Mid Week Post

    Hello Friends,

  I was able to get something checked off my list today (Tuesday). I had bought everything for an oil and filters change for my old mountaineer suv quite awhile ago. The person that was going to do it for me never followed through so I made an appointment with a small auto business not too far from us.  My car is really old, but it was an expensive one in it's prime-I bought it used from a friend. It's done me well for many years now. So for $15.00 she did the oil change and two filter change (with my products), checked and aired my tires for me and I asked her to check out all the belts to make sure ok.  

   I had been putting this off as I just didn't know where to go. Here in Missouri we have to get a vehicle inspection every couple years so I used them for that last year and liked them. They have a lady mechanic that did my car. I was happy with myself getting this done. haha  I am realizing the older we get the slower we are at stuff like this.

  I decided to go on into town for a couple errands and stopped at the sav a lot store. I needed to pick up a few things before the holiday weekend and really didn't want to drive the other direction to the small Wal mart store.   While I was gone this morning we had friends that came up from the woods house area to help Larry with the dock project. They got quite allot done before it got too hot.

  It has been soooo quiet here with the speed boats gone here is the link to the boat that went the fastest. 207 MPH  I watched it live on tv-we have a lake channel with our tv package. The link has a photo and video. The race was cut short on Sunday as a big storm moved in with lightening around noon. We didn't get much here where we live-which is about 30 minutes from that event.

and here is a link to a mishap at the end of the race, I missed this when I was watching-they race these boats too which I think is crazy-but the driver fell out of the boat and wasn't wearing the device to cut the engine The driver was safe

 Those of you in the States-any plans for Labor Day Weekend?? It will start getting busy here again probably Thursday.  I decided to make baby back ribs for us and the couple we met recently. Will also make Larry's Mom's mustard potato salad-his favorite. She will bring a large fruit salad--sounds good. I may look for a from scratch gluten free brownie recipe to bake up Our new friend Mary loves chocolate I have a very dear slow mail friend Mary, so this was a surprise to meet another Mary in person. 

 The cooler early mornings have been so inviting to sit on the deck and listen to the sounds on the lake. Have you noticed there is some insect that is making noise now once it's get dark?-we hear them early mornings too til the sun comes up. This just started-a sign of Fall approaching??

  Larry's old digital camera takes better photos with the reds than mine does These are before sunrise one day this week.

Below is my photo-my camera changes the red to yellows if the sun is beginning to come up

We have been enjoying the ducks and geese early mornings now too They either swim by or fly by.  We have watched an eagle hunt for fish this week-which is very cool to see

I just uploaded this video I took that early morning when Larry and his new friend went out fishing before sunrise. You will see a closeup of a little hummer.  I had brought the camera down to the hummingbird feeder-but I missed getting the hummer in that frame. The fisherman are in the video too.

  I also wanted to share a new journal book I just received in the mail. Some of you may enjoy visiting Soma too with her lovely art at Ink Torrents Graphics  Her posts have been an inspiration for me.

   I have been looking at her journals-they are handsewn-and wanting to purchase one someday. Well someday came when I saw her post of her carving to print the covers with. Isn't this lovely? And she offers different colors for the cover. Soma also sent samples of the paper so I could test out out my black walnut ink first  before writing in the journal-very thoughtful  

  Today when I was carrying the groceries in from on top of the hill-I spotted a monarch butterfly-that really makes me smile to see the butterflies. Hopefully I can get more planted next spring. Not sure about this Fall for working on the gardens, as we have much to do the next couple of months-doctor visits, and work on getting the woods house ready to sell-finally. covid really messed that up for us.

    Happy Midweek

  

  

Sunday Post-Race Boats and Projects

 Good Morning Friends,

    It's a cooler cloudy early morning here at the lake this morning. Looks like rain may move in. Nice for me, but not so good for the weekend race boat events-The Shootout-34th year.  I am actually looking forward to them all going home as many have been here since last week Monday.

  These race boats are fun to watch as they are all different boat lengths with bright colors, but they are also very loud and noisy.

   I caught a few photos but many didn't turn out as well as I wanted to. These boats are beautiful-very fast, streamlined, they cause no waves as they glide on top of the water  The race-timed for each category-is broadcast live both Saturday and Sunday. One boat's time was 199 miles per hour-that's fast.  If they don't get rained out today there will an air show as well.  This event raises allot of money for local charities and rural fire departments-their goal is to surpass 1/2 million dollars this year.

This first photo I found online-a view of some of the spectators

All photos will enlarge for better viewing-just click on them

A smaller one

Yes the ocean boats were in the mix of boats too. Late afternoon Saturday there were kayaks too-scary for them I would think  I saw the pair near our dock waiting for the lake to clear-thinking they were headed back home at the time.

     It was a very very busy lake Saturday, Labor Day weekend will be very busy on the lake too, but then finally much quieter. I expect if it doesn't rain today will be busy too with race boats and spectators.

Early Saturday morning, we watched many boats full of people headed to the event. One needs to get there really early to be in front of the lines of boats to watch the Shootout

Not a good photo but only one I was able to capture-the film crew

This larger boat to the right broke down in front of us-they managed to get over to the bank opposite us The boat on the left came back to help-they were there for a couple hours before they got the boat running again.

  My calendula plants are producing lots of flowers now-so I am still picking a few more to dry. Want to have enough for a couple batches of soap.  The rest I will leave to bloom and enjoy and then gather the seed heads for next year.

  I am still not inspired to create journal pages, or pick up the sashiko project not sure why. Actually this year is the first time I have actually felt old-so perhaps my body is changing into the next phase of my life cycle. I will blame it on that for now-haha.  Speaking of journal pages, I just ordered a handmade journal that I am excited about-more when it arrives in the mail.

    I did remember that I still have lots of fibers to spin. I need to get out the bags soon and see what I can hopefully sell. At the time I bought too much.

    Haven't done any spinning in over a year. I have a bag of fibers to spin that are Yellowstone inspired colors, so I grabbed the last project I was working on and finished that skein. Then I grabbed my bison fiber-which I love to spin. Just love the feel of this fiber-very short fibers but they just seem to stick together well. Most of what I have spun already is more bulky yarn but so far I got this finer-finally.

   I wasn't totally pleased on what I spun Saturday to finish this one off-very thick and thin and bulky-but for weaving it can always be wove into something fun-pillow covers, shawls etc I sprayed it down with water to set the fibers and let it dry outdoors-it was in the shade here.

   I was fortunate at the time to find this bison fiber at an affordable price. This is labor intensive as this is the extra top layer of fibers for the bison over the cold winters. In the spring it falls off or they rub it off. So one must find it and gather it.  The person I bought it from had her own bison herd out west and was in a co op so she was pretty much selling it wholesale to the public

   I have allot of skeins where it came out very bulky, the rest I will work on getting it much finer. Would like to make some sort of garment with it. Thus is very soft  fiber that I am in love with. I still have enough left to make several skeins of yarn

  I also dug out a bag with more of the Yellowstone inspired colors, and will work on getting a finer yarn with these too. I need to search around as I know I have a few other colors. Thinking I will switch off spinning with these and the bison fibers. Feeling better getting back to my fiber craft-maybe back to weaving is in the near future-the project is waiting for me.

 I have been thinking about my Christmas cards too that I want to make this year. It's time for a new stamp, so I spent hours looking online.  I fell in love with two rubber stamps that I "had" to have. They came fast in the mail and I really love them-so now to decide on papers. If you would like to swap a Christmas card just message me with my contact form in sidebar.

  Yesterday I also dug out another project that I started on back in 2015 I had gotten stumped on how to do it, and with the move to the lake house,  just hadn't thought about it again. It's time. 

   I have been wanting to publish an ebook on Kindle of my late sister's poetry. At her early death (car accident) my Mom years later had split her writings up with me and my brother-and then I later learned she tossed allot of it-why she would do that is beyond my understanding.  I also have an original art piece for the cover that a friend painted for me and gave me the copyright for it-should I get it published. 

   I am working on figuring out how and where to type this up and get it ready to publish. Looks like Amazon Kindle has a better program to do that in now-so I will see how that goes. I am computer illiterate for sure.

 A few early morning views today

a lone duck

I was trying to capture crows flying by, not sure if this is a crow though I did also see the back of an eagle flying by to far right of me on the deck

  Happy Sunday and new week ahead

Mid Week Post

 Happy Midweek,

    So excited for Larry, he went out fishing early this morning with our new friend. I thought I had the video turned on my camera and sigh I missed getting his launching of the boat, and the sunrise-sigh. I will try the sunrise video again as that was awesome to watch the sun come up only took a couple of minutes.

  The annual eye visit after cataract surgery (around 5 years ago now) went well. My eyes are staying stable with glaucoma and the macular degeneration. I did have a film build up on one of the cataracts which he cleaned but now that eye is sensitive so will have to watch that. Larry has really poor vision but his conditions are stable as well. So that was good news.

  We got a surprise gift in the mail this week from our Wisconsin friends-Rob and Marie. This piece was hand loomed in Czech Republic  It feels like linen but is 100% cotton, and is a dish towel-no I don't think I want to use for a dish towel. I have a glass quilt cabinet that I keep something on top to keep out the sunlight in the summer. I have all the quilts wrapped in tissue paper as well  My friends have their work hours set up to give them long weekends-up to 5 days. They take little trips, usually visiting wineries. They were in a different area in Missouri and visited the Lewis and Clark Boat Museum. It is in the exact spot where Lewis and Clark started their trip.  I can enjoy this piece now as it sits on top of the quilt cabinet that I often walk by. Above the quilt cabinet is a framed photo of a bison in Yellowstone Park.

  A happy mail postcard from Deb  thanks much

Drying calendula flowers for my soap making  so wonderful for the skin  I get a few flowers every day now

 A few lake views from this morning

Below is a hummingbird 

The fisherman

I love reflections on the water this is the neighbors to the left of us

The crane flying off

 

Have an awesome day

Sunday Post-Lake Views Butterflies & Grilling

  Hello Friends,

    I think I will be popping in on Sundays for a post.

   Wow, we can't get over how very very busy it is on the lake today. Usually Friday late and most of the day on Saturdays are bonkers, but today (Sunday) it is beyond bonkers out there.

  The weather is perfect, not too hot but full sunshine. Thinking some are enjoying the day before school begins. Next week will be craziness with the shootout race boats which raises money for charities, and the following Labor Day weekend-which I expect to be total craziness. It does make me nervous with the loud noises and too close to our boat and dock.

  Today, for our main meal at 2 pm I decided to fire up our charcoal weber grill. I made up foil packets again lined inside with parchment paper and filled up with veggies. Mini potatoes cut in half, sweet peppers, onions, fresh mushrooms, zucchini, bok choy chunks, and small tomato halves.

  I decided to grill up chunks of chicken breast for faster hot grilling. I spiced it heavily with Mrs. Dash (no salt) lemon pepper For dipping we mixed a ground mustard with Bunster's mildly hot honey which was eucalyptus honey infused with hot peppers. That went perfectly with the grilled chicken.  I don't remember if I shared this company with you before. I buy it online but if you live in or near a large city you may find their hot sauce products. They are available in other countries as well. All natural products only are bottled up. Made in Australia-we love their hot sauces.

  Those plants in front are calendula, I only had a few seeds that made it from a big down pour we had a few months ago-I have been harvesting the flowers, drying them now, and will use them in my handmade soap-I love calendula soap-so nice for the skin.

I made up three different veggie packets and then served them all together in a bowl

A couple days ago I made up a big jar of my Grandma's 3 Bean Salad-I used Splenda in place of the sugar, and I used avocado and a little olive oil.

  I am noticing that during the hottest part of the day is when I see the butterflies on my perennials that I planted for them. Early mornings though I see the hummingbirds enjoying the flowers-makes me happy.

  I haven't been able to get a good photo of a butterfly with it's wings open til today.

  A couple days ago though, there were several different types of butterflies including a couple monarchs-I was Sooo excited to see them. Wasn't able to get good photos, but my perennial garden is in full bloom now except for the pineapple mint-which is huge but still no little red flowers as of yet. You can see the petunias are still doing well as is the lemongrass plant. I need to cut and dry more of those lemongrass leaves

This butterfly plant was really tiny when I planted it this spring To the right is the last of  Larry's Grandpa's shallots that he brought back from Israel, they don't seem to like this Missouri soil, so far they like their new home here.

Behind the zinnia, is orange mint that has gone crazy-I will dig some of this up this early fall and plant it for ground cover in other areas. The chocolate mint has gone crazy too. I think different mints will make great ground covers-so wanting to get rid of the grass here.

  

     The large bushy plant in back is the pineapple mint. It always amazes me how large it will grow from such a tiny plant. It is an annual. I have been waiting for the red flowers to appear.

Lake views this past week

  The reflections on the water were amazing one morning early and you can see the boat is on the new lift, now to get this dock finished.

This morning-early

We both loved the espresso dark chocolate keto churned ice cream I had made, so last week I churned up another batch.  Will be serving it up tonight

Happy new week