Hodgepodging Hot Summer and Hot Dogs

Tuesday morning Bible study

from Zionlutheranwausau (fb)

on the screen porch.

It was raining like crazy.

Great for the corn and very pleasant to hear.

Join Joyce and the Gang

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She writes the questions;

we write the answers.

Plug them into your own blog

and link up !

Thank you, Joyce! I'm posting this early and hope to remember to link up tomorrow.

1.  Do you think the pandemic has had any kind of positive impact on your mental health? Explain.

No, I'm pretty sure it hasn't. Maybe at the beginning I kinda enjoyed it, when staying home was a welcomed novelty for everyone except the most extrovert among us, but this has dragged on and on. I can't even take a loaf of banana bread to new neighbors!

View off the south end of the front porch

on a very rainy day

(Sorry I didn't straighten this photo. I know, it bugs me too)

2. A hot mess, hot under the collar, in hot water, hot button, hot diggity dog!, hot shot, hot seat....choose one and tell us how it applies to your life currently.

I'm sorry, Joyce, but none of the above applies to me. Hot and humid would apply to Wisconsin the past week, though, although I realize that Wisconsin's 'hot' isn't exactly what southerners experience when they deal with hot temps. Our suffering is in February and March.

Reflections in the garden pond.

Notice how the few water hyacinths and water lettuces

have multiplied!

The golden color in the water is just late afternoon light

on leaves that have fallen into the pond.

3. Speaking of the hot seat, do you work well under pressure or do you actively avoid high pressure situations?

Yes I DO work better under pressure. I can get a lot accomplished in a short amount of time. But I also do tend to avoid high pressure situations, but that's a different kind of thing. So for getting work accomplished, yes I do work better under pressure.

Mailbox at the farm and the old barn across the road

4. Hotdogs-yay or nay? If you said yay how do you like yours? Did you know July is National hotdog month?  I don't usually eat hot dogs but if I do [rarely] eat a natural hot dog, I like it with coarse mustard and jalapeno slices.

BUT, this is my favorite hotdog:

But because it was SO HOT,

she had sense enough to stay indoors and enjoy the AC

Bianca is a beautiful cow.

But for some reason, she thought she wanted my phone.

5. I read here a list of America's coolest Southern towns. They are Marfa Texas, Greenville South Carolina, Abindgon Virginia, Athens Georgia, Bentonville Arkansas, Florence Alabama, Oxford Mississippi, Abita Springs Louisiana, Wilmington North Carolina, Monroeville Alabama, McMinnville Tennessee, Natchez Mississippi.  How many on the list have you seen in person? Which town on the list would you most like to see?

I have been to Greenville and to Athens. I think of those on the list I would most like to see Natchez, MS.

Horsemint in the foreground

CORN in the background

On 5th Avenue, our favorite place to walk

6.  Insert your own random thought here.

Since we visited a large group of people in Minnesota over the weekend, we are quarantining ourselves on the farm for two weeks before returning to Wausau. No reason to suspect any virus, but I guess we're playing it safe. So here are a few more farm photos. The farm's not a bad place to be stuck for 2 weeks, believe me.

This is what it looks like at 5:15 AM

in the cornfield north of the house

The old milkhouse door

that I plan to take with me to Wausau

as soon as I can talk you-know-who

into moving that heavy beast.

A little blurry, but evening light

on the bean field south of the house

On our evening walk on 5th Avenue

Neighborhood farm on a very bright

Sunday afternoon

Seldom was heard a discouraging word,

And the skies were cloudy all day

I'm not a fan of church marquees,

but this is a pretty little church in Dallas, just down the road.

The stupidest church marquee I ever saw

(no, wait. actually there were even worse ones that I'll not repeat)

was on Mother's Day.

It read: 'God couldn't be everywhere at once, so he made mothers.'

I can't believe that pastor didn't flunk out of seminary.

I don't know who his god is, but it's not the One I worship.

Church marquees need to go. It's not a McDonald's, for Pete's sake.

Okay, I probably shouldn't have dredged up that bad memory.

And now, for the GOOD NEWS:

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Farmhouse News

 

Dear Neglected Bloggers:

As I sheepishly crawl back to my blog, I'm hoping that you'll remember that Mr. C. and I have been occupied working on renovating two houses, one in Dallas and the other in Wausau over the past year and a half. We're too old for this monkey business, but you do what you have to do, right? Actually, the Wausau house is the one you've most recently heard about here on the blog, because we finished the apartment part of the house and moved into it. I love it! (That project was shown and explained in a previous post, but it's still my best excuse for not showing up until now.)

 

Back at the Wausau house, I took a few photos of the backyard in the early morning today, when the light was streaming in. I don't know the name of the plant with the huge leaves in that beam of light . Each set of leaves is nearly 2' across. They're beautiful. I know, I'll look it up. In the foreground are a few Dragon Wing begonias. They're a favorite of mine because they're so bright, beautiful, and not messy like some other begonias, but they're definitely feeling the stress of the 88 degrees.

 

I strung some little white lights inside the gazebo this forenoon, but since it's not yet dark, I won't have a photo of how that looks. The branches you see in the background of this photo represent another job we'll have to do, maybe this fall.

 

During the recent the full moon, we took a walk through the cemetery. It's pretty and surprisingly quiet. ;-)  The rest of the neighborhood was pretty noisy with private fireworks, because the city fireworks had been cancelled. I hope no one's missing any fingers today.

NEWS ON THE FARMHOUSE: We've Accepted An Offer To Purchase!

In this kind of strange economic climate, it's a little scary to put your property on the market. But God brought exactly the kind of people we were praying for and in one month. We are thrilled. They are a young Christian couple in their 30s with three little girls, ages 7, 8, and 10. They told us later that the moment they stepped into our house, they knew they couldn't pass this one up. And when they saw the map, the chalkboard, and the gazillion library shelves, they were so excited. They are readers, have books to fill those shelves, and have been contemplating homeschooling. Well there you go! It was fun to see the kids on the tree swing and running around the yard and looking forward to sledding on the hill in the winter months. I can't believe I even wrote that W word. :-(((

A view from the front porch:

 

Early morning light on the farmhouse porch

Back at the Wausau house, the little granddaughter had asked me to put braids in her hair. Mr. C. snapped this pic of the two of us, me still in my robe and looking so much like my Grandma Nelson! Good grief! At least I really liked her. The notch out of my robe is a sweet reminder of the grandpup
(RIP) . She only did it because I had a bad habit of carrying dog treats in my pockets. But that chunk taken out is no reason to throw out a perfectly good robe, right?. LOL

By the glow of the iPad

A little daughter born to our youngest son's family -  Our 12th grandchild!

And a couple weeks later, our second GREAT grandchild was born.

I don't have their family photo at this time.

We spent Father's Day weekend at our son's home in

New Ulm, Minnesota. What a fun family and fun place!

Fred and Glenn 

Glenn is the one who sent me the video thank you a bit ago.

Hint: Glenn is not the goat.

Back in Wausau:

 City Campfire

Country Campfire

:-))

We won't have many more opportunities to sit on that farmhouse front porch and look out at the amazing views, but I am so grateful that God sent the perfect buyer -  a young couple to whom I'm ready and willing to pass on the baton. I know they are a family who will truly love and care for this home, and will make a lot of good memories there. I hope they'll keep the star. We'll see. I told them that it reminded me of the Bethlehem star, and we leave it on all the time for passersby at night. I think it's such a warm spot of cheer and hope in the dark night.  (I made another star that we leave on, day and night, for the front of the Wausau house.)

(sneaky Mr. C. took this one)

Vespers in the Gazebo

during this time of social distancing.

zionlutheranwausau (Facebook) 

Zion has a great schedule of morning and evening prayer, Bible studies, and music at the middle of the day. Check out their facebook page.

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to post anything. And I expect that the next few months will be just as overwhelming. Besides getting ready for the closing on the farmhouse, in Wisconsin we try to cram everything into June, July, and August, because after that it's a very fast downhill slide into WINTER, which is incredibly cold and lasts FOREVER.

Have a wonderful Tuesday, everyone. Thanks for stopping in.

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