A Couple of Weeks

It's about 60 degrees here on the 2nd day of summer.  I believe that we are expected to have temperatures in the high 80s next week, with a peek at the 90s! At least with those temps we should dry out a bit. We had almost 3" of rain this week.  Now, I like to sit on the couch and watch it rain as well as the next guy, but we are a bit tired of it.  And on those days that I have to go out, I dislike getting wet.  By some rare chance, there was an umbrella in the car, so I was able to go to my knitting group keeping the rain off me and my knitting basket.  

The heat next week should really make the garden grow...well like weeds. 

Jim spent last weekend trailing to and from Grand Island where the "Classic Green", a first time national John Deere expo there was being held.  They plan this to be a yearly thing, next year in another state.  Jim took his tractor to show and attend some seminars.  I went on Friday on my way to visit my folks and spent a little time in the building where the "people selling things" were (I think there is a word for that and I can't think of it at the moment.) I spent  my time watching a lady spin and talking about "natural fiber" (fancy word for yarn made out of animal hair).  I attended a "seminar" for ladies, although there were a few men there. It was really a "roast your man" sort of comedy thing.  Mostly, it turned out to be stories about predicaments wives get into when helping their husbands farm, like hauling, backing up trailers and interpreting hand signals, driving a tractor for the first time, and other such things. I told the story about Jim and Leroy taking their tractors to a parade on June 8 (our anniversary).  We weren't going anywhere, I thought we would go out for Sunday dinner to celebrate, so I kept quiet and didn't say the word anniversary until he was home again. He felt a bit chagrined, but we had a good laugh after he remembered that a couple of years ago, he and Leroy went to pick up a tractor on HIS anniversary.  When the bug bites, it bites hard.  

Of course, I can't remember much of anything else I did the last two weeks.  Usually, writing those words tickle my brain a bit.  The Tuesday before Lorene and crew left for Texas, Aaron and the boys hung out around here while the car was getting a coating of some sort to protect it.  It was supposed to be a 4 hour job, but was more like 6.  The boys and I played a little more with glue and glitter, Zane had a book to read and chopped up my watermelon, Barry and Christian played inside and out, and we had chores to do.  I had them that Thursday, too, sans Aaron, for my usual one-day-a-week.  Aaron brought them in about 10 which is when his PT appt. was, so I could get some things going before they came.  The main thing about that day was the money decisions.  They've been getting money for work and behavior and they could take some along for the Texas trip. They had to put some away in their give and save jars. 

This Saturday we went to the estate auction for Leroy's (neighbor--same Leroy already mentioned) father. Jim wanted to see the guns sell, there was a really old double barreled shotgun very like the one Jim has that belonged to his great-grandfather, which means it is really old because his folks were the same generation as my grandparents. Anyway it sold for $80, which was disappointing because it was so much less than the other old guns which weren't that old, and special in other ways, one of which was a .22 long rifle, called a "gallery special" that sold for $400 and the pistol the father used for "fast draw" for $200.  Jim also wanted to watch an old two row cultivator sell and if it went cheap to buy it.  It didn't.  It went for $125.  I wanted to buy a couple of feather pillows (I knew the family so I wasn't worried about cleanliness), but they finally added them on to a bunch of other stuff, gloves, old clothes, scarves, table cloths and a blanket.  I think I'll keep some of the table cloths and blanket, and the rest will go.  

We had a nice little dinner at noon today, grilled marinated deer steak, green beans with a honey/soy sauce glaze, corn with cream cheese, and twice-baked flavored mashed potatoes. Yum.

Photos of the week(s)

I love fluffy cloud photos.

Sometimes they make rainbows. 

Zane and I made a chocolate cookie that we thought would lend itself well to making ice cream sandwiches.  It might, but since I have boys that can't wait long enough for the ice cream to harden and the cookie to soften, we had rather a mess when we ate them.

The dough was so sticky, instead of making more cookies, I put it in square baking dishes and made two large square cookies.  I put ice cream between them, and topped it with whipped topping, homemade fudge sauce and Oreo's.  I had a recipe making a similar dessert using purchased ice cream sandwiches, but being a tightwad and preferring to make from scratch, we had a very nice dessert anyway.   

Of course, Zane thought we needed candles.  

We each blew one out and then went outside to eat them under a tree. 

Since I had the boys two days that week, I wanted to try making ice cube paints.  You put water in ice cube trays, put food color in the water, making sure to mix all kind of colors, watching how they mix and ending up with a lot of brown and very dark colors.  Then, as they freeze, put popsicle sticks in them and let them freeze hard, like 24 hours, not 3.  

Since this was likely to be messy, I though painting the patio would be best.  However, it was a cool morning and the ice didn't melt as quickly as I hoped it would. 

I would always like to try these kind of projects according to the directions, like having ordinary colored popsicle paints, but that's not how these boys roll. 

Painting the deck.

Zane eventually went to splatter painting. 

Jim wiping down his tractor at Classic Green

A few photos of my mom's flowers. 

My car in front of my folk's house.

 You can't see the house for the trees.