Good Monday….

First thing, I made the 1000 mile mark this weekend. 500 miles to go and 6 months to do it in. YEAH!!! I will make my goal and maybe a bit more. Hey, have you met Marc? This man is amazing and he too has set a goal for his walking and just the other day made a huge goal and did an awesome post about it. Check him out when you have a few minutes. I love reading his blog and his thoughts. P.S. another little tid bit, I am back into the 180’s. Pushing the top but still back there. 10 more lbs to go to make the goal I set for the summer. 180 by August 25th. Deb my partner in crime has made it way into the 180’s now, she has the same goals as I do. It is awesome to have a partner doing this with me. And Allan is right here beside me giving me the menus and cues I need to get it right and stay right.

So what have I been up to? Well you know me pretty well to know it’s all in pictures so I am just going to do the pictures and captions and any extra little words I want to add. I love going back and seeing what’s happened and what’s going on so that’s a big reason I do all my blogging and pictures. I don’t scrapbook but I don’t have to when I do this. Anyways, here it goes…..

It’s rhubarb season. Really for me it’s all year long cuz I keep it from going to seed and I am always picking it. But this past week I put up 5 gallons of it so that I can add it to the apples I get this fall and make some wonderful apple/rhubarb sauce.

The camper is coming along nicely. It now has the generator and an A/C unit and are now working on the bench seats and wiring.

We have new baby chicks that my chickens have hatched out. Just two so far but a start. I feel so sorry for the mama’s on the nest right now. It’s so hot in the coop but they seems to be okay. I do give them a little water and feed to help them even though I know they sneak off once in awhile too.

 

 

 

I took the kids to Crosslake for Big Fun Tuesdays. It’s a game time in the park and local business for kids and adults. We had a great time but by time we left Abby (the little girl on the fishes tail) wasn’t feeling good so a quick pose for me and home we went. As you can see I wore someone out. Love doing that.

 

 

As you know I went to Fergus Falls to spend the 4th with Mike. I got down there just before he was done for work. This is a tractor he’s working on. They feel confident enough to have gave him his own bay and lots and lots of work. He is really enjoying his job and it sure makes the mama’s life so much easier not worrying about him as much. I am so proud of Mike for going and doing and becoming really what he wanted. He goes to JDU in October to learn electronic stuff and is excited to be able to add more to his list of can do’s.

Mike’s work place. Want a little history? In the early 30’s to the late 1950’s Mike’s gr.uncle used to own a John Deere dealership and garage in our home town. When Mike was working on his Eagle Scout project he wanted to earn it before his great uncle passed away. Now 80 years later Mike is working for the worlds largest John Deere company and …. well you just never know, just maybe one day he’ll own a John Deere Dealership like his great uncle so many years ago.

While visiting Mike we did a lot of stuff. We went to a strawberry farm and picked strawberries. Mike said it was not the funnest part of our mini vacation, the berries do not jump into the buckets. Also, why would I go into the hot sun and pick berries without pinning my hair up. UGH!!!!

 

While out and about we went past a church that had at least a hundred families of geese. I took lots of pictures but really, the babies aren’t as cute as they were last week so ones enough. While on one side of the lake with the geese I saw this tree across the lake. What in the world are those birds? I have never seen them before so we headed to the other side and guess what they are?

  

They are Egrets. A relative to our Great Blue Huron. WOW, I have never see them before and never in the hundreds. I met a woman there who comes each year and photographs them from spring to fall and she had the neatest pictures to show me that she’s taken. Of course her camera isn’t a tiny point and shoot but you can get the idea. If you click on the last picture you can see the wisp of feathers on this bird.

Went back to Mike’s apartment and watched a movie and put up 6 containers of cut up, washed and ready to eat strawberries. And we also baked cookies and muffins so he’s have snacks for this week.

On the 4th his town didn’t have a fireworks display but they had this. It was amazing, wonderful, beautiful and heartwarming.

It’s called the Veteran’s walk of faith….

 

In our travels we found a 1845 historical building. It use to be an insane asylum and than a school and than a habitation center and now some type of government/DNR building. On our travels around this area there is a road called …. incinerator road, you can guess where the crematorium was.

    

And of course my sunsets. I can’t help myself. I can’t get enough of them. This one is from down with Mike and this one below is from the house last night. My garden is doing awesome too. I got home on Friday morning to a hubby and dogs that thought I was gone for weeks instead of just 40 hours.

And last but not least, what’s the 4th of July weekend without a few fireworks.

 

 

Now it’s a new week. With 6 kids today, 1 tomorrow, cleaning the lodge on Wednesday, Thursday is 2 and our county fair, Friday I start bussing for special needs and Saturday a berry farm open house near Brainerd. A great week, a busy week and of course more pictures to share next week.

Not sure if I’ll get back here this week or not, you know how summers are. Busy, busy, busy. Our evenings are filled with working on the camper which is really starting to look like something we can use and have a great time with. My garden has weeds that need picking and some kohlrabi that needs eating. And I have to kick up my walking/jogging cuz in about 5 weeks I have a 5K I’m doing with Mike and his legs are twice as long as mine so I know very well I’ll be jogging a most of the race.

Take care my friends and I hope that you are all have a great and wonderful summer.