Party Pictures

A quiet moment

Marty, Nicole, Alex & Megan

We missed Shelly!!  Guess she was a little busy....

Ted & Deb

The Driving Range

Pugs like to Party!

Having a drink.

Pensive with a pug.

Paige & a pug.

Does that pug have a shoe horn in its mouth?!?

Mollie & Tootsie Ann

Party Candids

Taking the tent down...they're waving to you Jimmer!!

Good kick!

A pretty pose...

deserves another!

Garden photo's

This is my very favorite hosta.  It's down by the cabin.  Kris, did yours come up?

The lilacs were beautiful this spring-they liked the cool weather!

A mini hosta looks happy in a planter.

Bunkhouse and Pergola

Work is underway in the bunkhouse.  The window and door casings had not been finished.

Bruce works on the very crooked door. Look at that nasty window sill.

Much better!

We stained the pergolas white and are very happy with the look.

Our furniture set came from Target.  No wet cushions to deal with and super comfy!

Sophie & Joey

Nancy, Sophie, & Joey were in Cyrus this weekend.  The kids modeled some of the items I found for them.  Sophie's handmade apron, Viking pants, T-wolves shirt.

San Francisco cherry dress!

(found in Alexandria)

Grandma ties perfect bows.

I found this sweet little apron at an Elbow Lake rummage sale this spring.  It fits!  Doesn't Sophie have great hair?!  She has lots of body and a great neckline like her mother.

Good finds!

It was Cyrus Appreciation Days last weekend and Mom and I went to a bunch of sales.  After a good deal of thought, I decided to buy this KitchenAid Classic mixer for $50.  It was used about 5 times. Hopefully, it will get used much more often in our home.  I put it in the pantry first but later decided to have it out on the counter as it's fairly heavy.  It came with the standard 3 attachments.  I'm excited to try it out soon.
Cute little Pyrex bowl purchased for 50 cents, probably worth $5 I'd guess.
A platter from England made around 1895!!  I have no iea what the value is, but I got it for $3!

Floral TV tray stands, a set of 4 for $2!  I love these!!

A fun little assortment of china 10 cents up to $1.50.

Fancy Nancy

I spent almost a full day at school today helping the janitors move items back into my new classroom from the hallway.  The carpets are clean and dry so I can work whenever I want now getting the first grade room in order.  It was nice to be there and arrange the room the way I wanted with plenty of help.  I really like my floor plan, it has good flow.  Shirley was there too moving from third into my old room.  I think/hope I have everything out of the 4th grade room. 

 It was pretty cold so I didn't mind working.  We had a short downpour mid morning. 

It was fun going through some books left behind from who knows how many years back.  I inherited some fun old bird books that I will find a way to use including some colored overhead pictures.  I tossed and donated a bunch of books to the Bargain Bazaar too.   The books I tossed were in terrible shape or had missing front covers.

Speaking of books, have you heard of the Fancy Nancy picture books?  Emily Berkness showed them to me and they are great!  Wonderful vocabulary and lots of fun.  Apparently, the first was published the year I moved to 4th so they are new to me.  There are 3 or 4 different titles and are perfect for age 4 and up. 

Italian Meatballs

On Sunday, I found a yummy recipe for meatballs.  It made almost 40 so I put most of them in the freezer for quick meals this summer.  They got a lot of good reviews on allrecipes.com and we thought they were great too.

Italian Meatballs

1 pound lean hamburger

1 pound Italian ground sausage

2 eggs

2 cups of Italian bread crumbs (I used Sara Lee's wheat buns)

2 T fresh chopped flat leaf parsley

2 T fresh chopped oregano

2-3 cloves minced garlic

1 cup of parmesan or romano cheese

salt and pepper to taste (I use lots of pepper)

1/2 cup warm milk

1/2 cup  warm water

Mix it all up and form meatballs the size of golf balls.  Brown them in some olive oil in the oven at 350 degrees for about 20-30 mn or so until they get brown.  I used my convection oven so it only took about 20.  I used a pan for bars with about  1/4 cup of olive oil.  

Let them cool, then freeze.  When you're ready to use, defrost and cook them in your spaghetti sauce for 20 mn or so.  They are very moist.  Would be good in a meatball sandwich or as a meat filling in many Italian pasta dishes.

Tending/Battling the Yard

How many calories do you think you burn working in the yard or gardening for 8 hours?  I went out at noon today took a one hour break for dinner at 6, watched Reba and friends on a recorded Oprah and talked to Dan during that break, back outside at 7 until 9pm.  I got a lot of the flowers potted and used some chunks of hostas for accents in pots too.  Put them back in the ground before it freezes and they'll be just fine.  

I had a ton of weeding to do and it pulled up so nice because the dirt is so wet.  From 7-9 I went back out to the woods to clear buckthorn and I'm well over half done now.  I will take another picture so you can see how much nicer it looks without all the buckthorn, you can really see the depth to the woods now and I like that.  At a buckthorn website they recommend pulling buckthorn up by the roots if possible so I did that whenever possible but most were too large already. 

 I think I'll be a little sore tomorrow but as long I manage to stay poison ivy free that's the main thing.  I suppose I should spray that.  Right before I was going to head in I noticed all the bare spots on the lawn and remembered I had purchased grass seed.  It's supposed to rain again tomorrow so I decided to seed all those spots including about 10 bare spots where stepping stones used to be.  That was probably the hardest work of all but if my grass grows it will be worth it.  I am now going to bed with a magazine.  Good night!!

Planting in the rain

These plants are waiting patiently for me to do something with them.  I hope that will happen this afternoon.  Currently, it's raining so I may have to get wet.  At least I have my new boots!
Look at how big my hostas are getting!  I can hardly believe it.  Hostas are the best because they are so low maintenance and love the shade.
This is my new arbor.  It's okay-a white one would be prettier but I can move this one easily if I ever want to.  I planted morning glories in the planters and I hope they will crawl up the arbor.  I will have to give them a little help to make the first jump, maybe some grapevine.  

This is my last post for now, it's time to get busy outside, rain or shine!  

One last thing...do you see the little shrubs in the background?  That is a massive amount of buckthorn.  That is where I'm headed this afternoon.

Battling Buckthorn

This is what buckthorn looks like.  It is a highly invasive tree that will choke out other trees.  We are constantly cutting it down in our grove and even in the yard.  I have let the grove to our east go for the last few years so I spent time yesterday making up for it.  In about one hour I cut around 300 plants down.  I should also be spraying each stub with Round-Up but that's a two person job and I'm not sure how effective that is anyway.  Dan and I did a two team approach a few years back and we haven't noticed a decline.  The above picture came from the net but it's exactly what I'm dealing with.    I wonder if she is standing in poison ivy too?
Yes, we have tons of poison ivy out in the grove so I have to watch out for that.  I'm not itching today so I think I was careful enough.  The boots I got at the Bargain Bazaar this spring are perfect for the job and all the wet weather we've had this spring.  I've used them many times including asparagus picking on Monday so they are well worth the $2 I spent on them.  If you ever suffer from poison ivy, remember this easy remedy...run very hot water over the spot until you feel relief and this will last for quite a few hours, for me 10-12 hours which is wonderful!!

New Pajamas

You never know what you will find at the Bargain Bazaar...yesterday I ran across these pajamas for $2.  They are perfect for the kind of weather we have right now.  Yes, Dan, if you are reading this...I did wash them first.  Aren't the blue polka dots great?

The Pioneer Woman Cooks!

The image above is from a cooking website that I have added a link to on my side bar.  Shari has tried these shrimp/pineapple kabobs and she and Paul give it a thumbs up!    The pioneer woman has great tutorials with plenty of photo's.  Currently she has a super easy and tasty looking side called Crash Hot Potatoes.  Click here or on the sidebar to visit her fun cooking website.  

Wild Asparagus

This photo is from another source.

This morning, I went out asparagus picking for the first time this season.  It was cool and wet and I thought perhaps other pickers would not venture out.  I could tell someone was there before me but they missed some so it was a successful venture.  I probably got about 1-2 pounds worth.  I'll eat some fresh and freeze some too.  Dan loves asparagus too so I'll go out again when he's around to eat some.  It's a wild patch about 3 miles from here near an old cemetery.  I only picked once last spring and Shari was with me.  It was her first experience picking.  Spring of 2006 was the first I had ever picked.  I think it's a lot of fun!