Picture taken at Dad and Mom’s – not on 4th of July but the 8th – it’s a tad bit taller than Drew!
There’s an old saying around here, Knee High By The Fourth of July, which pertains to the field corn. The farmers hope for the corn in the fields to be knee high by the Fourth of July. I think they made it this year! Not only did it surpass being knee high but it’s tasseling too! The corn is loving this hot humid weather. They don’t detassle much anymore but I don’t know anyone my age that hasn’t detasseld a corn field at least once in their youth. Dad was never going to allow me to detassle because he knew what went on in those cornfields between the teenage boys and girls but then my softball team contracted a field so he let me be involved since it was all girls. By the time we were done – I sure was wishing he’d said no! I think you either loved it or hated it and I definitely did not love it! It was hard, dirty work. I was short and couldn’t reach the tassles. It rained almost the whole time we were out in that darn field. We had a machine to ride but it got stuck more than it ran and we were constantly pushing it out of the mud. You’d go out first thing in the morning and have to walk through spider webs. The only positive about detassling corn for me was the money I made – I bought my own saddle! The next summer I worked at the local Tastee Freeze. I could make more money in a couple of weeks detassling than I could the whole summer working for Mort and Julie but I didn’t care. I loved working at the Tastee Freeze! But I still love looking at the corn fields.
I love gravel roads! I love when we take off in the car for a drive and Joe decides to head down a gravel road. I really like taking off with Joe on the four wheeler on the gravel roads around our house. There’s just something about the unknown – not knowing what you are going to see over the next hill or around the next corner. Of course we live in southeast Iowa so there’s not much that’s going to surprise you – even when you don’t know the road. But I love seeing the old houses and old barns, the cows and pigs and the corn fields and the timbers. We were actually headed to Bettendorf while on this gravel road. Joe left his billfold at the campground when we went home to get cleaned up and rather than backtracking to the highway from the campground he took gravel. I was okay with that – I’d much rather travel a gravel road than drive along on the highway anyday!
I love our small town parade. So much patriotism, lots of kids, old cars, horses and fun! See the green and gray building in the background? This old car belongs to an old schoolmate of mine and his passenger is an old friend who worked with my mom at the bank. Her husband was my government and econ teacher in high school. My dad had his barbershop in the right half of that building for years. And there was a laundromat on the left side. Once in awhile my sister and I got to go over to the laundromat and visit August and get a bottle of pop! Now I get my taxes done there and I get my hair cut in the back. At one time the upstairs of this building was a hospital – that was long before I was born!
Wow – we had a busy last few days! We sold shave ice on the 3rd and the 4th, the weather was unbearably hot and humid (which is good for selling shave ice but hard on these old bodies!), our freezer decided to misbehave during this time so we dealt with that, the 4th of July parade, getting the camper ready for camping on the 5th, the freezer apparently had some stale water in a drippan underneath that provided us with one horrible horrible smell that had to be taken care of, finally made it to the campground, had beautiful camping weather, managed to get in lots of stitching and relaxing, babysitting Bayah at the campground Friday night, a wedding reception in Bettendorf on Saturday night for my cousin, home with the camper yesterday, over to Dad and Mom’s last night to retrieve all our meat to put back in the freezer that is now up and running again. We had lots of fun but today I’m thankful to get back to normal!
Drew got to watch the parade with two of his buddies he hadn’t seen school let out in the spring!Braxton won the greased pig contest in his age group – he was so proud!All set up and ready for relaxing!There’s nothing better than breakfast prepared by the hubby over an open fire!Drew put a few miles on his scooter over the weekend!Little Miss Bayah spent the evening with us while Daddy, Mommy and big brother went bowling to celebrate a birthday. Drew was thrilled to get to spend some time with her!Since it was just Joe, Drew and I camping this weekend we had a lot of free time – I chose to stitch – of course!
I’ve made a batch of sun tea every day since I started making it earlier this week. Joe has been drinking it like crazy since it’s been sooo hot out. Yesterday I decided to make two containers to try and keep up with him! It looks so pretty sitting in the sun!
Does anybody still use these old cookbooks? They were a staple in my house for years. I have a small collection but always went back to the same two. They are literally falling apart and have to be held together with rubber bands. They are stained and ripped and falling apart and I’ve written in them. I would write the date I tried the recipe and what we liked or didn’t like about it.
I don’t hardly use them anymore. The reason why I even pulled them out was to get an old tried and true no bake cookie recipe. Now I find myself getting recipes off of Pinterest and Facebook. I print off the ones I like and keep them in a binder. I use my binder all the time – it’s handy because I can pull out the recipe I want, it’s in a plastic sleeve so I don’t worry about it getting dirty or ripped or stained. Or I go to my computer and find recipes I have saved. These “new” ways work great. But I think I need to pull these old books out again. These recipes are tried and true comfort food recipes. They use basics from the pantry. Things I usually always have on hand. And there’s just something about these old books, there’s something about picking out a recipe to make that was submitted by someone I know. A lot of these people are gone now but seeing their names brings back memories. I think the younger generations are missing out on something not having these wonderful old cookbooks to use. They are like old friends to those of us who use them!
Olde Crows Nest Farm by Lori Rippey. Love those crows!
It’s been so excessively hot and humid these past couple days – we’ve stayed inside as much as we can. And I’ve been staying up later than usual to get some much needed stitching time in. I went through a short dry spell where I just wasn’t wanting to stitch. I did a little embroidery but as usual, I enjoyed a small project or two and then I was done. Then I ordered some patterns from Lori Rippey and Tina Woltman and I’m back into my stitching again.
In my quest to be more organized, I’m putting every new pattern I get from now on in a binder and I think I’ll group them according to designer. That beats throwing them all willy nilly into a tub where I can’t find any specific one. Someday I hope to get through all those tubs and get all my patterns put into binders. That will be a huge job!
I’m loving the drab prim colors, the alphabets, the simple motifs. I haven’t stitched any samplers in quite awhile and I’m enjoying getting back into that too. I feel grounded again.
I Love To Gather Tansy – Pattern by Lori Rippey
Joe has the first three days off work next week for the holiday and he’s taking Thursday and Friday off as well. We’ll sell shave ice again on Tuesday and Wednesday and then our plan is to camp after that. It should be a fun week, nothing too pressing, hopefully get a few more things done around here the next couple days, the fun 4th of July festivities and then a little getaway. Although we’ll be running home now and then to check on the chickens and gather eggs!
Slowing down – one thing we as older parents have learned to do. We have more patience. We definitely don’t sweat the small stuff. We are more willing to take the time to work with Drew more at a much younger age than we did with the older kids. Joe especially. Not because we didn’t want to with the other kids – we just didn’t have the time. Or we thought we didn’t anyway. Joe would have set a certain pace and worked hard to get a project done. The boys would have stayed out of his way. But Drew is different. For one, he’s always right in the middle of whatever we are doing. At all times. Raising him is in many ways like raising an only child. He demands attention! Aaron might have been watching, analyzing, learning in his own way but staying back. Eric would not have been anywhere around. He was usually with Abby and Jeremy. But Drew, he’s going to be right here, demanding to be a part of this, and Joe is so much more willing to slow down and work with him, show him, teach him and allow him to do this. And I love it. Do I now have deck boards with a few extra dents in them from a drill slipping off the screw? Definitely. Are some of the screws in a little deeper than they should be? Of course. But you know what – that’s okay. I don’t need perfection. Everytime I look down at these boards I’ll see my little boy on his knees, concentrating so hard, working his heart out and being so proud of himself because he helped build this deck. And I’ll see his daddy right there with him, taking the time to teach him this very valuable skill.
We’re making progress on the deck. Yeah!!! The last two nights when Joe has gotten home from work the weather has been beatufiul and we’ve been able to go out and work away. It’s coming along a lot faster than I thought it would, especially considering we aren’t as young as we once were and we don’t move quite like we used to! All that’s left is to screw the floor in place. Hopefully someday we can put a railing around it but that will have to wait a year or two (or more). I’m just happy to have the deck itself! And I’m looking foward to being able to just spend time enjoying it rather than working on it!
Taking a break to show Drew how to use the drill. This child is so curious – he wants to know how to do everything!
I was wanting to embroider a couple of pillowcases for the bedroom and/or camper when I ran across this adorable pattern of an old red truck. So I’ve put the pillowcases for me on the back burner and started on Christmas gifts instead! I ordered two of these thinking I could do one for Braxton and one for Drew. I changed the license plate to say IA and personalized it with Braxton’s name and I really like how it came out. But my plan for Drew’s pillowcase has changed as he saw this, asked for one for himself, but of course he wants a train on his. So, I guess I’ll be looking for a train pattern or at least a train picture that I can modify to fit on a pillowcase. Since I won’t be able to work on it until school starts when Drew won’t be around to see me working on it I’ll need to find something for Bayah to work on now. That shouldn’t be hard and it will be fun to work on something girlie in pretty pastel colors for a change!
We had no set plans for the weekend. Joe was gone all last week – gone for a couple nights then home one night then called out again the following day. He was exhausted. I’m glad we didn’t have anything planned so that he could relax a little after such a grueling week.
Dad brought over a bowl of wild black raspberries he had picked from the timber. I love them, nobody else here cares too much for them. So I made a cobbler. Drew ate one helping. I ate the rest. It was so good. I didn’t eat it all in one sitting – I did stretch it out over a couple, three days!
And for some I reason decided to make sun tea for Joe and Drew. Drew had asked me to buy a jug of Arnold Palmer tea for them and as I was filling a glass for him it dawned on me, I bet I could make this a lot cheaper if I made sun tea and put lemon in with it. So I got on Pinterest and guess what, I wasn’t the first to think of this! (I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be before getting on Pinterest – I was wanting to see how others made theirs) Drew thought it was a neat process and Joe enjoyed the tea although next time I’m not supposed to use quite as much lemon! I didn’t realize until I read up on sun tea that it is mostly a Midwest thing. I remember Mom making it a lot for Dad when I was growing up and we saw someone at the camp grounds awhile back making some. I’ll be making sun tea a lot I think the rest of the summer – it sure is cheaper than buying the jugs at the store and it’s so pretty to see sitting outside in the sun. I just wish I liked to drink it. I try but I just can’t get it down.
As you can see – way too many toys and stuff. We don’t have picture perfect bedrooms – we let the kids decorate their own rooms and really make them theirs.
On Saturday Joe mowed, I weeded and put down some more mulch and then we headed to Ottumwa and bought Drew a bunkbed. It’s a long story but he hasn’t had a bed for the last few months and had been begging for a bunk bed. We had shopped around earlier in the month so we knew what we wanted and where to get it. We brought it home and spent the rest of the evening putting it together and lo and behold – Drew slept in it! And he slept in it last night. He has not been one to sleep by himself for a very long time so this was huge – for all of us! If I had known a bunk bed would have been all it took, we would have done this a long, long time ago. I don’t know why but with Abby and Aaron we had no trouble with them sleeping in their own beds. Eric and Drew not so much.
Hopefully some day soon this will be deck instead of an eyesore!
Sunday we decided to finally start working on extending the deck. And of course we discovered that while we thought we had some of the boards we needed up in Joe’s woodpile, we actually did not. So after starting in on the project, we had to make a Menards run for more supplies. This was absolutely not in the budget which means we’ll be putting the pergola project on hold until next year. Which is fine. I can wait. But that also means less work for Joe this summer which is not a bad thing. We didn’t get as much done on the deck as we had hoped and it looks like there’s a lot of rain in the forcast for this week so we might not get much done but we’ll work on it as we can and eventually it will get finished.
And slowly but surely, this will be a useful and pretty space too.
While Joe was working on the deck doing things I couldn’t really help him with, I transplanted some hosta and day lillies that were going to be covered up by the new deck. Since we won’t be working on the pergola this year, I went ahead and planted the daylillies by it. Joe wasn’t wanting me to plant anything more around it until he got the sides put up but I didn’t have anyplace else to put the plants. Plus, we have the mulch to put around it and I don’t want it to set too much longer in the bags for fear it will mildew so this week I plan to put the mulch down too. We’ll just have to work around things the best we can next year and I won’t put anymore plants in until we’re done. We put the pergola up a few years ago thinking we would use it a lot but we just don’t so our plan is to use the old, rusty, corrugated tin we have to put a roof on and put sides about halfway up all the way around with more of the tin and we also plan to put a floor in instead of the loose rock that’s there now. Then it will be shaded, free from rain and somewhat secluded. Hopefully we will use it more this way.
The day lilies are starting to bloom!
That was our weekend. Nothing too exciting but we did get a few things accomplished. Now onto the week ahead. I’m thankful Joe doesn’t have any scheudled days to be gone overnight this week or for the the next few weeks. Unless some emergency crops up again. I don’t mind a day or two here and there but being gone the majority of the week just isn’t fun.
After being cooped up in the house the last couple of days with all the rain, Drew and I decided to go for a walk around the yard. We ended up in the neighbor’s field! I’m thankful they haven’t planted anything here for the past couple of years. Although I enjoy the corn fields I really enjoy the beauty of it just growing wild. The sky was beautiful while we were out and the wildflowers are really blooming. All the colors just amaze me. You can’t enjoy the beauty of it without walking out in it and really looking though. I enjoy the flower beds around the house but I just love the wild beauty of a field overgrown with grasses, wildflowers and weeds.
While I was enjoying the flowers and the view Drew of course was exploring what he calls his favorite place – the hay bales. He loves to play around and on these hay bales. They are lined up along a fence line between our place and the neighbor’s field and he makes forts and secret places between the fence and the bales. It’s a great place for a little boy to use his imagination! I’m very grateful we’ve been able to raise the kids out here in the country!
I love gravel roads! I love when we take off in the car for a drive and Joe decides to head down a gravel road. I really like taking off with Joe on the four wheeler on the gravel roads around our house. There’s just something about the unknown – not knowing what you are going to see over the next hill or around the next corner. Of course we live in southeast Iowa so there’s not much that’s going to surprise you – even when you don’t know the road. But I love seeing the old houses and old barns, the cows and pigs and the corn fields and the timbers. We were actually headed to Bettendorf while on this gravel road. Joe left his billfold at the campground when we went home to get cleaned up and rather than backtracking to the highway from the campground he took gravel. I was okay with that – I’d much rather travel a gravel road than drive along on the highway anyday!
