Baling

Guys have been baling in a field near Peggy's. Some into round bales and some into square bales that you still have to load on a wagon.








Bill is changing oil on the sprayer and getting some other things ready. I'm working on things for my stamp class here tomorrow night.

Chopping

The dairy started chopping corn for silage about 2 weeks ago. Bill says that's another sign of the start of Fall. He used to chop for the dairy. He would do that job and get done just in time to start combining his own stuff.

I saw this morning that these guys have at least 2 fields completely done. It looks funny to see bare fields already but the corn and beans are drying fast now. It's another hot day today. The wind is back too. Iowa is very windy (not very many trees) but we do lose the wind in the summer which is nice.

Bill had been working the dirt around our house Sat. night. When he came in I told him I couldn't connect to the Internet. We thought about it and realized he'd probably cut the phone line somewhere. Called the phone co. and they came out today (so no Internet for 2 days!). The guy found the problem spot. The line was only buried about 4" deep there. He was able to fix it. Glad to be "connected" again!


These are the hanging pots that are hanging in town this year!

No Phone Line

We think Bill accidentally cut our phone line when getting our yard ready for grass seed on Fri. night. So no Internet! The phone co. is coming out sometime today, and we're hoping for a temporary line they can lay on top of the ground.

Nice Saturday

Diane and I had planned for a month that we were going to the JoKir's Wild Farm Fair today. There was going to be 12 vendors selling everything from vegetables to baked goods to pillows. Then this week Glenn & Amy had the chance to come back from Texas for the weekend to see Camry for the first time, so Amy's sister and her husband also came from Indiana and her brother came from eastern Iowa, and we all went! This is a picture of Amy's brother holding the baby - and Diane. Unfortunately, this was the only picture I took today.

The fair was at the farm home of people who raise Black Angus and sell the beef. Mrs. Pisel makes lots of things like homemade bread, noodles & caramel rolls plus puts together gift bags of various quick meal ingredients and sells them and their beef from their home and farmers' markets. It was a hot day but they have lots of big shade trees. A 4-H club was selling lunch for $5 of the Pisels' beef made into Italian beef sandwiches on her homemade buns, chips and a drink.

Saw this on the way at the nursery - pretty!

Bill, his mom, Uncle Tim and others helped move his aunt today. Unfortunately, the house she had rented for years is for sale. She had her little house fixed up so cute. I hope she can find something as nice or nicer but it won't be easy. She's going to be house sitting for friends for a while while she looks.

Last night we all got together for a cookout at Diane & Todd's. I made cheese potatoes, an ice cream dessert and took the meat. Diane made stuffed jalapenos and corn pudding.

Bill is planning to work on our yard some more this evening. The grass and weeds have all died nicely.

Happy Birthday today to Mom! She's going to a cookout at Uncle Neal & Aunt Jan's. They're also celebrating cousin Scott's birthday today.

Yard Work

Bill has sprayed Roundup on our yard to kill all of the weeds plus the rye grass he planted after we built the house so we'd have something green while the old house area settled and until we got the landscaping done. A couple of days ago he borrowed this little tractor & tiller. From the video below, you can see that it's slow going but he got the back yard done. He's waiting until the front yard dies a little more. Now that the landscaping basics are done, we'll be excited to have grass! And we hope the yard won't be as bumpy for mowing.

I did a little painting job that needed to be done in the garage and started another one (pictures later). We're trying to get these projects done before the beans are ready to be combined!

I went to our Farmers' Market. Always glad to get some of "Beth's bread" (whole wheat), green beans and tomatoes. No peaches today.

The Fields are Changing

Harvest time will be here soon! See the beans starting to turn yellow?

Bill is at combine school this afternoon. They are reminded about safety issues and other things - and then fed.

The Goodwill truck is here again! It was here this spring too. I cleaned out a bunch of old clothes and other stuff then but seemed to find more for this time! Back in Indiana, we had Goodwill stores so until moving here, it had been a long time since I had seen or had to wait on a Goodwill truck. It will be in nearby towns for a couple of weeks after it leaves ours.

I'm getting better about not having to save everything sentimental or things that are "still good" but not being used or worn at all.

Apple Pie - Bill's Favorite Thing

It's still hot at 91 today. I decided to use the oven anyway. We had a nice Sunday lunch of pork loin, fresh green beans, iced tea and Bill's favorite thing in the whole world; warm, homemade apple pie and vanilla ice cream. It takes about this many dirty dishes to make . . .







this pie - but it's worth it! See recipe below. Notice that this pie only has the one crust. I like it that way - more filling, less crust!

This recipe, like many of my favorites, also came from Grandma R. I was thinking of her when I was cooking the fresh green beans too. She always said to cook them slow with not much water. Which means you have to watch them and add water a couple of times. We always cook them with some chopped onion and small chunks of ham. Grandma & Grandpa always ate a bite of fresh green beans with a bite of buttered bread and a bite of raw onion. Yum!

DUTCH APPLE PIE

1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. white sugar
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/3 c. flour
1/4 c. water
butter
about 5 large apples (I use Golden Delicious)

Mix the sugars and cinnamon together. Put half in the bottom of the pie crust. Quarter apples and arrange on top. Sprinkle rest of sugar mixture over top and dot with butter. Dribble water over all. Bake at 425 for 15 min., then at 325 for 45 minutes.

I usually, but not always, make my own crust. Here's the crust recipe:

1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. Crisco
1/2 t. salt
1/3 c. cold water

Cut Crisco into the flour mixed with the salt. Stir in just enough water to hold the dough together in a ball. Handle as little as possible. Roll out for a one crust pie.

** a couple of the key things are to have the water very cold. I put a couple of ice cubes in the measuring cup and fill with water. Let it sit while you're getting the other ingredients ready. The other tip is to stir and handle as little as possible. This helps it be a flaky crust instead of tough. Many people use Granny Smith apples for their pies, but I prefer Golden Delicious. They turn out softer instead of crunchy when baked and sweeter.

I think I've said on here before that Grandma was very patient with me on learning how to make pie crust. I couldn't get the hang of crimping the edge and wanted her to "just do it" but she would show me how, again, and say "no, you keep trying".

By the way, I just looked up the word "dribble". I thought maybe it should be "drizzle". But dribble means to let or cause to fall in drops little by little so that works!

Summer Landscaping Project

Bill has finished the deck and patio, edging and put in the river rock. It's looking good! Now he's trying to get the yard sprayed between days that are too breezy. He's killing the grass & weeds we have and getting ready to add some dirt, level it and plant grass seed around Labor Day which is supposed to be the best time here.

The special sand that goes in between the patio blocks stuck to everything including in the grooves of the patio block. So I still need to use a wire brush to finish getting that out.
























We think we'll wait and see how the knock out roses do with the wind this winter. If they still look good next spring, I may add one plus a hosta or two in the area by the patio that's now just river rock (1st picture).

I have a few of Grandma R.'s irises left to move to the area by the screened porch plus a daisy plant and another Black Eyed Susan. They will get big but that's ok there. I want to eventually have several flowers that I can cut for bouquets. I also have 3 coneflowers and about 6 clumps of daylilies (some Stella de Oro and 2 burgundy ones) plus some creeping phlox. Not shown, but behind the porch I have some chives. Next summer I'll add parsley and maybe another herb or two - and rhubarb. Bill has done the hard work. Now I can slowly add to it.

Last Day for Going to the Pool

I'm off soon to take Lacey to the pool for the last time this summer. Tomorrow is the last day it's open - already. She doesn't know how to swim yet (took lessons last year) but loves the water and makes me stay in with her the whole time! I'm trying to remember what they had us do when I took swimming lessons and do that with her - but that's been a whole bunch of years ago!

Bill & I went to Des Moines Mon. night and got back last night. He's on the Board of an insurance company and has to take 3 classes - one per year - to be "certified". This was his 2nd one. I was planning to relax by the pool and read while he was at the class yesterday but it rained there all day. So I shopped instead, or I should say mostly looked. There's an almost new 2 story mall there that I had only been to once so I checked out lots of the stores there. We mostly needed to get a bunch of new shirts for Bill which we did find the night we got there.

I'm participating in a mail in Stampin' Up! Demonstrator Christmas card swap so need to work on those this next couple of days. They are to be mailed to a demonstrator in Mi Wuk Village, California. I'll send in 21 of my cards (all the same design) and get back 20 different card samples from demos all over the US! Always a fun kind of package to receive!

Garage Floor - day 2

This is Steve, the owner of Floor It, Inc. The floor is finished and drying now. Looks really nice but the true test will be when it's wet. He ground it down so that it should slope right for water to run to the drains rather than the wall.










Close up of the speckles. They have a clear coat over them so it won't be hard to sweep or clean. Bill tells me that he added something to the last coat too that is supposed to help it to not be slick for walking on it when it's wet.

Garage Floor

Bill and I were on our way home tonight, but the road was blocked by a train that was stopped. Then all of a sudden Bill saw a vehicle in the ditch on the other side of the train so we thought the worst, that the vehicle had hit the train. So we stopped and Bill went between the train cars to check, but it turns out the guy in the SUV had tried to turn around rather than wait on the train, and accidentally backed into the ditch! He was ok and soon friends showed up to pull him out.

Our garage floor is being worked on by this company, Floor It, due to problems with water going toward and under the wall instead of into the drains. He'll be working here for a couple more days.




It seems nice to have an empty garage! Some things now have a permanent home in the basement like the freezer, refrigerator and a set of shelves. Some things are temporarily in the old garage.

Finished Rag Quilt Purse

Isn't this rag quilt purse cute????! I finally got back to it, got it done and gave it to Michelle this past weekend. I think she really liked it!

It really is an easy sewing project and doesn't take long at all if you stick to it. You just cut out your squares of batting. Cut 5" strips of fabric. There are so many pretty choices of fabrics that go together in the quilting shops!

Then you fold your strip of fabric up over the Big Shot square scallop die (contact me to buy a Big Shot or shop through my web site above right!). The Big Shot can cut about 7 scalloped squares at a time!

Put a square of batting (the white cushion) between 2 squares of fabric and stitch an X. Once those are done you start sewing your strips together. Then there are the handles to make and the closure piece. Sew a button on, snip all the edges with sharp scissors and wash on delicate in a fabric bag to give it the rag quilt frayed look! This one has not been snipped or washed. Some people like this look.

These pictures are a mixture of 2 purses - the pink and brown one and a black & mustard one.

The video I watched for detailed instructions is here.

I have a link for the Big Shot on the right side of my blog - just click on the picture to go to it. We love the Big Shot for card making and scrapbooking and can't imagine making those things without it anymore! I hope you'll make a Rag Quilt Purse - and then a rag quilt which would be even easier!

More La Crosse and Misc.

More pictures from our recent getaway. Hiawatha was in the park where the paddle wheel boat was. Bill's brother thought maybe he's a cousin or something to our Pocahontas we have here! :)























On the boat ride, we went through a draw bridge. I don't remember how many trains a day go over this bridge but it's a lot. They said the boat usually has to wait on a train about once a day - and they have 3 sightseeing tours go out a day.

The last 2 pictures were taken outside our hotel.

It rained here last night - 1/2". The way it was pouring and storming, I thought it would be more.

The next project here is totally cleaning out our garage. The floor is going to be worked on. We have an area where water runs to and under the wall instead of to the drain and a couple of other places where water stands. The company that's going to hopefully fix it is called Floor It Inc. They're going to then paint the floor with a paint they say will not peel off. We're choosing "dirt color" this time (beige) instead of gray - with flecks of another color in it.

Misc.

Remember when I started making rag quilt purses back in April I think? I finally got one completed! It was a door prize for one of my downline in Stampin' Up! I'll show the other pictures of how to make it after this weekend.
















This is the Pocahontas courthouse. I think the Master Gardeners plant and take care of all of these flowers.














I've been meeting Diane and the girls at the Poky Farmers' Markets Tues. afternoons. This last Tues. the mosquitoes were terrible so Camry had to have her bug net down!