July Happenings

July 29th - Wednesday - 94 degrees

This has been a busy summer and I realized I have not done many posts and I have not been keeping up my diary, so when I look back for some information, I am going to be lacking, so will get some information down to help me remember the goings on of the summer.

We have spent some time at Lou's Homestead working, he had to have a holding tank replaced and that was finally done, and some of his family came up and helped him with that project, so while they worked at that, I worked at trimming some bushes and trees on the other side of the yard, didn't have many tools to work with, but enjoyed the task at hand.

Roses along the road

Bushes after  some trimming

Roses with the addition of an arbor 

An Oak tree that Casey moved.

The next weekend, Brion, Janet, Casey, Allie, Spencer and Meredith came and they all helped and I can tell you things happened, I didn't have my camera, so didn't have pictures of the work in progress, they were busy every minute, cutting down trees, grinding up brush, hauling wood away, cutting grass.  Janet helped me transplant ground cover to put in the beds that I had cleaned out, things looked so much better.  We got the blueberries all covered up with netting.  Lou and I have to use ladders to do that, but Casey and Spencer are way over 6 feet tall, and they just reached up and did it!!

July 15th we drove up to Fort Drum with Janet and Brion to witness Spencer in the Change of Command Ceremony for the Echo Company.   Spencer is a Captain in the Army, who just became engaged to a lovely gal from Delaware.  We got to see his home in Watertown, which is beautiful and located on a lake and the view from his porch is just beautiful.  It was a very special day for us.

While we were there we got a  phone call from Michelle telling us that she had been selected for a position at Weidner University in Chester, PA.  She is going to run their lab for them starting on the 10th of August.  I was speechless.  This was her first professional interview since she graduated from college.  We are so very proud of her.  She just called me to tell me that she signed a lease for an apartment.  She had sent me pictures of it and was so hopeful that she would get it and she did.  God is looking out for our girl.  Now we will have to look for items to furnish an apartment for her.  Thankfully, this one has all of her appliances, even a dishwasher and washer and dryer.

On the down side of July.  When Lou had his physical Dr. Nespola called and told us that Lou's hemoglobin was very low and he needed to come right in to be crossed and matched for two units of blood, so we did that, and then he had to have a colonoscopy and gastroscopy which he did, but everything was fine, it was determined that his body just does not absorb iron, he was put on iron and will have more blood work done in a week and he will decide the course of treatment at that time.

When Lou brought the motor home over to the house to pack for the Muster, he was trying to get into the driveway quickly and missed the driveway and ended up in the yard and got stuck.

After the wrecker arrived

Stuck in the mud!!

I used my electric chain saw to cut the limbs off the apple tree so we wouldn't mar up the motor home anymore when they pulled us out.  I got my chain saw stuck, and my brother came to the rescue with his saw and helped us finish up the job.  I have to admit the tree looks better with the trim.  We still have to fill in the ruts left by the tires.

The State has repaired the sluice on our property and today when I ran the weed eater, it certainly made that job a lot easier.  I had taken pictures of the damage the rain had done to the sluice and the road and sent a letter and it was no time until they were here and had it fixed.  I was very impressed.

It looks like August is going to be very busy, with Michelle's move, we have two trips to Bath scheduled one for Lou's hearing aids and one for motor home repairs, doctor and dentist appointments, Lou's birthday and lots of outside things to do, that are waiting for cooler weather.  Thankfully, we have made our reservations for Florida and have that task taken care of so that will make planning a lot easier as we go into fall.

The picture at the top of the post, is the replacement of the fountain that I used to have.  Lou and I took the barrel out and put this in its place.  This we can take in during the winter and not have to cover it.

I am off to fix fried green tomatoes for dinner, one of my friends called last night to remind me, it was time to fix fried green tomatoes and bacon, so went out and picked a couple of big ones for dinner tonight.  Thanks, Jim.

SMART Muster in Kinzers, PA

July 23rd -  Wednesday - Beautiful Sunny 75 degrees

We left here early on Wednesday morning and made a detour to get to Carlisle to pick up our three months supply of medication and then drove on over to Lancaster.  Traffic was really dense and we did not reach our destination until after 5:00 pm.  We literately just parked our motor home on our designated site and went to our host's site to have dinner with our group.  The weather was just wonderful for our stay, in fact, a sweater felt good.  After dinner we sat around and caught up on the news with the rest of our group of retired servicemen and their families, then we went back to our motor home and got things unpacked before it got dark.

When I took Maci out for a potty break, I realized this was not a military park, as it was really dark, and I was glad for my leash with the attached flashlight.

We brought along a Netflex movie, Woman in Gold and we watched that on  Wednesday evening.  We both enjoyed it.  Would recommend it to anyone that has not seen it. On Thursday I really goofed off and enjoyed reading my book.  I have been very involved in a Lighthouse mystery that has been over 3000 pages long and I wanted to get it finished and I did just before we went out to dinner at Millers.  Our whole group enjoyed a lovely Smorgasbord meal there.  It is right on route 30 and you can eat your meal and watch the Amish farmers work in their fields at the same time.  They were actively cutting hay at the time.

 The campground was right next to Rough and Tumble and they were hosting John Deer Days on Friday and Saturday, and Lou and I being country folks took in the exhibits on Friday.  In fact, we spent about four hours there.

A few of the John Deere tractors.

The first known hot water heater

Notice the gas lamps hanging from the ceiling.

Natural gas pump that came from western PA.

Sleigh used to deliver mail.

Old washing machines

No ones knows what this wagon was used for!!

Wagon

Instead of a sand box, this is a kernel corn box.

On Friday evening we went to Rainbow's Comedy Playhouse for dinner and the stage show.  Lou and I had never been there before.  It was a good dinner and the play of "Too Many Cooks" was wonderful.  We were amazed to find that our waiters were the actors in the play and they did a wonderful job.  We had wonderful seats, center front, thanks, to one of our members that was kind enough to make reservations for all of us.  Lou and I both ordered Beef Wellington and it was very tasty, the beef was very tender and served hot.  Our salad dressing was creamy apple and that was tangy and a nice change.  All in all this was a very nice mid week Muster.  It was decided that we would not have one in August, everyone seems to be very busy in the upcoming month.  Lou and I will be setting off for our square dancing campout at the end of August.