Quote Of The Week

Courage is tiny pieces of fear all glued together. ~Irisa Hail

A gal that lives in Nicollet who completed her chemo for breast cancer around the time that I was diagnosed had this quote posted on her Caring Bridge site. I think it is worth sharing.

Counting Down

Our four new to be parents are counting the days until the grand babies are born.

Ry and Jen will welcome little Abigail in two to three weeks. Jen is doing well and despite being almost ready to deliver she continues to do and teach yoga. I am suspecting that her training will come in might handy when she is in labor.

Lenny and Kel will welcome Julia Bernice in three to four weeks time. Kel too is doing well with her pregnancy...working 40 plus hours a week along with keeping a house clean and ready to show (it's for sale). Kel's one complaint is that little Julie Bernice keeps kicking her with those danged long legs!

And the expectant dad's...well I am sure they are anxious to have their little girls here so that they can spoil them. And David and I...well that goes without saying.

Jen reports that there is a folk lore saying women tend to go into labor when the moon is full. We just completed a full moon but their is another on September 15th...a few days after Jen's expected due date and a few days before Kel's. Now how interesting would it be to have both mom's deliver on the same day!

The 'expectant' full moon

And the sun shinning through after the babies arrive.

Summer Festivities

Our small town draws a huge crowd every Wednesday with their Turtle Races. This town has a population of 120 or so and is made up of about 4 driving blocks of streets. One day a week during the summer they close off one entire street for the well known and hugely attended Turtle Races.
They not only race turtles, and yes they really do race turtles with prizes for winners as well as having your picture featured in the local paper. Yup they even have a weekly local paper! Anyway, there are other activities during this day like

Hula hoop competitions ........for kids and adults alike.

Turtle hats are very popular.

As are the many other activities

The cars line up well outside of town, so many so that the local grocery store places a sign in it's lot to keep attendees from taking up shopper's spaces.

And, no it may not be the State Fair or the Owatona Fair but it has many of the features of those fairs in a smaller way.

Remer Days is very well attended as I am sure are many of the local 'days' in the northland.

This festival began with the Kiddie Parade...not very impressive is it....to us anyway. The crowd cheered and clapped and just had a good time.

This was followed by the 'real' parade which was much longer and more fun than we expected.

Floats much more unique than any we have seen in a while (who am I kidding, it is the first parade that we have been to in a while!).

This lady is certainly no 'spring chicken' but she could still twirl a baton!

And the north's idea of the Shriner's. OK so they didn't claim to be the Shriner's but they did make figure eights like the Shriner's do.

No parade is complete without wanna be politicians

And this one brought a tear to my eye....a tribute to the local fallen soldiers

Lead by the proud Harley Riders

Who do we think would win this race? Ryan, this reminded me of you in your younger days! Not the tractor no no the other guy.

There was even food on a stick. A pork chop on a stick and it was great. Fresh cut state fair type french fries, corn dogs, fresh squeezed lemonade and Mikey, the brats that we loved last year. Oh by the way....remember that 80 year old lady that you met last year and told her you would see her this year? She was looking for you!

Thursday Jessica is coming for a visit. I am excited to share what we have accomplished up here with her. Jess is one of the people that has seen our little slice of heaven from the very beginning and will be amazed at how it looks now I am sure. We would love to show it off to our other friends...come on up. Fall is a beautiful time up here you know!

The New Pedicure Rage

It seems that some folks pay lots of cash to put their feet in a pan containing little fish. The fish eat the dead skin off of your feet and make them soft as a baby's butt. That's what they said on Good Morning America anyway!

I on the other hand have my own private fish-a-cure and it happens to be free. All I have to do is sit on the dock while the dogs swim and let the sunfish nibble away!

A weird feeling to be sure. These fish barely move when Tack swims through them. In fact they follow her for a bit and then come right back to the feet hanging in the water.

These sunfish enticed Peeko to swim. He has always loved the water...as long as it didn't touch his chest. For about two days he stood on the dock looking at these fish in the water

And then one day he took the leap

Made a splash

And by golly much to his surprise he was swimming!

I sat on that dock and laughed out loud at him. He wasn't real sure of himself at first, jumping in only far enough to think he was going to 'catch' a fish. But now after three days I can't get him out of the water. Today he swam continually for 45 minutes while I sat on the dock knitting and Tackla ran around. Yup, he even out swims our water dog Tack.

Because David is still down south working on the little house...he is busting butt to get it done so that he can come home and stay home...I am finding that I have to entertain myself.

Today was spent getting lost in a little podunk town that has a population of maybe 300. They had city wide garage sales (what a bust those sales were...Chrissy you didn't miss a thing)! I found myself in the 'residential' section of town totally turned around and disoriented! I did find my way out, knew that I would, but for a bit I felt like..well how a kid playing pin the tail on the donkey must feel like. Blindfolded, spun around and dizzy! Too funny actually. I called Jess to get directions but she was of NO help...LOL.

I did find a great trading post joint. I have never seen so much 'stuff' in one place. This joint is a block long and is filled overfull with stuff. Mary...tons of garden art. I did walk the length of the building..no lights, a narrow walkway only as it was filled with stuff, and I was sure I was going to fall through the floor boards. It was an experience and I will be sure to take David when he comes home.

We've got an 8 or 10 point buck at our mineral lick. I have the tripod set up and am hoping to get a picture of him...no luck as of yet.

Planted 10 additional flowers yesterday. The gardens are filling up. This fall I will move plants around once we get a strategic plan to my madness.....Mary you are wearing off on me! Every fall Mary digs up and moves most of her plants and then she gives some to me! I also need one if not two more raised vegetable beds. My tomatoes are much too close together and all though we will get lots of them they aren't going to get very big I am afraid.

Today feels like a stay at home, no getting lost knitting day. The weather is great up here. I hope you all enjoy your day.

If I Ever Find The Time

I was emailing a friend this morning...Hello Mary....who is my gardening mentor, filling her in on the crop and this life of retirement. I told her of a newly opened arts and crafts center in our little town. They have classes that I would love to take (photography and craft type classes) and they also have a building where crafters can take their items to sell to tourists. So my thoughts to Mary were...I am would love to take a class or two and am contemplating dabbling in selling some knitted items...IF I EVER GET TIME to take a class and to get some items knitted up. How funny is that. Here we are retired and I have no time!

When co-workers would retire they talked about not knowing how they had the time to work...the statement always baffled me until now. It is certainly true. The beauty of it is....this life of having no time is busy with enjoyable things to do rather than the previous life.

I am still laughing....if I ever find the time........

It's Good To Be Home Again

We traveled south last week to work on the house, catch up on doctor appointments and get a baby shower together. I left poor David there to continue his work and the dogs and I came home where the weather is cooler, less humid and the house is much more comfortable. I had forgotten what it is like to live in a construction zone! The little house is pretty much torn apart however it will look great when it is done. David is busting his butt to complete it so he can come home and stay home.

I did receive a clean bill of health at my oncology appointment. My liver enzymes are back to normal and the 'thing' that I found on my neck appears to be a benign lymph node. Doc is watching it closely so back I go in three month's time.

The shower was a huge success, good food, lots of fun, very nice gifts and great company.

Sharing pictures-

The group

The games

Guess the baby food. Lenny smells it

And the dogs eat it!What's in the diaper my Aunt Sandy wonders as cousin Kim and David look on

Undress, diaper and redress the baby...with one hand...for the guys only. My oh my it was an interesting diapering/dressing process!

After the party game...what is this thing called....a form of horse shoe I guess.

Opening the gifts. Lenny surrounded by all of that pink! No GI Joe's here.

The apple does not fall far from the tree??? This little tee says it all.

Once again thanks a ton to our friends Chrissy and Brent for letting us use their garage, helping me decorate, make food etc etc for the shower.

It's An Interesting Thing

This life of retirement. We are finding ourselves able to put down what we happen to be working on to...take a drive to a town festival, bump around at local garage sales or just take a walk with the dogs. Most of you won't believe it but we have actually been able to balance work and fun...in fact we may be working less and having much more fun! Did you ever think you would see the day Mikey?

Our latest project has been the making of a creek bed. The rain from our roof is directed (via downspouts) to the creek bed and it runs from beside our house, past granny's tree, through the woods and then into Tackla's pond.

The preliminary creek

And with rocks just in time for the rain fall. It runs just as it should.

Lots of work to do on the creek yet oh but it will be nice.

We are going to pump the water from Tack's pond up to a smaller pond by the house so that water can then run back to the pond via the creek. David is going to make a filter to keep the water in the pond nice and clear. Can't have Tack swimming in green water you know!

Yesterday before going to a local auction these deer showed up at the edge of our woods. Rather than scaring them off we watched them forever until they meandered off on their own. We haven't seen our momma deer for quite a while. Hopefully she had her fawn and is just laying low.

Stopping to smell the flower?

Today we decided to take the dogs for a walk along the Zoo Line Trail. Jan if you ever make it up here we will have to grab our cameras and hit this trail.

Wildflowers galore

Butterflies

Fabulous colors, interesting shapes and textures

Even some wild raspberries that were yummy.

I have even taken the time to work on a quilt and yesterday for the first time in a long time I picked up my knitting needles. When David was back last week I sent him to the Tangled Skein to pick up yarn for me...a scary endeavor for sure....David picking our yarn for me...NOT. I called ahead and warned Lori and I think she may have helped him along a bit.
Anyway it really feels like home more and more each day.

The Lights Went Out

Have you ever noticed how quiet it gets when the electricity goes out? It gets even more quiet up here in the woods especially since David is gone working on the little house....just me and the dogs and no noise. I did have my hearing aids out so it was quiet anyway but it is unbelievably quiet without the fridge, fans, TV...etc running.

Since I had been working on a quilt and the sewing machine is electric the dogs and I busied ourselves on a long walk and then to a near by lake for a swim. on our way home we stopped by a neighbor's house. As I knocked on his door I heard a swoosh swoosh. There was a flock of hummingbirds (do hummingbirds come in flocks??) flying in and out of his five feeders. Having my camera in the car I took a load of pictures of these beauties. I have never been this close to them much less seen this many in one place.

Glen wasn't home and there I stood on his deck with a camera snapping away. I decided I best quit looking like a weird peeper and come home. After all what would you think if someone was standing at your front door taking pictures...gees huh?

Anyway, two of my favorites-

The electricity came back on at 7pm...the world is once again appropriately noisy but I still don't have my hearing aids in!

Especially For Mikey

I know that you will appreciate these pictures Mikey....

It started with David hooking his fly rod fly on the anchor rope. He finally got it unhooked, went to the back of the boat and immediatly caught his hook on the BACK anchor's rope! He got that unhooked, began to cast a few and found his line totally wrapped around his ankle. By this time I was laughing so hard I didn't even think about getting the camera back out again! AND THEN.....

He backs up and hooks himself on a daredevil...for this I did get the camera....note that look on his face.

Since the only thing that David caught was David we decided to just enjoy the night.

These two loons were not a bit afraid of us and allowed us to get quite close.

As the sunset with rain in the horizon

Another couple fishing bass and enjoying the sunset...wonder if they caught anything?

And wait...David's troubles didn't end last night. Today he intended on clearing out our walking path through the woods with the bob cat. It was a bit muddier than he thought and ended up burying one side of the bob up over the tires. The mud was like quick sand... the harder he tried to get out the more 'stuck' he became. After loads of digging and yanking with the jeep we finally got it out....but guess what...he got it stuck again. This time however we got out with just a few 'jeep yanks'. Even though it certainly was not how we intended on spending the day it was an interesting day!