Friday, August 15th

left to right Alta, Amanda, Dad, Bob and Ragna

These were taken in ???? at Silver Lake which is south of Rutland North Dakota.    In the picture is Aunt Alta (Uncle Halvor died in a car crash), Aunt Amanda, Dad, Uncle Bob and Aunt Ragna.  Mom was not feeling well that day and did not go.  Amanda and Ragna were Dad's sisters.  During WWII Amanda moved to California and worked in a war related factory.  Ragna moved there to help care for her two children.  They both stayed in CA.  Bob was severely injured in the war.  I am sure it was the last time they were all together.  I think Amanda passed down some of her personality to my sisters.  I will not say more!!!

Oh my what a night of weather.  We had a down pour about 6:00 or so.  It was short but gave us .15" of rain.  I looked at the rain gauge this morning and we got a total of an inch.  Good for the garden and lawn again.  I fear for the garden produce.  We have barely started picking tomatoes and already we can not eat them all!  We may have to set up a stand in the front yard and instead of selling lemonade sell tomatoes!  We also have zucchini that we need to eat and we actually ate a small kohlrabi 2 days ago.  It was GOOD.

I just read something in the paper that is shocking.  They quoted a spokes person for the liberal leaning Iowa Farmers Union.  Growing up there was NOTHING liberal about the Farmers Union but I guess times change.  We used to go to Farmers Union meetings each month that were held at Wood Lake School but of course they were nothing but social gatherings.  I have no idea if any of the farmers were actually active in the organization.

I had an interesting experience yesterday.  Nine years ago I resodded part of the front yard.  NOW I would like to do the rest.  I had a guy over yesterday and he gave me an estimate.  I have no idea if it is reasonable as I have never hired that kind of work done.  After the fact I decided I need to get a second opinion.  My problem is I just have a difficult time paying someone to do work that I THINK I could do.  Granted IF I did it the hours would be a lot and I have so many other things to do BUT still it is difficult to think about paying someone to do that kind of work.  Maybe I could solve the problem by not thinking about it!  Anyway I will get another estimate next week.  I think the guy knew what he was talking about when he came over yesterday.  He said, "It looks like you have a two-tone lawn".  The grass I put in 9 years ago is different than the old grass.  AND I might add nicer as well.

I did spend about 3 hours in the yard yesterday.  One would not know based on how it looks but I had fun.  Picking weeds, digging in the dirt and other things kind of calm the spirit in my case.  What do I do today, not sure.  I just ran into a dead end with house projects and they were all work and NO fun. I realize I HAVE to get back to them but when and how is the question.

After the rain I am not sure how the roads are for biking but will get on Bentley and give it a try.  The sausage, eggs, hash browns and FP are history so will give it a go.