Wednesday, half way there

This is Tonka, my son's cat that has been with me for the last couple of years. He is such a lover and so funny, he gets into the strangest positions and gives you such looks. Another friend who helps me cope, a good guy.

We have been having such wonderful weather. There was a small interruption for a rain storm, I am not complaining about the rain, so needed. I was not real happy about the high wind, it even knocked over one of my big clay pots with the cherry tomatoes in it. The temps have been in the 70's cooling off at night, blue skies, the kind of weather you just wish would last all year round.

http://ediemariesattic.blogspot.com/ check out our Miss Edie Marie, she is celebrating her 100Th post with a giveaway. Very nice person, funny, creative and just the type of person you wish lived next door.

My new part time job is going along OK, not great. So much to learn and remember and everyone giving you slightly different information. I can feel the rust flaking off the brain cells as I require them to function at a higher level. There are gas pumps to keep an eye on, registers with all kinds of functions to cope with and food to be put out. Being an octopus would be great. I just keep reminding myself that it is not forever and that I have goals, grit my teeth and keep plugging. Be glad I am able to work and learn new things and that someone actually hired me. Once I have the garage turned into my bakery I can say bye, bye.

My friend from Minnesota is leaving for France tomorrow, I wonder if I will ever get to travel and if I really want to. I so hope she has a wonderful time, she is such a nice, nice person and I am so blessed to have her for a friend. Be safe Carol and come home soon.

Best to you all, Barbara

Very early morning

I'm up and can't sleep, had this problem all week. Not sure why but I am getting lots of reading done. I had managed to doze off and then about 4am Elvira was yodeling at my door wanting out. She does not bark that much and has this wierd whiny yodel. So out the herd and I went and back Elvira, Molly and I came. Charlie went who knows where, so while I waited for him to make an appearance I made a cup of tea. After about 10 min. he showed back up, by now of course I am wide awake so started catching up on my blog reading. I am really enjoying this blog stuff. Such a wide range of people makes it facinating.

I started a part time job at the store in town, I guess it will be alright. I have certainly worked worse places in my life and right now a few extra dollars will come in handy. I made a birthday cake last Friday for a friends husband, then got a call on Saturday with an order. Word of mouth is great!! I am hoping this will be a real start to getting my business rolling. We need to get to work on organizing my equipment in the garage and removing all the extra stuff that is out there. Oh, here is a photo of the wedding cake I did at the first of the month. One thing making this did was to make me realize I do not have the faintest idea where most of my stuff is. Also, not doing this for a while it takes a bit to remember all the steps. In the end all was well and the grooms Mother and Dad assured me that everyone loved it, which is always a good thing. I am looking forward to setting things up so everything has a place and making my cakes will not be quite so stressy.

On Good Morning America they did a piece on how many people were going back to having a garden in their yard or community gardens. They mentioned that having your own garden can save you in the area of $400.00 a year. I know I am loving going out and coming back in with 4 or 5 pounds of wonderful tasting tomatoes. I almost have enough to try making some tomato sauce to can. When the rest of them ripen I will really be busy.

Jim went back to his apartment last night, seems so strange with him gone. This past week was the longest he has been home in one stretch and I really liked having him here. As always we try to keep in mind that him having a job is a blessing. There is of course that corner of the mind that wishes a super job would open up around here, or one of the lottery tickets would come in with a few million. Hey, we can dream!! Just not count on it and enjoy what we have.

Think I will try going back to bed and catching a few zzzzzzzzzzzs. Best to you my friends, Barbara

I'm Baccckkkkk!

Well, the first thing I have to say is thank you. Reading the comments this morning and reading that you missed me made me tear up. I tend to be pretty independent, had to be due the hand life delt, so having people notice I was not around touched me. Thank you again.

Ok, part of being MIA was being busy. I had a wedding cake to do and deliver. This was a fairly large reception so am hoping to garner more business from this. This time of year is hectic I have actually been canning!! I am pretty proud of myself with this new skill. I have salsa, applesauce and pickles. As soon as I purchase a pressure canner I will expand my skills. I love the idea I can put up meals to send with Jim for his apartment and also have back up here. I love cooking large batches of things so this will work well. Soon potatoes will be ready and I can buy 50 pound bags for less then $10.00, my friend Ellen tells me they can beautifully. So I am going to put some of those up also. I am also going to make lots of tomato sauce as that can be used in so many meals. My gourds are growing huge! I do not have many, but am thrilled with the ones I have. I now know I can grow them and make cool things with them.Last week was stressy as Jim was in the hospital, he had food poisoning. He had purchased some fried chicken at a store deli and about 1 am woke up very sick. That afternoon he went to the ER and the admitted him. He was there until Sunday, very scary as I was here and could not go hold his hand. All is well now, they gave him a week off from work so he has been at home where I can fuss over him.

I need to get ready to go out now, so will check in with you all later. On a closing note here is a picture of a neat plant my friend Caroll in MN shared with me. I believe it is call Dragon's Tears.

Busted!!!

How many times have I told you to stay off the furniture??

It wasn't my fault, he made me do it. No, she was up here first, it's her fault! You know I would not do anything to upset you Mom. I love you!


Hide me Elvira, Mom's mad!


I keep telling people that having Charlie and Molly around is like having a couple of two year olds. I rest my case.



While out in the yard earlier Charlie found a box he would not leave alone. Turns out there was an opossum in it, great. So we go in and I hope the creature will go away. No such luck, we go out again and he manages to shake it out of the box. I run over to drag him away and there lies the possum, first time I have seen one play dead. Later on go out again and it is gone, Charlie wanted to go and hunt it up, I nixed that idea real fast.

This is a new morning glory I planted this year, they called it a double? I was hoping it would open up a little more but this seems to be as good as it gets.
It has been downright chilly in the mornings here, was 46 yesterday. It is only up to 73 so far today and it is 2:30. I like Fall but it is the thought of Winter following close on it's heels that does not make me real thrilled. It seems about the time you get the garden looking good, Mother Nature freezes it. Well, at least you have Spring to look forward too,lol.

The best to you, Barbara

A request

Happy Monday, today is another beautiful day cool, sunny and little breeze. I was disconcerting to realize it was on 46 this morning, fall is on the way. This weather is great for working in the yard, but bad for the crops as we could sure use some rain.

I recieved an email today with a request for a little help, nothing bad. My husband's nephew Paul has a band megaphone and he and his band are in a contest. The contest is being run like American Idol so all the votes count and the band that wins gets some nice prizes. So, my friends if you have the time they would appreciate your help in the form of a vote. You need to go to this site www.makerockhistory.com, go to the bottom of the page and sign up as a fan. The site will send you an email showing you have registered, you follow the link back to makerockhistory and in the search area type in megaphone. You will then see a vido of the boys playing one of their songs, Paul is the one with the Abe Lincoln beard and his brother Scott is on the drums. I really appreciate your taking the time to do this for the guys, they are a nice group and I hope we can help them out.

That is my good deed for the day, so thank you for helping.
The best to you, Barbara

Happy Saturday

About 6:30 stumbled down the stair to take the dogs out, opened the door and had to dash back upstairs to get my camera. I thought the sky looked so cool, the sun is still below the horizon but the sky was so blue. The dogs milled around on the front porch wondering what the heck I was up to now!! As I wandered around taking pictures they were happy, they got to stay out longer and chase bugs and eat grass. They found the scent of someone who had wandered through the flower bed. My tallest sunflowers are starting to open finally. Sunflowers seem so happy and friendly, I am so lucky to have enough space to plant as many as I want. I think by next year I should have enough space cleared to plant many more.Blogger is just not being nice to me lately, will not let me move my pictures around like I want. Oh, well, minor glitch. The white flowers are cleones or spider flowers and they are doing great, hopefully more will come up next year. Can you see how dry it is, I water the flowers but not the grass, what passes for grass is now brown.

Then we checked out the gourds which have spread all over and now there are lots and lots of baby gourds. There are still many flowers on the vines, this gives me hope that if I get them planted earlier next year I should have a bumper crop. Found that the morning glories are blooming now also. I made a rustic entry to the garden area and planted morning glory and moon flower vine seeds. The morning glories have been slow to bloom this year, along with so much else.




The dogs carefully explored all the nooks and crannies and flushed out lots of frogs. I am hoping that all these frogs mean they are eating lots of bugs and my plants will be bug free.
By now the sun was coming up and time for us to head inside and get ready for the day. Lots to do and hopefully I can get a decent amount done. Have a wonderful weekend, thank you so much for stopping by. As I have mentioned in the past, reading your comments brings smiles to my day. Best to you, Barbara

Mother Nature fooled me again!

Well, she got me again. I mentioned before that I did not think there would be any gourds, or watermelons as they got a late start. When I went into the garden on the weekend, lo and behold I have a gourd almost full size. Later in the day I found 3 baby watermelons plus a cucumber. She is an amazing lady and I need to have more faith. I may not get a huge crop but there will some gourds and other goodies. I also found some almost ripe tomatoes which I picked and they are now sitting on the window sill getting ready to be my BLT. Miss blog here is giving me fits and won't let me put my pictures or words where I want. So today's will be short.
Catch ya later.