Black Raspberries!

We've had a busy summer so far and this past few days I've been busy getting ready for a power stamping weekend. So I haven't taken any more pictures of the finished landscaping, deck & patio. I'll try to do that before I leave. It really looks so nice to have color and something besides dirt around the house. The deck is going to be so handy to walk right out from the screened porch to grill.

The last big thing to be done for the house is the grass/lawn. Bill is already planning to kill off all of the rye grass he planted last year for temporary green - and the weeds. Then he'll add some dirt where the old house site has settled and a couple other places before planting grass seed around Labor Day. Then we'll hope for rain at the right times!

When Mom was here, Peggy told us she had lots of black raspberries at her house and that we could pick as many as we wanted since she would be gone a few days. They were really nice ones. We were lucky to pick a bunch before the birds found them. Looking forward to them again next summer!

La Crosse Trip - Day 2

The reason we headed to La Crosse was to take a ride on The Queen paddlewheel boat. We had ridden on a paddlewheel boat in the Quad Cities before we were married, and that's when Bill noticed the yacht, Miss Dubuque, which is the boat we ended up getting married on. We like relaxing boat rides! This one ended up being very nice too. The boat was built in 2008 so still very new. There was a "tour guide" on the boat giving us lots of information as we cruised. Click on the video below to get an up close look at the paddlewheel turning.

We could've easily spent a couple more days in La Crosse but had to head home.















We also checked out the La Crosse Farmers' Market. It sure was nice. Lots of great looking vegetables and flowers!

Tuesday

Bill has sure been working hard in the heat and humidity. He hopes to be done with this project by Aug. 1st so then he and Tim can get started getting equipment ready for Harvest.




























Diane needed a babysitter yesterday while she worked. These are my 2 favorite pictures of Camry so far. She was a perfect little baby to take care of. Lacey . . . kept me busy! We all went to the Pocahontas Farmers' Market after Diane was done with work. I got more good sweet corn and Diane got tomatoes.

After cleaning and laundry this morning, I'm headed to an apptmt. in Humboldt this afternoon. I was going to mow at Zemens' when I get back but Bill's brother, Jim, is doing that now I just heard. I will need to water all of our new plants.

I have an important stamping event in Peoria in about a week. I have lots to do for it in this next few days. There have been too many fun things and otherwise going on the past few weeks.

RAGBRAI - 2nd post

There were tons of food and other vendors set up on the main street of West Bend - the next town north of us. There was even a bike repair vendor (1st photo) - and it was busy.






I had fun people watching and picture taking there for a while. Also braved the crowd to make it to the hardware to buy some screws for Bill for the deck project that he's still working very hard on (more pictures soon).






A couple more of the support crew/party buses.

We barely got back from our getaway in time Sat. to pick up the frozen rolls I was supposed to bake. Our town was on a special loop for riders who wanted to ride 100 miles on Mon. It was decided that rather than "the town" trying to do several booths with limited manpower, to have just one booth at our Pond Park and have cinnamon rolls, bananas and oranges. There are 3 churches in town so they wanted to have 10 bakers from each to bake 3 dozen rolls.
Our church is out of town so I signed up on the Lutheran Church's list. Our cafe bought all of the frozen rolls. Those baking took them home, let them raise overnight, baked them, covered them tight and dropped them off at the Community Center. It was a hot day and the riders came through later than expected so there were several left.

Our library was open for riders to use the restrooms and fill up their water bottles. Both were very appreciated.




These guys had stopped at the library and I asked them where they were from. They said Indiana. I said that I have only lived here 3 years and was from Indiana. They asked where and I said Carmel. Turns out they were from suburbs all around the west side of Indianapolis. When they left, one guy said "bye Carmel!" I saw him on the news that night saying that when asked "why would you spend your vacation riding a bike through Iowa?" but he said "we're loving it".

To see some good video clips from each day including some costumed riders doing the Hokey Pokey in Poky and riders amazed at The Grotto, click HERE

RAGBRAI - 1st post

Quick post tonight about RAGBRAI. This is the annual bicycle ride across Iowa. The route is different each year. 10,000 riders started in western Iowa in Sioux City at the Missouri River on Sunday. They rode to Storm Lake and spent the night in tent cities and camped all over there.

Today they came east through our area including Pocahontas, Plover, West Bend and ending up in Algona for the night.

A special loop for riders who wanted to ride 100 miles today (vs. about 80 average) came through our town.

Some people ride in teams and have support buses - see 2 pictured here. Most of them carry the bikes on the roof and many use it as a party deck in the evenings. They travel from one host city to the next during the day.

As you can see, you see everything including the one guy whose recumbent bike and his "hat" looks like a banana. Another guy has a Viking type hat on. Fun day watching riders from all over the world come through our area! More pictures later this week. Don't forget that you can click on them to make them bigger.

La Crosse, WI - day 1

Fri. we drove from eastern Iowa into Wisconsin through rolling, and very pretty, dairy country and eventually along the Great River Road (the Mississippi) to river town, La Crosse. We had to detour a couple of times due to closed roads due to flooding from all of the rain the night before and recently. This first picture was taken in Manchester, Iowa. People were all over downtown watching as the downtown streets started flooding and wreckers were trying to rescue cars from the water. The DQ and a Hardee's were flooded. I thought it was scary. The story was on the front page of our paper today. Besides the rain, a dam had burst.










I had to check out this Gifts of Wisconsin shop. Found a WI Christmas ornament which is really the only thing I collect - when on trips. The check in guy at the hotel had recommended Buzzard Billy's for mostly Cajun food and great chicken dishes so we decided to try it. It looked like an unusual place. I had an au gratin chicken entree that had shrimp and crab, and Bill had catfish. Both were very good! The Pearl (on Pearl St.) was also recommended for homemade ice cream. It was an old fashioned ice cream parlor also with chocolates and jars of hard candy. You can see that it was a popular place! The old downtown buildings were neat!


Our room had an unbelievable view of The Mississippi (last picture). Check back for Day 2 of La Crosse! In the meantime, RAGBRAI comes through our area tomorrow!