Happy Birthday

My dad would have had his 81st birthday today. I often wonder what it would have been like to have had him in our lives for the past 34 years. We mised him at weddings and births/adoptions, college graduations, and even his great grandkids births. He didn't get the chance to influence their lives or them influence his. . But nonetheless, I see his wry sense of humor in my kids, and their penchant for hard work, stubborness and tenacity comes straight from the legacy he left for them. Yes, they all missed a lot because they didn't know him. I missed it too.

CAMPING PREP

This is where we're headed-Bass Lake! WooHoo!!!

Camping Preparations:



Put camper up/clean it out



Round up all the stuff we need-paper plates, towels, wood,coolers, flashlights,food, food, food,aluminum foil,silverware,

Wash the sheets on the beds in the camper

Make up a menu

Grocery shop

Get other wash done

Pack camping clothes-cold weather, warm weather, swimming stuff

There is no electricity, running water or flush toilets at this spot. It filters out all the riff raff, or spoiled campers. I love it! Nothing better than reading by flashlight, or seeing a perfect star saturated night sky, sitting around a campfire with pudgy pies singing Puff the Magic Dragon. Ha! You laugh. That's why you're not camping with me.

We haven't been to this favorite camping spot for four or five years. And it will be short of the week that we normally go. I know I will be regretting the shortness of this trip, but I will enjoy seeing friends I haven't seen for a year now. I promise not to spend the whole time just reading though I do plan to get some of that in.

Story Telling

I love telling stories. I am always on the lookout for a story. The best one for today came early. So today's story involves our guests. We have two right now. First Ivan is staying with us through the summer , though I hope he's more like family than guest. Then we have been hosting Charlie the beagle. His owners just had their baby. A whole month early. We said, "sure, no problem" when they asked if Charlie could stay until they got their new baby home and perhaps settled in a bit. That was Tuesday. He's still here making himself quite comfortable. He and Buster are getting along very well, except at meal time. Charlie likes doing what Buster does and vice versa. But when I take them for a walk I am the one getting the work out. Yikes! So this morning I decided I'd just take Buster. It's only a 10 minute walk anyway. When I got back there was Charlie on his lead outside. For one brief moment I was quite puzzled. I didn't think either Ron or I had put him outside. Then I noticed Ivan. Standing at the edge of the porch waiting for Charlie to do his 'thing'. It seems that as soon as I left the house with Buster he'd started to howl. Poor lonesome, left behind Charlie. He woke Ivan up. Ach. Well, he was a good sport about it anyway. He just went back to bed and I let Charlie back in the house.

Book Review

I know I've said this before, but I don't think I can say it too much. I love the part about my job where I get to read books as they come across my desk. With the books for adults or older kids sometimes its only a snippet or two, but its enough to intrigue me enough to just check the book out and take it home. I did that with Sarah Pennypacker's "My Enemy's Cradle" and I wasn't disappointed. Today I looked at, and read quite a few. But the one I want to tell you about brought me to tears. The book was My Chincoteague Pony by Susan Jeffers. It was about the horses on Chincoteague Island. (You all remember Marguerite Henry, right? She wrote Misty of Chicoteague. Every Horse lovers 'must read' book) But this book was about a little girl whose dream was to own one of those horses. It is based on a true story about the annual sale of those horses and what happens at each and every sale. I have to tell you, it was a lovely story. In fact, it was so nice, I will have to get one for one of my grandkids. It so reminded me of how important horses had been during my growing up years. Or wait, maybe this time, I'll just get it for myself.

For my grandkids another book came across my desk the other day, one I wish we'd have had when our kids were small, called "The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name" by Sally Lloyd. It was amazing! She tells all the old familiar bible stories, God creates, Adam and Eve, David and Goliath, Samuel, Moses, Jonah, Ruth, Esther etc. and as part of every single story she shows how all of it points us to Jesus Christ and the reason for his coming. I absolutely loved it. So, kids...you can plan on this one in the kids christmas stockings! Ha!

How to Make Zucchini Bread and see the World (Iowa)

Making Zucchini bread is easy. Just put on your apron and your bakers hat and lets get started! Just head don to your local grocery store to stock up on all the ingredients that you'll need. ...

But if our grocery store is closed (like they are here in OC on a Sunday afternoon) Just find yourself a good pilot (hey, I know one of those!) and have him fly you to Idonesia for the tastiest cinammon. You'll have to have a pilot who's skillful at landing in the jungle and you'll need a guide to help you find the best cinammon bark, nutmeg and vanilla beans. Watch out for snakes. Then have him head on over to Haiti. They have plenty of sugar cane there. If you fly into Pignon on the upper plateau you can cut some yourself!

Next you'll need a few eggs. Just head on back to Iowa and a local farmer will be able to help you out with that. Don't forget to say 'thanks' to the chickens for the eggs.

The flour you need can be milled from some fresh cut wheat grown right here in Iowa. If you get there early enough in June you can even get strawberries.

You need to find a cow for some milk. Jump in your car and find a dairy farm. You want only the freshest cream to churn into butter. That shouldn't take you too long

Now you'll need to find a beautiful green Zucchini in your garden... or at the local farmer's market. Believe me, this time of year there are so many zucchini that someone may even hand one to you in exchange for one of your eggs, or just to get it off their hands.

Finally, you're ready to mix up a mighty fine batch of Zucchini bread. This makes great dessert, or gifts, but you really have to share it with a friend or two. It's definitely no fun eating it by yourself.

mmmm, good stuff. Isaiah won't get the Zucchini bread, but he'll share the fun anyway.

recipe for Zucchini bread:

3 c. flour 1/2 c. oil
3 t cinnamon 2 c. sugar
1 tsp salt 2 c. grated squash
1/4 tsp baking pwdr 3 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp soda 2 T light Karo syrup
1 tsp nutmeg 1/2 c. butter melted
3 eggs beaten

stir together flour, cinnmon, salt, baking pwoder, soda and nutmeg. Mix eggs, oil and sugar together. Add squash, vanilla, syrup and butter; blend together and add to dry ingredients. pour into 2 loaf pans and bak at 325 for 45 min.

[thanks to Marjorie Priceman and her How to make an Apple Pie and See the world]

Odds and Ends on a Busy Monday

I have been waiting impatiently to be able to download audio books from our library's consortium site. If you have an Ipod, you're out of luck. I hate that. A very knowlegeable someone told me that Apple doesn't like to 'play nice' with the rest of the world. They like to complicate things, mostly so you, the customer end up paying more money for their products. Or, in this case, get a compatible MP3. I know I know, waiting is good for me. Waiting builds character. Waiting helps me with endurance when I run across something that's way worse than this. I'm such an impatient waiter....

and in other news, The city of OC blocked off the whole street on the south side of the burned out Hallmark store. No crane has been in sight and I think I fell victim to the ole rumor mill. But the TV news told us that the building has been condemned. There will be no use of the shell of that building anyway. It's going to be torn down. And in the meantime you can't even walk on the other side of the street by it. I have had to change my dog walking route just because of it. Hmph.

Ooops!

So this looks like a lot of fun for someone! Two guys with a chain saw and a boom truck. Watch out world. Or in this case, neighbors. I don't know why, in the middle of everything else we have going on this summer he gets so easily distracted. So we've moved from the roof project(which is not quite finished, by the way) to tearing down an old building for the lumber for project # 2, to trimming up our trees in the front yard. He cut a big branch from the maple tree beside our driveway. Not quite all the way through. Then we stood there and watched as slooooowly, slooowly it cracked. It fell. It crashed into Vi's front porch window with a huge glass shattering crash. Ooops. Well, I guess we'll find out how good our insurance is. At least Vi was a good sport about it and didn't go into hysterics.

Oh, and the answer to my quiz yesterday about the sweetcorn: Sweetcorn is smaller than regular field corn and the tassles are much lighter. You can really tell easily if sweetcorn is growing beside the field corn in the same field.