Phew! behinder I am!

Georgia son Rich came for a visit and we had a great time! Jason and Laura came over too. A & W was our lunch spot choice because it is a favorite of Rich's and 3 of the 5 of us ordered rootbeer floats. They looked yummy but I chose a less caloried choice and Mr Pickypants doesn't like them. He likes root beer and he likes ice cream just not together.

After lunch we took a ride in the Belltower and it was the perfect day for it-sunny and clear. I did forget my camera and my phone, however Chris H. who was so kind to take us up outside usual hours did take a group photo of us and said she would send it to me and as soon as she does, you can be sure I will post it here.

Then we came back to our house and had dessert that Keri had prepared for us. Pecan Pie and Strawberry/Rhubarb pie. Super delicious! Meant to take pictures of them too because they looked as good as they tasted but I have found that when I get caught up in the action I forget all about my camera.
After dessert we gathered in the new room (wonder how long we will call it that) for an afternoon of lively conversation and reminiscences.
It was a great day all around and we enjoyed it thoroughly!

And now for some pictures I have taken recently...
I walked over to Mickey's night before last and spotted these roses a foot or two off the sidewalk. I think it is one of my better shots of the summer.

This house belongs to a hoarder. The people do not live here but I understand that they own several houses like this and they are all packed full of collected "treasures". So much so that you can not walk through the place. Colleen thinks it looks like Sleeping Beauty's home. Somebody needs to wake that girl up!!

Finally a walk

We finally managed to get a walk in even thought it was a bit too chilly. The sunrise was very pretty but soon thereafter the clouds rolled in. This mornings photo offerings.

Poetry Out Loud

Colleen started a poetry group several years ago and yesterday the members presented a program at the museum. Chuck Offenberger, President of the historical society emceed the program. I was very impressed by the quality and professionalism of the poems. These women know their stuff!

 Colleen reads a few of her amazing poems.

I thoroughly enjoyed the program and it did what poetry is supposed to do, make you think. 

10 JIGS

10 of us Jefferson Iowa Girls went to Paton (pay'-ton) Iowa for lunch. Paton Iowa? A town of 230? There is quite the story in Paton with an entrepreneur hitting it big with an idea and becoming a player in the world market and then sharing his wealth with the small town of Paton where his factory began. It proves that if you build it they will come. So we enjoyed our meal at the 209 main restaurant in Paton where  a class of '64 reunion was also taking place.
The conversation was lively and the food delicious.
Janet Smith was in the class of '61 with the rest of us and she has one of the finest minds and sharpest wits of anyone I know. Janet has always been an unpretentious person and for some reason, I do not remember why, she was labeled with the nickname "Granny" way back when we were all in grade school. And it has stuck.Today she was telling us that she takes medicine for seizures but it is actually for her butt. Of course we asked why and she told us it was because she had trouble "twerking". And then added she could twerk but only on one side! That brought such a visual to me that I could hardly stop laughing. I am chuckling just reading this. Most conversations with Janet are like this. She is a jewel! I will point her out in the pictures below.

L to R,Toni Roberts, Mardel Stream and Janet (Granny) Smith.

Donna Lawson,Sue Lucht, Pat Ruznak and Mickey Starr

Andi Blume,Dona (Pauline) Bortz, Toni

Toni. Mardel and Janet

Always Racing?

Fall tripped into winter?

Colleen and I have been stymied lately on our walks due to cold and wet weather. Cold is anything less than 50 degrees. We are both hot house flowers. 

But despite that we did attend a book signing in Churdan Iowa on Thursday. Below is a picture of the book and the whole thing was very interesting. I came home and purchased the kindle version of her book. 

All I Could Be: The Story of a Woman Warrior in Iraq

Check it out on Amazon.

The above event was held at the St. Patrick's Church in rural Churdan.

Beautiful church in the Iowa countryside

 Above and below are the bathroom facilities

Confessional

My choice of pictures may give some pause for thought. It is what it is and take from it what you choose. 

Bird Watching

Butch and I have taken up bird watching now that we have our new room finished. It is a shame we have missed these deleted ones.

A drone’s eye view of Jefferson Iowa

At 2:20 into the video is a glimpse of the bike trail. I wish it would go all the way to the bridge!
Barb

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9HEw6blJT0

A drone’s eye view of the depot, the bell tower and more
September 7, 2014
Greene County Development Corp executive director is working with a volunteer committee developing a county-wide marketing plan.

It’s very likely a video will be developed as a marketing tool.

Paxton explained at GCDC’s annual meeting last week that following the GCDC-sponsored town hall meeting in August, Troy Powers approached him and told him he’d like to shoot some video. Powers went out that same evening with his quadcopter drone, and later sent the following video to Paxton:

Still wet in Iowa

The sun was shining on our walk this morning but it does not seem to last much longer than 45 minutes. You have to get up early to see the sun.  And now it looks like this again. It isn't raining but looks like it could at any minute. The wooly worms are walking with us. Dark ones I have been told indicate a hard winter. I do not know what kind of winter this fellow predicts.

My paint job seems to have held up but it is too muddy to find out for sure. The temperature is normal enough now but they say cold is on the way. I am just plum full of good news today. 

Rain, Rain go away!

This morning we, Colleen and I, managed to get our walk in on the trail after a 6 day break. The sun was shining and it was perfect weather. My plan was to get the 3rd coat of paint on the steps. When I started I noticed that the second coat did not withstand the torrential rains of yesterday. So perhaps you could say I put the 2nd coat on again! I felt really good about it. The sun shining and a light breeze gave me high hopes for success. Rain was predicted but not until late in the day. Late in the day translated to 2:00 pm, a scant 3 hours from when I finished painting. Not knowing if it was a bad or good decision I covered what I could of the steps with plastic and then anchored it with some boards.And then the clouds gathered and the rain came and it has rained and rained and rained. And it is still raining.
A couple of bright spots in the day were a visit from a classmate who lives in Rippey IA, Toni Roberts. She and her husband recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. Toni makes really delicious egg muffins and she treated us with some.
Another bright spot was 2 pieces of Keri's key lime pie. So egg muffins and key lime pie brightened our day.
What Butch did: Played golf and burned scraps and branches before the rain.
And he called a guy to install new gutters.

A Day at the Fair

Omelets at the Chop, Chop Cafe.

These pieces are made from discarded wood. The tall one on the right is boxelder wood.

These pieces are smooth as silk and look like stone.

Norma Cooklin Photo entries

Welded artwork

Norma C. pulled in yet another outstanding award for her winter painting..

I loved this birdhouse and planned to come back and buy it but when I did it was gone. It is made from electrical boxes and coat hooks.

These ponies were very popular. The kids can work the peddles and it gives them the feel of riding a real pony. I heard the guy say they sell for $275. Aw c'mon grandpa buy me a pony!

This guy appeared to be run by remote control but the back of his leg sure looked like a persons leg.

When you get tired at the fair you can ride the shuttles. $1 a ride or $2 for all day. We rode and rode and people watched. It was great fun.

This was my view this morning from my kitchen window. Pretty in Pink!

The ladies having fun at the fair

Leslie Cleveland, Norma Cooklin, Vickie Small and Patti Palmberg
Barb Brooker had already left for home.

Grandpa Gary says...

Elise( age 4 ) finds a way to make me laugh every weekend with how she talks. This morning she was helping me and I told her that brother helped me the same way the day before. She informed me that "you can have my help since I am the one that is available."

Let's all go to the fair...

I have primer and one coat of dark green on the steps. Will probably need 2 more coats of green. It took 3 coats to cover on the door but it sure looks nice. The humid weather kept the primer from setting up proper and in a timely fashion so it has taken me longer to get done. Looks like it will have to wait till after the fair now. I was hoping to have it finished before we went but oh well!!

The weather alert just flashed on my computer screen to tell me thunderstorms expected at 6:00 PM. I will be at the library teaching a computer class at that time. I really would like the steps to "cure" a bit more. One thing about it no one is saying, "We sure need the rain!". Because we don't!!
The next blog post most likely will not be till Sunday or Monday. The fairgrounds does not have wifi or at least they didn't last time we were there. We all need a break from technology on occasion so this will be mine.

Leo lost some trees

We had a big old storm Saturday night with 76 MPH winds. Mickey lives close to us now and has a basement so we went to her house to weather it out. Leo, Keri and their guests went to their basement. Leo is emotionally attached to his trees so he had a down day on Sunday and Monday as he lost several of his babies. I was telling Colleen about his sadness and she agreed. She said to her it is an emotional reaction when a tree dies. It is true they are essential to our existence. 

There was a big tree loss throughout Jefferson.

Sweet corn is down and done.

Lordy, Lordy

Some days my head just swims with things to write about and other times I am dry as toast. I ran across a website that I really enjoyed and as I read about the writer I felt a kindred spirit with the author. So she is now on my list of links.(look to the left of page) http://thepioneerwoman.com/ Here is the link to her page.
This morning I made my ride to the river in the dark. We have had a butt load of rain lately and the river is as high as I have seen it all summer and that is pretty high! This was followed by my walk with Colleen. She is going on a short vacation with friends and we are headed to the Clay County Fair in Spencer Iowa so it may be Monday before we get another morning walk.

Butch and I finished the bulk of the painting yesterday. I will be working on the steps and exterior of the door today. Pictures will follow after the paint.
We still need new gutters and that will be a hired out job. And then we need general clean up and removal of dirt piles followed by landscaping. Then we can feel good about heading south and know we have done all we could for this season. Next season should be a laid back, basically fun summer for us.

Yesterday, before we finished painting we both had eye doctor appointments in Ames. When I came out Butch, in a crowded waiting room, asked me what the doctor said. I said, "He told me there was nothing wrong with me." This set off a chuckle or two.
It has been quite muddy throughout our room building extravaganza this summer and I like to wear my crocs when working in wet conditions because they are easy to clean off. Trouble is they bother my bunion so a couple days ago I took the scissors to them and now they work just fine and do not hurt my feet. Wish I had done that years sooner!!
Ready to paint so later!!

A Quickie

Butch and I have fallen into a paint bucket so until we can get ourselves out, posts may be on the sparse side.
Mickey helped us paint yesterday and since you may not know it, anyone who helps a friend paint gets at least two free helps in return. We are and remain very grateful for all the help we have had with this seemingly never ending project.

The Women of Zimmerle ( any woman with Zimmerle blood in her DNA)  had a gathering at our place on Saturday with catering done by Keri Brooker. It was a very fun day!!
Sister Myrla could not make it because firemen woke her up at 2:00 AM to tell her the neighbors house was on fire and she may want to be on alert.

The guy at Bomgaars told us he was a 3 coat painter- one on the wall, one on the floor and one on him. Butch falls into that category.