The weather was just about perfect this morning, so John and I took a longer walk--three miles. Our sore and stiff muscles are starting to recover and we both felt much better today. Hanna had called and asked us to come to the baseball games this morning, so following breakfast, we packed a couple of chairs, water bottles, camera and headed up to Clearbrook. There is a large softball complex north of town and that is where all the games were being played.

We spotted Hanna soon after we reached the ballpark and she told where everyone was playing. However, there was a slight problem--four grandkids, four different fields, and all playing at the same time. John and I just kept walking from field to field trying to be sure we saw the kids when they had an at bat and to hopefully see some of their fielding plays. They played three games each, back to back. We stayed for the first full game and then some of the second. Then we headed home as John still had grass to mow and trimming to finish up. Here are pictures of the kids batting--Rachel, Sam, Josh, and Hanna. They all can swing a pretty mean bat.





While John was working outside, I got the rest of the prints matted and framed. The only thing left to do is to put the backing on each picture. John will probably get to that tomorrow some time. I took a little time to check out the garden and the flowers. Our Tiger Lilys are starting to bloom and they are just beautiful.


John picked two more buckets of strawberries this evening and got them ready to freeze. After such a busy day, we spent a quiet evening just vegging out.

Every once in a while we like to get out of town for a day and since the weather was so beautiful, we decided to take a road trip to Grand Forks, ND. We took our morning walk, ate breakfast, made our list, and then headed off. Grand Forks is about 90 miles directly west of us on Highway 2, just over the Red River.

John and I took care of a few errands before we left Bagley and reached GF around noon. Our first stop was Burger King for lunch. We just can't resist those Whopper Juniors.

I have been working on getting photographs ready for the fair and needed a few more mats, so our second stop was Michael's Craft Store. I brought the prints along and John and I spent some time matching up mats and prints. I think we made some good choices, now I just have to get everything in frames.



From Michaels, we went to the Columbia Mall where we did some birthday shopping. Two of the grandkids have birthdays in July so we thought we would get a head start on the gifts. We found a cute pair of shorts and a T-shirt for our grandson.

The last stop on our shopping trip was Sam's Club where we stocked up on cleaning supplies, soap, and a few other miscellaneous things to tie us over for the next few months. It was then back through the downtown area, over the river, and back into Minnesota.



We did make one final stop on the way home--McDonalds for a hot fudge sundae. After unloading the car, John decided to do some more mowing. While he was doing that, I started matting some photos and putting them in frames. I have two completed. Hanna just called and asked us to come see their baseball games tomorrow morning so the photo matting will probably have to wait awhile.

Finally--a morning with sunshine!! Last night was the first in several that there were no thunder storms or rain showers. We were up and out by 7:00 a.m. for our walk. Both of us are a little stiff from our 5K on Saturday. I think its from walking faster than we normally would--we took our time this morning. Hopefully in another day or two things will return to normal.

After breakfast, John went down to the shop to finish up a chair leg he has been making. We needed to replace a cracked leg on one of our Texas chairs. With that job out of the way, he wrapped an underground wire in some mesh to help protect it from the gophers and then reburied the cable. Hopefully the gophers will stay away from it so our electrical service doesn't get interrupted again.

Today I just did some chores around the house--changing the sheets on the bed and doing some laundry. We had a call from one of our Fort Clark friends--Wallace Inge. He and his wife, Becky, are currently in southern Minnesota and are planning to be up our way in mid July to attend a wood carvers festival. It looks like they will be camping in the Bagley Park for a day or two.

I have finally settled on most of the photos for the fair. I ordered some larger prints online and then went into town and printed a few more. Now I have to get the mats and frames sorted out. Looks like a road trip to Grand Forks to check out some matting. Amy called this evening to let us know that they were home from their trip to California and that they had a wonderful visit with Susie's family and saw some beautiful parts of the country. Hopefully we will have another sunny day tomorrow.

We had some strong thunderstorms with heavy rains again early this morning and the sky was still overcast when we got up. Following breakfast, we headed off to church. By the time the service was done the sun was shinning and it turned out to be a beautiful day--the humidity was finally getting lower.

We made a quick trip home to change clothes and to pick up the salad and strawberries we prepared for today's lunch at Matt's. The church's new pastor was moving today with the help of his family and Sara invited them and John and I for lunch. We ate a delicious meal of hamburgers, hot dogs, brats and salads. As usual, after eating, Sam and John had to get in their basketball game.


Since this weekend was the Clearbrook Centennial and All School Reunion, that meant a parade. We headed into town with our lawn chairs and found a good spot to watch all the action. There were floats for the different classes along with the fire trucks, antique cars, tractors, and much more.
The kids enjoyed picking up all the candy that was thrown by the parade participants--even John got a hat full.







When the parade was over, we headed home. We spent a quiet evening catching up on email and watching some baseball.

Today was the big day--the 5K Walk/Run race. We set the alarm for 6:00 a..m. so we would be sure to get up on time. The kid's race was set to start at 7:45 a.m. with the 5K starting at 8:00 a.m. John and I ate breakfast and left home around 7:00 a.m. The weather was overcast with heavy clouds and fog. By the time we got to the school, the fog was beginning to lift. Since we registered in advance, we just had to walk in the school and get the numbers to pin on our shirts.


When we got back outside, the rest of our family had arrived and were getting set to go. Hanna, Rachel, and Jenni ran in the kids race. I think their distance was about a quarter mile. Hanna came in second and Jenni, fourth. Not sure where Rachel placed, but all three did a super job. Try running that distance without stopping. Rachel is left in the green shirt, Hanna is in the bright blue shirt, and Jenni is next to her in the red.



After the kids were done their race, it was time for the walk/run. John, Sam, John and I did that race. John and I walked while Sam and Uncle John ran. Everyone did a great job, including me. My goal was to complete the walk in under an hour. I did it in 51 minutes and 41 seconds. John and I also won an award as the oldest walkers in the race. Sometimes it pays to be older. Here is a photo of all the prize winners.


It was a lot of fun doing this race; especially with the grandkids. As I was coming to the end of the race, they were all lined up cheering me on. It was great! Here is our running/walking family: Sam, John, Carol, Hanna, Rachel, John, and Jenni.


After the road race, we all went to the annual Breakfast on the Farm. This is a complimentary breakfast of pancakes, sausage, ice cream and strawberries, made possible by the many local sponsors and organizations. Each year it is held at a different farm--usually a "century farm". Today's breakfast was held on a farm down the road from Matt and John. Just about everyone in the county attends. It was especially well attended this year at this weekend Clearbrook is celebrating its centennial and all school reunion. Following our meal, we spent some time visiting with folks we hadn't seen in a while.

It was a rather lazy day again--the humidity was very high and the clouds continued to linger with a threat of rain. We spent the evening watching the Transformers movie. Tomorrow will be another busy day with church and reunion parade in Clearbrook.

Thunder storms returned during the night and we had clouds and showers during the morning. By noon it was partly cloudy skies with very high humidity. With everything so wet, John spent most of the day in the shop working on a special custom order and was able to get it all finished. He still has one more custom order to get done.

Today was laundry day for me. I had started it several days ago, but never got the last few loads done. In between switching clothes from the washer to the drier, I worked some more on picking out pictures for the fair. So far I have two decided upon--that means matting and frames matched up with the photos.

All in all, it was a pretty quiet day. Tomorrow is the 5K race, so it's early to bed tonight.

Strawberry Jam and Visitors

We had a very pleasant surprise when we read Kit and Jerry Bertelsen's blog this morning. Kit said they were leaving Wisconsin and heading to Bemidji, Minnesota, to visit some friends. John asked, "Are we the friends they are coming to visit?" This was news to us as I hadn't seen any email from them. I then remembered that Jerry has a different email address for us, so I went into my gmail account and, sure enough, there was a message from Jerry saying they would like to make a stop in Bagley and visit with us this evening. He had included his cell number, so I gave him a call. Jerry told us they would be in Bagley by mid-afternoon so we invited them for supper.

The rain showers of this morning cleared out, so John went back to picking more strawberries. I spent the morning cleaning and cutting them up and getting them ready for jam. I also made more shortcake and some macaroni salad for this evening's supper.

After lunch we started on the jam. We have a pretty good system--I do the cooking while John gets the jars and lids ready. It only took us about an hour to make two batches of jam. This will give us enough strawberry for the year.



With the jam finished, I got the kitchen cleaned up and did a little picking up around the house. Kit and Jerry arrived about 4:30 p.m. We took them on a little tour around the grounds and then showed them the shop and our house. It was a relaxing and enjoyable time catching up on news from Fort Clark and hearing about their travels. The evening ended all too soon and we had to say good-bye--we'll being seeing them again in the fall. Have a safe trip and a great summer!!

First thing after breakfast, John and I headed up to Sara's salon for haircuts. John went first and then while I was getting mine done, he tilled Rachel's garden. She really likes to grow things and the garden is looking pretty good--their radishes are just about ready to eat.

When we returned home, we decided to go to Bemidji and do some shopping. First stop was Burger King for lunch and then it was off to Wal Mart for a new ink cartridge for the printer and a few groceries. I also picked up what I needed to make a couple of batches of strawberry jam. From there we took a quick trip to the downtown area where I bought several photo mats. So far I have settled on two or three photographs for the fair.

After we got home, I worked on sorting more pictures for a while and then went back to town to return some books to the library and to attend my Weight Watchers meeting. I had missed over three weeks of meetings when on our trip. While I was gone, John cleaned out the pond by the deck and mowed some more grass. The outside work is finally getting caught up. Tomorrow is jam day.

The day started off overcast and looking like rain; however, by mid-morning the clouds moved on and the sun came out. It was also very breezy so John thought it would be a good day to do some work outside.

As usual, the grass needed mowing again. But before he could do that, all the twigs and branches left on the ground by the high winds of the other day had to be picked up. With everything cleared up, the mowing began once again.

The Tel Com Company returned this morning with several loads of gravel and a Bobcat to spread it. After a couple of hours of work the driveway looked as good as new.




The strawberries are ripening very fast, so John did some picking today. I checked our strawberry jam inventory and found we only have two jars left. A trip to the grocery stored is called for tomorrow to get the ingredients to make jam.

For the second morning in a row we had sunny skies. We walked further this morning--a little over three miles. This coming Saturday is the 5 K Walk/Run so we are trying to get ready. Since we have missed so many days walking because of the weather, I hope I'll be in shape for it. There is also a half mile run which Sam and granddaughter, Jenni, are going to do. Sara is also thinking about walking with us. It will be a real family affair.

This morning John went up to Matt's to cut up a tree that had fallen onto one of his fields. He then stopped at John's place to use the wood splitter, got it all split, and then hauled it home. Every little bit of extra firewood gets us more prepared for next winter.

Following some lunch, John decided install the roller jack he bought for the boat trailer. This eliminates having to find something to rest the trailer on when the boat is stored. After that job was done, he finished up the frame he has been working on and we framed the map. It looks very nice. We will take it back to Texas in the fall, but right now, we have it hanging in the living room.




Matt called this evening and told John he has hired a guy to work with him, so right now John doesn't have to work. That is probably a good thing because his shoulder has been painful again. Some rain showers returned late this afternoon and early evening. Since that made it too wet to do anything outside, we spent a quiet evening watching some TV.

This morning dawned bright and sunny so we were finally able to take a walk. I think we have walked only a few times since we have returned from our trip. This week the weather is suppose to be better--hopefully not so much rain.

After breakfast, we got cleaned up and headed off to church. We were only back home a few minutes when Matt called and invited us out for dinner. Matt, Sara, and the kids picked us up and we headed off to Bemidji and Applebee's. What a nice surprise. Everyone enjoyed a good meal of their favorites.


When we got back to our place Rachel and Hanna wanted to pick some strawberries to take home.
Fortunately some more has ripened overnight, so they found a few berries to take with them. Actually, they ate them as fast as they picked.


Every time Sam comes over, the basketball comes out. It didn't take long for a game of two on two to get started. Sam and Matt were one team and Hanna and Grandpop the other. It was a very close game with much fouling and some suspicious ball handling, but in the end Sam and Matt prevailed. Sam, not one to leave things on a high note, then challanged Grandpop to a shorten game of "Pig". Pig is a shooting game where the players have to match each other's shots and, when you miss, you receive a letter until you spell "pig". The first one to spell the word is the loser. Sam wanted to play a shorten game so the first one to get P would lose. Both Sam and Grandpop had some great shots, but Sam was a little better and won the game. It's only the second time he has beaten his grandfather. From Pig they played a little one on one. Sam was the victor again--but in all fairness, he is 50 years younger than Grandpop. Grandpop doesn't have the moves he use to have.




Sam wanted me to take a picture of him dunking the basketball. Here is the dunk and how he did it.




After the kids left, we watched the final of the US Open and had a quiet evening. John needed to recover from all the ball playing. It was a very nice Father's Day.

We woke up early this morning thinking we would finally get a chance to walk; however, it was raining again. At least the winds had finally died down. When things dry up a little, we will have plenty of yard work to do--there are small branches and twigs all over the ground. We were very fortunate not to have any structural damage.

After breakfast John went down to the shop to work on a frame for a map we purchased in Texas. While he was doing that, I spent some time going through photos on the computer and trying to decide which ones I want to print and enter in the Original Arts competition at the county fair in August. Since John will be having shoulder surgery in July, I need to decide about the pictures so he can make whatever additional frames I will need.

Since we couldn't work in the yard, we decided to clean out the garage. Living on a gravel road, we track a lot of dirt into the garage, especially if it has been raining. We straightened up the work bench, cleaned off some shelves, and threw away what was not needed any more. I got the hose out and we washed the floor. The garage looks nice and clean now. The porch also received a cleaning today.


Late this afternoon, the sun came out, so the car also had a bath. It was rather dirty after our trip--it took much scrubbing to get all the insects off the front. John then braved the mosquitoes and picked some strawberries. This evening while watching the US Open we had our first strawberry shortcake of the season. It was delicious!!

There is only one word to describe today--blustery! We have had winds of almost 30 mph the entire day. There will be plenty of twigs and some branches to pick up in the backyard after the winds die down. We will have to add that to the job list for the weekend.

After breakfast John and Matt headed out to install the trim they had stained and lacquered this past week. This completed the addition they had been working on--now Matt will be able to start a new job on Monday.

John was home by early afternoon and since it was not raining, decided to mow more lawn. Mowing has become a full time job. It seems like he just gets everything trimmed and mowed and then it's time to start all over again. He also took some time to check the strawberries--they should be coming on strong this week. Maybe we'll be eating strawberry shortcake real soon.

After supper the clouds and rain moved back in again, but at least the winds died down a little. Since we couldn't do anything outside we spent the evening watching some movies.

Ralph, a good friend from Fort Clark, called this evening. It was good to catch up on what has been happening in Texas.

We woke up this morning to thunder, lightening, and heavy rains. One good thing about the rain is that it allows us to see if the water will drain off the driveway or if it needs to be graded some more. Right now it looks like it will need more work. Hopefully when Tel Com returns to spread new gravel, the drainage problem will be solved.

I had a list of things I wanted to accomplish today, however, the day took quite a different turn. Last night John found a deer tick that had burrowed a little into his shoulder. He got the tick off and we put it on a piece of scotch tape. Why did we do that? In case we needed to take it to the doctor to make sure it really was a deer tick. When Matt stopped over this morning, we showed it to him and he said it was a deer tick and that we should check with the doctor's office to see what they thought John should do. I made the call and they said he should come in so they could take a look at both the tick and the bite. Bottom line is we spent the entire afternoon at the doctor's--he could not get in to see our regular physician so he had to go to Urgent Care. Even though you call ahead of time, you still have to wait your turn. The doctor gave him a prescription for two pills that he took as soon as we returned home. That was the extent of the medication. So hopefully there will be no ill affects from the bite. The doctor gave John this tick identification card--he was bitten by a deer tick in the "nymph" stage.


After the rains of today, it was too wet to do anything outside, so we spent a rather quiet evening. John watched the Celtics and Lakers and I started reading the new John Sandford mystery I picked up from the library this afternoon.

We were up bright and early for our walk. The morning was warm and sunny--just perfect. After breakfast, John put the second and final coat of lacquer on Matt's boards and got that job done. They will hopefully install the trim on Friday.

With all the rain and warm weather, the grass has been growing very fast; so John spent most of the morning cutting the grass once again. While he was busy with that, I did some laundry and got caught up with finances. After lunch, we headed to Bemidji to take care of some errands and for John's doctor's appointment to see about his shoulder. After having some x-rays, it was decided that he needs to have surgery to clean up some spurs and to repair a slight tear. As of now the surgery is scheduled for July 20th. That was the earliest it could be done as the doctor is heading off on vacation.

Following the doctor's appointment, we took the Honda to the dealership for servicing and tire rotation. We got a loaner car and headed to Target to pick out a wedding gift and then to Burger King for a quick supper.

We weren't home very long when a couple of trucks pulled up out front (it was after 7:00 p.m.). The Tel Com company had returned to work on our driveway and lawn. They dumped some top soil on the lawn, raked it out, and re-seeded everything. Then they started work on the driveway--they smoothed out the ruts and filled in the holes. Tomorrow they told us they would return and spread some gravel. Everything looks much better and the mud is finally drying up. Unfortunately, rain is forecast over the next couple of days.

The nice sunshine of yesterday was replaced by clouds and rain today. Since we couldn't take our walk we decided to take advantage of the situation and sleep in a little. After breakfast, John went down to the shop to stain and lacquer a few more boards that Matt had brought over yesterday.

With all the rain overnight and this morning, our worst fears about the driveway came true. There are ruts and mud everywhere they trenched in the new cable. A fellow from the company that did the work came back to see how the driveway looked and told us they will be bringing in some gravel to spread on it and help fill in the ruts and holes.


By the late morning, the skies started to clear, so John decided it would be a good time to finish hauling the firewood from Matt's. Grandson, Sam, and his cousin, Elizabeth, again helped load the trailer and back of the truck. John took his time this afternoon unloading and stacking the wood--we should soon have enough to last through next winter.




Before supper, I spent a little time checking the flowers and garden. Everything is growing quickly. I took several photos, but the mosquitoes were just thick, so I didn't linger long. We spent a quiet evening watching a movie on TV.

The humidity of the past several days finally broke and it was a perfect morning for a walk. After breakfast John headed up to Matt's where Sam and his cousin, Elizabeth, helped load the pickup and trailer with firewood. Then it was back to our place to unload it. In between trips they managed to play some basketball.

Joanne and the kids came down to the shop this morning so Jo could help with the packing. I spent some time visiting with them and catching up on what has been happening with them while we were away.

We had quite a bit of activity around our place today. The telephone company is installing some new fiber optic cable underground, so this afternoon they pulled in our place with their equipment and proceeded to tear up our driveway. They tried to smooth everything out, but John will have a little job reseeding some of the lawn. Not sure if we will have to bring in more gravel for the driveway. Will have to wait and see how it holds up after some rains. I didn't get too much accomplished today as I was busy watching all the outside action.



This evening John went out to check the strawberry patch and found that some had ripened. Hopefully we'll soon have enough to make jam and have strawberry shortcake. Spent the evening watching a little TV.