Last Sunday Drew and I went on a field trip. There is a little town called Lancaster just outside of Sigourney and all that is left is a handful of houses, a church, and this beautiful one room school house. I had never visited the schoolhouse before and since they were having their annual open house I decided to take Drew on an adventure.
The first floor
This little schoolhouse is the only one room wooden structure, two story schoolhouse west of the Mississippi! It has been preserved beautifully and we enjoyed our little adventure exploring the building and the beautiful grounds.
The second floor
We tend to think that we need to travel to enjoy beautiful places or pieces of history but sometimes they are right in our own backyard. It was fun to tour this and even better, we visited with friends and neighbors and people we knew who had gone to school here. Before we know it, those who did go to school here will no longer be with us which makes it even more priceless to talk to them and hear their stories!
This is the staircase that takes you to the second floor. We learned that at one time there were two separate staircases, one on each side of the building. One was for the girls and one was for the boys. Drew found that to be interesting and I explained to him that when I was in 4th grade our school building, which is no longer standing, had two staircases leading into the school. They were on opposite sides of the building and one was for the girls and one was for the boys.
Remember weaving potholders as a child? I always thought it was so much fun. And then those potholders never got used! They were so small and they would melt if they got hot. They got shoved into the back of a kitchen drawer. I don’t even know what happened to those potholders I used to make.
I do remember enjoying the process of making them though. Such a simple thing – weaving over and under, over and under and watching the pattern unfold. It’s a calming process. Kind of like cross stitch I guess. Simple, repetitive actions that slowly turn into these beautiful pieces of art.
This one is made with wool loops dyed with goldenrod. It is not near as vibrant as the pictures show. More muted shades of golds and greens. It is absolutely stunning. And to think something as simple and plentiful as goldenrod was used.
I ran across an advertisement the other day and was intrigued. The same process from when I was a child only using a nice metal loom and colorful cotton loops. And all of these beautiful patterns to try. A finished product that you could actually use. So I decided to give it a try.
This one was made using wool loops dyed with walnuts. Probably my favorite so far.
And then, I discovered these naturally dyed loops. And the loops are wool. Oh my goodness. I love, love the idea of all natural. So much fun to see what you end up with. No two loops look the exact same color. So very very prim – just my style! And you can buy natural, undyed loops. Maybe I will give dying a try one of these days!
This one was made with cotton loops. Drew picked out the colors and the pattern. It think it turned out beautiful!
I love the bigger loom and the bigger size potholder. They are nice and thick and will be perfect for those hot dishes that come out of the oven. No worries about the countertop or worries over the potholder melting. Now I need to try to dig out my old smaller loom so I can make smaller potholders. I think they would work great for coffee and tea mug rugs!
This one was made with cotton loops. It is just so perfectly fit for Fall!
I can’t get Drew interested in making them. He thinks it looks boring. But he did enjoy picking out colors and a pattern for me to make one! I’m addicted to all the different patterns and designs. It’s just fun to sit down and put some colors together and see what you come up with. Or follow a pattern and try using different colors and seeing how different each one comes out. I want to try all the patterns and all the colors! But I definitely don’t need all the potholders!
This is Rubio. She lives at my Dad and Mom’s along with her goat friend, Hazel. They are both Boer Goats. Hazel is Drew’s goat. Given to him by his Great Uncle Jerry. At the time Uncle Jerry gave her to Drew we didn’t have a place to keep her so Dad took her in. And he became attached! So, he then brought Rubio home from Uncle Jerry’s so Hazel could have a companion and they both live together at Dad and Mom’s where they are spoiled rotten! They even get daily treats of Fruit Loops!
There’s Hazel in the background!
Yesterday evening we went to Dad and Mom’s for supper. We roasted hot dogs over a fire in the backyard. Drew brought Rambler along and Rubio was fascinated. Dad doesn’t have a dog anymore so she doesn’t really see dogs much at all. Hazel paid no attention but Miss Rubio stood on this rock for a very very long time and just watched everything we did. I’m not sure if she was keeping an eye on Rambler or Drew or if she just liked the commotion of all of us out in the backyard. It was funny as she usually pays no attention to us at all.
It was a beautiful evening to sit outside.
It was a beautiful evening. The humidity had died down and there was a nice breeze. A wiener roast in the backyard was the perfect ending to a busy weekend of working on projects and getting a few things done. Rubio seemed to think so too!
We’ve been so busy lately and it’s been hard to fit in some stitching but I’ve managed! I’ve been stitching orders and stitching things to sell and once in a blue moon I stumble across a pattern I just have to stitch for myself!
When we were at the quilting/needlework store in Amana we found this cute cross stitch/beadwork kit. Two of us purchased the kit and are going to make Christmas ornaments to commemorate our camping trip. I haven’t done beadwork in a long time and it’s been fun to do a little bit of it again. I’m looking forward to finishing mine and seeing how Susie finishes hers. I’m sure they will look totally different from each other and yet both will be beautiful!
You can’t really see how the beads sparkle but they do. And they’ll really sparkle on the Christmas tree! It’s fun to have someone else stitching too as I don’t have anybody local who stitches and I’ve always thought it would be fun to stitch with friends!
All set up for the weekend. It doesn’t always work out but these campsites were perfect so that we could set up all four campers with our doors facing each other. We had this whole area just to ourselves!
A few years ago we started camping with a group of friends over the Labor Day weekend. There are four couples in this group and we take turns picking out a campground. This year was our year to choose so we chose the Amana area. The other three couples live in the Clear Lake area and we live in southeast part of the state. Some years we have to travel a bit more, other years a campground that is more centrally located is chosen. This year was a lot closer for us but the others wanted to explore this area so it worked out great.
We all headed to the Amana Campground on Friday and set up camp, had some supper and sat around the campfire. Then on Saturday we headed to Mt. Pleasant to the Old Threshers Reunion. This is an annual event that takes place every year in Mt. Pleasant after the State Fair is over. Many people in our state will camp at the State Fair for two weeks then pull their camper straight to the Old Threshers. I have lived here my whole life and never visited so I was looking forward to this too.
It was wonderful to see all the old steam engines, tractors, vehicles, different motors, etc. and the best part was seeing all of the young people taking part. This is such a big part of our history and it would be so sad if people didn’t keep up the tradition of holding this reunion for all to see. There were so many young people joining right in with the old learning how to run all of these things and doing all the work involved. I would love to go back again and spend more time here taking it all in.
Remember the old Burma Shave signs?
On Sunday we toured Main Amana. We walked through the shops and took it all in. The Amanas are a group of German villages established long ago. They lived in communal houses and each member of the village was assigned a job. One person may be a cook, another a farmer, a gardener and so on. They all worked together to keep the community going. Many of the old original buildings are still standing and being used as restaurants, shops and as houses. The General Store and the quilting shop were favorites among the women and the men simply tolerated the day! The restaurants are fun to eat at as they serve traditional German food family style but unfortunately Sundays are busy and we couldn’t get in without a reservation. So we checked out the Meat Shop, purchased some Amana meat and headed back to the campground with some yummy things to try. We went for a walk around the campground in the afternoon and checked out the dog show. There was an AKC Dog Obedience show going on all weekend and according to the lady when we registered, there were 3,000 dogs in the campground. It was fun to see all the different dogs and watch a small portion of one of the shows. It reminded me of the horse shows when I was young only with dogs!
We played some cards and lots and lots of bags at the campground. Spent each night sitting around the fire talking and enjoying each others company. Kelsey made us sugar cone s’more one night. Yum!
The weather was perfect, overcast and cool when we were at the Old Threshers and warm and sunny on Sunday. The evenings cooled down and the fire felt so good. It was another fun Labor Day weekend spent with good friends!
Last Thursday brought us an overnight storm that was quite the ride. We were all in bed and almost asleep when the wind picked up and we could hear things blowing around. Then the rain started in, along with hail. We knew it wasn’t going to be good.
We were lucky and didn’t have anything too major as far as damage at our place. We had tree limbs down, the trampoline was blown completely away and Drew’s swing set toppled over yet again. Compared to many others, we were very lucky. We spent all day Friday at my folks’ place cleaning up their damage. They had trees down, facia missing from the house and their canopy where they park their camper was destroyed. They had a vent blow off the camper and a little water inside but Joe fixed that right away. My Uncle Jerry came and helped out and we got their yard all tidied up. Their neighbors weren’t so lucky. They had a brand new 5th wheel camper that rolled and was completely destroyed and on up the road there were grain bins destroyed. Crops were flattened, roofs were missing, many many trees down all around. A tree fell on the roof of a friend’s house and left a hole. But nobody injured or lives lost. So, when you look at the big picture, things really aren’t that bad.
We didn’t have homeschool on Friday as Drew helped out with cleanup. We headed over to Dad and Mom’s to assess the damage then came home and put on our work clothes and gathered the tools we would need. In the meantime, a neighbor stopped by and Joe and Drew went with him to help with a tree limb that was down on a power line. Then over to spend the day at Dad and Mom’s where Drew pitched in. His favorite task was dragging tree limbs down to the burn pile using the Mule.
Saturday was spent at home where we cleaned up our yard. Dad and Mom came and helped. The swing set was righted and repaired. We’ll have to purchase a board to finish up that process. Tree limbs were drug to the burn pile, the yard was raked, the patio and deck were cleaned up. The worst part at our place was the amount of dead birds we found, everywhere. They were mostly sparrows. I have never seen so many dead birds after a storm. Joe figured he raked up at least 20 from under the oak trees alone. Very sad.
Then on Sunday a neighbor came over and asked if he could have Drew for the day. They went to the cemetery down the road and did clean up there and then did more clean up at his property at the end of our gravel road. Our road ends in a dead end and the neighbor has property at the bottom where he has a couple of cabins on the river and he had lots of tree limbs down. Joe and I ended up down there later and helped them finish up. Then we sat in his screened in porch and visited for awhile. It was nice to catch up.
All in all it was a very busy and exhausting three days. We didn’t get anything done we had planned for the weekend as clean up was first priority. And it was a great learning experience for Drew as he got to witness first hand family, friends and neighbors pulling together to help each other out during a time of need.
We’ve been on the go for the past few weeks. Camping takes its toll on me. I love it but we camped two weekends in a row, one trip was three hours away, the other trip was closer to home but was unplanned. Planning, packing, getting everything ready, is a lot of work. Then this past week has been taking care of grandkids, spending a day with the homeschool group, going on a road trip Wednesday for our anniversary, then back to watching the grandkids. Another road trip on Saturday to spend the day with Joe’s sister and brother in law. Don’t get me wrong, these are all things that I thoroughly enjoy. And I am thankful I am able to do them. And yet, when we run like this, so many important things suffer.
When the flowers were blooming before it got so hot and dry here.
As I was outside doing some watering I realized how I’ve spent the past however many days running from one thing to the other and not being able to give anything here at home the attention it needs. The flowers are getting watered whenever I can fit them in. The chores get done of course – the animals always get fed and watered, but there’s no time to enjoy them. Since we’re needing rain badly the garden is pretty much done but what little is left hasn’t been harvested and taken care of in a timely fashion. And the house is a disaster.
This little one needed some extra attention as it wasn’t ready to drink from a bowl as fast as its siblings
I get clothes washed, and hung on the line, folded and then it sits in the basket. I’ve had clean clothes sitting in the dryer for days. I have dishes in the sink that need washed. The floors need swept and vacuumed so very badly. And there’s stuff everywhere. We get home, drop things here and there, then leave again. Oh yes, for the past week we’ve been bottle feeding five baby kittens that lost their mama and that has been a challenge. But this week is finally different. Joe is gone for work, I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow morning in town and that is it. No running. Even next weekend is free from any type of schedule. Of course it starts back up again after that. We have three camping trips planned for September.
Drew got bored while the adults were chatting so he climbed a tree!
Being on the run like this reminds me of how precious spending time at home really is. I look back at all the years I worked full time outside of the home and all the years of running kids to school and sports and band and 4-H, etc. We did all the things we thought we were supposed to do. Everything everybody else we knew was doing. I knew somewhere deep inside that it wasn’t what we wanted or needed but it was expected. I don’t do well with constantly being on the go. I tend to shut down eventually. And I find that I don’t really enjoy anything. I can’t live in the moment when I’m constantly thinking about what we will be doing next and how I will get everything done that needs to be done. Then when I do have a little free time, that time is spent putting everything back in order just so that we can go again.
While the homeschool moms chatted, the kids went on a hike and found a great place to play. Drew insisted I hike with him after everybody left so I could see the “house” they built!
I see so many people on this path. And if it works for them, that is great. It just doesn’t work for me. When I think back to how much running we did with our kids when they were young and then I talk to younger parents today and they talk about all that their kids do, it just exhausts me. And it has to exhaust those kids. There is no such thing as a break between extracurricular activities in today’s world. One thing overlaps into the next and on and on. They travel everywhere, in state, out of state, every weekend, week after week after week. Where is the quality family time in all of this? That time of simply being with each other with no other agenda besides living in the moment and enjoying each other’s company? When you get caught up in all of this you don’t see what you may be missing. I try more and more to not be on the go all of the time. I know now that I really just need to be home.
It was so nice Thursday as we were pretty much the only ones there!
My daughter contacted us right after we came home from our Clear Lake camping trip and asked if we would want to camp at Lake Darling with them the following weekend. And of course, we made it happen! How could we not make it work when it meant spending time with her and our son in law and our grandkids? We had such a great time in a beautiful setting.
We had such a pretty view across from our camper. These guys visited a couple of times.
We spent the weekend relaxing, hiking, playing games and just enjoying each other’s company. There was some really good food to eat too. Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Ward and Uncle Jerry and Cousin Todd came for a visit Saturday afternoon/evening which is always a treat. Great Grandma brought homemade peach cobbler and homemade strawberry pie!
There’s nothing like camping to enjoy family. Days and evenings with nothing to do but be together. Very little internet reception meant the kids didn’t beg to be on devices and us grown ups couldn’t spend much time on devices either. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and we took advantage of the cooler temperatures. There are paved trails along the lake and through the woods that are great with little kids as they can ride their bikes and scooters. There are also trails to hike that aren’t paved which we plan to walk someday too.
There was a mink running along the shoreline here. He ran under the bridge we were on when I took this picture, crossed the creek and ran back under the bride. He was a pretty little critter!The trails were so nice to walk on!A little coffee and early morning reading for me! I like to get up before everyone else and have some alone time and listen to the campground wake up.The early morning sun peeking through the treesGrandpa and Braxton having an early morning discussionDrew starting an early morning fire to warm me upBayah may have gotten tired so Daddy gets to carry her scooter while Grandpa gives her a rideI got some stitching time inSugar Cone S’mores – yummyUNO in the evenings. When Abby and Jeremy were dating we would play UNO at the campground, now we’re playing UNO with their kids!Grandpa is trying hard to convince Bayah that there’s a crocodile in the lake. She knew better!The boys made a bridge on the bridge!
Camping has been a favorite of ours for quality family time for years now. And it makes my heart happy to have my daughter and her family camping now too. She said once that she has such great memories of our camping trips when she was growing up and she wants her kids to have those same memories. Joe and I are blessed that she wants to include us in those memories!
This has been a busy week at work for Joe. He’s been leaving the house early in the morning, taking his coffee to go, and getting home late in the evening, long after supper. Sunday evening when we were talking abut the week to come, he asked if I was going to need to go anywhere this week. I said I did need to get to the store to get supplies needed for our camping trip and to get chicken feed but I was flexible on when I would need to go. He asked if I could wait until Thursday morning. He would be home on Thursday. The back of the pickup is loaded from last weekend’s camping trip and he really didn’t want to unload everything for me to take the truck to town if he didn’t have to. I was fine with that. The only downside to me having to stay home is the longer I’m home without going anywhere at all, the harder it is to get me to leave. I’m just happy to stay home.
This has been a busy week for me even though I haven’t gone anywhere. The tomatoes have kept me busy! I canned another 9 pints of salsa yesterday. I think that makes 38 pints, and that’s not counting however many Abby has taken home. She’s come over twice to learn how to can. And I’ve dehydrated twice. I’m trying dehydrating the cherry tomatoes, then using the food processor to turn them into a powder. I can use that powder in soups and stews this winter or to make tomato paste and sauce. I decided it was time to dig out the vacuum sealer and see if I could figure it out and I now have two bags of vacuum sealed tomato powder.
I’m planning to chop up more tomatoes today and put them in quart bags to freeze. Any time I need a can of diced tomatoes for a recipe I’ll just pull a bag out of the freezer. If I have this stuff on hand, I don’t have to worry in the winter if there’s a big storm or if Joe is gone and I don’t want to have to go to town. I can go to my pantry or freezer for what I need! That makes me happy!
I also froze four more quarts of corn. On a sad note, when we checked our sweet corn Sunday evening we discovered that either racoon or deer had gotten every single ear. To say I was unhappy would be an understatement. I fed the rabbits well this spring as they got all of my cabbage plants and all of my carrots and kohlrabi. I’m definitely going to have to figure out how to fence in the garden next spring to keep those pesky rabbits away. And now the corn is gone. I was blessed to have a neighbor drop off some corn so we’ve had fresh corn on the cob and I’ve been able to freeze 9 quart bags but that’s not near what I was planning to have in the freezer. But, it’s better than none at all!
This morning Drew asked if we could start school. I love that he asked! So, we dug out the new math program and jumped in! My original plan was to spend this week getting everything organized and ready so we could officially start next week. Then an impromptu camping trip camp up for this weekend, Thursday evening through Sunday, and having to keep the grandkids three days next week to help Abby out seems to have pushed that starting date back. I guess we’ll do what we can when we can and officially start a little later. But, just knowing that Drew is asking makes me happy!
And so I’ll spend the rest of today chopping and freezing those tomatoes, making cucumbers and onions with the last of the cucumbers from the garden, and making out my shopping list and menu for the long weekend coming up. Oh, and packing up our clothes and everything we need in the camper that can be packed early. Abby asked if I could bring the dehydrator so she could dehydrate her abundance of cherry tomatoes at the campground. That makes me happy too, knowing that she’s starting to have an interest in gardening and food preservation.
Oh yes, I can’t forget the laundry hanging on the line that needs to be folded and brought in. And we watched our chrysalis turn into a Monarch this morning. The eggs need gathered and the chickens need to be fed and watered along with Rambler and the kitties. And of course I have to fit stitching in somewhere as I have orders I’m working on. There is always always something to do. And doing these things makes being home a happy place to be!
We spent the past weekend camping at Clear Lake. It’s a trip we try to do annually. We have friends we enjoy camping with who live there and they invite us every year as Clear Lake also has a big car show this same weekend. So we combine the two, camping and cars. The guys love it!
The weekend starts out Friday night with a parade of cars cruising around the lake while spectators sit out and watch them go by. We sit in lawn chairs and enjoy the show. I have to be honest, for me, this is the most enjoyable part of the car show and yet about halfway through I get tired of watching vehicles going by. Drew and I rarely last the whole cruise, we pack up our chairs and head back to the camper early and enjoy a little quiet time before everyone else comes back!
There was a bed and a TV and some pretty neat decor inside this guy!
Saturday brings us uptown to walk around all the vehicles. It was interesting to see which cars Drew was drawn to. They have them all. Old, new, high dollar, old jalopies, you name it they are there.
As quickly as I lose interest watching the car cruise, I lose interest even more quickly when it comes to walking around in a crowd of people looking at cars. I do enjoy seeing the old vehicles, they have so much style and class. And I enjoy the muscle cars, they remind me of my teenage years. But I can only be in a crowd for so long before I have had enough and the same with looking at cars. But I tag along and try to enjoy myself as Joe and Drew have a great time and I enjoy seeing them bonding and having fun.
About halfway through the car show uptown we come to the lake which makes a nice break. Behind us are the cars and the people and the noise. But if you can tune all that out for a few moments, you can enjoy a beautiful view, the sound of the waves lapping against the shore and watch the sailboats go by!
When we got back from town Drew and I walked down to the beach. He was wanting to swim and I was needing some quiet time. Unfortunately when we got down there we discovered the beach has become a place for all the party boats to congregate so there was loud music and people. But thankfully they were all out on the lake and not up on the beach so even though we had the pleasure of seeing and hearing them, we weren’t actually with them! Drew swam a little while I sat and watched. We enjoyed a little bit of nature on our walk back and found this really interesting rock that looks like a silhouette of a person. The rock is in the camper and has joined a few other treasures we have collected from past camping trips.
The evenings always mean a campfire and s’mores. The weather was great as it was warm during the day, it cooled down enough to enjoy a fire in the evening and then a little rain overnight. It couldn’t have been nicer.
Sunday morning saw me up bright and early before anyone else. I enjoy getting up early to sit outside with my cup of coffee and listen to the sounds of the campground waking up. I love camping. Joe and I have camped pretty much all our married lives. We started out camping with friends. Those friends have changed throughout the years as circumstances have changed for all of us. But as I get older I’ve discovered that I really enjoy camping with just us the most. No schedule, no agenda, just setting up camp and taking it day by day. We’re taking the camper back out this weekend to camp with Jeremy and Abby and the grandkids. I’m looking forward to this. Chances are we won’t ever leave the campground unless we head over to visit Uncle Jerry and see what new animals he has for us to enjoy. We’ll go on hikes and bike rides and just enjoy the lake and nature and being together. This is what I enjoy most. The days of being with a group, constant talk and noise, games and being loud, I just don’t enjoy that anymore. I guess I’m getting old!
