We woke to cloudy skies and cooler temps this morning which made for very pleasant walking conditions. The clouds actually helped to cut down on some of the flying insects. Before walking, we have to spray ourselves with plenty of Off to ward off the mosquitoes and flies.

The grandkids were playing baseball again this morning, so right after breakfast John headed up to Clearbrook to watch some of their games. Hanna's team won both of their games, while the other kids split with a win and a loss.

Hanna on Base

Rachel at bat

Josh on base

Sam at bat

After lunch Matt, Hanna, and Rachel came back down to our place where Matt finished working up the ground and then planted soybeans. Hanna drove the four wheeler while Matt sat on the front and hand broad casted the seeds.


While John was at the baseball games, I spent the morning cleaning up our home office, updating finances and paying bills. Actually, that took most of the day. I just got everything done when it was time to head off to Weight Watchers. John ended the day watering the garden and doing some grass cutting. We spent a quiet evening watching "America's Got Talent."

A little note to Darlene - we can read your comments. We enjoy hearing from you!

John and I were up early this morning as we had to be in Bemidji by 8:30 a.m. for doctors' appointments. While John was having his annual physical, I went and had my annual eye exam. My eye glass prescription changed just a little, so I am holding off on new glasses for right now. John checked out okay and is cleared for his shoulder surgery--just needs to wait for the results of the blood tests. We were all done by 10:00 a.m. and since John hadn't eaten this morning, we headed off to Country Kitchen for some breakfast.

After a nice breakfast, we ran a few errands and did a little shopping. On the way home, we stopped at one of our local banks and picked up the Premium Book for this year's fair. We have to fill out an entry form for the items we are entering this year.

Today was absolutely beautiful--mild temps and very low humidity. John took advantage of the nice day to work in the garden. He picked more strawberries and the first bucket of raspberries. Our broccoli is just about ready for picking and we should have tomatoes sometime this month. We usually don't get tomatoes until the end of August.




This evening Matt stopped over with Sam, Hanna, and Rachel. The kids came in to visit while Matt finished the tractor repairs and started working in the back field. Sam, Hanna, and I had a lot of laughs watching "Wipeout" on TV. Sam says he would like to try the "Wipeout" course--especially running across the big balls.

The sunny skies of yesterday carried over into today. Though the temps were still warm, the humidity was lower and that made our morning walk more comfortable.

Matt wants to plant some food plots for deer in our back fields, so he came over early this morning to run a disc over the ground. He just pulled into the driveway when the hydraulic hose on the tractor split and fluid began shooting out. That marked the beginning of a day long repair job. Hopefully the repair will be completed tomorrow so he can work the ground and get it ready for planting.



The shop was closed today, so John decided that it would be a good time to start working on the wall entertainment center that he has on order. John got most of the parts cut out, drilled, and ready to assemble. He should get to that in the next day or two. I needed a couple of more frames made and John was able to get them finished up this afternoon.


I kept busy today doing laundry, getting things put back in place after our get together yesterday, and framing a couple of more photo prints. Following supper, John cut a little grass before calling it a day. We spent a quiet evening watching some TV.

We had more thunderstorms and a steady rain all night and it was still raining when we got up this morning. John checked the weather on the computer and found that the rain was going to move out by early afternoon and it would be a nice day for the July 4th parade.

Following breakfast, we headed off to church. This was our new pastor's first Sunday and the service was followed by a potluck dinner to welcome him. Every year we go to Bemidji for their Fourth of July Parade, so as soon as we were finished eating, we took Hanna and Rachel and left for the parade. John and his family were already there (they are camping in Bemidji State Park), so we called them on the cell phone and found out where they were sitting. It didn't take us long to meet up with everyone. We had a few rain showers at the beginning of the parade, but the clouds soon cleared out and we enjoyed nice weather for the rest of it.

Rachel, Julie, Jenni, Hanna, and Josh

After the parade was over, we headed back to our house. Matt, Sara, and Sam soon arrived and after visiting for a bit, John grilled some hamburgers, hotdogs, and brats. Since the weather was so nice, we ate outside on the screened porch. When everyone finally had enough to eat, we spent the rest of the evening playing card games and "Blockus".

We were up early again this morning so we could take our walk before it got too hot. The temperature was 73 degrees at 6:30 a.m. It turned out to be a pretty warm walk--tomorrow is suppose to be a little cooler.

It's nice and cool down in the shop, so John spent some time down there today making and painting a few more frames. The larger prints I ordered on line came today, so the frames are just about ready.

We usually have a big family gathering on July 4th; however, this year is going to be a little different. Dave and Amy usually come up to our place for three or four days, but since they just returned from a two week trip to California, they will visiting later in the summer. John and his family are camping this weekend with his in-laws, so it will be just be Matt's family and possibly a few other people gathering at our place. I spent some time today straightening up around the house and getting some food ready for tomorrow. We also had more strawberries to freeze. John says the strawberries are just about done--just in time for the raspberries to start.

With the weather being so hot and humid, we had a fairly lazy day staying inside with the AC keeping us cool.

It was another warm day with strong breezes that made the temps more tolerable. After our walk, we spent most of the morning in the shop experimenting with different paints and stains. It took a little trial and error, but we finally came up with a combination we liked. John painted the frames he made and will finish them up tomorrow.

The strawberries are still coming on strong. John went out and picked another bucketful this afternoon and then we bagged up the ones we had ready for the freezer. We are getting a bumper crop of strawberries this year.


This afternoon John did a few chores around the outside. While he was doing that, I ran into town to the library and to get a few more photo prints made. I think I now have all the prints done for this year's fair. I will need John to make just one more frame and then everything will be ready for the show.

John has been able to go one whole day without mowing the lawn. I thought I would post a picture of our house so you all could see how nice it looks with the grass all trimmed. This front section is only one small part of the lawn that has to be cut.



After supper John got a call from Stan Metcalf, a friend from Texas, and got caught up on what has been happening on the fort. We ended the evening watching some TV and starting a new mystery from the library.

Summer has finally arrived in northern Minnesota. We got up a little earlier to walk this morning because the weather forecast called for a very warm day--highs in the upper 80's. The temp when we left the house was 67 degrees at 6:30 a.m. There was a strong breeze that helped keep the insects away as well as keeping us cool.

I ordered several larger photo prints for the fair, so after breakfast, John headed down to the shop to make some bigger frames. While he was waiting for the glue to dry, he finished mowing the last section of the lawn. It is now completely cut and trimmed. Hopefully, it will take more than a day or two before he needs to start the whole process over again.

Following lunch, we took some time for freeze the strawberries John had cut up last night. We ended up with seven bags for the freezer and still have two more big containers of berries to either freeze or use for shortcake. Think shortcake sounds like a good idea.

John has been experimenting with different paints and stains for the new frames--he wants to have the frames look like they are made out of old barn wood. We decided to go to Bemidji and visit the Sherwin Williams store. We have done business with them for years, and the manager is very knowledgeable when it comes to solving paint problems. He didn't let us down--he had several suggestions and after 15 minutes we left the store with a quart of paint to try.

It was getting late in the afternoon, so we decided to head to our favorite pizza shop for some supper. After a delicious Canadian bacon, pineapple, and cheese pizza, we went to get some groceries. With the holiday weekend coming up, the store was crowded with shoppers. We were glad we only had a small list of things to get.

This evening John spent some time watering the garden and cutting up more strawberries. Hopefully, they will be coming to an end soon as the raspberries are starting to ripen. We ended the evening with a little TV and strawberry shortcake. It sure tasted good.