A little of this . . a little of that . . .
I think zinnias are my new favorite summer flower. They come in so many different colors and they just keep blooming and blooming. Some are tall, others are perfect for borders. The more you cut them the more they bloom so you get beautiful bouquets for the house that last for days and yet they keep blooming outside. And they’ll keep blooming into fall. I’m loving them this year!
The annual Houseal Fish Fry was this Sunday. As usual it was a day of fun! Lots of food, yummy fried fish, swimming, fishing and catching up. Thank you Uncle Terry and Aunt Judy for hosting everyone every year! We all took pictures so lots to share!
Friday afternoon – let’s run into the Expo and walk through the barn. It won’t take long and then we can come home and have supper and piddle around here. Well, that turned into walking through the barn, checking out the tractors, walking through the barn again with Jeremy and Abby and the grandkids, then watching the Mutton Bustin (the boys refused to do it this year!), taking the kids to the bouncy houses, then staying for part of the concert. It was after 10:00 when we got home. It acutally got chold but we had a great time and Drew LOVED the concert. Only in a small town can you let a seven year old stand front row at a concert. And he was so excited – they gave him a guitar pick!
Joe sent me this picture today. He took it after he left Vermeer, the manufacturing plant in Pella where he spends the majority of his days as they are an account of his for work. He was actually home when he sent the picture to me and I got it as he was walking in the door. We had no idea until his sister called to see if he was okay that a tornado had actually hit Vermeer. We were watching the weather here as there were storm warnings out for our area. She had seen that Vermeer had been hit on the news.
I do belive God was watching over everyone at Vermeer when this hit. There were seven people injured and sent to the hospital and they were all released by evening. There were a handful of people treated on site and released. There were no fatalities. It was Customer Appreciation Day which means there were over 400 extra people, dealers and customers, from all over the world visiting and over 2,000 employees on site when the tornado hit and yet no one was severly injured. I’ve seen reports of people being thankful for Vermeer for preparing them all for a situation like this with drills that were practiced and designated places to go during a tornado. And stories just like Joe’s of people who just felt they needed to leave and go home before the tornado hit.
There are I think seven plants across the Vermeer Mile. These are just a handful of the multiple pictures flying around Facebook showing some of the damage. We are so very thankful – Joe worked for Vermeer at one time and as I said, he spends the majority of his time there for his work now and he has many dear friends who work there. I’m not always a fan of Facebook but today it was wonderful to be able to get on and see that our friends were okay. Some were there when it hit and others had already gone home.
Tornados also went through the towns of Marshalltown and Bondurant in our area of the state and left extensive damage. Our nice and nephew and their kids live in Bondurant and they were also lucky – houses were destroyed less than two blocks away from their house. Seth could see the tail of the tornado from his house. The damage a tornado can do is beyond comprehension. Vermeer is shut down until further notice. At least one of the seven plants was totally destoryed. Others suffered extensive damage. But the fact that all that were there walked away from this is a miracle. I know I said an extra prayer before I went to bed last night thanking God for keeping Joe, our extended family and everyone at Vermeer safe.
We decided spur of the moment to take Drew on an adventure. I casually mentioned to Joe that we should take Drew to Columbus Junction to the swinging bridge. I didn’t think he would say yes as we have so much worget done around here but the next thing I know we’re in the car and headed to Columbus Junction. And then onto Muscatine and Wildcat Park, and then across the Mississippi River to Moline, Illinois so Joe could show us where one of his accounts is located. Then back through to Walcott and The World’s Largest Truck Stop, back through Coralville for supper at Popeye’s and finally home. (We discovered none of us care for Popeye’s!) What was going to be a relatively quick trip and then home ended up being an all day adventure! We had lots of fun, Drew really enjoyed the day and Joe said it was a much needed getaway. Sometimes you just need to take off for the day and have fun!
We had such a great day together. Drew started calling us the Three Muskateers! Spur of the moment was great but next time we’ll plan a little better. I’ll wear tennis shoes instead of flip flops (which aren’t good for climbing trails) and we’ll pack a lunch, drinks and snacks. We left home around 10:30 and got home around 7:30. It was such a beautiful evening – we fed and watered the chickens then sat out on the new deck and chatted about our day. It was nice to do something fun and then come home and enjoy the deck, something we had been working so hard on!
I try to work at being frugal as much as I can but I always forget to keep track. When I do keep track I usually find myself trying even harder or I realize some of the things we do that are frugal that I don’t think about. A few frugal things from the past few days –
That’s all I can think of at the moment. I’m slowly working on building up my pantry. I put it on hold while we’ve been busy working outside and I thought this week was going to be really busy but plans have changed. (I’m very thankful!) Next week is Ragbrai – The Register’s Great Ride Across Iowa – and we will be having 20 plus people camping out in our yard Thursday night. There will be an extra 20,000 plus people in our little town of 2,000. Needless to say I will not be going to town on Thursday. But more about that later. For now I can relax the rest of this week and keep being frugal!
I’ve always loved toads. I remember having a pet toad when I was little when we still lived in town. It lived in our sandbox. My boys always wanted to scare me with all the creepy crawlies they would find but along with toads, I’m not too squeamish with anything creepy crawly. I looked at that as a positive but they were always disappointed that I didn’t scream and run away! Drew loves to catch frogs and toads and anything else he can get his hands on. Right now the crickets are out and he’s having a great time catching them. I’m thankful he’s finally outgrowing wanting to keep all his finds as pets and putting them in jars and trying to bring them inside but he still has to show me all of his finds. He’s getting more and more willing to catch and release – which is good for the house and for the little critters!
It took us all weekend but we are finally almost done! We had rain, lots and lots of heat, bugs galore, one minor blood drawing mishap, a few “words”, took a break to go to supper at Belva Deer with Dad and Mom but for the most part everything went pretty smoothly and the fence is up! And it turned out beautifully! We searched in Pinterest until we found something we both liked. Joe sat down and figured out how to build it and here it is! It’s not a very long fence as you can see but it’s going to help tremendously I think with blocking the view from the gravel road although Joe thinks we should extend it onto the end of the deck that butts up to the patio. We’ll live with it for awhile and see how we feel next spring. I’m guessing we’ll end up extending it. Now we just have to wait for the dirt to dry out so we can fill it in and put the blocks back down and then it will be finished. I love the way it turned out and am blessed to have a husband who can envision what I want and then build it for me!
This is going to keep us busy this weekend – if it doesn’t rain. We are so close to finally getting our deck/patio/whatever you want to call it done! Earlier this week we trimmed the tree that overhangs this area. It had so many dead branches and branches hanging over the house and hanging so low we had to duck to walk around the patio. That was a job I’m glad is done! There is going to be a decorative fence of some sort here. Right now there’s the driveway and then the old garage is situated between the driveway and the gravel road which gives us a little privacy from the road. Once that comes down it will be wide open – and we will also be able to see the back of the neighbor’s house across the way which means they will be able to see our patio/deck. Not what I want. They are great neighbors but I live in the country for many reasons – and privacy is one of those reasons. (I want to be able to step out my backdoor in my pj’s without being seen!) So – we’re going to put up a decorative fence. I’m hoping we can get it done this weekend. Then if the heat ever breaks and the bugs ever leave – we can sit outside in the evenings and just enjoy this area. Next year I can concentrate on decorating this space and the fence itself – something to dream about and plan over the winter! !
I ran across a beautiful pattern by Lori Rippey called Crow Hill and I knew I had to stitch it but I wanted to tweak it a little to pay tribute to my Great Grandfather Asbery Bond. I never knew my great grandpa but I’ve heard stories and I’ve always felt drawn to him. For years there was a little county park named Bond Hill after my Bond ancestors over by the Richland area. They donated the land to the county and up until recently the county kept it as a small county park but I just discovered that it’s no longer there. So, I saw this pattern and thought it was perfect. But then I stitched it. And I do love it – but – all the stories I’ve heard of Grandpa Asbery portray him as an outdoor person who spent the majority of his time living in a cabin on the Skunk River and this picture just doesn’t seem to fit him.
After sharing this picture on Instagram with an explanation as to what it represented to me I received a response from someone who is a distant relative. She wrote that we were related through Asbery Bond. I had known we were related and through the Bond side of the family but wasn’t exactly sure how. She went to school with my daughter so is a lot younger but she’s interested in family history and doesn’t know a lot about this side of her family. To make a long story short, I dug out some old family history with the intention of photocopying everything and giving it to her. Of course as I was digging this all out I just had to sit down and read some of it and I realized that my Bond Hill stitchery just isn’t accurate at all. There was no way this grand old home in any way represented Grandpa Asbery. One of his grandchildren, my dad’s first cousin, wrote that Grandpa Bond was a “throwback to Daniel Boone and many other early Americans.” He also wrote that Grandpa lived in a one room cabin or what he stated would be considered a shack today. My dad has always talked about the cabin where Grandpa lived during the summer months along the banks of the Skunk River.
So – I don’t think this is a fitting tribute to Grandpa Asbery Bond. I’m going to have to do more than changing the Crow Hill to Bond Hill and the black birds to blue. I’m thinking a cabin should replace the grand old home and there needs to be an American flag to represent a very patriotic man who fought with Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders. But I love the birds so they will stay although maybe black crows instead of blue birds like the original pattern. And I like the flower as it looks like a wild Black-Eyed Susan to me, something that would grow wild along the banks of the Skunk River. And maybe even a skunk if I can design a realistic looking one. There’s also a story about Grandpa serving skunk to a visitor one day. I’ll have to share more in another post but Great Grandpa Asbery Bond sure seems to have been quite the character. I missed out on knowing him here on earth but I sure do look forward to meeting him someday, God willing!