Nice Weather

So far we have enjoyed very nice weather here, allowing us to do a lot of things out of doors.  Here are some photos of what we have done.

 First stop was Anderson Orchard for rasperries.  We also got a great watermelon and white peaches.

 Stylin' in the raspberry patch.

 The berry-picking machine.

 Some full buckets.

 At the gelato place.

 Eagle Park

 A Cardinal that frequents the backyard here.  It is incredible how red this bird is.

They also get daily visits from the local bunny population who stop by to nibble the grass.

Remembering

We were in ID for Memorial Day, and YC for July 4th, and today we went downtown to visit a couple of Memorials - done very well in my opinion.  It is important that we remember that freedom isn't free and that we respect those especially who gave "the last full measure", as well as being grateful to those today who sacrifice much to maintain the great country we are blessed to live in.

 What a beautiful city.

 Treeing a squirrel.

 This memorial is in the center of the downtown area, in the middle of a large roundabout.  Apparently initially Indianapolis was not the state captiol, but was planned and created as such, with this in the center.  And the lay out is similar, by design, to Washington DC.

 This was a pretty cool fountain with bears holding up the standard

and water coming out of the buffaloes' mouths.

 I like that they refer to it as "the war for the union" as opposed to "the civil war",

which at face value appears an oxymoron.

 Using my panorama setting, a 180° view of the downtown area looking south from the memorial.

  Using my panorama setting, a 180° view of the downtown area looking north from the memorial.

Looking to the west of the memorial is the state capitol.

After we were done we went to the Chocolate Cafe and ate chocolate in the shade.

The Coop

I am going to try this week to catch up on some posts.  As of today we have been back for 3 months, and what a time it has been.  What a wonderful time.  In between our having visitors in YC and being visitors in IN, Peter O. & I built a chicken coop.  Here are a few photos of the progress and final result.

 It was easier to build it for the most part in our back yard, then transport it to their backyard where we added the chicken run.

And the chickens are in.

We had a lot of fun working on this together and it turned out quite well.

Of course that is due mainly to the great job foreman we had - Leigh-Ann (who kept us on track)!