MORE ACTIVITIES IN MY BACK YARD

I believe that a couple of posts ago we left hubby sitting on the patio reading instructions.  I checked on him yesterday morning and

found him making piles of wood in the yard.  Our youngest son, Lance, was there too, and they were conversing about something on the patio table.

 

 Oh, I see now.  They were looking at little bags full of gold colored nuts and bolts of many different sizes and shapes, each beside a paper label with a number penciled on it.

 Even the wood pieces have numbers taped to them.  I wonder what's going on?

 Wow!  Now they are checking another set of directions!

 

Say, son, do you understand these instructions any better than I do? 

 

Oh, ya, this is what that means.  You connect part L9 with part Q18 with bolt CR57 and nut K49.  I got it now! 

And by early afternoon they had the initial frame bolted together and the cedar posts tentatively standing on the patio area!  This morning they will center things, determine the exact spot for the posts, and will begin to put the beams and slats on the pergola! 

Meanwhile, early today it was a misty moisty morning.  (Do you know that poem?) 

I crept out barefoot and in my pajamas to take a few pictures. 

Dew drops decorated every blade of grass in the wet lands area. 

The shape of every plant was outlined with the drippy wetness.  

Ooops, something is turning color! 

The moist air hung in every little boggy hollow, 

accentuating the tall delicate stalks and 

 

the fragile cobwebs. 

I would have loved to have gone out into the swampy grasses to get some nice close-ups of these cobwebs, but remember,  

I was barefoot and in my pajamas!  I don't walk barefoot in bugs and mice and snakes and other creatures of the wetland area.  Do you? 

ACTIVITIES IN MY BACKYARD

Back in the second week of August, this is what the back of the house looked like.  There is a patio slab to the right, and then the door into the kitchen.  These bushes were so big and overgrown and ugly that they had to come down!

A couple of hours later, hubby was just left with the big stumps to dig out.

He then filled the spot with sand and prepared for the planned extension of the patio into this spot.

This morning this spot was the center of attention in our yard as these three yahoos planned their next move.

Which was to dump cement into the empty spot!

In no time at all, the area was filled with wet cement, was smoothed out, and

the finishing touches were added.

I am so excited!  This will make such a nice spot in the back of our place.  We have tables and chairs and flowers and candles and lights and a bench and..................................

stay tuned for the next chapter of the backyard makeover to find out what else we have!

WHAT HAS MARGE BEEN DOING FOR THE PAST SEVERAL DAYS?

Well, I have been writing my book.  Okay, so it's not a book.  I have been busy writing my booklet.  Merriam-Webster defines booklet as a little book.  Okay, I guess it's not really even that.  But I have been busy putting together the information I have gathered into a little bunch of pages that will be bound into a kind of pamphlet, small booklet, hence, little book! 

I believe I had mentioned previously that my high school class reunion is next weekend, and that I had sent out a questionnaire to my classmates asking for a few facts to put into this little reunion memory booklet.  Oh, what fun I've had!  Some responses came by mail, some by email, and I've had a few phone calls.  Reconnecting, after 50 years in some cases, has been great fun.  I cannot wait to see everyone next Friday night when we meet for our first event of the weekend, a casual get together at a restaurant/bar in our little city.  I can just imagine the screams and hugs we'll exchange as we see each other.  We were a very small, very close class and we are anticipating a great turnout.

Now my time is being spent trying to think of funny questions to ask at this first night get together.  You know, who came from the farthest away, who has the most kids, grandkids, anyone have a great?  Who has earned the highest degree.  Or who is closest to their high school weight, which I'm sorry to say won't be won by me!  Anyone have any other suggestions?  Keep them clean!  This is a Christian school!

So, I have sent my book off to the publisher.  Okay, the IT department at school, and they are going to print it for me.  I'm sorry there won't be any extra available to sell to the general public.  You know, you would have gotten a free copy if you would have been there with us!  Fifty years ago!  But I may think about editing my own responses a little bit and posting them for you.  We'll see!

ODDS AND ENDS

This is the restaurant for goldfinches............

....this must be the all you can eat buffet

Mr. Bunny cleans up the left overs.

The communal bath.

Must be the swimming pool.

look at the size of these blueberries!  I have large fingers and nails........huge blueberries!

Seams match fairly well.

Not too bad.........

pretty good.....

UH?  What happened?  Guess who will be ripping seams tonight?

And the picture below is something you may never see again in a hundred years..........

......my hubby reading the directions before he starts on a project!  Usually he waits until he runs into trouble, then pulls out the directions.  I was so impressed I had to take a picture.  I'll post in a few days what the directions are for........

Have a good weekend.

WHERE ARE YOU TODAY?

And where am I?  I am actually sitting in my Nonny chair  in my living room, laptop on my lap, coffee on the end table, GMA news on the TV, but with my mind on the road to Wisconsin.  My three sisters and one brother are all on their way to a great aunt's funeral, but I am not.  Oh, I certainly had plans to go also, but last night after supper, I developed a headache and a stomach issue.  It wasn't long before I knew that the 4 hour trip wasn't going to happen, and notified the sisters to head out without me this morning.  I am missing not only the time with my sisters, but the opportunity to visit with my second cousins, my aunt and cousins, and long time friends.  I am feeling better this morning, but still nursing a bit of a headache.

But that's not exactly what I mean by where I am today.  What I'm talking about is where my mind is residing these days.  It is in 1961!  A few days ago I wrote  that I was working on my high school reunion gathering taking place next month.   I have sent out a questionnaire and am gathering the resulting info into a little booklet to give everyone at our Saturday evening dinner.  And in doing so, I am reminded of so many things that happened fifty years ago!  The memories involving our little close knit high school class are overtaking my whole life these past few days, and I feel I'm living in the past.  In 1961 to be exact.

So yesterday I started researching the top events of 1961.  Some of these things are ingrained in my mind, some of them are long forgotten, but all came back loud and clear as I googled them and read about them.  Of course we all remember (or those of us who are OLD remember) that John F. Kennedy was our president.  The population of the US was less than 184 million, and the national debt was 292.6 billion!  A first class postage stamp was 4 cents and unemployment was 5.5%.  This next fact got me......The Berlin Wall was built!  Thank goodness that's gone now!  The Bay of Pigs took place, the US broke diplomatic relations with Cuba, OPEC was constituted, and the Soviet Union put Yuri Gagarin into orbit, followed by our own first astronaut, Alan Shepard, taking his first ride 116 miles high on his 302 mile trip into space.  I remember!  Yes, I remember each of these things!  Especially vivid is the first space shot.  Our school  at the time was a  4 year high school and a 2 year junior college, with dorms, a recreation room, and one TV set!  I remember we were excused from class to go to the rec room to peer at a snowy black and white TV screen to watch the huge news story - the United States was entering the space race - starting out in second place to the Soviet Union who had already put Yuri Gagarin into orbit.

I suppose the more important things to me during my senior year when I was 16 and 17, were the entertainment events.  The top movies were Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Hustler, West Side Story, and the Academy Award winner, The Apartment.  Top tunes were Tossin' and Turnin' by Bobby Lewis, and the Grammy winner, The Theme from a Summer Place, by Percy Faith.  That was my favorite!

 The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Dag Hammarskjold, and the Pulitzer Prize for fiction went to Harper Lee for her one and only book, To Kill a Mockingbird, which to this day remains one of my most beloved books. 

It was a very good year!

FUNERALS & FLOWERS

Two weeks ago a dear friend lost her mom after a very short illness.  It was an unexpected death and a sad funeral.  This morning we attend the funeral of a sweet lady I have known for 60 years!  Yes, 60 years!  I was a very little girl when I first met her.  She had just celebrated her 85th birthday and had just published a book of her memories.  She was killed when she pulled out on the highway in front of a truck.  It was a very unexpected death, as she was a healthy, vibrant woman, appearing and acting much younger than her 85 years.  It was a large funeral, filled with her family and many friends.  Last night we received word that our great aunt had passed away.  I'm not sure of her exact age, but she was in her 90's.  Aunt Lillian had been ill recently, so this death was not as unexpected as the last two.  I don't know when the funeral is, but we'll be heading to Wisconsin in the next couple of days.  I need to hug my cousin.

 

And these flowers are for my friend Linda who tells me she loves petunias!  Hugs, Linda!  Hope your head feels better after your clunk on the back of the neck!

YUM, YUM, YUMMMMMMMMMMMMM!

I spent the morning in the kitchen.  You can just call me Helen Homemaker, Betty Crocker, or Paula or Ree!  I made a wonderful potato leek soup, and I thought of Paula and Ree because it's made with both butter and cream in addition to the chicken broth, leeks, potatoes, onions, celery,  thyme, and parsley.  Yummmmm!  Awesome if I say so myself.

So for lunch we had the potato leek soup, Not Rye bread still warm from the oven.  And just made blueberry and peach jams.  As I said before, yummmmmmmm.

I have 6 half pint jars of the blueberry and the peach jams to put in the freezer.  I also have three quarts of the potato leek soup to put in the freezer.  The loaf of bread is half gone.  Not going in the freezer.  I'll just make another loaf tomorrow.

Oh my goodness!  What horrible lighting!

I love the jewel tones of jams and jellies.  (That is not mouse droppings....it's chia seeds!)   Speaking of jewels...........

......this is #2 granddaughter, Katie.  Isn't she beautiful?  Oh, Clayton, her husband, is beautiful too, don't you think?

And this little gem is Anna, #14 grandkid, with her cat.  JB.  Yup, Justin Bieber.

And a gem from my back yard.  It's a beautiful day in Minnesota.  Hope you had a good lunch.  We did.  Everything was home made and gluten free.  Don't ask about the fat and calories.

HIGH SCHOOL CLASS OF 1961

Recently I have been spending time working on my high school reunion that is coming up in the middle of September.  You now know how old I am......I graduated 50 years ago in 1961.  I was 17.  Yup, I am now 67.  Some days I feel ancient, but other days I marvel that so much time has passed. Impossible that 50 years has gone by!  And I am beginning to get excited about our reunion.

A few words of explanation.  The college where I worked for 18 years is the same school where I attended high school and junior college.  The high school was discontinued 40 some years ago, and the junior college has become a full 4 year BA degree granting institution instead of the junior college that I attended.  So this place has been in my life for many, many years, and some of my friends from high school have also been in my life for many years. And it's a family place.   My dad taught there, my husband attended there and worked there for almost 25 years.  And his parents both worked there. Five of our children and two granddaughters attended there, as did my siblings and many of Ernie's siblings.

I volunteered to send out letters and a questionnaire to my classmates, and then to put the responses into a small booklet that will be available at our Saturday evening dinner.  I am having so much fun, reading the responses, remembering each person, wondering what they look like today, and hoping each and every one can make it.  After all we were a small class.  I don't remember the exact number, but it was about 25.  Yes, that's right.  25 in my high school graduating class!  And I am hoping everyone can make it, although I already have heard from a few that say they won't be able to come.  I am getting excited!

Have you changed since high school?  I had dark brown hair, now it's white.  I had eyebrows, now they are sparse and very light.  I've never been skinny, but I am less so now!  This is my high school graduation picture. 

Most of us wore a black sweater for our pictures.  Many of us wore a circle pin.  Many of us also wore our hair in a pageboy. The guys wore suits. Today everyone strives for a unique picture, the more different the better. Pictures are taken at the lake, in the car, on a tractor, in a uniform, on a horse, or on a railroad track.   Back in the day it was all about being the same.  And all pictures were head and shoulder shots with the eyes looking off to the side.  I like the variety of today's pictures much better!

We have two days of activities planned for our reunion weekend.  I hope we can have an appearance by two of our favorite teachers.  We have planned a get together on Friday evening for those who have arrived in town, and we will have a dinner on Saturday evening.  I plan to have my camera with me at all times!

OH YA!

Yup!  The MPG readout right in the center says 59.1!  Yay me!  Love my new car!

We sure have a lot of visitors to the back yard.  Especially on the ground, under the feeder that the squirrels keep messing with!

This morning in Minnesota was a moist one, and heavy fog covered a lot of our state.  Our back wetlands area was almost spooky looking, and then add in the

cobwebs that decorated the trees, it seemed we were getting ready for Halloween already!

You can see that the evergreen are dripping with moisture in addition to the cobwebs.

But the fog and moisture burned off with the bright sun,, and it has turned into a lovely, sunny day.

All too soon this pretty scene will be covered in white!

OH MY ACHIN' BACK!

We have accomplished much in the past two days, but still have lots of work ahead of us.

We've gone from this

 To this.  This spot, about 6 X 10, will get a yard of cement and will enlarge the patio quite a bit. 

The spot below, under the kitchen window, went from this

to this.  I'll put the iris, phlox, lilies, peonies, and other perennials here.

The area on the slope that used to look like this has become

this.  I think we took out seven overgrown shrubs here.  And now I can see the gorgeous spruce trees!

But now we have this

and this

and an aching back!

In spite of the messy yard and the sore muscles, I think we are going to love the results.