The Bennett Farm

Still another pic from Sunday's visit to the Bennett farm. It was a great day.

Another picture I took last Sunday. This structure is on the Bennett place, behind the house.

Bennett Farm, St. Johns, Michigan. Camera: Olympus Camedia C50

Joan's family calls this "the granary." It's wasting away. Compare with this photo , from a couple years ago....

Joan's sister lives across the field from their parents.

On the exterior wall of Joan's parents' collapsing granary . We presume there's a story, but don't expect anyone actually knows it. So we spent several minutes last night making one up. It was on the wall two years ago . Since it looks like it's been there for years, I'm hardly surprised....

Joan's dad's barn. Like the granary , it's wasting away. Paul's no longer interested in saving it.

Another photo of Joan's parents' granary , from last Thanksgiving. And the pole barn, on the far side.

Adopted cat, originally known as Kitty. Freda's pretty fuzzy, but this photo exaggerates it....

Joan's father's tractor's been reduced to snowplow duty. Thanksgiving, 2004. Camera: Nikon N90s

We spent the day with Joan's family.

Another picture of the granary wall at Joan's dad's place....

We're building a patio for Joan's parents. Joan's laying the squares, but lots of folks have helped get things ready. I'm Joan's muscle....

Our original plan was a checkerboard, but when we started to build the patio we discovered that the red squares were 1/4" smaller than the grey squares (we foolishly assumed that 12" meant 12"). Thus, stripes. Thanks, Lowes. That last row's gonna be painful. Patio project; Joan's parents' house. We'll get done tomorrow.

Kinda wish I'd taken the long lens.... Bennett farm, Saturday, while we were building the patio.

The Patio's done. That's Joan wetting things down, with her niece Sarah and her mother Thelma leaning on the railing. Taken with my brand-new Treo 700p. It'll do in a pinch, but don't expect me to use it as a camera very often....

Better LARGE!. Taken during a break in the Patio Project.

One of Joan's parents' cats. Freda lives in the garden all summer, then moves into the house for the bad-weather season. Seen here curled up on the sidewalk we all built for Paul & Thelma in May. Originally an abandoned cat, she lived in the garden year-round for the first couple years we knew her, and we all called her "Kitty." When she moved in Paul decided she needed a real name. Even though she's been de-clawed, she's able to provide for herself. Underneath that heavy fur coat, though, she's a pretty skinny thing.... ==================== Addition 10/26/07: Freda took ill and passed away a month or so ago. Everyone misses her.