How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Today is Labor Day, the celebration of the hard work of millions of Americans! Teddy said it so well.  Hats off to all of you who toil everyday in offices, fields, and factories for the benefit of all of us.  You deserve a day off!

I, however, have retired from my paying job and have the luxury of laboring as I choose, which is sitting at the sewing machine!  LOL  Not much labor there, but fun, fun, fun!  

I decided in May to take the summer off from posting in this blog because I knew I would be super busy with 13 year old Lily, my only grandchild, staying with us for 8 to 10 weeks, and I was right.  It's been a whirlwind!  Now she has returned to her home in Maine and I'm beginning to settle into a "normal" routine, whatever that means.

I have some pics to share with you and will try to not bore you with all the details!  June meant a long weekend at Lake of the Ozarks, MO for Don's family reunion, which we were in charge of arranging. This group gathers every two years at a location that's rather central for the Texas contingent as well as the Illinois and Wisconsin folks. We found a large resort and almost everyone stayed there. That meant lots of mixing and mingling as we moved from cabin to cabin, enjoying impromptu meals and catching up with what everyone's been doing for the past 2 years.  This is the view from the deck off our cabin--just beautiful!

 While I was in MO, I met up with my friend, Mary Ann, and a couple of her quilting buddies and the 4 of us spent the day at the Kansas City quilt show. They were so funny!  As soon as we arrived, they headed for the vendors and we visited every single vendor in that arena.  Just before we were ready to head for home, someone suggested that we really should take a look at the quilts on display, as long as we were there and all!  They were 3 fun and friendly ladies and I'd love to spend the day with them again.

At the end of June, we got word that Lily's mother, my daughter, had suddenly been laid off from her job and since she got a great severance package and had time on her hands, she flew home with Lily and spent a week with us.  This was very nice but she was on the computer and on the phone a lot, searching for a new job, and by the time she got home, she had 3 pretty good leads.  A few weeks later, she was hired and began working again on Aug 1. Whew!  She loves her new job and everything has worked out better than before she was laid off. A real silver lining to the dark cloud that came to her in June.

Now, Lily was with us and she spent a lot of time at the horse ranch, riding and hanging out, but toward the end of July, she was getting a bit bored with it all. She announced that next summer, she didn't want to spend so much time at the ranch. Fine with me!   She worked a bit with her grandfather making dill pickles, the best dill pickles ever!  So they say.  

And they also helped me with the 13 dozen ears of corn I bought to eat and to freeze.  The back deck was the perfect place to husk, or is it shuck, the ears and get them ready for me to process in the kitchen.  We now have over 40 bags of corn in the freezer, golden deliciousness for this winter! 

We also made corn fritters for supper that night! So good, and something I rarely even think of to make, but they're quick, easy and tasty--the three requirements of a recipe that I'll like.  :)

We did lots of swimming--I even got brave enough to do a (pretty good) dive off the diving board one afternoon--and lots of gardening.  I'd planted 30+ cabbages, 3 rows of potatoes, and a long row of carrots that I planned on donating to the local food pantry.  Nearly all the cabbages are harvested and I donated 27 pounds to the pantry. I started harvesting the carrots, as you can see in the blurry pic below, and they weighed in at 14 pounds.  So that makes 41 pounds of food so far from my little plot. I'm hoping to get at least 75 pounds when the harvest is finished.  I'll let you know.

This summer, I worked on making place mats for the local Meals on Wheels program. This was a guild project that we did over the summer and we managed to make 50 of them for the seniors.  The guild members were so creative in using their scraps and orphan blocks in making these place mats , and all for a good cause.  This is a pic of me and the MOW coordinator with a couple of the mats--I'm the old lady on the right. LOL

Before Lily returned home, she and I along with her Aunt Jo, took a short trip to Thunder Bay, Ontario. This is a city that Don and I took the kids to several times when they were younger. We usually camped at Kakabeka Falls Provincial Park but this time we stayed in a hotel in the city.  It was a truly great trip--three girls out on their own!  We went to the Falls--the second largest in Canada. I suppose Niagara Falls is the largest--and it's an impressive sight, believe me.

We spent a day at Old Fort William, a living history park depicting the fur trading post in 1815. Below, Jo is trying her hand at throwing a hatchet at a log target.  She missed--but I made it when I tried! Whoo Hoo! I'm so talented!

Lily liked being on the farm where she got to play a little with the potbellied piglets. So very cute, but the adults--not so much.

She also loved the goats that were running around all over the farm.  She may be a teenager but still has a little girl inside.

We "toured" the fort jail (gaol) which was 4 cells in complete and absolute darkness.  I can't imagine spending any time in there but I guess there were people who did, back in the day.  Jo thought she'd like to try it out, but she wouldn't let us close the door!

One of my favorite things about Old Fort William, is the bagpiper on the porch.  This fur trading company had a lot of Scots as directors and I'm sure they enjoyed hearing the bagpipes as much as I do.  As I remember it, the piper would begin playing just as we were leaving the fort, getting ready to transition back to modern times, and it was so lovely to walk through the gates with the music in the background. I wasn't disappointed on this visit--bagpipe music following us as we wandered out the gate of the fort and back to the present.

A day or two after we returned from our trip to Canada, where we also visited an amethyst mine and came back with a few bags of rocks, but no pictures, Lily had to pack up her stuff and I had to pack a bag so we could fly to Maine and bring her back home.  Lily found a sushi bar in the airport while we were waiting for our flight to board and she convinced me to get some also. Not my favorite thing, but the vegetarian sushi I got was pretty good. Can't say I cared for Lily's eel sushi,  but she did.

I stayed 8 days with Lily, Tessa and Joe, and had a really lovely time.  We were supposed to go camping in Acadia National Park, but it was cold and rainy and we all agreed to get a hotel instead. Not such a bad way to go camping, in my book.  We hiked a bit in the park, but with my bad knee, we couldn't go too far or do any climbing. Here's Lily and Tessa at the top of Cadillac Mountain--gorgeous view in the background. We spent some time in Bar Harbor--lots of tourists but not as many as if it had been good summer weather.

Lily and I spent a day making pickles from the cucumbers growing in her garden. She's a master pickle maker!  She took control of the kitchen and directed me what to do, and she managed the entire show. We ended up with 7 beautiful jars of pickles which she will enjoy very much, I think.

Lily and I also had a girls day in Maine. We dropped Tessa off at work and took a road trip. We got Lily's school supplies and had a fantastic brunch at Blueberries in Brunswick, ME.  If you're ever in that part of the world, I strongly suggest you stop in and treat yourself to some wonderful food. I took this pic from their website--there was no snow when we were there, but gorgeous rose hedges around the property.

 

After our brunch, we explored Orr and Bailey's Islands and stopped for a photo op at this little harbor, filled with fishing, lobster, and pleasure boats.  So beautiful and peaceful. I absolutely love Maine!  As if you can't tell.

We stopped at Freeport to see if Lily could find any school clothes to buy--and she did!  So she was a happy girl when we picked up her mother at the end of the day and headed for home.  The next day I flew back to Wisconsin and have been trying to get back to normal, always a challenge around here.  

So, that's how my summer has been. I loved every minute of it but now I want to just stay home and enjoy my life here.  After all, there are potatoes to harvest and quilts to make, and my cat needs my loving attention too. I hope you had a lovely summer as well and are ready to enjoy autumn and it comes sneaking in.