Work, Play, Dreaming

Good day, everyone! What did you do over the weekend?

In spite of our bitter cold weather, work still has to be done.

We were busy. We moved two hydrangea bushes which saw their last day, to the compost pile, and replaced them with culvert planters for strawberries. Now, to come up with a dear deterrent. Wire, domes with netting, bovine blood? I think we will do two of the above~~later today.
Do not let our beautiful green grass fool you. The perennials just do not want to come forth with all the bitter cold wind we have been having with our sunshine. Thank goodness for the sunshine. The Wendy Peony is so named because it came from my niece, Wendy, but she does not know the color of this one. I sure appreciate my nieces.
How do you fill your flower beds? Bill will do anything for me as long as he can play with his bucket,
even if it means sifting sand, gravel and clay. I see hypertufas in the future.
And these are Staci Strawberries from my niece, Staci. She did not know if these were everbearing or June berries, so we will find out soon enough. I think these will go into the culvert planters. They are beautiful plants, divided from her garden to mine.
We never thank each other for plants or they will not grow. Instead, we just exchange what we don't have from each others gardens. It's the way we have been getting a variety of perennials in our family, without the outrageous cost of them these days. It works out beautifully. My son is digging Yellow Flags and Phlox for Staci from one of my root-bound beds that soon will be lawn.
Staci's daughters were loving the tire swing! Just look at those smiles.
Higher! says Brooke, No! says, Bailey!
And Grandlove Sy, he was sitting on the trunk of this hemlock just dreaming of the summer day that he could take a dip in the creek or rock-hop, without his winter jacket on...
Hard work, play and daydreams. That's what keeps us young forever.

Thanks for stopping and

BlessYourHearts

Trout to Bobbles

There is nothing finer, than the gift of fresh fish, but frozen ain't bad either.After being gone last weekend, we came home to a surprise in our freezer. My brother left a note attached.
Oh, but these were not frozen for long. Look at these fine Brookies, the largest one measured 11 1/2 inches. Just right, and
so tasty fried in my cast iron pan with a hint of olive oil, rolled in cornmeal with a pinch of cayenne. Lip-smacking, finger-licking delicious. Thanks Eric., you're the man!

Also, the neighbor lady, Betty, walked over with a couple balls of yarn, needles and a pattern. She needed a baby's Bobble Cap for a gift. Of course, I will knit it for you. It turned out pretty cute, but, in the process, I found out that working with tiny size 3 needles is not the easiest with arthritic fingers....use it or loose it, but don't abuse it, like my Grams B. used to say.Now, for a gripe. All night and this morning, I could not bring up any of my entries. Somehow, my last one, Ticked Off, all about the clock collection of an aquaintance, has completely disappeared. Have any of you had a similar problem? If so, what do you do about it? I'm sorry if I missed any of your comments. Now, I'm Ticked Off.

Thanks for listening, thanks for continuing to visit and comment and

BlessYourHeart

Ticked Off

My mother needed her cuckoo clock returned to working order, so I took her to see The Clock Guy. WHAT an adventure. The Clock Guy has an obsession with clocks of all kinds, but particularily the Cuckoo Clock. Let's take a walk through his private collection just in his garage and house. He says when we return to pick the clock up again, he will give Mom the rest of the tour through his cabins. There are 3 of them and we can't wait. I've already seen them but am always game for more eye candy, also loving antiques.Not only does he collect clocks, but, like he said, " You name it, I've got it." Boy, he was not kidding. The weights on the clock he is admiring, are rocks. Very unique.
Cuckoo's everywhere you turn. We were there when the hour 11 hit and were there the chimes going off. Not all are set, but just enough so you definitely get the bug to start watching for these miracle boxes.
G, the clock guy, set off a couple of the musical clocks for Mom. By the smile on his face, he very obviously loves his passion for collecting clocks. They were amazing and he has a couple thousand in his collection.
The weights on this cuckoo was so charming, hanging in his stair hallway to enjoy.
Clocks, clocks, everywhere, clocks.
The mechanical genius of the works of a clock, is what captivated him, like this one in the center. I'm in aw.
Every kind, everywhere!

This is his garage....
We were amazed and taken back in time with some of his displays.

He has a love for all kinds of antiques....The blue box amongst his miniature cuckoos, is a Nickel Slot Machine and it still works. The red cup holds nickels for a try.

Are you enthralled yet? How about this Nickel Jukebox....I love, Love, LOVE this jukebox. It has history. I remember listening to it when I was a teenager and again in my 30's. Did I know G, the clock guy before?

No, but I knew the place.

His home used to be a bar that I hung out at as a legal teen, years and years and years and years ago. The bar, the Boondocks, is now a private residence, gone personal antiques, owned and lovingly cared for by two wonderful people, G and his wife J, who love to show off their treasures.

Thanks Gary and Jan, we had a wonderful time, and look forward to the day we pick up Mom's Cuckoo Clock.

What a fine way to spend a rainy morning!
We were so blessed,

BlessYOURHeartsToo

Unusual Winds

There has been so much turmoil with the weather, that one doesn't know what to expect anymore, without a moment's notice.

While getting ready to go out and do some yard work after a hard rain, suddenly the wind roared straight out of the Southeast, not a normal happening. Usually the wind comes out of the west or the northwest.

What in the world....my flag is down,
Before it was over, Old Glory was regrettably on the ground. This weather change happened soooo fast.
The GrandLove's swing was flying high, see that bit of blue...up high in front of the tree...click on any picture for a closer look at our day.'
Hang on trees, this could get bad...
No way, ... now the lean-to that houses the boat is gone to the ground...

It's a good thing our son Stac, wanted to borrow it and go fishing the night before...so it was at his place and spared getting smashed...
There's the roof on the left, and the wall on the right...I see a project with that blown down lumber~~~maybe I'll get my greenhouse yet...that is, if I make it. There's gotta be a ' positive ' in this somewhere.
Look at that, the old wagon wheels are still hanging on the nails!

The support poles for the lean-to were sucked straight up and out of the ground, even with the saturated ground...that's water that's half way up in the hole.My first thought was, awww, the antique birdhouse that my neighbor's dad built nearly 50 yrs. ago must have been ' totaled. ', but no, it landed flat on it's bottom and slid about 5 ft. It only lost one shingle off the back during the slide. It's lays in the middle of the picture.
Another birdhouse is down but flattened on one side, it looks like. That big pole it's screwed to is one of the lean-to poles. It's weathered but still solid.
We lost plenty of trees in our woods on the cabin property. Just from the road, I counted 17, with 7 hemlock and maple that landed across the road.
Some were uprooted,
some twisted and snapped,
some still dangerously hung up, and some widow-makers, that will have to be chained before cutting and then pulled away with the tractor. Dangerous work. A widow-maker is a tree that is broken high and hanging up. When they are cut, there is no predicting just where it will come down. A widow-maker killed one of my cousins, thus making his wife a widow.
The road was finally made passable, one lane.
We had enough damage to last awhile, and are not looking forward to the rest of the week that is promising more serious storms. I can only imagine what the southern part of the country is feeling. My heart goes out to them all for safe havens.

Thanks for stopping. Stay safe and

BlessYourHearts

Truckin' With My Baby

Saddle Brown is my color. I aim to please, and please, I have done.

My new owners are proud to drive this Ram 1500 Big Horn. Anyone interested in a new set of wheels, or used, call Dale at Bothun Automotive in Eau Claire, Wi. Tell him Dar sent you. He did a great job for us and will for you too.

We spent the weekend on the road and got Bugged to Death....need I say more. Big Bill cannot have bugs on his new baby.
We spent the night at my daughters, the one that got kicked around by one of the horses she boards. Thanks for all the prayers for her. She is doing fine after Epson Salt baths for the bruising, a CT scan for peace of mind where they found the horse hoof had pushed the cartilage from her bottom ribs. She has a guardian Angel, for all the rainbow marks on her body.
The horse on the far right is the one that caught her in the lower back, hip, ribs as his hoof slid down her side. The other foot nailed her in the back of the knee. Thank God she was not injured more. She is back to doing chores and even photographed a horse show a few days later. She's my little trooper!
On our road trip, we saw some cool churches. I've always loved taking pictures of churches and barns...is there a correlation there? Hm, after all, Jesus was born in a stable/barn, wasn't He!
The Forsythia in my son's yard was gorgeous. It screams spring!
He and our GrandLove Josh, were busy laying a new deck after water damage in their basement and family room. It's looking great.
Taking an alternate route home, we stopped at the Morning Glory Nursery near Athens, WI. for some apple trees. My, what nice trees and a beautiful nursery, soooo, if you are in the area, stop and visit. You will not go home empty-handed. Prices are amazing.
We spent an entire day at this project. Not because it requires all day to plant two trees, but because of a major blunder in the process.
You see, as I was pulling the slack out of the water hose, I had inadvertently pulled the entire water pipe out of the wall of the house.

Bill and I both went running, (neither of us are track stars), to the basement to turn off the water that was spraying out every which direction. It took another hour to run to town for replacement parts and redo what I had undone. By that time it was time for lunch and a beer. Remember now, Bill doesn't drink beer anymore, and my belly rejects it, but this time, we drank the last two left behind out of our son's stash. I'll have to thank him.

The trees were finally planted, the yard cleaned up, deer-deterent fences and mulch in place, and all is forgiven.

Now, let's hope I don't back into anything with his new truck. I tried to convince him that we should have had that feature added to the truck that included the Garmin and the Back-up screen, especially now that I cannot turn my head. Hmmm

Thanks for stopping by and listening to this dribble. Ya'll come back.

BlessYourHearts