The End . . . Of August

Today is the last day of August. It seems like just yesterday it was June!

I added a link to John's facebook page on the left side of the page, you can find out information about John the artist there.

I've been wanting to take John to Greer to eat at the Frosty Bottom Cafe ever since Mom, Carleen and I ate there back in June. We finally got time today. Yummy! The owner, Kristi, is entered in The Great Food Truck Race at the Food Network and asked if we'd vote for her. The winner's prize is $10,000! She will be at the County Fair later this month so stop by and try one of her delicious sandwiches if you get a chance! And go vote for her at the Food Network, just type in Food Truck as a search, then pick Frosty Bottom Cafe. Good Luck, Kristi!

After lunch, we drove up to the river and walked along it a bit. The shore line near where we always park has changed, some of the bank has washed away and the river seems wider than it usual. The growth around the river is lush this year!

Change is in the air

The wind has blown for a couple days now, and the temperatures are cooler. Makes me want to go on a picnic in the woods before the cold sets in!

This little flower looks so forlorn all by itself in our parking area. It's the same as the ones that fill the field across the street.

A lot of my container plants are looking bad, not sure what happened, I used some fertilizer that Carleen's garden instructor recommended, not sure if I used too much or if it's something else. Luckily, the tomato plants in the front planter are still going strong and there are tons of tomatoes ready to be picked. I can't keep up with them now, they are coming on too fast! I wish there was a way to preserve them so I could use them for sandwiches all winter!

Our bug controller, sleeping the day away.



For several years now we've had bats stop in for the summer and spend the days sleeping on our front porch and the nights eating insects and we hardly see any mosquitoes. I've seen more little flying bugs this year, but I'm not sure what they are, I avoid walking though the swarms that fly around. Lots of eating for the bats this year, I think we needed more than one! Ours should be fat and sassy by now.

Rainy Sunday

I have always hated taking pills, and look at what I'm taking every day now! Only two are prescription, thyroid and blood pressure, the rest are vitamins and minerals. Too many! And this is just the morning pills!


My geranium is looking pretty now, lots of blooms!

We got rain today, it was muchly needed! There were lots of clouds to make a beautiful sunset!

It was still raining when I went to bed about midnight. When John is away working nights, I sometimes stay up later. I was working on one of his scratchboard scans, cleaning it up, I think that takes me longer than it did for him to do the scratching!

Health Fair and Memories

Today was the annual Hospital Health fair. When I got the flyer about the fair, I remembered that last year John was in the hospital with a Pulmonary Embolism the day they had the fair. Thankfully, he's all healed up from that now!

I went to the fair and got a free blood test for Cholesterol and Glucose. Then I visited the booths, got lots of cool freebies, including a T-shirt with DRUGS "The perfect choice for people who want to be stupid but weren't born that way" written on it, did the scavenger Hunt to get entered into a drawing for a free WII, saw a food demonstration, tried the yummy food they made and came home.

Yesterday evening, the post office dropped off a package at the door, it was from Idaho and was light as a feather. I was pretty sure I knew what was in the box and I was right. It was the mug John made for Patty years ago as a going away gag gift. She always gave engraved drinking glasses that she made to the outgoing officers of the AAS and since we couldn't make one for her, John thought it would be funny if he made one from a tin can. We never expected her to keep the mug, but last October when she was visiting the mug was mentioned and she still had it! John said it he'd known she was going to keep it, he'd have done a nicer job on it! I mentioned it to Patty's sister and she remembered seeing it sitting on Patty's dresser and sent it to us. She said she figured she had as much fun sending it to us as we did receiving it. The date on the mug is 1995, 15 years ago! Wow, how time has flown. The inscription on the mug says:

To Patty Hackett
"Thanks Prez"
from Casa Malpais
Chapter AAS
1995

I'd forgotten that John always called Patty "Prez" and she called him "Dir" (for director) (He was one of the board of directors for the chapter that year.)

The Showing of the Purple!

John worked his first night shift last night and so he slept this morning. He doesn't sleep well anymore and was up by noon for a while. He went shopping with me, then back to bed. They are finished redoing the highway between McDonalds and Arbys, except for painting the stripes. I wonder if they have started on the road to Pinetop?

I planted some winter squash this spring and it's not been doing well. I found a couple squashes today, both are pretty small, hope they grow and mature in time!

I was looking out the window this afternoon and saw a hint of purple showing up on my grapes! Guess they got the word that fall is here and it's time to mature. There are tons of them on the vines and they are huge!

Here's a bird John made yesterday, he makes me laugh!

It's feeling like fall

I don't know what the difference is, but it's felt like fall the last two days. We've been wondering what it is in the human body that detects a difference and says fall is here. There has been a cool breeze the last couple days and maybe that has something to do with it.

My tomatoes are turning red now and I have lots of them on the vine. Cucumbers are also doing well and I've got several little ones on the vine and I picked 3 today. There are a few ears of corn, hope they make it. The later corn is still small and unless it puts on a growth spurt, I don't think it's going to produce. Most of the fun for me is in the growing, I love to see things grow, so from that viewpoint my garden is a huge success!

We've noticed a big infestation of bugs this summer. We have way more flies than usual, more crawlies and as we sat under the locust tree today, we watched a big herd of flying insects just staying in one place flying round and round and round. Looks like they'd use up all their energy flying around and drop dead of starvation! Well, I can dream, can't I!

John has been busy making sculptures to take to the barn, he's done a couple snakes, a bird and a new cardholder to replace the one sold. I wonder if this one will make it through the next festival without being sold? The last one didn't even make it through the first day! I've been busy getting photos and scratchboard scans resized for the web and posting them to John's website and facebook page. Charles fixed him up on facebook last week, what a sweet guy!

There's a Nip in the Air Today

There is a fall feel in the air today, yeck!

John and I have been wanting to drive the old road to SJ and look at the green landscape and we haven't had time until today. The sun was shining when we set out, but by the time we got to the top of the hill, it was overcast and dark. Then a cold breeze came up. We went anyway, but the landscape was dark and the photos I took are blahish and don't look good, maybe Photoshop can perk them up a bit.

We spotted some winter fat by the roadside, we don't see it much anymore. It used to line the new road to SJ in the fall, but people started coming and harvesting it big time, filling huge bags with it and it's almost gone there. It's such a pretty plant. I'm not sure why it's called winter fat or what it's used for.

We spotted this group of horses and had to stop to take a look. Their coloring caught my eye, and one has a star on its nose! Another one looked like its mane was fake, it looked like plugs of hair were stuck in its neck.

We found the Queen's Table today! We've been sad because we thought it had fallen down. It was a landmark when we were kids and we always looked for it when we were traveling to RV. I think we saw it today because we were going down the road instead of up it, and the light was just right to show it up. It's kind of hidden behind a hill when you are going up the road to the south. I also spotted the Kings Table. John doesn't remember this one, so I'm not sure if he forgot or if it was one that I spotted and named myself when I was a kid.

Harbinger of Fall

When these flowers form and start to turn red, I know fall isn't far behind.

John has been busy in the shop and finished making a new spoon fish to replace the one we sold at Steve's show. I was busy uploading new scratchboards to his website today.

Here's John's latest scratchboard. He did it for a customer who has this vehicle and wanted it colored instead of black and white.

Rain

We got rain today, my gardens were needing water, and I was happy to see them get some!

The Day After

John and I went for a walk this morning. The mist was rolling through the golf course, it looked cool!

The Humane Society people were busy packing up today, lots of banging and clanking going on, with them loading stuff and dumping trash. I ventured out to take some photos and was pulled to this field of yellow sunflowers by the gorgeous color. The world is dressed in her finest and so beautiful right now!

After the barn closed, John and I went to Karl-Eric's house and loaded up more railroad ties and pre-art. He has been so sweet to share with John all the goodies he has collected over the years!

Happy Tails

What a busy day! John and I went out for a short walk this morning, my hip is still giving me pain when I walk, so we didn't go far.

Today was the Humane Society's big benefit and auction and it was held on the barn grounds. Tons of people came, they had 4 food vendors, crafts for the kiddies, animals to adopt, a couple of lamas on display, two auctions and live music. We had a good day. Gracie and Dean stopped by to visit, they are both looking good, Dean said he got a clean bill of health and Gracie's surgery was a success. So glad to hear that! In the morning a one man band played and sang, I loved the songs, they were oldies, then in the afternoon, Steve's Mountain Saddle Band played, I asked if they could sing Grandpa's Hat for me and they did. This is the first time I've heard the band sing it, it sounds great with the music!

This evening we went out to eat with Monna, Alan and Vickie at a Mexican restaurant. Mine was okay, just a bit too spicy, John said his was good.

Saying Goodbye

Today was the funeral of our neighbor of over 30 years. The church was so full, there wasn't seating for everyone and they had to set up extra chairs in the aisles and the entry! Onie was a well liked man. He's been such a good neighbor, always there to help out when we needed it. He made the best tortillas and often would bring us some, fresh and hot off the stove. We'll miss him.

After the funeral we returned some items John borrowed back to Andy and headed for the barn. We took the shortcut through the woods from Andy's house. It's a beautiful drive, but with the rain on the way and the wet roads Big Jim looked like we'd taken him mud bogging!

Sunrise and Sunflowers

The sun is moving back towards its winter position, I noticed this morning as it came up that its not hidden behind the big elm anymore.

We discovered a big split in a limb on our locust tree, not sure what we are going to do about it, I'm hoping we can repair it.

John started long change today and we went and picked up the rest of the fascia trim he needs to finish up the house and stopped to visit Andy's family on our way home. Jessie says she is loving school, she is going to the same school she went to last year. I'm so glad that she likes school!

We stopped to take pictures of this old truck parked in the sunflowers. There are flowers in bloom all along the road now and in spots, the fields are also covered, so pretty!

Enjoying my Garden Bounty!

I picked a basket full of good things from my garden this morning, green beans, squash, cucumbers and tomatoes. I'm eating lots of cucumber and tomato sandwiches right now and loving it! Wish I had fresh veggies year round!

We had a nice rain this evening and it made the colors so pretty. There's just something about the color of a sunset after a rain that makes the world look so magical!

A Sunshiny Day

The sun was shining this morning, so I went out and took more photos of the field across the street. I'm so loving my view right now, photos just don't show how gorgeous it is!

My grapes are getting huge, but no purple is showing up yet.

Summer in Full Bloom and the Death of a Neighbor

Lately, every time I drive down our street, I see this old shed in the midst of a field of flowers and think I need to take some photos, so even though it was cloudy this morning, I ventured out and shot a bunch. I walked through the field and some of the flowers are almost as high as I am tall! Wow!

Later this morning Ray stopped by to let us know that his Dad passed away last Saturday. Onie has been our neighbor for over 30 years and it's sad knowing he won't be here anymore.