Hope all is going well there.

I've just finished 37 half pints of strawberry freezer jam. I use the
Sure Jell recipe. I've still got 2 quarts of strawberries left. Oh my!
After that - well I've got some mushrooms to freeze (the Ball canning book
says that I can) and quite a few other things to do. My one earlier batch
of strawberry jam that never set up and now is destined to become ice
cream topping I think. :)

As a part of my "get healthy" plan :) I'm trying to eat more fruits and
vegetables. it's a challenge. I joined a CSA farm (community supported
agriculture - where a person buys a share of the farm produce for the 6
month season. My share is every other week and costs $250 (I got
reimbursed $100 through my health insurance program at work so it's $150
cost to me) and I pick up about 2 plastic grocery bags full of fruits and
veggies every other week. This past week, I got strawberries (4 quarts),
kohlrabi (I'll have to work on what to do with that), cauliflower,
broccoli, lettuce and "greens", radishes, beets, mushrooms, rhubarb (last
of the season), fresh basil, parsley, and a few other items. It's a nice
variety and much more food than I can generally eat. :)

My container "garden" tomatoes are about the size of golf balls and I've
got some small peppers, strawberries, and other things there that are
doing pretty well. It's fun to watch them grow but I couldn't possibly
get as much variety or quantity as with my CSA share. It's a relaxing
hobby.

Mosquito's, gnats, and biting flies seem to be all over this year! It must
be all the wet weather. It's hard to be outside for too long (even in the
heat of the day) lately.

Weather here has turned cooler. Highs only in the 70's which is nice
(normally eighties) but I'm afraid that we'll pay for this cool spell -
things in nature tend to balance out.

Well, I'd better get going. My dog needs to go outside apparently (she's
circling at the door).

Best wishes and take care!

Get Smart movie, Farmers Market, Linda's latest...

First things first -
Linda broke her right hand wrist in her motorcycle driving classes Friday night. This could be serious and may require surgery (oh my!). She got her glove caught in one of the handle bar control calipers and ended up going into a guard rail. At least the broken wrist is the extent of it - it sounds like it could've been much worse. Hopefully we'll know more after the tests this week.

Get Smart movie - I went this weekend with Matt and Christi. It was really funny. I think "Chuck Norris with a BB gun" was my favorite joke. Though not the same as the old TV series it still was good - and I think anyone (like Matt and Christi) who hadn't seen the old series could easily follow it.

Farmers market had lots of strawberries this weekend. It was really nice. I got a couple of quarts and I'm searching for the freezer strawberry/rhubarb recipe. Does anyone have it?

Take care!

Bad weather, Father's Day - and just plain sick!

The weather has been terrible. Last Saturday there were tornado warnings through almost all of southern Wisconsin for most of the afternoon and evening. The sirens here went off several times warning of tornado conditions/funnel clouds. Fortunately, lots of rain, wind, and things but no tornado's too close by.

Lots of damage to homes and things in the area – here it’s mostly high water and wind damage (downed branches, etc.). The worst near my home was a large branch off a big old beautiful oak tree that crunched the top of a new car and did some serious damage of the other neighbor’s garage roof. No one was hurt thankfully. In addition, it knocked out a power pole so basically we were without power for a time. It was in the middle of the night so that was irritating but not necessarily too serious (except for the tree owner’s car and the other neighbor’s garage).

It’s so sad to see what happened at Lake Delton. Hard to imagine no lake left when the side opposite the dam collapsed. Watching those expensive houses fall into the overflowing river was sad. I hope people had insurance.

Last Saturday (6/7) was the County Dairy Breakfast. I worked from about 5:15-11 mixing pancake batter, cooking pancakes, moving food, refilling things, and helping with parking. It was a long morning. Over 2000 people were served (so they say). It must be hard to get a good count with the number as a lot of “free” tickets are given out and workers eat for nothing.

Last Sunday was (6/8) was my niece's high school graduation party. We had a nice day (not including the storms, high water, and weather). I had my first full run at doing the turkey dressing recipe. I guess it turned out all right.

I found out that my dog is quite a weather barometer. She hates thunder and lightening so about 15-20 minutes before anything came near she was whining and carrying on. :)

Last Thursday was another rough day. Lots of rain in a short period of time. Tornadoes near Platteville were headed our way in the middle of the afternoon. Computers were flickering so we shut them down. We reviewed tornado procedure, and watched and listened. We were lucky again. The rains caused some road closures for people to get home but otherwise we were fine.

The other manager is out of the building so I had storm damage reports to do last week for work. I was looking at crops and farm damage (not houses, dams, roads, bridges, businesses, etc.).

This weekend, well I’ve been quite sick. Achy, stomach issues, and headaches. It’s been rough since Friday. I feel a bit better right now but still I’m quite tired. I missed the Lafayette County Dairy breakfast yesterday and the Canoe Fest parade (the canoe races themselves were cancelled due to the high water) today. I just couldn’t pull myself out of it now. I feel bad because it's Father's Day and the best I can do is call (I sure don't want to make Dad sick).

Well, other than that – I’m hoping that I feel better soon. There’s so much to do and take care of that I need to get on with it. :

Hope you have a great day,
Take care!

Greetings on a beautiful weather day!

It's been a busy week here (I suppose what's new about that?). :)

Work this past week was busy - it's hard to explain but having a four day work week (Monday was Memorial Day) and a good amount of rain seemed to bring in a lot of new faces and interest in our programs. It was rather hectic all week with phone calls and drop in people that needed help. Some days I wish I had a clone..... ;) The person who is working temporarily in our office (after the sudden retirement of our loan officer) will probably be working with us until the end of July. The rumor is that we'll be getting an experienced loan officer about then. I sincerely hope so - we've been at less than 50% staffing now for too long.

My small container garden seems to be doing well. I added a bit more to the mix this week with some dwarf sunflowers, some squash (butternut and straight neck yellow summer squash), and another sweet pepper plant. My rather feeble attempt now includes 3 tomato plants (all now staked with old tomato cages from Dad and Gloria's - yeah!), 2 sweet pepper plants (yellow and the new variety of chocolate brown - the color not the taste), sweet basil, flat parsley, catnip (for the cat of course!), strawberries (there are 2 ripening now on it), the squash, lettuce, and a few marigolds and the dwarf sunflowers for added color. I'm really enjoying watching things grow.

Last week, I spent some time out on farm visits for work and got to visit some farmer's market vegetable and flower gardeners. It's quite different from my few containers. The loss of a single plant for me would be a concern but at one farm I visited I saw 5 acres of peppers. The loss of a single plant was expected and in one place, due to a large wet spot (low lying part of the field) there was quite a large loss. It's an interesting contrast to me. It was hard for me to imagine the greenhouses filled with the plants that were started from seed until I'd seen them. One place has 12 greenhouses (hoop house structures) that are filled with all sorts of heirloom tomatoes, herbs, and other items. That place sells a lot of bedding plants and still has a large inventory because of the wet spring. They'll be planting a lot of things outside soon in their 40 acres of land. They've already got a lot going on and planted. It was just hard for me to imagine a 17 acre pumpkin patch. :)

I visited Dad and Gloria last Thursday for a bit. Dad's glasses got broken sometime last week so there was a quick trip to the new Dean Clinic in Platteville to get them fixed. We had a nice visit before and after that. Gloria baked me a birthday cake (carrot with pineapple and walnuts - yummy!). After that - well I went to do some shopping (after Memorial Day cemetery flowers at 75% off) and milk. I found some nice flowers and things. It was nice but made for a long day.

The gas price seems to have stabilized a bit - unfortunately at about $3.92/gallon here. I've been walking to work at least 4 times a week and trying to consolidate and minimize extra trips. Walking has been good for me - at least until the one day last week when I was halfway home without an umbrella or good walking shoes and it started pouring down raining. Silly me - I need to plan better. :)

Yesterday, I went to visit my son and daughter. We went to the Farmer's Market, walked State Street, had a nice brunch and visit. Then Christi and I went to take care of a few errands. It was a beautiful weather day so that added to the nice day. The company was exceptional too. :)

Best wishes for a safe, happy, and healthy week!
Take care...