Sounds like you have been busy to me! I, however, have done nothing!!! I stayed up too late last night - big mistake.

I haven't done much this morning. This afternoon my sister and I are going to our favorite roadside stand for peaches. Then we'll visit our sister, Annie, in the Home. Later on we're finally going to go to an Amish homemade cooked meal. Some of the local Amish women do this approx every 4 to 8 wks, open to the public, to finance their private little school. Sis and I have been trying to get to this for about a year. This is the first time we've both been available when they do it. Everyone tells us that it's very good food...soooo... When you see the beached whale in my living room tonight, it will be me. lol

Shirley

no shopping, but had to be here for the arrival of our new front window!!!

the woodward ave "dream cruise" is this weekend so we'll make the annual drive...

for those who don't know, the street woodward ave, goes from downtown detroit to pontiac. in between, are several cities, who host the old days of cruising..only now about a million people and cars of all shapes and sizes attend...

Here is a link that might be useful: http://dailytribune.com/articles/2009/08/14/news/srv0000006114760.txt

Oh, Shirley you must post about all the food they served and how it was. That sounds like a really fun thing to do.

Sue

Just doing laundry and putting away my travel stuff. I am going out to lunch in a few minutes. I missed my favorite "junk food" while I was away, so am making up for it. The salads on the ship had such healthy greens that you couldn't pick it up with a fork. I love my crunchy iceberg lettuce.

I've been doing dreaded housework. Had to change a light bulb in the garage, which meant getting the ladder. Have no idea what's for supper tonight. I swear I don't know where all this dust comes from.

Can you tell I'm in a crabby mood?

Oh, that Amish dinner sounds good. Will enjoy hearing about it.

My day is sort of so-so, so far. Woke up too early to get up, fell back to sleep and ended up getting up later than I wanted--with an allergy headache that's been trying to turn into a migraine ever since. Didn't feel like driving downtown to register for a cooking contest they're holding next week (last day to register), definitely didn't feel like going out into the garden to weed in the brilliant sun we have today. So went to my sewing room (which is always cool and dim) and at least got the binding machine-sewed to my quilt. Just have to do the handsewing, now, to attach it to the other side. Put "The Ref" in my little DVD player and sort of 'listened' to the movie as I sewed.

Now--taking a break for lunch, and will probably go back to working on the quilt in a few minutes, while I wait to hear from DH whether he has to work tomorrow, or will be able to come down to the country to join me tonight.

Susan, I just love getting new windows! We just got some for our son's house. He went from the worst possible windows to fantastic ones. It makes such a difference.

I got up and did several errands and then went to market. I came home and took the dogs out before it got too hot for them. Then I came in and prepared strawberries and blanched some beans I got from market. Then a guy came to look at a g/h heating system for me. This is the third guy to come, and FINALLY it was someone who knew what he was talking about! I had just about given up. He's going to work on some plans and prices and get back to me. He is very experienced at this and also came up with some solutions to some of my other problems. I am pretty excited about this!!

This afternoon I'm going to try a pound cake recipe from All Recipes. Then I'm making stuffed peppers for supper, and then when it cools off I will go back to the garden.

Got up, had breakfast. Cleaned the agility field of "land mines" and helped my friend set up for her obedience class. Finished putting together a mini agility course for a practice and we ran our dogs after the obedience class was over. Fed the chickens and collected the eggs, added more straw to the hen yard, chased birds out of the not-quite-ripe peaches (tho the birds have sampled every last one in the top of the trees), picked green beans and squash and watered the sheep. I have to go count jars and make a trip to town to buy lids and pectin for all the peach and plum jam I'm going to make. I'm going to try my hand at bottling peaches again this year since we have so many. On the way to or maybe back from town, I need to pick up crickets for the frog. I have to see if the recycling center is open yet. They are putting it under cover and closed it for a couple of weeks. Things are beginning to pile up here, will be glad when it's open again. No idea what is for dinner but it will involve squash, potatoes and green beans!

I'm exhausted just reading some of your posts.

I ran errands this morning, did the grocery shopping and was reminded of why I hate that particular grocery store. The aisles are so narrow and people just stop in the middle of them... so you wait and wait. Always hit the frozen aisle last or else everything will be thawed by the time you get to the register.

Now I need to make bird suet, hummingbird food (going through over 2 gallons a week now) and put some chicken in the crock pot for dinner.

I went out of town to get my blood work done. Then I shopped at several stores. I bought more memory for my desktop pc and a new toilet seat. I'll install both this afternoon. I also bought another plant and need to get my front porch back in order. Preston came over yesterday morning and he loves to rearrange my plants. Sometimes I like where he puts them. :o) But this time I do need to make a few changes. I also need to water plants, and clean and refill my hummingbird feeders.

susan on, do you make pound cakes often? they were my mother's signature gift, lol...can't find her recipe, but this is close...she made it year round...(it had the most nuts, lol)

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,186,152172-248206,00.html

Patti, I use 3 month filters in my furnace and change them after 2 months. I find this really helps with dust.

Susan, I make pound cake every now and then. I have been looking for a good recipe, and I think this is it. I used the recipe in the link, divided it by three and added a little more milk, 3 tablespoons of sour cream and a teaspoon of vanilla and then I baked it in a loaf pan. I had enough batter for two of my tiny loaf pans as well. It is very good, and I'll have to see how DH likes it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Grandmother's Pound Cake

Thanks for the tip, stargazzer. I just checked our filter and it's clean. However, I just changed it a few weeks ago.

Are you going to post about your cruise???

Less than impressive.

I was crying the blues last week because little black bugs got into a number of the turnips, that were growing well - I guess they thought so, too.

Then quite a few of the tomatoes, which had been growing well, developed black leaves and stems, some of them on most of the plant, and where I hadn't been able to see the ground in part of the plot, and was preparing the staking for it, it got to where I could see the ground in a number of areas, and where they were thick, there were a number of stems and branches that were lying on the ground, some wet and rotting ... and some dry.

I got up earlier than usual this morning, but instead of going out in the cool time, did a few things in the house and when I went out and began untangling some baler twine, it was so hot that I went inside of the shed where it was cooler. I need to add some strings to the pea vines and when I went to the south garden to do it there, found that the brace line from one of the end stakes had broken, so two at one end had fallen, letting all of the strings fall on both rows, with pea vines lying everywhere.

I knew that I'd need to weed, so had taken the cultivator and did a lot of cultivating and pulling weeds from the peas, kohlrabi, peppers and watermelon. There's a huge amount of weeds yet needing to be pulled.

I'll take the axe and chair down there soon to reposition the end stakes on the two rows of pea vines, then reposition the vines. I find that the edible pod vines grow much larger than the regular pea vines. Pea vines, one row and two rows of bean vines in the original garden need some more lines added, as well, and then there's more staking of the tomatoes, and cleaning out the crud from them ... a famous gardener told me on a radio phone-in on Monday to stake them, as they needed to have air circulate to stop the moulding. And, how does one remove the stuff that's contaminated without dropping spores off of them ... and avoiding touching the good parts of the plants with one's contaminated hands??

There are peas that need to be picked, and a bunch of beans, plus some lettuce and zucchini.

Need to wash dishes, do a laundry and vacuum, as well.

Plus - my right knee is showing out of my overalls, and I have some denim to patch it.

Sometime when I can find some time.

Also ... I need to sew some hook-and-loop fastener tape to some elastic so that I can make a retaining belt for my underwear briefs, several of which are so old that, the elastic having lost its zip, like to hang down around my knees: not very useful, when it's located like that!

Need to get some milk, too.

And some investment records that I keep are behind, as well.

Oh, yes - I need to write a cheque for the Income Taxc people, as well ... they compound daily on amounts owing that are unpaid.

I asked my furnace oil dealer the other day, who charge interest rate of 1.5 - 2.0% per month on unpaid balances after about 60 days, what rate they pay on credit balances, as they've held a credit in my account for several months. As it turns out that they pay zero per cent ... so I had them cut me a cheque and I need to deposit that.

That should keep me busy for a while.

ole joyful

My Amish Dinner:

All you can eat, serve yourself.

Fried chicken
Meatloaf
Mashed potatoes
Creamed homegrown peas
Homemade noodles
Coleslaw
Potato salad
Homemade bread, homemade butter and homemade peanut butter

drinks: water, coffee, countrytime lemonade

Desserts: Pies: blueberry, peach, apple, cherry, chocolate, oatmeal, lemon, custard, boston cream. Other desserts: carrot cake, angelfood w/either cherry or blueberry sauce, some kind of brownie pie/cake. There were more but I can't remember.

This was served in one large room with long tables and chairs. You could get carryout if you wished. Now, have I made you all hungry?

Sis and I liked it there and will go back. While there, we saw a sign where you could make reservations for later in the month to go into one of their homes to have your meal. We signed up for it. Sounds interesting.

Shirley

I worked today. Came home to a housefull of girls...well, two more than normal. They're spending the night. Did a load of towels and dishes and am baking lasagna for a couple nurses at work. They just finished RN school and we are celebrating tomorrow by stuffing our faces. LOL!