ROAD TRIP!

Yesterday was a beautiful day in our neighborhood, and Ernie asked if I wanted to go somewhere on an adventure.  Yes!  I am usually up for a road trip!  So we picked a destination a couple of hours north and east of here, and we took off.

Let's see if you can guess from this photo where we went.

Yup....we went to Red Wing, Minnesota,  a picturesque city on the mighty Mississippi River, and home to two very famous items that I'm sure you have all heard about.  Both products use the red wing in their logo... do you know what I'm talking about?  Red Wing pottery and Red Wing boots and shoes.  Both are manufactured here.

 The town is also a destination for Minnesotans and Wisconsinites.  These boats and houseboats are lining the Wisconsin shore of the Mississippi River.

 These boat garages are on the Minnesota side.

 There are hundreds of these boat garages along the shore line.  There are also many open marinas along here, but those lucky folks who have had a garage passed down to them will have their own covered storage space for the winter.

The sign above the pottery  showroom.  I really love pottery, and do have a couple of pieces of Red Wing pottery, but I was a good girl yesterday and I didn't purchase a thing!

This is the old original pottery factory that has now been turned into shops and antique stores.  We had a good time looking through some of the antique shops, admiring the glassware and china, especially the depression glass because I have so much of it.  My green goblets are marked $65.....I have 5 of them!  And a footed dish, called a mayonnaise compote, was marked $50.  I am looking for a specific green creamer to go with the sugar bowl that I have, but didn't find one.

This photo was taken at 55 MPH.....sorry......it's the Red Wing shoe factory.  We didn't go there, although I did see that they have an outlet store there.  And just a little piece of history.....Ernie's mom worked there for a few years back in the day.

All in all, it was a fun day spent in one of the summer's most glorious days.  I'm so glad we went on our little road trip.

And, the little cafe where we had a cup of soup and a half a sandwich, served their healthy lunches on Fiesta dinnerware!  Fun!

REUNION PICTURES #2

This is a little tour of some of the metal art that Ernie's brother, Arnold has created out on his little farm where the family reunion was held this past weekend.  This is Arnold.

This is the car and wagon he built.  Some of the kids were able to get rides in it.

All of the metal creations you see here were made in Arnold's shop.  This is an Indian village,

complete with buffalo.

Isn't this amazing metal work?

He has a shop with hundreds of items lining the walls

and shelves.

Arnold has made many chairs and benches in a great variety of styles.

This one is occupied by our granddaughter Anna

and this one by grandson, Adam, who is more interested in texting his friends then having his grandma take his picture!

If you are interested in some of the other metal art that Arnie has created, here is a story about his Jesse James Theme Park, which I neglected to take pictures of this weekend.

http://www.mnriv.com/jparkope.html

REUNION PICTURES # 1

If you didn't accept my invitation to join my family and come to the reunion this past weekend, then these next two posts will not mean a thing to you!  Sorry!  But I will post the pictures so my family that didn't attend can see part of the festivities.

This first picture is of the shop full of empty tables and chairs that would soon be filled with scores of hubby's relatives.  Yes, scores.  More than a hundred people attended.

Here are a few of them: Ernie in the purple shirt next to nephew David.  On the other end are two of Ernie's brothers, Roy and Neil.

 Here are a few more folks, with the two women in the foreground being two sisters in law, Karen and Dotty.

More relatives.

The two young men on the left are Justin barely visible and Joe, two grandsons.  Another sister in law, Sue, in the yellow shirt, our son Kevin in the red shirt next to his wife Molly in the white, and SIL Karen again.

The cowboy in the back is the oldest family member, the family patriarch, Milo.  The others are the family that hosted the reunion, Ernie's brother Arnold on the far right, his wife Jan, their daughter Tammy in the middle in the pink shirt who was the actual hostess for the reunion, then their son Mark, his wife Shelly, and their son Jeremiah.

Ernie's brothers and spouses: left to right are Roy, Dotty, behind Dotty is David, then Sue, and behind her is Ernie, then Neil, me in back center, Karen in dark blue, Joann in back, Jan in pink, Jim in back, and Arnold.

Granddaughter Jaden holding Eden

Granddaughter Madison shooting bean bags

Ernie's brother Jim and his wife Joann

And to top the evening off, fireworks, which were much nicer than this shaky photographer shows here!!!

DO YOU WANT TO BE MY FAMILY?

If you were my family, or should I say my husband's family, you would be invited to a big family reunion this weekend.  Ernie is from a huge family.  His teeny, tiny, less than five foot tall mom gave birth to nine boys.  Yes, you heard me right!  Nine boys.  No girls.  Nine boys.  They lived in northern Minnesota, out on a little farm, in a little house where she baked bread eight loaves at a time, which didn't last long I'm sure!  Where  they had no electricity until the 1950's.  And where the boys would do things like tear down machine sheds for fun.  But that's another story.

Many years ago, Ernie's dad and his brothers and sisters started getting together in the fall.  Then Ernie and his brothers and their cousins generation starting attending, too.  Now the oldest generation is just about gone, but the next two generations are attending.  Each fall at the reunion, the spot and host are chosen for the next year.  This year the destination is only a few miles southwest of where we live, out on Ernie's brother's small farm.  His daughter is the hostess this year.  Tammy is from the next generation, the same age as my oldest daughter, Kari.   Tammy has been planning and scheming and working and cooking and busting her butt to plan a great time.  I volunteered to bring cowboy beans.

So yesterday I hit HyVee and wiped them clean of beans.  Lots of beans.  Different kinds of beans.  I'm now ready to open all these cans, fry up three pounds of bacon and three pounds of hamburger, cut up 3 onions and saute them, and mix it all together with catsup, vinegar, mustard, and brown sugar and dump it into a couple of crock pots to cook for the afternoon.  

So if you want to be in our family, hurry and get over here.  The fun begins tonight!  And pictures will be posted.  Oh, did I tell you that Tammy is a biker, and the theme of the weekkend is leather and lace?

I'm wearing Capri's and a T-shirt.  You'll thank me for that.

T A P S

 

 

Day is done, gone the sun,

From the lakes, from the hills, from the sky

All is well, safely rest,

God is nigh.

Fading light, dims the sight,

And a star, gems the sky, gleaming bright,

From afar, drawing nigh,

Falls the night.

Thanks and praise, for our days,

Neath the sun, neath the stars, neath the sky,

As we go, this we know,

God is nigh.

Taps was written during the Civil War.  There are many differing stories regarding the origin, but the Military District of Washington D.C. lists General Butterfield as the composer and the man who directed that it be used for Taps in his brigade.  Today it is used whenever a person is buried with military honors anywhere in the United States.

http://www.iboww.org/taps.htm

FAKE FIESTA

I have new dishes!  Lots of pretty colors, don't you think?  I have been coveting Fiestaware, but could not afford it.  Even on sale it was too much for me to spend.  Today I was walking through Cheepko, and saw they had dishes on clearance.  The colors were nice and bright, like the Fiesta colors, and the price was fantastic!  In fact, I got all eight four-piece place settings for just a few bucks more than one place setting of Fiesta.

The colors aren't the same.  This brand doesn't have the chocolate color that I really love, and there also is no peacock or aqua color.  But these colors are just fine by me!  Especially considering the price I paid for them.   And these bright colors sure do make my old white dishes look pretty boring, don't they!

ONCE AGAIN............

The sirens were blaring and the rain was falling, but I braved it all to get some photos for you!

Off to the north west of us....

West of us........

 Southwest of us...........The warnings have been lifted, and it's just sprinkling a little bit.  Time to fix the pork chops and settle in for a peaceful night.  I hope.

AFTER THE RAIN

The skies have been pretty cloudy all day, and we've had several rain showers.  This evening we had one of those showers, and as the rain ended, the sunlight behind the clouds caught my attention and I grabbed the camera and went to the backyard.

SPENDING THE DAY AT THE COFFEE SHOP

Yes, I love coffee.  And yes, I love good fresh coffee made from fresh ground coffee beans.  But I don't usually spend the whole day at the coffee shop!  This day, however, was different!

We have friends who farm west of here.  They also have a place here in town, prepared for when they retire from farming!  Someone in the family is finding it hard to give up his field time though, so right now they are kind of commuting between the farm and the small town where we live.  They were in town for a couple of days so Ernie and I had a date for breakfast with them at the coffee shop.  We had a great time, talking fast to fit in everything we had to say before they headed back to the farm.  After they left, and as long as were in town, we headed to the grocery store to get milk, the credit union to order a new debit card, and to the mall to walk a couple of rounds before it opened and filled up with teenagers out to buy the latest and greatest new clothes before school starts.  As I was walking through the book store I had a call from my sister who was in town and wanted to do coffee!  Sure!  Back to the coffee shop and the grins of the coffee shop staff who knew I had just left forty five minutes ago!  So my sister and I chatted away for an hour until Ernie came to pick me up.

Then I got a text message.  My friend who recently retired and who had spent the last month and a half traveling between her daughters' homes, was back in town, and she wanted to do a late lunch.  At the coffee shop!  So, of course, I said sure! 

The poor girls behind the counter really chuckled at my third visit to the coffee shop in the same day!  But hey, it wasn't all coffee.  I had an English muffin egg sandwich the first time, for breakfast; a cranberry, date, almond muffin the second time, for coffee break; and chicken tortilla soup the third time, for lunch!

Guess what?  I'm not very hungry for supper!

MY APOLOGIES TO PETE SEEGER

Where have all the people gone?
Long time bloggers.
Where have all the people gone,
who used to blog?
Where have all the people gone?
Gone to Facebook everyone!
Oh when will they return?
Oh when will they return?

I miss you guys (and you know who you are!)  Time for you to return!

SUMMER PICNIC

This is two granddaughters at the picnic we had tonight, daughters of our youngest and oldest kids!  We had a really nice time and good food.  And we were so happy to see the kids and grandkids that were able to come.  Let's see.  We had oldest daughter, hubby, 6 kids, granddaughter's husband, and grandson's girlfriend; then we had second daughter and her son; and then youngest son, his wife, and 2 daughters; and last but not least, hubby's brother and his wife.  So with Ernie and me there were 20 of us. 

A CATCH-UP POST

This is the field across from the park entrance where we spent the last two plus months.  When we got there at the end of May, the crops looked much different!  I love looking at a nice clean field of beans and the straight rows in the cornfield.  Very nice looking crops here.

Taken early in the morning, this is our campsite down there on the left.  The next photo is looking out from our driveway, across the grass in the middle, towards the camp office.

Okay, this is the current resting place for the quilt I finished up at the park.  I'm not sure if it will stay there or not.  There isn't as much blue in the quilt as I thought there was.

This is a table runner I made a couple of weeks ago.  I don't like sewing triangles, first of all, and this was a kit, and so the fabrics weren't quite what I would have picked on my own.  The layers are only pinned together right now, waiting for me to quilt it and put on the binding.  I doubt if I'll make another of this pattern.

This is the table runner I made last week.  I love it!  The fabrics are actually a Moda Christmas line.  It went together really easy...........

this is the back side to show how it's simple to do.  It's the three middle long strips, then a short strip across the two ends of that.  Add another strip on each side, and put another short strip on the two ends.  It's kind of like a log cabin or courthouse steps pattern.  It's waiting for me to layer it with the batt and backing, and then quilt it and put on the binding.  I think I'll make another couple of this pattern.

HOME AGAIN

We are home.  The temps were up to 90, and the humidity was high also, so the unloading was rough.  Ernie carried most of it in and I was putting it away and feeding the washer and dryer. He had the worst of it!  My part was in an air conditioned apartment, his wasn't.

Now I'll fix a quick supper.  It was really smart of me to have a container of spaghetti sauce in the freezer!  All I have to do is warm it up, cook some noodles, and cut up a bit of romaine.  Instant supper!  I can't wait to get in the shower and then sleep in my comfy bed, but first I have an important thing to do.  I need to call some kids and find out when I can see the grands!

It's good to be home.