Baseball Tournament

I love baseball tournaments.  

On a nice summer day, it's great to see several games and get some sun.

I traveled to Wabasha, MN last Friday to watch Great Nephew Anders play in a fun tourney.

It was sunny and nice all day long.

A double elimination format makes for plenty of games for every team.

Anders' team started out winning, then after a loss, they continued to win and work their way to 3rd place in the tournament coming out of the loser's bracket.

Five ballgames, lots of sun and fun.

Anders in #9

This is a fan favorite photo :-)

By the end of the day, it was hot, the kids were tired, but I think they had a blast,

I know I did.

3rd in a series

Friend Carol and I have taken 4 mosaic garden stone classes at Luck School Community Ed.

It's a fun class, you work hard for a couple of hours and walk away with a nearly finished stone.

At home the work is grouting and then sealing the grout.

Our 4th class was a couple of weeks ago, 

and today,

 I finally got around to putting on the sealer so the new stone could join other 2 of this 3-stone-series.

My niece in law Heather gifted me the little red heart tiles.

I think she got them as a sample but they worked great with the mosaic glass pieces.

My Danish Heart series is completed.

These colorful stones are part of the display of cement blocks made by my Dad and his siblings back in about 1940.  The blocks were part of a house and barn that my Grandfather built and the kids handmade all the blocks for those buildings. 

A few of the blocks were written on "Johansen Block Company", "Luck, Wisconsin", one with "VJ", my Dad's initials.  Cousin Paul gifted me those signed blocks 

and they are part of my display near my front door.

I'm planning to sign up for another class,

but I think I'll start hatching a new design, I might be getting full on Danish Hearts.

Who is getting fed

All winter I hauled rabbit food through the deep snow of the backyard, and dumped it under a pine tree at the edge of the woods in an effort to help the rabbits through the long and very snowy winter.  I had the pleasure of watching the rabbits snacking away under the tree.

Then the snow melted and I put the trail cam in the backyard.

I was surprised to see a fox in the yard, the first of those since I've been living here.

So, then I thought, I suppose those fox came and ate up all my nice rabbits!

Of course, I have raccoons in the yard almost everynight too, 

and in an attempt to keep them away from my bird feeders, 

I dumped a bag of cat food under the pine tree.

and I'm sure they were also eating the rabbit food, but probably not the rabbits.

 I know nothing about foxes, but they kind of fun to see.

If there would be kits born, that would be a treat.

I think they have fleas, but since my pets stay indoors, that's probably not a big deal.

But I am pretty sad about my rabbits, I was looking forward to a yard with many bunnies.

Then, much to my surprise, I saw a rabbit on the trail cam.

So, maybe my rabbits are wily and have avoided the fox?

Time will tell I guess,

but the fox seems to be a daily and nightly visitor to the feed lot.

I see the raccoons and the foxes nearly cross paths under the pine.

And for variety, the rare deer browses through the yard.

I see a few of my hosta have been chomped, just the leaves, the stems left as scraps.

 I have not seen this spike buck in person, he sure is a pretty chestnut color right now.

 The fox seems to get the most action from the trail cam.

He must stop and pose often.

I'll be on the lookout for fox kits,

and will be keeping my fingers crossed for a crop of bunnies to survive.

Mother Nature can be brutal sometimes and living in the woods puts it right in your face,

that survival of the fittest deal is hard on my heart.

Baseball down South

I paid a visit to Alma on Tuesday to watch great nephew Anders play baseball and to stay overnight.  It was an exciting game with the win for Anders' team coming with a hit by his best pal, Wil.  I got a few photos of Anders even though the rain started partway through the game and by the end of the game I was happy to get my camera stored inside the car to keep it dry.

A good stretch and catch to put the batter out.

Eye on the ball

Hustling to first base after a hit.

2 handed fielding.

Game face on, big chaw of bubble gum in his cheek.

Contact!

Trotting to first after a nice smack!

It was a fun game, we stayed and watched the next two games as well.

Anders kept busy as the ball shagger for all out of bounds foul balls.

It rained through both games and we were went and muddy by the time we left the field.

I stayed overnight at Lora & Anders' house.  They are renting a cute bungalow on the hill in Alma with a view of the river and a plentiful supply of lightning bugs!

It was good to have some time to visit and see their new digs.

I'm looking forward to the next game!

The Alma kids are good players on defense and they can hit the ball.

If they hang together, they are going to have some fun!

Last for grads

These last two little bags wrap up my sewing of graduation gifts. Payton and Cash are twins and I've watched them play a lot of basketball and I've seen photos on Facebook of many fish, and hunting trophies. I'm hoping these little bags will be useful to them. 

My next project is a doozy... 

Mementos of Janice

I've been to 2 of the auctions of my friend Janice's estate.

The girls seem to appreciate my moral support as they watch their Mom's collections be auctioned.

I've tried to bid only on things that I will use 

and then it has been fun to work them into my household.

I picked up a couple of fat cardinal planters and found them a home on the kitchen window sill.

I also got an antique tool box that I just love.

As soon as I saw it on display, I knew I wanted it and knew it would work for all my greeting cards.

 The drawer is the whole length of the box, 

so I've got address labels, stamps and stickers stashed in the drawer.

Now I have a nice little office in the kitchen for my greeting card business.

All my greeting cards, store bought and my own photographic creations, fit in the top.

Once I got all my many cards in the same place, I got a wake up call about having way too many cards on hand, so now I'm on a mission to use up what I have, before I make more.

I also picked up a really old wooden divided box and found a use for it as well.

No one will see it but me in the 'junk drawer', but it's functional and I'm pleased.

There is one more old wooden toolbox, smaller, and I haven't quite come up with a plan for that.  I think it might become a sewing caddy, but for now I'm noodling on that idea.

I picked up a couple of jars of old buttons, I like to have those sitting around the sewing room.

It's nice to have a few of Janice's collection in use around my house.

She was a good friend and I miss her.

Update:  I worked Janice's wooden toolbox into my little kitchen office set up.

Looks like a matched set to me.

And I eliminated a bunch of stuff, and freed up a big basket so that feels great.

Catching up on the list

I've been sewing my graduation gifts this year.

There got to be a pretty good list of kids by the time all my invites arrived.

I had some deadlines with the local kids to be able to deliver a gift to their party, so those got done a while ago, but the Colorado kids got put on the back burner.

This weekend I had no commitments, yay! 

So, I spent some time sewing.

I made a cute little autumn theme bag for Kayla.

Inside the bag is a small sewing kit and an all purpose metal credit card style tool.

I hope she likes & will find a use for it as she heads for Xavier University in the Fall.

Davis is headed to Colorado State University with a golfing commitment.

I tried to find CSU Ram colors for his bag.  

(It was tempting to use the green and gold of our beloved Packers.)

Again, it has as small sewing kit and credit card style metal tool included.

These zippered bags are fun to make and pretty quick to do.

And, I like the idea of a homemade gift, as I was thinking of each of the kids as I sewed their little bags, wondering what use they might find for it, hoping they will remember that they have an extra button, safety pin and needle & thread if they ever need it.

So, graduation is finally done for me.

What's next?  

I have some ideas for more Danish Hearts motif runners 

so I guess I'll get cutting some red and white fabric.

So

So, not much news around here.  

No major wildlife sightings, unless you count the gray squirrel who was scratching himself so vigorously that he fell right off the deck railing.

I'm hanging close to home until I get some maintenance done on the car.  

An oil change turned into urgently needing new tires on the rear of my car and new tires turned into needing shocks and struts and alignment based on how the old tires had worn so choppy.  So, the shocks are scheduled for Friday and I'm trying to minimize my driving on the new tires until that is completed.  So, no baseball this week.  But I don't mind sticking around home either.

A walk around the yard to see what's blooming is nice.

Crinkled White Peony
My favorite

Lupines are taking over, but I don't mind.

Fancy irises that my friend's Uncle LeRoy gave me about 8 years ago.
Always a favorite.

Such a showy flower

The Hops are full and healthy.

 So, I had my annual Mammogram last week.  The new technology is called 3D Mammography.

There was a poster in the waiting room with Sheryl Crow announcing the benefits of 3D.

Less callbacks, better images, faster images, etc.

So, since Medicare pays for it, I had the 3D.

In all these years, I've never had a callback on Mammo, 

but this year, 

with the newer technology,

I got the call.

So, I've been back, had more images and an ultrasound of the suspect area and all is normal.

I took myself to lunch at Tokyo for a beer and some sushi to celebrate.

A call like this gives a person a reason to think about how it might go.

What if there is a cyst, a tumor, or whatever else could indicate need for further treatment.

Thinking about what would I do, would I ever consider radical surgery, intense chemo, other extreme treatments.  I'm not sure I would.

Of course talk is cheap when not faced with a real decision to make.

Hopefully I won't have that occasion for many years to come.

But that doesn't keep me from thinking about how I would manage those medical decisions if needed.

So, I think it's okay to have a sketch of a plan.

In the meantime,

Life is Good.

Fresh

It's fawn season in Wisconsin.  That sounds cute, but the roads take the lives of so many, that it's bittersweet.  Last night, I was headed to bed late and happened to notice the motion light was on out back.  The trail cam took this photo for me.  

This little fawn must be quite fresh, 

it wasn't very big as it walked almost right under Mom's belly to be safe.  

They mosied into the woods, I hope they stay away from the road.

It would be nice to think it will survive the fresh stage.

Talk about a surprise

I've been kind of having a quiet day.

I walked around the yard to see what was blooming, put some iris supports under the heavy blooms, pulled some weeds, helped the hops plant get hooked onto the ladder lattice, and just enjoyed seeing what was in bloom.

Then I came in the house, sat down to work on a crossword puzzle and listen to the news.

I heard a clunking noise and looked up to see this yearling climbing up on the front deck.

Yes, he was going for the bird feeder.

Before he left, he stood up and checked the bird house to see if it was a feeder.

So, 12 noon, this young bear is out and about.

Something to be aware of, I guess I'll put a note in the neighbor's mailboxes.

A surprise like this could be not fun if you outside and unaware.