Out door work

The former owners of our property used various kinds of stones as mulch. They put plastic under it. Not the best growing conditions for plants. So we have started removing it. Yesterday Gerry and I loaded two half barrels with stones and put them in the woods to prevent erosion. Good exercise. There is still more to do, but I am encouraged with the start.

Today I tilled the second half of my garden. I had done the first half a month or so ago. I planted seven kinds of hybrid day lilies there. It is a "nursery" for the plants. I will move them in the spring to a prepared bed.

To answer the question about the quote, that was for my dear husband. Just wanted to bring it to his attention that he cannot take his large collections with him. He actually thought it was funny.

Vacation not happening

Gerry and I have been planning a vacation to view the Fall colors in the Northeast states. This started as a two week trip, then one week. But I am sorry to report it now is a zero day vacation. He has some heavy ( important to be present for) things happening at work. So we are back to the drawing board. Don't weep for us, as we are not. We will be thinking about how to spend his vacation days. There should be other fun things we can do, just in smaller increments.

Quote for the day: "Have you ever seen a hearse with a luggage rack?"

Deck needs staining

My next big project is to stain the deck. I have spend several hours doing research on what is the best product to use and how to actually do it. One site lists eleven (yes 11) steps and it warns that you should not rush any of them. It seems that I will need to strip the stain on the part of the deck that still has stain on it as it has the roof over it. The remainder is quite weather bleached, but should be stripped so it all looks the same. The railings will also get stripped. After stripping, you put on something that neutralizes the stripper, then stain. And of course you have to completely rinse it after each step. When I am working close to the house siding I will need to cover it with plastic or the stripper may splash up and remove paint from the house.

The next part is what will make Gerry's jaw drop. Since labor is such a big part of this, one should get the best stain available, which translates into $$. I am guessing between $200 and $300. But I am sure that if I hired someone it would be more than that, given the amount of labor involved. Guess I will sleep on it tonight and decide if it really needs it. But I already know the answer to that. It really does. So, words of encouragement are requested.

Why did a son disown his Mother at his birthday party

I have a story to tell. A mother invited her son (who will be 33 years old tomorrow), his wife and their two children, ages 1 and 4, to dinner. It was a special dinner to celebrate his upcoming birthday. She slaved in the kitchen all day making a special dinner of baked pork chops, mashed potatoes, fresh corn on the cob, and tomatoes that she had raised in her own garden. The children were put to bed by their mother in the bedrooms that the grandmother had carefully set up for them. At this time a conversation was ensuing downstairs in the living room between the mother and her son. She asked him to look something up on his Blackberry. He shouted upstairs to his wife, "Get the children, we are leaving." What had the mother done to deserved this treatment?

The answer to this question is: She insulted his Google Android by calling it a Blackberry. So mothers around the world take note. There are certain things that are sacred and you had better know what they are.

Happy Birthday Son! :)

Pig Roast 2010 - Part One

The Pig Roast was a couple weeks ago. The last of the tables, paper plates and games have been put away. I decided to post pictures of just the pig roasting saga in this post. Pictures of the people attending will be the next post.

This is the "Pig in a Blanket". That is a bit of a play on words since "Pig in a Blanket" is a small hot dog rolled in a batter and baked. But this pig was rolled in ice, then plastic, and then in blankets so he stayed really cool all night.

The roaster is being prepared and moved close to the house. This took place at about 7:00 am. Helpers at this point did not include Andrew since he had a good excuse. He had arrived after midnight and needed his rest so he could preform his duties later in the day.

We learned in the past to get the coals hot while putting the pig on the spit. The trick here was to use compressed air to get it going.

Here we have men from three states up at the crack of dawn. Jonathan came from Pennsylvania, Harry from Illinois and of course Gerry from Ohio.

The cutting crew doing their thing. Hungry guests are standing around patiently waiting.

Ladies Luncheon

Today I had a planning meeting with officers and committee chairs of the Cloverleaf Women's Club of which I am President for the next two years. I decided to invite the ten women over for lunch and have the meeting at my house. I made a salad (recipe was on Epicourious) of greens, cooked chicken, peaches, caramelized onions and purchased poppy seed dressing. It was a success. We planned most of the scheduled meetings for the year. Our big fundraiser will be in December. We are planning a Holiday House tour. The next challenge is to find five or six people who are willing to have strangers walk through their house. I did not find any volunteer to chair the committee so have to give some thought as to how to handle that situation.

As an aside, it was great planning to have them here because it forced me to get the house cleaned, which would have been necessary by next weekend, which is the Annual Pig Roast/Pot Luck. We have only 100 reservations this year. Last year 140 came, but I did not keep good records as to how many did not RSVP and just showed up. This year I have this information recorded on an Spread Sheet. So next year I may not invite people who did not RSVP at all this year.

Needless to say, the next week will be a busy one. I am excited about seeing everyone who is coming.

Show and Tell

Today there is some kind of "show and tell" at Invacare. G decided to ride the KLR motorcycle that he rode on the Continental Divide ride and to Moab this year. We have a small digital picture frame that Shawn and Stacey gave us years ago. So we put about 200 pictures from these two trips on the picture frame. G then rigged up a car battery with an inverter so show the pictures since the event will be outside in the parking lot. He tried to make the KLR look somewhat like it did on the trip. He put extra tires on the sides and duffel bags on top.