A handsome fellow in our yard

 Well hello there!

I didn't see you there!

 

I'm ready for my close-up Mr. Spielberg!

 I'm being introspective...

Happy 4th of July!

 

For our 4th of July and America's 250th Birthday outing....

We went to the Effingham Farmers Market. We mainly went to get tomatoes, but...so much yummy stuff there.  I tried something new, it was a vegetarian dish originating in Egypt, it was called koshari and was delicious! They also had baklava, which I had to have. We were good though, no purchases of big packages of cinnamon rolls or Sourdough bread....Now I am sad, j/k..It was a nice day, but huge crowds at every turn. Some ladies were selling steaming hot authentic tamales, but the line was an hour long, so no tamales either. I did get a vase of sunflowers though. So we came home and I made sloppy joes from scratch and slaw. Hope you are all having a great holiday!

 

Happy 250th birthday, America!

 

Happy 4th of July...almost

 Happy 4th of July...Almost!

 

 It cooled down to 80 degrees, so we thought we'd build a fire! No, that is not my house, mine is slightly bigger..

 

Here comes July

 91 degrees fells like 106...yikes

 

New trail cam pictures

 A few trail cam photos from the last couple of weeks. I know they aren't very detailed, but that's the night photos for ya. There is a beautiful buck that has been here for a while. The deer have mostly moved to the other side of the yard eating the apples and it looks like there are baby raccoons...

 

Refurbished Jewelry Box

 Here is a jewelry box that I refurbished and re-decorated that a sweet friend gave me. The hinges were broken, the inside lining was ripped and it was pretty beat up and just dark wood. The latch and lion head pulls were already there. I just added some clay pieces that I made and many layers of paint. It was fun, but fixing the torn red lining was a nightmare. However, I love a challenge!

 

 Remember all those green bananas Bill brought home last week? Well, they are getting ripe..there's still more..(Does anyone still make this Banana Breeze pie? It was really popular in the early 70's. My grandma Westman made this a lot. It was her favorite pie. Her crust was crushed Corn flakes though. This one is graham crackers.)

 

He had it comin'

 

So Bill tells me this morning that my new hair cut makes me look younger and I said "How much younger?" And he says" Oh, 15 or 20 minutes." If he comes up missing, I didn't do it. This is my life......everyday! I 'm sitting here thinking about the song from the Broadway play Chicago...."He had it comin', he had it comin'....."

New Me

 You just can't get a good picture when your glasses reflect every speck of light, but I got my hair cut, so time for a new profile picture.

 

Happy Summer Solstice

 

Good Night

 It's about time to go in, it's getting dark out here and the fire is about out...

 

Our own backyard Stonehenge

 Halterman's Stonehenge...every year on this day the sun is setting in this exact same spot between the forks in this tree when we are sitting in our swing. I know the Summer Solstice is tomorrow, but it starts at 4:00 a.m.or so, so it's close enough.

 

So many tornadoes in Illinois this year

So much damage in the town of Effingham, IL, just 30 miles from us.  There were tornadoes all around us here in Kinmundy. Here are just a few photos publish to the public.

 

Quite a light show going on outside right now

 Quite a light show going on outside right now.

 

Big old storm coming in right now!

 Big old storm coming in right now!

 

The "What are we going to do with all of these bananas" Event

 For those who don't live here, this is a great story about Salem, IL...also my kitchen table is loaded with green bananas. Bill stopped by Twin Willows nursing home to take care of some business for his mom. While he was leaving the administrator drove up with her car full of bananas, voila, the whole county has bananas coming out of their ears!  Everywhere Bill went yesterday, there were people with green bananas...(the reason for all of these bananas was the truck refrigeration unit malfunctioned and the bananas were not kept at the correct temperature, so they had to be discarded).

All the bananas are now gone! The Salem food pantry managed to get rid of all the bananas in just one day.

The Salem Ministerial Alliance Food Pantry at the Grace United Methodist Church late Monday afternoon received a truck load of bananas. 970 boxes to be exact containing more than 100,000 bananas.

The Director of the food pantry, Carol Ann Short, is the one who got the call for the banana truck.

“Yeah, so we got a phone call Monday. They said we have a truck of bananas and we’re trying to find somewhere to donate them. We were like great, not realizing how big of a truck we were going to get. So, several hours later we had a semi.  It took about three to three and a half hours to unload. We had quite a team of volunteers, and some of the sheriff’s department guys came over and helped.”

All the bananas are now gone! The Salem food pantry managed to get rid of all the bananas in just one day.

An afternoon and evening by the fire, weather was perfect!

 An afternoon and evening by the fire, weather was perfect!