Monday, June 29, 2009

Izaac at CampStanhope this week & weekend happenings...

Below are Ross and Missy. Ross is my friend, Kim's, son. My kids know Missy because she was a 'camp kid'. (camp counselor at Wesley Woods in Indianola, IA, where my kids dragged Ross one summer to be a counselor also.)

A few of us who know Kim threw Ross & Missy a wedding shower at our church.

Saturday morning our team leader (Miriam) and her daughter (Sarah) rolled out of bed extra-early and sat all morning in Webster City at the Farmer's Market trying to raise money with bake-sale items for our Team Hope for Relay for Life for Hamilton County! So I was baking double-time this week and made old-fashioned cream cheese mints for the shower, too.

**Above are two other pictures from the wedding shower. I didn't take any pictures at the bake sale, and I haven't had time to take pictures of Izaac yet, either. He's a busy guy and we played outside the remainder of the afternoon until I couldn't stand the bugs any longer (even after spraying both of us).

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Rainbows and freaky clouds

This morning at 6:30am it was so humid outside some of the windows were steamed on the outside. Then, about five minutes later, I could hear thunder approaching, and even though it wasn't supposed to rain, about 6:45am it started raining, and rained pretty steady here for about 15 minutes! The rainbow was prettier from the driveway (than it shows in this picture--right down the middle of those two pine trees).

These are some freaky clouds that tried to scare us Tuesday evening before we were pummeled (again) with wind and rain. Sunday evening there were tornadoes just a few miles northeast of us, but no major damage or injuries.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Recycling--and tomato plants!

Well, I didn't think of it, but my hubby wanted something to keep the young tomato plants safe, so cut off some empty cat litter containers and covered them.

This is the soybean field across the road from our house. Unfortunately, the puddles will get bigger today because John took this yesterday and we've had another half-inch of rain this morning during two thunderstorms, and possibly more to come later today (Wednesday)..... Enough already!!!

Thursday, June 18, 2009

More pictures from last Saturday....

Amazing statistics from the National Cancer Institute. This was my post last Saturday for our Relay for Life Adventure, where we dispensed information pamphlets on many different kinds of cancer (along with the little prizes we gave when you chose a duck).

This guy wandered across the Trail fairly slowly. I was a little worried he would get smashed by some of the bicyclists that were racing by, but he made it all the way across without incident.

Saturday in the Park (last Saturday)

There were several canoes that were put in right below this little rock dam on the Boone River in Webster City last Saturday. It was cool, but mostly sunny.

Last Saturday was our Relay for Life's Team Run/Walk/Bike Adventure with little games and prizes every half mile along the new Boone Recreation Trail.

I was posted at the .5 mile marker from the north end of the new Boone Recreation Trail, which goes from the north side of Webster City to Briggs Woods Park, which is 5 miles down the road.

Friday, June 12, 2009

This one is for the guys!

This is Gracie doing her best impression of a 'full monty'. I figured after Ron's poses, maybe the mancats needed a picture, too!

My hubby took this picture the other night of the sun going down behind the trees in the west part of our yard. It looked like something was on fire!

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Hey, Female Felines....

Ron was relaxing this afternoon after a romp around the house (he'd rather play inside than out most of the time), and this 'pose' struck me as funny.

It seems like he's saying, "Hey, ladies, how do you like this view?"

"Or do you like this view better?"

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

More 'views' of Lake View!

(Aunt) Mary has several bird feeders in front of her lake cottage. They attract some really interesting birds. This one is a goldfinch. It looked like he was telling us to go inside so he could finish his lunch!

Just another view from across the lake at some of the boaters and houses this past weekend. It was a dreary, cold day and even I'm not that desperate to go boating on days like that.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Home-grown tomatoes!

Some of the train guys have hobbies. One Conductor is a fanatic with heirloom tomatoes.

He started all these from seeds, and makes all kinds of sauces and mixes when the tomatoes are ready.

Saturday, before we headed to Lake View, we went to his house, near Moingona, and he generously gave us 13 plants he had left to plant at our house. There were all different kinds and colors of tomatoes (most of which I'd never heard of, but I'm not the fanatic...).

It rained hard here yesterday (tornadoes to the southwest of us 100 miles), so I'm not sure if we'll get them in the ground today or not, but hopefully by tomorrow. I can almost taste the BLT sandwich already! There's nothing better tasting than home-grown tomatoes and home-canned tomatoes (sauces just don't taste the same without my mom's canned tomatoes).

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Stone cottage, stone pier...

This is the stone pier on Black Hawk Lake in Lake View, IA. John and I went Saturday to check on Grandma Jean, who had surgery on her shoulder earlier this week. Samantha came to visit also, and did a couple of odd jobs for Mary.

This cute stone cottage is quite close to the stone pier on the edge of the lake. Samantha drove me around the lake mostly to take pictures, because it wasn't the nicest day for boating.

It looks like the tree in front of the cottage got caught in a storm in the last few days. The branch on the ground in the middle of the picture seems to have come from it.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

The new intruder/guest??

We haven't seen '8:30' (a stray that came to eat fairly regularly at 8:30pm) lately, but a few nights last week, and now tonight, we have had a ginger boy visiting. Bogart has yowled quite loudly at him through the door. It doesn't deter the new 'intruder' much.

He reminds me of Jeter's 'intruder', Joba. This guy isn't very old, and I'm guessing somebody dumped him on our road when they didn't want him anymore.

This development makes it more difficult to get that last cat inside this evening. Miss Noel is enjoying the almost-full-moon and perfect weather (calm, not hot or humid) and doesn't want to come in. I know she'll be afraid of the intruder if she sees him. So, I'm going to try to get her in at one of our 6 doors to the outside world!

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Pictures from the past...

This is my older, much smarter, cousin, Margaret. I've been trying to get some negatives (that our Uncle Charlie took) converted to digital files. My really old (for computer equipment at least) negative scanner won't work anymore because the software is outdated and nothing else I've tried seems to work with it.

Above, Margaret is posing in front of her house in Memphis before school one morning when Uncle Charlie and my Grandma H. visited one year (early 60's).

I bought a film/negative converter, but the light is fairly powerful, and whites out some of the negatives completely. I wanted to see how they showed on the blog. This is Margaret and her younger brother, (still older than me) David, in the back yard at my Grandma H's house in the early 60's.

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