family reunion ~

We attended the Donner family reunion this weekend.  This would be on my husbands side of the family and it was descendents on his paternal grandparents side of the family.  It was held on the Turtle Flambeau Flowage by his cousin Bobby's cabin by Donner's Bay. 

It all started out rather quietly ... as family members were coming in ... claiming their little niches of space under the two tents for some shade and relief from the heat ... chit chatting away and starting to catch up with each other. 

Some of the younger cousins were doing their visiting on the little beach, on the edge of Bobby's yard, playing in the water and having fun swimming with the ducks.

My granddaughter, Brooke, was getting lessons from her Great Uncle Rod on how to cook turkeys and pork roast on the big charcoal cooker.








It was a nice start to a wonderful day ... or so we thought.  Then Momma Nature showed up ... it starts to rain ... and the wind is starting to blow.

Aunt Jan is not happy with Momma Nature raining on her party.

Within minutes ... the wind really picks up ... gust up to 60 miles per hour we heard ... every able man ... grab hold of the tents to keep them from flying.

There is thunder.

There is wind.

There is rain.

BUT

The family is together and we're all having a really good time!

Trying to stay dry.

and not get blown away ...

Talk about a bad hair day!! LOL

About 20 minutes later ... the weather starts to settle down; but there's still a drizzling rain.

My daughter Staci shared a story with the younger kids about something that their grandparents used to do on the flowage when they were kids.  They would have a scavenger hunt with ribbons; but they would do it in the winter months when the flowage was iced over.  They would hang hundreds of ribbons of different colors, sizes, textures, etc... out by the 'big island' of the flowage and then the people looking for them would take their snowmobiles out to find them.  It was an all day event. 

Well... since it was summer time and we didn't have any available snowmobiles or snow ... we just hid some ribbons by the trees along the driveway for the little ones to find. 

They had to pull a piece of ribbon from a bucket then head to the woods to find it's match.

Off they go on the ribbon scavenger hunt ...  a little rain didn't stop them.

Even the big kids got into it :)

There was even a visit by a clown ... who was passing out hugs and gifts.

Dear Hubby even got "leid" from the clown.  

I know ...

I'm bad :)

The weather cleared up ~ the geneology chart was spared from getting soaked.

This family has dealt with bad weather before.  

Do you recall reading in your history book from school about the story of the Donner Party? The ill-fated wagon train of travelers stranded in the Sierra Mountains and acts of cannibalism to survive? I won't go into that here; but if you aren't familiar with the story, you can Google it and you'll find out.

   

There were five brothers, John, Jacob, George, Philip and Frederick who immigrated from  Hamburg, Germany.  All five of them settled for awhile in Springfield, Illinois. 

Of the five brothers, four of them headed west for California.  It was on this trip that two of them passed away, John and Jacob.  George and Philip settled in Nevada.  One brother stayed behind and settled in Wisconsin.  That would be Frederick, my Dear Hubby's Great Great Great Great Grandfather.

Here's a photo of the bloodline remaining from Frederick Donner

This was the first reunion that the family has ever planned.  It was so much fun and it certainly won't be it's last. 

Until next time ...

So it goes in my neck of the woods.

~mel

puttin' up greens ~

It was time to do some harvesting ~ yeah!

We cut off some swiss chard and some beet greens from the garden.  I set up a washing station on the deck.  Three pans filled with water ~ swish swish in one, transfer to the second tub, more swishing and on to the third.

 

It worked out quite well ...

Look how dirty those beet greens were in tub #1

But they were squeaky clean by time they hit the final rinsing in tub #3

 ~ there's nothing worse than gritty sandy greens ~

Into the blanching kettle they go ~

 

This was our first cutting of greens from the garden.  I ended up with 4 quart bags of beet greens and 6 quart bags of swiss chard.  Into the freezer they went for this winters use.  Now I'm hungry for some Italian Wedding Soup ... I love using the beet greens in it in place of the spinach.  

My Grandlove Bailey was here when I was washing the greens.  She helped me with the rinsing process.  She was so cute.  She says to me, "Grandma, is this one of those odd jobs?"  I questioned her on what she meant.  She says, "you know, something you just don't do every day".  I asked her if she saw me washing greens on the deck every day??  She says matter of fact, "Nope, I guess my guess was right. This is one of those odd jobs."

Also, speaking of Bailey ... thought I'd share her pic again with one of the 'goldenticks' ... the new breed of dog they have at their place, a cross between the golden retriever and the blue tick hound. 

Until next time ...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel

dr mom ~

Sometimes a kiss and a bandage aren't enough.  We need our drugs!

I grew up in a large family, 9 kids running around ~ and Mom did not run us into the doctors office over every little accident that happened.  Although, there were times when I really had to question her judgement call on a few incidents.  Granted, this was back in the 50's through the 70's that she had a house full of kids ... and Mom's seemed to take care of those things better than the Mom's of now days, who have their little ones in the ER over the littlest sniffles. 

Mom was, and still is, one of these put a bandage on it, give a little kiss on the forehead (checking for a fever) kind of "healers".  She also liked to dabble in the herbal medicines.  There were plenty of times I remember her smashing up a plantain leaf, putting it on an open wound, covering it up with a bandage for 24 hours so the infection could be drawn out. Or she'd have us drinking raspberry juice for fevers, or she and Granny B. would cook up some kind of goop to smear on your chest for a bad cold.

BUT ... to this day, and I'm sure until her dying day ... she still has this big hang up about narcotic drugs.  Now, mind you ~ she is in her 80's, I'm in my 50's, my oldest sister is in her 60's (more on her later).  Anyhoooooooo.... Mom just has it in her head that if you take pain killers ... you WILL become addicted.

Oh, you won't notice it at first; but if you take that full prescription it will alter your thinking and before you know it ... you'll be addicted ... and then you'll be asking for a refill on it ... the doctor will prescribe it ... because that's what they do ... they get you started then let you on it for awhile until you're addicted ... then they doctor you for the addiction with some other drugs to get you off of the one they started you on ... it's  all "job security" for them ... all the doctors these days are in 'cahoots' with the pharmaceutical companies ... it's a vicious circle!!!

Oh Momma! Some days you drive me crazy ... crazier than I already am.  

Now... as you know, if you follow my blog, on the 14th of this month I under went a little surgery on my breast.  I had a lumpectomy / with a partial mastectomy done.  I was given a prescription for pain ... and I NEEDED IT!  Dear sweet momma comes over.  She gives me my kiss ... then she notices the prescription bottle sitting on the cupboard and reads it.  It says I can have 1 to 2 pills every 4 to 6 hours, as needed for pain.

It's only day 2 after my surgery.  I'm hurting.  Mom asks, "how many of these narcotics have you taken so far?"  Oh boy ... I know where this is going already.  I told her I'm doing just what the bottle says, I'm taking 4 to 6 pills every 2 to 4 hours.  HA!!! Do I know how to rattle a cage or what?

I know, I can be sarcastic sometimes; maybe it's because my mind has been altered so many times from narcotics over the years.  I'm using that for my excuse these days :)

Well ...

The other day, my oldest sister had to undergo surgery.  She had to have her toe amputated.  Ouch!!

I got a phone call from Mom, she's giving me the update on how things are going for her.  Guess what she says?  Yep ... you guessed it.  She says that they (the doctors) prescribed her some pain killers and she can take them every 4 to 6 hours ... and so far she's taking them every 4 hours.  She isn't able to hold off and take them at least every 6 hours.  She's worried about her taking too many and becoming addicted.  "Mercy!  Momma it's only the second day.  She's not going to become addicted!"

I need to go and dig up some roots of something and smash them against my head!!

I know she means well ... and I love her dearly ... but some days ~

Until next time ...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel

family time ~

After a long stretch ... our son Sam and his significant other ~ Ashley, and their dog, Amber have finally found their own place to call home.  We all got together tonight for a little birthday party for Sam.

 

They found a place to rent in the trailer court by Comfort Cove Resort on Solberg Lake.  It's really a nice little place ... including the use of the resorts beach.  SWEET! Now they only have to drive 3 miles to work instead of 20... sweeter yet!!

 

 

 

Sara wears shirts with some pretty good sayings on them.  In case you can't read the fine print it says:

As you are standing there talking to me, 

I want you to understand 

that I will be making fun of you 

as soon as you walk away.

 

Where's a hard ball when you need it?

I just love days like this :)

Until next time ...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel

friends of the garden ~

 

Last evening I took a ride with my daughter Staci to one of her meetings of the organization called Friends of the Garden.  It's  a group of people that have a shared interest ~ gardening.   They get together once or twice a month ~ share gardening ideas, go on little field trips to each others places, visit nurseries, make things for their gardens, share ideas as to what grows where and companion gardening, have perennial exchanges, etc... as Martha would say, "It's a good thing."

After these little tours, you come away with ideas and dreams for your own garden :)  

Our tour was at Deb & Fred O's place ~ what gracious hosts!

here's a bee balm I don't have

hmm...

I'll have to remember that when it comes time for the perennial exchange.

blue delphiniums and red  lilies are very pretty planted next to each other

Deb is very artsy crafty ... 

(she's the school's art teacher)

this is Lola

the overseer of the rock garden.

Lola was Deb's first creation in cement. 

I think I need a Lola for my garden ~ or better yet a Maxine!

Plus... Deb blogs on blogger!Click Here to Visit Her Blog

I didn't get a picture of the cement crow she's working on; but did get a photo of her hand in progress.

She also has an awesome bench and chair and flower pots made of cement.

Notice in the background, up on the deck ~ a cement and tile butterfly chair.  

Where does she come up with these ideas?

checking out Fred's veggies ... enclosed in the fenced in area to keep the critters out

Deb has five different kinds of garlic planted.  

I didn't even know there were five different kinds. Ha!

a bottle cap covered bluebird house

flowers tucked in everywhere

Deb even has a horse ... that's where Brooke spent her time

remember those old insulators?

Lovin' the Lilies!

Once again .... a beautiful way to spend an evening.  Strolling the garden,  catching up with friends.  That's what it's all about :)

Until next time ...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel