My Favorite Photos - July 2022

Below are some of my favorite photos from July 2022. 

The month went by so quickly. What's not pictured below is taking Sophia to and from volunteering at a summer school program for children who are behind in school three days a week as well as to work 5-6 days a week; taking Olivia to work multiple days per week; getting ready for entering my 46 projects in Open Class at the county fair; and teaching the girls how to drive. 

And then there's the mundane...the things that either happen daily or weekly: weeding the 16 flower gardens; taking care of the pets; making meals; and cleaning the house. 

It was full month...just not as exciting as May and June with Olivia's high school graduation, graduation trip to London and Edinburgh, and then her high school graduation party. 

Olivia received several scholarships for college during July. Here she's with some other high school graduates receiving a scholarship from the Scandia-Marine Lions. 

One of Olivia's 4-H projects was making recipes for her Global Connections project. She's making a spiced chicken on the grill. 

This was another grilled dinner that Olivia made for her Global Connections project. It was a recipe from New Zealand for grilled lamb.

Olivia's 19 1/2 year old birthday was on July 18th. We gave her some gifts to celebrate it...not as many as in past years, though, because of all the expenses for her graduation, graduation trip, and graduation party. She wasn't expecting anything...which made receiving the gifts a special surprise.

This year, the county fair was back to normal after the past two years being affected by COVID. Olivia entered 14 projects this year. Less than in past years, but she was juggling PSEO courses this year which took a lot of her time. She did really well at the fair with her projects.

Afterwards, just like we do each year, we went out for dinner to Dairy Queen. Sophia joined us, even though she is too old now for 4-H.

When she got home, Aspen was excited to see all of Olivia's ribbons. Danny was somewhat interested in the background.

At church, the pianist had COVID and the organist was busy, so Sophia was asked on Friday afternoon if she could play the piano for two services on Sunday. She took a look at the songs and practiced Friday and Saturday nights. She did a great job on such short notice.

On the Sunday of the county fair, we picked up projects. Olivia got top blue awards for two of her photographs. She was happy with that.

She got quite a few grand champion, reserve champion, and top blue awards this year!

I entered this window star in another county fair. I got a blue ribbon (1st prize) on it.

Made this bouquet of flowers for my step-father-in-law who is on hospice. The flowers are from our gardens and pastures - a combination of hybrid and native flowers.

This is another arrangement I made using yellow and orange flowers.

These are flowers that are growing by our back door. The holder is from my grandma on my mom's side. It is meant to hold flowers with short stems.

This is the backyard butterfly garden. It looks like a bunch of weeds, but it's not. It's actually a lot of native plants (though there are hybrid ones in there too). The native ones look more "messy" and some are very tall - over 7 feet tall for some plants!

This is lavender monarda and purple phlox. The bees, butterflies, and hummingbird clearwings (aka sphinx moths) love these flowers!

The prairie onions are blooming. A variety of bees visit these flowers.

This is butterfly weed. I like the vibrant orange.

These are lilies that my dad gave me from his garden.

This is another type of monarda that we have. It attracts a lot of pollinators.

These are coneflowers that are in Olivia's garden.

This is smooth ironweed that is growing in the west pasture. We haven't had horses now for 11 months and this year all these native wildflowers came up. These flowers are as tall as I am - about 5'4".

This is blue vervain. It's also growing in the pasture.

I was happy to see swamp milkweed coming up in quite a few areas.

The obedient plants started blooming. Now, in August, they have pink flowers all the way to the top of the plant. The bees - especially bumblebees - love these plants.

The Oriental lilies came up with their beautiful fragrance.

The black-eyed Susans are blooming in the backyard garden.

Cooper is standing next to the cup plant - another native plant - that's about seven feet tall. There are little yellow flowers on the top. Where the leaves meet near the stem, water collects (when we get rain or I water the garden).

This is an oxeye daisy. There are several of these daisies blooming at once.

This month, we've been hearing great-horned owls quite a bit. Olivia spotted this one in the oak tree in the east pasture while she was swinging. She got off her swing, came into the house to tell me to bring my long lens, and went back out to take photos. I joined her and this owl sat on the branch for a long time. There was a second great-horned owl on the other side of the tree. 

I liked watching it turn its head. It was also interesting to see how big its talons were.

The owl heard something in the grass below. It didn't end up flying down like I thought it would. Either it wasn't hungry or the animal is in an unaccessible area - like the brush pile we have in that pasture.

The bees love the monarda.

This is a hummingbird clearwing. It's a type of moth that overwinters in leaf litter. If people blow or clear their leaves away, none of these moths will be born. 

This is a blurry picture, but you can see how long its proboscis is for drinking from the flower, plus you can see its two front legs. They are fast-moving moths - just like hummingbirds!