Several lightening strikes and then followed by the crack of the thunder shook us to the core this afternoon. We ran errands around town at noon and the air was stifling. Something was bound to give. The rain, when it came, came sideways for a time. There will be no need to add water to the Koi pond as it is running over onto the patio. Dennis has reported that son-in-law Tom will be needed with his chainsaw later on as the Maple lost a pretty good sized branch. We can be thankful that the clean up of smaller branches is very doable. Minnesota summers can give huge, large, noisy thunderstorms.
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Noreen
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Noreen
Not much going on today. A bit of needed rain and a whole lot of humidity with high temps. I did miss getting my walk in this morning. About the time I was going to head out, the thunder and lightening made me settle into the rocking chair in the patio porch and watch the news program with Dennis. After the rain I knew that with my propensity of building to a swift pace allowing my clothes to feel like I had walked into a shower the smothering air would not be healthy.
The biggest achievement was Dennis getting the tailgate fixed on his little red pickup. As luck would have it the body shop fellow had a certain part that was needed and $50 later Dennis was home and happy that the pickup was up for full use.
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Noreen
The Morning’s Job
We have known for some time that we wanted to move this arbor that Calvin had made for us. When our neighbor let us know they were going to move in a new garden shed on the property line, we decided it was time. A new look for this portion of the Hosta gardens. Dennis and I decided if we leveled it according to the siding on the garden shed, we couldn’t really be off by much as we had watched how carefully the garden shed was leveled. The arbor now stands with the remaining garden art that we have of Calvin’s. Hopefully next year we can get a shade-loving plant to begin making its way up and onto the arbor.
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Noreen
I spent several hours in the gardens this morning. A bit of weeding and a lot of watering with a refreshing spritz of water to wash the dust off of the leaves of the flowers. Going over the areas several times allowed the water to soak in rather than run off. Amazingly . . . one bug bit and I am quite sure it was a black nasty fly. As the heat climbed I headed for the sewing studio. By supper time the humidity had gone down enough that Dennis and I spent some patio time. Priceless.
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Noreen
As promised . . . it is hot outside this afternoon with the laptop showing it to be 93 degrees. This morning, up until 11:30, there was a breeze and it was comfortable being outside on the patio.
Dennis washed off the house yesterday afternoon and the streams of muddy water were amazing. Stauffer Avenue runs east and west along our home and it is gravel with a top layer of ground asphalt. Need I say more? Dennis and I had made a date for after supper last night. With the sun going down we manned ourselves with soapy buckets of water, brushes and enough garden hose to reach back to the potting shed that faces Stauffer Avenue. When we had a lot of rain there were puddles on the avenue and vehicles can splash mud and such very nicely onto the north sides of the potting shed and the garage. It was bad, it was very badly splattered. It doesn’t help matters that the garage is a mere six feet from the edge of the avenue. Stauffer Avenue is listed on city maps as an alley. Over time the well-traveled alley has widened out considerably, thus the mere six feet between the vehicles and our buildings. In short order our potting shed and garage were again bright white. No . . . it will not last, but taking care of our property keeps us on our toes. A cooling off period followed by showers and we called it a great evening.
This evening we are going to enjoy a fish fry. Neighbor Chuck brought over a meal of Sun Fish. They love fishing and apparently he doesn’t mind filleting them. The fish plus creamed onions and cucumbers will make a wonderful meal.
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Noreen
No Strobe Lights Needed
As I am laying out these finished 6″ blocks and deciding what color combination should be next to each other before the final sewing, I realize that I do not need strobe lights to begin having the feelings of a seizure coming on. This will be the end results of all the scraps Aunt Lorraine and I cut up several days ago. Why oh why can I not just file scraps in the circular bin aka: wastebasket?
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Noreen
For so many reasons this was just a great day. The cup of coffee I had planted on the patio table was a welcomed treat when I came back from my walk. A great breeze with low humidity lulled me into staying on the patio for some time. With lots of construction going on in town, it’s like watching a day long parade of every type of gas guzzling, multi-wheeled piece of paraphernalia imaginable.
Dennis and I spent a fair amount of time in the kitchen this afternoon getting several dishes prepared ready to pop in the oven for evening meals or cold salads to make a sandwich out of for noon meals. Right about now I can smell the baked frozen dinner rolls that he must have just taken out of the oven. It’s time for me to shut down the sewing studio for the day and see what else is happening on the main floor of the house. As I said, I have had a very satisfying day and I know as nice as it is outside, there is more patio time coming after supper.
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Noreen
What a bummer when the weather man is correct . . . this is the steamiest day yet. When I checked the details for St. James on my notebook this morning, I knew I would not be hitting the asphalt county road today for my walk. Yesterday morning it had taken me quite a while before I dried out and today would have been worse. With the dew point at 82 and temperature at 76 degrees by 8 a.m., this senior citizen was staying put.
I did a bit of housework, then traded out some time on the sewing machine and then hit Dennis’ Cardio Mini Cycle. After three rotations of activity, I feel I did give it my best considering the day. I recalled what Kevin had shared about the Mini Cycle when he encountered one at Frank and Elise’s house . . . decades ago in the early 70s.
We had been ask to their home in Buffalo Lake for supper. Afterwards us four adults stayed in the kitchen visiting and Carrie and Kevin moved on into the living room to watch television. Low and behold Frank had a mini cycle near his chair in the living room. Kevin tells that for the majority of the evening he laid on the carpeted floor peddling the mini cycle while watching the tube. You got it! Kevin recounted that the next day he could hardly walk. I did bare that in mind as I clocked in some time on Dennis’ mini cycle. It’s not the real deal for me. I would be hard pressed to trade the actual walking for the mini cycle, but in a pinch . . . .
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Noreen
Looking Spiffy
The chain saw Eagle is looking very spiffy after a good cleaning and a new coat of protectant. Great job Dennis.
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Noreen
Sanctuaries
Sanctuaries perhaps bring to the mind places such as holy temples or auspicious buildings. My definition of sanctuary is a place of retreat, a hideaway, a haven or a safe place, aka: my sewing studio. This is where I was always intended to be. When my children were babies and I was a farm wife, I had a sanctuary much like the one I have today on Stauffer Avenue.
Our farmhouse was quite small. Four people could comfortable sit around the kitchen table even though the table needed to be pulled away from the north wall and the person sitting on the east side of the table prohibited access to the kitchen cupboards. It worked. The open dining room and living room were the expanse of the width of the home. A double bed in the downstairs bedroom with a double dresser was pushing it for a rag rug to lie flat on the floor in between them. The upstairs had two bedrooms both with the slanted knee walls and also had the only full bathroom in the house. So what does an enterprising family do . . . make every square inch of that full basement work for the family.
A bit of plywood to make a surround and the stool in the basement felt private. A laundry sink with a medicine cabinet above it came in handy when either the upstairs bathroom was occupied or it was handy coming in from the outside with hands that needed washing but not necessarily wanting to take work shoes and clothes off to make the trip through the entire house to get to the upstairs.
We made a closet out of the southeast corner of the basement that was large enough for two Sears and Roebuck freezers to sit side by side as well as house the fuel oil furnace. The west portion of the basement was divided by a concrete block wall. The south side was for the fantastic family room. Ya, we had a family room in the 60s in our basement. The finer finishes of that family room . . . we really need not get into. The north portion of that basement had a root cellar complete with shelves that held all of our canning jars, crocks of rendered lard and, of course, sauerkraut. The remaining of that north area was my sewing studio.
My Christmas present that year from Orlin was a sewing table to hold the new Sears and Roebuck sewing machine, model 1820. The table had pull out leaves that allowed the table to sit down a bit for ease of the user. The machine was tricked out with cam and a button hole attachment and could do zigzag. To finish out that little sewing studio, an office chair on rollers and a fold down cutting table. Wow! It was very snazzy and I was content. It was easy to keep an eye on Carrie and Kevin as the first thing they learned was to come down the wooden basement steps on their butts one step at a time until they could master walking them. A piece of carpet on the floor for the kids to play on with their toys, an old brown velvet sofa from an auction from which they could nap on or watch television completed the ease of me sewing while having the babies close by.
Eventually Orlin had a vinyl recliner in the family room. Some days it just felt great to come in from the heat of farm work, go into the cooler basement and take a well deserved break. We couldn’t turn down the score of a piece of slate chalkboard for the kids to write on. Yup . . . quite the score. Kevin was sitting on the arm of the sofa contentedly watching television and lost his balance and fell against the raw edge of the slate and cut his back. Thank God for nearby laundry baskets to pull white clean dish towels out of to tightly wrap around him as we headed to Hutchinson’s emergency room. Oh my God! Such a little back and such a long cut. Kevin was uncomfortable and Carrie had gotten very scared taking it all in. I remember . . . that night I rocked Carrie and Kevin both in the huge over stuffed rocker from Grandma Schafer until Orlin came in from checking on the barns and took one from me one at a time up to bed.
Umph. Today I had just finished a mending job for Kevin here in my sewing studio and memories just flooded in. Old ones and good ones and very tender ones all the way around. Yes, I am where I am meant to be, here in my sanctuary where good things happen. I often times am here with: me, myself and memories.
