Busy Day

We were up early once again for our morning walk and following breakfast, spent a little time in the shop trying to decide where to put everything John hauled off the trailers yesterday.  I had a 10:30 a.m. appointment in Bemidji for my annual eye exam, so time in the shop was cut short for today.

John went along with me as I knew the doctor would dilate my eyes and I wouldn't be able to see to drive home.  I had no changes in my eyes and am good to go for another year.  When we left the clinic, we stopped at the bank, filled the gas tank, got the car washed, and then headed to BK for some lunch.  From there it was a quick stop at the grocery store for several items and then back on the road home.  

We had a little over an hour to relax before heading out again to Erskine to watch Hanna and Rachel play volleyball.  Both girls played well even though their teams lost.  

Rachel returning a serve

 

Hanna returning serves

While we were home this afternoon, John picked some tomatoes from the garden.  We'll have to get busy soon making some Salsa.

 

Slightly Cooler--Only Slightly

Dark clouds were building up in the west when we left the house for our walk.  We felt a couple of rain drops before we made it home and about a half an hour after we returned, the rains came down.  We are in desperate need of moisture, so this was greatly appreciated.

By mid-morning the skies cleared and the humidity was on the rise once again.  John and I spent the morning in the shop getting items moved around and in place for the sale.  After lunch John started hauling some items for the sale off the storage trailers.  I worked on listing a few more items on ebay.

After supper we headed up to Clearbrook for the first football game of the season.  The Bears had trouble holding onto the ball and those turnovers lead to their opponent scoring.  The final score was 21-14.  Sam played the entire game and even had to fill in at quarterback for several snaps when the regular QB was out with leg cramps.  Even though the Bears lost, we had a good time watching the game and visiting with folks.

Getting ready for pass

 

 Raising hands to show no pass

interference

 

Hot Weather Still Hanging Around

John and I got up early this morning so we could get our walk in before the sun made it over the horizon.  It was 70 degrees at 6:30 a.m. with pretty high humidity.  Walking once the sun is up is out of the question as the temps take off and it's just too warm.

Right after breakfast we headed down to the shop to do some more cleaning and sorting.  John removed the desk, filing cabinets, etc., and got the entire office cleared.  I worked on cleaning computer keyboards and monitors and got them ready for pricing.  Our plan is to start going through and setting items out where we want them for the sale.  I have completed the wood inventory and have that all priced.  We are slowly, but surely, making headway.  Matt stopped over this morning to give John a hand hauling wood off one of the storage trailers.  This is wood they want to keep and had to find another place to store it as the storage trailers are going on the sale.  

We took a quick break after lunch and headed into town for our annual hearing test.  I passed with flying colors, John has a slight hearing loss in one ear.  Not enough to warrant hearing aids at this time.

John did a little more work in the shop when we got home while I worked in the office taking care of end of the month finances.  Hard to believe our sale is just a month away.  Where did the summer go? 

Its Begun

Yesterday was pretty quiet around here with the usual Sunday routine.  The weather was so hot and muggy that the only place to be was either in a lake or in AC.  Since we didn't have the lake, we settled for the AC.

This morning John was up and out bright and early to work with Matt finishing up his current job.  I spent my day taking care of some household chores--laundry, giving the kitchen a good cleaning, and a few other things.  We are to the point in the shop where we are starting to set up for the sale.  I have been making some signs with pricing for the wood left in inventory and bagging up spindles, shaker pegs, and other smaller items.  I will also list a few more items on ebay.  Today we sold the last of the lamp cords--started off with 120 of them.  We have been listing the items on ebay that we feel have a better chance of selling there than on our sale.

The title of today's blog refers to the sports season.  Late this afternoon John and I headed up to the school to watch Rachel and Hanna play volleyball.  The only problem was the girls played at the same time but in two different gyms.  Thank goodness they were right next to each other--just walk out one door and turn right into the other.  The teams play two games and if each wins one game apiece, a third game is played.  We watched Hanna play a game and then ran next door to watch Rae before going back to watch more of Hanna.  We ended up missing quite of bit of Rachel so we need to come up with a better system for viewing the games next time.  Rachel is playing 7th grade VB while Hanna plays on the C team.  Hanna also played on the B team which is similar to junior varsity.  They will play again tomorrow and on Friday.  Then we throw in Sam's first football game of the season on Thursday evening.  He just found out he'll be the starting safety on defense.  Along with all the sports, we also have an eye exam and hearing test scheduled for this week.  What were we thinking?

Rachel (5) returning the ball

 

Oops!  Ball went out of bounds.

 

Hanna tips the ball over the net.

 

  Getting ready for the serve

 

Hot Weather Continues

John and I overslept a little this morning and paid the price by having to take our walk with the temps and humidity a little higher than we would like.  As the day progressed, it only got worse and the forecast is for this weather to stick around all through next week.  Thank goodness for AC.

Today the Clearbrook Bears had a football scrimmage in Argyle, MN. which is about two hours north of us and maybe 60 miles from the Canadian border.  Since the weather was miserably hot, I wasn't too thrilled to go, but John sort of talked me into it.  I must say it was HOT!!!  I don't know how the kids could stand playing in their pads, helmets, etc.  

There were approximately 16 teams from the northern part of the state.  Four games were going on at the same time on two different fields.  A game consisted of 15 snaps on offense for each team.  In between the offense and defense, the JV teams each got five snaps of the ball.  Sam played varsity and in one game intercepted a pass.  In their third game, he was quarterback and threw for a touchdown.  As soon as the final game was over, we didn't waste much time getting back into the car and turning on the AC.  We stopped at Arby's for some supper on the way home and finally got back around 7:30 p.m. after leaving a little after noon.  

Just a little frustration after being overthrown

on a pass play

 

 

Running back the interception

Hard to believe the 2013 school sport's season is starting.  We just put all the games on our calendar and it looks like we'll have a pretty busy September going to volleyball and football games as well as getting ready for our big sale.

Ralph called to remind us to send along some tomatoes with Dave and Valada when they return to Brackettville.  Thought I'd give him a little preview of what he can expect.

  

 Here is a sample of our tomatoes

 

 Our grapes are beginning to ripen--will

be another bumper crop this year

 John standing next to our giant sunflowers.

This was taken over a week ago and they are

even taller now.  Don't know if they'll head

up since they went in so late.

 

Easy Day

John and I were up early this morning so we could be ready for the Acme Tool guy who was coming to check out our machinery.  Gerry arrived right on time at 9 a.m. and we spent the next several hours in the shop running the different machines for him while he looked them over.  He took plenty of notes and told us we would be better off selling a couple of them locally, so John will move those into the sale area tomorrow.  Gerry said he'll let us know what value he feels the rest of the machinery has and suggestions on the best way to sell it sometime next week.

This afternoon John did more work in the shop and also some cleaning around its entrance.  I worked in the office getting some files cleaned out and organized along with readying more ebay sales for shipment.  Our evening was pretty low key--just watched some NFL and a few other favorite shows.

A Little Cooler Today

The warmer temps and high humidity of the last few days finally gave way to slightly cooler temps and lower humidity.  Since John had to work with Matt again today, he was certainly glad to see the change in the weather.  This break is gong to last only a few days and then we'll be back to the hotter weather again.

We have been selling some of the left over parts inventory on ebay and yesterday sold five items.  I got those things packed up and headed into town this morning to get them shipped off.  I then went to the local grocery store for some fresh produce before returning home.  This afternoon I did some baking and made a nice stew for supper.   All in all it was a pretty quiet day.

HOT!!!

Today was the hottest one yet with temps reaching into the 90's.  I don't think the heat would be too bad, but the humidity has been very high thus making it miserable to be outside.

Yesterday I finished up with my yearly physical and blood work and, when I got done at the clinic, did a little shopping and picked up subs for supper.  John did some work down in the shop cleaning out filing cabinets and getting them ready for the sale.  We both did some work down there last night and managed to get the shelves in place for the sale.

Since Sam started football practice this week, Matt needed some help on a bathroom renovation, so John worked with him all day.  I think they will get most of it finished by tomorrow.  With John gone all day, I didn't work in the shop.  Instead, I did some catching up on housework and laundry.  It seems most of our time has been consumed with getting ready for our sale and then other chores get put on hold.  Doesn't seem possible it's a month and a half until the big day.  I'm hoping we'll have a good portion of it set up by the weekend.  This week is busy with appointments, haircuts, etc. and that makes it difficult to spend any length of time working down there.  On Thursday morning, the man from Acme Tools is coming to look over the machinery and will hopefully give us some idea of its value and how we might sell it.  

 

Summer Returned

The weather has turned hot and very humid again.  The warm weather returned yesterday and is suppose to hang around most of the week.

Not too much new and exciting happening here.  I spent all day yesterday in Grand Forks shopping with my sister-in-law.  She repainted their bedroom and was on a mission to find a new comforter.  I think we hit every store trying to find something, but had no success; however, we did manage to get some other shopping done.  John spent his day taking care of some household chores and did a little work in the shop.

Today was the usual Sunday morning routine of a walk and church.  John had picked more cucumbers, so this afternoon we canned more dill pickles.  Not sure how many quarts we'll want to do.  Since it was too warm and humid to do anything outside, we just vegged out and stayed cool in the AC.

Another Check-up

Today was my turn to head to the doctor's office for one part of my annual check-up.  Since my appointment wasn't until later in the morning, we were able to get in our walk and take care of a few chores around the house before we headed out.

I didn't eat any breakfast as I had to do a fasting blood test, so right after I was finished at the clinic, we stopped at Perkins for some lunch.  From there we made a quick stop at Menards to pick up some leather cleaner for our car and then we hit the road to home.

The remainder of our afternoon was spent down in the shop getting one of the rooms ready for setting up some tables and shelves.  Tomorrow I'll be out of town all day with my sister-in-law for a girls' lunch and shopping so John will be on his own.

Reversed Day

Instead of working down in the shop this morning, we left the house by 8 a.m. and headed off to Bemidji for John's annual physical at the clinic.  He didn't have any wait and was back out a little before 10 a.m.   John is just waiting on the results of his blood tests, but  everything else was fine and he's good to go for another year.

From the clinic we stopped at Perkins for some breakfast and then hit Wal Mart and a few other stores before driving back home.  We spent the afternoon working in the shop and managed to get some of the smaller machinery set up and ready for pricing.  Tomorrow it's my turn for a checkup.

More Cleaning and Sorting

Following our morning walk and breakfast, you guessed it, we were back down in the shop once again.  I must admit I am getting tired of spending most of our mornings down there.  John keeps telling me we are close to having it under control and should be able to start setting up the items we want to sell.

This afternoon I once again packed up more of the items we sold on ebay.  Seems like folks are starting to get in the buying mood right now.  John did some work in the garden and dug some potatoes for supper.  They were much tastier than the ones in the stores.

Our evening was pretty quiet--just watched some TV and did some reading.  Football and volleyball start in another couple of weeks and then we'll be kept pretty busy going to games.  Hopefully we'll be done in the shop by then.

Making Progress

Just when we thought we had sorted through the last of the miscellaneous boxes, we found a couple more we overlooked.  The problem with this type of box is that the items in it have nothing in common and we have to examine each and every item to determine where it belongs or if it can be tossed out.  I think by tomorrow we will finally have that part of the sorting completed and then we should be ready to figure out how to lay out everything for the sale.

While we were working in the shop this morning, JD, his nephew Matt who is visiting from State College, Pa., and Josh, came down to haul away all the newspaper that was left over from packaging.  They had the back of JD's pickup filled to the top when they got done loading. 

This afternoon I worked in the office getting more ebay items ready for shipping while John worked in the garden picking some cucumbers and green beans.  We made our first batch of dill pickles on Sunday and processed some beans for the freezer.  There should be enough cucumbers for more pickles in a day or two. 

Our weather continues to be fall-like, but warmer temps are on the way for the weekend.  Football practice started yesterday, so the kids are glad to have the cooler weather.   

 

Feels Like Fall

Even though we are a week and a half into August, our weather feels more and more like September.  When we drove to Crookston on Saturday morning, we could see the green leaves on several of the trees were beginning to fade and get a yellowish tinge to their color.  Our days have been very sunny with low humidity with temps just reaching the low 70's.  I think, and hope, our real hot weather is behind us.  Right now it is very enjoyable walking early in the morning with just enough nip in the air to keep the insects away.  We have noticed that some of the birds have left--when we returned home from our trip, the Magpie family was gone.  Not just  the babies were gone out of the nest, we haven't seen any Magpies anywhere.

This morning we worked down in the shop again.  We have just about completed the sorting process with only one more tool chest to empty.  I have actually started setting up a couple of shelves with items that are ready to be priced.  We sold five items on ebay over the weekend, so right after lunch I got them packed, labeled, and ready to ship.  John and I took everything into the post office and then headed to Bemidji to look at current prices for many of the items we have to sell.  We need to get an idea of what different tools cost so we can get set our prices after taking into consideration the age and wear of things.

By the time we finished up at Fleet Farm it was time for supper, so we stopped at BK for a quick bite, gassed up the car, and headed for home.  It will be more of the same tomorrow.

Race Day

My posting for today won't have too many words, but quite a few photos.  John and I were up bright and early this morning to get to Crookston (about 65 miles west of us) by 8:45 a.m.  JD and Jenni were participating in a triathlon.  This was Jenni's first time venturing into anything like this and we wanted to be there to cheer her on.  She competed in the 9-10 age category.  The kids had to swim 2 laps of the pool, ride their bikes 2.4 miles, and run 1.2 miles.  JD competed in the men's division and had to swim 16 lengths of the pool, bike 14 miles, and then run 3.2 miles.  John and I had so much fun spending the morning with the kids and cheering on the participants.  The best part was Jenni and JD both won their age divisions.  Following the morning's adventure, we headed over into Grand Forks for some lunch at Culver's and shopping at Kohl's and Sam's Club.  John has been training our new Chevy to stop at Dairy Queens.  It's a fast learner as it stopped at the DQ in Fosston on the way home.

Jenni taking a deep breath before starting her swim

Transitioning from swimming to biking

Heading out for the bike race

Coming down the home stretch of the bike race

Heading up the hill toward the finish line.  That's

Grandpop in the background

 A big smile for a job well done

JD in the pool

Off for the bike race

Heading into the turn around

Off for the 3.2 mile run.  

Father and Daughter showing off their racing numbers

The winners of the different age divisions.  Jenni is

10 years old, so the youngsters in the front

were in the eight and under division.  Quite an

accomplishment for young kids.

THE CHAMPS--WELL DONE!!

Another Day of the Same Thing

Not much new to write about this evening.  Just the same old routine of morning walk, breakfast, and down to the shop to do more cleaning and organizing.  At times I think John and I are making progress, but then I look at all the little things that still need to be sorted through, and I wonder if we'll ever get it all done.

This afternoon John finished cutting and splitting the wood down by the shop and I worked on finances and getting the desktop visible again.  We spent a pretty quiet evening watching some TV, reading, and working on the computer.  Man, our lives sure are boring right now.

September in August

Our weather today felt more like September than August with temps only reaching into the mid 60's and lows tonight expected to dip into the 40's.  One blessing of the cooler temps is that we can walk in the morning without being pestered by deer flies and other insects.  

It was the usual thing this morning--breakfast and then back down to the shop.  John and I finished cleaning and sorting the wheels we found and thought we had them all done and ready for sale when we discovered one more box of them.  Hopefully, that box will get done tomorrow.  I finished sorting all the little boxes of screws while John started going through the many clamps and other miscellaneous items that we found.

This afternoon John started cutting up the logs that were stacked down by the shop.  He wants to get that pile cleared away so he won't have to mow around it anymore.  My time was spent making various doctor's appointments and talking to our insurance agent trying to get a handle on the business policy since UW is now officially back in our hands.  I also managed to get a little more cleaning accomplished and some more items listed on ebay.  No too much exciting happening right now--we're trying to stay focused on getting the shop cleaned out and items ready for our sale.

Back Into the Routine

With nothing pressing today, we were able to get back into our regular routine of walking, eating breakfast, and then spending the morning working in the shop.

Today we finished sorting and cleaning up the powered hand tools and they are now neatly stacked on a shelf ready to be priced.  I gathered together the many different boxes of screws and began sorting them while John worked on organizing the many different drill bits that were acquired over the years.  We also found several boxes of wheels that were once used on carts and began sorting them according to size.  John and I were just starting that project when Matt dropped in with Sam and Hanna.  They stayed to visit for a while and, as usual, some basketball shooting occurred.

With everything that has been going on over the past week, I have sadly neglected taking care of the house, so this afternoon I started giving the living room a good cleaning. My fair photos and John's woodworking were scattered everywhere.  John worked out in the garden and picked our first green beans, we ate some for supper, and some cucumbers.  We'll be making pickles sometime over the next couple of days.

Cool Weather Continues

Our day started off rather cool and the weather is suppose to continue that way most of this week with expected highs only reaching into the 60's.  It sure felt like fall weather when we took our walk early this morning.

We had made arrangements with Direct TV to upgrade our service to high definition.  That meant a service call to install new receivers and get our TV's hooked up along with the DVD players.  This was suppose to be done last Friday, but the tech called in sick so the installation got moved to Saturday.  Mid-morning on Saturday, DTV called and said they were short technicians and would do the job first thing Monday morning.  Sooooo, this morning we were up early to get ready for the technician to arrive by 9 a.m.  He called around 10 a.m. and said he go tied up and was on his way.  The guy finally arrived around 10:30.  After an hour or so, we were set up with HD TV and he was on his way.

John's big project for the day was pulling out old strawberry plants and starting a new bed.  It took the better part of his day, but he now has the new bed started.  While he was busy in the garden, I baked a couple of loaves of bread and worked on listing a few items from the shop on ebay.  We think some things might have a better chance of selling on there than on our sale.

Late this afternoon we headed to Bemidji to pick up the license plates for our new car and to also take care of some banking.  We stopped at BK for a quick supper and then went across the parking lot to the grocery store to pick up some fresh fruit and a few other items that we needed.  

Several folks have been asking to see photos of our new car as well as our garden so they can see how our crops are coming along.  These pics were taken this evening.

Our new car!  It's much more comfortable

than our little Honda.

 

John's new strawberry bed

 

John showing how tall his sunflower

plants have grown.  Grapes vines

on the far left.

 

Cucumber plants running all over

 

Ralph, here are the tomatoes for you!!

  

End of the Fair

Sunday is the one day of the week where we skip working in the shop.  We just have to have a day where we don't even think about what has to be done to get ready for our sale.  

This morning we took our usual walk and, following breakfast, got cleaned up and headed off to church.  The service was a little longer today as we had a baptism and communion.  We spent most of our afternoon watching golf on TV and getting in little catnaps every now and then.

Today was the final one of the fair, so around 7 p.m. we headed into town to pick up our entries.  You could start taking items out after 8 p.m. but since we were a little early,  I stopped at the fair office first to pick up my $2 premium check for my second place bread.  John and I then walked around a little, found more old friends to visit, bought a couple of strawberry shakes, and then ended up at the Original Arts building to get my photographs and his woodworking.  Another country fair is history and before long we'll be thinking about what we want to enter next year.

  Best of Show for Wildlife

Catching Up

Our weather here in northern Minnesota remains on the cooler side and is forecast to continue into next week with daytime highs in the 70's and overnight temps reaching into the 40's and 50's.  For John and I this is perfect summer weather.  Our garden is coming right along and we have been harvesting a few cucumbers while waiting for the tomatoes to ripen.

Yesterday we worked in the shop during the morning and then most of the afternoon was taken up with my appointment for my second back injection.  Since I can't have anything to eat four hours prior to my appointment, John and I grabbed an early supper at Perkins before heading back to Bagley.  We stopped at the fair to check out our entries and found we both had won some ribbons.  

Today was more of the same--we worked in the shop during the morning and this afternoon headed into town and the Farmer's Market where we picked up some nice tomatoes.  From there we headed off to the local pizza place for some supper and then the remainder of our evening was taken up at the fair where we spent most of our time talking and visiting with folks we haven't seen since last year's fair.