Days just roll by when you get old, don’t they? This is what I’ve been doing with my spare time.
Here are my companions – not helpers because they just sit and watch.
These walnuts wouldn’t be so bad except that I haven’t been picking them up all summer and then when the storm hit, they really rained down. The problem is that those I’ve been driving over and mowing over are stuck down in the ground now so I have to use a screwdriver to pry them up. Don’t say it! I should just let it go but now I’m almost done and I’ll keep up the rest of the summer.
It’s a beautiful tree otherwise and I’d hate to cut it down. Rick started moving limbs off the trail today so they’d be easy for my tree guys to get to. I’m hoping to mow tomorrow and get back on track.
Reader photos
Love to see the growth of the corn! I will take a picture of Tim’s corn tomorrow.
Did you watch The Fever game today? They won but it wasn’t pretty.
This was posted earlier but was to be accompanied by this photo – I’m nearly out of pots, too.
One last note of interest – Becky’s daughter Jenny has a successful song writing boyfriend – so successful that he was congratulated in Rolling Stone Magazine, The New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, Pitchfork and NPR Music. Ryan Davis – your family in Iowa is very proud of you!
And one final thought:
Your final thought was right up my alley, too. What sounded like a good idea at the beginning of the week, seemed to diminish as other items took precedence. If it’s been on my list for a few weeks and not done, it’s crossed off for sure and I don’t care about it anymore!
Enjoyed the post, as usual. 🙂
Jan
I wish you had a quarter for each one of those black walnuts. Our woods are full of them; the man who owned the farm before us planted dozens of them with the hopes of harvesting the wood. They are slow growers. We did have a tree company come a few years and harvest a number of them. The trunks have to be a certain size. Our air has been smoky. I heard there are some 700 fires. I always worry about the animals. Keeper and Hazel are such a cute pair. I want to work on some wool applique today. Have a good day.
Diane – I, too, always think, wonder and worry about the animals – you know they’re dying right and left in those fires. I simply can’t think about it!
I finished the walnuts today and will now keep a pail handy to pick them up as they drop.
All those black walnuts brought back a good memory–in my late 20’s and early 30’s I had a mobile home and it sat right beside a big black walnut tree right outside my bedroom area–so when the nuts fell out of the tree it would hit the metal roof of the trailer—wasn’t too bad during the day–but it the middle of the night more than once I jumped out of bed thinking a ‘bomb’ had gone off!!!!!!!!!!!!
hugs, di
Diane – haha! We have a tin woodshed and I know what that sounds like!! A shot!!
What fun this morning with my coffee. Love your supervisors and your pest control company. Our dogs loved it when our field was cut. They would run around like goofballs after the garter snakes and mice. If they caught one, they would shake it until it quit moving and then ROLL in it. They got lots of outdoor baths during haying!
Pat – well, that’s exactly what Hazel did! Today she’s been to Pampered Pets so she looks perfect for a few hours. I swear she’ll roll in something just to get rid of that clean smell!!
And if it’s been dead for awhile, even better!
Ewww! Snakes!
Love all the pics today!
Warm sourdough bread. What a prize! I have tried and tried to learn the magic of sourdough but it escapes me. I bet you really savored Ema’s gift! Wow.
Jean – I give Ema eggs and she gives me fresh sourdough bread! I think I get the easier end of the deal!
Mary i meant to comment earlier on the sourdough bread. In our area I just spotted a loaf for $9 at the grocery store and wondered how it went up in price that fast. It’s suppose to be a good bread for you but I don’t know that much about it since I usually just buy a honey wheat loaf for sandwiches but I did buy a loaf of salt bread ($4) for tomato sandwiches.
Good morning! Love seeing pictures of your wilderness trail with your dogs out living the dream!! I am sorry you had so much wind damage. I had not heard of the deroche winds before. I dont want any wind but wish we could have some rain. It is so dry here. I like the 2×4 quilt too.
Love the corn picture and wow it grew fast in only 2 weeks. I recall hearing it grow when we visited my mom on the farm in Iowa. It literally makes noise, crazy. Wow, that is a lot of black walnuts to pick up and haul away. I bet the squirrels appreciate that you dump them all in one location for winter eating. Its a lot of hard work cracking them and digging out the meat. “Tree Salad” is a new term that I will save and use, good one. Hope everyone has a great week ahead and summertime weather to enjoy. I’m off to quilt
You work so doggone hard Mary around your place and still make time to make a doggie quilt for a friend. And in the dog days of summer. 😁
We are hot again for the next week but this is good summer heat with low humidity so will get some quilts washed and hung on lines to dry once Canadian wildfires smoke clears our area.
How neat to have a successful songwriter in the Iowa family there. He was honored by respected music critics.
Kathy – I did not make that clear – a reader made the quilt from our pattern. No, I haven’t been sewing – because the work is hard I’m just too tired to sew. We also have air warnings from the fires but I can’t smell anything
I just absolutely LOVE Hazel 🤩 her antics are too funny and that last picture of her the way she is sitting – It made me laugh!
Oodles of walnuts – WOW! So sorry for all the clean up you’ve been having after those terrible storms.
Thanks for making my morning coffee time so enjoyable with your blog! Have a great day everyone!
What is the plant in your wash tub? It is very pretty. Glad you are making progress on your clean up. I have 1/10th of the trees you do, and I know what work it is. We lost some in a storm, a month ago.
Laura – clean up is hard grueling work, isn’t it? But it looks good again and I wouldn’t have it any other way. In fact the grass is almost too tall and thick to mow at my regular mower setting!
Laura – the plant is nasturtium – an annual grown by seed – this is a new color and I love it.
Thanks Mary, glad you got a good report, yesterday.
Lordy Mary, that is still a lot of cleaning up. Our hail storm last week left tree salad all over my yard. I was lucky in that it was small and not a lot of hail. Some parts of town really got hammered. I lost power for over 4 hours.
Jo – I’m going to remember this – TREE SALAD! I had a lot of it and hope the storms stop!
Like Mary, I like the “tree salad” reference. We had a hail storm on July 10 and we had that type of salad all over our lawn. Laugh.
My mother got carried away with the lime pickles one year. Consequently she gave them away at every opportunity, church showers potlucks. The problem was that they were so loved by everyone and expected with hints the next year BUT my father made sure they were not planted that year thinking it had been too much for her to be doing. She was not just filling small canning jars so he was probably correct.
Wow-that’s a lot of walnuts to pick up! Hank would have to stay home if I had that job-he’d be putting them in his mouth and not letting them go.
I could put that saying in my sewing room-too much to do makes less time for sewing.
Cindy – I’m sure Hank would want to play fetch, wouldn’t he? But I’ll bet they don’t taste good.
Mary, can we order that dog quilt pattern from you? I hope Rick didn’t overdo it by moving the limbs. Mary, I have an old tennis ball picker upper. I’m wondering if it would work for picking up walnuts. I’ll look at it again when I get home from ND. If I think it’ll work, I’ll send it your way. Your non-helpers look more like supervisors.
Martha – yes, you can order the dog pattern – hope I can find it. It’s so kind of you to think about the tennis ball retriever but if it’s something I have to grip with my hands and squeeze I can’t do it. I raked what I could and the rest of the summer I’ll pick up daily!
About the walnuts. Will you dry them with the husks on or do you have to remove them and then dry them or do you process them at all? Asking for a friend. ha ha We have a walnut tree and I don’t see many squirrels this year, so maybe we will get some.
Love the To Do list. My kind of list and if I don’t do them, I don’t care.
I read a bread and butter pickle recipe today that called for a packet of Mrs. Wages and 1 slice of orange with the skin on in each jar. She said they are delicious.
Sue – I don’t really care for black walnut anyway so they’re gonna get dumped in the far corner of the grove. My Aunt Charlotte used to dry them and pick out the meat – too tedious for me!!
Hi Mary, cute dog quilt, and it’s your pattern, wonderful, and looks easy too.What sort of snake was it,we are fortunate there are no snakes in New Zealand! Enjoy your spa day Hazel! Take care everyone, best wishes from Sandy
Sandy – it was just a small garter snake but Hazel thought it was a prize!
Oh please don’t talk about signs of an early fall! I’m just really savoring summer and want it to last as long as possible.
Sharon f – me, too!
So what happened to the snake? Yuck!
Jamie – well, I think Hazel probably killed it – she was tossing it up in the air but I didn’t go back and check. I know Hazel thought it was exciting – ha!!
And that is the way it goes! In case nobody noticed, I think fall is very close. Haven’t got over to see the house that burned. It was just a block away, but the smoke billowed and the flames really came out of the roof. It will probably be torn down. We haven’t had that much excitement in years.
Our weather has been cool in the 70’s. Supposed to get warmer this week. The rally is in full force and the riders are having a ball. Only 1 killed, so far……
That’s about it. Just dull and boring, but that isn’t bad. I’m making progress getting ready for company. And our grass is very green again, just like spring. Plenty of weeds, too.
The readers’ quilts are so nice. It is amazing how many ideas. Kind of like there are only 7 notes (?) on the scale, but look how many different melodies they can come up with.
Take care. Betty in Rapid
Betty, how many folks arrive for the rally? We just had over 25,000 for Frontier Days and most stayed for all 10 days. I had company for some. Some went to the parade…I cleaned up. Some went to the rodeo…I cleaned up…some went to the carnival…I cleaned up.
Loretta and I were exhausted at the end of the week.
Jo – oh, your company must have had a great time! But all cleanup left for you – typical. 25,000 extra people in your town! Sorta disrupts your life, doesn’t it? Hug to Loretta!
It’s easier to stay home and clean up. Tickets are so expensive, gas and groceries, lodging and some eateries raise their prices. They can feed 9500 people breakfast in about 3 hours. Thats fun to go to and free.
I watched the Thunderbirds practice from the deck…didn’t have to get into that crowd. My excitement was riding in a new Tesla. Completely self driving!! It was cool.
Jo in Wyoming — It is 7:30 PM and I just took a bag to the garbage. The sun is under a cloud. The wind isn’t blowing. The temp is absolutely great. And the sound of bikes on LaCross Street is a constant hum. Everybody is out enjoying the perfect evening. And I managed to get some weeds pulled that always broke off before!!!!!
The news has Rally Reports every day. Tonight they said 62,000 people came in on probably Saturday or Sunday. Not sure of the day. That is a passle. Many of the residents work at all of the rally businesses that set up. Tips are great. Hours very long. A girl I knew was married to a Sturgis policeman. She always took her vacation and worked in the Sturgis jail. It is a great source of extra income for so many people and really appreciated. Lots of people rent out their houses or yards for visitors. And often to the same people every year. I don’t remember the exact number of days they can rent out their home — maybe 12 or 13 — and they don’t have to report that income on their income tax. Big business.
And of course, the motels are very expensive. We have a new motel near here that rents at $300 PER NIGHT for 2 people.
There are several different ways they keep a count of the visitors. One is how many tons of garbage hauled out. During the week they pick up the garbage after midnight so they start fresh in the morning.
In the meantime, the fun has begun!!!
Betty in Rapid City
Betty – this is so fun! With your report we can feel like we’re part of the activities – ha! I can’t imagine that many extra people in town but yes, it’s got to be good for business. I’ve never heard of renting your yard or your house out but more power to them. Keep us updated on the fun around town.
To: Jo in Wyoming. Last year there were 450,000 people at the rally. This year is the 85TH and they are expecting at least 500,000. The biggest mass of people is in the Sturgis area, but the rest are scattered all over the area and many may not even go near Sturgis. There are a lot in the Rapid City area but not enough to mess up traffic, etc. The local highways, etc bear the brunt of traffic going to Mt. Rushmore, Custer State Park, etc. They love riding on the curvy roads with all the great sights. Unfortunately, the curvy roads, booze, speed and stupidity don’t mix. They have brought in another air ambulance helicopter – equipped with a complete emergency room – making a total of 3 of the helicopters for the rally. It is really interesting to see all the fancy motor homes, trailers, cycles. The majority of rally visitors are probably just plain people enjoying a few days from their regular lives. The Buffalo Chip is a complete “group” of everything — BIG entertainment every day, bars, stores, campgrounds, places to stay. The campgrounds vary from those who party all night and other common folk who don’t want so much excitement. I believe the Chip is known all over the world to bikers. My street is a thru street parallel to the Interstate so it gets quite a bit of traffic, but it isn’t that bad. Seems we don’t get the really noisy bikes. To me it sounds like money!!!! And I always wonder how much of the stuff is paid for?? And it only lasts for about 3 weeks.
Betty in Rapid City
Mary, when you are retired and in your 70s+ the days do fly by so fast. Someone told me that when you retire, every day is Saturday and then once in a while it is Sunday!
Jay had some encouraging news at the retina specialist on Friday. He has no infection, all the biopsy reports were negative. He will very slowly regain his sight. Yesterday he was able to see a little more light and to day (Sunday) he could see a little more plus he can make out objects! So we are hopeful it will continue to get better.
We have been making many many trips to Sioux Falls! But, that is ok, I’m just happy and thankful they are just 30 minutes from us!
Tomorrow I will be canning some lime pickles! My house will clean your sinuses! 😆. Have a good night!
Thanks for writing!
Joy – I LOVE lime pickles – haven’t made them in years however.