Fences - Old and New

Hi there everyone....Hope you are having a good week. It's been a little rough here. JP had to have a tooth pulled last Thursday and was off work both Thursday and Friday. Yesterday, Monday, he had a biopsy on his prostrate and was off work. Today he went to work...guess I will find out how he did when he gets home. The results of his biopsy will be next Monday. We are praying that the results will show no cancer. 

On Monday the 11th we had a new fence put up.....I am really loving it. The above picture is the Old fencing we put about 5-6 years ago.

In this picture we got the green fence all taken down and the ground raked and brush cut down. See that clothes line pole???? It got taken down too....I always thought it was on our property, but it actually was on the neighbors property. Guess I will have to think of another way to hang clothes.

Here are some of the men that worked on putting my fence up. Volunteers from Habitat for Humanity.

Wa la.....here is the finished product.....next year we will either paint it or stain it. I bought some mulch, so I want to lay some down along the fence, hopefully keeping most of the weeds down.

I put my old grill in front of the fence....a couple of benches that were left curb side by the neighbor across the street. He helped us carry them over to our place. We didn't have the fence up....so glad I got them.....they sure did add to the décor.

A little bit of a closer look.

It has been fun decorating my back yard.....already looking forward to Spring....is it here yet???? Oh, that's right it is still fall.

I invested in this pretty mum plant, will have to dig a hole and hopefully save it for next year. That's my ceramic squirrel I made when I still worked at The Salvation Army. We had a kiln in the basement and lots of things to paint. I made this squirrel, a frog, two turtles and a rabbit and they all come out in the spring and back in the shed for the winter. That was almost 30 years ago....time flies!!!

I did some canning of tomatoes tonight....haven't canned in eons. My two tomato plants out front of the house have produced an abundance of tomatoes. I have frozen some, dehydrated some, made spaghetti sauce and tomato soup, a few BLT's, stuffed tomatoes and fried tomatoes and lots of salad's. It's been a good tomato year here.

Well, time to close here. JP will be home in about 10 minutes so I better heat up his tomato soup and dinner I made for him. You all take care and keep looking up....better days are coming. 

Cheers ~ Louise

Weekends.....Hooray!!!

Hi there everyone. Hope you are doing well.....I have been meaning to use this little doggie for a long time....now is the time.

Habitat for Humanity was here on Monday to build our fence. Today....Saturday, a few people are coming to paint our porch. I still have some paint left from the last paint job....so there should be a enough.

We had to clean off the porch of furniture and stuff. Last night I power sprayed the porch to get dust off....sprayed the ceiling and siding and even the flowers got some spray on them too. Looks clean.

We also got 2 large planters and a bunch of dirt to get our plants going for next year. I just have to decide where I want them. My only problem is that there is not enough sun as the two trees make it very shady. Oh well, I have the winter to think about it.

I will take pictures of everything accomplished this week....feels good, like having a new house.

Well, time to close, have to get to bed. As the workers will be here at about 7:45am....uge, hope I can get started.

Have a great weekend and keep looking up....better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

So Many Tomatoes........and Hurricanes.

Hi there everyone.....hope you all are having a good week. Yesterday Habitat for Humanity came to put up our fence.....I sure do love it. I took a lot of "before" and "after" pictures of the fences. That will be my next post in a few days.

So yes....I have been busy this past week....cleaning things up in the back yard to get it ready for the new fence. This Saturday, the Habitat people are going to paint the floor of my front porch. So I have to clean the porch of the lawn chairs, tables and fountain. I will probably spray the porch down to get the dust off. So just a little bit more work to go.

In between the cleaning, my tomato plants have been producing an abundance of tomatoes....I have been amazed.

In this picture I am drying some tomatoes....my first batch, I seasoned the tomatoes with salt and pepper. The second batch was a sandwich seasoning.....the third batch....just salt. Oh my, the tomatoes are delish....like candy. I might dry some more tomatoes tomorrow.

In the picture below is some salsa....chopped up tomatoes, peppers, onions, 1 teaspoon cilantro, 1 teaspoon taco seasoning and mixed together. I added some cheese to the salsa which was good too. Sooooo good. I just may make some more salsa this weekend. I should can some too.

Here's a peek at the tomatoes in different stages of ripeness.

I still want to make some canned spaghetti sauce, along with canning just plain tomatoes. I am having lots of fun with my tomatoes. Tonight I had a plain tomato sandwich with mayo on toast. So good. A tomato Quiche is on the agenda to make yet....maybe tomorrow for breakfast.

I am so sorry for and have prayed for those that suffered in Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. So much devastation. I can't imagine what it was like. Tornado's are scary, but a hurricane sounds even more scarier. To lose everything, no money, water, electric, housing, food.....sad.  Leaving your home to evacuate and not know if you will have a home to come back to. I don't know, so hard. Maybe Wisconsin is not so bad when it comes to weather....snow and cold, I will take it.

Well time to close. The weather is supposed to be really nice this week....summer has come back. 85 degrees on Saturday....I will let the Habitat volunteers paint the porch....maybe I will pull a few weeds around my rose bushes.

Have a great week and talk to you soon. Keep looking up....better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

Labor Day Weekend

Hi there everyone....hope you are having a nice and relaxing Labor Day Weekend. Well, as of 1/2 hour ago, our relaxing Labor day weekend ended. I saw a few bees buzzing around in the basement as I watched TV. OH NO!!! We have had a problem with bees the last couple of weeks outside, along side the house. JP sprayed them a couple of times....but I guess the can of spray was kind of old.

So, I bought a new can at Walmart. I told JP tonight....don't forget to spray the bees....he did and guess what, they found a way to get into the house. Now they are buzzing around my stamping stuff. JP sprayed the lights where they were buzzing around and naturally the spray went all over my papers, stamps and ink and stuff....erg!!! He swatted a few bees and the lights above my stamping desk went out. Geez........

So we shut things down and came upstairs. I went to the computer to see if there was some home remedy we could use.....yep, mountain dew and dish detergent, mixed together. The sweetness of the dew draws them and the soap coats their wings and they drown cause they can't fly. So we put 6 bowls of the potion out in different spots to see if that will solve part of the problem. I don't carry much soda in the house and only had a few cans of 7-up....so that is what I used.

We had this problem maybe 10 years ago and we called the exterminator, he set a smoke bomb out in the basement. I just don't want to call the guy over the weekend....could cost and arm and leg to have him do what we might be able to do....oh well, we'll see.

I told JP he is going downstairs tomorrow morning to see what the damage is.....Hopefully they are gone.

So we celebrated 44 years of marriage on the 27th of August. This is the card I made for JP. Was kind of fun to make. I used the left over stuff from my Stampin'up kit for August.  Not sure if I talked much about our anniversary. I did on Facebook and got lots of "likes" and comments. We didn't do much, it was raining that day and kind of dreary. I cooked a steak, fries and salad later on in the day.....nope, not much of a special day.

Today would be my Father's Birthday. He would have been 99 years old. He has been dead for 56 of those years....my how time does fly. He was the love of my life when I was a little girl....the sun rose and set on my father. No one could take his place. My stepfather tried, but to no avail. My stepfather wanted me to call him Dad....but I couldn't. He was pops and that's all he was to me. Pops died in May....he will always be Pops. Least I didn't call him Pete.

This week JP and I have to get the porch cleaned off and furniture moved and get the backyard fence and shrub down. Because Habitat for Humanity is painting the porch floor and putting up a privacy fence in our backyard. I can hardly wait. So, I will have some new pictures for you. Stay tuned. Here is what our fence looks like now. JP is going to mow all the greenery down and we will take down as much of the green plastic fencing that we can. I will be sure to take before and after pictures of everything.

Well time to close....it's almost 11:30pm....maybe time to close shop....I wish I could be downstairs making some cards.....but the bees have invaded our home. So I guess I shall say good-night.

Cheers ~ Louise

I Love This Last Post of July......Yayyyyy

Hi there everyone. I don't know about you, but this month of July was a really tough one. Financially, spiritually and emotionally oh and physically!!!. I love this post because it's the last one of July and hopefully August will be a little bit more forgiving.

So where does one start???? Well here's a good place.....July 5th I got on the scale and decided to start another DIET!!! This time with Dr. Atkins. It's a high protein, low carbs, low sugars and sodium. And the weight lost??? 10 lbs!!! Dr. Atkins was very popular back in the 70's and 80's. Some where's in between there, I tried the Atkin's diet for a while...but did not stick to it. 

There is another diet out there, called the Keto diet. They say it is Dr. Atkins on steroids....not sure why. Guess I will have to compare the two and see what the difference is.

Going into August I want to try for another 10lbs. I will let you know how things go. Also, on August 22nd I have another A1C blood check. So I would like to see those numbers down and controlled. My eventual goal is to have lost 50-75 lbs and controlled blood sugars and blood pressure. So I don't have to be on medication anymore. Plus I have lots of clothes I could finally wear again. 

Financially.....Our Mortgage Co. decided to sell us to another Co. after 15 years.....I was bummed. We had to jump through a few hoops. My previous Co. did not even inform us, when suddenly I get a letter from the new company. Almost threw it out, cause I thought it was junk mail. We were given 3 days to make the change. If mailed before the 12th then send mortgage to the previous Co. if mailed after the 13th mail to the new company. Geez, talk about confusion. So I made the check out to the previous Company but then thought I should send it to the new company.....no, bad move. I called the new company 2 times...then it was decided I should stop payment and mail a new check to the new company, registered mail. Needless to say our mortgage payment was very, very late.

We are going to get a privacy fence put up in our yard by habitat for humanity. We had to come up with 10% of the fencing. The other 90% will be paid back when and if we sell our house. Which we are not planning to do at this point in time. 

The last payment for our house taxes was due this month to the tune of $420 which was hard to come up with, but we managed. In the midst of that.....to drum up some extra money, I finally wrote some claims out to our Ins. Co. AFLAC came through with $400.....that sure helps a lot. I still have a few more claims to fill out for 2017. They might even pay for my surgery in January for my eye lids.

Needless to say all these problems caused much stress and high emotions. I took a few pills I got from my Doctor that calms the nerves.

Spiritually speaking, In all this, I wondered where God was......sometimes it is hard to see the hand of God in my personal life. I guess that is why hind site is better then fore site. Looking back I will be able to see God's hand in all that took place in July. But right now...it's kinda hard.

Well, time to close here. JP will be home in 20 minutes, so I better get his dinner cooked. Which I already made. Stuffed chicken breast with asparagus and cheese....gosh the chicken was tender. Oh suppose there will be fruit and fries and toast. Sounds good, huh??

Have a great day, keep looking up, better days are coming. 

Cheers ~ Louise

Days Flying and Still Much To Do

Hi there everyone. Yeah.....I know.....right????? These days are passing by so fast. Getting away from me. I am still working on my gardens. Finally tackled the weedy garden in the front yard. I should have taken a picture....will do that tomorrow. 

Saturday, I did manage to clear the weeds away from my two rose bushes and lay some mulch. It does look nice. Now if I can just get the rest of the front yard to look nice. I have lots of mint growing that literally took over the front yard along with strawberries and violets. It's really hard to tell what's what. But, I do have till September to get things organized. 

JP's family is coming for a visit sometime this summer, would be nice to get things done by then. But I don't know if that will happen. Last Tuesday the neighbor next store, asked me to take down my little bamboo fencing that kinda covers their mess in their backyard. When I look out my kitchen window I see JUNK.....so my little fencing covered that. 

So I took down my fencing because they were having a man come and take their green fence down, then they will be able to put up a privacy fence. Well, the guy came, paid for it, pulled off the wires that held the fence together and left and has not been back to take the rest of the fence down. This could take all summer to get done. As I know how slow the neighbors work. They also have another place up north they are working on. 

So I waited and waited for the guy to return, got tired of waiting and put my little fencing back up, 5 inches on to my property so it is NOT leaning on their fence. They should be able to work around it....I just needed to see some semblance of organization. It is very depressing looking out my kitchen window and see junk piled up....it's almost like hoarders live next store to me!!!! 

Hopefully by her birthday, 7/11, the green fence will be down and her privacy fence up. What a mess in the mean time.

I got a few more tomato plants yesterday along with a pepper plant, a zuchinni plant and another cucumber plant....now I just have to find good places to plant them. Also bought 3 more bags of mulch. Yep, I went through 2 yards of red mulch this spring and could still use more. 

I am looking for a lavender/blue rose bush. I found one at Menards the beginning of Spring, but did not buy it. I should have, but procrastinated, as usual. But then, I did not know where I would plant it. But know I do.....now I have to look again for the rose bush. Maybe Shopko will still have some roses. It is hard to believe that the stores are closing out......where did this season go to????

Hey, I have already seen Christmas stuff up at Hobby Lobby....now that is really pushing it!!!!!

In September we are getting this tree cut down. It actually sits on ours and the neighbor on the other side of us. See, they already have their privacy fence. We tried to get this tree cut down 5 years ago, but the estimate to cut it down was $2600. We did not have that kind of $$$$

So Habitat for Humanity will do it for us. In September they are doing a " Rock the Block" where many houses will get fixed, yards cleaned, trees cut etc. I am afraid this tree will fall on our shed and garage. The neighbor is also worried that the tree will fall on his garage and fence. He also thinks it will fall on the neighbor behind us......whatever.....lets get this tree cut down. It's just a weed anyways "box elder" that has a bunch of bugs in the spring and fall.

This is a very big tree, all we need is a good gust of wind and down it will come. As you can see, this summer is going to be a summer packed with lots of activity and changes. One nice thing will be, there will be lots more sun back there and I can have my garden back that got lost to too much shade by this tree. 

A Note: Today Habitat for Humanity called and the tree is un-assessable for cutting. I guess the other tree will not get trimmed either. I am kinda disappointed in that decision. I have to find out if the City of Appleton will take it down or We Energies. There are wires running through the tree and I don't know if it is telephone or electric wires.  

Well time to close here, it's getting late. Keep looking up, better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise