August 9

I'm tired. Yesterday was one of those eventful days! We have a rental house on our farm, less than the distance of a city block from our house. Someone broke into it yesterday during the day. It is right on the road on the corner of a busy intersection. Jenny & Steve's house is on the opposite corner in full view of it. Here's what we think happened and it seems to be quite a scam. A couple pulling a camper pulled into Jenny & Steve's driveway and said they were missionaries on their way from Louisiana to Montana and they were having truck problems. They asked Jenny if they could pull into their driveway to work on it. Jenny said she looked out a little later and the truck and camper were parked on the road. Jenny said she also saw another elderly neighbor visiting with them. When I walked down our driveway, I also saw the camper parked on the road. Originally I thought what a dumb place to park but then I thought they were having truck problems, etc. When the renters came home, they discovered that someone had tried to break in the front door by prying it open. They then moved to the back porch of the house and broke a window and crawled in and then broke into the house. The only thing missing (and these people have lots of high tech gadgets, etc.) were a case of bottled water, some Powerade, some jewelry and a bottle of Polo cologne. A lot of drawers had been emptied so they possibly were looking for cash. We also believe that the elderly neighbor, trying to be a good Samaritan, may have scared them away. So we think the scam was to park the camper on the road to block the vision of Jenny. I can see most of the house from our place with the exception of the front of the house and the window they broke into. Our insurance will cover the cost of damage less $250 deposit. In hindsight, if only Jenny or myself had reported this strange looking camper, the Sheriff might have caught them in the act. This is just a little too close for comfort!

On a high note, Adam, our chore helper, has been working with some ewe lambs we kept back. He enjoys showing sheep but his finances wouldn't allow him to buy any. We checked with the 4-H leader and she said she didn't have a problem with him showing some of our lambs. However, we told him he had to come over every night and work with them, etc. and he did. His hard work paid off yesterday at his 4-H sheep show as he ended up having Reserve Grand Champ Market Lamb. That same lamb was Res Heavyweight Lamb and he also had Reserve Champ Pen of Three. He was walking on cloud nine as he won 3 trophies. You might recall that we had some problems with Adam last winter. DH and I were both commenting last night that Adam seemed to have really grown up this summer. He might have realized that the responsiblity and hard work does pay off.

Keeping fingers crossed and saying prayers - there is a 50% chance of rain tonight and 60% chance tomorrow. Would love to see some of those grasshoppers drown. Yesterday one hopped down the front of my shirt. Good thing no one was around to see me digging around the inside of my shirt. Also had one smack me on the lips.

Better go - hauling some prairie hay tonight. You all take care.