Cinj's Chat Room

I Think I Got a Little Carried Away

cinj54501@gmail.com (Cinj) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:55:00 +0000

I went to bring Cheesehead some lunch and dinner yesterday at his new store since he was working open to close. When he does that he doesn't like to have to pack a lunch in the morning before he heads off to work, I don't blame him! I had told him ahead of time that I'd bring him his stuff because I only worked a half day and I actually like to be able to spend a little time with him each day.

In the course of our discussion over our lunch from the local BK, he happened to share with me the fact that their flowering bulbs were 75% off. He knew I had been eyeing up some bulbs but managed to restrain myself from buying any of them earlier in the season. I mentioned that I'd go check them out before I got the stuff he needed me to get to put in the work car's gas tank. I don't imagine he'd really thought about what a hog I would be after browsing for a few minutes.

They had such a wide variety of the lovely plants left I just couldn't resist their alluring temptations. At around $1 or $2 per package it was much harder to just say no. Look what followed me home!

I guess this means I have some more to do out in the garden before the ground freezes. I will be planting these honeys this weekend. I was thinking about waiting to move and divide some plants needing division until next spring but now I'm not so sure. Should I just get all of the beds done now so I can have a little more time to relax in the spring? I also want to mark where they were planted so they can come with me if/when we sell this house. We keep wavering with that decision. We love this house but hate his new commute. With two homes out of 6 already for sale in the neighborhood we know we won't be selling it this fall or winter.

Someone came by the display I set up to see what was going on. I think we may know which one is the plant eater... what do you think?

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

When It Rains, It Pours

cinj54501@gmail.com (Cinj) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:46:00 +0000

We are finally getting that much needed rain that I complained about all summer, but that's really not exactly why I titled this post. You want me to explain?

My wireless Internet connection has been rather spotty for quite a while now so I haven't been able to visit my regular Internet hangouts as often as I'd like. Well, now my laptop has also crashed. The only computer we have left is running on Windows 98 and I don't have the money to fix it. I'm rather annoyed. As luck would have it, my dsl contract expires on the 15th of this month so I have asked them to cancel our Internet for the time being. I will not be blogging or blog hopping much until I'm back up and running unless I drive all the way into town and visit my local library's computers.

To complicate matters further, the money I could be saving by not having Internet will be getting spent on gas for Cheesehead to drive to a different store. He was "promoted" but the store is 3 times farther from home so I anticipate us loosing money on this deal until we can get a decent price for the house we are currently living in AND qualify for financing for a new house closer to his work. Supposedly he should be getting promoted again soon so I'm going to attempt to have patience and wait to see what happens with that whole mess.

To get my fix of interaction on the Internet I am now resorting to try to figure out how to use my cell phone to access it. So far I have figured out how to access face book and my email. I guess it remains to be seen how proficient I become at using my free phone. Hopefully I'll have it figured out soon! In the mean time could you please pray that we get our issues resolved quickly? Thanks!

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

Frostbite

cinj54501@gmail.com (Cinj) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:32:00 +0000

Well, it's official now. The vegetable garden is done for the year. I heard we were expecting a killing frost on the news a few nights ago. I'm sure glad I listened otherwise we would have had a whole lot of wasted tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, and beans. All of the plants looked droopy and down cast. Don't be sad guys, you'll help to give my new raised garden bed some organic matter to mix into the soil.

I got anything that was a decent size worth saving, picked it , and brought them inside. Some of them were just about ready to pick anyway, though I prefer them if they are ripened on the vine. It couldn't be helped though. I was so done with hauling plant coverings around I decided I could be done. I gave it a good try, right?
Yesterday morning the tomato plants caught my eye as I was headed out for my third job of the school year. The deep white on the plants looked pretty, especially with the large crystals on them. I wished as I rushed past that I had time to take a picture of them, they were gorgeous all dressed in white. Too bad I had windows to scrape and kids to get off to school.

They looked extra sad this morning. I guess I'll be pulling plants for the compost pile when I'm done chatting with you.

Seeing the van windows again this morning sure made me glad I didn't have to rush off to work again this morning! Did I ever mention how I hate to scrape my windows? I really need to make some time to get my van back into the garage so I don't have to worry about such things. The sun sure looks pretty when it glints off the tiny ice crystals. They remind me of diamonds.

My poor hydrangea never did make it's debut on my gbbd post. I can't believe I forgot to make a post in September. I suppose it was a pretty busy month. Before they turned brown they were a wonderful shade of pink.

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

Heaven Sent Harvest

cinj54501@gmail.com (Cinj) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 16:26:00 +0000

We really didn't have much of a summer here, it was more like a really LONG, not to mention dry, spring with just a couple of short weeks of mildly warmer temps thrown in. Now that fall has arrived, summer has too. Heat, but still extremely dry. We have only had one day with any measurable amounts of rain in the month of September. Hence the title of this post.

Add dryness to the fact that I have never once had an even reasonably successful harvest from any attempts at veggie gardening and I'd have to say it's miraculous. Thank God I mulched or I'd probably had yet another miserable failure!
My tomatoes are finally kicking it up into high gear. I was wondering if it would ever happen. This is my third harvest of the year of tomatoes. I am quite pleased with my first attempt at growing them, although I will not be using those flimsy store bought cages next year. There's got to be some sort of crazy artistic sculpture or something I can make with those useless things!
My hand pollinated apples that showed such promise this spring were a rather miserable failure. I guess next time I'll do better at keeping them watered. Now I'm listening to the kids argue over who gets to eat it. I sure wish I'd had enough foresight to see this train coming. Hopefully we'll have better luck in the coming years.
The zucchini practically grew itself. I've had so much of it I haven't known what to do with it. Apparently the only thing the family likes that's made of zucchini is bread. Any creative ideas of something not so boring would be greatly appreciated. I forget, have I ever mentioned that my family is just a wee bit picky?
The cucumbers could have done better, but this is my second decent batch. My family only likes pickles although MIL said they tasted really good. I wish I had done a better job of exposing my family to these things earlier in life. Maybe I wouldn't have all of these health issues now, not to mention complete and total food boredom for the most adventurous eater of the house. Sigh.

We had quite a few green beans though I think I will use the square foot garden method with them next year so I can squeeze a few more plants into my garden plan. I loved these beans fresh from the garden. I'd love to have some for canning purposes.

I must say my green pepper experiment taught me to not plant them so close to the tomatoes next year. It was way too shady for them to do much of anything productive. Better luck next year.

I also had some success with my potatoes that otherwise would have landed in the compost pile. I am wondering if some of the small ones can be saved as seed potatoes. How small is too small for a seed potato anyway? Anyone?

Now I suppose I better get working on my canning and preserving skills. Who would have known you could burn watermelon in a food dehydrator anyway? Oops! I love being able to reuse my glass jars and not having to send store bought cans to the landfill or recycling too. I feel like we're making great strides in being more earth friendly, chemical free, and building a healthier household. Yay us! Too bad some of this stuff is so time consuming, I bet more people would be going back to the old ways if they could.

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

Mulching Does Wonders

cinj54501@gmail.com (Cinj) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:42:00 +0000

We got a bunch of yummy wild blackberries last year, but they were rather small. They made an extremely tasty jam too! This year I decided to mulch a few of them and see what happened.

Look at the difference...

This was one of the two bushes I mulched. It was absolutely bursting with robust, juicy berries.

This was not mulched. Many of the berries dried out. Those that didn't were small and not nearly as satisfying to eat on a hot summer day.

I think I'll be mulching more plants next year. Hopefully I'll get some paths cut and have a nice berry area in my yard.

Now, to make some more blackberry jam. It's SO easy! Also WAY less expensive than buying jars of jam at the store. My recipe is a freezer jam so it doesn't need to be pressure canned OR cooked. My kids like to help me pick the berries, we have even taken their grandma and their dad picking with us. They could probably make the recipe too if I could trust them not to eat all of the berries on me...

Pick your berries. You'll need about 3 cups of crushed berries for this recipe. I like to be lazy and crush my berries in the blender. It does a bit more than just crush them but it turns out great.

Once the berries are crushed, add sure gel of your choice and sugar. I used Sweet and Low to help with my son's prediabetic condition. The recipe calls for 5 cups of sugar I think, but I used the equivalent of about 3 cups. My jam is plenty sweet. I think you should make it as sweet as you prefer. You can taste it before it gels, it'll just be syrupy and may drip on your shirt. (Don't even ASK how I know!)

Mix together throughly. Pour jam into jars leaving about 1/4 inch space at the top. Let set up for up to 24 hours at room temperature until thickened. Store in refrigerator for up to three weeks or freeze. (Make sure jars you use are freezer safe.) Enjoy!

That will keep us in jam for a while...

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

The Health Care Debate

cinj54501@gmail.com (Cinj) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 17:49:00 +0000

People seem to have many issues with our health care system. I want to present some problems that I see with the health care system as it currently stands and open it up for debate/discussion. I have included numbers with each point to make discussing each issue easier to follow.

1. One of the main problems with our system is the greed that runs so rampantly through it all. If people aren't in the health care industry to help others, they should get out. Health care is supposed to be about making people get well, not putting money in doctor's, corporation's, or insurance company's pockets. Some people are bound to be harder to get healthy, that's just a fact of life.

2. We need to place more emphasis on prevention of health problems. If more insurance companies paid for things that could help prevent something expensive from happening we wouldn't have to spend so much money on the complications that arise from those conditions.

3. We need to figure out ways to cut excess expenses out of our system. Do assistants really need their own assistants? Do we need to have 10 different people to check you into the clinic to see if all of our information is current? Yes= go to appointment. No= update information. Is it that hard? One or two people should be all that any place should need.

4. Insurance companies need to stop putting conditions on what they will and will not cover. If they will pay for one well visit a year great. I HATE the fact that our insurance will only pay for a dietician IF someone has been diagnosed with diabetes. Not for a person who's prediabetic. HUH???

5. I think we need to put caps on what can be charged for procedures. Does it really cost a hospital $3,000 for someone to be in their ER for 1/2 an hour with kidney stones? I hardly think so. IF it does, they really need to find a cheaper way to do it!

6. Doctors should trust the results of tests run by other doctors. Why does each doctor of three need to run their own tests? If some of them are duplicates can't they just use the results that you've already gotten? No wonder some people pay their medical bills for years!

7. Drug companies should not be allowed to give incentives to doctors or clinics in order for them to prescribe their products. No wonder some of the name brand prescriptions cost so much! Between payoffs, research, and advertising it's just crazy!

8. More tests does not make for better service. Find the problem in the most logical way possible.

9. Do we need to run to the doctor for every little cold we have? Antibiotics will not cure a cold. I know people that take their children to the doctor every time they run a fever. I wonder if they've ever heard of teething causing a fever...

10. If companies are going to charge money for services provided, shouldn't they actually provide services? Why pay $600 per month for insurance in order for us to pay 1/2 of the bill when we're really only supposed to pay 20%.

11. It's not really the fact that I'd be against universal coverage if it really was universal. I am afraid that it will end up being a welfare suplement and I will be excluded because of my finances. It seems I always make too much money to qualify for any type of services.

12. The government has a way of goofing up a lot of well intentioned things. I do not want them running our health care system though I would appreciate more oversight pertaining to some issues I have discussed above. The way they run medicare and medicaid is going to make them run out of money. They need a better strategy.

13. Did I miss any important major issues?

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

The First Day of School

cinj54501@gmail.com (Cinj) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 12:22:00 +0000

The birds were twittering as we stepped out of our front door into a day that felt much more like the end of October than the beginning of September. The still dew wet grass shone like brilliant crystals as the sunlight streamed through the tiny droplets of water. I couldn't believe that school was starting already and Labor Day hasn't even come and gone yet. It just seems so strange.

Our breaths puffed out of our mouths as we talked about the events of the coming day. We passed the tarp covered tomato plants as we walked down our sidewalk towards the driveway. The plants seemed like giants next to my daughter as she walked down the sidewalk next to me.

The crunch of the gravel under our feet as we walked down the driveway was like a favorite song of mine. We had many good talks as we sauntered to the bus stop together. I couldn't help but wish my son had allowed me these stolen moments with him too. He asked me to stop accompanying him to the bus stop when he was in second grade.

The constant chatter continued until we reached the end of the road and stood on the corner. We took the ceremonial first day of school pictures. I made sure to move the camera all around as I took a few more shots than usual. I need at least one of them to turn out. I am annoyed that I can't even look through a tiny window to see if my subject is centered in the frame.

We heard the bus coming before we saw it. We hadn't really even been looking for it. We had been talking about the new school year and the coming day. She wondered out loud where her new line would be when they line up on the playground. She asked me who was in her class so she knew who to look for in the line. I reminded her of two of the names we read on the list last night at the open house. Her eyes shone as she thought about being in class with two of her good friends again. We exchanged a quick kiss and hug before the bus pulled into view.

As I saw the familiar yellow bus number 224 rumbling down the road towards our stop, I couldn't help but feel the anticipation and excitement of the start of a new school year radiating from my daughter. Larry has been Peanut's bus driver since she was in kindergarten so he knew the sight of us well. He smiled as he pulled up and drew the bus to a stop. It seemed somewhat strange to have the bus company's name on the side changed.

But even the rumbling down the road had seemed like it was just a matter of routine, so it might even be the same bus with a new paint job. It was almost as if summer never happened.

Larry waved my little peanut across the street. Her energy seemed boundless as she practically leaped over the road to the welcoming door of school bus. Her ponytails waved in the chilly morning air. Gentle puffs of white vapor rolled out of her mouth as she breathed.

The next thing I knew the bus was pulling away from the bus stop. I waved goodbye to my youngest child. How fast they grow up. She's already in third grade? It seems like just yesterday I was sending her off for her first day of kindergarten. I suppose that means it's time I replace her backpack. Has she really had it that long?

As I look ahead to the start or the new school year, I can't help but wonder where summer went. Did we even ever have a summer?

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day August 2009

cinj54501@gmail.com (Cinj) — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 18:14:00 +0000

The summer continues to fly by at a frantic pace that shows no signs of letting up. At least we've had a taste of summer weather now. The plants weren't liking the coolish weather that we've had most of the summer, though I throughly enjoyed it.

After returning from a football scrimmage on one of the hottest days of the summer it suddenly struck me that it's already the 15th of the month again! I'd like to thank Carol of May Dreams Gardens for hosting garden bloggers bloom day on the 15th of every month.

I feel bad that I haven't had the chance to blog hop much this summer, but I've been keeping myself too busy once again what with health issues that keep cropping up uninvited and stuff. I hope this coming fall will help me to ease my schedule.

Now, on with the tour! I have a lot of plants that have not bloomed yet this year until after my last post. Those are the plants I will show you here.

I guess the cool nights and non steamy days have stiffled the blooming and growth of the heat loving plants. Now I've got fragrant stargazer lilies to enjoy.

As well as some unknown lilies. I had ordered lollypop lilies which are supposed to be pink and white. These are NOT the flowers I ordered.

The day lilies have also begun their nonstop show. I think I need to get some more colors to all to my collection.

Only one of the clematis has put out more than one set of blooms this year.

The tomatoes are still growing. So far still none to pick. Hopefully we'll have some when we get back from staying with great grandpa this week.

The coneflowers have also finally begun to bloom.

One of the hostas that Lisa gave me last summer is still blooming with it's neighbor featured last month. I never realized how much longer the pink astilbe lasted than the others.

The choke cherry tree put out tons of cherries this year. The kids helped me to pick a bunch of them, we got a pound of them this year. Not bad for the size of the berries. We left all of the ones at the top for the birds. Apparently the robins really like them.

At least the blackberries are on schedule. Soon I'll be harvesting more berries than I know what to do with. If you ask me, that's a good problem to have!

Which brings me to the pride of the garden! Okay, so I have more than one thing I'm proud of... The family, the shed with the shutters Cheesehead made for me, a newly added light. We have also put in some new landscaping around the shed, installed a flag, added river rock as mulch, and red granite to connect the turn around to the ramp in front of the shed. Apparently I cut off the landscaping and turnaround part though. I only have one battery for my camcorder so I used the old camera.

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

15 books

cinj54501@gmail.com (Cinj) — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 13:12:00 +0000

Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Tag 15 friends, including me because I'm interested in seeing what books my friends choose. (To do this, go to your Notes tab on your profile page, paste rules in a new note, cast your 15 picks, and tag people in the note - upper right hand side).

Gone With the Wind
The Hobbit
The Bible
The Red Badge of Courage
Under the Blood Red Sun
The Giver
Star Wars, A New Hope
Square Foot Gardening
The Maker's Diet
The Sugar Solution
Stone Soup for the World
The Book of Virtues
Anne of Green Gables
Island of the Blue Dolphins
Scarlett

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

A Healthier Blueberry Muffin

cinj54501@gmail.com (Cinj) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 14:47:00 +0000

My son has been dying for some blueberry muffins. Wanting to feed him what he wants but still trying to help him with his diet and health issues I changed the usual recipe to lower the glycemic index. I thought they were good. If you don't like the wheat flavor (son didn't like it) maybe exchange it for oats in place of the wheat flour. I think I will try that next time.

Here's the recipe

1 cup milk (I added a little extra because wheat flour soaks up moisture)
1/4 cup oil (I used 1/2 cup applesauce instead)
1/2 tsp lemon extract
1 egg
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour (I sifted it to add some air so they wouldn't be so dense)
1/3 cup splenda (to get some browning effect that normal sugar helps with, I added a few drops of liquid stevia extract to the batter)
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
a sprinkling each of ground flax seed and wheat germ
1 cup fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Grease bottoms of 12 cup muffin tin.
Divide batter among cups.
Bake about 25 minutes until golden brown.
Remove from pan immediately.

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

Making an Upholstered Headboard

cinj54501@gmail.com (Cinj) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 19:35:00 +0000

Some of my friends and relatives have requested to see what my headboard looks like. I think it looks pretty nice even though we haven't taken the time to install it yet. I'm even going to do one better though! I will walk you through the process of making it. It was really very easy as well as inexpensive.

Materials needed:
1. A piece of wood that is at least as wide as your bed. I used some scraps we had laying around from building our shed last year.
2. Spray adhesive.
3. Padding to line to wood the with. This gives it a nice luxurious feel. I used the foam pad that son had on his twin sized bed before we replaced his mattress.
4. Batting used for quilting. This helps anchor the foam in place as well as softening up the exterior lines of the headboard.
5. Durable fabric of your choice. I used a heavier linen type fabric I had sitting in my fabric stash which I feel compliments our bedding without being matchy-matchy.
6. Staple gun and staples.

May people may like a curved headboard, but I went for simple, straight lines. It's a rectangle the same width as the bed. Also made less cutting for me to do!

Spray the wood with spray adhesive. If you only spray one surface, the foam can be repositioned. Once I got the foam in place, I sprayed the foam too. Spraying both surfaces is supposed to create a more permanent bond.

Next comes the batting. Mine was queen sized, folded in half to make it extra soft. I sprayed both halves to help keep them in place and then sprayed the foam as well as the back of the batting. I pulled it and made sure it was even before gluing it in place. Maybe I went a little crazy with the glue but I didn't want it to fall apart on me.

I wrapped the batting around the wood and secured it in place on the back of the wood with plenty of staples.

The final step is putting the fabric in place. Pull securely and wrap the edges carefully and check how it looks from the front before securing in place. I used glue on the front to keep it tight and then stapled it on the back.

I had planned on making this for Cheesehead for his birthday, but I didn't have time earlier this year. Now we just need to install it!

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

What in the World?

cinj54501@gmail.com (Cinj) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 03:07:00 +0000

This so-called summer is flying by so fast it feels like I just blinked in May and it's already August now. The temps are still feeling about the same, though not quite as cool at night. Where has the time gone?

I have been keeping busy as usual, I'll share more details and some pictures sometime soon but just thought I'd give you an idea of what I've been up to so far this summer besides spending too much time on facebook. I spent a couple of minutes compiling a "short" list detailing my activities.

1. Installed edging and crushed red granite in front of the shed.
2. Cheesehead made me some shutters for the shed which I painted green.
3. Painted and stained swing set, new trellises, and siding for Peanut's playhouse.
4. Helped Peanut construct her own garden space under her slide.
5. Planted a new garden in front of shed and added river rock and edging.
6. Expanded side yard and moved a bunch of rock and brush around.
7. Helped Cheesehead build a deck.
8. Stained ramp we built for shed last summer.
9. Cleaned and organized craft room.
10. Took son on several different doctor appointments. We think he's diabetic.
11. Researching how to make foods like our own tomato sauce with less sugar.
12. Suffering with tooth pain. Have appointment with dentist tomorrow.
13. Son started PW Football tonight. Next 3 weeks we'll be running 5 days a week!
14. Now working on the new garden back by the new deck in backyard.
15. Caring for plants. Tomatoes are growing like crazy but all still very green.
16. Glad I mulched some blackberry bushes earlier since so many are drying up now.
17. Painted crown moldings to be installed in living room area.
18. Made upholstered headboard for our bedroom.
19. Searching high and low for decent sandals with an enclosed back not high heeled.
20. Helping MIL with various home projects.

Man, seeing all that I've been working on made me even more tired than I already was. What in the world was I thinking? I need to go to bed!

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

Fire Sale Update

cinj54501@gmail.com (Cinj) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 01:16:00 +0000

I know some people out there may be interested in the house I just wrote my last post about. Some may have been following my story since I met them at the HGTV home selling message boards, I met some really great people there. Here's the latest as well as some information for people who may be going through this process and want to find out some more info. Please feel free to ask me any questions you have. We underwent this process in MN so it may be different in other areas of the country.

As you may be aware, our old house in BL was sold at a fire sale last year. As owners, we are never made aware of this information about the sale, so I only found this out the other day.

We were given a six month redemption period after the fire sale before it was finalized so my mom continued to live there until last November or so.

We were made aware of the fact that we could contest the transfer of title out of our name being sent official papers with the time of the "trial" and everything. This happened in June this year. It may have been interesting to go, but it was a long way away and my nerves are still really raw about all of the effort we put into that house and trying to sell it. It was best to make a clean break, so I didn't go. I wanted it to be over as soon as possible.

If I could have saved them the attorney fees and just handed the house over to the bank, I would have. Apparently MN has a law that says you can not do a "deed in lieu of foreclosure" on a home you are not living in. We tried every possible route that the bank suggested but apparently nothing but foreclosure worked for us in MN. It really was too bad since we had no interest in holding onto the house.

The house was listed in the court papers as being sold for $125,550 on 7/18/08 so I guess someone must have bid on it then. That is a far distance from the $230,000 we were told we could sell it for when we first contemplated the possibility of moving over three years ago!

At the end we had it listed for $124,900 (dropped from the original listing price of 197,000) but in all we only had two offers in total. Crazy for such a wonderful home on a corner lot so close to the lake. With our main competition being foreclosures and new construction we really had an uphill battle to try to win.

I tried negotiating with the first person who made an offer before we really knew that the housing market was in a virtual free fall. This right after we signed up with our second realtor. I am sure she would have sold it if she had been our original listing agent, if we didn't have a messy renter who refused to show the house or do the agreed on lawn care, and if the floor in the family room hadn't gotten so badly damaged. I would have owed more than the first possible buyer offered in September of 06 and thought I needed to take out a loan to cover the rest of the money I would have owed the banks and realtors. She wasn't willing to up her price and ended up walking. I really don't think she would have sat still for a short sale anyway since she was in the process of getting a divorce.

Our second offer got held up on a bank negotiation deal since we held both a first and second mortgage. After waiting forever those buyers also walked. I have found myself wondering if the final purchasers are those second people or not. I guess maybe I'll never know. I suppose it really doesn't matter. I am out from under that burden and I am not going to look back!

We were notified of the outcome of the court proceedings by mail. They sent a list of all transactions on our house including all of the times we refinanced, when we bought the house, second mortgages, fire sale, and other filings. It is now completely final and I could not be happier to be able to move on free and clear.

I hope the new owners enjoy that house as much as we did, it really was our dream when we lived there. Who knew my dream house would change so much when we moved here? I used to only want to live in town and have lots of kids for my kids to play with and be close to shopping. Now none of those things are even on the radar of my dream home. If our relatives and friends lived closer I'd have to say that the house we live in now would be my dream home.

I am also glad that living through that ordeal didn't end up breaking up a third marriage as it did the marriages of the first two pairs of owners. The neighbors shared the divorce house story with us after we moved in. The second couple only lived there for a year! I'm sure it very well could have broken us up if we had let the stress of the last few years overcome us. We've gone through a lot of loss, pain, and difficulties over the last three years.

Now we are a better, closer family than ever and I feel ready to conquer the health battle that lies ahead.... I hope! God help us.

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

The Garden I Left Behind

cinj54501@gmail.com (Cinj) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 22:43:00 +0000

I have talked to you often about the garden I left behind as well as babbling on about plants that made the trip with us on our last trip before the fire sale. Well, I finally got access to the old pictures that were on the computer that crashed. Now I can finally share them with you. Unfortunately we had to send the computer to the scrap yard as it was unsalvagable.

We moved into our second home when my youngest child was still a baby, just a three months old. She has no memories of our first home. We decided we needed a bigger yard for our children and a bit more space, so we moved about 5 miles away. It was the 30th of May in 2001 when we moved in.

We had looked at the house in March when the yard was still under snow. I fell in love with the inside, it was perfect for us! We put in an offer right away. It was only on the market a couple of days before came.

Imagine our shock when we saw the grass did not come back. Wasn't that the whole point of not buying new construction? Our first home had been new construction and we looked at established homes so we wouldn't have to do landscaping or finish a basement. The yard and landscaping were supposed to be in already. It looked wonderful in the winter with lots of trees and everything. Did I mention that most of the trees were dead too when spring came?

The back garden area was wonderful looking. I loved the bushes that hid our back yard from the street behind our house. It was a great place on a corner lot and it was close enough to walk to the beach. Inherited shrubs in the back mulch garden included a staghorn sumac in the center of the garden, 2 sensation lilacs, a white lilac, and red weigela, along with a few plants I never did figure out what they were.

The kids had lots of neighbor children to play with too. My son met his best friend when was about to start kindergarten. They seemed to be attached at the hip always either playing at our house or theirs every day after school.

After we lived there for a while and got to know the neighbors, we were told the people that sold it to us had lived there less than a year. The original owners were gardeners and the yard was always the best yard in the neighborhood. (I could tell from all of the earthworms that completely covered our driveway after the rain in spring.) It was just a shame a year of neglect could ruin all of that hard work. We intended to bring it back to it's former glory. After a bunch of hard work I thought it was right back up among the best.

We enjoyed most of the plant choices of the original owners, but the sumac was a total thug. It kept trying to take over the entire yard, sprouts shot up everywhere. I managed to talk Cheesehead into helping me rip it out even though it had beautiful form. To fill in the gap, we added some arborvitae that were passed along from some of Cheesehead's friends at work.

We added a couple of new garden areas including my prized rose garden. I had 3 climbing roses and 2 bush roses as well as creeping phlox at the entry path. The roses managed to thrive all summer and looked gorgeous each and every year. Somehow I was never able to keep them alive through the winter though. They got replaced each year. It sure was hard pulling out those rose bushes! But my was it lovely smelling to sit on that little bench under the arbor. When we were getting ready to move we planted 3 clematis to climb the arbor and two knock out roses to fill in the space.

The corner must have gotten too much salt spray from winter plowing, we never could get grass to grow in there so we expanded it into a large rock garden. We added a raised perrieneal garden as well as a wide variety of flowering shrubs.

There was a wonderful ornamental crabapple tree. The fragrance by our front door was always so sweet in the spring time. It was like heaven on earth between the flowering crab apple and the carol mackie daphne that grew next to the door. I put a bench there too. We also added plants that lined both sides of the driveway. Why in the world would you have all that rock but no plants anyway?

Near the door all plants the original owners had put in had vanished but the tulips they had planted. I filled it with color and various textures. Anything that survived our long absence before the fire sale came with me from this area. So far the monkshood is the only plant that died from the transplant process.

I added a pink weigela in an open space in the front garden, but the rest of the plantings were put in by the original owners. I think the green we chose looked better with the vinyl siding than the original color. I matched the new exterior lighting to the trim too. Looking back, I think we overspent on the improvements we made.

The back yard was spacious and we enjoyed outdoor entertaining here. It tended to get very hot in the afternoons in summer. We had plans of adding some sort of shade structure but never got around to putting one in.

This was the second garden shed we built. Somehow I never managed to get a picture of the whole shed. I am not sure what I was thinking when I planted these things in there, it was such a small space. They got very overgrown after we moved out. We like to landscape around all of our outdoor structures to add more enjoyment to our time spent outside.

Can you tell Cheesehead likes using landscaping blocks?

It was heart wrenching to have to move from our dream home just over three years ago. We had put a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and money into that place to make it perfect for us.

We moved into our "new" home three years ago this July. I guess I still call it new because we never really got the closure of selling our old home, signing papers, and the whole 9 yards. It was finally foreclosed on after being on the market for more than two years. Technically we've only really been rid of the burden of that house for 7 months. I'm sure glad that never ending saga is over!

Right now I wouldn't change our house for the world, it's really starting to feel like home.

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

July Garden Blogger's Bloom Day

cinj54501@gmail.com (Cinj) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:04:00 +0000

Bloom Day is brought to you by our wonderful friend Carol of May Dreams Gardens. Thank you Carol. This post will include my veggie garden update as well since I haven't given you one lately. Busy, busy!

This is a coconut lined basket that I'm growing a tomato out of the bottom of. It combines my flower gardens with my veggie garden, so I thought it would make a great lead off picture! The growths on the top part of the stem I told you about have turned brown so it looks like the tomato is trying to put out more roots. Note to self: please stop over watering tomato plants.

I'd like to add before I continue, that I have decided to use the camcorder I bought about 5 years ago for my pictures for now. I almost forgot I had it! I love the zoom on this thing and got some great pictures at the zoo last week. Now, on with the garden tour!

Many of my flowers from last month are still in bloom, but I won't bore you with those again. So many other pictures to post anyway.

First, the food.

We've already eaten most of the peas. Only enough for one meal. Maybe if I hadn't eaten so many right off the bush.

The peppers have flowered and appear to have been pollinated.
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No flowers on the beans yet, but boy are they huge. Don't they look like they're holding hands? Broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, watermelon, radish, and zuchinini are still growing but not near being ready for consumption. Lots of hopeful signs in the garden though!

My cucumbers have just begun to put out flowers, the blooms aren't much to look at, but you can see the mulch. I am glad I finally got them mulched with the long grass from across the road. Our yard isn't big enough to supply me with large quantities of mulch. The kids were even kind enough to rake up the grass AND help place the clippings on my gardens. Will wonders never cease?
The wild blueberries are still small, but I love the pinkish huge they're picking up. Does that mean they'll be ready to pick before the other ones?

Look at all the flowers on the potatoes. I wonder when I'll be able to start picking potatoes.

The other blueberries are getting ready too. There won't be enough this year to make much of anything, but I'm hoping we'll have lots for next year. If I'm not careful the kids will eat them all right off the bush like they've done with the strawberries.

My paintbrush pollinated apples are falling off the tree right and left. It's been a dry summer so I won't have a bountiful harvest as I had anticipated.

We're down to two apples left on the tree now. It's a shame, we had so many apples too. So much potential just dried up and withered away.

The tomatoes are bursting with blooms. This one out front has a three small tomatoes growing on it now.

Gay feathers are beautiful. My BIL thought they were really pretty until he heard the name. He wouldn't change his mind either when I told him the other name was Liatris. I picked up a few different plants on sale a couple of weeks ago and planted them around the garden shed.

I forget what particular kind of potentilla this is, but I adore the yellow with orange streaks, I'd never seen anything like it before.

Angelina sedum produce some interesting blooms too. I like them for their ease of care and how easy it is to start new plants from them. This is the third area I've placed cuttings and they are performing wonderfully there.

The yarrow attracts butterflies to our garden. The flowers are so small and delicate. I love the fern like foliage of these plants too.

I have four kinds of Astilbe in my shade garden that I will move to the area behind our garage once it's all ready for the plants. It takes a lot of work to prepare new beds for flowers and plants.

The bumble bees were loving the lavendar. I tried not to get too close. Can you believe I was around ten feet away from this guy?

Past it's prime, but still a few blooms on this plant. I think it's some kind of dianthus though I'm not completely positive. I seem to remember something about fire being in it's name. I wonder if I still have the tag? This is a plant that came with me from my Big Lake garden.

The baskets and containers are really filling out too. I had a Martha Washington Geranium last year too, but I think the stones in the pot really help it to flourish more profusely than the plant I had last year.

My Beards tongue managed to bloom and pass it's prime since my last post. How could I have been too busy to get a picture of them? Geez, I guess I'm slipping this year!

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

Tomato Trouble! Calling All Tomato Growers!

cinj54501@gmail.com (Cinj) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 22:39:00 +0000

I don't remember if I told you or not, but I ran an experiment on two of my tomato plants this year. I planted two of them in two different coconut lined baskets. Many people were at Cheesehead's work were skeptical about my efforts and thought they would dry out too fast. They're gardening experts and really seem to know what they're talking about most of the time but I wondered why I wouldn't be able to grow them in there if I kept them watered enough.

Being determined to do my own thing, I simply lined my large coconut lined baskets with cardboard before I filled it with my wonderful dirt recipe that I came up with last year. Containers tend to dry out rather fast, so I have religiously been watering them every day so I could prove it wasn't a crazy idea after all. I mean, if they can grow in a bag, they should certainly be able to grow in a basket, right???

Things progressed beautifully and one of the two plants put out so many flowers I didn't know what I was going to do with all of the tomatoes. Remember I planted a total of 16 plants this year?

Imagine my displeasure when I went about checking my plants on my daily rounds and saw that some of the leaves were wilting!

Upon closer inspection I saw all kinds of crazy bumps on the stem of the plant. I was sure it had become infected with some horrid pests and started to panic. I checked my other plants too, but none of the rest seemed to be affected yet.

What in the world would affect one plant and not the others? Was this just the first of the great tomato blight of 2009? Should I pull the plant out and dispose of it in hopes that the other plants would thrive despite the pest infection?

Thoughts like these swirled through my head as I attempted to scrape these "eggs" off the lower stem of my plant with my thumbnail. They weren't coming off too well and I didn't want to severely damage this plant if there was anything I could do to save my experiment so I can complete it. All I could think of was running inside to ask my tomato growing buddies what was wrong with them. This is my first attempt at growing tomatoes after all. What did I do but headed for my favorite resource, the internet!

I managed to google bumps on tomato stems and all that came up was things about humidity and over watering that causes the stem to think it needs to grow more roots. Their bumps were tan though and mine are all green or white so I'm still a bit unsure. Is that all that is wrong with my plants? Did I just catch the bumps at an earlier stage causing them to be a different color than what others have observed? Can I really over water something in a coconut lined basket? If so, I'll be completely relieved. If it's something else that I need to worry about, could you please let me know?

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

Parades and Proper Flag Etiquette

cinj54501@gmail.com (Cinj) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:46:00 +0000

I'm sure most of us will be going to a parade of some sort soon. If not tomorrow, sometime this summer. I am wondering what your thoughts on the following story are.

It happened last year at the forth of July parade. I arrived early at the parade route as usual to stake out a good spot for the kids to chase candy and hopefully remain in the shade so we would be less likely to get a sunburn. We didn't bring chairs, just sat on the curb.

I guess some people came along and decided we had a great spot and set up their folding chairs behind us. When the first flags of the parade passed by, everyone rose and removed their hats so there wasn't a problem with my standing in front of them.

After the next few color guards came by with their flags raised, I stood for those also. They got rather annoyed at me and complained that I was blocking their view. I explained how I was showing my love and respect for my country as well as my respect for their contribution to our country when these color guards came by.

They started sneering and jeering at me when I didn't stand for the cars that came by with their postage stamp flags on them waving from what seemed like lollipop sticks. I tried to explain to them how it wasn't the same, but I really don't think they got it. They just kept up with their rude comments.

Who was right? What is proper parade etiquette when it comes to flags and color guards anyway?

Wishing everyone a safe and happy forth whether they're driving or staying home. Try not to blow yourselves up!

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

Cut Flowers

cinj54501@gmail.com (Cinj) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 03:51:00 +0000

Most of my flowers have just begun blooming since my last bloom day post. Many of my flowers don't bloom terribly long here since it races from cool to hot so quickly.

In most places peonies are long past bloom time, but not here! Aren't they supposed to bloom in late spring? My peony just began blooming today and I was so excited. They smell like heaven. Last year I wasn't able to enjoy my peonies in bloom since I went on vacation the day they began blooming. I decided I wasn't going to miss out this year!

Of course the poor peony would be lonely in the cup all by itself so I went to find a few more companions. The first one that entered my mind was the white delphinium my MIL was drooling over when she was here this weekend. I'd guess it's about 6 feet tall.

These blue ones aren't as monsterously huge as the white, but still extremely pretty. Now if I only had some red ones for the upcoming holiday!

My miniature rose was also blooming now, but the stems are not nearly long enough to be a companion to these long stemmed counterparts that I have chosen.

I also considered adding a few sprigs of spiderwort but thought it may not match the best with the blue delphinium. I wanted the pink peony to be the standout in my floral arrangement, so to fill the rest of the space I chose to use some of the abundant ferns we have growing here.

I ran inside and grabbed a sharp pair of scissors and a "lovely" vase. It was the only properly sized to fit the arrangement I imagined.

Well, what do you think of my first floral arrangement?

The poor thing is banished to the bathroom for it's own protection. We can't allow the plant eating cats to tear the flowers to shreds, can we? I want to enjoy them more than one day!

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

Where Did June Go?

cinj54501@gmail.com (Cinj) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:07:00 +0000

The month has brought about much growth both in my life and in our yard, I am constantly amazed at the progress I'm seeing. It's also brought me much needed peace too.

I'm looking at the calendar and I see that there in only a week left of June. Where did this month disappear to? I've been working on getting our current home loan modified, getting lots of little things done I've wanted done in the last three years, finding ways to cut our expenses so we can make it on our reduced income, and just generally getting everything in order.

I seem to have suddenly sprung to life too. I feel so much happier, unencumbered. I feel like life is good again and things are only going to improve. I see hope and harmony and I'm loving it. My energy levels reflect that too, I can't believe how many things I get done in a day nowadays. Not like the days when I was happy to even get one thing done!

Looking around I can see so many blessings that God has sent us, I think that helps lift my spirits too. Everywhere I look I am reminded of these wonderful things that tell me he still loves us. Blackberry brambles seem to have overtaken the entire woods surrounding our house. There are drifts of white blackberry flowers floating all over on the fringes of our yard. Any picture you take seems to inadvertently include pictures of these blooms. If we didn't like wild fruits so much this may annoy us, but it makes me feel truly blessed. I wonder if my blackberry jelly is good enough to sell to raise money to buy my dad a headstone....

The apples I pollinated with a paintbrush continue to swell into fruits. It looks to be covered in numerous apples that are on their way to becoming food for our table. One of the new trees we just planted this year even has one apple growing on it. I'm pretty impressed!

Our first strawberry of the season was ready today. I picked it and gave it to Cheesehead as a gift. He's been kind enough to water the veggie garden even though he hates any vegetable that's not corn or potatoes. He has even talked about giving me more room from his back yard for more future veggie gardens. Will wonders never cease?

I planted two tomatoes in coconut lined baskets earlier this spring. You know... like those green bags that hang on a hook? It's a little experiment. So far it seems to be working out great. Look at all of the blooms it is forming!

Our other tomato plants are taking off too. I have all 16 plants that are in the ground caged up with those cheap little cages. Two of them aren't doing so well, but the others seem to be thriving. Would you believe I got all of these as those cheap little 6 pack plants? We have a total of 18 tomato plants. Looks like I may need to start looking for ways to prepare and can some of my garden goodies! I also planted a six pack each of green peppers and zucchini and a three pack of broccoli in the garden.

Cheesehead can't believe the difference between this year's garden and the gardens of the past. We were just talking about that earlier. I guess I might not believe it either if I weren't living in my body feeling so much better and getting so much done. Cucumbers, beans, and peas are all growing from seed. I also planted some carrots, lettuce, water melon, banana peppers, and squash seeds last week. It may be a bit late but I guess we'll see soon enough. I think I'll try planting a late summer garden of spinach and other goodies too.

This fall I will move the asparagus I planted this spring to a sunnier location with much better soil.

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day June 2009

cinj54501@gmail.com (Cinj) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:12:00 +0000

Before I share my bountiful blooms with you, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Carol of May Dreams Gardens for hosting this wonderful event on the 15th of every month.

This last month has just flown right by. I think we once again managed to skip right over spring and bounded headlong into summer. Up until last week my plants continued on their almost nightly plant parade into the garage or under their covers.

I didn't have much of anything blooming last month, do you remember my pathetic turnout of exactly three flowers (not including annuals)? Since then the temps have soared, the heavens have poured out their mighty blessings, and all of my spring flowers have peaked and passed their prime.

I'll show you a brief review before moving on to what's still blooming today.

I brought these sensation lilac suckers with me from my old garden in Big Lake. I am now regretting the decision to only bring two of them with us. These flowers are so beautiful and they smell so sweet. I wonder if the new owners would let me grab a few more if I ever head back over there...

They were tightly closed still when mom was over visiting us, these lilacs just sped right on through their blooming period.

These lovely plants produced more seeds than I knew what to do with for me last year. Somehow the name is slipping my mind right now. Such a busy day with the painting the living room, redecorating and bloom day posting. I guess my mind is pretty slippery sometimes anyway.

One of the four apple trees that we planted last year was in full bloom. I sure hope we get lots of apples out of the deal. We got three more apples trees this year so we'll have a total of 7. Did I ever mention to you that we like apples? When we got them home and planted, they were still in bloom so I grabbed a paint brush and hand pollinated the flowers. I don't think they would have been close enough to leave it up to nature to cross pollinate them, especially since it was so cold.

Our choke cherry tree also has an abundance of blooms on it but apparently I didn't snap a very good picture. I really should get a new camera before we go on vacation. Who knows what I'll miss out on if I keep taking crazy shots. You should see the green fruits beginning to swell up now. Maybe this year I'll get to try to make that choke cherry jelly I wanted to make last year.

As I showed mom around town we got to admiring some lovely trilliums that some friends had. Mom recalled how they always had a bunch of them at her house when she was growing up. I remember admiring them in Grandma's woods when I went to visit her in the spring. We got two small clumps of them and transplanted them to our yard. I'm not sure how they'll do here with so many pine trees hanging around but I sure hope they'll thrive here anyway.

The wild blueberries and strawberries have also managed to slip by without getting their pictures taken too. I can imagine how wonderful they will taste though picked freshly off the bushes. We took a walk in the woods while my mom was here and found all sorts of patches of them all over the place. Just thinking about it is making my stomach rumble!

Now, on to what's still blooming. I didn't get many good pictures because I can't see a blessed thing in my camera's viewfinder. I sure wish digital cameras still had small viewfinders too just in case their cheap LCD screens cracked!

I ordered 25 Ozark Beauty Strawberry plants from a catalog this year. I know I was supposed to pinch off the blooms this year so the roots could grow stronger but I just can't help myself. Am I naughty or what?

The wild blackberries have just begun their show for the season. Many blooms left to unfurl themselves on these plants. Looks like we're going to have a bumper crop if I can keep everything from drying up on us. Who wants some blackberry jam?

These lily of the valley will look wonderful in my new deck garden I'm hoping to start creating tomorrow, won't they? I almost forgot they were here. I need to move my shade garden closer where I can remember to enjoy it a bit more often! The regular bleeding hearts were also blooming now but I only managed to get a picture of it's leaves. SIGH. Stupid camera.

Cheesehead and some friends from work picked out these lovely plants to add to our deck garden landscape too. They are awaiting my final design inspiration and bed preparation before getting settled into their new homes though.

Last, but certainly not least are my pansies. These self seeded themselves last year and and freely growing all over the place. I just adore these plants. They're cute, colorful, hardy, and cheerful. I don't have to worry about 30 degree weather killing them either. I love to look at the variety of faces that pansies have. I have loads of pansies around here, but not having a decent camera makes it difficult for me to capture their charisma and charm so I'll just leave that to someone else for now. In warmer climates these plants are perennials, but here they are treated as annuals because of our extremely cold winters.

I hope everyone has a fantastic bloom day wherever they are in this great big world. Glad you could drop by. Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

If Only...

cinj54501@gmail.com (Cinj) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 10:56:00 +0000

June 4, 2006 It was a tough day. The day my mom found my dad had passed away. It was so unlike him to miss church she decided to go over for a visit. They had been divorced since before my daughter was born in 2001, but they weren't bitter enemies or anything. I think they got along better after the divorce than before it. I know that dad regretted getting divorced every day. I know he wished he haded actually gotten the papers this time, he told me that many times. So many fights included the threats from both of them about divorce. If only he hadn't gotten those papers they'd still be together.

I know mom has her regrets too. I have heard her say it, if we hadn't gotten divorced I would have been there...
He wasn't living alone though, his brother, my uncle was living with him at the time. Unfortunately he was away and wasn't there to find him either. Why did he choose to be away? If only he would have been there, he could have called 911 and saved him.

Dad had just had surgery in February or March that year. He had a valve replaced in his heart. He was really weird after the surgery, seemed so out of it. He had needed the surgery though, but I wish I would have seen how much care he really needed. I think if he had health insurance in place after the surgery they would have placed him in a program until he was further recovered but they assumed I had the capacity to care for my dad along with the help of my mom and uncle. Little did they know... If only I had asked them to try to place him in that program.

He stayed with me for a after the surgery but I was under so much stress I couldn't stand it. Mom was living there with us and it was totally strange to have a divorced couple living together under your roof. Which one do you kick out? I was watching mom's friend's boyfriend's grand kids too. I never could say no to helping others you know... Mom couldn't care for him in my house while my family and I took vacation to get away from it all, it would just be too strange. The church set it up to bring him meals and check on him while I was gone. He seemed to be doing so well when I got back he decided to stay in his own house. If only I hadn't been under so much stress and he was still living with me.

Dad liked to spend time with his grand kids. He was trying to help my son learn to ride his bike. He took them to sporting events (like this Twins game), swimming, fishing,... if only he were here to still do that with his grand kids. He wasn't here long enough!

This was what his grave site looked like last summer after I visited him. He's been gone three years already? Where did the time go? If only I had the money to buy him a proper headstone...

Next week I'll be researching his side of the family tree some more. If only I had taken the time to attend some of those family reunions, I'd know his relatives a little better!

I better stop thinking about my regrets and start living in the moment! We are going to MIL's house this weekend to help her with some home repairs done and hopefully get some quality visiting time in with her and grandpa. Life's too short for regrets. I think I need to tattoo that on my forehead!

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

Farm Town... Now with Flowers!

cinj54501@gmail.com (Cinj) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 02:16:00 +0000

Does anyone else use Facebook? I found this great little application on it about a month ago called Farm Town. One of my cousins from the Chicago area introduced me to it once we became friends. I have been SO addicted to this new little game lately, it's just crazy. You'd think I'd have better things to do with my time, but it's just neat interacting with my friends and planting stuff. My kids even like to use it, though Peanut is too young to have an account all her own.

What does it do? Well, it started out where the animals are just decorative (though sometime soon we'll be able to milk the cows and collect chicken eggs, etc), you plant crops that can be ready in 4 hours to 4 days, if you don't harvest them in a timely manner they will go to waste, you can give your friends free gifts of trees or animals (flowers now too), and you can tend your neighbor's farms by watering their stuff, pulling weeds, or raking leaves. I have just recently discovered that you get more money for your crops if you hire others to harvest them (again, thanks to my fore mentioned cousin) and have been goofing off in the chat room (aka marketplace) whenever I'm not remodeling the farm since that discovery.

We discuss all of the possibilities (like the fact that we should be able to go to the beauty shop so we don't all look like clones) there and I try to get my character to do the hokey pokey and stuff just to see if any one's paying attention. Most of the time they don't. Either that, or they ignore me because I'm SO dang crazy???

When I got up this morning I had no idea that there were some changes that had been made to the game. Since I started playing flowers would be available in two weeks. They FINALLY were this morning, I got 6 of them as gifts today. (Thanks everyone!) Son was SO excited when he noticed all of the changes he just couldn't help but shout out all of the new animals and accessories that he saw while I was painting the last two walls of the kitchen.

I've been saving up for a greenhouse on the game, so I had a stash of money to splurge on a bunch of new toys. It'll be a while until I'm a high enough level to buy the greenhouse anyway, I have 3 levels to go still. I bought a grill, water pump, gated fences, and a doghouse so far and was planning on adding some rivers and bridges once I got everything satisfactorily rearranged.

I was on it remodeling my farm for the 6th time until I got booted off. Seems to happen more often than I like but I guess not so bad that I wouldn't want to go back. Now I can't even log back on. Hope the glitch doesn't last too long, I have flowers that need to be watered and pumpkins to harvest. They were 98% ready. Plus, my farm is in total disarray and I don't like it that way.

Does anyone else play Farm Town or use Facebook? I think I like Facebook better than Myspace.

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

Protecting Our Hard Work (and Other Updates)

cinj54501@gmail.com (Cinj) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:45:00 +0000

Wow, the last month has been a whirl of craziness. Between plant parades to protect the tender plants from cold temps (should I REALLY need to be doing this in June?), ancestry research, my new Farm Town on Facebook addiction, working on a deck, weeding, prepping a new garden area, watering new plants to get them established, looking for free sources of mulch, building a birthday gift for Cheesehead, sports taxiing, class trips, plays, concerts, and school picnics, not to mention having company three out of four weekends I've barely had time to breathe.

I think I need a vacation and summer hasn't even started yet. Here are a few of the highlights.

I have been meaning to tell you about a lovely guest we've got living in the back yard for a while now.

Mother robin picked a very smart place to build her nest. She has chosen a variety of materials for her nest and chose a well sheltered, protected place to raise her family. It is high up and far out of reach of predators and protected from wind and rain too. The only thing she really has to put up with is us. She seems to be fairly tolerate of Cheesehead and I as long as we all just sit quietly and watch each other. I was sitting 20-30 feet from her. I've never gotten so near a wild bird while she's sitting in her nest. She's not so fond of movement or noise so does not stay in her nest when we do either of those things. She is very good at scolding us too. Her favorite perches to scold us from include the kids' swing set or a tall nearby pine tree. She has some new babies in the nest I know now as I saw her feeding them earlier. We decided to let her have the back yard to herself for a while so we don't endanger the health of her babies.

Well, as much to herself as I can anyway. I have to keep an eye on my garden!

The endless plant parade of covering and uncovering plants has continued into June. Some of the plants are not happy with this occurence.

Those plants include the tomato plants in the front yard. They seem to like warmer weather than we've had lately. I guess I need to drink more milk!

The tomatoes in the back yard seem to be much happier. It has stayed cool enough that I have kept the milk containers on them still. Gallon milk jugs with the bottom cut off work great. The semi-transparency allows sunlight and warmth in and the small hole in the top allows water in and extra hot air out. I think they've been in place for about 3 weeks? Look how much bigger this one is than the one in my front yard! I cover them all with blankets, tarps, or towels when it's supposed to get down around freezing. Don't want the poor things to get frostbite now, do we?

It's trying to escape out of the top of the jug. You should have seen the look of surprise on Cheesehead's face when I took him on the garden tour. He was a bit miffed about all of the garbage I had sitting in the garden until he saw the results.

We had a few other people to bring on the garden tour too.

"Grandpa" used to love to garden. He's going to be 91 soon and has trouble bending down and isn't as agile as he used to be. He just moved in with MIL and BIL and he's really enjoying it there. I just HAD to show him my garden.

He was feeling upset living at the nursing home for the last several years, but stayed because he and his wife were both there. She passed away several weeks ago and they had him on 24 hour watch. They were afraid he'd run away after his second wife died.

Remember how I was talking about MIL's helping someone as well as herself? He's been happily living with them now for a couple of weeks and they're getting along well. MIL seems happier now that she's got some one to fuss over again too. She's been out of sorts since FIL died almost 2 years ago. I don't remember seeing "grandpa" happier in a long time either. He told us many good stories and enjoyed our house in the woods while they visited for Cheesehead's birthday.

I showed "grandpa" the ancestry work I've been doing too. He was fascinated and wondered how in the world I got all of his relatives' names. I printed him a copy of his grandson's five year chart to take home with him. (His looked woefully pitiful) Hopefully someday I'll be able to get a bit farther back for them too, but it will take more time and a bit more information gathering.

Looks like I've got another busy summer ahead of me. Sorry if it seems I'm slighting anyone by not visiting much, it's not that I don't want to catch up and chat with you. Sometimes it feels like I'm meeting myself coming and going. I miss our chats and silliness. I'm sure I'll manage to fit some of that into the rest of my schedule sometime....

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

Food For Thought

cinj54501@gmail.com (Cinj) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 02:21:00 +0000

I got a very thought provoking email from my mom today. Read it and tell me what you think. Before you ask, no I have not investigated to see if this is a true story or not. It's more the point of the story than weather or not all elements are fact or fiction.

Catching Wild Pigs

A chemistry professor in a large college had some exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab the Professor noticed one young man (exchange student) who kept rubbing his back, and stretching as if his back hurt.

The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country's government and install a new communist government.

In the midst of his story he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked, 'Do you know how to catch wild pigs?'

The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line. The young man said this was no joke. 'You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come every day to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence. They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in The last side. The pigs, who are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat, you slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd.

Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon=2 0they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity.

The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening to America . The government keeps pushing us toward socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine, drugs, etc. While we continually lose our freedoms -- just a little at a time.

One should always remember: There is no such thing as a free lunch! Also, a politician will never provide a service for you cheaper than you can do it yourself.

Also, if you see that all of this wonderful government 'help' is a problem confronting the future of democracy in America , you might want to send this on to your friends. If you think the free ride is essential to your way of life then you will probably delete this email, but God help you when the gate slams shut!

Keep your eyes on the newly elected politicians who are about to slam the gate on America ...

"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have" -Thomas Jefferson

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy

Please Read My Other Blog

cinj54501@gmail.com (Cinj) — Mon, 25 May 2009 13:50:00 +0000

I don't usually plug my other blog, but I really think I need to today. In it I write about spiritual matters that may make some of my readers a bit uncomfortable.

This weekend we found out some information that concerns us all greatly. I wrote a story about it on my other blog. If you're prone to praying and don't get turned off by spirituality I request that you pop over and read it and pray for my eldest niece and nephew.

The blog is called I Cannot Live on Bread Alone. (Just check my profile if you can't find it in my sidebar blogs.)

I appreciate any additional prayers they can get. Their court date is supposed to be this Thursday. I forgot to mention this on my other blog, but my sister is acting as her own lawyer and can't afford to physically go to MN to attend court so will do it over the phone. She needs a whole lot of help! Thanks.

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy