Well, June is here and GOD has sent us some nice June-like temps to go with it -- in the 70's F today and that is expected for the whole week. We actually had a tiny sprinkle of earlier too. It is strange to be one minute, then have some the next, and guess what? It's again! But it is kinda neato as well.

We picked up some more berry plants on sale this week -- 3 blueberry and 3 blackberry, so that should round out my berry patch nicely. The wind knocked over my 2-year blueberry bush but it is A-OK. We hope to transplant them all this week, if the night temps stay above freezing long enuff.

DH finally found my garden stuff, including my implements and last year's seed. Now I have a big stock up, but will try to grow some in planters to use them up. One of my friends grew dozens of pots one year and did very well.
I planted the front gardens yesterday afternoon, and we'll do the barrels tomorrow AM, if the weather is nice enuff. It should be cooler then anyways.

My eating has been really good this week; very glad for that. Hope everyone is having a great first week of June out there; take care ...

Wow June is already a week old and I'm just finding the June thread. I was excited to see some new folks and I hope that they along with us all, can move forward to a more healthy tomorrow.

I have been watching my calories closer, unfortunately that doesn't always equal eating balanced meals, but I have lost a pound and a half in the last 2 weeks, which may or may not mean a thing, so I am waiting to see if it is just a fluctuation.

Our rain has quit again and the heat is back. Our garden won't make it much longer without more rain Gotta run for now.

NELLY ~ One time DH and I lived on my DAD's farm for about 3 years. We had no well or water source there except for Mother Nature. We had eavestroughs on two sides of the little cottage that we rented there; and the rain gathered in the barrels at each end. We used this for washing, cleaning, and watering our garden. Sometimes, I would even stand under it and have a shower (not in my buff; I wore a light shift).

Then we hired a man to dig us a cistern right beside our garden: this is a rectangle hole like a mini man-made pond, but it's very deep in the center; and here they are called "shallow wells". Whenever it rained, the cistern would fill up (it also had overflow trenches: one towards the garden and one away). We only used this to water our garden and greenhouse, and it never ran out of water. We used a pail on a rope to pull the water up, and it worked marvellously for us. The guy only charged us $40 bucks to dig it with his backhoe. Then we put a fence around it (for safety) with wood poles (cores & slats) that a local company gave us for free.

I had forgotten about that until you mentioned that you needed rain again. Just another true story from our homesteading days. Still sending up ^prayers^ that GOD will send more rain to the mid-west U.S.

I remember my grandmother talking about using rainwater for washing and bathing. She said there was nothing like it for shampooing you hair, it is soft water and as you say collected in a rain barel.

This is Day 1 for me. I know what I should be doing health-wise, but have trouble sticking with it. God's response to my faith crisis was to find a support group. I am looking forward to the encouragement of 3FC.

Welcome and good luck ! You will find a great group here.

ROSE ~ ya, that's the hard part all right -- sticking with the plan, but with practice and time ... it can get better. We'll try to support you as much as we can ...

BARGOO ~ oh yes, rain water is fabulous for washing your hair; I used that all the time there.

We've had a very busy day today. This AM, DH and I built our own water hose rack -- I designed it and then we built together. I learned "how" to use a skill saw today but DH did the final sawing as he was concerned. That took us to about 1 pm, but we saved ourselves over $50.00 by making our own. We just used some leftover pieces of lumber that we had from our deck.

Then some good old friends from out of town came over to visit for the evening. They used to live here but moved away. It was really nice to see them again, and we had a happy time reminiscing. It was and here all day but it started pouring here late this evening, so our friends had to grab a taxi, as they had to walk to the other side of town where they are staying. Better than getting drenched.

Hope you all have a fabulous Friday tomorrow ...

Thanks! I'm loving this beautiful Friday morning~TGIF!

Added on to the new kitchen this morning

Assembled by Ta Taw and decal'd by Nonni

http://s1235.photobucket.com/albums/...3DIMG_4474.jpg

Ahhh ... that's very cute, GARY! I bet the grand-daughters will it ...

Thanks Ladies

I can't wait for them to see it

ROSE CENTERED My GRANDdaughters are KAIA FAITH...aka GRANDdaughter1 who is almost 15 months old. Daughter of my son and his wife, they live 1.5 miles from me and I see her often. GRANDdaughter2...aka Claire Elaine is the daughter of my daughter and her husband...aka...kidnapper She will be 3 months old today! They live about 35 miles from me, an area that can be very busy with traffic, I don't get to see her as often

I hope to be back this week-end to finally catch up!

Be good

Hi Ladies

Taking a few minutes to catch up while Angie and I wait for GRANDdaughter1 to come over. She and Angie will be planting some herbs in the garden

Angie and I planted some tomatoes and zucchini in the garden after church this afternoon. Of course we just had to save some for you know who to help Angie picked up a small watering can for her yesterday and a crab garden decoration When we ask her what does a crab do she holds her little hands out, open and closing them, saying peench-peench

Angie and Lara had their last bell choir performance at church until school starts up again. The bell and music choirs run the same as our school schedules and take summers off. We still have music but less of it. Of course we still have the organ and our traditional hymns every service. We don't always applause, we do so as the Spirit moves us...of course we want to every time but then that gets a little too much...and they know their performance isn't about them. But today they rocked it and got loud applause after 2 of the 3 songs...a very nice send-off for the summer.

I haven't been too busy with work the last couple of weeks. Prior to that I was going strong with work and if I had any time it was taken up with this kitchen remodel and other changes we did in the house. We are now settling in and have almost everything put back where it belongs. Angie is having a big garage sale next Saturday, what doesn't sell will do down the Amvets.

Since I wasn't busy last week with work I was able to babysit GRANDdaughter1 2 days by myself and go and visit GRANDdaughter2 and her mommy 3 days and they came up here one day. An awesome week for me!!!

Yesterday we spent the early part of the afternoon at a wedding celebration for a young man that grew up in our church. Quite fun and a lot of people from church. I have known the boy, young man now...28...since he was 7. A very nice DJ that played current songs that Angie and I listen to...yes, we listen to popular music The young woman, 1/2 of the DJ duo, sang some songs too. The first one was for the first dance for the bride and groom...her partner announced she would sing "AT LAST"...I cringed...thinking "OH NO!" how does a 22 yr. old, very petite, WHITE girl pull that off? She rocked it!!

After that party we went to a local restaurant with about 25 family members (ours and her husbands) for a birthday party for my niece. It was cool and us guys had a good view of the TV's for the baseball, hockey and basketball games But boy did I have too much food for the day! The wedding party was amazing appetizers and finger foods and plenty of them and the restaurant we ate at, Angie and I always get the salad bar, all-you-can-eat, for a couple of bucks with our entrees. We eat all we want salad bar then get leftover containers to bring home our main meals for dinner the next night They have no problem with you bringing home leftovers of the entree but you are not allowed to bring home salad bar stuff. I was plenty full from the all you can eat salad bar, taco bar, wings and mac and cheese bar and soups! Going to have nice dinner of rice pilaf and sirloin beef tips tonight already paid for

While I was typing this Angie showed me the video of the "flash mob" dance that her and about 20 teachers did at school for the kids last week...very cool. They had a couple of practices. I would post it but it's private. My wife is an excellent dancer and can hang right in their with the youngsters! As for me....3 left feet! And that's no joke

Well, I better wrap this up and get ready for the mini-HERicane

WOW GARY ~ that's a very generous salad bar you have there for a few bucks. We don't have anything like that here; you are blessed indeedy. We do have Chinese Food Bar nights/lunches: you pay one price for all you can eat. Have fun with the little Her-ricane ...

Well, we also have been spending lots of time with the gardening stuff here. My salad garden stuff is all coming up already; and I have some cherry tomatoes too (not ripe yet though). My snowballs on my Hydrangea Bush are getting bigger and whiter. I was very pleased to see that my Yellow Cinquefoil Bush has survived the late move & winter; I thought it was a gonner -- but that's one tough little bush apparently.

My Sandcherry Bush made it too, but it needs to be moved to a better place now; that's the hard part -- figuring out where everything should go. My Yellow Daylily survived too, but it was accidently chopped off (oops, got a little too aggressive with the weeding ); but that has happened before and they will bounce back ... thank goodness!

I'm delaying the berry transplants to later this week trying to avoid some low night temps; don't want to take a chance to lose them. Plus, I am going to plant some more veggies seeds over the next two weeks to spread them out (so they'll be ready at different times).

It was about 94 F here today; so we just did watering very early this AM. I've been hybernating indoors with the fans all day. I got my new camera working and am trying to take some pics for a before and after transitions thing; and trying to decide which ones to show you all. All that editing is hard work and takes a lot of time ...

So I'm back in the pic bus; maybe -- as my programs were giving me grief last night; waited all that time to upload & select through 900+ pics and lost it in the end -- arrgh!!! Then they said it had glitches/errors, so I have to start all over again; that will be for another day, I think ...

Anywho, hope all our friends here had a Super Serene Sunday today; have a great week coming up too ...