We have veggies

This past couple of weeks have been crazy.

Last week we had severe storms go thru the area. There was major flooding, almost like in 1990, except no one lost their life. I worked at the EOC office until early in the morning (2am), taking phone calls from all the crazy people who didn't leave when they had the chance.

John bought a storage shed. We have worked on getting a solid base ready for it. That took most of the week, considering we had hay to put in while it was daylight. The base is ready and now we have to set up a time to have the building delivered. I think it will be more my building. He says that my stuff takes up too much space in his garage. The hay is all in. We finished John Jr.'s on Tuesday evening, after fighting with baler troubles all night Monday. Dad and John Jr. got his (dad's) done on Wednesday and Thursday. We were lucky to have good weather all week.

Garden is looking great. . .

I am going out to cut broccoli this morning. The romaine and leaf lettuces have been ready, and so is the spinach. Those three make a wonderful salad. I took one for the Father's Day picnic, and it was gone in no time. The cabbage is making nice heads, too.

The carrots on the front porch are the best looking ones I have ever had.

I have been thinning them out a little, hoping that I will have nice size carrots when it is all over.

The best of all. I have little cucumbers on the plants in the pots. I wasn't sure how they would do, but . . .

Off to the outside world. There are raspberries to pick today. We have been picking for almost a week. They came on two weeks early this year, but they are huge. The rain sure helped. Annie and I picked until dark at their place on Monday. I made berries and dumplings for dessert, oh soooo yummy.

I did it. I passed

I just came from taking my HAM radio technician test. I passed. Boy, there were a lot of electrical questions. Thank goodness John helped me last night. Helps to have someone with electrical knowledge.

The test was only 35 questions. You had to get 26 right to pass. I got 33. I have studied so much this week. More than I think I ever have. Now to find a portable radio. There may be one availabe thru our local EOC. I will find out next week.

One less thing out of my hair.

Garden in growing

The garden is coming along very well. The corn should be 'knee high by the 4th of July', as John says. We have been eating lettuce, spinach, radishes, broccoli and strawberries. The tomato plants are blooming. John will have to get the fence up soon and start them winding thru it.

The carrots are doing great. They seem to like the soil in the pot. They will need thinned out this week.

As you can see the cucumbers are just going everywhere. One of the Amish growers had pickles on Friday, so I was able to make dill pickles, already. Boy, were they yummy.

John last project is finally done. He made me a picnic table.

Can't wait to try it out. It will be a nice work surface for some of my canning projects.

Burn baby burn

On Saturday we had department training. We burned a house that had been mined under and was determined to be no longer liveable. There were lots of us who thought otherwise. I played in that house almost everyday as a kid, and it was hard to watch it burn to the ground. I thought I would post a few pictures. Bear with me

This is on the road to where my parents live.


The chiefs discuss their plan of attack. Did some crawling around inside the burning rooms. Drug hoses. Got hot.

There is nothing like being in where the fire is. It is scary, exciting, hot, and overpowering. All of this gear weights an extra 60-70 lbs. Not an easy task to complete when you are excite

This is how the fire looks as it comes back under the doorway. It will roll along the ceilling.

Gotta watch those heads. That is why we train to stay low.

This is what you called 'tired'' after coming out of a burning room, with all that extra stuff packed on.

And the fun begins. The fire is starting in the downstairs window closest to us. There was tons of smoke, of course.

It is interesting to watch how the smoke and flames work. We took lots of pictures to show how it changes throughout the entire day.

Nearing the end. It burned rather quickly. But then it was an old house.

Time for a quick lunch, some rest and cool down. We had help from Belmont and Spirit of 76 departments. They are great to work with. It is nice to have them around for mutual aid.

Nothing left but a shell of a home that once housed many a family.

Last remaining reminders of what used to be.

And it all came tumbling down. The chimney's are almost always the last to go. Some really good workmanship there.

The day was good for training, good for adapting, good for learning to work with other departments in a positive way. Just good.