A Trip to Michigan

Saturday, we three, headed to Michigan for my 50th birthday/dinner. My birthday was last October...but we finally got it in.

Chris happily drove us in a Northernly direction.

First stop was Clementine's restaurant in St. Joseph, Michigan we chose the patio to enjoy our meal and watch the boats go up and down the river. You can see Chris there in the gray shirt, Margaret is across from him.

My birthday meal....on the menu it is called "A Mess of Lake Perch". Yes, I put catsup/ketchup on my fish.

After lunch we drove over to the beach on Lake Michigan, St. Joe, Michigan.

We watched boats of all shapes and sizes..and people of all shapes and sizes and clothing preferences...:)

We walked to the end of a very long pier.

Looking back at the beach from the end of the pier. Those two fellas were discussing what type of women they wanted. One wanted a Christian woman who was over 26. It made me smile.

We got our feet wet.

We drove back a different way and finally made it to the State Line.
(i am not sure why they put so much emphasis on Lincoln....he was only in Indiana a short while..but whatever). Anyway...Indiana is the CROSSROADS of America.

This shows that we were taking State Road 15 south to home.

Go here to see more.

Needle Storage and Mystery Wool

I have been knitting two years now.
I have also been struggling with how to store my circular needles.
I have tried keeping them in their respective packages...NOT.
I have tried keeping them separated by size in ziplock baggies....um NOT.
I have tried just keeping them all in a big giant baggie all mixed up....NOT.
Well just the other day....I was still trying to figure out how to make the storage of said needles easier.
A little container that we have had for home education is no longer needed for pencils and 'wotnot'. Well surprise! Circular needles fit in the drawers wonderfully.
I made a drawer for small, medium and large needles and so far......it works great.

So having conquered the needle problem I decided to attempt to knit with some mystery wool.
I bought this wool at my first fiber fest about a year and a half ago. I don't know the type of wool, but it IS wool. I believe it is in the 'wheel' shape and I am pulling it from the middle. I can pull the wool completely apart at 4-5 inches but can't at 1-1.5 inches. It is woolly but not itchy and quite soft.

I decided to use it to knit up a basic hat from Elizabeth's "Knitting Around". Of course I shall share the finished product soon.
** if anyone can give me more info on the wool I would appreciate it**

Until next time.

Tomatoes

Rainy Rodeo

A line of storms came through Indiana Saturday evening. Margaret and I were sitting at our county fairgrounds watching a rodeo.
The black black cloud that covered the entire western sky didn't seem to phase us...the rodeo was still going on....cowboys were 'trying' to rope steers, clowns were clowning, bulls were bellowing...
A call from my sister stated that we should "seek shelter". As soon as I hung up from her the wind picked up and we all dashed for the shelter building. The last thing I noticed was a steer roper getting engulfed by dust. All was well though. The rodeo continued after about an hour and a half. The above picture shows Margaret and I sitting under the umbrella as it continued to rain lightly for the rest of the event.

My beloved Chris has been working in New York state since Aug. 1. He usually attends with us. The picture on my sidebar of Chris sitting on a rock atop a high place was taken recently near Middletown, NY.

One Big Pie

I took a picture of a picture at the Indiana State Fair Wednesday. I wonder how it tasted. It is a picture of days (too far) gone by.

Try opening this link to see more pics that I took. When the pics come up in a group you can click on a picture to arrow through them in a larger size.

Sweet Corn

You may have heard of this technique before, but it is new to us. This method really helps with the 'silks' problem. When you boil it this way and then peel the husks back the silks just come right off. And you don't need to stick any of those holdy things in the corn. Boil as is for 12 minutes and tada!

The "Learner's Permit", can YOU spell S C A R Y ?

Margaret is almost 18 and she was never too worried about getting her driver's license. Well the time has come when she is READY! I just didn't know it would take place while my BELOVED was out in New York state working. He was gonna be the main ride-along person. She took her test and passed Thursday and it fell to me. Me the scaredy cat of all scaredy cats! I don't ride well in vehicles with people who have had their licenses for YEARS so I had to find a place Margaret could tootle around in the truck while not being on a main thorough fair so I, in turn, would not have a coronary. Well, we live across the river from this place.
All roads end at the river so there generally isn't a lot of traffic...perfect! So off we went. Here she is...looking quite happy with herself.

Two sad signs.

Margaret now wants to practice as much as she can. So her Granny volunteered to be the licensed ride-along person for today. Once M. gets her license I have a feeling they will be off to places far and wide.

Sock Art

It started here.

If I had the left sock on straight this would be cute.

Sock drawer buddies are in production.

Molly and Ruby Mae

Remember these little gals? They grew. Two went to live with my niece. Ruby Mae stayed here with us. She tolerates the other cat, Tenbrooks.

But, she LOVES Molly. They love on each other and play often.