Sunday Drive By

Wow! What a busy summer this has been! Friday we closed on the retirement home , aka T & M's Sportsmens Lodge (dubbed by Dad and Jim). The garden is producing like crazy, so lots of canning going on right now. Getting ready for the Jamboree next weekend...so excited to see Rascal Flatts. They were on my concert bucket list! We are working on home improvements here and hey, the Olympics are on! It is so fun to watch them and recognize places we have visited. All this means no sewing has been going on...boo! I did finish a quickie knit dress a week or so ago, but there's not even anything cut out in the queue! I'll have to remedy that tonight during the Olympics! More later...

In my spare time...

I like to garden. Thanks to the return of the sun (and the rain we like to curse), my garden is flourishing. Cabbage and tomatoes anyone?

Or green beans and broccoli?

Or how about some squash?

The potatoes have gone wild!

We have already ate radishes, broccoli, lettuce, spinach and had the first few beans (I threw them in the Rice-a-Roni). Today was devoted to weeding the bank on the west side of the house. Ugh, it was hot! I started about 7:30 this morning and stopped about 4:00. There is still more work to do, but I waged a valiant fight against the blackberries. My arms are all scratched and puffy (I'm allergic to blackberries) and  Benadryl is on board. No sewing though...not a great idea while medicated. I'm itching to stitch up something (and Benadryl doesn't help that itch!) Maybe tomorrow...

First House/Last House

Wow, what a whirlwind summer this has been so far! It looks like it will continue to be hectic, but life is pretty exciting right now, so I'll just roll with it. I took two weeks off at the end of June to work on the LaPine property. We had a memorial service to go to near Medford mid vacation, so since we were close to Klamath Falls, Tom took me for a trip down memory lane. We lived there during the first year of our marriage and actually bought our first house there. We had to plug it into the GPS because it had been that long (30+ years). We traveled past the tire store we used to work at (now a plywood store), past Kingsley field which had grown up considerably and when we rounded the corner to Old Midland road I squealed with delight to see the old house still standing. There were some differences...my white picket fence was gone, but it still was painted white and I swear the front door is still the same. It needed replacing when we lived there! Here she is circa 2012:

I was almost giddy to see my little mini farm again. We had a lot of good times there...takes me back!
So what about the last house you ask? An opportunity arose for us to purchase the house next to our LaPine lot and it looks like it is all going to work. I loved this house from the moment I saw it, but never thought we would be able to afford it. Thanks to our sagging economy my dream house is within reach and although she need some work, we are doubling our acreage and have our retirement home now. Here she is:

She has great character and high ceilings for Grandpa Louis' elk and Tom's other trophys. I'm super excited about my beautiful new kitchen:

Not much sewing going on...just the usual business jobs...nothing for me. I hope to rectify that soon. Mama needs a new dress!