Another spring day is unfolding but I made a bad mistake - checked the long range forecast and see rain predicted for the next week or more. If April showers bring May flowers, we will be well flowered as well has having a clean car free of polka-dots! That's then and this is now so we must enjoy this weekend as much as possible.

Yesterday was hectic but I did get the Town Hall kitchen cleaned (not by me except the fridge), and the crew finished setting up the Hall for the book sale and the coffee stuff. I had two hours of peace in the Mill Gift Shop which was extremely dusty. I certainly know the inventory there after cleaning all shelves and books. This morning at 8:30 I'll take that lovely drive through the country to pick up bread from our baker since this will be the first weekend with a grind going on. There will be lots of flour produced and that always perks up bread sales.

Got news yesterday that our other grant has been approved We now know we can hire a total of five students. The hard part will be choosing but we don't start the interviews until Friday of next week. We have six excellent resumés (two from last year's guides) so need to weed out only one applicant. That will be hard but I'm hoping one will drop out for another job offer. Dann will be given the job of calling the candidates - he doesn't know it yet.

So today I'll be at the Town Hall or the Mill for the day and then home to make three loaves of sandwiches for tomorrow's stint at the Maple Syrup festival for the workers who are absolutely sick of syrup and pancakes by Day 2. I will be doing the 3 hour morning shift serving pancakes and sausages. Last year we served well over 1200 plates and it was a rainy weekend!

Time to get moving. Enjoy your weekend and try not to think of pancakes, syrup, butter and sausages.

That's awesome the grant was approved, Ruth! The good news is, it's rained a lot in the last few weeks here, and everything is starting to bud out. Everyone was right, spring really returned this year! The spring blooms in my yard *gasp* are so beautiful!

I'm trying to figure out lately, since I'm nauseous a good 50% of the time if...uh-oh...fiber does it?! Wouldn't that be ironic that I learned to eat well doing south beach 7 years ago, that it messes me up now?! I'm hoping not, but the experiment is on. Will you let me stay on the beach if it's true?!

Tomorrow is my bday , so today I'll get groceries for my bday dinner (crab legs! Darned, my DD discovered she loves them, so now I have to share....), and get some niggles done. I'm trying to figure out what I'd like to do still. Whaddaya think!?

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying a beautiful spring weekend!

Spring is bursting out all over, it seems. Dad and I enjoyed a lovely drive out in the countryside yesterday with the crabapple trees in bloom, along with the forsythia and daffodils. We did find that shop Dad was looking for, and it was an Amish Bakery!!!!! I somehow ended up with a strawberry-rhubarb pie. I wonder how that happened?

Ruth, yay for the grant coming through! The Syrup Festival sounds fun and I hope it brings in lots of revenue, but I'd be first in line for the Mill bread. I loved the flour I bought there and wish I had a ready supply of it.

Tammy, I hope you can find the answers to your constant nausea problem, but you know you are always welcome on The Beach. We'd miss you terribly if you left! I hope you can find a good deal on crab legs so you and DD can eat your fill of them, and let me wish you an early Happy Birthday!

I'm going to go out and look for onion sets this morning. I know it's a bit late to put them in, but the ground has been either frozen or too muddy before. Even all the farmers are running behind this year. I may pick up some other cold crop seedlings while I'm at it, but don't want to go overboard this year. Last year, a lot went to waste because we just couldn't eat it all, even sharing with everyone we knew.

Have a great day, everyone! The sun is shining and it's supposed to get up to 80* here!

Good morning sunshine!!!!! Oh how good it feels!!! Linda we have a predicted night of 79 I'm psyched!!! That is funny the store was a bakery. Makes me think of cute your mom and dad were going there and perhaps sharing a delightful Amish dessert. Good luck if you start planting. Realistically with Joe's house as the top priority, the garden may suffer again this year.

Ruth glad the grant came through. I'm sure you will be quite busy today. I bet the crew will really appreciate their sandwiches. Oh and fresh bread...heaven

Tammy sorry you are queasy. Could it be from the combination of meds you are taking? I've never heard of fiber making people nauseous, but then again what do I know lol. Actually some vitamin/herbal supplements make me gag so I guess anything is possible. Happy early birthday!!!! My DS loves crab legs too. I agree with Linda, you have to stay, wouldn't be the same without you

Nothing new or exciting here. I did tell DS I am not going to cosign the loan. If he qualifies his payments will be more, but he needs to do this on his own. He needs to be more financially responsible. Time to learn another life lesson. I may not get here much this week. Starting tomorrow I am working everyday but Thursday. I have 2 overtime shifts plus my extra work day and a trip up to Joe's Tuesday to go with his DS to traffic court. I did take next Sunday off to go to a fundraiser party in Long Island. Hopefully I won't be too tired and stay home lol. I'm really going to need to be organic this week....but that's later now more coffee! Have a great day

Good morning I am back for real this time We got official word yesterday that layoff notices are coming Monday. Our contract says 45 days notice but there's not much work to do. Now to start planning for that time and figuring out how to cut expenses to make the time off easier. Right now I'm just planning for the 4 day Gloucester trip we've been looking forward to this week.

Ruth - and now I want pancakes

Tammy - happy birthday weekend

Cottage - You just reminded me I have one more package of freezer rhubarb. Time to get that out. I made a delicious strawberry rhubarb coconut ice cream a couple of weeks ago. Might just make that again.

Time to get my weekend list made and chores started. Happy weekend!

Good morning

Ruth hope you have a good turn out. I can almost smell the bread baking.

Tammy hope you can figure out what the problem is. You share a birthday with my ds. Are you a perfectionist too.

Linda. I'm sure your dad enjoyed the outing. We have rabbits and they ate the tops of everything I planted.

Jennifer you are putting in a lot of hours. Hope your not to tired. Sounds like ds has made a good recovery.

Cyndi. Sorry to hear about the layoffs. Your are very resourceful and am sure you will figure things out sooner than later. Enjoy your holiday.

yesterday's dinner was delicious. Today we are going to a Mennonite farmers market. There won't be much produce yet but last year the main building burned down and they have replaced it so will have a look at that. I ordered a pressure canner from amazon. Hope to do lots of preserves this year.

Good morning,

We didn't get home from the concert until 1:30 a.m. all the kids beat us home lol. It was a good concert but I could have done without standing for 5 hours not a seat in the place. Don't know how the ladies with the 4 and 5 inch heels did it

Ruth yeah for the grant coming through. Have fun at the festival

Tywnn I know that I cannot eat fiber on it's on or I do get upset tummy. Happy early birthday!

Cottage glad you found the store that is funny that it was a bakery

Jekel that is a lot of over time make sure to take some time to yourself

Cyndi at least you knew it was coming so that helps, hopefully you are able to find something you wish to do

Sophie enjoy your trip to Mennonite farmers market

Today I need to run to the store for a few things got a few coupons for dollars off at a few store for my upcoming birthday so figured I would spend them before they expire.

Have a great day everyone!

Hey everyone! Back from getting groceries and off to tend to niggles.

Hope everyone has a safe and productive day!

Fly-by post this a.m. as I have sandwiches to make and need to be at the Fair Hall by 8:30 to start serving pancakes and sausages. We had crowds visiting the Mill yesterday and ground and sold 74 pounds of whole wheat flour. The weather cooperated and we are expecting the same weather and maybe the same crowds today. I'm hoping to be home around noon because my poor dogs are very lonely these days.

Enjoy you Sunday whether "sun" or not!

Wow Ruth, sounds like a great turn out!

It was an amazingly beautiful day yesterday, I'm hoping for more of the same today . I need to find a little hike to go on somewhere to enjoy some of the fabulous views we have here in central PA.

Otherwise, it is quite quiet here still, all the mice are still sleeping....

Now I'm wanting pancakes for breakfast, Ruth! I'm going to have to make a weekend trip up there soon for some of that wonderful, fresh ground whole wheat flour. It's the best!

Hey, Tammy! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Have a very happy day, and the weather is going to perfect, just for you!

Today is going to be a day of planting here. Yesterday we bought 240 onion sets, more rhubarb plants, and some edamame and Swiss chard seedlings, plus a Bloomerang lilac bush and 3 dwarf Double Knockout rose bushes. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, so we want to get it all planted today and the rain will give everything a good start. We're supposed to have another beautiful, sunny day today. It was such a gorgeous evening last night that we sat outside on the patio with wine and cheese until late.

Good morning.

Ruth - Pancakes, sigh.

Tammy - Hope you figure things out. It was odd that when my joints started aching and it turned out gluten was the problem; I'd never had an issue with it before. My SIL has a theory about leaky gut; you might check that out. And... happy birthday!

Cyndi - Sorry about the pending layoffs.

I seem to have gotten out of the habit of checking in here every day so now am playing catch up all the time! No shifts at work this weekend and rain, rain, rain. Yesterday I did get out of the house for one errand but then got engrossed in a good book which I'll finish today.

Have a good one.

Good Morning

Happy Birthday, Tammy!

I've got to keep moving this morning. I'm typing from the main computer (easier) but will finish reading from my phone with my final cup of coffee. We've gotten 3 ft of snow and it's still snowing. I've got to get the pups to daycare and it suddenly occurred to me I might just have to park in the middle of the street. Note: wear boots. Fortunately, I did major shoveling and have a long berth for getting my small car in and out. Many are still stuck in parking spaces with a 3 ft hard berm made by the plow. Glad I don't have to do that this morning.

Have a great Sunday everyone!

Good morning,

Looks like light rain is falling hopefully it will wash some of my allergies away.

Ruth have fun at the festival

Tywnn Happy Birthday

Cottage that is a lot of onion sets

Karen enjoy your book, I have been in a book reading mood this past week

Debbie that sure is a lot of snow towards the end of April

Have a great day everyone!

Happy Birthday to Tammy!! Enjoy your day.

Cottage, all I can say is WOW, that's a lot of planting. I wish you success.

Ruth, busy is good, right? Sometimes I make DH the cinnamon toast pancakes for a breakfast change.

Debbie, that's a LOT of snow. And that wet, heavy kind is a bear to move.

I've been in the kitchen making the PB ricotta muffins and some of Kalyn's egg cups for the upcoming week. Now I need to do some dinner menus.

To all the other chicks!