Field Trip Friday

 

It was a Friday Field Trip down the highway and out of town!

First stop - the egg farm. 

Next stop - Mennonite Nursery now the Mennonite Produce Store. They used to have a gazebo out front for produce and I miss it already. 

Produce photos for Mr Merry so he can brag about prices vs his garden.

Our zucchini and squash are giants compared to theirs. 

I threw an onion in the photo so he could compare sizes. 

I think that is high for beans. Once you trim and sort the duds, how many beans will you end up? 

Next stop, Mennonite Butcher. Pure lard is 2.75 a pound. 

And beef tallow is $2 a pound. 

And these delicious sausages we had for dinner tonight were only $3.01.

Next stop - Mennonite grocery store. It was crazy busy. 

People could preorder boxes of blueberries and the word must have gone out they had arrived. This lady has 8 boxes in her cart. It was a madhouse. I went through the checkout and my friends were about 20 minutes behind the blueberries.

And the house with the next produce stand. One of my friends had preordered a 10 lb box of cherries from this stand. 

Didn't get the prices in this shot (they were high) but look at the size of the black raspberries! 

We had a rain storm and 100 degree heat and that brought on the corn.  Every street corner has someone selling, the current prices is $5 a dozen. 

The current state of my Mimi camp planning. 

It was so depressing that my husband took me out for ice cream. And the ice cream stand was so crowded we went down the street and ate our ice cream in the truck while we watched the soy beans grow. 

I started my festival baking tonight. My pies look awful. The first two lattice cherry pies overflowed on to the crust.  And the cherry with the crumble topping does not look very crumbly.  And the foil I put on the edge of the pumpkin attacked where the filling meets the crust.  I am ashamed.  Round two tomorrow. 

My former co-worker called and reminded me that tomorrow is already the second Saturday of the month and it's our library retiree lunch. So I will be getting a late start.  

Thursday Charity Day

First - my steak salad. Here is the recipe I use: 

https://wellsfarmsbeef.com/blogs/recipe-challenge-recipes/cherry-and-goat-cheese-steak-salad 

Please note I figured out how to add a link! Mine has a few changes, I cook the steak whole and cut my portion in cubes, not strips, I used dried cranberries instead of dried cherries, I was out of pecans and used mozzarella cheese instead of goat cheese.  

Mr Merry has his salad in a bowl and his steak on a plate. 

I thought I wasn't doing any more pickles. I guess that wasn't true. 

Today was a day at the church charity office. All my clients were young, single mothers.  It was an interesting and frustrating mix of people.  First I had an unemployed with no income young lady with an infant who has a story about the boyfriend. She left him for reasons and someone (I wasn't clear who or what) put her up for seven days in a motel where I guess she watched tv in the air conditioning.  Her time was up. My question is - what is the plan? We can't support her, no one has funds to support her.  My organization does not do motel rooms. We assist with rent and utilities.  I put her in touch with several resources to contact but she is homeless today. I am sure this information was given to her a week ago. She told me her mother would not let her stay with her and that all of her relatives told her they don't have room for her and the baby. And that sounds off.  And I know I sound mean, but here is the story I give young people. 

It sounds like you have burned some bridges. You need to go to your family and apologize even if it isn't your fault. You need to beg to be allowed to stay and have a plan. Like finding a job and saving to move out by a certain date.  I sound meaner now, right?

But there is no place for her to go. The shelters are full. The home for abused women is full. There is no funding for anything. The list for my county for metro housing is 200 households. There are no open rentals. 

Unless she can find someone to put her up in a hotel again, I told her the police station has a meeting room with cots and showers for nights and she can hang out in the air conditioned library during the day. 

The next girl/woman has been to us twice within the last year, the last time 2 months ago. We have spent double what we would normally spend on a household in a year. She is spending twice her income on rent/utilities/high car payment, etc.  Again, we need to make some changes. A big help would be a roommate.  And a better job.  Or a second job. And, now call me snarky, she had just dyed her hair blue and had her nails done. Which I know is less than a rental payment, but still. 

And the next was a girl/woman who is short $400 a month. She is working a decent job, but again high rent and a high car loan due to bad credit. She almost made it this month but lent her car to the baby dad and he did something so she had to get it out of impound. And that blew the budget. She is on the waiting list for metro and if they would even cover 1/2 her rent for the month, she and her two children would be free and clear. 

I don't want to pick on young women. Last week we had 2 grown ups. Women in their 50/60's who were living beyond their means, could downsize apartments and quit paying for phones, etc for adult children, but instead are taking payday loans and coming to us with shut off notices. 

AND last week I had a young mom who had been living in a bad situation with her parents. She had taken the schooling to be a nursing assistant, saved and used her income tax refund for the deposit on an apartment and utilities, paid off her car loan and found a job that will cover expenses for her and her daughter. She just needed help with this month's rent as she waits on her first pay check. I wanted to give her a medal. 

ENOUGH of this judgemental whining. 

I took the glue sticks and scissors with me to the office but forgot the passports and also forgot the lettering for the signs.  

Tomorrow I am going on a field trip with friends to the Mennonite grocery, the egg farm, the Mennonite butcher and an Amish produce stand.  Then I will begin baking for my church festival. I will confess up front I bought pie crust at Aldi. My arthritis is not going to let me make my famous 15 crust recipe. I think my goal is six pies. We will see what we get. And also cupcakes for the cake walk. I actually take them in disposable foil cupcake pans.  

My church drama is a long story, but I refuse to play with the mean girls. The festival people asked me if I would be willing to work on Sunday in the money room for the day which has limited entrance and the mean girls can't come in.  So I said yes and will be there 8-10 hours with the nice girls.  

And to end a post that is all over the place, I was randomly googling on Amazon for "mother of the groom" dress since my son is getting married in October.  And found this fully lined, sequined three quarter sleeved dress - 1 left - in my size - in this color - and mid calf length so it's floor length with no hemming for me  - regular $139,  for $18!!!!! 

More Garden and Camp Prep

Tuesday night haul from the garden. And I still had tomatoes and cucumbers in the fridge. I froze a bag with 9 tomatoes, have my last batch of pickles ready for jars and fried the squash with butter and onions because it looked too healthy on it's own.  Found two people to take the rest off my hands. 

And tonight he brought in a bucket of lettuce and more tomatoes so I made the sirloin steak salad (with tomatoes, onions, dried cranberries and goat cheese) with homemade garlic ginger dressing. Thank you to my goddaughter for this year's recipe challenge. I love this one. 

I found these blank notepad books on either Amazon or Oriental Trading and am getting ready for our trip to Europe. 

Scissors and glue sticks. Once the passports are done, I move on to restaurant signage. 

I am making the signs instead of my usual protest signs for this week since there is a new rival protest group (I can't make this up) who is declaring herself (I think she is her only member) the boss of a protest she has taken over and I don't want to be in the middle of it. Even if I do have a nifty portable speaker and playlist. That part is disappointing.  She sent me four emails after 9pm last night and I don't even know how she got my email. I would rather not be involved. So I think we will have a sign free week.  

The Storm

I know I have said several times that I am an indoor person.  But long, long ago I was an outdoor person.  I was so much of an outdoor person that for two years I was our local Girl Scout Day Camp Director.  

Before you get too excited, Day Camp was one week long.  But keep in mind that during those 2 years I was also employed at the library and was raising five children aged 5-11.  Yet I stepped up to use my vacation time to lead a week long camp in late June for about 200 girls.  This was in the late 1980's and our camp was out in the country, actually very close to where I buy my eggs.  There was a long building with a kitchen and electricity and, most importantly, a land line, since there were no cell phones. It was right next to the river. We did not use the building for much since it was full of metal bunk bed frames with mattresses and we were a day camp. 

I have lots of camp stories but the one I want to share today is this one.  My day camp had one overnight - Thursday night.  Each "unit" had  to pitch a large tent at the beginning of camp for their supplies and to sit in, for fun and to get out of the rain.  The camp was equipped with "platform tents", a wooden platform with canvas tent walls and peaked roofs, a little up hill from the unit tents, that we used for the overnight.  Some girls preferred to stay in the unit tents in groups for the overnight  

I was always very nervous about supervising all these little girls who belonged to other people, especially in the dark,  and signed up as many adult and teen volunteers as possible. The first year I stayed up ALL night walking between the tents and platforms and just keeping an eye on everything. When some leaders woke up early, I dashed home at 6am, took a shower, drank coffee and drove back for the final day. That was my plan the second year.  

One of the reasons I was so nervous I remembered an event ten years earlier in Oklahoma where two Girl Scouts were abducted from a camp and horribly murdered.  And I never forget a horrible event. 

We had a normal camp day and added in a campers stew for supper.  We made our s'mores and sang some songs and told some stories.  And eventually around 10pm the camp settled down in their sleeping bags and began to fall asleep.  And then the skies opened.  Thunder and lightning and torrential rain. A storm that was not forecast to happen. The tents flooded first, then the platforms. We gathered all the girls and put them in the hall. We put 4 girls on top of each bunk bed unit since the floor was quickly puddled and slippery. The girls were drenched, the bedding was drenching, everything was drenched. 

The Sheriff's department called us during the evacuation to the hall.  We had informed them we would be having an overnight and had asked for extra patrols. As soon as the rain started, they tried to come out and found all the roads leading to the camp flooded. They told us to shelter in place and that they would call us from dispatch every 15 -30 minutes. 

We had flashlights (power was out, but not the phone, thank goodness). Being good Girl Scouts, my leaders had their folders with parent info and took turns calling every single parent to tell them the girls were okay and not to try to come to camp and that we would release campers in the morning starting after breakfast when the road opened.  The sheriff called us every 30 minutes the rest of the night to make sure we were okay. 

Because I am me, I had recently been to a discount store. The store was getting rid of a brand of cheap nail polish and marked it down to 10 cents a bottle.  I had purchased every bottle for slumber parties with my daughters and their friends and had left them in my trunk. I retrieved them and the girls stayed up all night painting fingernails and toenails by flashlight.  

The adults manned the phones, made coffee over campfire and tried to mop the floor. And listened to the river raging outside the back door. 

The rain stopped by the morning. We called all the younger girls who did not sleep over and told them not to come. We made breakfast over campfires and had the girls eat on the bunks so they wouldn't slip and fall. We offered coffee to the deputies who finally made it to camp. My good friend Betsy (God rest her soul) was one of the first ones there. She was a mother of five, too. Five girls. And brought her enormous mis-matched sock basket so that all the campers could put on dry mis-matched socks before putting on their wet shoes. 

Once we fed them, we had the girls hunt for their belongings and put them in piles outdoors so that they could point their parents to which muddy mess was theirs. 

The adults spent the rest of the day scrubbing the camp and drying out what we could.  Officials from the Girl Scout district office paid us a visit and were very blase about the whole thing. Personally I did not sleep for weeks and weeks afterwards.  

The events of last weekend have brought those memories back to me.  What I remember is how the sheriff's department was so intense about keeping in touch with us and worrying about how to reach us.  And that I knew a lot of the farmers in our rural area had CB radios and if we did need to be evacuated, every single one of them would be there with a tractor or spreaders braving the water to get to us. I am not sure if I came up with this or the department mentioned this possibility on a phone call. 

I just can't imagine how this happened to that camp in Texas.  I just can't imagine.  And my heart is broken. 

The Idea Came to Me

No photos today. I just checked and the last one I took was my tomatoes ready for the freezer. 

I thought I would share what I am currently obsessed with. "Mimi Camp"! 

When my first grandson was born over seventeen years ago, my daughter and her family lived in Florida, over 1,000 miles away. I came up with the concept of Mimi Camp and even bought him a onesie that said Gramma Camp when he came up for a visit before his first birthday. It was a plot to spend a week with my grandchildren every summer.

Little did I know that a few years later the family would move back here and all my children would remain near us. And following my parent's health issues, I became the childcare provider. My grandkids were and are at my house every week! 

But that doesn't stop a good idea. Over the years we have had Space Camp, American Camp, Star Wars Camp, Cowboy Camp and it's repeat Not My First Rodeo Camp. Cooking Camp, Art Camp, Construction Camp - I can't remember all 16 camps, lol.  

This year I was stumped. No ideas were forthcoming. Then, one night, VIOLA - (I worked with a woman who would put that in emails when she meant Voila, it is an inside joke among some old friends). Anyway, the inspiration is - A Trip to Europe!  When I told my husband that evening, he told me that we can't afford to take 10 children to Europe. 

I spent the night with a legal pad and Pinterest.  I mentioned the next morning that I had ordered some passports (they look just like passports and are note pads). Again he said, we can't afford to take 10 children to Europe. 

The total ridiculousness of buying tickets, getting passports and planning an itinerary of hotels and restaurants and points of interest in a few weeks escaped him twice, even after explanation.  

We are taking a land cruise! I mailed out the travel brochures and reservation forms. We will arrive in my dining room every morning and breakfast in a different country. Since everyone plays soccer, we will go to the soccer field before it gets too hot and use up some energy. I have craft and stem activities and themed lunches.  

I am gathering supplies and recipes and grocery lists. I am happy to report that a package caught my eye at Aldi and it turns out they have cookies from other countries.  Monday we will be in London, Tuesday, Paris, Wednesday, Milan, Italy (chosen because we live near a village named Milan) and Thursday Munich, Germany.  Four days because it is a miracle we can do 4 days in a row with sports camps, etc. 

We will be building the London Bridge and Eiffel Tower, painting birdhouses like gingerbread, creating masterpieces and mosaics, building volcanos, making pretzels, visiting a pizzeria. I will be decorating the dining room every day and since, boo hoo, the campers are getting older - I am opening the craft box leftovers from previous years for afternoons. 

I am so inspired and excited. I have my menu plans, I'm working on decorations, tomorrow I will be doing the pages inside the passports.  

Orders are arriving from Oriental Trading (thanks for the free shipping day guys) and Amazon. There have been some visits to the Dollar Stores. 

AND, if my summer couldn't get better, my oldest granddaughter who is going to be a sophomore has asked me to put on a TEA PARTY for her and her friends the week before school starts. I told her I have lived for this day and may be overwhelming her with photos of the insides of my china cabinets. 

Saturday

 Hot and Hazy morning as we followed this guy down some country roads to the egg barn. 

Macaroni Salad and Deviled Eggs for the 4th cleaned me out.  I got four dozen. 

I resisted the baked goods. 

And the pies in the refrigerator (only $10). 

Came home to find my projects from last weekend were delivered. 

Today's harvest - zucchini. 

I straightened up the pantry and don't know where I put my little food processor so I couldn't grate them. I saw this on facebook. I sliced them and let them dry on paper towels. 

Then I put them on parchment paper and popped them in the freezer. Tonight I will pull them out and put them in ziplock bags. 

First bag of tomatoes.  I learned this on facebook too.  I wash them, core them and freeze them in a ziplock. (No more blanching).  When they thaw, the skin falls off. One bag is enough for my small sauce recipe for dinner. 

103 degrees at 3:40.  We went out for ice cream.  And spoiled our dinner. 

And four deer at the neighbor's backyard eyeing his garden. 

Now I have my feet up in the air conditioning and I am looking at the supplies for my summer camp for my grandchildren. It is a little overwhelming, lol. 

Container Gardening Gone Wild

 It started with a 3' raised metal planter to put two tomato plants, a second planter for pepper plants.  

Then he wanted two more planters for zucchini, squash and cucumbers.  

And then he wanted one more for lettuce and beans.  

This was what he brought in on Thursday night to join what was in my frig.  

Tonight I made nine 1/2 pints of freezer pickles. Tomorrow I start freezing tomatoes. He tells me zucchini is ready.  

Am I ready for this? 

I've got the Designer Vibe

 

Well it cooled down to 86 degrees tonight so we went to the summer concert. The band was local - as in they were a high school garage band when I was in junior high. We are sitting way back in the park under some trees for shade (and behind the "Dora" area where you can have alcohol). The stage is at the bottom of a hill and there are paved tiers for people in lawn chairs, you just can't see them.  I heard attendance was about 200 people. 

Meanwhile we did drag out the hardware for the bathroom. 

As I suspected, it was a mix of metals. As you can see, the grab bars are brushed nickel. 

And this is the fabulous light fixture I found. I am totally in love with it. 

And the hooks, towel rack, toilet paper holder and stuff match the light fixture. 

This is part of the shower stuff which is the brushed nickel - and it matches the sink faucet and handles.  

Side story - I emptied this closet and all these things are now in one location so I know where they are. 

Meanwhile: 

It turns out that mixing metals in a bathroom is a new designer trick. 

It's what all the cool kids are doing. 

So my new story is that I did not mismatch metals by mistake, I am creating a designer bathroom! 

In answer to questions -yes, a raised toilet!  It was tricky to find one with a round seat so that it wouldn't block entry to the shower, but by gosh he found one! 

July

Lilies still blooming. I took this photo yesterday before the end of pride month. 

From the other side. It's a mess. I kid myself it looks good from the street. Trust me, there are so many weeds mixed in, the plants all needs separated, everything is intertwined. 

Don't let wet sidewalks fool you, rain is not cooling down temperatures. 

It is out of control.  I would like to say there are still hostas under the mess.  I have seen random leaves. 

We have decided that this fall it all needs dug up. All of it.  We need to separate the lilies and lose about 80% of them.  We want to replant the lilies and the hostas and the iris which are also higher than and hiding the pink spirea bushes in small clumps with SPACE inbetween plants.  It's too much, it's all too much. And I am just glad it is hiding the weeds.  

Meanwhile.  How is the bathroom project? 

First - skeletons are in stock. 

Next. A woman who looked to be in her 80's was browsing in the tool section. She asked my husband for advice on a knife sharpener.  She has a machete she wants to sharpen. We entertained ourselves all the way home wondering weeds or husband? 

Finally picked up the toilet and about a zillion dollars more of the small stuff.  

It's out of control, too.  We lost June due to Mr Merry rebuilding my son's truck. And that is still never ending.  

We have too many supplies. It has been going on for so long I can't remember what we even have.  We were searching on line for a shower curtain rod last night (he wants one that is permanently installed) and I can't remember the finishes of what we already have.  Mr Merry was throwing out memories and thinks we got stainless steel handicap rails (we didn't, that I know) and a "black" towel rack and then said he thought gold faucets.  He wasn't being funny, he doesn't see anything wrong with this list.  

I know that the handles are brushed something because I spent a lot of time looking for what I wanted - not to thin, not to thick, I practiced wrapping my hand around them. The shape, etc.  I know what they look like.   

I would almost guess I picked matching faucets? I would think I bought them the same day? And I can't believe I picked up "black" towel racks.  

The next plan is to dig all this out from the garage, the spare room and where ever else he has been stashing parts and compare. And if I have to repurchase anything - I am pitching a fit!