Monday...after the big weekend....

 The beginning...people just starting to arrive, shortly before noon.  

  It 's a really nice place that we hold our family reunion every year...a state park, where we have this pavilion that's just steps away from the lake and the playground (and the bathrooms) lol. it's got a huge bbq grill set up over to the side of it too. There are about 8 banquet sized tables under there, and everyone brings their lawn chairs and scatter all over the perimeters.  I am guesstimating that we had about 80-90 people this year.  Not a bad turnout.

The guy with the camera is my brother who came in from Georgia, and his motley crew. AND--looks like there's one kid missing, now that I'm looking closely.  A grandson. Jake. lol 

lol..the beautiful mommy-to-be...my niece, Kelly Ann...wanted a good picture of her mommy tiara. Here's a better photo of this beauty

Holding her cousin, baby Rowan.

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  It was a good time and everyone had a ball. We had new cousins for everyone to meet and lots of really great food and perfect weather. A Trifecta!

Got home last night at about 8:30 and fell into an exhausted reverie, thinking about how it use to be and how many of the old aunts and uncles we've lost. One of the cousins (whose mom just died this year) brought a couple of boxes of old photos he found while cleaning out her house, so there was lots of that too.

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 I just wanted to stop in this morning and say hi...got to meet my cousin for coffee in about an hour, so I need to get going here. Then I'll come home and clean house and do some cooking and take it down a notch. I'm still riding the family high, lol.  My sister from Florida, her husband and one of her sons with his girlfriend came too, so all of my siblings made it this year, which was very cool. Although my brother from Georgia came and brought his wife, we didn't see much of her, I'm afraid. She's an only child who can't handle the crowds (I guess).  But it was good to see him and her for the one minute I did.

  Have a grand day everyone. You can imagine my house and the dog hair quotient, since I was gone from here 2 days and didn't vacuum. I have my work cut out for me today...

(BTW--while I was gone my butterbeans grew another 2 inches!!!!! )

Namaste.

An ordinary day...

  It was a pleasant day today, here on Honeysuckle Hill.  The daffodils are shooting up and the little white flowers of spring are showing up here and there. It was only in the high 40's and a tiny bit breezy most of the day, but tomorrow's supposed to be almost 70.  Not as sunny as today though, I don't think.


  The boyo came over today, after working out at his dad's farm for 6 or 7 hours putting up fences. They ran out of barbed wire. lol His shoulder is hurting him again and he needs to get his butt back to the chiropractor. He said he has an appointment.  I fed him some leftover aglio y olio...and he was impressed. He loves garlic anyway... and said he'd never had it before. I told him it's a lot better fresh. He spent 2 hours detailing my car for me for a little extra cash. It's clean as a whistle now! woohoo!


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  I made the rye bread today, and it turned out pretty good. Didn't raise as much as I'd hoped...but--I didn't make 2 small round loaves either, I used bread pans. The slices make a half slice of regular bread, but I'll tell you, it sure was tasty.


  I made the Vegetarian Reubens for supper tonight, served on that home made bread.  O. M. G.  They were outrageous. I took a picture of the one on my plate, which was a little over cooked, because the Irishman gobbled his down while I was getting the camera.  I made oven baked sweet potato fries to go with it, and those are ALWAYS good. The filling on the sandwiches is thin sliced red onion, sliced baby portabella mushrooms and baby spinach sauteed together in a tiny bit of olive oil (spinach goes in last).  Then you put a scosh
  more olive oil in the skillet and put the slices of bread in, with Swiss cheese on them. You spoon filling onto one half of the bread and sauerkraut on the other half. Before starting this, I made a small batch of Russian dressing. You take the sandwich slices out of the skillet once they are nicely grilled and put the Russian dressing on the filling side. Close 'em up and eat 'em up!


  The sweet potato fries were easy too. I used one big sweet potato and it was more than we could eat. (Of course, it was about half the size of a football!!)  I scrubbed it, dried it, cut the ends off and cut it into fries. I lined a cookie sheet with aluminum foil, put the slices on there. Drizzled them with olive oil and then seasoned them with sea salt and fresh ground black pepper. Used my mitts to mix 'em up good and make sure there was oil on all the potatoes.  Into the oven at 450 for about 30 minutes total. Stop halfway and turn them, over with a spatula. A little piece of heaven...


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  Had a chat with a 2nd cousin of mine last night that I've never met. Another cousin who's been doing genealogy on my father's fathers side of the family has uncovered a whole passel of folks from down in southern Missouri.  He came online chat and wanted to know how we were related. I told him our grandfathers were brothers. We had a nice chat...and my cousin and I are taking a trip down to meet them in a couple of weeks. How cool is that??   She also told me tonight that she has charted the arrival of the clan from England into New York, and from there to Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Oregon.  I did not ever hear that we were from England. She said she's got a lot of stuff, and will bring it with her.   


  We have a strange family in a lot of respects. I told her that I always thought it was just us on the Morss side...nobody ever talked about any other relatives, and I looked and looked and never found anyone with the same last name, spelled like ours is.  She said she was surprised that our 2nd cousin never knew his grandfather. I said that if his grandfather was anything like his brother-our grandfather- the family probably disowned him and walked away.  She concurred.


  My grandfather was a lazy no count drunk. My father hated him.  My grandmother worked herself to death trying to keep her family fed and a roof over their heads.  He got drunk and he went fishing, and that's all I ever remember him doing. And expected her to wait on him hand and foot. And sometimes she did and sometimes she didn't. lol   She cleaned peoples houses and she took in ironing and she did whatever she could to earn a little money.  She raised a kickass vegetable garden and could make magical meals out of nothing. Her sons helped her all they could...my dad left school in the 8th grade because he got a job and could make money for his mom. The boys all hunted and fished and made sure she had meat in the smokehouse and freezer.  And they all loved her very much and did everything they could to protect her from him when he was drunk and mean.


  My dad's sisters (the two younger ones) are in various stages of denial about what it was like when they were kids. The two older ones , both now deceased, had no such delusion about him.  


  Anyway.  Life goes how it goes, I guess.  We play the hand we get dealt...


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  Well, this ordinary day is coming to an end.  I'm ready to put my head on the pillow and drift off to dream land...




Namaste, y'all....

A beautiful sunny day...

...on the heels of bitter cold and snow. We are down to icy sludge mostly now, although our yard is always one of the last ones to see the snow melt away.  The hill in front of our driveway is still a little treacherous, but it will be cleared by today if the temps reach close to 50 like they're saying.

  A little sunshine goes a long way.  lol

  Been a long week. I got home Friday evening, after making the trip down to the memorial service for my aunt and my niece's birthday too. I got her her first "real" jewelry box (i.e. NOT one with Hello Kitty on it) and a pair of birthstone earrings  (garnet) that are dragonflies.  She loves dragonflies. After all, she IS 9 now....lol

  It was a bittersweet trip...a blessing to see so many of my aunt's friends turn out to say their goodbyes, and a lot of family members as well. I was taken aback by the sudden (to me) descent of one of my aunts into Altzheimers..she couldn't think of who I was...and it broke my heart, watching her struggle, trying to pull something up out of her memory.  Something in me hated that it was me she couldn't remember, and not either one of my brothers sitting next to me.  On a brighter note, they had several picture boards and I got to see some great pictures of my parents and all the brothers and sisters of my dad's family, and most of them I hadn't seen before. Pictures of the 3 sisters as cheerleaders at their high school...must have been in the 40's. A picture of my uncle Will in his paratrooper uniform, right before he was shot down and killed in WWII. A picture of my grandmother and her brother as children, that no one but me seemed to know who they were, or had seen that picture before.  (I have that picture too).  All in all, a wonderful trip down memory lane.

  The snow came later there than it did here and we drove into the worst of it on the way to the funeral home. But it all worked out okay, and I went to dinner with my brothers and their wives after the service. That was nice. I forget sometimes how funny my brothers are...The next day, I stayed at my youngest brothers for most of the day and decided to leave in the afternoon so I wouldn't have to drive too much in the dark,. They were predicting a little more snow, and I thought better safe than sorry.  It was a pleasant and uneventful trip, both ways. 

   My nephew is holding his own. They had a big blood drive in Florida yesterday to help repay the blood bank for all the 15 pints he was given and I guess they had a great turnout. He is waking up and he kissed  his wife when she asked him to. He is on a lot of pain medication still, so a bit wonky, but the other drugs they were using to keep him fully sedated are gone, so that's a big deal.  I haven't heard a word from my own sister about anything since the first day it happened, so it's a good thing I can keep in touch with my niece.  This is nothing new on her part. She said she would stay in touch and she didn't and that's pretty much par for the course. She is how she is and that's all I can say about it all. I tell myself it's a tough time and it is..but she calls others and talks to them, so....nothing new under the sun, as they say.

  I made the Irishman a big breakfast this morning of Denver omelets and fresh fruit and biscuits. He has a District Meeting today (he is now DCM--a promotion from Alt. DCM when the regular guy had to have his work schedule changed). His home group meeting ends 2 hours before the District meeting, so he won't drive all the way back home, and I won't see him again until after 8 tonight when I get home.  Sooo...it's just me and the critters here lazing around the house. 

  This place is such a mess, I almost need to hire help to get it cleaned up. (Or get off the computer and get busy).  Nawww....  lol   I am going to do some stuff today, but not kill myself with it. I have some laundry to do that I might start. And maybe run the vacuum...just to freak out the dogs. lol  Then tomorrow I could take the vacuum to the shop, because it is not running right...it's not the motor, but the rolling wheels or something. It likes to hang up on the carpet...and the whole thing needs a tune-up and a cleaning.

  The weather is doing a crazy upswing and supposed to be back in the fifties tomorrow.  (Shaking her head...) This is just so wrong....

  I can't find a suitable picture for the blog this morning, and I guess if that's as bad as it gets, I'm gonna have a good day. lol  Nothing just seems right, so I guess I'll go back through and look again...

  Hope everyone has a peaceful Sunday.

  That's MY plan....

  Namaste.

Sigh....it's over.....Thanksgiving at Honeysuckle Hill, 2011...may it R.I.P.

  The line starts HERE.  lol

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    Well, when it was all said and done, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving. There were 25 people in attendance, enough food to feed a starving country and the ages ran from 4 months to 63 years.  We had a really good time, and no one was offended by the dirtiness of my house. lol   The 8 children in attendance had a ball seeing the chickens and playing with the dogs and cats and the bird.

  Everyone was shocked that I didn't have paper plates or paper napkins. I did have to pull out a few pieces of plastic cutlery. lol  It was really nice. My brother's (who .lives in Georgia) 3 boys came, and they usually don't. So that was a real blessing.

  Folks started arriving around 11:30 and the last ones left around 6 PM.  I am exhausted--in a really good way.  I can't believe I'm still  awake. lol  I woke up this morning at 4:30, got up a bit and then came back to bed and slept another 45 minutes, woke up again.  I was really not feeling well...my heart was racing and I was nauseous...worried me a little. I laid back down at 6:30 after the Irishman got up.  Crazy. I took some Pepto Bismol and got myself dressed. Forcing myself to get up and get busy helped, but I was icky  for a few hours.  Feel like it's catching up to me again and so I think I'll go to bed.

  I'll be back tomorrow. Happy Thanksgiving and hope yours was filled with food and family and friends and lotsa love...

Namaste.

"Human kind cannot bear very much reality." ~T.S. Eliot

True words.  This explains our constant need for political debates and television.

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  I had a lovely day cleaning and cooking and having my sister and my sister-in-law to lunch today.  I made the most lovely Vegan creamy carrot soup and then a gorgeous salad of greens and red onions and bell peppers and radishes and carrots. I topped it off with a heart stopping pile of roast beef, ham and smoked turkey with Provolone cheese, on 15 grain bread and grilled. We talked and laughed and ate like big dogs. I am really blessed with a pretty wonderful family.

  After they were gone, I had a conversation with the electric company which resulted in cutting my bill nearly in half for this month and next. Yea....me!

  Then I ran to the post office to mail said check and stopped at the local market that was having a sale. I got chicken breasts for 1.39/lb...ground chuck for 1.99/lb and  country pork ribs for 1.89/lb.  I spent over 50 dollars, but stocked the freezer nicely.

  I've been home ever since. 

  It's cold out there, about 28 right now.  Expecting a hard freeze tonight...we'll see. They said there would be one last night too, but it didn't happen. Then the temps are supposed to steadily increase and get back up to the 60's and 70's later in the week. it never got above 50 today and the wind was pretty fierce, so it felt even colder. Good day for soup, and we had enough left over from lunch to have for supper too. 

   We've got the garden covered, but I'm afraid if it gets too cold we may lose most of it. I have turnips that need harvesting and a bed of kale to dry. Anybody ever do that?  Not sure if I want to just string it up somewhere or  use the dehydrators or what.  The kale needs a good freeze to bring out the sweetness. I have a bunch of green tomatoes out there too and I meant to pick them today to pickle, but I got way laid by my company and then forgot about it. Oh well. We'll see about them tomorrow morning. If  they're lost, they're lost. I hate it, but not much I can do now after midnight.

   Gonna cut this short and go to bed. I've been up since 5:30 this morning and am starting to run out of gas.

 Plans to make an apple crisp tomorrow and find other fun stuff to do, which  (as usual) will include chickens and food and love and happiness. The Irishman has a 10 AM appointment to get his tooth crowned and I don't really have any plans at all besides finishing the laundry I started today.  Gonna be a "seat of the pants" kind of a day, I'm guessing. Sounds great to me.

  TTFN. Sleep well and have a great weekend...

Namaste.

Hump Day...

 Sitting here listening to the washer spinning the last load of clothes. I have chili on the stove simmering away and am getting ready to make a nice skillet of cornbread.  My son is out in the driveway putting new brakes on the front of my car. Some pups are sleeping, some are on guard in the front yard, and mostly it's a gorgeous fall day, breezy and clear.  Only about 67 degrees out there.

  This seems apropo. My son is in a snit because of his wife and I am trying to mind my own business.  You can imagine how well that is going. Amazing how I still want to go to bat for him and make his boo-boo go away and kiss and make it better.  I guess your babies never get to big for mommy to worry about, no matter what.  Sigh....

**********************************

  On a brighter note, Judy over at My Freezer Is Full (who is my gardening guru) gave me a lovely award that I am supposed to pass on to bloggers who have 200 or less followers (I think) I'll need to check, as most everyone except me seems to have about a gazillion followers.  LOL  I'm supposed to pick 3 and set them down here and send you their way. (I think).

 (You'll have to excuse me-I read it last night when I should have been in bed and now I am a little fuzzy on the details.)  I'll have to do it all right in a little bit.

  Ok. Here we go:

First let m,e say that I kept looking at blogs last night and couldn't find the followers on a bunch of them. Or it would say FOLLOWERS    but   no names would appear. lol

 The blogs I want to give this award to are  ones I really enjoy reading....starting with Linda at BlueSkiesSunnyDays.  I love reading her, because I learn something new every single time. Plus, she and I are both back living in our native lands after years of wandering. lol  Check her out!

  Then there's Erin, at Garden Now-Think Later, who never fails to amuse me with her tales of gardening and family and great photos.  She's a gardening Guru and supermom ! Go there--you won't be sorry!

 I visit TeresaEvangeline daily to read her thought provoking posts and am never disappointed. She's a soul sister...something about her writing and her life speak to me at a deep level.  She has a beautiful blog--go look!

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  Alright. It only took me three days to write this. lol Some things are best not attempted when one is too tired.

  I'm off to bed now. Had a good day...lunch with my boy in town, a walk in the park with Roxie, and a nice supper with the Irishman.  Also had a brief visit with my brothers wife, who was up this way and made time to come see me.

  How blessed am I ???

  Up, up, and Away..............

  Namaste.

Thundering Thursdays

Not really.  I am just dreaming of rain..and yet, none comes.

It has cooled down some though, and at 9:30, it's only 80 degrees. Balmy. Sunny and nice out there.

  I've been busy this morning making the second batch of Peach Pit Jelly, all told, 20 jars of jelly, some for keeping , some for giving...excruciatingly sweet for my taste, but yummy nonetheless. I was going to make Jalapeno Jelly today too, but have remembered that you have to use liquid pectin for that, and of course, all I have is powdered. So--it goes on tomorrow's list. I need to do some housecleaning anyway...

  There's another pint of jelly in the fridge.  Bad planning.  lol

  Whew. I always feel like I'm burning the candle at both ends this time of year. I stay busy all the time anyway, and the canning season just crams more work into what little space is left. lol I'm not complaining--I love doing this and I love eating my own food.  But it can be a lot of work. Trying to get the garden ready for second plantings, and today would be a good day to get out there too...sigh...but it's really too damn dry to plant anyway. And I have got to prioritize....lol.  May have family coming for the weekend from Minnesota. Won't know til the last minute, it looks like. If I don't do anything else, I HAVE got to vacuum up the tumbling balls of dog hair and dust and get the spare room straightened up--just in case. And now that I've had a jelly marathon I need to mop the wood floors too...because no matter how I try, I get jelly everywhere it seems. (That's it--I need a wife!!!!)  

  As I was looking up some different kinds of recipes for the pepper jelly, I found some delightful looking sweet red pepper jelly that I may HAVE to try too.  I'm gonna wind up having to buy more jars this year, I'm afraid. That's probably another thing to put on my hurry-up list : :inventory empty canning jars.  I'm guesstimating that I've already used over a hundred canning jars this season, counting jelly jars.  Maybe more than that.

  Tomorrow I am going to pull my basil and make and  freeze pesto.  I'll swing by the big store where I can get pine nuts today before I meet my girlfriend for lunch.  I still have 4 big grocery bags of dried basil from last year that hasn't been bagged yet, so...there are at least 8 basil plants out there awaiting their fate. Probably more tomatoes and peppers too...I haven't been out to look since Tuesday. But it would be great having pesto in the freezer and thanks to Judy for the idea. I have a great soup recipe  called Potato Basil Beef that uses pesto in it...mmm...haven't made that in a long time...not to mention a million other things to use it in.

  Feels good to just sit for a minute. The hardest part for me, physically is all this standing. 10 years ago last month, I was injured in an industrial accident. My pelvis was crushed and my hip was broken and my gluteal muscles were ripped away from the bones and I have all kinds of peripheral nerve damage and paralysis and  limitations from it. Very hard for me to stand for extended periods of time. I have learned how to adapt as much as I can, have special chairs and stools and do a little, rest a little, do a little, rest a little. I really need to invest in a fatigue mat for in front of my sink...I think that would help too. So you see...I have to work as much as I do to get half as much done as a "normal" person.  lol  It's all this resting between things that messes me up. lol

   Am planning a girls lunch next week with my sister and sister-in-law and several nieces. It's my sisters birthday on Sunday, and we try to get together every month or so...it'll be fun having Skyler here to be part of it too. We'll probably go to Red Robin, about 15 miles from here. It's central to everyone. Sort of. lol  If it works out, it'll be7 adults and 3 kids. Fun,Fun. Next week is going to be like a serious staycation for me.  I can't wait!!

  Alrighty...breaktime is just about over, and I have a lovely little list of things to do. Just finished wiping down all the jars of peaches and putting them away, to make room on the counter for the second batch of jam. That will sit for another 24 hours or so before I can put it away too. Need to figure out what to make my honey for upper tonight and get that going too. Gonna see if I can get ahold of my MN sister in law and pin her down about coming...don't really expect her...it's one of THOSE things. I know she'd like to, but her life tends towards the unexpected drama/crises alot.  We'll see...

   Have a grand day, ya'all.  I'm going to!

Namaste.

Monday...a new week.

 Here's a glimpse of the things that made my past 4 days so full that I could barely get on the computer!!

Aren't they beauties ??  Grandson, niece and friends grandbaby (friend in the wing chair)

We painted our faces...(If I look pretty rode hard and put away wet...it's because, believe me, I was!!) Youngsters take a lot of energy...no wonder it's the young people that have children.  lol

And here, is Bella. The grandson's dog that is gonna live with us. For a while?? For EVER ??  who can tell. She's very sweet, 4 months old, and is being taught about boundaries and etiquette by the other dogs and kitties. lol So far, so good...though I do wish she could figure out about peeing outside ALL the time..mostly she's doing okay, if I keep an eye on her.

 The weather has been atrocious. We had 12 people here on Friday for supper and had to stay indoors it was so hot and humid. It went well though, and we had a good time. My niece begged to stay when her parents were ready to leave, so we cajoled and pleaded until they gave in. So for Friday and Saturday nights I had 2 kids to play with. I declared Saturday an "Internet and TV free day" and they looked at me like I had stolen their popsicles. "What are we going to do?" they asked in unison. I laughed my best witch laugh and said that they were going to play like real kids. They went down the road to the bridge and creek and promptly fell in the mud and made a wonderful mess.  When the Irishman got home around noon, we started making plans. We went to see Zookeeper at the movies, played on playground equipment at the park, went to the lake and fished minnows out of the water, went out for pizza and then came home, where we promptly got buckets and headed for the garden, where we picked over 2 gallons of beans, plus some squash (zucchini and crookneck) and cucumbers.

 Later we watched Harry Potter and it was a fine day. Oh yeah...somewhere in there we also painted each others faces with watercolor paints. They both slept like the dead that night. lol  On Sunday, we took the grandson home first (he lives 20 minutes away) and then headed south to meet up with my brother and sister-in-law for lunch at a halfway point between them and us. This was the first time their little girl has slept away from home, so you can imagine how THEY were. She, on the other hand, wasn't ready to leave and wants to know if she can come stay a week before school starts.  LOL  Her daddy got a rather wild look in his eyes...


  Yesterdays heatwave somehow caused an explosion at one of the electric company (not ours) substations, knocking out power in the entire town of Bunker Hill and all outlying areas. We got ours back on (God bless our little rural electrical cooperative!) within 4 hours, but the town was out until this morning, waiting for the big guys to get it back on. It was dangerously hot and humid  and the temps in the house quickly climbed to suffocating mode.  It was already 90 this morning before 10 o'clock...they're saying 101 with heat index of 112. Crikey--that's PHOENIX!!!!!!  lol Hopefully things will be up and running for everyone, as this kind of heat can be dangerous.

  I have a little housekeeping to do and some decisions to make about something and then I will be off to MissB's house in the middle of the afternoon. We have plenty of leftovers for eating, so I do not feel the need to cook, probably for a couple of days. lol Yippee.  There's a big bowl of salad, some Scandinavian potato salad, cucmbers and onions in vinegar, pulled pork,watermelon...mmmmm...good summer eating.

  Taking it easy today.  Should pick beans, but probably won't. Did water the petunias and my big spider plants. And myself. lol  But it's already too much out there. May have a friend coming for lunch...we'll see. If not today, then tomorrow. She's at the doctor just now...


  Have a cool day, all. It's cloudy like it might rain, but I'm not holding my breath. We could [surprisingly] use a little wet.

 

Namaste.

Home again, home again, clippety clop...

 Here's a shot from our family reunion.  We camped from Friday til Sunday and then everyone came together for the potluck doins' on Sunday noon. This is an annual event that I restarted when I was about 19 or 20...years after my grandmother had died and everything came to a grinding halt. The family quit getting together much and I decided that SOMEBODY needed to get something started again.  So, I invited them all out to my farm and we had a wonderful family day together. It has continued...even after I moved away and left the area for years. THAT is the power of family....

  Now, so many of the old ones are dead and gone...many of our parents and aunts and uncles.  More of us have moved away or stopped showing up, but we still have a prettty good crowd show up.  We had between 50 and 60 this year, and there were quite a few missing.

  I was watching all the little girls running around and playing on the swings and chasing bugs and was reminded of my own childhood, when all the cousins would come together and we would behave like wild Indians. I said to my cousin Penny--remember when that was us?? She shook her head no, and laughed.  I have 3 aunts left on my dad's side and they are getting older by the minute. The oldest one went through some serious trauma in the past couple of years and lost her daughter and her husband one right after the other. It has taken all the piss and vinegar out of her and now she is a confused old woman and it breaks my heart. She was always a rowdy and loud funny aunt. She seems to be gone....

   SO...it was a good weekend away, and a dear friend cared for our critters and all was well. The end of this month is Patrick's family reunion up in northern Wisconsin, and he will go, but I probably will not. Between $$ and animals and everything, it is rare that we can both go away at the same time. And that's really okay.

  It rained here Sunday morning after temps hovering near one hundred and the garden has gone bananas. I will go out later today and take some more pictures...it's fun to have the before and afters. lol  The tomatoes are loaded with blossoms and have shot up to about 3 feet tall. The beans and squash are thick and the potatoes...oh my gosh--the potatoes!!!  They have got to be strawed now, as they are huge.  I should be out there now thinning (which is the worst hardest thing for me to do!!) and weeding and putting some strings up for the peas to climb. But I am trying to recover from the weekend and catch up the laundry and clear up all the mess that comes with unloading the camping stuff.  There are ribs thawing in the microwave and I'll cook some corn on the cob and some taters and that will be supper.

  Everyone thinks I am either a genius or crazy for telling (and showing) them how to put Listerine in a spray bottle and use it to keep bugs away.  It really works--a friend told me about it, said she sprays it around her patio furniture on the deck and it keeps them away. I tried it and it really does work. I was running around spraying everybody yesterday.  The heat was crazy there, but we had the nice cool lake to play in and lots of shady trees to sit under and mostly this:  THERE WERE NO CICADAS!!!!!
 [Have I told you abou the 13 year cicada hatch that is going on?? It's like an Alfred Hitchcock movie out there. They are waning , or starting to, and the noise in the air is more like a loud hum than the screeching shrill chainsaw noise they were making trying to attract mates.]  It was an extra blessing to have no cicadas for the whole weekend.  lol

  Okay, I have lots to do before I head off to MissB's for the afternoon. I'm there from 3-8 and it's nearly 11 now. Oh, and 84 degrees, heading for 96. 

  Glad to be home in my own bed with my chooks and my critters around me. They were overjoyed to see us pull up in the drive last night. (That doesn't quite sound right. The chickens and critters are NOT in my bed). lol

  Have a great Monday all....drink lots of water and be kind.




Namaste.

Mothers Day.

This was one ass-kickin' MD weekend for me. 

  On Saturday, my brother and family came and we grilled burgers and dogs and brats, and the guys went fishing while my SIL and niece and grandson and I all played with kittens in the house. It was sunny, but the wind was brutal, so we ate indoors.  The food was good and the beauty of spending a day with family as almost more than I could bear. Check this out:

 They wound up taking 4 kittens instead of 3. We had the best day...so much love and laughter !

  The guys went fishing out at the pond. My grandson was the first to catch a fish, and indeed, wound up catching 3.  My brother caught several as well, some crappie and blue gill and bass.  But the man of the hour was my beloved, and here he is with his "prize"---

A beautiful bass!! She was full of roe, and they gently released her back into the water, as they did with everything they caught. My niece, who is 7, is an avid fisherman herself.  She goes with her dad all the time. For some reason she didn't want to fish though, she played and ran and had a ball out there with my grandson, who is really good with little kids. He's a big 13 now.

   The fam left around 6:30 pm and grandson stayed the night. Then this morning around 11, my son came over. He just missed our big waffle and eggs breakfast.  He brought me 6 African Cichlids for my fish tank. He helped the Irishman do a few chores around here, and we sat out in the beautiful sunshine for a good part of the day. We grilled a late lunch, and enjoyed ourselves immensely.  He helped me water the garden, and promised that he would be by next week to hook up an outside spigot for me. The he and the Irishman moved the chooks out into the coop. They rigged up a piece of chicken wire to divide the run in half, and we will leave them that way for a couple of days. Give the older hens a chance to get used to them being in there to help lessen the chance of nasty attack on the newcomers.  He also helped hubby with the big barrel composter, and they turned it around and cleaned it out.  It was a really wonderful day, and having my son all to myself (his wife is out of town) was priceless.  The boys cleaned up all the dishes and wouldn't let me help. lol  We hung out in the yard and talked about the gardens and looked at the progress. The peas are finally up, the squash are germinating, the potatoes are FINALLY busting through the ground.  There is a whole bed full of fingerling potatoes that came up volunteer from potatoes that we apparently missed. The tomatoes and peppers are looking great.

  I hope to get some seeds in the ground tomorrow morning, one reason I am up this late trying to get the laundry finished.  We had several days of rain coming last time I looked...but the weather forecast changes constantly, so who knows? lol  I should probably go look again.  I went ahead and watered today anyway. 

  My yard is looking grand. I have yellow and purple irises all in various stages of blooming, the Shasta daisies have started flowering as well. The peonies are ready to open any minute. The primroses are pretty in pink,  the containers of allysum and nicotania I planted look gorgeous. My wisteria is growing like a weed, and I am getting some starts of a snowball bush from the neighbor...as soon as I figure out where to put it. lol   All the lilies are huge and lush, though they won't flower for another month or thereabouts.The rose of Sharon is looking healthy and robust, and it will start to flower in a few weeks, probably.  The grass is growing in where the water lines went in, and I probably need to buy another couple of pounds of seed and sow some more.

  Okay. The dryer has stopped. I'll fold those and put the last washer load in the dryer. Then I'm heading off to bed.

  I hope all you mothers had a wonderful day too...and those of you who aren't mothers as well.

  Blessings on all your houses!!

Namaste.

Saturday night...

 

The crazy factor the past few days has been quite remarkable.  Suffice it to say that my world has been going 180 miles per hour  and I have somehow managed to make it through intact. For this I am incredibly grateful.

We have had a few days in a row of pretty cool temperatures again , and I wish spring would make up it's mind to just stay. We've had some rain and thunderstorms, and so the grass is greening up nicely at least.  Today's high made it to 60 degrees, but it didn't stay there long. Got chilly and overcast and is supposed to storm some more tonight.  Yuck.

Tomorrow we are going to the farm store and buy some baby chicks.  I am very excited about this endeavor and cannot wait to ave those little babies to play with.  We keep them in a cage in the guest room...the cheeping and chirping drives the cats crazy, lol.  Not sure what breed we're going to get, but we might mix 'em up. Just getting a few, for eggs, and are still talking about the possibility of raising meat birds. The jury is still out as to whether or not we could manage to do the butchering process.

  I'm very tired tonight. I got up at 6 AM so I could cook and clean and get ready for a small family gathering today My youngest brother, wife and daughter, my sister and my son and grandson. And us. We ate fried chicken and potato salad and baked beans and deviled eggs.  And we laughed and played and talked and had a ball. I had people here from 11 AM til after 6:30. I am a happy camper and a tired old woman....all rolled into one.

Earlier this week  I spent the evening with a great bunch of women and we ate and watched The Secret and had a great time. I didn't get home that night until almost midnight.  Thursday night I attended a women's meeting and we moved all our stuff out of the place and will set up shop next week at our new location. It's a really good move for us on a whole lot of levels..  Friday night I attended a meeting as well, after spending most of the day doing household chores. We are also the proud caretakers of 4 new kittens. They are gorgeous little creatures and their mama is very relieved to have birthed them. We've already found homes for them.

I didn't realize that I hadn't posted in so many days until I logged in here tonight.  Wow.  It's good to have a full and busy life today.  I am especially blessed indeed.

Alright, it's creeping up on the midnight hour and I am going to rest my weary head.  Sweet dreams.

Namaste.