Catching Up

Our beautiful Misty taking a catnap!

This is a old cart that was used in the Nickle minds around Riddle and Myrtle Creek, Or. It now resides behind the MC hardware store. I love the way they plant flowers in it every year. It is right next to the post office so I see it often.

This is some of my sunflowers.......look close and you will see a honeybee!

Rapunzel....one of the Fairytale Dotees I have made lately. I also made Mary Had A Little Lamb and Little Red Riding Hood. I still have Goldilocks to make and swap soon.

I was lucky enough to catch several photos of this beautiful dragonfly in my garden area.

Rich at Mildred Kanipe Park just outside Oakland, OR.

One of the beautiful peacock at Mildred Kanipe Park.

Me at Mildred Kanipe Park.

One of the old homes in Oakland, OR.

Oakland, OR.

Oakland, OR.

I was able to get this close-up of one of the peacocks at Mildred Kanipe Park.

50 pounds of cherries from Kurt's place.

Time to do a little catching up. Rich took a weeks vacation in July. We mostly stayed home and worked around the house, canning cherries and took a few day trips.

We went and picked 50 pounds of sweet cherries from Kurt's (Rich's fellow employee) place. He has 2 huge trees and he only eats a few of the cherries. He lets us pick the rest. We picked about 50 pounds this year. We canned 47 pints of pitted cherries. Yes, pitted! I found a cherry pitter on Ebay for 99 cents and $3.99 shipping. We set up an assembly line for canning. I would was and make sure there was no bad ones. Rich would pit enough for a cannerful of jars. I would get them going in the canner. Then we started all over again.....until we had them finished. They look wonderful sitting in the pantry.

One of our day trips was to Oakland, OR. It is about 45 minutes north of us on I-5. The town is about 2 miles off the freeway. The town was established in 1851. In 1872 the town was relocated to be next to the new railroad. There are several old brick buildings that are used for businesses today. There are several old homes located around town. Rich and I both would love to own one of the homes built in the 40's or 50's.........especially if it had a wraparound porch. I love my friend, Gina's home......it looks so cozy and warm. We also went to a nearby park for our picnic lunch. It is Mildred Kanipe Park about 8 miles northeast of Oakland. The park is 1,100 acres. There is so many sights to see......old home of Mildred Kanipe, old barns and outbuildings, old school and the grounds are so beautiful. There is peacocks everywhere. I was fortunate enough to find one of the long tail feathers while on a walk. While having our lunch in the picnic area several of the peacocks decided to join us. I was able to get some great photos of the peacocks. Of course, they didn't cooperate and show me their plummage in all its glory. Maybe next time. Yes, we will be going back to enjoy the park again.

My garden has been doing so so!!!! The weather has been cold one day.....blistering hot the next. I mean we went from 111 degrees one day to 79 degrees the next day. Poor garden doesn't know if it should grow or hibernate. I've been getting some nice tomatoes lately.

I ended up with 6 sunflowers this year. If you will look closely on the sunflower you will see a honeybee. I have seen lots of honeybees this year.....last year I hardly seen any.

One morning Rich told me to be quite and bring my camera out to the porch. He had spied a beautiful red dragonfly. I was fortunate enough to get several photos of it landing on a tomato cage.

I just recently went over to Dad's for blackberry picking. Dad, Mae and I picked about 8 gallons of blackberries. I canned 27 pints of pure blackberry puree, 3 pints of Blackberry Jelly. Rich loves blackberry cobbler but doesn't like the seeds in it. I experimented and found that running the berries through the juicer it makes a thick puree. I then thicken it a little with cornstarch before adding to baking dish. Then I add my cobbler topping and bake. Ta-Da........Blackberry Cobbler......no seeds. The blackberries are still ripening and I might go pick some more....not sure.

I bought 25 pounds peaches at Brosi's Sugartree Farms in Winston, OR. They were so sweet and yummy. I dehydrated them and had enough to fill 2 quart baggies with the dehydrated peaches.. I was able to freeze enough peaches for 2 batches of Peach Jam and 3 Peach Cobblers.

We went in to visit Rich's Dad and Stepmother in Medford, OR. They had recently moved into a Retirement Home. They have a 1 bedroom apartment. It has the one bedroom, handicapped bathroom, living room, combination dining room and kichenette. They have a 2 burner range top, microwave and small refrigerator. They don't have to worry about cooking as 3 meals a day is provided in the dining room down stairs. They also have ice cream and pie socials often in the dining area. Just recently they had a Hawaiian feast outside on the patio. They had Hawaiian music for entertainment. They were able to enjoy the feast and then go back to their room and listen to the music through their window that overlooks the patio. They have lots of trips, games, entertainment provided for them. They have a laundry room and beauty shop just doors away from their apartment. Rich's sister, Donna picks them up for church services. They can schedule their doctor appointments on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesdays and the shuttle will take them to their appointments. They also have shuttles for shopping trips. Rich is so happy that they moved into the retirement home. They had life cords in each room in case they fall and need help. There is staff there 24 hours a day. The manager took us on a tour of the facilities and Rich was able to talk to her about his concerns about his Dad. He is getting to the point that he needs a scooter to get around. She said she would look into the situation.

While we was in Medford we went and spent the afternoon visiting with my sister, Bobbie and her husband, Mike. They are getting ready to remodel their kitchen. Their home was built in the 1940's. They have already remodeled the bedrooms, dining area, bathroom (adding master bath and walk in closet) and added a 3-car garage. They are supposed to start remodel around Labor Day. They had samples of the countertop, flooring and cabinets and was asking everyone's opinion. I chose the same countertop material as Bobbie. I can't wait to see it finished. Bobbie will finally have a dishwasher......she's looking forward to that. They are putting pull out drawers in all the bottom cabinets. Bobbie has arthritis in her knees and has a hard time getting down to see whats in the bottom cabinets.

We went to visit Danny's Mom and Brother, Lonny. They live out in Sams Valley, OR. Mom G. is like a Mom to both Rich and I. Rich and Danny became friends in the third grade in 1959. I met Danny and Mom G. in 1972 and Rich in 1973. We have all spend lots of time fishing, camping, and visiting. Lonny was in a horrible car accident years ago and is paralyzed from the waist down. That doesn't stop him from camping, fishing, gardening or doing most everything he wants. He lives with Mom G. and she is his official caregiver. They took us out to show us their garden. It was beautiful. They had corn, all kinds of squash, melons, tomatoes, beets, cukes, carrots and even tobacco growing. They shared their bounty with us.....we brought home tomatoes and zucchini squash. I dehydrated both as I had several squash in the frig and a big bowl of tomatoes on the counter.

Last Friday I bought 50 pounds of Bartlett pears at Brosi's Sugar Tree Farms. I'm still waiting for them to ripen enough to can. I swear Rich can eat a whole pint of my canned pears in one sitting. I'm going to dehydrate a few.....maybe. I might have to go back next week and buy another 25 pounds. We'll see how many pints I get canned out of the 50 pounds.

Ive been busy making Dotee dolls that I swap all over the world. I recently received Dotees from Germany, England, Australia and Russia. I doing several series of Dotees right now. One is Gone With The Wind, Circus Players, Fairytales, Monsters from the old black and white movies and Alice and Wonderland. I'll have to take a photo of my Gone With the Wind ones. So far, we have done Scarlett. I did her in her finest curtain dress. Next we will be doing Rhett. I'm trying to decide what costume I want to use for Rhett. I do extensive research for my Dotee dolls.

Misty.....is being Misty. She loves her Friskies Salmon Pate and her frequent catnaps. We are thinking about getting her a little sister soon. We think that she is bored is why she spends so much time under the bed sleeping. We are in hopes that a little sister will entice her to play and not sleep so much. I mean she sleeps under the bed for at least 12-16 hours a day. She comes out to eat in the mornings and to play with Rich when he comes home from work. She hardly comes out during the day.

Well, I better get going and check on those darn pears. I hope they ripen soon. We are planning on attending the Pioneer Days festivities in Canyonville, OR this weekend and don't want to be canning pears. Saturday is the parade and events at the park. Sunday our church joins 2-3 other churches for Sunday services.