How to drink at the zoo....

We had a weekend at home...well sorta, mostly! We started Friday night out at the zoo for their Brew at the Zoo event. We went with another couple. Was fun to listen to the band, have a few samples, and enjoy friends. We ended the night downtown for a few appetizers.

On Saturday, when the wind and rain were crazy and it was cold, I headed up to my cousin Ambour's bridal shower. Was fun to see her excited about her October wedding. I got to see some of the plans and hear about the decorations.

Sunday was a lowkey day, aside from the evening, we headed over to Wade and Lynn's and enjoyed my Grandparent's 65th wedding anniversary. It is quite a testament to the strength of people and the belief in their relationship to love someone through thick/thin for that amount of time. And to think she didn't say "yes" the first time he asked her to marry him!

On the garden front: we are doing well with tomatoes and peppers. We have room for improvement with radishes and cabbage. The beans and peas have been finished. The cucumbers are hit and miss. However, I'm a big pumpkin fail. The pumpkin, I've been so excited about is growing backwards and the little pumpkins just aren't taking off despite the million blooms I've had. The herb garden has been the most successful!

Best Meal: we had fish tacos...it's always a classic at our house

Driving home from Fargo
ALR: Did we reach the halfway point?
MJR: Yes, that was Jamestown.
ALR: Hmm...so are we close to the 3/4 way point?
MJR: Not really.
ALR: So where is that.
MJR: Well if we do the math, It's 196 miles divided by four.
ALR: Which is.....
MJR: Well 196 divided by two is about 100 and divide that by two and that's about 50.
ALR: Which is where.....
MJR: St------ (expectant pause)
ALR: (Blatant staring)
MJR: Steele. (Deadpan tone)
ALR: Do I have to do everything?
MJR: (GASP!) I did everything. I knew the miles, I did the math. I knew the distance between the cities. I am driving! I did everything!
ALR: Yes, but I had to prompt you.

How to fit it all in....in 100 degrees

It was one of those weeks where you feel like you are going in a million directions. Not saying they were bad directions...but hard to keep straight and a little bit random.

I started it off as being Mom's guest at her company picnic. The weather was beautiful, the food was good, it was fun to meet some of her co-workers and it was good to wander around and check things out. I had to laugh at the goats, who stole the show, they were butting heads and fighting all over the place. Matt and I haven't really been to the zoo much this summer so taking the night with her was nice.

I also helped volunteer through work at the Youthworks clothing drive. This was a community event where underprivileged came to get clothes to start out the school year. I was surprised at how much we started with and what was left when it was over. Made me think of my first days of school and how lucky I was with my fresh backpacks, new shirts and sneakers.

 On the garden front, it's been good. We've been picking tomatoes, watching the cabbage, and finishing out the beans. We harvested our first peppers. Matt's peppers that he grew from seed are also looking really phenomenal. I worried about the jellies, jams, and syrups and Matt's cornering the market on pickles. He started off with one crock and now, in the basement, he's got about 5 gallons of pickles going.

I tried something new with a bountiful basket add on, I put up hibiscus jelly. Something new and different, plus what else do you do with hibiscus leaves? I did get a personal victory....we have ate a raised strawberry. It was little and Matt and I shared it.... but we've managed to pick and eat two.

 I've been out a few times to Mom and Dad's, they have a batch of kittens that lost their mama. They are so little and such loud mewers. They can outmew Lola. There are 4 of them and are two little to drink out of a dish so have to be given everything by hand. Mom thinks they look like a 1950's electronic football game. Matt thinks they look like little drunks. I agree with the drunks, stumbling all over, yelling, wandering through places that they shouldn't. So you continually feed them and then clean them up.

We  also made one of my new summer favorites....pizza on the grill.

 On the cat front, the cats were a bit naughty this week. We came home one night and they were gone. Ran away. Lola had opened the door and both had went outside. Lola was coming down our driveway when we got home but TD was no where to be seen. I had a small meltdown. After 20 minutes, I found him across the street (another meltdown) eating the neighbor's plants.
He's been pretty good since then.
ALR to TonyDanza: TonyDanza, come take a picture with George.

ALR: (while making supper) I have a concern
MJR: (looks at Lola) Lola, do you think this is a real concern or one she's made up in her head.
Lola: Me-ow.
ALR: What did you say?!

How to have an international daytrip....

Before we get into the meat of the week and weekend, better start with the highlight of Matt's week. He made pickles, well I should say he's making pickles. He's doing them in two ways. First in a crock, complete with brine and crock and all and second, in the jars. We'll see how they turn out.

The last batch of stuff made in the crock seemed to turn out well, just ask Michele. We took her a jar of sauerkraut and we eventually had to tell her to put it away or she'd have NOTHING left, including the juice that she drank right from the jar. No, thank you!

She wasn't the only one what was happy this past weekend from our visit. We got to see Nike! She was as sassirrific as her normal self, which I wouldn't expect anything different. She does like that she can come and go outside as she pleases at Grandma and Grandpa's house but that didn't stop her from loving Matt when she could while we were there.

She wasn't too impressed about the "family picture" I forced her to take but it's not the first time that I've upset her.

I had to laugh at the little old ladies on the couch! Grandma Lee and Crybaby both have their days but they snoozed a majority of the time we were there. Glad they have each other!

We went up to Lansford on the way to the International Peace Gardens. I'd never been and it was a big deal to go this summer as they are tearing down the towers that they put up (symbolizing the relationship between the US and Canada and the promise to never go to war) in 1982. They have got moisture seeping into the concrete and they want to tear them down before they fall down.

It was very interesting to see the layout, design, and the thousands and thousands of flowers that  had gone into the work of the gardens. The whole park is themed around the division of the 2 countries by the 49th parallel and the peace that resides there.  It was very serene with the water fountains, the blankets of floral, and the dragonflies and butterflies humming in the air.

There are specific division in the park, from the water running to the main fountain, to the flower created flags, the floral clock, and the bells that chime every 15 minutes. We walked the mile and a half to the towers, which were fenced off. They stand 120 feet in the air and appeared different colors from the distance because of the sun's shadowing.

This is called a Mother-In-Law cushion!

We also took time to go through the green houses with the varieties of plants, cactus,and succulents. It was amazing the amount of time and energy that goes into the sheer beauty of it. Don't get my wrong, it's not a children's theme part but maybe with our garden this summer, I've come to appreciate the talents of those that are able to grow and create things.

We headed back through American customs and went to Bottineau, Matt's first college town and had late lunch at the Pizza Inn. Large 1/2 beef and pep, 1/2 sausage. I will admit I was pleasantly surprised by the pizza and would eat it again!

Sunday was a day to put things away, we started with helping Mom and Dad put away hay bales into the loft and ended it with hibiscus jelly, laundry, vacuuming, and finding our bedroom floor. I guess after weeks of gallivanting all over the world and traveling abroad, we probably got to get down to business!

Best Meal...so here is the tricky thing....Randy's pizza always tops my list and when you add our fresh basil and our jalapenos...it couldn't get better...always leaves me with a gut ache from over eating. We also had the first ribs of the summer combined with gouda mac and cheese...Matt did really well and we finished the meal with a couple pieces of cake that Mom made for me that I couldn't resist, peach cream cake. Ahhhh.....this whole weekend I ate too well. Maybe we should have walked the big loop of the Peace Gardens!

MJR reads ALR the placard at the Peace Gardens regarding the border.
Upon completion of his oration, ALR (looks at him): See! Canada! (Walks South 2 feet) United States!
MJR: NO, didn't you listen. This is no-man's land. 10 feet on each side of the 49th parallel.
ALR: Oh.
ALR: (Walks to the North) Canada! (runs 20 feet south) United States! (runs 20 feet north) Canada! (runs 20 feet south)
MJR: (gets in car)

How to slowly harvest your garden...

What you are seeing here is 4 tomatoes. But it's not just four tomatoes. It's our first four tomatoes from our tomato plants that we've been nursing along all spring and summer. It's been an incredibly slow start. There are a lot of green but it's taken a long time to get to four red tomatoes. I guess we can't complain, the last time I attempted to raise tomatoes on my own I only raise three tomatoes and they never turned red.

What you are not seeing here is our first strawberry, which upon returning from camping appeared to have been missing, eaten by someone else. I'm assuming someone winged and unappreciative of the first strawberry that I've ever raised. I hope they choked on it.

Other happenings in the garden appear to be steady now, it's a slow wait game for the sun to bake things evenly. We have bells and jalapenos and Matt's raised from seed peppers appear to be handling themselves well, now they just need to get their stuff together and start putting off peppers.

The beans are have come and we are just finishing the final harvests there...we may see a few more but we'll probably be hauling those out of the ground before long. The peas we also said goodbye to. It was definitely a learning year with them. We learned to take them sooner than later.

What else we learned is that cabbage takes up a lot of room. A lot and when you plant a lot of seeds, they grow and look like a forest. I have a coleslaw recipe in mind for them later. We are struggling with cucumbers. We have had two good ones but now we can't seem to get our stuff together. They start out well but it's like the head and the tail aren't growing together. It's a good thing we have a neighbor that is very willing to share! Here's to their good produce.

We also appear to have 1 pumpkin started, which I'm a bit bumped about, I was hoping for 4 or 5. But one, gad! For all the blossoms and all the leaves.....sigh. Oh well, maybe next year. These pictures are the front and the back of the second bed. They are looking good and appear to be doing well. Just need to get going with their job.

All in all our Rapunzel, aka cherry tomato plant was a beautiful decision, we are really enjoying her and will probably do that again in the future! All in all, our harvest are small, manageable and almost nightly.

MJR holds up handful of beans.
MJR: You know for what we want to do, we are never going to raise enough.
ALR: To can you mean?
MJR: Yes.
ALR: You are right, our garden is the size to support us through summer eating, not get us through summer and winter.
MJR: That's a bummer.

How to start a camping season...

We had our first official camping trip this past weekend. We also had the official dive weekend camping trip. We'd been looking forward to it to spend it with friends that we've been missing. We got there on Friday, after a week of hurrying to get the camper ready. We really had a perfect weekend with sun and hot temps! Good thing for the air conditioner!

Was good to catch up and fall back into old habits and old conversations. I think my favorite part of the weekend sitting around the campfire with the girls talking and laughing and making s'mores. I'm proud to say I made Roxanne's son, Ian's first s'more. I think he's was in love...all those wonderful foods coming together at once. Mmmm. I even had a belly ache that night from too many marshmallows.

Matt's favorite part of the trip was the boat, being on the water, and finally getting some fish caught. He's ahead of his parents this year with two caught. I know he would have liked more but for how much we've been out, we'll take what we can get.

Besides getting the camper ready, we also have been busy around the house....harvesting crop, gardening, canning....We canned 8 quarts of pickled beets, 6 half pints of peach honey, 4 pints of strawberry beat syrup, and 7 pints and 3 half pints of beet jelly. I still need to finish up the peach jelly (new recipe) and Matt has some plans to pickle our beans.

We went out to harvest when we got back from camping and we saw a little friend. We had been told about them but was still pleasantly surprised to see him scampering on the concrete towards the lake. Matt gave him a lift after trying to show him to our runarounds...they could care less, they just wanted to be outside.

Best meal: Fireside Pizza sandwiches, one of my favorites each year. MMMMMMmmmmm!

Conversation from the farm while out for supper while my grandparents were there.
Dad: No, we milked cows all the way until I left for college.
Grandpa: Nah....
Dad: Yes, we did, that old white cow.
Grandma: What was her name? Do you remember?
Dad: Whitey.

When crawling into the bed in the camper.
MJR: Why do you get two pillows in the camper?
ALR: Because I packed the camper and made the bed.
MJR: Valid point.