Those two Decatur boys again, oh, and some of us big people too.

Well, we were just acting silly here, taking our own picture, Garret didn't quite make it when I clicked the button...
Lucas is wondering "Hmmmm, I sure would like some of that chicken." (cause that's what we had for lunch.)
Garret is thinking "This sure is good chicken."
Shelley and the boys.
Luke is wearing his halloween sox from Aunt. Barbie.
Luke is looking like a deer in the headlights...lol
Great grandma and Garret.
Marsha and Christine came to visit us too.
Garret was getting more used to his jeep he got for his birthday, but he's still a little afraid of it.

When I got back home, the lady down the street wanted to know if we wanted some more chickens. They are Rhode Island Red, so we went to get them, and the people that had given them to her had their legs all tied up, because they gave them to her to butcher. She really didn't want them, so we brought them home and cut the strings off of their legs. They had trouble walking, poor things. They are all better today, they were running around, and fluffing themselves in the dirt. Most people rescue dogs or cats, not us, we are the chicken rescuers. For more on saving chickens go to www.savethechickens.org. I'm kidding. So, now, we're up to 20.

Blackberries R US

I was wondering what to do with all of these blackberries, so this was their fate....blackberry jam, pie and muffins. Looks yummy, huh? It is. Slow news day in Kinmundy.

A cool Saturday in July

It was beautiful today, cool even. Bill sold lemonade downtown, I made peach freezer jam and worked in the garden, mostly pulling weeds, and giving the plants their buano fertilizer. Then I read for a while, Stephen King's , Duma Key, very excellent as always. Bill came home and we had supper, which was hamburgers, baked beans, corn on the cob, and tomatoes from the garden. Then our neighbor came over and we did some wine tasting. We just finsihed watching a horrible horror movie, called Dead Birds, why? I don't know. So, that's it, good night!

"Maiden Voyage" of the Lemon cart....a success!

Bill's lemonade cart in downtown Kinmundy. It looks great, and he was very busy today.

The garden spot and Charley's Angels

Mom and I went to visit my brother, Milo and Sis-in-law, Barb in Sandoval today. This is Barb's flower garden. She has made a beautiful area outside to sit with her potted plants, and other treasures she's found along the way....

and gnomes and such...so relaxing out there, and so pretty.
So, we decided to take a few pictures, of course. This is Barb, mom and me. I'm sitting on a tiny rocking horse....Barb calls me Mustang Sheila....
Me and mom, we dressed alike on purpose.......not!
This picture just reminded me of Charley's angels, so I had a little photoshop fun with it.
And, this is the original picture.
Milo and mom
and, the lovely Knights..
Bruce was distorting a picture of himself on photoshop and we got to laughing so hard, my face hurt, we had coffee cake, donuts and coffee and enjoyed Barb's flower garden, and their little dog, Beebs, who is always entertaining..we enjoyed the visit so much.

The Lemonade man cometh

Here's Bill's Lemonade Shake-up cart that he designed and built himself out of an aluminum table, some plywood , an umbrella from Walmart and a banner made at the party supply store in Salem, Festivities, and some tires from a flea market. Looks great doesn't it. It will be going on it's "maiden voyage" Tuesday.


Of course, we spent years in the concession business both with the ice cream shoppe and Wild Bill's concessions, where we sold food, drinks , candy and so many different things over the years, so Bill knows the ropes and made sure his food sanitation license was up to date and his Marion County Health Dept. permit was also up to date.

P.S. The lemons have smiley faces on them, like they are happy to be made into lemonade...hee

Christine worked her "camera magic" on Garret

Of course, Garret laughs at dad, because dad is always funny..
Christine has got the knack though, getting those smiles from this little guy.



Just so adorablel.........and I'm not the least bit partial...really, I'm not...:-)
Lucas on the other hand, has loved the Camera since day one...well, now they are both just adorable, yes?

Red Hat Luau, take a look, it was great fun

MORE PICTURES ON LINK BELOW
Red Hat Luau pictures

Sweney's Corner, Salem, IL

Sweney's drug store stood on this corner for decades. It was torn down a few years ago and the corner was vacant for a while. Since then, the city has made it a place to sit and relax and listen to the water in the fountain in the town square.

This picture was taken from the area where the front door once stood.
There are many pots of beautiful flowers scattered about.
The fountain is the newest addition to the corner.
All of the metal benches have the city name enscribed in the back. A mural about Salem's history is in the works and should be started soon. I just thought for those of you who once lived here, you might be interested in what has happened to Sweney's corner, where we used to sit in a booth and buy those 5 cent cherry cokes, even less than 10 years ago.

4th of July, part 2

Bill built us a little fire pit out of an old tractor tire rim and some bricks. He is roasting some hot dogs, Sally is licking her chops, hoping one of them is for her (and it was).
I guess he put it here so we could watch the garden grow....(you know you're a redneck when your fire pit is facing the garden)..hee
Looks like Sally and Bill were having a serious conversation..

4th of JULY

Bill and I drove out to Forbes State park during the afternoon, a deer spotted us.
Just some closeups of some roadside flowers.

See that branch hanging down? That's someone fishing line that got caught in a tree by the lake.
A Salvador Dali wannabe painting, all I need is a melting alarm clock on my head.


Bill

Turkey buzzard.

A visit with Darren

Darren came to visit today, so I fixed us some lunch and we had a relaxing afternoon.
Mom in mid-bite....
Bill showing Darren his latest project.
We were being attacked by the scarecrow, so we were laughing and not posing for this picture.

This one we posed for, after the wind calmed down a bit.