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.

Adoption

We've decided to adopt. I know, hard to believe after all these years. We just decided it was a good time, with both kids married and out of the house. Would you like to see a picture? She was adopted on May 27, 2009.

Come on, did you really think WE would adopt after enjoying the house to ourselves? Gotcha!!!! John was finally able to get a 'newer' truck after almost 30 years. He is so excited. The bigger the boy the bigger the toy. Took the kids to lunch in it yesterday. John Jr. swears that I was hit on the hid or had a stroke. Sarah just shakes her head and laughs. She thought we were getting a 'small' truck. John just told them that I fell out of that new high bed and hit my head. The color is called 'stone'. Depending on how the light is shining and where you stand, it should be a brown color, but, could be gray, black, green and last night Annie and I thought deep purple. Call it what you want. Had to have something big enough to pull that camper that Layne convinced me is a good idea for emergency preparedness. Sorry Layne, but I have to have one with a bathroom!

The garden is loving the warm weather and the nice soaking of rain it has been getting every day. The rain hasn't been hard enough to drown the stuff, just perfect actually. We could use some of that everyday for a while. It is still dry. These are the cucumbers that are on the front porch, they have been growing faster than anything.

Can't wait to enjoy the fruits of our labors. The other seeds that were planted popped up overnight and are really doing well.

New pictures

This is the beautiful new quilt that a friend of mine gave me. What a friend? Isn't it just gorgeous. Her mother made it. I was so excited. Since we just got our new bed, it fits perfectly.

I can't wait to see if we get better sleep than we had been getting. Both of us seem to not sleep well anymore. Here's hoping this helps. The worst thing is that I need a step ladder to get in. If you would happen to fall out, your toast.

Well, time to post before pictures of the garden.

Hopefully I will remember to post pictures as the stuff starts to grow. You can see in the foreground there are plants, and the rows at the top of the pictures are actually veggies, not weeds, yet. Just for your info; we planted: potatoes, radishes, spinach, leaf lettuce, beets, onions, garlic, 3 different corns (early to late) green beans,peas, romaine lettuce, canteloupe, yellow watermelon, zucchini, cabbage, broccoli, lots of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, basil, oregano and dill. I think that is everything, but there is also growing: strawberries, raspberries, grapes, blueberries, red apples, yellow apples, cherries, peaches, nectarines, pears and blackberries. Who knew that you could get so much stuff on one little acre. Not much yard left without something growing in it.

Someone remind me to post the after pictures.

The arm is starting to feel better. I have been seeing my massage therapist twice a week. Today has been a good day. Just to make sure I will cut this short.

Spell RELAX

I wish I could. You know me.

Last weekend was the fire department's annual auction. People from all over donate their "junk" for us to auction off to other people who collect "junk". I spent quite a bit of time all week getting ready for this event. On Friday I had to go and get all the food for the kitchen. Hot Sausage w/peppers and onions, sloppy joes, hot dogs, all the buns, chips, pop, etc. I also had to bake 3 pies (all members) for the kitchen, plus I made 19 loves of bread. I tried a new recipe (using my already infamous wheat bread recipe), called Cinnamon Roll Bread. OH MY! This was some tasty stuff. Sandy Cole called me at 9:30 pm to tell me it wasn't any good, but if I had more she would take a couple more loaves. I was grinding wheat and making more at 11:00 pm Friday evening.Then on Saturday, my wonderful son calls at 5:45 am, yes am, to see if I want to go to breakfast. He knew I would be up. So after breakfast, he helped me get the rest of the stuff for Saturday night's auction. At noon, we were out of the cinnamon roll bread and they begged me to go home and make more. Now mind you, only the dept. members had tasted it so far. I was tempted, but didn't. I promised to make them all some additional loaves. John is sure I need to open a pastry shop, or at least a bread shop. When would I find the time? I spent 18 hours at the station on Saturday. It was for a good cause. We made $5000.00 on the auction, more than they have made in probably 10 years. It sure will come in handy.

For mother's day we barbequed at Dad's. So much food and so little room to put it. We were all stuffed to the gills. The guys and girls did a little target shooting when we were done eating. What fun they had. Next time I will get some pictures. Sarah and Annie can shoot as well as the guys can. They just love to show up the husbands. What smiles they have on those faces. It is fun to watch them all have such a good time together.

The rain is still wreaking havoc for my yard and garden. I have more to put in the garden and more blueberries and an apple tree to plant. The yard will probably need baled into bales when we finally get it mowed.