eye eye

It has been 8 hours and my eyes are still big black pools.  I can hardly wait to go to sleep. I cannot be cranky whilst sleeping.  Good thing it was a cloudy day.  Good thing Far Guy had a meeting last night…Chance will put up with me no matter what kind of mood I am in. 

The bean field

We had storms on Tuesday night but the worst of it went south of us.  We got 1/2 inch of rain so the grass will grow again.

I had an eye appointment… my vision is pretty much the same.  I am getting new reading glasses.  Far Guy picked them out because of course I could see nothing. Isn’t it funny that the time when your eyes are getting dialated is when they want you to pick out new frames?  I know the glasses felt comfortable on my face.  I have another appointment for the usual Vision Field Tests…just to be sure I don’t have glaucoma.  My pressures are slowly going up 16 then 17 and now 18. I may have some cloudy spots that will have to be taken care of someday when they get bad enough, the Doc says my implanted lenses are properly in place and look good except for a few cloudy spots.

I have a headache and I am cranky…my blood pressure was way up…we had to wait about 20 minutes past our appointment time.  I know I am whining.  I will be better when I can see properly.

Far Guy was patient.  Chance went along because the high yesterday was 68F or 20C eh! A tad chilly for July but I hear it will warm up on the weekend.

Cross one appointment off the list. No rest for the wicked this week, one appointment or meeting after another. Next week isn’t looking real relaxing either.

Wistful Wednesday: Berry Pickers

Back in 2003 the Grand Girls and their parents would come to visit Minnesota from Nebraska.  One of their favorite summer activities was to pick raspberries with their Grandfather.  I have a photo “someplace” of them all …but couldn’t find it. No doubt I put it away someplace safe and sound…just cannot find it.

But I did find the girls picking berries.  I would give them cups and off they would go.

Savannah

Paige and Maddie

They would pick and eat and share.  Paige was quite concerned about bears.  I stood out on the driveway and shouted at the bears to pack their bags get out of the woods and move to Hawaii.  Years later Paige remembered that and began to cry when she heard her parents were going to Hawaii…of course that is where all the bears were.  Grandma sent them there.

The wild raspberries are ripening now, Far Guy brought me one last night…I had saved two for him…I need to pick some everyday.   They bring back sweet memories.  If the berries are hanging low on the branches Chance will help himself.

Carving with kids

Last spring the carving group that I carve with asked me to facilitate an event.  They would “help” but did not want to be in charge.

It was a one hour program that should appeal to young potential carvers ages 8 and older.  It was part of an Art and Design Summer program sponsored by the Library.

Carving as art is hard to teach to a group of wiggly giggly kids.

We decided to have a display and let them see what we had carved out of wood and to let them carve Ivory soap.

I collected patterns, soap and fashioned some tools that would work to carve soap. A whole package of plastic silverware was modified.  Parts were cut off and smoothed out to make various knives, scoops and pointy cutters.  Far Guy buffed them all so the edges were not overly sharp…they would really have to work at it to draw blood.

20 kids signed up and 17 showed up.  Good thing I had many helpers.

This little girl carved a canoe.

A flower

And the star pupil of the day carved a snow bunny!  He asked me to take his photo with his carvings and his carving tools.

I covered their work spaces with wax paper, one little boy kept moving down the table to a clean spot.   Another little boy told me he was an artist and could do a complicated carving and he would need no help from me.  ( He was a turd.)

The girls carved hearts, flowers and lady bugs.  The boys mostly turtles and the snow bunny and a dog/whale/fish…it kept changing.

Most of the adult carvers made the rounds encouraging and offering assistance and they all helped me clean up…cause there was soap pretty much everywhere.

It was a good afternoon.

Dr Bill brought a First Aid Kit just in case, he also offered to give them real knives…which I kindly declined.

Shiny Brites with a history

On Saturday morning I received a box in the mail.  It was from Colorado. A whole box of ornaments now named Cyndi arrived!  Five Ice Blue and Five Red.

Cyndi writes:

I Immediately thought of you when I unearthed my Christmas Ornaments and came across a box of Shiny Brites,  They aren’t the prettiest…but they have been on my tree every year I’ve had a tree since we bought them for our first Christmas together in 1972.  They were purchased at the Rhinebeck Hardware Store in Rhinebeck, NY.  The price is still on the box, $1.19!  We were married in October but I had to finish student teaching about 300 miles away.  I remember finishing the semester and driving home a few days before Christmas.  We were giddy about celebrating that Christmas.  We went out and purchased a small tree, a stand, some lights and two boxes of Shiny Brites.  This is all that remains, with the exception of a few that have lost their tops or have borrowed a top from some other ornament.  Enjoy them.  I will look for them on the next year’s Shiny Brite tree.  Best always, Cyndi

Thank you so much Cyndi!  I think they are just perfect!  I love when Shiny Brites have a history.  I will tuck their history into the box with the ornaments!

Cyndi and her husband are selling their home and many of their possessions because they are “downsizing” and moving.

Brothers

My brothers had a busy day, first they set up a Stingray Tree Tent.  I heard they didn’t read the instructions. My older brother is collecting “cool toys”…I asked him what was next on the list a few weeks ago…this is it. His grands are gonna love it!

It is a way cool tent.  You hop on the bottom part and then open the zippered trap door and go “upstairs.”  It is anchored to three trees.

Far Guy is inside.

You can lay on either level, the top one being the one with no bugs.

We have skeeters now.

After a quick trip to town for steaks, they got some landscape bricks from us and built a firepit to cook up the steaks.  I made potato salad.  The meal was rounded out with other salads, fruit and Smores. My parents and my Aunt Anna joined us…then they all went fishing and we came home to fed Chance and woodcarve until the skeeters drove us inside.

The farm and a new puppy

The curve in the driveway to the farm where I grew up.

I remember when the Lilac bushes to the left were really small. We could walk inbetween them. In fact every morning we would head out the door around the corner of the house, through the lilac bushes into the ditch and up on the road and down the lane to catch the bus.  In the winter we had to go the long way around. The driveway was about a tenth of a mile long.  On the right where the Jack Pines are there were just a few Jack Pines and a row of Lombardy Poplar.

The barn. I need to take some more photos of it from different angles as I have a project in mind. Not that I need another hobby but I saw a new art form that I want to try.  I should probably hurry with the photos as sooner than later this barn will collapse.

The real reason we visited the farm.  Meet Annie the thirteen week old Border Collie from Montana where her parents were both “cattle dogs” she has a good home on the farm with some beef cattle to herd and a whole bunch of little kids to spoil her.

She got bored with us.  She has a sister named Lily who is a Boston Terrier…who will be the one in charge.  It was fun to see this Border Collie puppy. 

Chance watched from the back seat of the car…we only unload him when it is necessary.  He had a good view and barked as we drove away!

Kayak Launch and In Sync

My baby brother has a kayak launch at the end of his dock.

What never seen one? 

They are way cool. There it is off to the right side of the photo.  It is an easy way to launch a kayak.  No one needs to hold the kayak while another person gets in…

Jen and Andy took the large kayak out on the water.  Before they left I asked if I should hold anyones glasses??  Jen is nortorious for losing glasses in the lake.

Not so much in sync with each other.  Someone used their outside voice to communicate.

They got much better.  The launch was a really nice place to get out of the kayak too.

It was a nice evening out on the water, most of the 4th of July celebrants have gone back to work, either that or they ran out of fireworks, last night was reasonably calm.

Bowling Ball Redo

A few years ago Jen gave me a bowling ball covered in glitter for Mother’s Day.

 

It was looking sad. It was put on my summer list of things to do. It needed a redo.

I bought some glitter and used decoupage as the glue to hold the glitter on.  The bowling ball sat in the cooler about a week, with me dabbing on the glue and sprinkling glitter.  Yesterday Jen bought over a clear spray sealer.

She put it back on the stand. It is back to being pretty again! It is probably back on the stand correctly also!

Orange Trees Update

The trees were injured by some kind of field chemical overspray in the Fall of 2014. I wrote about the Orange Trees here.

They are looking better.  The smaller trees seem to have recovered almost completely.  The older trees have many dead lower branches.

This is what they look like today.

This is what they looked like in April of 2015.

It goes to show you that given time trees can recover from the brink of death.  If someone had told me they would recover I would have said they were nuts.

Happy 4th of July!

Not sure what we will do today.

There is a parade in town, but with all the people and traffic I am not sure we will go. 

It is “no left turn season” in town.   Tourists clog up the streets, especially making left hand turns….you don’t even have to see the out of State license plate to know they are tourists.

Last year my Dad was one of The Grand Marshalls of the parade so that was a good reason to fight the crowds.

I have a rack of ribs and a salad planned for our picnic that will probably be at our usual supper time.

A quiet day at home to finish up a few projects seems good to me.  And a nap.

However you choose to celebrate the day I wish you a Happy 4th of July!

Fireworks

Minnesotans cannot purchase or use exploding fireworks: no firecrackers, bottle rockets, missiles, roman candles, or mortars and shells. Acceptable, as they have been, are sparklers, cones and tubes that emit sparks, and novelty items like snakes and party poppers. 

Then why am I hearing various booms…that are not party poppers.  People down on the lake are busy.  We have another couple of nights to endure before they run out of exploding supplies.  I hope they don’t start any fires or blow any body parts off.

We make sure that Chance is walked before dark…so he can go hide by the bathroom door or under my feet.

I bet the wildlife on the lake think the world is coming to an end.

We used to have a neighbor that had a cannon, the 4th of July was his day.  Various really big booms happened throughout the day.  He and his wife moved into an apartment in town…I wonder what he did with his cannon?  After all the little noise one could have some fun with a really big noise IF she had a cannon.  (She would probably end up in jail.)

As I write this it sounds like WW3 down on the lake. Maybe it will rain.

I can hope…we don’t have any skeeters to chase the people indoors.

I must be a party pooper.

Cousins

It has been a Cousin kind of week.  On Monday we were invited “sometime this week to see the flowers”  by my cousin Chuckie.

Hens and Chicks almost in bloom

We finally made it there on Saturday afternoon.

Hens and Chicks in bloom, it has been my experience that once they make this prolific stalk topped with a bloom that they die.  Chuckie agreed with me.

He had many plants in bloom.

I think this one is my favorite.  Calibrachoa Superbells ‘Cherry Star’ or Million Bells. I love the way the throat of the flower is highlighted as a star!

It was a nice visit with Chuckie and his wife Mary Ann.

Other cousins we visited with this week.  Tom and Linda in the grocery store.  Kathy over at the farm.   Far Guy visited with John one day this week when he and Chance were out running errands.

After my Aunt Karen died I contacted two of my cousins by mail from my Mother’s side of the family.  I heard from one who lives in Tennessee and is doing okay.  The other appears to be a Psychic…so she should know I tried to contact her but I sent a note anyway and have not heard from her and I have received no psychic vibes from her either.  Hopefully I will hear something from her, my letter has not been returned…she was tough to track down…she changed her name after she was divorced.  I knew what she wanted to change her name to…and indeed it happened…found her and her new name and a photo…perhaps I am psycho psychic too!

Friday afternoon

Mikey’s Grandparents bought a home, therefore Mikey and his Mom moved too.  It is a large home …four bedroom and three baths, and various other rooms for storage and man caves, family rooms etc….. it also has acerage and a heated shop…lots of room for two dogs (Jade and Deacon), two cats (Bailey and Ziggy) and the pot bellied pig Sigourney.  Maddie said the move was exhausting, Savannah said it went well and Miss Paige was at work. Everything is in one place and boxes were being unpacked.  It is a pretty large home for a couple of soon to be empty nesters.

The new location is at least 20 minutes farther travel for us. Now it will take 1 1/2 hours one way. 

Mikey was asleep. I held him for awhile. Then I asked Maddie to uncover him…he was all snuggled in a blanket nice and cozy warm.

Hey Mikey!  Wake up!

Hey Mikey you are five weeks old!

Today his facial features reminded me of Paige when she was a baby.   I think he is losing some hair…but I didn’t say anything …some babies lose a lot of hair!

On the way back we stopped to see how things were in Glocca Morra…but no one was home.

The red geraniums sure were pretty…I moved a small Kangaroo on the patio just so they would know someone had been there.

We talked about going into Bemidji for supper but decided to come on home and find something in the freezer…Far Guy had Chicken and Shrimp Gumbo and I had some hotdish (hamburger, diced potatoes and mixed vegetables.) It is great to have freezer food that can be ready in minutes after a busy afternoon.