I feel like a new person today. The reason for this is that the persistent and constant rain that has dominated our area lately has finally let up after days and days of monsoon like rains. The ill affects of the precipitation we received was devastating to many of our vegetable crops and we are not yet sure what we will do to recover from this other than to plow under some of the fields (if it ever gets dry enough to do so) and start again. Our rain gauge showed that we had an average of an inch a day for the last six days and the month total (after only 20 days) was 7.71 inches. This is way too much rain for our fields! We can’t even get into to them to weed or manage them since we would be knee deep in mud if we tried. If this were the expected rain amounts, I guess we would be planting rice paddies! Ugh!

It’s hard to complain since other parts of the country (Texas and Oklahoma, for instance) are even more devastated by the rain amounts they have received in the last months. But then, of course, there are droughts in California to contend with so it seems like we should be thankful that although this is difficult to swallow, we aren’t in either of those extremes, despite the fact that this looms large for the efficiency of the farm in 2015.

The tail end of the strawberry harvest was affected by the month of rain so our total numbers were way down in comparison to other years. This didn’t prevent me from preserving 36 half pints of jam in addition to massive freezing efforts. Here are just a few of the jars. If anyone remembers the ‘Quasimodo’s Lips’ strawberry from last year, here is the winner of the crop this year. It resembles a toy jack to me. I’m not sure why this berry has so many ‘points’ but mother nature is fascinating, eh? Despite the ‘Debbie Downer’ tone of this post, I have a bit of good news to report on the blue berry crop. I’ve only been able to access the fields twice so far this year, but we are having a bumper crop so far. Last week I picked 10.156 pounds from 3 of the 5 varieties we have planted. Today (the first day to get back to pick) I harvested 22.383 pounds (4 hours of steamy hot, humid back breaking work) from those same 3 rows bringing the total YTD to 32.539 pounds which is 57.5% more than last year at this point. Despite the high heat and humidity I managed to keep a smile on my face since these blueberries are so wonderful! I think they are the size of grapes or cherries and taste so wonderful!I’m reminded of the blueberries (and banana) that Kate enjoyed as a 15 month old sitting in her highchair on our Georgetown apartment patio. Perhaps we can get Coulter to replicate this photo next year with blueberry stains on his little face!Other farm news was fun for us as we continue to welcome the Wards to our area. We had a little adventure one early Saturday morning driving our old riding mower from the farm to their house. Here is Dave (I walked beside) driving this vehicle the 1.5 miles along the back streets and pathways between our houses.  We are glad that they have a use for this machine since the farm was in need of a zero turn mower. Here is Dave…on his 59th birthday with the new machine. Although we seem to be almost all plant based in our diet these days, I managed another interesting experiment recently that I figured I should share since I’m slim on reporting the veggie side of things!  We purchased a brisket to share with family when they were all in town during my mom’s final days. I took one look at this particular cut of brisket and gave it the thumbs down due to the excessive fat layer on the bottom side. We replaced this with a more reasonable piece for the family dinner but I was left with this ugly slab of meat. I decided to cut it up and make it into tasty burgers using my meat grinder. With an inch or more of fat on the bottom of the cut, I sliced it up in order to separate the fat before grinding. I then weighed the meat vs. the fat and added in the amount of fat I wanted to introduce to the ground meat. After adjusting the meat and fat ratio and dicing them both, I froze the combination to get an easier grind. After an hour of freezing, I started to grind the combo which took much more effort than I expected.We wound up with a large dish full of ground brisket meat……as well as the reminder that the blade of the grinder is very sharp! This is my favorite wooden spoon (RIP) that I was using to push the meat down into the feeder tube. Good thing I wasn’t using a finger. Ouch avoided! I then weighed out the ground meat into equal portions…to make 1/4 pound patties….These were portioned out into freezer bags for the Sauerhoffs and the Wards and we have all been enjoying Brisket Burgers! The grinder required some maintenance though and here are the parts that once cleaned and dried, needed to be sprayed with food grade silicone to keep the working parts ready for the future uses. After all of this effort, Kate managed to remind me that there are electric grinders available now! Oh well, this was fun and everyone seemed to enjoy the brisket burgers!

The bees have not been pleased with the massive rain amounts but we are looking forward to a future honey harvest in the next week or so. There have been many swarm cells this spring/summer so we have been trying to keep swarming to a minimum but also took one of the better formed cells from Seven Oaks to another beeyard to try to replace the queen there with this newly formed, future queen. Fingers crossed for a decent honey harvest after all this rain.

We are enjoying regular, daily, sessions with Coulter here at the farm while Kate has started curriculum meetings at her new job. He is such an easy baby and we feel he is getting more and more comfortable with the routine here, including Farley who is a Nervous Nelly as he tries his best to protect Cal at all cost.  Nana and Gramps cannot get enough of this little guy! June birthday recognitions: Dave turned 59, Farley turned 13 and my mom would have been 84 today. Thank you to all those kind notes on her behalf…she would have enjoyed knowing that so many people thought kindly of her. God bless them all.

This is the time of year when we see deer with their fawns. I so clearly remember the one we spotted right before the wedding last year so we have been on the look out recently for spottings of a mother deer with a fawn.

Although I rant and rave against the over population of deer in our area, I have such a soft heart these days for anything tiny and young. So, as it happened, we had sightings last week of a mother and its young fawn meandering about the property perimeter. I was really waiting for the mother to deposit the youngster in our fields…as they are wont to do…and I finally spotted it yesterday and tried my best to photograph the experience.

I approached with caution, toting my zoom lens as if on safari, and saw this little bundle sleeping outside of our wrought iron fence on the southwest side of the property. As I crept a little closer he peeked with one little open eye…

Then he raised his head a bit more to perceive what was happening…And then was quite alert and alarmed to something…yikes…

Darn if he didn’t run off and squeeze thru the fence!

Which meant he was trapped INSIDE the deer fence enclosure! Silly goose!!! He then could not easily get out of the enclosed back area and had to figure out how to reunite with his mom.So I called for Dave and we instantly set about opening all the gates to the try to allow this little one to escape and reunite with his mother which he managed after several attempts.

These days I don’t need to be reminded of the joys of little ones as our interactions with baby Coulter are so special! Smiles and coos galore at this stage…this is one happy guy!   More farm updates coming soon!

My dear mother, Marilyn Luehrman, finally found relief from pain and therefore eternal peace early last Friday when she was reunited with my dad in death. Marilyn suffered from various health issues that complicated her life in the last several years but she seemed very pleased to have lived long enough to welcome her first great grandchild, Coulter, and have a chance to visit with her four children as well as other family members in her last days.

I spent much of the last 11 months at her side as she navigated her final pathway thru a maze of doctor visits and living solutions until palliative care became her balm. She used to tell me that she didn’t want to ask me for my time until she really needed it….as if she were saving me in reserve for future use when desperately needed it. Not unexpectedly, we got to the point in the last months and weeks when she finally said, ‘Don’t leave me’, and I didn’t. I have no regrets about that since I cared so entirely for her until the very end.

She would be pleased that so many people who interacted with her in her final weeks have since contacted me to send their condolences at her passing. The woman from hospice who came to bathe her, Angel, called and was almost in tears and many others have done the same.

Marilyn never liked the camera since she felt it didn’t like her, but I can’t resist a few of my favorite snaps here. This is my favorite photo of her with my dad. They posed for me for fun on the motorcycle of their dear friends, Martha and Bert North and I remember that day with them very clearly. Here is another one that she actually liked…it is one that I took when I was a senior in high school using my old Canon film camera (I’m sure I can find the old B&W neg if I look in the right places) when she was so glad to see my brother, Tim, back from Amherst College for a visit at home. I have many more photos of her that I could share but she would probably want me to stop there with her favorites.  In the end, her goals in life were to be a constant mother figure to her children and to spend as much time with my father, her Dear Pete, as possible…I hope that is exactly where she is right now, reunited with him at last.

Even though this is a very busy time of year on the farm, I’ve been extending myself just a bit further on the family end of things so our efforts around the farm have required a large degree of efficiency on my part. Of course there is nothing wrong with efficiency, but lately I think I feel a bit more as if my toes are being held to the fire…OUCH!For instance, never before have I resorted to picking strawberries (or any other crops for that matter) in the rain, but last week, with so little time to work in the fields, I had no option but to pick strawberries in a steady drizzle. And, I found myself doing this not once but twice already this year! Despite my previous complaints about the excessive rain, the berries have been absolutely beautiful this year. YTD we have picked 64.391pounds of berries which is only about 10.5 lbs more than last year at this point but I’m not going to read too much into that since last year I was picking every other day and this year I decided to pick every day. I don’t really invite others to share much in the picking, but Dave had to jump in to help out while I was in California for a couple of days. He did a wonderful job in my absence but I can tell he now has a greater appreciation for this chore.

At this point in the year It takes about 2 hours to harvest the entire patch but when not rushed, I find it rather therapeutic. I pick each row thus: I straddle the rows (which are about 18-24″ wide), bending at the waist, butt in the air and hands all a kimbo in busy-ness. I’m an ambidextrous picker, using both hands at once to pluck the fruits and place them in the waiting pans. I find this method much easier on the knees than squatting and rising every few feet. Although I’m relieved that no one has the view from the rear, I do feel as if this stance often supplies me with the ability to see the ripe berries from more than one perspective and with plenty of blood in my brain so that I have a chance to think!

Of course, I’m always eagerly looking down the row with anticipation of the next ripe group of berries ahead even tho I’m most actively concerned with picking the ones directly beneath me. But let me just say this: the best berries of all to pick are actually the ones that I discover behind me…they are the ones that I missed when looking in the other two directions. These are the sweetest berry finds since they are blissfully ‘discovered’ by looking at things from a different aspect! Wouldn’t it be grand to have the time in our busy lives to discover and savor those ripened morsels that we might have passed up had we not seen it from a different perspective! This I found to be particularly poignant while picking today since it is our 36th wedding anniversary and I found myself particularly sentimental for lots of reasons. Our future together was always exciting, the present was always busy and productive but some of the hind sights of our life experiences together have perhaps proven the sweetest.

Here are what the last two days worth of berries, (approximately 20lbs) looks like as they sit in one of the refrigerators, awaiting my attention to prepare them for future keeping. Each tray is shouting, “me first” so I do what I can as fast as I can since ripe, home grown strawberries do not have a long shelf life. The reason for this is that when picked at a ripened point, the sugars in the fruit are at the highest level and the cell walls begin to break down quickly, making for a mushy fruit if not dealt with quickly. So once the fruit has been harvested, the work is not nearly done. The berries have to be prepared before eating fresh or any manner of preserving so this is another time hog for me.  Last week before leaving for California, I rushed to get the berries harvested and then was hard pressed to get those berries preserved for the future. With a lack of time, I knew not to attempt any jam making so my friend Joan offered to come over and help freeze a large batch. The two of us stood at the sink washing, stemming and preparing large batches of berries for freezing while chatting away. Had she not helped me, these would have been wasted! In return, of course, Joan will have yummy berries this winter to eat!!! After they firmly freeze on the sheet pans, they tumble, rock-like, into freezer Ziploc bags and are layered back into the freezer drawers. Many more of these to come in the next days! While I was doing this, Dave was focusing on the new tomato staking method. This entails “planting” 8 foot tall 4×4 pine posts (untreated, of course) into the tomato field which will be used for plant supports. Dave did this using the new PTO driven post hole digger. So he staked out the field and measured where each stake would go before drilling for them. Anytime you can use the power of the tractor, you are steps ahead! Then he “planted” the posts and of course wanted them to line up just so! There are 15 in total to support 30 tomato plants. With off and on rain the past several days, Dave has finally gotten the last of the tomato plants in the ground and we will demonstrate the in-line, twine staking method in a future post!

The orchard trees are exhibiting more and more fruit for the summer and fall crops. Here are the peaches…Apples…

Nectarines… And wouldn’t you know it, the newest strawberry plants are already flowering! We might get a berry or two from these yet!One additional bit…here is a little present…left by one of our owl friends and deposited on the top of one of the blueberry nets…

If you didn’t recognize it right away, it is an owl pellet which I find to be fascinating and apparently I’m not the only one to think this. Kate told me that these are actually sold on the internet to biology classrooms for mini dissections. In case this is a new concept for you, owls devour their prey without fully digesting it. Large pieces of skeletal segments and identifiable bones are found in their excrement, which can make for a forensic study of the owl diet. With a large family of local owls, this is not our first pellet, but rather it seemed like a little gift on the top of the blueberry netting!

http://www.carolina.com/teacher-resources/Interactive/basic-information-on-owl-pellets/tr11103.tr

In the meantime, I’ve been to California and back to help Kate bring baby Coulter to Saint Louis! There were goodbyes galore from many of the Ward’s friends and I was able to meet some of them. Here is the Garland family with whom Kate has had years of interaction by teaching their 4 four children at school. Others, such as Chris Graves, also supplied savory dinners in those last days of frenetic packing.

The prospect of traveling from LAX to STL with a 4 week old infant was a tiny bit daunting but we managed to pull it off despite a very long day of airport travel. Here is Coulter, with a window seat on the plane, blissfully waiting for take off. He was such a trooper! Upon arrival in Saint Louis, he met his great-grandmother, Momo, who was eager to see his very blue eyes! This little one provided her with a very special day. We are delighted to have him finally here and we look forward to his continued presence in our lives! He is too cute! Although Farley is a bit jealous, Nana and Gramps are over the moon! I promise to give a bee report next time and maybe even a knitting update!

Despite being on the receiving end of more than 2.38 inches of rain over the last two and one half days, we have managed to squeeze in some important tasks. I harvested the first of the strawberries yesterday which was a nice addition to my Mother’s Day celebration. There were just a few to pick, (less than 1/2 a pound) but they were sure tasty for our breakfast this morning. Boy, fresh from the field tastes amazing!

I left quite a few behind in the field to ripen a bit more, so upon inspection this afternoon I was able to pick about twice as many more! Yumbo awaits our breakfast tomorrow!

Talk about wet!!! I’m so glad that we created the berm for the future berries that we planted last week where the patch had a low spot. I was amazed to see the standing rain in the aisles while the new plants are happily above grade…it might be hard to see, but the new dry root plants are greening up on the top of the berm. I’ll evaluate how this works in the future but the best thing we did last year was to add straw to overwinter the strawberries last fall. This was a great way to keep the berries off the ground and nestled onto a bit of a cushion where they are less apt to have their tips subject to rot. I give Dave full credit for this since he went and got the straw and laid it down one cold, sunless day for me! Dave accuses me of favoring the berry crops – the strawberries and blueberries – more than the other veggie crops. Perhaps, I’m guilty as charged! I love all the berries…do you blame me?

Between spurts of rain we managed to get more mowing done and I tackled some much needed weeding in the Trident Maple areas. I love the little critters I encounter along the way. Look at this little toad…he is so well camouflaged that I jumped when he moved right near my workspace.

Vegetable Planting so far has included:

• 10 rows – 3 varieties of Potatoes
• 4 rows – Peas
• 3 rows – 3 varieties of Spinach
• 3 rows – 3 varieties of Lettuce
• 1 row – Radishes
• 1 row – Cabbage
• 1 row – Pak Choi
• 1 row – Swiss Chard
• 1 row – 2 Types of Peppers ( more to come)
• 1 row – 1 of 2 types Cucumbers (more to come)
• 2 rows – 2 varieties Strawberries
• 2 Plum Trees (same variety)
• 2 Pear Trees (replacements- same variety)
• Grapes – 2 varieties

On deck, ready to plant as soon as the fields allow:

• 5 rows – Tomatoes – 3 varieties
• 2+ rows- Eggplants
• Peppers

I spent the morning with my allergist. Although I have not reported any of my problems with bee stings here, over the last year I’ve had an increased reaction anytime that I was stung. (Beekeepers just have to be cool with stings now and then.) I truly don’t mind these stings, but apparently, my body does! As my skin says ‘no more’, I consulted my dermatologist after my last episodes who sent me directly to my allergist. Although my reactions were to some degree “manageable” I was told that they would only get worse over time. So, today I had venom testing done at my allergist’s office and to no surprise, with the slightest prick of the lowest concentration of honeybee venom, I had quite the localized reaction. (This is not to be confused with a systemic reactions that would require an EpiPen. (Of course we have EpiPens on site at the farm as well as carry them with us in the field as a precaution when working in the beeyards.) So, I kind of looked like a drug addict today but I could not resist a pic of one of my arms (both arms were involved!) while they tested me for various stinging insect venoms besides honey bees which included wasps, hornets, yellow jackets and one other that I just can’t remember!!!

After all of this, I had great news! A venom shot once a week over the next 15 weeks would send me on the way to being desensitized to these venoms! After that, I will taper off with the injections and within a year of working on this, I’ll be totally desensitized! Yeah!

While awaiting my venom results, Dave was hard at work at our equipment maintenance, replacing batteries and repairing tires on some of our implements. He was fairly excited that he eeked out a productive day despite the wet conditions. All in all, another good day at Seven Oaks Farm!

Rain. I think I have a conditional love for Rain. I say that when I reflect on unconditional love for my family…you love them endlessly no matter what the situation. Well, not so with Rain which I want to turn on in my life when I need it and off when I don’t. But Rain from the sky is not a faucet and cannot, despite all our feeble efforts, be lessened in a flood or prodded in a drought. Perhaps it is because I can’t control Rain that I have a much deeper relationship with it; more so, anyway, than most of my acquaintances who mostly go on with their lives with little or no connection to the current weather.

Two weeks ago we were hoping for the proliferation of spring Rain in our area to end so that we could get our fields planted. Our wish was granted…we finally had a couple of gorgeous weeks when the Rain let up, the fields dried out enough for us to get lots of work done, i.e. many crops planted or otherwise tended to. So we toiled away until we were too tired each night to do much more than nod at each other in a congratulatory way, knowing that we had gotten more done, like a team of oxen harnessed together (my dad would have said mules!), than either of us could have imagined had we worked alone…this, because we were Rain free.

Then we heard the prediction of the next Rain to come, the anticipation of which is like an acceleration on ones work ethic! With a day or two to get something done before the next onslaught of Rain, one works tirelessly at accomplishing small and large tasks. No more were we plodding oxen, but rather like squirrels with twitching tails, setting off here and there to get our lists accomplished.

So last week, under gorgeous spring conditions, we managed to plant (as you know from the previous post) the grapes which are doing well with each of the 6 dry root plants now showing signs of life. These plants are very hard to photograph at this stage so you will just have to take my word for it!

In addition to that, we renovated the strawberry field by re-arranging a couple of rows of plants. Ever since we plotted this field, I’ve been sorry that we didn’t plant this crop in raised berms. So, with the idea of adding new strawberry plants on a continual basis to supplement the old, we decided to re-work our two worst rows of plants by digging up the existing, (albeit meager) strawberry sets and transplanting them to higher ground in other rows, and then devising to plant new rows of strawberries after creating berms in that field. LOTS OF WORK TO DO THIS!!! But, here are the two new rows ready to go with one of the rows showing the dry root plants sitting on top, ready to nestle into place.

Our strawberries are all June bearing plants (vs. ever bearing) that we obtained from Stark Brothers. We have been very pleased with these and find June bearing to be the best for our purposes since the crop comes in and we are flush with berries during berry season but then done with this task while the rest of the summer crops demand our attention. The ever bearing type of plant would mean a piddly amount of berries on an ongoing basis that I would find to be a pain while my attention was needed elsewhere. (Our blueberries, by the way, ripen over a 3 month period and demand plenty of attention but are easier in that they keep on the “vine” longer as well as in the refrigerator and are easier to freeze.) Despite renovations elsewhere in the field, the rest of the berry patch has ripening berries! Again, Rain will determine when we can get out to harvest and how fast/long we can wait until picking these!

Here is the link to the Honeoye variety. http://www.starkbros.com/products/berry-plants/strawberry-plants/honeoye-strawberry-june-bearer.

Here is the link to the Jewel variety. http://www.starkbros.com/products/berry-plants/strawberry-plants/jewel-strawberry

The blueberries are also benefiting from the Rain, showing fruits galore on all the plants. Unfortunately, as in years past, we had a dear black snake get caught up in the blueberry netting and we had to cut his lifeless remains out of the mess. Luckily, despite this loss, on the same day I found another relative of his slithering from the driveway to the grass. With an infestation of voles http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7439.html  (ugh!) last year, we are ready for some aggressive predators! The fruit trees are doing well despite the discovery this week of a web of caterpillars in one of the apple trees in the South orchard. Needless to say, they met a quick demise after I punctured their web. I did let out a yelp at this discovery, as you could imagine but quickly disposed of these invaders!  Here are the lovely nectarines on their way to producing future fruits! And the Peaches…The peas and potatoes look like they are off to a great start as well and are enjoying the Rain. Here are some of the potatoes. In addition to fruits and veggies, I worked on the front flower beds to weed and feed them this week as well as plant a few perennials at the side entrance. I realized I had “peony envy” and added these plants…. after plucking these gorgeous blooms from Kate and Jason’s yard this week before the Rain could damage them. The bee report is slim this week after the swarm capture even tho Jurgen did some maintenance and all is well with the bees for now.

The Rain the last couple of days did allow Nana and Gramps to assemble the crib for the Seven Oaks Farm nursery! This was the best part of the Recent Rain condition! Here is the finished crib in the nursery. Note the Rocking Cow to the left, (Williams College mascot, thanks to Kate’s dear friend Robin Young Bliss) which we are safe keeping until the Ward family gets settled in to their new home! Baby Coulter has a growing fan club so I must include some pics of him here. He was two weeks old last Wednesday and already attended his first volley ball championship which his dad, the coach, handily won with his team. Cal was so excited, they had to calm him down with a binky!He is such a mellow fellow. Here he is enjoying a recent moment in his monkey-toed onesie!  Those eyes are just so transfixed! We can’t wait to welcome the Ward family here soon! Happy Mother’s Day to all, but especially to new mother, daughter, Kate!  By the way, it is Raining now, which is why I was able to find time to write this post!

Coulter Allen Ward, nicknamed “Cal” (named after his two grandfathers – using both of their middle names), was born yesterday afternoon in California! He is a healthy, 9lb – 3oz baby boy who is delighting his parents and enrapturing his extended family with shared peeks as we receive his first photos. Here he is sporting the knitted cap from Nana which says “Baby” on one side and “Ward” on the other. We are over the moon with his sweet, sweet arrival! Here he is in profile…I just want to gobble him up!We can’t wait to welcome him to the farm and get him eating all the farm goodies we will have to offer! I will leave on Saturday to help out as the Ward family spends their final month in California before transitioning to nearby Kirkwood, Missouri at the end of May. Did I mention that we are over the moon??? Nothing compares to welcoming a little baby! Congrats to the proud parents! Well done!

That said, despite our distractions with the arrival of this newest family member, we are pressured to get the fields planted when we can – so the peas went in today. We put in 4 rows (22′ long – about 200 seeds) of Burpee ‘Easy Peasy’ seeds that are a self supporting variety and we had good luck with them last year. Does anyone remember that I was harvesting the last of them when waiting for the bride to arrive last year a week in advance of the wedding? Yummy peas to look forward to in June!

I also worked in the strawberries as well since we are constantly weeding that patch and we plan to do some infill with new plants as soon as the soil conditions allow. There are plenty of blooms on existing plants and some fruit has set on already! Can you see the green strawberries in this pic? Look for the two nodding (downward turned) former blossoms that are below the lower blossom.  We have two varieties of June bearing plants but only the earlier one has set on.Talk about setting on…the orchard is crazy with fruit right now! The peaches and nectarines are absolutely loaded with tiny fruits! It may be hard to see, but the white round/oblong part of this pic is the fuzzy fruit of a peach. The blossom end is still attached but that will fall off soon. We may still have to cull some young fruits off these smaller trees but we are hoping for a stellar season of stone fruits!The apple/pear side of the orchard is in a similar situation! The evidence of small, future fruits from the blossoms are just profoundly evident! Future apples (little swells) are just under the crown of the stamens!The blueberries are also prolific and blooming their heads off with more fruit set on than I’ve seen any other year! Here are blossoms. We put the netting back on the blueberries today. This maneuver is a two person job but is still tricky to do since the nets get caught on the posts here and there (and even our boot eyelets!) but we try very hard not to let the netting touch the blossoms since they will tear at them and rip them off if we are not careful. The nets are 14 feet wide by 45 feet long so they can be rather cumbersome to install. They are trickier after several seasons since they have repairs and spots that are tangled. Here is one of the large stored nets that we unfurled today and installed on one of 5 varieties of blueberries.  In order of ripening: we have 10 each of these bushes: Patriot, Blue Ray, Blue Crop, Jersey and Eliot varieties.

It is difficult to focus on the farm when all we want to do is admire our first grandchild but this is a busy time of year! We look forward to sharing all that we have to offer here with this little guy as he nestles into our lives in the coming years!

Love and kisses to our new little grandson from “Nana” and “Gramps”! Story to follow on this name for Dave but one of his grandfathers was called Gramps. Large boots to fill…certainly a worthy goal to strive for and an example to set for all grandchildren.