Catching up on lost time ...

Forgive me, for it has been too long since my last post .....

Let me start with a lovely visit with our dear friends, Jeff and Una. You may know them as our 'Boat Friends' we visited down in Curasua a couple years ago. Well, their 5 year voyage is over and they're back on dry land. We were very glad to see them and spend some time catching up!


Then, around the middle of September, Mr Mullen and I headed up to Minnesota for a quick weekend visit ... as usual, we crammed quite a bit into a couple of days ... most of all, I'm SO glad I got to spend some time with my cousins, Connie and Janine ... we have developed an amazing love for each other and I cherish every minute I get with them ... we spent most of the day in Northfield, MN at Jessie James Days, enjoying the arts and crafts, yummy food and, of course, the reenactment of the James Gang robbing the local bank.


We had lunch at this awesome Cafe near the Gustavus Campus.


After the arts and crafts, we stopped at this wonderful tribute to the men and women from the area who have served their country in the military (The War Memorial). I'm sitting at the stone with my dad's name and branch he was in ... two of his brothers are also remembered here. It was an emotional visit. I am proud of my Dad and glad he's still around to share his stories.

After a day of gallivanting around the countryside, we 'sweet talked' Connie's husband, Jim, into taking us out to dinner in his beautifully restored Mustang! When we returned to their farm that evening he entertained us with a great fireworks display ... somehow, every time we get together there are fireworks involved!

Sunday, Rick and I helped Brynn (our niece Erin and Jon's daughter) celebrate her Birthday ... and got to see almost the entire Mike Mullen family. It was so nice to catch up with everybody, gather up some great hugs and see all the grandchildren playing so well together. There's plenty of love to go around in that family! So glad we are a part of it all!

Well, that's all for now ... I am going to try to get caught up here in the next week or so. It's really been a busy fall, but a wonderful one at that!

XO

Late Summer

Spent the morning mending electric fences ... finally got everything working when I realized the barn swallows are gone. I sure miss their chatter, playful behaviors and bug eating capabilities. They'll return in April and until then we'll continue being bird 'enablers', spending our hard earned dollars on birdseed and, for now, sugar!

A couple weekends ago Rick, Trey and I met Sarah and Jack for an outing to the Readyville Mill in Readyville, Tn. It is a beautiful place you should visit if you get a chance. The folks that own and run it are super nice and chock full of great stories about the history of the mill. I bought some organic stone ground whole wheat flour and it made the best bread I have ever baked! I guess it's similar to the difference between store bought and home grown tomatoes!

On Tuesdays, Mike and I pick Trey up from Kindergarten! I still can't believe he's in school! I love listening to him talk about his day as we make our way back to the farm. (Mike gets a little bored waiting in the car-line!)

Trey helps feed the animals, plays in the barn, and loves riding the 4-wheeler. When 'Da' gets home, they 'play' while I get dinner on the table!

The weather has been SO much better for 'playing outside' and I have spent a lot of time on my horse this past week, sharing my love of riding and being outdoors with bunches of friends ... this was a 'Birthday' ride with Rachel on Suni!

Even though summer is beginning to wind down, we're still getting good stuff out of the garden!

And so, life goes on at Innisfree. We work, we play, we eat and we pray!

Slante, my friends!

Fun on the Farm

We have 'gazillons' of hummingbirds! This foggy morning there must've been 20 or 30 of the hungry little critters at the feeder off the screen-porch. I fill this quart feeder twice a day and the one out front everyday. I think I have gone thru 50 lbs of sugar this summer ... I'm not kidding! We sure enjoy watching them!

It was anything but quiet around the farm this past weekend! It all started early Saturday morning with a nice 5 mile run with all of my 'buddies' (Heather, Kim and Chris)! We started at the Maury County Animal Hospital (where Heather works), ran downtown, around the Court House, over to River Walk Park and back! We had to make the trip to the park to check on progress of the River Walk which is scheduled to begin work on extending the walkway to the dam sometime this fall. That is going to be SO nice!

After our run I hurried back to the farm, loaded 'Jack' and Becky's horse 'Trouble' in the trailer and we headed to our favorite riding spot, The Why Not Ranch, about a 15 minute drive from Innisfree. We tried out a new trail Beth, the owner of WNR, told us about. It was fun ... some parts of the trail reminded us of 'The Man From Snowy River' and some were flat and winding thru the quiet forest. It was both fun and relaxing! And we got back before the storms rolled in.

Then it was time to start getting ready for our first Pub Party in quite a while. We have missed the music and laughter so much. We were not disappointed! Patrick got us all singing with "Not Fade Away", Heather did a beautiful rendition of Norah Jones' "Come Away with Me" and a couple other favorite tunes. Pam made us all swoon with her beautiful voice and even some of the kids got up to the microphone ... Hodge amazed us with his finesse of the keyboard, Jennifer sang the cutest song about a 'tater bug', Bill and Larry took turns on the bass and Gary kept us on track with his guitar. What a great evening!

This is a new poster Sarah had made for us from previous get-togethers ... it is proudly hung over the bar!

Sarah and Patrick entertaining us with, "In Spite of Ourselves"!

We were pretty surprised that so many folks came out in spite of all the bad storms rolling around Maury County. We ended up with about 4" in the rain gauge. High winds, lightning, power outages ... nothing put a damper on the fun in our little Pub in the basement!

Best of all was the time we got to spend with the Grandsons! They both love books and "Da" was glad to appease their desire for one story after another!

It was a very fine weekend and we thank all who participated in making it so! XO

Just Another Day in Paradise!

Well ... it's been an interesting week at Innisfree. We had a really busy weekend that Sarah did a fabulous job of capturing at her gilliamlife.blogspot.com . And then it was on to to plain old everyday life on the farm!

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This is my horse Jack ... he sure is 'purty' ... I can't wait to ride him more when the weather cools off a bit!

And this is our little Tenement Cabin that we had a friend move onto our property ... great story ... I'll tell you about it sometime!

Gerber Daisy

Cicada 'shell'

Ford 8N circa '?'

It rained most of today ... the frogs are happy! Life is good! Fall is right around the corner. I can feel it in the air!

Hot Summer Days

With heat indexes in the 100's by noon everyday, there hasn't been much 'playing outside' unless it's very early or very late. It was 80 degrees with 90% humidity this morning at 6:30 when I headed for the park to run. Staying hydrated takes a conscious effort in this kind of weather.

I got out in the garden early enough to pick a basket full of Zinnias. They can be found in every room of our home and Mr Mullen loves to put them on his desk at work! He gets comments about how cheerful and colorful they are!


Rick got a nice picture for me of this beauty on the butterfly bush. There are so many butterflies on that bush it almost looks alive!


'Tuesdays with Trey' has become one of our most anticipated events of the week! This week we learned some new card games: 'War', 'Go Fish', and 'Crazy Eights'! It didn't take him long to understand the concept of, "I win!!!' Such a fun evening! He is a bundle of energy and a very happy guy!

I hope you are keeping cool and making plans for fun things to do outdoors when the temperatures finally become bearable! Hang in there, Fall is just around the corner!

Beauty is everywhere you look

A sunset on the road home ...


Bountiful harvest from the garden ...


A lovely ride in the country with a friend ...

A sweet recording session in the Mister's studio ...

It's a wonderful life when you are surrounded by family and friends!

Dog Days of Summer

It's SO hot ...




Even the dogs don't want to play outside ...



Mikey's finding ways to enjoy the ceiling fan ...

It's a dog's life ...

And Katie just loves the cool basement!

Happy 'Tails', from the farm! Keep it on the cool side!