Thanksgiving & other end of June Happenings

Greetings

The Grands headed back home.  Security was very kind & patient helping get their backpacks checked.

Grands ready to board their flight.  I had to wait till they 

were up up & away on their way before leaving the airport.

Grandkids

We took the Grands camping out at the lake.  Kevin & I had not camped there before, so it was a new camping spot for all of us.

Warming by the campfire 1st thing in the morning.

Our camping spot overlooking the lake.

 Cooking

I cooked a turkey & we had Thanksgiving.  Kevin said "Happy Thanksgiving" & we each took a turn saying something we were thankful for. 

Wildflower bouquet fresh cut to go with our Thanksgiving dinner.

  The Grands made this Apple cake from scratch.

Apple cake making in progress.  One was the ingredient reader &

the others took turns being silly, adding ingredients & mixing.

Gardening

We are finally seeing some growing progress.  Kevin is watering most everyday.

Grands photo scavenger hunt:  Something with water.

Cleaning

Washing up the camp dishes.

Health & Weight Maintenance

I got this while out walking, though I was in search of cactus blooms.

Frugality, Savings & Spending

Free entertainment while camping watching the birds feed their

young, flying in & out over the picnic table.  

Social & Community Service Activities

Giving driving tips.

Other Activities

The Grands got me started watching The Office.  We watched several seasons together, now I want to go back & start watching from the beginning.

Reading while the Grands take a dip. I just started the 7th book in

the Little House series.

Chicken fight!

These are some of the things that's been going on in my neck of the woods, how about you?

Trouble & other mid June Happenings

Greetings

The Grands arrived.

Milk, cookies & a very competitive game of Trouble, Nana's style.

Grandkids

The Grands arrived wearing their masks made by 

my Moma, their Granny.

Cooking

Hotdog roasting, 1 of my favorite summer things to do.

Gardening

Picked chocolate mint & made some tea.  Tea was ok.  We are

not hot tea drinkers.

Cleaning

I did organizing & rearranging to get the Grands cots set up & ready.  I made sure each Grand had a plug in for their electronics chargers.  

Pretty little orange flowers.  My flower book don't have

orange flowers, so I don't know what these are.

Health & Weight Maintenance

Lots of popcorn eating happened.

Hiking

Biking

Frugality, Savings & Spending

I did meal planning for meals & snacks for the Grands visit & got only what I needed verses excessive shopping at the grocery store. I had stocked up on foods as items went on sale & based meals & snacks around those sale items.  I planned for meals out & other extra activities knowing the cost involved.  There was noodles needed for splashing around in the lake.

$1 noodles are no fun unless used as swords or bonging each

other in the face.

Social & Community Service Activities

We went to Lions bingo.  Grands helped us set up & clean-up.  Kevin was the number caller.  I helped with taking money, card count & snacks.  

Here's your sign.

Other Activities

Went caving.

Anybody hungry for some bacon.

Got mood rings.  We are very moody people, 

let me tell you.

These are some of the things that's been going on in my neck of the woods, how about you?

Walk with me, to see the Lady Slippers

We got a call that the Lady Slippers were in bloom. This was

 our 3rd trip to the gulch to see these plants in bloom.  My 

anticipation grew as I started up the trail.  Come, let's

go see.

Here they are.  Look at all those little slippers.

Let's get a closer look at one of the blooms.

The ladies have spread their seeds & were 

 in other nearby areas.  Look at that.

Let's go see what else we can see.

Wild rose buds.

Choke cherries good for making jelly when they get ripe.

On the ride home, Kevin noticed these flowers 

on the bank of the road.  My wildflower book 

says these are White Penstemon, also know 

as Beardstongue.

Do you have a unique bloom you have had your eye on?

Birdbath & other beginning of June Happenings

Greetings

This time of year we look for babies (baby wildlife that is).  We've also been doing some bird watching.

 Saw this baby antelope.  It kept laying down to hide.

Saw these foxes.  There was more pups but they skedaddled
into their den.

Grandkids

School is out for the Grands.  The older boys will be coming to see me soon. Their air travel will be one of the highlights of the trip for them.  Daughter got her wedding dress & is planning to do a fitting on facetime with some of us.

 It's officially summer!

 Rose getting started on her potting training.

She can bark & is playful.

Cooking

I made chicken cake patties & made some more BBQ chicken in the crockpot using my secret recipe.  Kevin fried fish.

Cooking these chicken cake patties on the griddle I
bought last month.

Gardening

The garden has started off to grow.  Kevin replanted seeds where nothing was coming up.  We got a little bout of hail but nothing seemed to have gotten injured.

Kevin covered the garden plants best he could for protection from a 

thunderstorm predicted.  Luckily we got no hail that time & got barely

enough rain to wet the ground.  The storm hit way farther south & did 

some damage with tennis ball size hail reported along with strong winds.

Cleaning

I was able to open the windows & let the fresh air in.  I made a check-off list of things I need to do daily.  The list is helping me be accountable to get things done to get back on my cleaning schedule routine.

Bright & clean & thirsty petunias in the rock garden.

Health & Weight Maintenance 

I set a few goals (4 of them) for myself to help me get back on track to shed a few pounds (about 40 of them) this summer & fall.  I'll take it slow & only eat foods I like.  I will be eating pie & ice cream & continue drinking my 1 cup of morning coffee with cream & sugar.  I won't be eating any beets.

• Eat an apple most everyday or some other type fruit.  I'm not much of a fruit eater, so I picked something I like & could continue eating most everyday.  (An apple a day, keeps the Dr away.)
  
• Eat something green for supper.  Eat more veggies overall.  I like green beans & could eat some everyday.  Greens are very low calorie, so I can eat as much of them as I want.  I also got some salad fixings - lettuce & spinach mix, carrots & canned diced tomatoes (till ours are ready in the garden) along with a small spoonful of ranch dressing.
• Drink more water & not coke.  I've been noticing that coke bloats me, so I'm going to see how I do without it, not that I drank very much, but was getting back into the habit of drinking it more often.
• Walk outside everyday, no mater what the weather.  A little rain never hurt nobody, speaking for myself, it has never hurt me.

Taking my daily nature walk out in the trees.

Frugality, Savings & Spending

Bought groceries, paid bills & made the quarterly income tax payment that was due.  We got supper from Dairy Queen after going riding.  DQ was take-out & eat in truck on the way home since the dinning room was not yet open for dine in. 

Birdbath made from scratch & put up in the garden.

The beginnings of a birdbath being made.

Social & Community Service Activities

We went to Lions club meeting with supper available.  Spaghetti casserole was the main dish.  It was delicious along with a salad, apple crisp & ice cream.  We prepared the Happy Day Award Fundraiser tickets for the drawings.  The name that is drawn receives a check in the mail & that's a Happy Day.  The drawings are weekly June thru December.

I waited 15 minutes going & coming for work.  Knowing there was 
road paving going on, I gave myself 30 minutes extra time for 
waiting on the pilot car.  It was a happy day that I arrived to 
work on time.

Other Activities

I'm almost finished reading the Little House book I've been reading.  I watched DVDs of Medicine Woman.  Dr Mike had her baby.  It was a girl named Katherine.  They call her Katie.  I also watched eposides of Cybill, Grace Under Fire & Roseanne on Vudu tv.  We explored a new area in the hills & did some more fishing.  There were down trees on almost every trail from where a storm had roared through there a day or 2 before us. 

These are some of the things that's been going on in my neck of the woods, how about you?

Sunday morning empty nests, walk with me.

Look how fast the robins grew.  4 is a nest full.

A parent robin on guard duty acting here like it don't see me. 
 It was going from tree to tree following along with me 
very close as I was walking.  

  

This was the last time I saw the grackles in their nest.  It

didn't look like there were still 5 of them.  The nest

was loose & Kevin put it back.

Grackle on feeding duty.

Then the robins nest was empty.

The grackle nest was torn down.  I found it at the bottom of

the tree.  I also saw a cat run out from under our grill table.

I don't know if that cat had anything to do with this.

Seen young birds all over the place.  In the garden...

in the trees...

& in the grass.

The parents or at least one of parents continue feeding 

their young for about another 2 weeks after they 

leave the nest.

I stopped to smell the lilacs while that grackle up there 
keeps it's eyes on me to tell the other birds where I am.

Hope you have enjoyed bird watching along with me & learned some little something new about birds or other wildlife in your backyard.