Sunday, September 13, 2015

Westby, WI September Amish Adventures

Rudbeckia, as summer fades

Last week we took our little trip to Westby, WI and visited Kevin's cousin, who feeds every bird and squirrel in the neighborhood. I think he has one of each kind of bird feeder hanging in his yard. Together, we drove through the beautiful countryside east of Cashton and visited Amish friends who were their usual gracious and fun selves, and enjoyed their homemade vanilla ice cream with homemade caramel sauce. Women and children always scurry off to the house as they see us approach. Hmmm. I wonder if we have that effect on others, and I've just never before noticed.

 Not an Amish-made fence

Below is the collage of photos taken of the resident and apparently illiterate white squirrel, who audaciously chows down below a sign that reads, 'Wild Bird Crossing.'  It was also entertaining to watch the bunny as he gobbled up dandelion leaves. When he neared the end of each leaf, I kept expecting to hear the Ding! we used to hear when we got to the margin on our typewriter (for those who remember the manual typewriter and watched too many Saturday morning cartoons).



Resident White Squirrel


A veritable Smorgasbordorgasbordorgasbord

These fellas reminded me so much of my favorite
Yorkshire sheep. Aren't they pretty, with their black faces!

I took this photo when we were riding in Eric's VW Bug through the pasture
of one of his Amish friends. A little hard on the car, I would think.
Not to mention the passengers. But always entertaining.



 We were glad the piece of rock hadn't broken loose and fallen
when we were driving past. Yikes!
I wonder if any sheep went missing.




Wash Day.

I have many more photos of our two-day visit that I'll probably post later on.  I'm leaving with this favorite photo my daughter took of her two little ones, as the 1 1/2 year old was walking her older brother to K4 school last week.

My heart melts.

Have a wonderful week, everyone!


This post is linked to Theresa's
and Eileen's
and Judith's
MOSAIC MONDAY

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Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Hodpodging The Wasps' Nest

Our entire crop of McIntosh apples
One measly apple from our poor tree.


Join Joyce and the gang

for


She writes the questions;
we write the answers.
Plug them into your own blog
and link up!


1. What's on your September calendar? Anything fun?  YES, we're going to Westby for a weekend. I always love that little trek to the unglaciated (why is spellcheck questioning this??) and beautiful part of Wisconsin.

Photo from September 2014
We're much older this year.

 Country church cemetery
Near Westby, WI
 
2. You might be described as a natural born _____________________?  Problem solver. I've wasted a lot of time and annoyed a lot of people  - people who come to me with a problem but who, unbeknownst to me at the time, had no desire to have their problem actually solved. I think I have a callous on my scalp for the number of times I've scratched my head over that one. At least I've finally learned a thing or two, and don't always try to find the best and quickest solution to a problem or the shortest point between A and B. Many times, I've learned, people don't want the shortest route. They want the long, circuitous route that has no end in sight. It's been a foreign concept to me that has taken a long time to learn.

Basil for Pesto

BASIL PESTO RECIPE:
4 cups (packed) fresh basil
1/2 c. chopped walnuts (Pine nuts are expensive
and have a disturbing 'pop' when you bite into them. Makes me think of woodticks.)
1/2 c. Parmesan cheese
3 cloves garlic
3 T. Extra virgin olive oil
Pulse in food processor
I made a double batch of this and put it in 1/2 cup containers and froze it. It's so nice to have those little containers in the freezer that I can pull out in a morning and use at dinner that night.

3. September is National Courtesy Month...what one act of courtesy would you most like to see more of in your home, town, or the world at large?  

Let someone else go first. Think of all the car accidents that might be prevented, the people who would be made happier, if we all just let the other person go first. (Of course, you literalists out there, I do realize that if we ALL did that, no one would ever get anywhere! Just bear with me.) Whether it's related to traffic or the line at the supermarket, it could make a huge difference in people's overall health and well being.

4. Eager beaver, chicken out, clam up, or let the cat out of the bag...of the phrases listed, which one have you related to most recently? 

Eager beaver might describe me in the morning, from about 7:15 or earlier (after that morning coffee has kicked in) until about 4:00 in the afternoon. I can get a lot done in a short amount of time. After that, it's a slow slide into evening with little-to-no energy or desire to go out after dark (and did you notice how early darkness arrives now??)   

 Picking beans is an every-other-day activity
with a cannerful after the second picking

 It doesn't pay to use leftover unused lids from last year.
Each batch has left me with one jar that doesn't seal.
I'm using 2015 lids now.

NEWS FLASH!!!
At least one jar didn't seal even with the new 2015 lids.
So it's not the process or the date of the lids,
but the fact that lids aren't made as well anymore.
I think there's less gummy stuff on them. Annoying!

5. What's your movie theatre snack protocol? Do you chow down on snacks during the previews or wait until the movie begins? Do you buy snacks or refuse to pay those kind of prices? What's the last movie you saw in a theatre? How many thumbs up would you give it?

I hate to watch previews, so I like to time it to arrive when the previews are done. That way I not only avoid movie trailers designed for 15 year old boys, but my kid pack of popcorn and Mike'n'Ike isn't already gone before the movie starts.  We prefer, however, to watch something in our collection of DVDs rather than go out to the movies. Also, Mr. C. makes better popcorn. The last movie we went to see was The Hobbit. We took two of our granddaughters to see it in 3D. It was incredibly boring and I found it especially annoying that the one redeeming feature, Mr. Thornton (North & South), kept looking UP, as though he were a dwarf or something.

No thumbs up.  North & South, on the other hand, (not to be confused with North and South) - two thumbs up! 


6. Henry Ford is quoted as saying, "Nobody can think straight who does not work. Idleness warps the mind." Agree or disagree? Why?

This is a really tricky question. It depends upon what the meaning of the word 'work' is. Being busy is no guarantee that the mind is engaged. Work can involve physical labor or reading and thinking.  I can't picture C.S. Lewis working in an assembly line at a Ford plant, throwing hay bales around, or working out at the gym, but he was certainly not idle.

And actually, I can spend a lot of time thinking about that question. I need to move on. 

 Mr. C. found a wasp nest in the flowering crab.
It's at head height. It's a wonder that no one ran into it!


 If you look hard, you can see a few of the
angry wasps 
Makes me think of an old Poirot: The Wasps' Nest

7. What's the last job you completed or task you performed where you had to 'work like a dog' until it was finished?

Cleaning up after spending the day canning, so that I can wake up the next morning to a clean kitchen. It's not exactly 'working like a dog,' but then my dogs just lie around all day, so...

 Jazzie, workin' like a dog
8.  Insert your own random thought here.

In the past month, we celebrated 5 family birthdays!  Here are a few pics from the last two:

 Just turned two!

5 year old minion

Five years old - hard to believe!


Not the birthday boy,
but his little sister


This post is linked to Theresa's


and Eileen's


and Judith's

MOSAIC MONDAY


***

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Have a great Wednesday, everyone!
 


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