Little Getaway

Saturday morning Angie and I took off for our overnight getaway. We just went to a larger town about 80 miles from here. It was a lot of fun - we had a lot of conversation, good food, laughs, and just got to spend time with each other. I'm looking forward to doing it again soon. Next time we'll choose another location and maybe make it a full weekend. It's hard for her to leave the kids. Being a stay at home Mom is like that, I remember when I was home full time while the girls were little. It's difficult to leave them even if you really think you want to some days :) Just having someone else do the cooking is a nice break for us.

It's been hot in our neck of the woods so outside activities are at a standstill. We finally got some rain on Sunday but we need more especially with this heat. I know a lot of people wait for this kind of weather but I'm not one of them.

Little Frank is planning on coming out tomorrow - Gramps will go pick him up. He's decided he wants a summer job so we'll see how it goes.

This and That

We tackled a job that we've been talking about for awhile now - Cleaning out the water softener brine tank. Not an overly difficult job but an event nonetheless. It was time, what a mess!

We were under a tornado watch late this afternoon, luckily nothing materialized. It did leave us with a beautiful sunset and thunderheads though. I was even able to capture at least part of it's beauty on camera.

Cooper and I spent quite awhile outside just enjoying the view. I saw a wolf crossing the field at the far end but didn't get a picture, it happened too quick. They don't usually waste alot of time getting out of the open. 

I don't know what he was looking for but he wasn't turning around so this is what you get, the back of his head, I tried getting his attention but he wasn't having it. There was probably a mortal enemy in there (aka chipmunk).

The moon was out at the same time so had to take a picture of it too, almost full. According to the calendar the full moon is Friday night but it sure looked full tonight too.

It was a great evening to be on the Sprucehaven Farm :)

Suddenly Summer

2 days ago I was wearing a winter coat and the furnace was running. Yesterday summer made an appearance. 88 degrees, welcome to Minnesota.

Took the car in to the shop because it sounded like the muffler fell off. Luckily it was just a gasket and now it purrs like a kitten again. I was thankful that's all it was and that I no longer get "the look" when I leave the parking lot :D

Still waiting on the peony's to bloom, I hope the wind doesn't blow the buds clean off. The wind never seems to stop. Last night it rained, and it rained hard, but it was brief. We need more moisture with all the wind.

Picked up our share at the Farmer's Market. Pretty much same fare as last week with the addition of radishes. Those will be good in a salad. We get rhubarb but don't need it so we share with others. I made a rhubarb cake yesterday for Card night. It was really good. Actually, if you don't like rhubarb it would be perfect because it's not overwhelming in this recipe. I will definitely make it again. The only change I made was butter in place of shortening.

That's it for now....

P.S. They won (We were actually skunked)

Summer Kickoff

This week signifies the beginning of summer. Suddenly there's all kinds of traffic and hubbub around town. All kinds of people head "up north" to enjoy the lakes and spend time at the tourist shops. There are getting to be fewer "tourist shops" in our little town these days. We have a WalMart and a Dollar Tree and the Mom and Pop stores have all but vanished. I don't blame WalMart, it just happens.

We aren't doing anything major on this holiday weekend. We are going to work on finishing up the patio and other odd jobs around the place. Yesterday we took it easy, it had been another long week.

We did go and pick up our first week of veggies from the CSA we joined. They have a high tunnel so they can get things much earlier than a regular garden It was so exciting to see what would be in our box of goodies. It's early but we got lettuces, spinach, asparagus, bok choy, rhubarb (which we have already), and kohlrabi.

I made the asparagus yesterday to go with our pulled pork. It was pretty tasty. I've never really used kohlrabi much so will have to see what it works best in. I could have chopped it up and added it to my coleslaw I suppose.

We had a load of wood delivered yesterday so that will need stacking in our free time too. Summer is a busy time of year.

Picture of the week:

Lilacs are finally blooming here, I was afraid they would get frostbitten again this year.

P.S. They won.