
Dear Reader,
What a summer! July and August have flown by and it's nearly Labor Day! August was a beautiful month with the most wonderful weather! And the entire Fam visited me in early August. The weather was perfect during the entire visit. We had so much fun!

Before we get into all the photos of the family on the Land, I want to share with you some of the pictures from when Chris Henkel brought his grandsons out to fish. Chris has come out a few times before when they were smaller, but this year he was here twice and the kids had a ball! Chris and one grandson caught some big ones! The last picture in the first row shows what I think is dicamba damage to a once-healthy field of corn. Dicamba is a bad chemical that Monsanto and others are bringing back  to fight the super weeds. Dicamba is a very volatile chemical that drifts easily. This year there are a LOT of chemical violations - probably most of which will not reach the Illinois Dept of Ag's office, and will be settled between neighbors. But this is what Dicamba does. The idea is to use Dicamba to kill the super weeds that the other chemicals have ALREADY created through  years of spraying. My only thought is: What kind of super weed will Dicamba produce? For, Dear Reader, it WILL produce some horrific super weeds given a few years. All in the name of making lots of money for the chemical companies, and making lots of people sick down the line.  I guess you know how I feel about the tremendous amount of spraying that is going on in the name of producing food. Think what these companies could achieve if they worked (as the organic people do) to grow delicious food without chemicals! And yes, again, Dear Reader, it CAN be done, and IS being done. (There's just not enough money in it for the big guys.)

Some egrets came to visit the Land, too. So I have included pictures of them also. The blue heron seemed to welcome them. The last picture in the second row shows the natives that are coming up around the "frog" pond.

And then the Heim Five arrived! Oh, what a fun vacation! It was all about fishing as you can tell. I told Angela after they had been at the cottage for about half an hour and Jeff was already out fishing, that this really was Jeff's Fishing Vacation. She agreed!

All the pictures are pretty much in order. And there are a lot of them, as any proud Grammie would do!
The pictures of Katie and Chloe in Row  9 show them making a fort entrance in the back of the house where there is a little secret place. They made a "fire" with some small sticks on top and yellow colored leaves to look like the fire, with red apples they found for the "ember" look. Grammie was very impressed! What imaginations!

Katie, Chloe and Jack all got to touch the fish that Jeff hooked and that was quite the experience. Then they all caught a fish, especially when I found the little fishing pole and Dave Haury came (and helped them along with their Daddy). Katie stayed by her Dad's side and caught many more. She seems to enjoy fishing the most. But Jack and Chloe were thrilled to finally reel in a fish!

David Vanderbilt came over to visit (Ken was in Florida). He brought donuts for the kids and they were a hit!

But the most fun were the bonfires and the kids discovering the willow tree's long branches (thank goodness Dave Haury did not have time to prune them up like I wanted!).  They swung back and forth late into the darkness and then more swinging each day! They had a special fort under the branches, too. Hours and hours of fun! 

And then, before you knew it, it was time for them to leave. So sad! I cleaned house for a little bit after they left at 8am, then decided to relax on the sofa and woke up 2 hours later! I think I was worn out! But I wouldn't trade that visit for anything!

About a week later....the huge willow branch that the kids were swinging on.......came crashing down!! And then a little while later, the last huge branch came down, too! (see last pictures). So relieved the big branches stayed strong while those three little munchkins were swinging on them!

The farm house has been made to look like a hunting lodge and its nearly complete. There is a hunter who has recently looked at it, and he's coming back to see it next week. I have mixed emotions about selling both farms, but we'll see what comes of all of this. 

Dave's huge totem is in the barn at the farm - and that's another crazy story which includes our neighbor out there - Ted Miller . But we finally have totem resting in the barn until Dave can build his own cabin.

All in all, life is speeding by with lots of great adventures. And isn't that the way we want to live, after all?

Enjoy this beautiful weather, dear Reader. It is amazing!

Dear Reader,
What a fantastic month June was for me! I loved seeing my whole family again, and I loved the medicinal herbal conference!  I saw my dearest family, old friends, and made new friends!

It was actually cool in Arizona when I was there (the heat wave that kept planes from taking off came the next week), Durango had perfect weather and was so beautiful, and Denver had pretty great weather, too. There was get-togethers with all my nieces and nephew and spouses, and Kelsey and Lauren (with one on the way!). Hans and Hurley came to visit, too! Pat was the greatest host with 5-star breakfast feasts every morning.The pictures tells it all! It was hard to leave! I miss my sister all the time!

As I drove into Durango, I had forgotten how beautiful it was. Trees and flowers, the cute little Durango-Silverton train that goes through town carrying tourists (I was on it many years ago with Jeff and JJ), and lots of cute shops in their quaint downtown. The houses surrounding the downtown are little old Victorians going for $700,000 to over a million! Unbelievable! There are herbal shops and organic food stores and of course, Ft. Lewis College on top of the ridge. That's where the herbal conference was held and where, on the first day, I met Jaren, who lives just outside of town. She was registering at the same time I was. Then we met the two Vickis from Utah, and Theresa from Tennessee. We all just hit it off. What wonderful people!

A young lady named Ruthie Mattes sat next to me and Jaren leaned and said, "She's famous." I nodded and smiled at her, and Jaren said, "No, I mean, she is REALLY famous. Internationally famous" So I asked Ruthie how she was famous, and she smiled a little and modestly said, "I used to ride a mountain bike really fast."  She participated in the World Cup of Mountain Bike Riding, and its taken very seriously in Durango. She was so sweet. Everyone was!

I loved the classes which was a surprise. Usually I go to conferences and can't wait to get out of the class. This time I didn't want any of the classes to end! I loved what I learned and loved the instructors. I was the only one that looked like a former cheerleader who had aged into Grandma. Everyone else had long hair, tattoos and long skirts and scarves. Me, I was in my jeans and normal tops and short frosted hair. Did I stick out or what? But I felt like one with the "Tribe" as we were called. It was a life-changing experience!

Jaren and her husband bought a ranch outside of Durango, although they don't live there. She took Theresa and me there one evening. I'm so glad I was able to see it. It's beautiful. (Jaren is the one with the straight long hair; Theresa is the one with the curly long hair.) The only pictures I have of the Durango area are of Jaren's ranch. I forgot to take pictures at the herbal conference. So please enjoy Jaren's ranch in the photos below. I'm so glad she shared it with us. We had a great time!

Then on to Denver! So good to see my family again!
I arrived in time for Father's Day, so we had a long, fun-filled Sunday. We started off with Jeff opening up his gifts, and putting jigsaw puzzles together on the front porch. I helped the kids 'cause I love jigsaw puzzles, and it was so much fun! We couldn't stop!  Then we biked to the swimming pool where I actually got in the water and again, it was SO MUCH FUN! The kids are good swimmers and we worked on the crawl stroke. I showed them how to cup their hands so they could "pull" the water. I even got in some synchronized swimming! How good it felt! Then we biked to The Stanley for some dinner, and biked home. I was pooped, but happy! What a day!

Monday Jeff and I went out with Jason, JJ's friend and top seller for a real estate company in Parker, to see the different areas of Parker. Of course, the houses I like are around $500,000 so I won't be buying one right away. But the idea is to get educated in case (when!) I move out there. Jeff wants me closer, and Linda said I just HAVE to move out west. It is so relaxing and fulfilling to be around family!

Aaron, Jeff's best friend from Lake Oswego, came to visit for a couple of days. They've been best buds since 15 years old! It was good to see him. His parents and I (and his grandmother) spent many an hour together watching basketball games! Those were the days!

I brought dress up clothes for the girls. Poor Jack - I bought him a hat, but I didn't have dress up clothes for him. It's much easier to find girl dress-up clothes. Chloe was a gypsy and Katie (lo! and behold!) loved her grey fancy dress so we dubbed her "The Debutante!"

Oh, and before I left on my vacation, I stopped by the farm. In a matter of hours, Dave and I revamped the porch and other rooms for a more "lodge" look for those hunters who may be interested in the farm and yet, just can't picture themselves living there. I still have to replace the floral couch in the porch, but for now I covered it up - somewhat. I hope you like the Hunting Lodge look, dear Reader. I do!

And finally, I'm back home. Everything looks beautiful here, with Gordon and Gordeeta's little son (or daughter) growing up a lot. The first picture of him is in early June before I left. The last picture shows "Gordie Junior" growing up fast. Maggie is the dog in the photo of the pond. She's my neighbor's dog, remember, and visits often. Kyle said she didn't go to my house the entire time I was gone. But she was over pronto when she knew I returned!

Now its back to mowing, watering, finishing up the chapel, etc. A great big thank you to Dave, David and Ken for watering my plants while I was gone! Everything has filled in, and I'm in my own little private world once again. Truly a sanctuary!

My dear Reader, I hope you have had a good June and here's to enjoying summer in full swing! Happy 4th of July next week! We have a beautiful country with many diverse people making it strong!

Dear Reader,
It's the end of May and what a lovely Memorial Day it was! Beautiful weather. And always the rememberence of our loved ones. A time of reflection and gratefulness.

Lots happened this month. It's always good to see spring develop - grass greening up and flowers appearing all around. And of course, STORMS.  A couple of weeks ago we had a bad storm. There was this one burst of terrific wind and boom! down went three trees in the driveway. Other trees were felled on the high road, in JJ's pine nursery, along the run-off creek and so on and so forth. I couldn't get out of my drive way. Dave took off work and drove down to cut up all three trees in the driveway. That helped a lot!

There have been a lot of little creatures visiting the Land. Egrets, (see the white heron in the picture), baby turtles, etc. Enjoy the pictures!

The chapel (still not done inside) is getting some landscaping. That's been fun! Frank and Bob are there today working on redoing the ceiling. I can't wait to see it done. (again)

And best of all! Katie, Chloe and Jack have graduated kindergarten! As my sister said, when she saw the pictures of all three of them hugging - "They really are bonded!" Yep! You can tell they are! Watch out first grade teachers! Here they come!

Enjoy this weather, dear Reader. Talk with you near the end of June!

Dear Reader,

My, this month has flown by! The last day of April - so a shout out to my niece, Nicki, and dear friend, Dave  - both of whom are celebrating birthdays today! My nephew Patrick and Cristina celebrate their 6th anniversary tomorrow!

I have lots of pictures of the farm, and also Jim and Kim's gorgeous home in Iowa (not too far away from the farm). They are the dear friends who are responsible for me having the opportunity to buy Norm's farm. So glad it worked out as it did! Some of the farm pictures are taken at dusk when we were cleaning and burning dear branches in the orchard. It's filling in nicely at the farm!

The Land, too, is starting too look so beautiful and filled in. I bought some flowers today and am sharing them with you in pictures. And I picked pitchers full of lilacs growing on the Land. They smell so delicious!

Last week Chris and Smitty came out to fish, so we know it's officially spring now. We're also just about to start work on the inside of the chapel again...so hopefully one of these months the chapel will be finished and open to all!

Two days ago, Denver had 4 inches of snow and the kids were able to play in the snow one last time. (Let's hope its the last time!) I miss those three sweeties and their parents SO much!  Last night, Jeff, Angela and I talked about the possibility of me moving closer to them!

Well, tomorrow is the first of May so Happy May Day, dear Reader!

Dear Reader,
Well, it's been raining and the creek is up. We've had rain for the last several days and more expected for next week. I guess April showers arrived early!

No big happenings this month. We  are still working on the chapel inside. It's too early to start landscaping (especially with the rain), so we continue to wait until the days get a little warmer and dryer.

Gary Hansen, an old acquaintance from DePauw, emailed me out of the blue. He is an attorney in St. Louis with a second home in Wisconsin.  He goes right by the Land as he travels up I-39. After a bit of back and forth, we ended up going to lunch two days ago. It was fun to reminisce about the old DePauw days at Speech Hall and theatre and some of the former friends we knew.  Who would have thought after 48 years that someone could pop up like that? But it was a fun afternoon, and we may see each on and off as time permits. Just nice to know there is another friend out there - especially after almost a half of a century has gone by!

The big news in the triplet's life is Chloe lost one of her lower front teeth (!) and Papa is visiting them for a couple of weeks. They have been looking forward to Papa's visit! The pictures of the triplets below show Chloe and Jack during The Cat in the Hat project at school, Chloe with her missing tooth, and Katie riding on "Grammie's truck." I miss these kids!

I decided to take some inside pictures of my little cottage because I haven't done so in a long time. It still is as sweet of a cottage as there could ever be! I am so fortunate! It deserves it's own Pinterest file!

The rains have swollen the creeks. I took a few pictures of the (usually) low-running Willow Creek next to the chapel and you can see it is up quite a bit. Luckily not near flood stage!

Gordon and Gordeeta are back . Actually it is not Gordon and Gordeeta - I think they may have gone to the  Goose Heaven in the Sky by now. This could be their off-spring. They are slowly getting used to me, but they still chatter when I come out the door. The real Gordon and Gordeeta never said a peep because they knew me so well. Ah...time marches on...

Enjoy the pictures of the land, and especially my dear little grandchildren!

Tomorrow is April 1st! April Fool's Day! Enjoy the day, dear Reader, and may it stop raining in the Midwest!

Dear Reader,
What a February it has been!  No snow over half an inch since December! 65 and 70 degree days for a week!  I, with Dave's help, have worked on cleaning up more parts of the Land, especially by the chapel. Speaking of the chapel, as you can tell, the exterior is mostly finished. And it's beautiful! The inside needs more work as you can tell from the lumber that is still inside.  (More photos below) It's hard to believe this little Willow Creek Sanctuary Center, as I call it, is only 14 x 18 (plus porch). It looks so big!

Katie, Chloe and Jack and their classmates have been in school for 100 days, so they all dressed up as if they were 100. So cute! (see below). The pictures of the kids above show an early morning craft session with Daddy, Jack wearing a similar coat like his grandpa "Papa" Richardson used to wear most of his life, and lastly, Katie drew a lovely picture for her Mommy and Grammie. Thank you, Katie! What I want to know is...is Dave "Papa" Richardson still wearing a coat like this?

The last row of pictures shows the Land  and pond. The very last picture, if you look hard enough, shows someone in one of those experimental gliders flying over my pond and cottage.

It's cooling down a lot now, so I guess we're going to have some winter again. I hope it doesn't last long because I have a bad case of spring fever! We'll see what March brings!

Enjoy, dear Reader, and even if it does get snowy and cold, Spring really is almost around the corner!

Dear Reader,
A very belated Happy New Year, 2017!

Before we get into 2017, I want to share with you the delightful Christmas I spent in Colorado with Angela, Jeff, Katie, Chloe and Jack. The kids are getting so grown-up!

I arrived in time to attend the kids' Christmas parties - all three of them, as the triplets are each in different classrooms. So Jeff, Angela and myself each took a room, and then we traded. It was most fun!

After school was out for Christmas vacation, the kids decorated Christmas cookies. They also played together so well. Jack is into making a "home". On the staircase landing he put some small tables together, covered them with blankets and added his animals. So cute. Meanwhile, the girls are playing with their dolls in their room. Jack also made a home in the kitchen. (I have pictures of it below.)

On Christmas eve, the kids opened a few presents. But the big day was Christmas - and oh! Santa was so very good to the kids! What a fun day! The end of opening all the presents is symbolized by Angela (so often stuck with the unglamorous jobs) breaking down the boxes for recycling pick-up. I think the picture says it all....!

The next day we all drove up to Winter Park looking for a home for Grammie that will be closer to all the Heim's. (Didn't  find one.) But the kids (and parents) had a blast at Hideaway Park in Winter Park when they sledded down the hill. The kids were so good about carrying their sleds all the way back up the hill. What fun they had! (Sorry, I didn't get any pictures.)

Then, too soon, it was time to head on back to Iowa and Illinois. At the end of December, a rather large buck came to visit the big oak tree across from the farmhouse in Iowa. My trail cam captured it beautifully. Hope you like the big guy!

At the Land, (in Illinois) 2017 came in very quietly for me. The Land was lovely to view out of my window.

Before the big warm up we had (how wonderful that was!), Chris and Smitty came out to ice fish. They always seem to have a ball!

Then, warmth melted the ice on the pond, and the chapel needed more painting. Which I did, with help from Dave. It's coming along. We also picked up the pews (that will be cut down to 4  1/2  feet each). There will be six short pews in the chapel, 3 on each side. Frank and Bob put on the steeple - very exciting moment ! It's getting closer and closer to being done on the outside. The front door will be installed after the  inside ceiling is done. I hope its done by late spring. Frank just mentioned the other day, "I really like how it's turning out."  Well, so do I!

Maggie, my neighbor's dog, has adopted the chapel. Kyle Marie (her owner) said, "I have visions of Maggie being in every wedding picture!" For some reason everyone who looks at the chapel feels there will be weddings there. That is fine with me, but they are going to be quite tiny weddings as the chapel pews will only hold 12 -15 people! I, too, envision Maggie posing next to the bride and groom, and the bride's gown covered with Maggie's burrs!

And last, but not least, I left the house the other day for a short while, and when I came back, there was the most beautiful butterfly up by my favorite chair in my bedroom. It is a lovely (I think its a female) Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. Absolutely beautiful and eats (or should I say, slurps) sugar water from my fingers. Unfortunately it will not last long, but my other choice (according to the experts) was to throw her outside where she would perish immediately. I just couldn't do that. So she's my pal right now. I have named her Bonnie Barnetta Butterfly. Not too many people come home to find a perfect lovely swallowtail butterfly! I am so fortunate!

And that, dear Reader, is how I feel about life. I celebrated a very significant birthday, I have a lovely family and extended family, the most wonderful friends here and in Iowa, two beautiful places (at least so far), a gorgeous little chapel that will be shared with whomever needs it, a delightful new butterfly friend, and all is right with the world. I am truly blessed.

Happy 2017, dear Reader! May the New Year be happy, healthy and full of family, friends and grace!