More flowers

Flowers

It is day lily time in Indiana. These are some from the backyard.

Doin's at the cottage

The new garage is coming along at the cottage. The old one is gone and the new one is being laid out. Jerry is hoping to start on the new floor tomorrow.

Update

Kent got home at 8:00am on Thursday. He spent his entire day cutting up the branch and clearing brush so I could get a car out of the garage. On Friday he left at 6:00am for a two day trip. When he returned on Saturday he continued to work on the tree. Today a friend picked up most of the wood.

YUM!

PS

We have been hearing a creaking noise from the tree in the previous blog. It was on our agenda to take down. Now I guess we won't dither about it! TG

TREE

Doings at the Cottage

While the Elders visit kith and kin out west their cottage is getting some new appendages. First a better porch for their back door. It is wide enough to keep the ice off of the step so there will be less chance of falling. Second they are getting a new 2 car garage. It will be as long as the house is wide. In the new space will be a second bathroom, a laundry area and some storage.

Should I wait?

Awh the wisdom of planting those two tomato plants behind the garage! If Kent doesn't get home soon he won't get the first BLT!

Fruit of the Season

Way back a couple months ago we decided to plant a couple big tomato plants behind the garage so we would have early tomatoes. The wisdom of that decision is evident in the pictures posted here. About the middle of May we bought 15 of the most beautiful plants from the farmers market. But because we were having record setting rainfall amounts they didn't go into the ground until May 29th. It continued to rain and it wasn't until last Saturday June 14th that Kent was able to till again and hill them up so they won't be sitting in water if it continues to be very wet. They are so stunted that who knows when we will get tomatoes from them. The 2nd picture is what our dirt looks like when it has finally dried out from standing water. (Our county is one of many in Indiana that has been declared a
federal diaster zone. Of course our water woes pale in comparison to those along the rivers.) Mom's plants are in a raised bed so even though they have been planted only since the first week of June they are much taller and more lush. Their pepper plants are also in much better shape; two of them have little peppers on them already. The one that looks like a Jalapeno but the name of it is "Fooled You". It is a non hot Jalapeno!

a Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Philmont

Our guys' trip to Philmont (the great wilderness BS camp in New Mexico) was suppose to start at 4:00am today with an auto trip to the Amtrak station in Indy, then to Chicago on the train. Once in Shytown they would connect to a train that would traverse IOWA on it's journey to New Mexico. Yesterday afternoon our Scoutmaster Bill received a phone call from Amtrack announcing that the reservations were canceled as the tracks were washed out in IOWA. By 3:00 an alternate had been found: it entailed getting 15 Scouts and adult leaders and their full kit (large hiking type backpacks) to St. Louis by 8:00am today. Once there they would board a train that would connect in Kansas City to a train leaving at 11:00pm.

Sidenote: Yesterday was the start of our Music and Art festival. The first event was a 5K run/walk at 5:30pm which all three of us were signed up for. Kent arrived from the farm just in time to get the message from Bill. We finished getting all of Jake's stuff rounded up and headed for the park and our run/walk. Jake came in at 22 something minutes, Kent 37 something (he pulled his calf muscle) and me at 40:11. Not so hot , huh. BUT this was only the 2nd time I have "run" a 5k and I took 5 minutes off from the first one. As soon as I finished we headed home for showers then a meeting at 7:00 at the scout cabin to nail down the plan. It was decided that we would leave for St. Louis at 10, after the symphony. So at 10:30pm we headed out, 15 Philmont bound individuals and 6 drivers in 3 vehicles. (All the drivers had been up since morning and we wanted two each to spell them as it is a 300 mile drive in each direction.)

About halfway there we pulled into a rest stop. All was going well and we switched drivers. But when we started to pull out the big van with almost all the backpacks and 6 Philmont bound individuals started spraying brake fluid. After an hour of working on it the other 2 vans took off for St. Louis with the intent of dropping off crew and packs and returning for the rest of the party. Fortunately the van was fixed and running about 30 minutes behind us over to St. Louis. We found the train station unloaded, said our goodbyes and headed for home. It has been a long time since I was so tired. Kent got us out of St. Louis and then I drove for about 90 minutes. When I stopped Kent was so sound asleep that I crawled into the back and passed out. sometime later he took off and at 9:00am pulled into a Bob Evans in Terre Haute. We ate, then I finished the 2 hours home. That afternoon we were watching the flood coverage and realized we had been driving next to flooded fields. The coverage was all from St. Louis and East St. Louis. I guess our timing was pretty good.

That afternoon Jake called from the train. Click here for the video http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1155270018/bclid1155224715/bctid1618642083 They were stopped because the train had hit a truck! He did eventually arrive at Philmont and is out on the trail as of Sunday.

And I was chewing on a honeysuckle vine*

*Jimmy Buffett is absolutely one of my favorite singer/songwriters. Too many people think that all his songs are like Margaritaville. He has albums of the most thoughtful songs, romantic, funny, ironic.

I've recently really ramped up my daily exercise, so much so that Dusty doesn't come running at the announcement of a walk. I have tried to be considerate and have moved the 5k to the morning when it is cool. With the additional milage that my feet were putting on it became clear that I needed new shoes. The new ones are like walking on air. (I hope Carrie is putting some serious miles on her feet this year as she gears up for the 3-Day. I couldn't believe how bad my feet felt after going from 1 mile a day to 4.) It has finally dried out enough that Kent and I have been able to do our lap through Bruns Woods. Everyday has its special moments, the last few days it has been the scent of honeysuckle lingering in the air. In a couple weeks there will be blackberries by the bucketful; all the rain has made them plentiful this year.

I Knew It

Church was eye-opening today. We have had our current Pastor for 5 years this month. It has been a rocky 5 years with members of the church having to chose to stay with their "church family" regardless of it's dysfunction or bail to another church or sadder yet, to no church at all. The first year Larry was here we had a new directory, then again 18 months ago. The difference in the membership was remarkable.

According to Larry we have received 75 new members since he took over. No mention is ever made of those who no longer attend. But today our Financial Director laid out a case for increasing our giving. "In the last 4-5 years we have gone from 161 giving units to 112." Well there you go. So where are all those "new members"? We had 65 people in church today. More than 90% were leftovers from before, people (like us) who have refused to abandon our church, who manage to listen to the message and don't think about the person delivering it. So where are all these new people who don't attend, don't give and don't volunteer?

Larry is his own worst enemy. Kent has put it the best: "If he could drive in on Sunday morning, give his sermons, leave and let an associate Pastor do all the rest, it might work." One word used by many different and disparate people is "arrogant". He actually went to the Trustees for $6k for him and his wife to travel on the next High School trip to Germany as chaperons. He wanted the trustees to take the money from an endowment fund that is earmarked for children. Besides being totally an outrageous request, the man doesn't have any rapport with children or teenagers.