Summer's Here

Summer has settled in with a combination of nice days, rainy showery days, and often nighttime violent thunder storms. The garden is coming along much better given the warmer days and I spend most of my time either weeding or watering it and a little less time harvesting it. I tried to start the flower garden next to the house using seed, which hasn’t been a great success so I may be forced to plant mature perennials next year if this doesn’t work.

Marc meanwhile finished up making the rebar skeleton for the bottle tree that Eric got started for me and I love the result! I figure if I can find red bottles it would look particularly festive against the white snow of winter around Christmas since we placed it front and center close to the house.

During some of his off time Marc has been getting involved in making our own sausage and brats and the results are wonderful! It’s also proven to be quite a cost savings to use meat we find on sale for 99 cents/lb instead of the nearly $4/lb retail the stores charge for them. The only problem is that they are fairly addictive!

We took time out to attend the Waupaca Strawberry Festival one Saturday; mainly just to look at some of the craft booths to see what people are making to sell. Eventually we may want to run with this idea after Marc retires since he is so handy at making things. I’ve been giving my glass flowers as gifts and they are big hits but they prove problematic to ship so they may prove easier to sell locally at craft fairs. I’ve been hitting up the rummage sales left and right scouting for glassware at reasonable prices and have walked away with some nice vintage pieces.

Speaking of rummages, the shelter’s is fast approaching in about two weeks and I find myself now in charge. The lady that has been heading it up no longer volunteers for the shelter so the mantle was passed to me since I helped co-chair last year. I expect to be very busy with that since there is a day of setup, then three days when we take in donations which need unpacking, sorting and setup and then the following week we have three full days for the sale and a fourth when any leftover items are offered out for free. After that there is still one more day for cleanup since it is held in a generously donated marina warehouse out at one of the Chain of Lakes. On another note regarding the shelter, the good boy Chance with the amputated leg I wrote about recently was adopted by a doctor! Go Chance!