Weekend - needed.

This week was a blur.  I started my new job on the transportation team at the local nursing home. My first transport was successful and I had a super easy lady who was sweet as she could be. If all my days there are like that, it should be a very good summer!  I will admit that I still miss the liquor store - the people there were fun to visit with and the job was easy, but this will be good too as soon as I get settled in.  My main job right now contains a lawsuit and an audit so basically anything is more fun that that!  

Summer is exhausting for children and dogs! 

Last weekend,  Caneron’s corporate team was in a basketball tournament.  At first, I thought we were already going to KC, we would go watch.  Then I found out he played at 8:30 am and Harper needed picked up at the airport at 7:30 pm, so we opted to just have dinner with him instead.   I love that he is having fun doing all these corporate team things.  

He also participated in a corporate track meet.  

This child reminds me so much of Quincy.  Ornery.  Dirty. Opinionated.  I think it’s awesome.  

 

Cameron attended the Jones side of the family night at the Royals game. He said he was amused by their banter. He also said they got to the game super early since they were nervous they would miss out on the free beach towels.  

This weekend, we were supposed to go to Wichita to see Colin and his family.  We were excited about it all week. Unfortunately, Colin got called out on a mandatory rebuild after some storms destroyed the power lines in Salina.  He called to tell me they had been giving optional overtime all week.  He had not taken it because Spencer is laid up right now. But yesterday they were told it was no longer optional.  All of the people who had the weekend off were called to go.  So Spencer and Easton went to stay with her parents.  We decided we would postpone our visit.  We were sad but definitely understand.  

And who wouldn’t be sad about missing out on baby snuggles?  

Since our trip was postponed, today became a work day. I had a lot of planting  to catch up on in the gardens, and Jim is working on running some electric fence for an experiment we are doing with the goats.  Jim also put the mower back together after losing the front tire while mowing yesterday.   I planted rows and rows of green beans, turnips and beets.  I am trying some experiments with growing radishes and carrots in buckets, and I got the mulberry bush starts that my mom got for me all dipped in rooting powder and started.  The girls and I also went to look at a new car for Quincy, and we got the girls library cards….something Saige has been wanting to do.  We also bought a load of hay, which Harper and I unloaded by ourselves.  Let’s just say that while it is put away and won’t get wet in the weather, the stacking job would probably not be smiled upon by my farming forefathers.  Doesn’t matter much. They eat it no matter how it’s stacked.  

My maintenance man sent me this photo.  He said that he was worried our new contractors might not be up to the tasks.  I thought it was pretty funny.  Not the best place to play probably, but it reminded me of my brothers.

Even though we worked really hard today, it was a much needed kind of work.  I like being outside with my hands in the dirt.  We got a lot done and managed to get a lot of stuff planted before the rain hit.  Fingers crossed that the 11 cent seeds I got at Menards all come up!  

Weekend-y stuff

My traveling girl got back from DC.  She reports that it was a lot more fun than she thought it would be, but she was happy to be home. 

I was happy to have her back!  The CWF program is an amazing opportunity, and I am so thankful that the kids have had this experience.  Saige will go on the next trip, and then I will hang up my fundraising hat for good on this.  I hope my grandkids will have the opportunity to do it and I hope all of our kids will look back with fond memories of the experience.  

Harper told us that her favorite part was probably visiting Mount Vernon.  

When Harper went to Tennessee over spring break, she literally spent no money for anything except meals. No trinkets.  No souvenirs.  So I gave her strict orders to buy herself something.  Get a shirt.  Splurge on a hoodie. Do both. I even mentioned it to the 4-H agents, who promised to remind her along the way.  She did buy herself a key chain.  The sponsors told me that they kept reminding her, until it was the last hour of the last day. I will always love this picture, not because she spent money, but because she looks happy.  Love me some happy Harper.   

Colin and Spencer sent me some updates.  We got to see all the other kids this weekend.  Preston and Sunny decided to come spend the weekend here.  And since we were going to the airport, we stopped along the way and had dinner with Cameron and Tatum. We had a very nice meal at a Mexican place that Cameron recommended.  I was shocked that he would suggest that!  

We timed it perfectly.  We found a parking spot (did not miss the garage this time), had time to grab the bathroom, and walked out just in time to see Harper coming down the escalator.  We grabbed her bags and were back on the road in about 15 minutes flat.  

Other things from the weekend, Saige had a double header at Harveyville Friday.  They won both games, making their team 6-0. Saige took a pretty hard hit to the thigh and has a pretty good bruise.  She also got a double on a 3rd dropped strike, and that brought in 2 runs.  We will take it.  

The girls have continued to check out all of the local parks they can find.  This looked fun!  And windy! 

Had to take some photos of my gaillardia.  My favorite!  Welcome back buddy!  

It was a busy weekend, and I enjoyed visiting with the kids.  Guess I’ll go back to work- might be more relaxing.  

 

weekend ready

Harper spent yesterday at Arlington, and Mount Vernon as well as a few other places.  I truly have not heard much from her other than to say yes, she is having fun and that she really liked Mt. Vernon.  I guess I will get a big recap tomorrow night when she comes home.  Thank goodness the sponsors have been great about posting photos!  Otherwise....

Luckily, I don't have time to nag at Harper about her lack of sending me photos because I have plenty of projects occupying my time.  Yesterday, I forced Quincy to help me get the cover off of the pool.  This is what we are starting with.  Not the worst it has ever been for sure.  I can see the bottom, so that is not all bad.  We did drop some debris in there from the cover, which we hoped to avoid, but are just not strong enough.  I also have a leak, and am trying to isolate the area to find it.  It is a tiny leak that I attempted to patch last summer but never found it.  When we lowered the water to below the skimmer, it stopped, so we know about where to start looking.  This weekend Preston will be home, so I will recruit him to helping me.  I hope to be able to swim by next week!  

Confession - when we bought this house, I was not really on board with the pool that was in the yard.  To me it seemed like a liability, and a lot of work.  And that is still true today - it is a both a liability and a lot of work.  BUT when the original pool broke, it was me that talked Jim into replacing it.  It is also me who does quite a lot of the work on keeping it clean and the water balanced.  I always say it is for the kids, but truth be told it is for me.  I love having it.  I love getting in the pool in the summer time and then getting out and working in the garden or mowing the lawn, and then getting back in when I get hot.  I love having time to sit in the pool on my floaty with a mixed drink.  And I love poolside afternoons with the kids and grandkids.  It really brings me quite a lot of enjoyment and I hope that we will be able to continue to keep up with it for a long time.  

Last fall, I bought some sweet potatoes from a woman in Scranton.  We ate most of them, but I used a couple to make my own slips.  I was not sure what I was doing, but they went crazy inside the house, and even though they said to wait to plant them outside, I was over having them everywhere so I stuck them in this raised bed that Jim made for me out of an old entertainment center.  They have gone absolutely wild.  I have no idea what I am doing, I have never grown sweet potatoes before.  Fingers crossed that I will be getting pounds and pounds of sweet potatoes!  I absolutely love them!  

And these are white potatoes that I planted in feed sacks.  They have also gone crazy!  I planted some in the ground as well.  This is the second time I have grown potatoes in sacks - but last year I got about 4 potatoes.  Fingers crossed that they produce more this time.  The plants are way more impressive for sure!  

And I was given a couple of goji berry plants.  One looks absolutely dead, one looks like it will survive, and one is thriving.  My understanding is that if you plant one, you will end up with many, so I am not overly upset over the one that died.  Another confession.... I have no idea what a goji berry is.  I have never tasted one, I have never even really heard of them.  But my board president's wife was giving them away, so I accepted her offer.  She tells me that she loves to eat them straight off the plant.  The internet says that most people dry them and use them like dried cranberries.  I guess we shall see what happens.  I like trying new things.  I can always rip them out if we hate them right?  :)  They are a super food, filled with vitamins and minerals and highly recommended for nutrition, so I  am hopeful we can find a use for them.  

My desire to fill our yard with edible plants that come back year after year is slowly becoming a reality.  My little orchard is thriving, and I have expanded our berry beds.  I am thrilled with this in ways I cannot describe.  I truly am just a giant nerd I guess.  

 

goings on

We have had an odd week.  I am not sure why.  Maybe because Harper is gone.  Maybe because the weather has been weird, and the summer schedule is a bit crazy.  But odd sums it up nicely.  Last night, i discovered that one of the turtles had laid an egg.  Now, we thought that the turtles were both boys, so I was a little surprised by this.  And alarmed.  Two turtles is definitely enough turtles!  And although baby turtles are very, very cute, I was sort of hoping that these turtles were nearing their natural life expectancy.  I plan to show the grandkids, and then rid ourselves of the possibility!  I did giggle - right now I have more eggs than I know what to do with.  So of course, someone gives me more eggs!  

Yesterday, I worked the entire afternoon in the yard.  I saw the forecast for more rain the next few days.  I panicked a little and decided we better get the mowing done.  Luckily, Quincy had the day off and volunteered to help with the mowing!  I also planted more strawberry plants that I found on a clearance at Menard's, and I might have hit a clearance sale at 2 locations on tomato plants.  We now have 55 tomatoes in the ground.  Is that excessive?  I don't think so.  Last year, I grew 30 plants.  I was able to make salsa and spaghetti sauce, but did not have enough to make chili ready tomatoes, or stewed tomatoes for soup etc.  So I decided to expand a little bit.  Will 55 be enough for that?  We are going to find out!  I also planted more squash, and more zucchini, and picked wild blackberries to work on while it is raining today.  I might be spending too much time doom scrolling, but my goal is to grow and can a lot of our food this year.  We may be eating weird things, but we will eat!  The one thing we did not get done, that I really wanted was to get the pool uncovered and running.  My hope was that it would be able to refill on rain water, rather than on water we have to pay for.  And honestly, there are years when we would have been swimming by now, but this year has been weird with a few hot days but mostly cold, rainy weather that has not felt like pool time.  

Harper hasn't said much about her trip.  She did tell me that one of the sponsors takes too many photos.  I am not mad about it, because that same sponsor has been good about posting them in the parent group, which is where I am getting these photos.  Yesterday they went to Capitol Hill, met with some of their senators and representatives and Representative Mann got them a guided tour of the Capitol, and a night tour of the monuments.  Aside from the complaints of the overzealous photography I haven't' heard much at all from her.  

They also went to the Farm Bureau building, had a tour, got to stand on their roof, and were served lunch.  Free lunch - which Harper likes.  :) 

Colin and Spencer sent me some photos.  Easton is trying to crawl already!  Colin said he uses his forehead instead of his arms!  Crack me up! 

I am planning my road trip!  Grammy needs some baby snuggles!