Thursday, June 20, 2019

pictures

Went for another walk "in the park" the other day.  The flock of Canadian geese were all lined up at the lake's edge!
Not sure what they had in mind ... but I thought they made a great picture.

Then when I arrived home... there was a baby robin sitting on the edge of the steps!

He wasn't really able to fly... just to make short little hops.... which he did when he noticed I was trying to get a good close up picture!!

Saturday, June 15, 2019

busy morning

At 8 am ... early for me ... I headed out to the Farmer's market. It's still small and I am hoping that the number of vendors will increase as more veggies are ripe!! I headed first to the Mennonite ladies booth for sweet rolls and a small apple pie. Then off for beets, green beans and tomatoes. They are more expensive here than in the grocery store but Bob and I decided the market needs supporting and are willing to pay more. The market also has non-veggie things but that's not for me.

One vendor and I were discussing the fact that students - both high school and college - are not as adept with counting change and literacy as they used to be. I said that we  ( the US) have an illiterate President - he says he doesn't read and look at the grammar in his tweets!!!   Boy the lack of response was " deafening " ... lol

Returned home to find that the circle was filled with cars, trucks,  a car pulling a flat bed wagon and a U-Haul.  My neighbor's house is sold and the family is moving out!  Looks like they have lots of friends and family to give them a hand. That makes the third ( of six) that have sold in the last few months...




Thursday, June 13, 2019

What's that noise??

The driveway is full of trucks.. the basement is full of workers...
The noise is everyone working to replace our 44 year old furnace and air conditioner and 20 year old hot water heater !
The water has been turned off with the taps on...to bleed the lines when the water is turned on!
The cats are locked in one of the bedrooms with food and a litter box ... and a trunk to look out the window to see what's making all the noise.

About 4pm they finished up ... taking all the old pieces and parts etc. Everything looks really good ... they checked out the new thermostat, hot water heater's temperatures and the new a/c. ...and turned the water back on!!

The cats were really good... boxed up in one of the bedrooms and bath. Little fussing !! But they were very glad to get OUT ! And surprisingly enough they weren't mad at us !  Bob gave them their dinner ( a can of wet cat food divided between them) early as a thank you!  There's always two bowls of dry food available....

Monday, June 10, 2019

BLT 's and strawberry shortcake

We eagerly look forward to the first strawberry shortcake and the first, of many, BLT sandwiches.

When the kids were little we would go to the U-Pick farm. We lived in SW Michigan at the time and the owner felt kids could eat as many strawberries as they liked.... after all, these were his future customers.  Robb and I quickly picked enough strawberries for shortcake and strawberry jam while the girls munched away ( He did eat while he picked!).
That night dinner was a huge strawberry shortcake with real whipped cream.. nothing else. That has been a family custom ever since.

As for BLT's ... well we start having them when we can get "real" (non-grocery store) tomatoes... our younger daughter doesn't like fresh tomatoes so she always has peanut butter, jelly and bacon sandwiches!! Now her daughter loves tomatoes and readily snitches the small grape ones I buy for salads!!

Aren't taste buds funny??

Saturday, June 8, 2019

WINNER

Last week when I visited the Blue Springs' Farmers' Market I noticed a box with slips for a giveaway. So I filled one out!  R
Yesterday a phone call told me I had won and could pick up my gift card today! I won a $25.00 gift card from Hobby Lobby.... and had my picture taken for the Farmers' Markets' website.

While I was there I bought more tomatoes, radishes, green beans, zucchini and from the Mennonite Ladies' booth sweet rolls and a small strawberry rhubarb pie - yummy.   So it's BLT's for dinner. We can't resist them when tomatoes come from the farmers and not the grocery store.  We used to grow our own but now we don't have any non-shady garden space.  Later on in the season when farmers start having seconds I think I'll do some canning - tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce etc.

Friday, June 7, 2019

nothing has happened

We were warned over and over this week that we would be having more rain... and so far nothing has happened.
The paper ( Kansas City Star) says the flooding along the Missouri will continue for months. The Corps of Engineers has been releasing loads of water from the reservoirs to the North up by the Nebraska-N. Dakota area due to large amounts of rain and snow melt.  The berms have been breached all along the River and things are still so wet that repairs cannot be made.

So no rain but our summer heat has arrived. Today we reached 87 F and the house air conditioner runs most of the time. It has been a faithful system - 43 years old - new when the house was built. So Bob decided a new system was needed. Who wants the old one to quit either when it's cold or when it's hot ?  Next week is the Day.
Plus a new hot water heater and a new house shut-off valve for the water....
Hope these guys are as good as the roof ones were....

Next week we will become the grandchildrens'  source of transportation... Both parents are working and Lili needs to get to HER job and Dominic has band camp.
Lili told Bob she'd rather work than be in school... so Bob told her he always felt that way at the beginning of summer and a summer job but by the end of summer, school seemed better!

Think I lost 10 lbs this morning... had my hair cut, summer version, short!!




Monday, June 3, 2019

Wonderful weather

Monday  June 3rd...We have had several days of wonderful weather - sunny and warm and NO rain.  But more rain is on its way.starting tonight and off and on all this week. Up to 3 inches total
Even with no rain there has been flooding and levee breaches... roads are closed and people have been rescued. In places both North of Kansas City and East, the Missouri River is way above flood stage. Pictures on the TV are awful.
I'm sure things are just as bad along the Mississippi River....

I feel badly for the farmers. River bottom land is the most fertile ... now lots of it is under water from rain or from the River. River water carries loads of sand and when it is gone, the sand remains. That sand isn't good for growing things !
Plus... things have been too wet to get onto the fields for getting the fields ready or for planting.

Saturday, June 1, 2019

Blue Springs' Farmers' Market

The Blue Springs Farmers' Market is a small one... to be honest, a very small one but I do want to support it rather than go to the larger ones in Independence and Lee's Summit.  So I went this morning!
I came home with new green beans, tomatoes, zucchini, green onions  and some wonderful Mennonite baked goods.
I really enjoyed chatting with the Mennonite women who man the stall. We have chit chatted for years! I came home with sweet rolls, a mini strawberry and rhubarb pie and a new ( to them) cherry tartlets!!  None of which are good for my diet or Bob's ! But will be delicious!
One of the women gave me a gooseberry from the bowl she was working with.  When I was really little we had a bush outside the kitchen door. I don't remember those as hard and sour as this one was... but good for memories'  sake!!

Looks like we will be having BLT sandwiches soon... fresh non -grocery tomatoes!  Yum!

later... we had a sweet roll each for breakfast! Also yum...