A BURST OF ENERGY

Got a slight burst of energy.  I finished the last two beds of garden hoses so I don't have to water anything by hand.  I still have major weeding to do, but that will have to be another day.  

While retrieving the hose from the fence where Dan hung them last spring while tilling the beds, I had to cut back a lot of grape vines that had overgrown along the garden fence and up into the pear tree.  I stripped them down and made a wreath base.

fresh grape vine wreath

I have devised a way to make the wreath, allow it to dry and make it perfectly round.  I bought this large green pot  (plus a lot of other pots) last year when JoAnn's had pots on sale for 90% off. This one was not used so I saved it for this year. 

 In the Spring I have to clean the dreaded corner of Creepy Virginia (Virginia Creeper to most folks.)  They are a weed and grow miles and miles in one summer.  They cover my little tree in that corner, the Mulberry Tree I planted and the fences.  I must get a head start each Spring by cutting off all that I can see.  Since my grapevines were not long yet, I decided to make wreaths of the CV/VC.  I certainly had plenty to work with.  I discovered my green pot and Voila, a base to make wreaths on!  

Two different sizes at once.  I also made a spray by bending over several vines, wiring them together and putting something heavy on top to keep them flat.  
I used it to make my patriotic spray for Memorial Day.  It is still on the door for Independence Day and beyond. 

Two sizes on one pot.

Now it's time to make up a wreath for August--with sunflowers.  Yellow--My new love this year.  I have pinned a lot of ideas, but I probably won't copy them. Just ideas. I will keep you posted. 

HAPPY WEEDING

BLOG"nGRAM

 

Sunday at Home

I didn't go to church today.  The pain in my ribs got a little intense and nauseated me.  I fell asleep and didn't wake up in time to get ready for church.

I slept the three hours of church time, too.  

For dinner I tried a new pin:  (In my boards: Crock it, and I Love Food--Chicken.) It is called "Chicken with Lime and Cilantro".  It cooked on high in the crock pot in 2 1/2 hours.  It is good.  Often I cook my chicken pieces  on high for about 3 hours and they are tender, juicy and not burned.  You have to know your crock pot.

I also made a Risotto with the leftover rice I cooked up earlier for the sick dog.  I had plenty left over for dinner.  Uncontaminated, of course.  I added crimini mushrooms and grated Romano Cheese.  I also made a Waldorf Salad because I had a huge package of celery that was getting older.

Boo threw up all over the place on Saturday.  He couldn't just stand still and do it, but he had to spread it all across the carpet.   Then he later barfed all over my lap.  Then only I could be sure which dog was sick.  I was blaming it on Abby because she barfs all the time. It was too late to go to the vet for Compazine, so I boiled up some rice, stirring it and adding water like a Risotto.  I tried to give him some rice water, but he just threw up on the couch.  I left him alone the rest of the evening.  On Sunday I started  him out with rice water, then later more rice water with a little rice crushed up in it, then later still more rice and water with one little chunk of canned food a  couple of times. This was spread out over the whole day.  He had to prove that he could keep it down. Abby was jealous so she got rice and dog food, too.

He was feeling great all day and a little ticked off that I wouldn't feed him more.

That was my inspirational Sunday.

HAPPY SABBATH

BLOG'nGRAM

PS:  Friday night and Saturday Morning I groomed the dogs.  I accidentally nicked Abby's ear and had to stop early. It bled all over my shirt before I noticed and she was not too cooperative after that.  That was another task I accomplished on Saturday.

Boo looks a little sick here.

Abby

They were both denuded.  Now they look like black dashiuauadoodles.  I can't deal with  pompoms in the summer.  Too many weed seeds.  Notice the tiny puff of hair on the end of the tail--the only poodle remnant.

   

A Special Day

This and That on Saturday

I worked around a little bit, took some pix and never got a post done.  Let's see what I planned to do.  

First, we had some waffles for breakfast.Just ordinary waffles made with soft white wheat, honey, coconut oil, kefir and a touch of nutmeg. That is ordinary in this house. I actually got out the wheat grinder and ground the wheat instead of using all purpose flour. it went straight through me, but darn, I am sick of this wimpy gut.  

Enough flowery speech, or is it floury speech. 

My tip of the day is to make a larger batch of waffles than  you can eat and cook them all up and put them on a cake rack to cool. Freeze them for another day.  I do the same with pancakes, but waffles are much better to freeze.  Warm them in a toaster oven to crisp them back up and enjoy another day without the mess.

Lighter ones will toast better.

After drying out they don't stick together.

Next, in spite of how my ribs felt, I had to pick all of the lettuce because it bolted. It went into a sink filled with cold water, and soaked for a while--about a half hour to crisp it back up after picking it in the heat.  It gets a little wilted fast.

Soak off dirt and earwigs.

Drain in spinner.

Spin off excess water and pour out.

Cover and keep in refrigerator for several days.

There was way too much for my spinner so I dug out my Tupperware Crisper.  Old, yes.  I lost the little drain rack for the bottom. (Dogs chewed up one and the other is just gone.)

Place a lid in bottom to keep lettuce out of the water.

Lid is larger than the bottom of crisper.

Spin out the water then fill.

Tupperware to the rescue.

Any left go to the chickens.

Then I filled up my watering can with the water in the sink and watered my flower pots on the front porch.  (Just doing my part to conserve.)

My favorite birthday present.

Vines and Geraniums and RW&B Petunias.

Bougainvillea and Herb garden.

Avocado (from seed) and Yucca

Sad neglected tipped over Jade Plant.  Needs TLC.

Two cat planters with Spider Plants.

The herb garden is in disrepair, too.  The parsley that lived through the winter went to seed (collecting that).  The mint took over the planter and the basil is dying.  The best part is the kale plant I stuck in the pot.

That was about the extent of my work today.

HAPPY HEALING

BLOG'nGRAM

Back Again

Back home after five weeks service at the Salt Lake City South Mission. They needed us.  It is so wonderful to be needed.  I sat down at my old desk and felt like I had never left the mission.  The love poured out by the missionaries was so gratifying.  As I answered the telephone with "Sister Hall" there would be a pause and then "SISTER HALL!".  I loved every call.

Now it is time to pick up my blog and run with it.  The first weekend (4th of July) I worked to finish up my back yard.  I am building another terraced area beside the new pergola--trying to regain the barren chicken yard.  Many concrete wall bricks later, I tore it apart and started again, but Life Interuptus one more time happened.  I reached down into the big black garbage can for a piece of wood and something popped in my chest. The X-ray ruled out a broken or cracked rib, but there is still this hard lump and swelling and pain on my right chest.  This is the fifth day restricting me from over exerting or lifting (large cement wall bricks) so I have been doing indoor things.



I mended some broken jewelry, made a cute pair of Red, White and Bloom Earrings and misplaced one before I even wore it. This was before I hurt myself.  My first big project was a Tropical Miranda Necklace to match the Tropical Orchard Earrings that I posted March 3, 2012.




I had an idea in mind called Summer Flower that I saw on O.com and posted on Pinterest on my board: Bead It Daily.  It was not something I wanted to copy so I made a redo and called it Tropical Miranda Necklace after the film star in the 40's named Carmen Miranda who wore colorful ruffled dresses and a bandana/hat  made of fruit.  She was before your time, my time, too. Maybe your grandmother's time.  I have a skirt that is bright and tropical with a ruffle that I wear with a bright marigold yellow knit shirt.  This will match it perfectly.

The real yellow.

The photography was very poor.  It was getting late in the evening and a huge black cloud overtook the sun before I could capture the pictures.  I finally gave up after tons of bad pix.  I made them extra large so you could see the details. Top picture was taken inside.  The light was crumby so I went outside.  The center picture above is what color the shirt really is when the camera decided to take its own pix.  (I touched the screen and it kept on shooting.)  The bottom pix is hanging in the Hawthorn Tree.  I included it so you can see the shed that was painted yesterday. I do like the colors together.  The redwood is bright and the background is a medium Loden Green.  I just wanted Loden Green, but was afraid it would be too dark so I chose the middle shade on the paint chip.  It could be darker, but it looks good.  Different anyway.

These are some sweet missionary Sisters that I love and miss.  

The colors of the skirt is shown here.  The necklace picks up the colors in the skirt.  I used Turquoise, yellow colored Mountain Jade, Red Agate, Carnelian, Amethyst, and Garnet stones to make the 24" necklace and the earrings.  Both are made with gold plated findings and gold filled clasp and earwires.  This set can be recreated if desired.

HAPPY BEADING


BLOG'nGRAM

Utah SLC So Mission

We're Back!

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Windy Day at the Mission Office

We are now back to the mission office for a while. The people we trained had an early release, and the President is swamped with a major transfer coming July 1.  He called to ask for help.  A lot of picture taking and transfer packets need to be made and pictures are what Dan did before we were released.  I can still answer the telephone.  It seems like we were just on a 4 month vacation and we never left the mission.  We settled back in one day.

This month there will be a major shifting of boundaries in the area missions.  I can't talk about it right now because it is very secret.  It is a busy time here, so we were called to fill in until new office persons can be found and trained. 

At the Reception Desk

At the Computer Specialist Desk

The only thing certain in this life is change and things change all the time.  It will be fun to see the wet behind the ears 18 and 19 year olds come into the mission again and to send the veteran missionaries home.  They are all grown up when they leave--men and women ready to face life head-on.

HAPPY LIVING LARGE


BLOG'nGRAM

HDOY And the Fridge

Yes, you can see it is the hottest day of the year today.  We have been experiencing a rainy spell where the days have been in the sixties if we were lucky.  Today:  already 93 degrees.

 It is 2:24 P.M. and the temperature will go  up more.

Oh, and it is 77.9 in the house.  Time to turn on the AC.

End of Spring.  Start Summer--Bam!

Yesterday I noticed that the ice was not freezing.  It is usually only an hour and it is ready.  This morning the meats and veges in the freezer were soft to the touch.  The milk was sour yesterday.  The lettuce was all going squishy and spoiled.  The refrigerator was going out on us.  Dan opened it up between meetings and pulled off the back and found it all full of frost between the walls.  Not good.

Now he is down there (remember, freezer on the bottom) working on it.  

In his Sunday clothes, of course.  What a blessing to have a handyman in the house who knows how to tear things apart. I hope he can fix it or there goes the money for our trip.

Something doesn't want us to go.  We have been called back to the Mission Office for a few weeks.  More on that tomorrow.

Scripture du joir:

Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it Holy.  Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:  But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God:  in it thou shalt not do any work...

Except if your refrigerator is stuck in the mire.  

HAPPY SABBATH

BLOG'nGRAM 

Memorial Day

Memorial Day observance was done by us this year on Sunday.  On Monday we worked  on the new patio all day and a  steak on the grill for the two of us.  It seems weird to celebrate the holidays alone.  It doesn't seem like a holiday that way.

We made the rounds to the graves starting with Hanna.  I was able to make some pretty pink and purple bouquets for the girls this year because the Peonies bloomed Sunday morning just in time to cut. The Iris hung on for a long time this year in spite of the early warm weather.  The cool,  rainy stuff we had the last two weeks slowed down their demise.  Roses were out, but not in abundance.  

First Stop Hanna's:

 Memorial for 9/11

Hanna's tree is the big pine tree left of the water spray.  It is easy to find now that they built this memorial.

Sorry about the rose petal covering up the Anderson.  I spread them around, but didn't see it on the name.  I bought the mums in case the flowers were gone.  I just saw these pretty white blossoms and they looked just like angel blooms so I bought them--one for Hanna and one for Emily and Richard.

We moved on to Wasatch Lawns.  We always have to clean up the grave markers there.  They are all overgrown and dirty.  We made a pink and purple bouquet for Emily and a mostly blue one for Richard. 

We clean up the next door neighbor, Bertha Kreutner, too.  She never has any flowers.  We have adopted her as a grandmother. When I was in Elementary School I walked to school with a girl named Jane Kreutner.  I just like Bertha because of it, I guess.

We then located Dan's brother's grave.  It is by this gnarled old juniper tree, probably the only one in Wasatch Lawn.

Then on to the other side of the valley for the rest of Dan's family, at least the deceased ones, Norman, his father, Leona, his mother and Ken his younger brother who died young at 39 with MS.

Ken

Norman and Leona

Last, and least, we buried Molly, our oldest and first chicken on Monday morning.  She died sometime between Sunday afternoon and Monday morning.  So sad to see her go.  She must have been at least 6 or 7 years old.  RIP, Molly.

I made a craft.  This is a door decor that I put together.  I am rather pleased with the way it turned out.  I can do crafts!!  I used vines from my own yard and some pretty flowers from JoAnns.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

BLOGnGRAM