A real scorcher today. It was very pleasant, only 65 or so when Chelsea and I walked, but got up over 90 by the end of the day.

The only place I had to go today was to the Pig. I actually probably wouldn't have had to go but wanted to take advantage of a good price on blueberries and strawberries which will be over before we actually shop again.

The rest of the day was really very nice. Dick and I racked another of the scratch wines. I cut out 27 more denim squares for a future quilt. I am half way there. If anyone has any worn jeans, cotton jeans not blends, that they are going to throw away. I can use them. Any color is OK. Different shades and color and even weight will give character to the quilt.

I baked a cake with the small amount of currants that were left after I mixed up that newest batch of currant wine. It is actually called Red Currant Pie (Or is It Cake). Isn't that interesting. It is baked much like a pie but has a cake like crust and a meringue/currant topping. It is very good. Did I tell you that I traded some of my pepper jelly to Tom Lawonn for some of his currant jelly?

I have been working on three poems for a poetry contest that is put on by the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets. I just joined them about a month ago and this contest is only open to members. I was a member several years ago but did not renew and never heard from them. This time I joined and have had emails from at least two members of their board, received a welcome packet AND a first "museletter." (Isn't that poetic.)

I remember when I was still living at home, for all the time that I can remember, that Mother canned all summer of the things they grew or could buy very cheap during the growing season. I remember an entire wall in the basement aglow with the beautiful colors of all the things she canned. Shelves full of tomato juice, and green beans, and pickles, and peaches, and pears and sauerkraut and jellies. Enough to feed 11 people (and all the stragglers that appeared at various meals) for an entire winter. And we ate good too.

I learned some of that. I never was a big canner, but do make Jelly and refrigerator pickles. I also freeze if I have excess fresh foods. I guess it is just built in to me not to be wasteful.

Have a nice Sunday. We are going to have another scorcher.

Love

Mary

Another warm day but not as warm as is projected for tomorrow and Sunday. We could get up to 95 degrees tomorrow. Thank God for air conditioning. These days, I am really glad that Chelsea gets up early for a walk. It is usually very pleasant at 6AM.

I cleaned the kitchen this morning. And Dick and I racked the chokecherry wine.

I gave blood at the Blood Center in Sheboygan. That goes quite well. So far I have always qualified. Has something to do with the iron count. I guess because I eat well. The technician said that peanuts and nuts help the iron count and I have peanut butter almost every day.

Then I went to the bank and on to the Dairy Queen for lunch with the bank people. We had a full crowd today. Even Dawn and Mary came. Hadn't seen Dawn in weeks so that was nice.

I went to Walgreens and picked up Mother's prescription and copied a couple of pictures for the Clan Reunion. Beth Dipple is trying to get information on the families that settled the area and where they came from as well as any descendants that still live in Ireland. Jeff had three pictures from Kanturk where the Cliffords (my Grandpa Bowser's mother came from). He has two pictures of the church and a picture of the last living descendant that he could find. So that is a beginning.

When I got home, I was exhausted and took a nap. Since then I have been watering. We may get rain on Sunday but I want things to stay healthy until then.

Tomorrow should be a quiet day. We have NOTHING scheduled. I LOVE that. I can sew and bake and just lay back.

My purple green beans are doing just fine. We had one meal on Tuesday and will have some more this weekend. My herbs are also thriving. I may have established lavender, thyme, oregano and lemon balm in the gardens. Now if they get strong and can withstand the winter. I hope I have enough lemon balm for wine. Otherwise, I am sure that Mother will have plenty. The lemon balm wine is such a pleasant summer wine. Kind of like lemonade with a slight kick.

Hope your weekend is pleasant and restful. We all need weekends to recover from the business of living. Even if one is retired.

Bret and I are reading George S. Clason's The Richest Man in Babylon together. (I read it years ago and have used the things I learned to some benefit.) We are now on Chapter 2. The main thrust of that chapter is to always pay yourself first. "A part of all you earn is yours to keep." It is kind of fun. He is a slow reader but is cooperating.

Love

Mary

It was HOT today. I watered all the pots because my gauge, the over planted marigolds, were sagging. Then there was a tiny sprinkling of rain shortly after we ate. I am glad it came then as I had been reading on the deck before dinner. It was really pleasant then. Kind of warm but there was a nice pleasant breeze which made it very comfortable.

Chelsea and I went for our walk at exactly 6AM and only saw one other walker and she was a new one. Then when we came out of the woods and on to Tallgrass, there was our neighbor Dick and his doggy. She is a sweet poodle and always gives me kisses.

We left at about 7:30 for Sheboygan. Had breakfast at Hardees and then went on to the Clinic where Dr. Ganju looked at Dick's legs and that open sore of a callous. He checked and says that the circulation is so poor that it will take forever to heal if ever. So he scheduled a MRA for next Tuesday and an appointment with another doctor about circulation. After that Dr. Ganju will see him again.

When we got home, I had a lot to do today. I cleaned the upstairs bathrooms, added yeast to the currant wine and had Dick go down to the cellar and help me rack the Marigold wine. Next we will filter and bottle that. We will give it two weeks to a month before we do that.

I tried a little tile painting today. It worked pretty well so I will do more. They make nice trivets and I intend to use just Celtic designs.

We had pork quesidillas and ice cream cones for supper tonight. Pretty good. I have enough of the quesidillas left for at LEAST one more meal.

Tomorrow we will have leftover brats and venison steaks and salads. Pretty easy week. Tomorrow, I am also giving blood and having lunch at Dairy Queen, so it will be a busy day. I need to get quilting again. I have a top all pinned to the backing for a cuddler and am afraid to start. I am afraid it will bet all bunched up. I need to practice first with a square.

Have a nice Friday.

Love

Mary

Notice in a farmer's field:
THE FARMER ALLOWS WALKERS TO CROSS THE FIELD FOR FREE, BUT THE BULL CHARGES.

Happy Fourth of July. We had an at home day. Jim and Michelle joined us for dinner. We sure had a good one. Michelle made Ramen salad, I made potato salad and we fried out venison chops and brats to go with them. I had found some nice BIG mushrooms so I stuffed them for Jim Michelle and me. We had ice cream cones for dessert. Nice and simple and good.

I spent a good chunk of the morning cleaning currants for currant wine. Got them all destemmed and washed though and did the first few steps required for wine. Tomorrow I will add the yeast.

Dick goes to see Dr. Ghandu tomorrow. Hope he will be able to help. There was some bleeding again today when we cleaned things up for the shower. All we can do is keep it clean, massage and treat with the antibiotic stuff that they have given us.

I am really tired tonight and will sign off pretty quick.

I did write 4th of July Haiku that I will share with you.

Love

Mary

Fire flowers in the sky
Bold strokes of vivid light
Etched on jet black sky.

We are finally getting some very welcome rain. When Chelsea and I took our rather short walk this morning, there was a little bit of a sprinkle and I was afraid that might be the extent of it.

Dick had his blood coagulation test this morning and despite the antibiotics is still within range, so he doesn't have to adjust his medication. He will have it rechecked in two weeks when he is done taking the antibiotics. Then we went to Hardee's for a quick breakfast.

On the way back to Plymouth, I stopped at Mother's house and picked up the currents and lettuce that Jeff and Kathy had brought with them yesterday. Tomorrow, I will be mixing up a new batch of current wine. Tom Lawonn from Rhine says he has some too and will let me know when they are ripe. I need to get three batches racked one more time then filtered and bottled. They are Marigold, chokecherry and current (all of these got a late start because of the move. I had frozen everything until I could get to mixing everything up.)

We finished our morning errands by stopping at the bank and grocery shopping. Boy were we glad to get home. I spent the rest of the morning writing and organizing my desk again. The rain has been coming off and on, sometimes heavy sometimes light and tonight we are getting thunder. Surprisingly it does not seem to be bothering Chelsea. She is either not hearing it or choosing to ignore it. Sometimes I am not sure that she hears too well.

I got my hair cut this afternoon. Boy did it need cutting and shaping. After I had it cut the last time, I did not make an appointment because I wanted to see how it turned out. Then I kept putting off calling. Jessica at Just Jane's does a fine job so I made my next appointment right away. It will be just before John and Holly's wedding.

Tomorrow is the 4th of July. We will put our flag up in the morning.

I talked to Bret tonight. He sounds good. He is going out to his place at the Colorado River for a few days. He has some personal days coming and will use them with the holiday and the weekend for an extended break and a chance for his body to rest. I miss him.

Have a spectacular holiday.

Love

Mary


"One day I was walking down the beach with some friends when one of them shouted, "Look at that dead bird!" Someone looked up at the sky and said, "Where?"

They Walk Among Us! "

This morning while Chelsea and I were on our walk, we joined up with the older women that we often meet on our journey. The three of us walked together to the end of the park where Chelsea and I turned to head for home. It was quite pleasant, about 65 degrees so the mosquitoes were not bothering us in the woods today. We heard LOTS of birds singing around us. Today we got a really close look at a robin, I was beginning to believe that he would let us walk by him without flying away but he finally took off.

We had a lively discussion at bible study. It was the reading in Luke where Jesus sends 72 disciples out without any money or shoes or extra clothes to preach the gospel. We found out that 72 was a special number because at that time there were 72 known nations. (Wonder how many nations there are now and how many disciples he would have to send out today.) So it was all symbolic. I learned from Fr. Van Beeck a couple of weeks ago that when people in those days had visitors, especially interesting ones, the neighbors thought nothing of just dropping in and lining the walls or sitting on the floor to listen to the conversations that were going on. There was little else for entertainment so this was perfectly acceptable to everybody AND was why the word of Jesus was able to spread as fast as it did.

I stopped and visited Mom after the study. She is a wonder and was getting ready to go to lunch and then to her friend Helen Murphy's house to play canasta. Jeff and Kathy came in today to help her with some bush and tree trimming. I talked to Jeff this evening. She came home from her card game at about 4 and, of course, tried to chip in. They finally convinced her to go and sit down. Jeff and Kathy brought me the currents and some fresh lettuce from their garden. We will pick them up on our way back from the clinic in Sheboygan tomorrow morning.

Tonight was the Rhine Plymouth meeting. I asked Bobbie whether it was a problem that green hickory nuts are falling from the big beautiful tree, well before they are ripe. She said that it is probably the dry weather and/or the tree self pruning. We will see how much is left in the fall when they are supposed to be ready.

Love

Mary

Hymn #365
>>
>> This is a hoot, but I expect the minister didn't appreciate it.
>>
>> A minister was completing a Temperance sermon. With great emphasis he
>> said, "If I had all the beer in the world, I'd take it and pour it into
>> the river."
>>
>> With even greater emphasis he said, "And if I had All the wine in the
>> world, I'd take it and pour it into the river."
>>
>> And then finally, shaking his fist in the air, he Said, "And if I had
>> all the whiskey in the world, I'd take it and pour it into the river."
>>
>>
>> Sermon complete, he sat down.
>>
>>
>> The song leader stood very cautiously and announced With a smile, nearly
>> laughing, "For our closing song, Let us sing Hymn #365, "Shall We Gather
>> at the River."

Just for pretty. This was on the deck at Hunters Glen. I thought it was sweet.

Mary

Today was a very pleasant one. I drove to West Bend with my friends Gloria and Dottie Ziesel to celebrate Fr. Mike Moran's 25 th Anniversary as a priest with him and his friends and family.

I had enjoyed preparing that present for him yesterday. I know money is always appropriate, but wanted to give him something a bit more personal. Last night just as I was getting ready for bed, I remembered a picture that I had blown up from the tour to Ireland that I went on with Fr. Mike. The picture is of a bunch of us. Martin, the bus driver, Fr. Mike, his brother Tim, their Dad Howard, myself and a lady that we can't remember her name around a table at the Brazen Head in Dublin. By some miracle, I found it so I added it to the basket. He did not unwrap his presents today, but I showed him and his brother and father the picture because I wanted us to share the memory.

The mass was very lovely. Prior to beginning, Fr. Mike introduced his family and then asked guests from his previous parishes to stand and finally the parishioners of his current post Immaculate Conception in West Bend. Such a nice idea. There were four priest who con celebrated with him. One of them, a classmate, gave the sermon. The reading from the Old Testament speaks of Elijah asking Elisha to be his successor by placing his cloak on Elisha's shoulders. (Guess that is how it was done in those days.) Anyway, Father's classmate said that because of his size maybe it will take TWO to replace him. He chose a lot of music with Irish roots and I am planning on using some of Liam Lawton's music at St. Michaels and at Celtic Mass in Falls.

There was a lunch served at the KC Hall in West Bend after a reception in the church hall, so he really did it up big. The food at the KC was excellent. Heavy hors d'oevres and excellent cakes. It was very very nice.

Beth Hoegger emailed to set up a meeting to plan the Celtic Mass for next Monday. I had said I would help with just the mass as I like doing that.

Tomorrow will be bible study. In the evening I have Rhine Plymouth so will see Bobbie.

Jeff just called. He is coming to Falls tomorrow and is bringing currants for wine. I can't believe that they are ripe already. He says too, that they are very early.

Have a great week. Pray for rain

Love

Mary