Wordless Wednesday

Some Fall Gardening

I stopped by Aldi's yesterday to pick up some milk, and noticed that they had these gorgeous mums for $2.99 a piece! They also had bags of hyacinth bulbs, so I grabbed one of those, too.

I haven't decided exactly where I'll plant the bulbs yet, maybe in the garden along side the garage. Hyacinths smell so wonderful, and I love to see them come up every year without having to do anything.

I still need to give the Hosta their annual haircuts, and clean out around the Iris's by the mailbox.

I also filled up the hummingbird feeders one last time, but I could change my mind about that. Last week, a hummingbird just flew in place for a long time, appearing to look into the porch and at me! Then I remembered reading that hummingbirds are actually very intelligent and are thought to be able to recognize people, especially if those people feed them. 💕

Wordless Wednesday

Surprisingly Satisfactory

So our house has been starting to smell like, well, animals.

Of course that shouldn't be too much of a surprise since we have animals, and have had animals for many years. And it's the time of year when things are kind of humid, which has a tendency to make you notice things even more.

Plus our carpets are old!

It's been thirty years since they were installed, and I guess they really don't look too bad considering everything. I'm thinking that they must have been pretty good quality in the first place, and I've tried to keep them clean by encouraging people to take off their shoes inside the house, and then try to clean up "pet situations" as soon as possible.

And, I suppose I could have rented a carpet cleaner. Why do I resist these things? I even had five different people try to tell me that's what I should do. But, being me, I did some reading and discovered some homemade carpet cleaning solutions that looked appealing.

Bruce was out of town on his Annual Male Bonding Fishing Trip, so the house was mine. And when I'm home alone, I have a tendency to dream up big ideas ...

I went to the Dollar Tree, and found all that I needed to mix up a batch. They even had little bottles of Tide, Oxiclean, and Downy, and huge bottles of Awesome Cleaner, gotta love the Dollar Tree. I splurged and bought new sponges, too.

It smelled wonderful when it was all put together, and I was in such a hurry to get started that I didn't even do the 24 hour test on an inconspicuous spot (I guess that could have been a mistake, but it turned out alright in the end). I adjusted my attitude, and told myself that this method of elbow grease was not a bad thing. After all, it was movement and exercise is good for me. 😂

I began at the top of the stairs. Got down on the floor and started to spray, then lightly scrubbed with the rough side of a new sponge. I made my way down the stairs, then turned on a fan to dry things out. It looked much cleaner, and smelled much fresher, and I was pleased.

The next day, I looked at the living room carpet. The excitement of doing the stairs had run out, and my arms were tired. I saw the kitties sleeping in their usual spots in the room, and kept putting it off because they looked so peaceful. But at the end of the day, things must be reckoned with, and I made myself get going.

When I was done, I threw away the sponge. I still have a bottle of carpet cleaner left, and I think it will work just fine on any new pet situations.

Do I think I will ever do this again? Probably not. 😂

Rainy Road Trip

We had a little adventure last weekend when we drove to Wahpeton, North Dakota.

A son of one of Bruce's fishing buddy's was getting married, and we were invited!

We had some extra time on our drive up, and so stopped for lunch at a little cafe in Freeport. I noticed that one of their daily specials was a Hot Beef Commercial, which is basically a hot beef sandwich of chuck roast on top of mashed potatoes on top of a slice of bread and then gravy on top of it all. (the first time I had even heard about such a thing, was when Kat told me that her dad wanted them served at her mom's funeral lunch). I thought about getting it, but then saw they had sausage gravy and biscuits, and so that's what I had, along with a side of bacon. Yummy.

Next door to the Cafe, was an old sign for a Supper Club! It wasn't open at the time, so I couldn't take a look inside, but I do have a thing for Supper Clubs. It would seem that Supper Clubs tend to present themselves as fine dining, and maybe this one was that, but it just happened to have an old sign. I do get excited whenever I see a Supper Club.

And then it started to rain. And rain. And rain.

We checked into the Wahpeton Travel Lodge, had a cup of coffee to warm up, and changed our clothes.

Maybe we should have put a little more thought into what we were going to wear, though. The reception truly was in a barn, and way out in the country, and we saw a lot of people wearing cowboy boots. And the grass was wet, and my little black shoes squished into the mud as we walked to the barn. All part of the experience, I guess.

We had tacos to eat, and then karaoke in the pole barn afterwards, and even though we really didn't know anybody else there, we ended up having fun.

Back to the travel lodge, and into bed. It felt good to lay down, but then there was a wall unit that ran off and on all night long, and we couldn't figure out how to just turn the thing off. It made it hard to sleep.

Breakfast at the lodge was included, but there wasn't a lot to choose from. Now that I think of it, it was probably healthier that way. I had some raisin bran with milk, orange juice, and a hard boiled egg. There was no salt for my egg, but again that was probably healthier for me as I shouldn't really be eating a lot of salt, anyway. Bruce had toast, a hard boiled egg, and some yogurt. He really wanted a Danish, but they didn't have any.

In the afternoon when we got home, we tended the needy cats, and then drove to St. Paul for Leroy's Alley Party. I had made a pumpkin spice cake to bring before we went to the wedding, and I grabbed it out of the fridge. That whole neighborhood seems to show up for these events, and everyone brings really tasty food to share. It was fun. And, I kind of wish that we had a neighborhood more like that one. Maybe that's a difference  between suburb and city living.

Next wedding coming up will be in October ...

Late Summer Doings

September already, and the weather is starting to feel cool and crisp.

August birthdays have come and gone, and we've had plenty of opportunities to spend time with family and old friends. Nick made it home for a few days and was able to celebrate his and my birthday together with Grandma Joyce and Uncle Mark. Jake flew in for a brief visit, mostly to attend Brianna's "White Coat Ceremony" as she prepares to start med school, but also to see us 💕 and we took them out to eat at Ciao Bella's to celebrate. We met up with Judy and Larry for supper and a show at the Old Log, and went to a St. Paul Saints game with Jerry and Cheryl. Of course there was the Summer Family Party at Elder Homestead with Mom, and Mom is always so proud to show off her kids at these things!

Bruce got his annual crate of Colorado peaches at Cub ...

We decided to labor on Labor Day, and spent close to six hours washing all the windows in our house. It was a big job for sure, and since the windows all have little individual panes of glass, it was extra labor intensive. 😉 I'm pretty sure we saved at least $400 by doing it ourselves, and the extra exercise was a good thing. I had a thought, and put my watch on my right wrist (since I am right handed) so that I would get credit for all the movement. The windows are now so clear and sparkly!

We've also been working on sprucing up the house a bit, mostly in Katie's old bedroom. I fell in love with a rug at Home Depot that had colors that complimented the paint already in there, and had a coupon for $20 off an already pretty good price. I searched our storage room, and found an old lamp of Grandma Gloria's that was missing a shade, but found one at Bethesda Thrift for $1.99 that worked with the old fashioned top (kind of difficult to find the older version shades these days). The lamp is now, well, ... interesting. Then, I found a cool accent chair at Goodwill for $9.99. It also matched the room and was pretty sturdy. One arm was a bit loose, but Bruce was able to fix that.

August was a spendy month, plus the pantry is quite full, so this month will be another unofficial "eat out of the pantry" month. Nothing too rigid, but just more focus on eating up what we already have in the house.

I think I'll stop here and write another time about September stuff. It looks to be a busy month!