Sweet Things picnic and/or rainfest

Today was the scheduled Sweet Things picnic. And, of course, it rained and rained. It hadn't rained for a month, but on a day we NEEDED sunshine, there was none. The girls all arrived at 1:oo and we organized everything and everyone was aware fo where they were supposed to be and what they were to be doing. They posed for this picture right before we opened. They all looked so cute.



We opened to NO customers, but lots of rain...what a disappointment! Bill was there with the weenie wagon and we were also serving chicken dinners and giving away coupons and discounts, etc. Suddenly, the sun appeared and everything turned around. I was a happy camper, uh, er, a happy corndog lady...!

We advertised in the local newspaper, the Farina News, that if you wore your cowboy hat to the picnic you would get a coupon for free ice cream. We had several people wear their hats..these little guys looked to cute to pass up for a picture.



Suddenly our parking lot was buzzing with activity...we were swamped with customers and had lots of fun. I ran into the ice cream shoppe and snapped a quick picture while the girls were working, what a bunch of hams!



At the end of the day we were all exhausted, but happy. Many people won coupons and said they enjoyed our chicken dinners. There were so many customers wanting to sit outside that they used the bales of hay and both picnic tables.

I couldn't end this without this picture of the day.....our local newspapeer editor wore her DOG'S cowboy hat and even posed for this picture......she gets the award for "BEST OF SHOW"....I mean, best hat.....Shirley....what a hoot you are!


And, NOW they want to have a LUAU!!! (the girls)
Stay tuned

The day of the skunk

I didn't know it at the time, but Monday was to be the "Day of the skunk(s)"....It was a normal day with normal customers. Evening came and things got a little slow, so Rhiannon and I went outside and sat at the picnic tables to have a soda and relax a little. It was about dusk. Rhi was looking behind me towards Ted Rinkle's house. She said...:Look there are 2 baby skunks out in their yard. We kept watching and then there were 3. I went and told Ted and Joyce that they were proud parents of 3 baby skunks living under their front porch. Pretty soon, Ted came outside. I dont know what he thought he was going to do, but he kept picking up one of the skunks by it's tail and moving it away from the house. The other two ran back under his porch. The skunk became "pissed off" and began attacking Ted's shoe. Ted kicked at it a few times, and then he got sprayed. These little skunks were only about 8 inches 10 inches long (if that) and that included their tail. Soon, however, the entire neighborhood smelled like skunk! It's a little hard to sell ice cream to people when it smells like skunk! Thank goodness we only had about 15 minutes left til closing time. And, now you know the REST of the story.

World Events.......well...MY world, anyway

It is Sunday once again, mostly the only day I have to catch up on things at home and in cyberspace. This week I had a surprise visitor......Danielle popped in at the ice cream shoppe with her neice and nephew. I was so happy to see her. I thought she was still in North Carolina, but was on leave and visiting her brother in St. Louis. We visited for a couple of hours. She looked great and seemed to be just fine. She is coming back in December to visit and to stay a few days with us. Danie, thanks so much for such a wonderful surprise, it just made my week!

Thursday mom and Elouise came to see me too. It has been kind of cool and cloudy this entire week, so things have been a little slower at the ice cream shoppe. It was nice to have time to visit, though. I miss mom though, just a few minutes of visiting each week. We will have to get reconnected this winter.

Darren's birthday was Friday, June 3rd. I talked to him for quite a while. He is doing fine and was hoping to have a nice birthday.....he was at work.....how fun can that be?

Bill has been working at the new flea market at Altamont. It has been a successful venture. I drove up there yesterday and surprised him. There was a pretty good sized crowd and he made alot of money. He was happy to see me. We don't have much time together right now, but are planning a nice vacation in November. I am sure I will be ready for one by then, after the events of the summer and especially Relleke pumpkin farm!

I tried to feed the chickens some oranges today. I even cut them up in little pieces. They just turned up their beeks at it..........I thought chickens liked fruit?.......Oh, yeah, George (rooster), DID eat some, but shook his head....ha ha....made me laugh.

Next Sunday is our big picnic at Sweet Things. I hope it doesn't rain.......but we will have it anyway. I think it will be fun, the girls are going to wear their cowboy hats, as we are having kind of a western theme. I like my poster I made for the ice cream shoppe and for the paper.....the link to the poster is at the end of this post.

Well, gotta get to the ice cream shoppe soon, I am putting in the BLUE ice cream. Always a fun flavor.
picnic poster

Happy Sunday

If you look closely at this picture, you can see a giraffe...


Ok, just squint and stare at it, no, forget that,


Look away for 2 seconds and then look back,


Hey, I'm just messing with ya.....:-)

My how time flies......flys.......fleyes...

Speaking of flies.............yikes.........they're back!

Last night mom, Kent, Bill and I went out to Applebee's for dinner. It was great to see Kent again. We had a nice visit. Kent and Bill discussed the stock market, mom and I ate chocolate cake. It was fun.

I feel like I just don't have time for anything anymore, just working away until fall. I guess I shouldn't complain, at least I'm doing what I love to do, selling ice cream in a small town. I only work 6 months out of the year, so how bad is that? With Bill running the weenie wagon by himself at different destinations, things are working out just fine, money-wise.

Bill took the trailer to Altamont to the flea market there today. Kind of a small crowd, what with it being Memorial day weekend and all. Anyway, I had most of the day off and just relaxed. However, I waited for the Pepsi delivery guy for 3 hours today.. he never came. He had better show up Tuesday or I will have to KILL somebody.....:-)..!!!

Here is Bill when he was at the ice cream shoppe a few weeks ago....he's smiling because it is about over...lol.


I'm just waiting for fall........a trip to Sanibel Island sound great right now!

Doin' the birdwalk..

For the last several weeks we have been watching a robin's nest which was strangely built about 4 feet from the ground in a crook of a tree. There were 4 blue eggs and soon they began hatching. We watched them alot on that day. The next morning one of them had falled out of the tree and was dead. The remaining three have grown by leaps and bounds. Here is a picture I took yesterday. Soon, they WILL be doing the bird walk and then they will fly away leaving an empty nest. Nature is truly a beautiful and complex thing.

Good Bye and thanks for all the Fish

Ok, I am trying to catch up here. First of all...DO NOT spend your hard earned cash on "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".....I should have known it would suck when it started with musical dolphins singing......."Good Bye and thanks for all the fish, too bad it had to come to this"...refering to the fact that the earth was within moments of being destroyed so that a super galactic highway could be built by some gross looking aliens. Ok, I read the book back in the 70's and found it comical, clever and whimsical. In reality, it was like watching Monty Python gone bad.

Now for real life. It was mushroom hunting time the end of April and first part of May. Bill found huge ones in a woods by the interstate. So here he is NOT smiling, showing his catch for the day.

I'm Alive!

Well, haven't I negelected my blog beyond reason???. What can I say, up and to work, home and to bed.. With Prom, volleyball, etc. I have only had one day off since we opened.. Everyone new is mostly trained and I am very happy with all of the employees. They are all fun and hard working, for once I made good choices.

However, the BIG NEWS is that Preston eloped with Amanda and they are now married. It was a shock to all of us, but he seems happy, so I wish them both the best. They were married last week, (Monday?) and she is staying in NC for a couple of weeks, along with her two children. I just want Preston to be happy.

Last Saturday before going to work, Teresa and I went to the Women's Expo in Salem. It was alot more interesting that I thought it would be and we had a great time. Jenny Holsapple had a fantastic booth, decorated with pink sashes and lace and rockin' music playing. It was a fun place to be. I couldn't stay long, since that day was Prom and I was working with Bill.

Mom and Aunt Betty and Uncle Bob came to visit me at the ice cream shoppe again this week. It was so nice to see them again. Uncle Bob told me he used to be a soda jerk in his younger days working for Uncle Ed in his sweet shop.

Let's see....a strange thing I saw this week, was............along side Route 37.....a pair of hounds tooth pants, just laying there in the sun........can you imagine?.....who wears houndstooth these days, anyway?....:-).

My friend Linda in California is a new grandma and sent me many pictures and a happy email. I am so happy for her. Hey, buddy, hugs to ya, if you are reading this!!! I will write soon.

tick-tick-tick...it is almost 11 a.m and I have to get ready for work (should already be ready, but here I set).

Thieves in the Night and a call from India

Happy Sunday Ladies and Germs......
It has been a hectic week. The weather has been spectacular (except for Thursday which was crap) and there has been a constant line at the ice cream shoppe window. This is great, but my poor feet have to get used to the concrete once again!...Ouch...thanks, Preston, for the foot spa....aahhhhh!

Friday night Ashely and Alana (two girls who worked for me last year), stole some daffodils during the night and brought them to the window of the ice cream shoppe and gave them to me as a gift. Wasn't that sweet, they stole flowers for their old boss lady!! (Ok, I'm not that old!) It's just a figure of speech, as in past employer........ANYWAY......whatever!...:-).

So today is Sunday and it is a beautiful day again, storms coming tomorrow and Tues. though. The phone range and it is my friend, Jayanta, from India. We had a nice visit and he was very easy to understand. He had a deeper voice than I expected and spoke very good English...still that accent was very strong. I guess it didn't sound weird to me, due to there being so many foreign doctors in this area, most of them from India or thereabouts!.

Darren and Mindy made a surprise visit to the ice cream shoppe yesterday!...I happened to look out of the side window while I was waitng on someone and Mindy was making faces at me....too funny. They were in town to go to "Uncle Dave's" 40 birthday party. He lives in Alma, so it wasn't a strech to come to Farina. We had a short visit, but it was great to see them both! They came back to the house to see Bill and for Darren to get his hat that he left here at Chrismas time.

Well, I must go clean the ice cream machine...........I just can't wait......can you hear the sarcasm in my voice???? Guess not.....SINCE I'M TYPING..!!

Looks innocent doesn't he?

Looks innocent doesn’t he? Jay (Jayanta) is a friend from Amman, India that I met about 4 years ago on the Virtual Tourist website. We have been corresponding regularly ever since. I have never seen his sense of humor, but he is very kind and has sent me pictures of his wife and children and of vacations he has taken. I consider him a very good internet friend. However since I have never met him, I always keep my emails intellecual and am not my usual silly self!....But sometimes people surprise you………

On April 1st Jay wrote:

Dear Sheila

I am coming to USA in the last week of April as a tourist on invitation of an old friend from the Silicon Valley in the State of California. I am arriving at San Francisco on 24th April and shall return to India on 10th April after visiting some other States. I am not sure whether I shall be able to see you this time or not.

With warm regards
Jayanta



On April 1st, I wrote back:

Hello, Jay,
Thank you so much for the April Fools card, I really enjoyed it, so kind of you to think of me.

I am very happy that you are visiting the United States. San Francisco and San Jose is where I spent my vacation last fall, do you remember? You will truly enjoy San Francisco, it is a very old city with lots and lots of hills. Also lots of tourist things to do there. My brother lives in San Jose which is right next to San Fran. I would like nothing more than to meet you, but I live on the eastern side of the U.S. (about 1200 miles away from CA). Also, I am opening the ice cream shoppe this Sunday, so I am locked in here, I am so sorry. We could do the next best thing, you could call me and I could at least say hello to you and put a voice with your face. I would like that very much if you would like to call me here are my phone numbers:

Home: 618-547-3379
Cell phone: (this would be best as I always have it with me) 618-322-9081

I will be working, but am off on Saturdays, usually. So you could call me on a Saturday, if you like. If you are too busy, I will understand, but would be so happy to hear from you.

Well, Jay, it has blown up a sudden windy, thunderstorm here with lots of lightening. I didn't think it was even supposed to rain and now it is pounding on the side of the house. So I had better get off of the internet, dont' want to burn up my modem...that would never do!!!

Wonderful to hear from you, let me know about the phone call.

Love to you and your family,
Sheila

On April 2nd, He write back:

Dear Sheila
It was also an April Fool. Probably you did not notice the dates I mentioned in my letter. Thanks for your overwhelming response which clearly indicates that you have great trust on me. If I come to America in the future you will be the first person I would like to meet. I have a special interest in the city of Chicago because of Vivekananda about which I wrote you earlier.
Thanking you once again.
Jay

I wrote back:

Well, you are just quite the joker, aren't you??? I fell for your April Fool's joke, like a ton of bricks didn't I...ha ha! And, yes, I noticed the dates in your email, but I thought you just made a mistake and meant to type May...You were really convincing, you are such a tease!....

Hey, you know you can still call me and say hello! I think you owe me one!! :-).

Have a great day!
Jayanta, Sheila


You just never know, do you?

The iceman cometh

A week has once again come and gone. Most of it has been spent getting ready for the opening of the ice cream shoppe. I did get to have lunch with mom Thursday. Teresa called and was crying because her mom fell and broker her wrist and ankle. Her mom has Alzheimer's and is getting continually worse. It is so sad. Teresa also heard from Robert and that made her cry too, I guess it is really over between the two of them, hard to believe after 5 years. She is so sad, I wish I could help her. Mom gave me some phone numbers for her to call to maybe get some help with her mom. Sending hugs to ya , Tuh!

Tomorrow is opening day. Bill and I spent the entire day finishing up with the cleaning, etc. We went to Arby's for supper. We stopped by mom's and she went with us. Guess that was my last supper..lol.

On a more serious note Pope John Paul II passed away today. It is very sad, even though he lived a life of helping others and passed peacefully. He did alot of good for the world, so we should all be thankful.

Sir Lance Abunch.........

Preston is home for a few days, well, just for two days actually. He is going to Wisconsin to meet Amanda. Anyway, today he came to spend the day with us. Bill was working outside and Preston and I just stayed in the house and visited and had a great time together. I fixed home-made pizza and cherry cobbler with ice cream for dessert. Mom came up for supper too and to visit with Preston. After dinner we watched a movie...A KNIGHT'S TALE. It was very good and was cleverly laced with modern music and present day humor. I give it 5 stars *****. The best part of the movie was GORGEOUS Heath Ledger as Sir William Hatcher...what a hunka hunka.




It was so nice to see Preston again and to spend some time with him, I was glad mom got to see him too! Preston, we love you very much!

Doggie diaries, part one

Took Teresa to St. Louis today to get a cortisone shot in her back....ouch...Bill went too and AFTER the procedure we went to Olive Garden and had a very nice lunch and a long visit.

Then I came home and let the dog out to run a little since she was stuck in the pen all day while we were gone. About 2 hours went by and I went out to put her up, she didn't want to get back in the pen, so I grabbed her by the collar and was pulling her toward the open gate. She twisted around and got under my feet, I went flying down onto the ground right into all of the mud (2 days of rain here). Sally thought I was hurt and started slurping me in the face. I jumped up and she ran to her pen, she knew she was in trouble!! So, I checked to see if any neighbors were watching (or worse if Bill happened to be looking out of the window)...and no one was. So I had to come in a take a bath....that was my day.

Man the Ultimate Survivor

Since these last few weeks have been mostly dedicated to getting the ice cream shoppe ready for business, there is nothing much to write here. All family members are doing fine, Preston is coming home March 25th and that is about it. Spent last Thursday with mom and we had a fun day of relaxing and it is probably our last "Hurrah" until I am again off work next winter....:-(

So here is something extremely fascinating that I saw on the National Geographic channel last night.........In search of the Ultimate survivor. There have been recent discoveries of skeletal remains of humanoid types in Africa and other areas on the planet. These human-types were walking the earth at the same time. Not as an indiviual developing through the millinia as we once thought. These are not skeletons of apes, they have been DNA tested and are definatley human. Many of them lived in the same area and probably were aware of the other's existance. Here is a link to the preview that was on previous to airing:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/channel/ultimatesurvivor/preview.html

It was absolutely astonishing what these skeleton remains reveal. What is known as modern man was almost wiped out by a Golaith-like creature with an average height of 6'4". However, modern man in the end survived by some luck and by having a bigger more creative brain. Also, the Golaith like man had a major genetic flaw, in that his skin was not properly functional in cooling him. He had to live in very cool climates and could not run for long periods of time.

This special was two hours long, so I can not possibly type everything here that was theorized , but it certainly opens the mind to a different past than what we have always been taught.

The final "civilizing of man" was when we learned to speak and therefore , communicate with each other. The speaking mechanism was a fluke of nature and is what seperates us from the primates. Well, I could write a book, but I am sure it will be aired again, it is truly amazing.
I can't seem to get it off of my mind today.

Top 'O the Marnin' to yeh...green people

I am so far behind on my bloggin......I thinks me needs a blogger vitamin.....one that would make your brain remember to blog. Isn't that the strangest word?

Anyhoo, today is St. Patrick's day and since I am partly Irish....
I have a book entitled: Irish Cures, "Mystic Charms & Superstitions",

Here is an Irish Remedy to get rid or freckles:

"Anoint a freckled face with the blood of a bvll, or of a hare and it will pull away the freckles and make the skin fair and clear.....Also the distilled water of walnuts is good."

I don't know about you, but it seems it would be easier to distill a walnut than to get blood from a bull......I think I would still with the nuts!

Besides I don't have freckles!

Have a great St. Patrick's day everyone!

Red Neck Central

Ok, I live in the country but don't consider myself a redneck......but.....I digress!...Saturday night we went out with Bill's cousin, Kathy and her husband, Paul. It was Kathy's birthday!....after eating supper at Denney's we went dancing at the Moose club in Salem. Most of the people at the dance were from Kinmundy and so was the band! We actually had such a good time singing along and laughing alot. Bill and I danced alot. I had on really tall shoes and my feet started hurting , but I just kept on dancing. There were about 12 of us at the table, all from Kinmundy. Kathy had several drinks and kept dancing even when the rest of us were sitting down, she was really enjoying her birthday! She was doing this kind of strange dance step, but it looked vaguely familiar!. Pretty soon Bill got up to dance with her and OMG...that's where I saw it...it must be a Halterman thing. I said to her husband..."Do you think that dance step is something they inherited?"...we had a good laugh, but I guess I shouldn't make fun of hubby at least he gets up to dance!

So here is a little Easter joke, just for good measure!

We got home about 12:30, what a great evening! We haven't danced in ages!

The Great Chicken Escape!

Today is Friday. Bill took off to Michigan with his friend, Paul Neff, who is a truck driver and has been friends with Bill since high school. I talked to Shelley for about an hour and then I called my friend, Anne Roth, and we talked for an hour too!...Then I baked bread and made an apple pie. While all of this was going on it was a terribly windy and cool day outside. It snowed for a while, and then turned to partly couldy. I am listening to music and singing and just enjoying my day while I cleaned and cooked. About 2:00 I went to get the mail, on my way back to the house I see a chicken running along the outside of the fence. I thought one of them flew out until I got a good look at her...it was the Donna Knots...the chicken that was on lock down. She had escaped her prison and was trying to get back on the coop! I can't imagine how she got out. There were huge boards on top of the cage AND the barn was locked! Maybe I should change her name to Houdini!....It was very windy, so I guess that is how she got out of the barn, since the door is not tight but is on a slide...... but how she got out of the cage is a mystery to me. And, of course she went right for the nest and parked herself there! So I had to pick her up, squawking all the way (not me, the chicken) and put her pack in her cage. I put a huge blanket and some more heavy boards on top! If she excapes from there this time I am just going to WIG OUT! This is what she would look like if she was a cartoon.......

Chicken diaries......Lock Down!

One of the chickens would not get off of the next all day Wed. Bill's mom said it is because she is wanting to nest and hatch her eggs. We dont' want any little chicks, so we had to put her in a cage in the barn. She was not happy!....She is in solitary confinement....or Chicken lockdown, if you will! Dona says to leave her in the cage for about a week and she will forget about it!

What? A week has gone by already?

This last week has been a quiet blur. Not much happening. Getting ready for the ice cream season in many ways. We are relaxing as much as possible, we know what we are in for! I have spent two days with mom, which is always so much fun. We have worked on the chicken yard, making a barricade between Sally and the chickens and giving them more room to run when we are working and can't let them loose. We took a ride around Forbes State park one day last week. Just more or less relaxing. Yadda Yadda Yadda. One week passes without notice!

Fish ice cream anyone?

In honor of the nearing of the ice cream season, I give you...WEIRD ICE CREAM FLAVORS:

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream

Does fish-flavored ice cream sound good to you? Don't cringe -- according to an article in the Wall Street Journal, it's all the rage in Japan.

A few years ago, Yoshiaki Sato, the owner of a candy and ice cream shop in the fishing village of Ishinomaki, Japan, was watching a news report on TV about fish that were caught locally, the Pacific saury, going to waste. Mr. Sato suddenly had an idea about what to do about all the extra fish: make fish ice cream.

Everyone, including Sato's employees and his wife, thought he was crazy. And the fish smelled up Sato's sweet factory. But Sato was on the right track -- not only did people slurp up the fish ice cream, but now he makes ice cream out of sea slugs, whale, turtles, cedar chips, and much more.

Now Sato helps other towns in Japan make ice cream flavors out of their local specialties -- including pickled orchards in Toyoma, chicken wings and shrimp in Nagoya City, and eel in central Shizuoka.

According to the article, Japan is not the only country that goes for weird ice cream flavors. In various parts of the U.S., ice cream flavors include praline-chile, garlic, sauerkraut and minestrone.

But odd ice cream flavors in Japan have really taken off, where Sato's sweet shop began the trend of making ice cream out of local food specialities.

Among Sato's eighty-plus experimental ice cream flavors that paid off: abalone, salmon, crab, sea urchin, octopus and shark fin.

Sato had to solve several problems to make ice cream out of fish. For one thing, fish tend to freeze into rock-solid chunks when frozen. Then there's the incredibly fishy smell. Sato found he could solve the freezen problem by soaking the fish in alcohol, which doesn't freeze like water does. And he solved the smell problem in a variety of ways, depending on the fish. For instance, he boils octopus in brown tea, and steams shark fins with green onions and miso soup.

But saury smelled the worst, and was the most difficult challenge. Sato finally got rid of the fishy smell by putting the flesh through a seven step process, including soaking it in whiskey, brandy, and five other alcohols, then combining it with walnuts, almonds, peanuts and chocolate.

Kids love it -- especially the specks of fish meat mixed into the ice cream.

Recently, Sato was asked to create an ice cream out of pit viper, a deadly, poisonous snake. He skinned it, steamed it in sake (Japanese rice wine), and pulverized it in a juicer. According to the Wall Street Journal article, the ice cream that resulted was the color of toffee and smelled a little bit like fertilizer.

What's next for Mr. Sato? A local village has asked him to make ice cream out of their local specialty: fireflies. Perhaps he'll end up with an ice cream that lights up on the tip of your tongue!