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...