Camera was next to go

I am in the same situation as de-Intimidator -no pictures.My digital camera has bit the dust. I have an old (ie few features) camera that Gerry gave me. I want to do some research to get one that works well with my level of expertise or lack of it. I am thinking no SLR for me.

Tonight Gerry and I are going to Akron First Night. It is family oriented event with about 75 various performers scattered around a six block area downtown. They vary from individual guitar players, the Steel Drum Band of the University of Akron, Irish dancers, a group of four who sound a lot like the Beatles, and blues singers.

Inspired reading

I found a new (to me) web site that has some great reading. People are asked to write what they believe in a concise, positive way. http://thisibelieve.org

Food and Family

Christmas for us this year was a flurry of activity. Renee Michelle and Andrew arrived on Friday, December 18, just ahead of the largest blizzard in 70 years, that pretty much parallelized the East Coast. My new kitchen range was installed just in time for her flurry of cooking. Highlights of the cooking from my perspective were: 1) chocolate mousse and two pies made by Andrew (peach and cherry) 2) home made noodles from Renee Michelle's pasta maker, peanut noodles and carrots with herbs, 3) turkey cooked in oil by Gerry (this needs some fine tuning, mainly not being cooked for as long), 4) great homemade eggnog and veggie pizza by Stacey. If any of you are asking what I did, the answer is WASHED A LOT OF DISHES. Actually my new dish washer was up and running so that really helped.

Another tradition we have is to have custom made pizzas at Shawn and Stacey's on Christmas eve. I bring the home made pizza dough and she provides the toppings.

There will be pies

This week I have gone to several appliance stores looking at electric ranges, spent a lot of time on line reading reviews and discussing the info with Gerry. I am ready to purchase it tomorrow. Since I am buying locally, I should be able to pick it up early next week. I will give details when I actually have it in my kitchen. My son in law can breathe easier because it looks like he will have his pie :) What he does not know is that I bought several homemade apple pies from a fund raiser. Of course they won't taste like my homemade ones, but he can conduct a taste test. Actually since he is such a great s-i-l I will bake one from scratch too.

Next project is to finish the holiday letter and finish decorating. Here is my sincere wish to the appliance gods - please don't let any other appliance die!! Actually there aren't too many left to go.

The world of appliances

Today I am going to look at the positive side of events. It took Gerry another 10 hours (at one crack) to completely disembowel the furnace and put it back together. The positive is that we learned it is not worth keeping as a back up to our geothermal when we get it and it is now functioning fine which is great but has a lot of rust in its innards.


The same day, our oven quit functioning. Instead of even allowing Gerry to start tearing into it, I am looking for a used one on Craig' s List. Since we are going geothermal, it will be electric instead of gas. I don't know if I mentioned this previously, but our dish washer (which sounded like a jet plane taking off) left bits and piece of food everywhere. On Saturday I bought a new one. No repairs allowed on the old one either. So the positive is an electric stove and a new dish washer.

It's cool in here

Last night our furnace fan was running nonstop with no heat coming out. So Gerry spent five hours working on it, with me sitting in the basement with him to encourage him. He finally located the switch that was not functioning and the cause of it burning out. I went on line to check the cost of labor of HVAC repair labor. At least $100 an hour. So, dear Gerry, $500 would buy a used motorcycle would it not? Did I actually say that? Today I am trying to order the part, but in the mean time, we have to manually start it each time. What does a person do who cannot repair their furnace or have the extra $500 to pay someone? I think Gerry enjoys figuring out how these things work. The only problem is getting up the next morning and going to work when he has been up until 1:00 am. Thanks honey!

Living in the moment with ice cream

The other day I was eating ice cream with a brownie. Yum! Except that I was almost finished eating and realized I had eaten almost all of it without being present and enjoying it. Maybe I was reading a book, or just thinking of other things. I am trying to be conscious of living in the moment, which would have meant I enjoyed that special treat instead of just no longer being hungry.

Happy Thanksgiving

Our family has the tradition that we spend Thanksgiving day at Shawn and Stacey's house. Several other things have become tradition too: Her Dad makes the turkey (sometimes smoked), other family members make corn soufflé, green been casserole, and jello salad. Stacey makes the mashed potatoes and gravy and of course offers her house. My part is candied sweet potatoes and desserts. This year I am bringing a cherry pie, chocolate cake roll, pecan pie bars and home made dinner rolls.

End of an Era

On Friday I attended a Volunteer Appreciation Breakfast for the non profit I have worked with for 10 -yes 10- years. I have resigned from the Board of Directors and as chair of two committees. What am I going to do with my time?? Anyway, they chose me as Volunteer of the Year. I really was honored. But I know I am just one cog in the wheel, lots of people have given their time and skills to make it the strong organization that it is.

This weekend DH and I worked on a sturdy shelf that he is building in his shop which will hold several motorcycles. Pictures will follow when it is complete. Yesterday we retrieved all the boxes of Christmas decorations from the attic. Today we put the lights up on the front porch. Then I will start with the indoor trees. Last year I was so late getting them up that it hardly seemed worth the effort.

My Christmas Cacti are in full bloom. Guess I will rename them Thanksgiving Cactus.

The picture on the wall behind the plant is an oil painting by Gerry's uncle Rudy who started painting after he retired. He now is in his 90s.

Red Hat and Cake

Not to be outdone by my daughter who posted a picture of herself in a hat, I am doing the same.

Today my Red Hat Ladies Group went out for lunch, to a gift/craft store and to a bulk food store.

I had not been to any of these places which are about 20 miles from my house. I bought the purple shirt from Goodwill and Queen Mum gave me the hat. For the Christmas party we are to wear red and purple pajamas. That should be interesting. I may not post pictures :)

For the Foodies in my reading audience I am posting a picture of the birthday cake granddaughter made when she was visiting.

Recap of K's visit

To all of you who have young children, you have my great admiration. I love having my granddaughter here. My expectations are that I will spend most of my time with her, leaving my other projects for another time. Children are such a joy, but a bit tiring to the grandmother.

Shawn posted a picture on his blog of K riding her four wheeler which she calls her motorcycle. I walk/jog beside her when she rides. Actually it is not a difficult as it sounds because she stops frequently to pick every dandelion flower or seed pod that she sees. My job is to carry them so she can put them in a vase in her bedroom. I did convince her to pull the seeds out and watch the wind carry they away. She said the remaining stem was beautiful and put in in the vase.

I left a message for her mother this morning to check her pockets before putting a load in the laundry. I remembered her filling her pocket with rocks. I can't wait to see what her brother will put in his pockets.

Granddaughter visiting

It sure is interesting having a 31/2 year old around for a few days. Her mother and brother flew to Minnesota for the memorial service for her aunt. Her Dad stayed in Ohio and is working during the day. I found out she is quite a backseat driver. Yesterday she kept telling me not to drive into the beach. When we came to a red light she said, "You can turn right on red if you look both ways." She loves trains so noted all the train tracks we crossed. She asked if the trains went in a circle.

I gave her an old cell phone today (not working). With her great imagination, she asked me to take her picture so she could post it on her blog. So, never a dull moment. She woke up before me this morning and was in the laundry room blowing bubbles.

This weekend the temperature was 65 and sunny, making it perfect conditions for outdoor projects. Yesterday Gerry went up on the roof of the house to put roofing tar on several loose shingles. He even tied a rope around his waist to catch him in case he slipped. Today he put a vent in the roof of my garden shed. We also worked on the compost pile. We shredded the large pieces and I shoveled all of the pile that I had previously made into the box he made a couple weeks ago. By next Spring I should have lots of "black gold" to put on my garden and flowers.

Doing My Civic Duty

As all of you who live in the US know, today was election day. I again worked as a poll worker. It is a high paying job. I am paid $100 for the first hour and then work the next 14 hours for free. It is a really long day, but I do enjoy it. I have worked with two of the other workers three times now.

I was really impressed with the voters in our rural township. We had 48% of registered voters voting today. Farmers who were out harvesting,took time to come in and vote. They would come in their dirty, torn clothes, but were there.

Just a lovely Fall day

Today has been spent 1) having a crown put on a tooth 2) baking apple pie bars for the pot luck dinner on Saturday 3) Meeting Gerry at the car dealership where the Audi is finished getting repaired and 4) packing for our camping trip this weekend.

We are going to Wayne National Forest in Southeastern Ohio. Gerry will be riding his dirt bike while I may be hiking (if no rain), reading or just hanging out with the other women.

In addition to the above activities, I walked in our woods. Leaves have turned color and are falling fast. Sometimes it sounded like rain when the wind was blowing them down. In the midst of that I did find some color.

These last two pictures are of tiny mushrooms.

Monday report

I noticed I have not posted for a few days. I have been preoccupied with preparations for a routine test I was to take last week. It was a Colonoscopy, so it took two days on a liquid diet and then the wonderful laxative. I had it done on Friday and they could not complete it because my blood pressure dropped too low. So this on Wed, I have another test which has pretty much the same prep but only for one day. I will just be glad when it is done with. I wonder about all the suggested routine tests we are given. I am trying to have a good attitude about it.

Shawn, Stacy and children have been in Minnesota this week and visited my Mom and siblings. Shawn sent two pictures which I am sharing.

Small town life

After I got my hair cut today I went to the local grocery store. As I was sitting in my car, I saw a car drive into a parking spot and hit the car ahead of him. I watched for a while to see if he was waiting for the driver of the car he hit to come out. His passenger then came out of the store and got in the car. As the driver backed up, he hit a car in the row behind him. He then drove away. I was feeling a little bad since the driver was quite elderly. But I called the police and told both drivers of the cars that he had hit. None of the cars had more that a scratch on the bumper. I gave the police the license number and he said it is a 93 year old man. The officer said he would go and talk with the driver. He obviously was not going to press charges because he did not even ask for my name or phone number. I gave it to him anyway and he wrote it down. I will never know what happened but I did my duty. I know the previous Chief of Police but not the current one. If the previous one was still working I would ask him. Small town life is interesting.

Weekend review

For the last three days I have had this cold, which has slowed me down a bit. I have done some reading, tried to keep up dishes and such. On Friday I went to a lighting store to try to find lights for the bedroom and bath. I had been looking on line, but there are thousands and it is difficult to really know the quality and what the finishes really look like too.

Today I did mow the lawn for the last time this year (I hope) and Gerry positioned the compost box so it is firm on the ground. He had been working on the old RV since he hopes to take it to a motorcycle riding event in two weeks. He put a new carburetor in. To see if it worked properly he drove it down the driveway without checking the brakes first. When they did not function, he had had to drive onto the grass to stop it. No harm done. He fixed the front ones but the back ones leak fluid. This week he planning to have our mechanic fix them correctly with new brake cylinders on both front and back.

Joined AAUW

It has been raining off and on all day so was a good day to stay inside and do bill paying and such.

This evening I went to an orientation for AAUW (short for American Association of University Women). Their mission is to advance equity for women and girls through advocacy, education and research. They offer financial scholarships to women returning to school after working a few years (that is not just out of high school), support legislation to improve conditions for women and girls. An example of that is education and passing laws against sexual harassment and bullying. On the world level, they monitor what is happening at the UN. Currently they are working on educating women who are getting their first job out of college on how to negotiate a fair salary.

What I like so far is that our local chapter is a group of about 75 women who work on causes but seem to have a lot of fun doing it. They attend cultural events and have book discussion groups. And it seems that at meeting other than the monthly one they have lots of good food and wine.

Serious Composting

Cold weather is coming fast. There always are tasks to be done that would be much more fun doing in warm weather. When we modified our deck, we had several pieces of treated lumber left over. Gerry used some to build a compost container for me. I have just been throwing compost raw material in a pile. It is difficult to turn it over which is necessary for good composting. Yesterday, he built a four section compost frame for me. You start with raw materials in one section and when it starts to rot down, move it to the next section and put new stuff in the first. By the end is is wonderful "black gold" as good compost is called by gardeners.

The tricky part was moving it from where we built it to the garden. It was quite heavy. Gerry managed to get in on a trailer and we moved it that way. My job now is to shred what I already have and get it shoveled into the frame.

We spoke with a neighbor who is a really serous garner. She actually goes out on the road after the Amish horses have gone by and picks up the manure they leave on the road. I don't think I will be fighting her for that!

Paint and tile chosen

Last week I made progress on the decorating of the Master bedroom and bath. I have picked out the tile and paint colors. The darker tile on the bottom is for the floor, the lighter above it will go around the tub, with the decorative strip on top of it.

I have trouble visualizing the color on the walls, so I bought small containers of the colors and painted swatches on the walls. I plan to put the darker shade on the wall where the bed will be and in the area in the bathroom where the tub is. Next step is to get light fixtures, which need to be installed before I paint.

Not my idea of fun

Gerry's motorcycle dirt bike riding weekend was a bit frustrating for him. They were to leave at 4:00 pm on Thursday, but didn't get going until about 8:00pm. There were six people in the van with all of their camping and riding gear. They did not have enough room so had to strap it to the top. He said they built a wooden frame to put on top to hold everything. Then they squeezed six motorcycles into a trailer made for four. They arrived in West Virginia at 2 or 3 AM. So Friday were tired riding. Fortunately no one had any serious accidents. Then on Saturday, they decided to drive all night getting home. He arrived at 4 am again. Of course slept till noon today and went to bed early tonight. When I asked him, he still said he was glad he went. Better him than me, that is for sure. Unfortunately he did not get any good pictures of the loaded down vehicle. Just use your imagination.

Freezing peppers

Gerry is on one of his dirt bike riding adventures to the Hatfield McCoy Trails in West Virginia. He left Thursday afternoon and will return on Sunday. On Thursday I decided it was time to harvest my Big Jim New Mexican peppers. After reading several sites on line, I decided to roast them on the grill, remove the peel and seeds and freeze them. The first obstacle was that the grill gas tank was empty. I had never watched Gerry carefully when he changed it in the past. But he gave me directions by phone and I was successful.

I layered the peppers on plastic wrap and then rolled the whole thing up and put it in a plastic bag. Supposedly that way you can just unwrap as much as you need for whatever you are cooking. I did not think they had a real "bite" but after doing all the work with my bare hands, the did burn. Aloe Vera came to the rescue.

The good, the bad (not so bad) ...

When daughter was visiting she did a lot of cooking as usual. She just goes in the the refrigerator or pantry and make something from whatever is on hand. She was in the mood for chocolate chip cookies. When I opened the oven door, I let out a screech. Interesting looking cookies, wouldn't you say? She only put half the amount of flour in, thus the flat results. Actually they did taste ok. We were not about to let them go to waste.

Dinner was a wonderful salad with fresh cherry tomatoes, avocado, greens and toasted bread. For protein, she put a poached egg on top. Yum!

On another day she and I harvested the basil from my garden. You may recall that last year I just sent two large garbage bags full of the plants back to MD with her. This year we made the pesto here and froze it.

Aren't we beautiful in our purple with green basil?

We used all the help we could get!

AAUW and Virginia Woolf

I have officially become a member of AAUW which is American Association of University Women.

At the Thursday night meeting we had a speaker who is passionate about the British author, Virgina Woolf. She spoke and showed pictures of a tour she took in Great Britain, showing locations where Virginia lived or wrote about. I have not read the works of Virginia, but found a website, Project Gutenberg, which has books on line. I have just read one essay so far. In this one about a spot on the wall, she went off on all kinds of thoughts that were unrelated, but that the spot cause her to think about. The speaker said she has to read many of them five or more times to really understand and get everything that Woolf writes. (I'll make a note of this and see if I find time in Winter to read some of her works.)

I wonder how popular her writings are in Great Britain? Have any readers read her works? Seen any movies of her stories?

I'll talk more about the mission of AAUW as I learn about the organization.

Breakfast on the front porch

My sister stayed for a week and Renee Michelle stayed 10 days (yea) after the big doings. Breakfast was on the front porch. I was showing off my purchases from Bath and Body Works.

Now I am back to having breakfast alone.

Wrapup on pig roast

Gerry is attending a three day seminar on "Project Management". Last night he gave me a brief overview and said we should apply the principles to the pig roast. The main points that I got for this application was to 1) do a review of how it went, 2) break things down into individual activities and assign a person to be responsible for that activity, 3)He and I would oversee but not be responsible for the activity. Examples of the various activities are directing parking, setting up games, keeping tables supplied with drinks and utensils, and cutting up the pig (four people are needed, not the two we overworked this year).

As part of the review of how it went, I am making an excel spreadsheet with all of the people we invited and their responses.

Back to the actual day, here are pictures of the activity at 6:30 AM.

Our little helper from Chicago came out to help but found better things to do.

For my friends in the UK, look at this blog at the September 15 posting for great pictures. Sorry,I don't know how to make a proper link.

http://motherocker.blogspot.com/

Dining with daughter

Last night daughter and I went to a restaurant and had a great dinner together. Besides the criterion that it have fine food, we chose one that maybe our husbands would not enjoy so much. It was perfect for us. I was introduces to the concept of "wine flight". I had beer samplers like that before, but now with wine. There were four small glass, from a bubbly to Merlot.

Count down to the event

Wow, it has been a CRAZY weekend. After delivering my grandchildren to their other grandparents on Saturday, G and I went to a wedding of a friend's son. The wedding was in church and the reception at the home of the bride. They had set up a very large tent in their back yard. The bride's parents own a flower shop so the flowers were quite spectacular. On the way home we passed our neighbors who had a bonfire going. They have always told us to stop in any time there are out at the fire, so we did. Dave, the neighbor, is quite a story teller. We learn a lot about all our neighbors from him. Maybe sometime I'll post some of the stories.

I have been working on my "TO DO" list for the Pig Roast/Pot luck that is next Saturday. I will not bore you with the items on the list but may be referring to them this week. My dear husband went around the neighborhood and invited a LOT of people. Apparently they like this kind of thing as we have about 140 people coming. It makes me break out in a cold sweat in the middle of the night. But everyone is bringing a dish to share and we are roasting the pig, so there will be lots of food. Two people who have blogs will be attending, so it will be interesting to see their report.

Happy Birthday to me

Today is my 65th birthday. I am spending it with my precious grandchildren. I have three actual birthday cards: From Gill and Frank in the UK, a 11x17 one Kyla made for me. It was a two day project as she felt she needed to keep adding to it, and one from my dau and son-in-law. They sent money to put toward some yard art or statuatury. Husband was very afraid I would get a gargoyle. Maybe I can find one with a smiley face. The other wishes were by email. Thanks everyone.

Tonight G and another friend, Greta are coming over. We will order some takeout. It seems like a better idea than taking the two kids out with us. I've suggested to Kyla that we also get a Dairy Queen cake. We will sneak the leftovers into her parent's freezer.

Loving the grandchildren

For four days this week I will be staying with my two grandchildren. So there should be lots of pictures. Or maybe I will be so frazzled that I won't remember to take any!! So I will post these now. Here is the artist hard at work.

Don't stick your tongue out at Grandma G!

That is much better.

Sad Bear

Why is this bear so unhappy?

It seems that when I washed the window in the dormer above the front entry, he was removed from his comfortable spot where G has let him live for quite some time.

I am leaving the ladder in place hoping that I can find something else to put in the spot. I had a moment of panic when G found a white Snoopy Dog which is just as big as the bear at a garage sale. It was free to a good home. So far I have won the argument about putting both up there. But I think I need to fill the spot or I may find both living up there.

This is a preview to the pictures of the new patio set. I drove 100 miles (round trip) today to pick up the set. Note how well I tied it down. And I actually backed the trailer into the garage because it is to rain today. The 100 mile trip was to save the $80 delivery cost. Pictures of the unpacked set will be posted soon.

Clean, clean windows

One benefit of having guests, or in this case, a big party is that I do some extra house cleaning. The guests may not notice, but I will enjoy it for months to come. I have spend three full days washing windows. I hate to admit it, but the upstairs windows probably have not been washed since the house was built in 1996. We have lived here three years so only three years worth of dirt is mine. Now they are so clean that it looks like there is no glass in the window. The party I am referring to is our Third Annual Pig Roast which will be held on September 12. Since we are having out of town guests, all five bedrooms are spoken for. If any one else needs a place to sleep, you get the RV or the basement. It sort of reminds me of the preparations for the Wedding Reception last year. Has it been a whole year RM and A?

This is billed as a Pig Roast/Potluck. Which means there will be lots of food. I will just make dishes to fill in as needed. G pulled out the Pig roaster today to make sure it was all working properly. It seems to be fine.

What a day!

As I have mentioned for some time on this blog, I am trying to redecorate the house and do landscaping. I have completed the budget for the decorating and decided to focus on the master bedroom and bath. The current status is this: The bedding is chosen and purchased. Carpet, tile and counter top is chosen. Old bed is sold. I am now working on paint colors and choosing sinks for the bathroom. Yesterday G agreed (with some gentle persuasion from me) to again look at mattresses. We bought it! A king size pillow top ! This is a BIG step forward. Our compromise was that we did not get a box spring. Instead he will build a frame for a platform bed. That also saved us $400. I want to refinish the two dressers we have which will save more money. One G had as a child. Since I had budgeted for new furniture in the bed room there is more savings.

He then went with me to a store called The Great Escape. They have a large selection of patio furniture (thanks for the recommendation Stacey). And on sale for 50% off as it is the end of the season. The sets were $3000 and up so it was a great time to buy, probably the only time as G would never have spent the full price.

We ordered an 87 inch oval table with six chairs. They are made of cast aluminum so are very durable. I will pick them up in a week (saved another $80 by doing that). G was rewarded for all this hard work with a trip to Harbor Freight. For those of you who don't know about this store, it is a "candy store of tools" for guys.

Sweet peaches

It has been hot here, so I have not been doing outside work. The temp has been nearly 90 for a few days. Today I baked two peach pies (from fresh peaches from a local grower). G even commented on how great the flavor was. I also made 15 half pint jars of freezer peach jam.

My other project has been to edit drawers in the filing cabinet. G asked me how I decided what to keep. I told him that if I can find the info on line I toss the paper. But if it is a card or letter from him or my children I save it. I would guess one half is being tossed. Sure makes me feel good. But this is only the first drawer. There are seven more to go. I think I started on the most difficult one so this is progress. I would be thrilled if I could actually remove one filing cabinet from my office. We'll see if that is possible.

Biker weekend

On Friday Andrew rode a 450 cc motorcycle from Maryland to Ohio. On Sunday he took a 1000 cc bike back. The first picture shows him with the manual, checking things out on the "new" bike. It is a 1978 Honda Goldwing. I think he will be keep out of trouble with the time it will take to get it in tip top shape.

As you can see, he has all the fashionable riding clothes to wear.

The good news for us, is that we now have one less motorcycle in the shop, because this one is his to keep.

Return to Ohio

The trip to Wisconsin, Minnesota, and South Dakota, and Illinois went well. I saw all of my brothers and sisters , Mom, and Gerry's siblings who live in the area. I went to Wisconsin to Gwen's house and Glenda and her family came for the weekend. The drive through Wisconsin is so beautiful with rolling farm land and lots of trees. Very green. Minnesota and South Dakota are very flat in contrast. For those of you into "green" you would be interested to see the "windmill farms" in Minnesota for generating electricity.

Mom is doing well, still living in a Senior apartment building. She does not like to ride any distance in the car, so pretty much stays at home. In good weather she walks two blocks outside. Otherwise she walks around the perimeter of the building inside. She still does her own cooking, but family members help with buying groceries, cleaning, laundry and finances. She was 88 years old this year and has no health problems other that water retention in her feet and legs.

My most exciting wildlife sighting was a coyote that was about 100 feet away. It did not hang around long enough to get the camera. Actually I just saw it for a few seconds, but it was really cool.

Greetings from Mt. Lake, MN

A quick summary of my trip so far - On Friday, the first day of the trip I drove 600 miles, driving about 15 hours. Chicago about did me in. I took 90 through the city, and it was not a good choice. The traffic went between 5 and 10 mph for about two hours. But I made it without incident. After a refreshing stay at a hotel, I continued to northers Wisconsin to visit G's sister and family. His other sister and familily from Mpls came for the weekend too. It was great to catch up with what is going on in their lives. Pictures will be posted when I return home.

Then a drive through scenic Wisconsin into Minnesota. Along the way I stopped and visited my only remaining aunt on my father's side. She is 93 and still very sharp. So glad I stopped.

Then on to Mankato where I had dinner with bro and wife. While there I had a three second glimpse of a coyote which ventured into their yard.

Now I am in Mt. Lake for a few days. Details will follow.

On the Road Again

Tomorrow morning I am starting on my journey West. The first leg of the trip is a 13 hour drive to Hayward, Wisconsin where I will visit two of G's sisters and their families. In the "old days" I would try to drive it in one day, but I don't think I will this time. Either that is a sign of getting old or a sign of becoming smarter. I would like to think it is the latter. From there I drive six hours to Mt. Lake, Minnesota to visit my Mom and siblings. I'll be there six days.

Today I am doing the last minute preparations, like mowing the lawn. If I would not have done that, it would be long enough to bale when I returned. G has agreed to feed the cat and the humming birds. Maybe water a couple of outdoor pots of flowers.

I am bringing my laptop along so may post along the way. But no pictures. That will have to wait until I return.

I checked out several books on tape from the library. Actually I have so many that I may have to add two more weeks onto the trip just to have time to listen to them :)

K's Motorcycle

It looks like she is going horse back riding, but no, it is ---

"Motorcycle riding"

Papa finally has K's "motorcycle", as she calls it, running. The battery was poor so he replaced it with two better ones. He also put a control on the throttle so the speed could be regulated. As it was, she could drive it faster than we could run, which did not seem like a good idea, thus the control.

A three year old should probably be supervised. Note this picture. Her Dad and Papa are both looking to the left as she rides toward the opening in the trees and makes her escape into the wide fields! Click on it to enlarge to see the details.

Garden walk

Yesterday I went to a Garden walk with a friend. It is the annual fundraiser for the local YWCA. There were seven gardens. This one was designed by a professional (who me met). Our guess is that it cost at least $100,000.

Besides the overall view, I take pictures of small items I like. This one had a fairy garden. This guy was about 3 inches tall. Click on the picture to get it enlarged to see his expression.

I figured since G has several welders and lots of raw material (sometimes called junk) he could make something like this.

I found this tree striking. Love the bark.

Christmas in July and stories about my son

This Friday through Sunday, G is attending a Vintage Motorcycle show/race at MidOhio, which is a race track about 1 1/2 hours from here. So I socialized on my own. Last night friends from Illinois visited. I made dinner and we spend a relaxed evening looking at my gardens, sitting on the deck and watching a DVD of the Continental Divide trip. This afternoon I went to a "Christmas in July" party. Apparentely this is a popular thing on July 25th. It was at the home of next door neighbors at our previous house. I had a long talk with their oldest son, who is a couple years younger that Shawn. He told me stories of things they did that I was not aware of. He said Shawn understood that when you poured gas on a long stream on the ground and lit one end, you should not be too close to the end. Also, Shawn had made some kind of machine ( if you could call it that) that was to sterilize creek water using solar power. They all drank it. No one got sick, but it really did not get very warm. He also said they climbed on top every building on our property.

My memory of the neighbor boys was this. One night Shawn had a friend over to stay night. I awoke and heard the neighbor boy's voices in his room. Apparently Shawn had thrown a rope out the window and they had climbed up. It was on the second floor. G said there probably are a lot more things I do not know about what they did. I am sure that is true.

Beans, cherries and trees

So far I have been able to keep ahead of the beans. Usually they get too mature, I pick them anyway, and they taste terrible. I found a recipe to make pickles out of them. Just need some pickling spices and I will make a couple pints. We have had an incredibly dry six weeks, but now it is to rain almost every day for the next week. Yea!! There will be hope for the tomatoes, peppers and herbs. That is all I have left in the garden. Today I will pick up 10 # of fresh pie cherries, already pitted. Pie cherries are the tart ones. Pitting is not fun. When we lived in Illinois, we had relatives visiting and they helped pit cherries from two trees we had there. Later I looked at the ceiling and there actually was cherry juice on it. So I am happy to get them already pitted.

Last night I met with a man who is an amateur landscaper, but very passionate about the topic. He still works full time, but sells a few shrubs, trees and perennials from his home. He gave me ideas for lots of types of trees that I can choose from. He is knowledgeable on how to prepare the soil and how to plant the trees. He said it is more important how you plant the trees that what kind you plant. I am working on the plan now so I (should say we) can get them planted this Fall, which is the best time of the year to plant.

Motivation from afar

My health care provider (through Ohio public employees) has a plan in place to help motivate a member to improve their health (sort of a prevention plan). You receive money ($50 for me) if you make a health plan. They then call you every two months to ask how you are doing with the plan. Mine goals were consistent exercising. I chose a brisk walk for 30 minutes three days a week and then do stretches the other days. With all the yard work I have been doing, I have not met my goals. But I am committed to try again. It's not for the money. I know I need to keep limber and keep my strength up. Today I added drinking 32 oz of water a day. So I will sign off and go walk in my woods.

Small town entertainment

Lodi, which is a small town about 5 miles from here, has a town celebration called "Sweet Corn Festival." So last night G and I rode the motorcycle there. He has put a different seat on it but I could not tell in that short distance if was more comfortable. Anyway, the doings are very small town. It consists of the midway and the usual games and vendors. All in less that one square block. They have corn eating contests and such competitions. We like to check it out local events, but decided since we did not know any of the crowd, we probably would not go again. Our dinner was an ear of sweet corn and a bison burger.

Another "rural" event took place this week. G awoke to this loud rustling in the bushes outside. For some reason he did not get up to check it out. We later learned there were nine head of cattle wandering around. Our next door neighbor, who has two cattle in their pasture, ended up letting them in his pasture so they would not be a hazard on the road. It took more than a day for the owners to come around and find them. They had traveled over a mile across fields.

Communicating with animals

Recently I had a conversation with a woman who, with her husband, have rescued greyhound dogs. They currently have five. She told me how she has learned to communicate with animals. They have told her things they are upset with and their names. She can actually hear the words. But the primary conversation was about one dog which had a stroke and she had to have it euthanized. She knew it was ok because of how the dog communicated to her. But the coolest part was that she heard her father's voice saying it was ok (he is deceased) and she saw the dog looking like he was two years old running free on a hill after he left us here. She also saw six "bubble-like" objects, which she felt were angels, surrounding the dog.

The part about hearing her father, brought back a memoryto me. Once I heard my father saying the same thing. I heard his voice saying "It's ok" when I was really upset about something. This was some time after he died. Have any of you had experiences like these? I went on line and read some about this. The writers there said we all have the ability (intuition or whatever) to communicate with animals.

Deck renovation - board by board

As promised here are pictures from the deck project. Hope it makes sense. The first two pictures are "before" pictures. This is the west side.



This is the south side before we started.



This part that projected out (previously had gone around the pool) will be removed.







As you can see this was all manual labor. That is especially hard for DH because he loves to make a machine for every project. He did make the tool he is using to remove the boards.




The view from the north side with all the boards we removed.





This is how it looks from the South side. Next step is to lower this part as it is 9 inches higher than the rest of the deck.