Good morning, neighbours. Hope your Fourth is glorious. I just hung my Stars and Stripes in honour of my 1/4 American Heritage. I'm glad we have you folks next door!
Had a very worthwhile trip to Elgin to get my metals evaluated and ended up with a good-sized cheque. I immediately went to the furniture store and bought a single bed for my little room upstairs - formerly the treadmill room. I have enough cash left-over for pillows, sheets and maybe a quilt. Now I'm all set for company. Don't tell anybody yet as I still need to paint that room.
I am about to take off to pick up bread for the Mill. This will be a busy day as we are milling this afternoon - always brings a crowd and are also doing a Fish Fry in the Town Hall. I will be the ticket seller and I'm really hoping we sell out. We have a contract with a guy who comes and cooks it and brings the rest of the food except for dessert. His minimum fee is $600 so we need to sell 50 tickets to just break even. Let's hope our American campers eat "out" rather than have steaks,etc. at their homes, trailers or tents.
Now to saddle up the car and head out for the bread. Have a lovely day and weekend.
Rain is expected off and on all day, but our flag is still flying high. Jake and I are getting ready to head off to the diner for breakfast, then coming home and having a quiet day. If the rain holds off by suppertime, we may throw some burgers on the grill. I'm looking forward to curling up and reading all day.
Ruth - My husband would definitely attend a fish fry if he were near enough. Crossing my fingers for your group!
Linda - so far it's supposed to clear up here for the fireworks, but we'll see what happens. I hope it's a nice relaxing day for you! That's a good idea, to curl up with a book .
Yesterday was...a bit rough. Today is to prepare for a few friends for dinner, nothing too extensive - smoked pork (mmmmm), cole slaw, cucumber salad, and texas caviar - we have a vegetarian coming, so wanted to make it a bit more balanced. Friends are bringing some yummy dishes too.
Other than that, I think I'll steal Linda's idea of curling up with a book - perfect for this drizzly gloomy day .
Yesterday was another productive day: walk with DH, more gardening time, a trip to the store for DH to study the holiday sale on grills...perfect summertime activities. Not sure what today's agenda is; there is a parade and fireworks but also a chance of thunderstorms this afternoon.
Ruth, what a haul! Not everyone finds that kind of "junque" to purge and sell. Hope the fish fry is successful.
Cottage, your day sounds quite relaxing. I spent a lot of time reading earlier this week when it was raining.
Tammy, enjoy your dinner. DH grilled burgers and dogs last night to which I added cole slaw, baked beans and the first corn of the season. (Not SB I know, but I have to have a piece or two each summer.)
It is a pretty day today and the high will only be 82 so I am happy camper, last night we went to a local town and watched their parade (mainly tractors, lol) and their firework show. Today we off to St. Louis to see their parade this morning and maybe we will grill out tonight.
Ruth sounds like you did alright yesterday with your stuff.
Cottage enjoy your day day today
Tywnn sounds like your evening will be fun as well
Beth, I too have to have some corn during the summer.
Ruth. Nice to get $$$ for your stash. Hope you sell lots of tickets.
Linda. Enjoy your day reading and hopefully grill today.
Tammy. Sounds like you have your entertainment plan all figued out. When does your leave start.
Beth. Your day sounds relaxing.
Pearlrose. I guess you and your family love parades. Enjoy
thursday was spent totally scrubbing down the kitchen - fridge and stove cleaning, open shelves washed and floor too.
yesterday we went up north, had a picnic and a 4km walk around the lake. Today a nice lunch of watermelon salad, a slice of baguette and maybe a glass of white wine for lunch on the deck. Temperature will be 82.
Good morning and Happy Independence Day. My flag is flying too, as it has everyday since 9/11. No celebrating or BBQs for me just another day at work. We were hopping last night. Everyone is on heightened alert so we are not tolerating any BS that we normally would have a little patience for. I do need to head to Long Island City this evening to monitor a special events train for the Macy's fireworks display. I will probably go home from there. Another long day ahead, but at least it is my last.
Hope everyone takes time to be reminded of the history of Independence Day. Thank you Ruth for flying Old Glory today
Tomorrow starts Phase 1.5 (I still have a few peaches to enjoy) Once they are gone I am committing myself to two weeks of P1. My emotions are getting the better of me lately and I need to re-group.
We have BLUE skies (with some white clouds) for the first time in a week!!! Thought the sun would never shine on us again.
DH and I were in garden. One daylily, my favorite, Pandora's Box, didn't send up a single scape with blooms. A real puzzle. Last year it was glorious, then I remembered. I planted alyisium along the edge of the path and must have put too much dirt over the crown of the daylily. Daylilies do NOT like to be buried too deep at crown and will rebel by refusing to bloom. I dug it up, replanted some of the small new fans there and took another group of 3 fans to plant in another area. If all survive, I was right in reason for the failure to bloom. If only one that went back in the same soil dies, then it was diseased.
So delighted to be out in the garden after so many days of rainy weather.
Neighbor is having pool party and has so many blow up toys for the grandkids that they may not have room to get into the water.
Sorry Jennifer that you have to work today. Heard that security is really high today. Hope all are safe.
Ruth What a great exchange you made for something entirely practical. Wish I still had the silver we received for our wedding but never used. Our son took the large pieces outside to dig with and ended up with nothing but a few pieces by the time the summer was over. He also buried our younger daughter's tricycle. I could see him out the window but he looked so innocent. You know how kids can pull the wool over our eyes.
Happy Forth of July for those of you in USA. Sandy
One party down, one to go. I wasn't too horrible last night, so hopefully I can behave myself again tonight and have minimal damage from all the celebrating. The good news is that there will be some healthy things available tonight, including my creamy cucumber salad. I did have a couple of bites of cake, and to be honest, it didn't even taste that good to me. The chocolate frosting was pretty good but it was too sweet. I ended up throwing the rest of it away. I wasn't perfect though, and I'm sure I won't be tonight either.
The good news is that I tried to have a big lunch in order to hold me until we eat this afternoon (party starts at 4) but I couldn't even make it through an entire bowl of vegetable soup with brown rice. If I start to get grombly later, I'll make sure I eat something else before we go so I don't overdo it.
Well, I suppose I should start slicing cucumbers and grating zucchinis. (I'm also making zucchini bread to take, since we have an abundance of zucchinis.)
Did I mention the party was Great Gatsby theme? Here we are, all dolled up. Have a great Fourth girls!
Sounds like my Southern Neighbours celebrated the 4th in great style. Raising my mug to another year of Peace and Harmony!
Big day at the Mill yesterday with visitors, tours and the milling - we call it the "grind". I supervised noon to 3 and then went to the Town Hall to sell fish fry tickets! It was a huge success - we had 150 tickets but ran out and had to recycle the used ones - twice! I've not yet counted the bucks but there sure was a crowd of people. We would do it again this summer except the fry-guy is booked solid!
Not sure what today will bring except money counting,laundry and some planning for the week.
But first, a load of laundry, dog cuddling and a second coffee. Enjoy the day - it's gorgeous out there here!
We enjoyed a quiet, but pleasant, 4th here, and I got a few things done. My DS's birthday is today, and Jake's is Tuesday, so I baked them their favorite chocolate cake from scratch and made a batch of cream cheese chocolate chip cookies. That should keep them happy. Then I finally got around to tackling the cupboard under the kitchen sink and got it all sorted out and organized, before I curled up on the sofa with my book until it was time to go to Mass. Came home and had some yummy tacos for a late supper while listening to fireworks.
Today is looking like another quiet, laid-back day, and the sun is trying to make a valiant effort to break through the clouds. I do have to run out for some groceries this morning, but I may get a chance to sit out on the patio or even take a dip in the pool later, if the rain holds off.
Ruth - wow!! Guess I didn't need to send my husband up there for fried fish, eh? He would LOVE to have a spontaneous long road trip like that. Maybe next year?!
Linda - wow. That was really productive for a holiday. Hopeful you'll have more rest today! Happy Birthday to DS.
Yesterday was really nice having friends over. We have spectacular fireworks here for a small town - 45 minutes set to music on the radio station. They did Pharrell's Happy song, and did you know?!? They have smiley face fireworks now!! It was pretty cool .
Today is low key (I think). I should plan on my menu and get groceries as needed. My newspaper person is a slacker, they missed me (again) today....I really prefer looking at sales papers in hand instead of on the computer. Silly of me, eh?
Good morning Just realized I never made it in yesterday. It was rainy here too, so started low key. Made the always dangerous decision to go to Home Depot for a sink stopper (so very innocent sounding) and DH decided to replace the hot water heater now instead of waiting for the repair and replacing it in early fall as planned. So much for our weekend. Today was gong to be something fun, but now it will be DH getting the new heater in (took all yesterday afternoon to get the old one out) after rebuilding the little floor it's on. We live in a mobile home so everything is a bit challenging. Tim likes to redesign everything so there is usually construction involved. We joke that it's a mobile home frame, but absolutely everything but the studs has been rebuilt, more than once. Feels nothing like a mobile inside, but that means more work everytime he does anything. Oh well, I have plenty of garden work to do.
Meanwhile, the face is healing well. Can't wait to get the top layer of stitches out Monday. I haven't been exercising enough so I need to correct that today.
The July 4-5 Independance Day Weekend
Then I finally got around to tackling the cupboard under the kitchen sink and got it all sorted out and organized, before I curled up on the sofa with my book until it was time to go to Mass. Came home and had some yummy tacos for a late supper while listening to fireworks. 
Just realized I never made it in yesterday. It was rainy here too, so started low key. Made the always dangerous decision to go to Home Depot for a sink stopper (so very innocent sounding) and DH decided to replace the hot water heater now instead of waiting for the repair and replacing it in early fall as planned. So much for our weekend. Today was gong to be something fun, but now it will be DH getting the new heater in (took all yesterday afternoon to get the old one out) after rebuilding the little floor it's on. We live in a mobile home so everything is a bit challenging. Tim likes to redesign everything so there is usually construction involved. We joke that it's a mobile home frame, but absolutely everything but the studs has been rebuilt, more than once. Feels nothing like a mobile inside, but that means more work everytime he does anything. Oh well, I have plenty of garden work to do. 