Fingers Crossed

I keep all of my photographs on an external hard drive.  About a year ago, my external drive was getting full and sluggish.  A little too late, I quit using it and bought a new 4TB drive.  I was able to transfer some of my photos from the old to the new, but then that quit working.  There are at least a few years worth of photos left on the old drive.  I knew I needed a professional to see if they could retrieve those files, but of course, it got put aside and forgotten.

Recently someone asked me for a photo I had taken in 2015, and of course, that is one of the years I cannot access.

So, I took both drives to a local computer repair shop in Cameron.  Walking into this place was like nothing I've ever seen before.  One whole wall was circuit boards, nailed side by side, like tiles.  That was interesting, but all over in the shop were stacks of computers and hard drives and laptops.  It was mind boggling.

As soon as I walked in the door, one of the guys came to see what I needed.  He quickly hooked my hard drive up to a computer and in seconds had diagnosed the problem.  He said there was a good chance that they could get all my files, but it might take time.  So, I left both hard drives there and I'm hoping for the best.  As I'm sitting here with all of my photographs in the hands of someone else, I have realized that having only one storage for all those photos is kind of crazy, and I'll invest in a back up drive now, I don't want to be in this position ever again.

Fingers crossed that on Tuesday I can pick up my hard drives and bring all my photos back home.

Tomatoes

I went to visit Tom & Debbie and buy some tomatoes on Sunday.  I had a nice visit with Debbie and she toured me around her yard and beautiful flowers.  I should have had my camera in my pocket but had left my cell phone in the car, not expecting to get this tour.  She has a hedge of fuchsia colored petunias that is just amazing.  She buys a gross of plant plugs from a wholesaler and did they ever grow and spread.  She also had beautiful dahlias.  They also raise pheasants for release, so there were pheasants picking around in the garden, under the hostas, and in the yard.  It was quite something to see all those pheasants around.  I got a bunch of tomatoes and they said they would sell me some more, so to call when I'm ready for another batch.  Yay!

I left Almena with the intent to go to Aldi to get a few groceries, especially bacon, so I could have BLT for supper.  I had my camera so I took the back-roads, hoping to see some wildlife.  I had never been on some of these roads before and found a wonderful little wildlife area.   I ran across John Porter Flowage and a nice family of swans. This is a nice area with big parking lot, I'll be going back to see what else I might see if I 'sit a spell'.

"John Porter was a Wildlife Biologist for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) from 1964 to 1989 for Barron and Polk Counties. He developed the plans and acquired much of the land for 5 major wildlife management areas and many smaller ones totaling almost 15,000 acres during his career.

The John Porter Flowage, formerly the Hwy T Flowage, is located 15 northwest of Barron. It consists of 77 acres of land, of which 40 acres was purchased by Ducks Unlimited and donated to the State of Wisconsin. The cornerstone of this project is a 17-acre flowage developed by restoring a drained wetland. The flowage is used by nesting and migrating ducks, geese, and trumpeter swans."  

DNR webpage.

There might be some trails here, but I couldn't readily see any paths to walk.

I'll go back again and look around more.

Just up the road there were a herd of horses frisking around. 

There is something fun about taking photos of running horses.

I know nothing about horses and breeds, but these sure were pretty to look at.

I made another stop at friends Doug and Sharon before finally making my way to Aldi.

Doug and Sharon are parents of my nephew in law Mark and also parents of my plumber Ryan.  They have a lovely home not far from me, long driveway and they mow everywhere, it looks like a state park in there.  We had a nice little visit and I got a few updates on Krista & Mark's family, so that was nice.  They have the world's oldest cat.  This cat has no tail, it got chopped off somehow.  I think it must have been hit by a car somewhere along the line, because it's back end is not in alignment with her front end.  But she still eats and seems happy to see people.  She sleeps in the heated garage and after I gave her some head scratches, she followed me out to the edge of the driveway as I left.

She's had a long life, I wonder if she will make it through another winter.  She's like that old cat, Grizabella, in the Broadway musical Cats.

I hope I see her again.

It was a really nice afternoon, but what happened at Aldi kind of made my day.

I was standing in the produce aisle and I heard a Mom say to a young boy "well, ask her".

Then she turned to me and said "my son wants to ask you a question".

So, I turned to him and said, "sure, what is your question?"

He said "were you the judge at the spelling bee?"

I said, "yes, well actually I was the pronouncer, not the judge"

So, then I asked him about how he did in the Bee and he said he went out on round 8, the vocabulary round and his word was chivalrous, he thought is sounded like another word.  I remember this young boy and I remember how sad I was that he went out on that round (I'm not a big fan of the vocabulary rounds).  So, I asked him if he was going to be in the Bee this year and he shrugged.  I took a minute to tell him he should try again and then I gave him a couple of tips about asking the Pronouncer to repeat the word, give the definition, and repeat the sentence.  The kids in the National Scripps Spelling Bee ask for all the info and it gives them more time to be sure they have the right word.  None of the kids at the regional level do this, and if they ask, I'll repeat the word and the info as many times as they want.  I always feel bad during our local Bee that the kids do not take advantage of asking for more information or a repeat of the word.

As I walked away, I heard the Mom telling the little boy "she gave you some good tips".

It kind of made my day.

Oh yeah, I did get the bacon and some avocado too, 

so I had a fresh tomato, avocado, & bacon salad for supper, it was delicious!

A trip to Mellen

I drove to Mellen, WI to watch the 

Luck Cardinals take on the Mellen Granite Diggers in a non conference football game.  

It was a sunny, warm night for the players and fans.

Great nephew Gage, #6, is playing this year after a long sabbatical from football.

It was sunny and warm, well actually, it was hot.

I was impressed with the officiating crew, they took more than one extended break to give the players time to get helmets off and water in.

The game was a run away.

Final score  Cardinals 72 to  Granite Diggers 32.

One highlight of the game was a touchdown by #34.

He has downs syndrome and is a Senior this year.

I'm sure he'll never forget running that ball across the goal line.

After the game, I met friends Rick & Mary for Friday Night Fishfry.

I stayed overnight at their house after we ate.

Mary had found an old photo of us riding horse together in about 1967.

Mary & Wanda going for a ride

The next day, Mary and I spent the morning in Ashland; 

shopping at the Food Co-op, Quilt Shop, & Humane Society Thrift Shop.  

We had breakfast at the Black Cat Coffee Shop, 

I had a delicious Burrito with chorizo and red pepper sauce.

We stopped at a nice little beach to take a couple of snaps.

On my way home I stopped to do a wellness check at our Sandcastle cabin.

All was well, in fact it looked beautiful, I was sorry I couldn't spend the night.

I dropped in on Craig and Mary Jo before leaving Gordon.

After a good chat & a couple of their private stash of Yuengling, I finally headed for home.

It was a fun outing, now I have about 1000 football photos to weed through and pick out the ones to edit and post for the kids.

I'm a happy girl

On Tuesday I drove to Almena (~30 miles) to buy tomatoes from a roadside produce stand run by a couple who have been selling veggies out of their driveway for several years. When I got to their house, there were no veggies in the stand and it didn't look like there had been anything happening there all season, since asparagus ended. 

I knocked on the door but no one answered. 

They had a note posted with their home telephone number so I took that down and when I got home I called them. I asked if their gardens had been wiped out in the bad storms a few weeks ago and she said yes, they didn't have enough tomatoes to sell, only enough for their own canning. I was way sad because their tomatoes are the best I've ever had and they sell them so reasonably, a whole burger basket tray for three bucks. But, those July storms were wicked, and I had noticed that they had many very large trees down on their property so I wasn't totally shocked. 

I don't know these people personally but I had chatted with the man when I stopped to get asparagus this spring and he was very friendly.

Tonight I was very surprised to see a phone call coming in from their number. It was the wife calling me to ask me if I would like to come and buy some tomatoes. She said they had harvested a couple of bushels of tomatoes tonight and if I still wanted some, that they would sell me some.

 I was so surprised and really sad because I'm going to be gone the next 2 days but when I told her that and said I would be happy to come Sunday if that would be alright she said they would be there, and that would be fine. 

I'm pretty excited to get some of their tomatoes and I'm feeling really special that they called me to ask me if I wanted to have some.

 I don't know if it's Wisconsin people or small town people or the fact that I took time to call them but whatever made it happen,

 I'm going to be happy eating those tasty tomatoes.

⚾️⚾️⚾️

I know I posted some baseball photos of Gage, 

but I really like this black&white & red edited snapshot.

Last for this summer

I'm always eager to see which of the daylilies will be the first to have an open bloom in early summer. Then time flies, and soon it's time to see which color will be the last for before we turn to Fall. 

There are two daylilies in bloom today and I think that they are the last for this year

This might be a case of the best is last. 

Well, 3 months ago, I took some photos of the Luck vs Unity baseball game, and then did nothing with them, so here's a look back at one of the last games of the season.

Here are a few photos of #2, my great nephew Gage.

I try to catch most of the action, but sometimes that means lots of pictures of the pitchers.

Next up is Football.

Cones

It seemed like we had lots of rain all summer.

 My grass stayed green, 

nothing really fried off like usual, 

but evidently, along the edges of the house some of my plants did not get as much rain as they needed. 

My Hops vines dried up early and I'm only getting a few tiny cones.

Meanwhile, the Moonflowers are the gift that keep on giving.

Happy birthday party

A big gathering was held on Sunday at Kyle's house to celebrate 

Jens turning 8 and Anders turning 11.  

Kris whipped up a big shrimp boil & also grilled a mess of ribs.

Anders and Jens blew out their candles while their pal Jonah watched.

It was a nice gathering and Lois took advantage of having all her kids in one place.

Ryan, Kris, Kyle
Lois & Angie

It is not often that all are together so really nice to get a photo.

All of Lois's grandkids were there too, with the exception of Elliana & Milena.

So, another group photo.

Emily, Ruby, Lois, Stella, Megan, Anders, Owen
Gage, Jack, Ivan, Jens
Jude & August

(As many photos as I've taken, I know better than to set it up with shade and bright sun, but that's how it worked out.)

Emily, Ruby and Grandma Lois

It was a very nice day at Kyle's, everyone left with a full tummy & a smile.

There was a little chill in the air on Sunday morning,

I snapped this photo of one of my sunflowers planted by the squirrels.

I'm not ready for Fall yet.

Marketplace

Occasionally I look at Facebook Marketplace, 

oh, well not really occasionally,

 I look at it most everyday. 

That's where I found the fabulous Martin House that will soon be living high on a tree stump in my backyard, (just waiting for some muscle to help me lift it).

Yesterday, I saw a woman was selling, what looked to be some terracotta tubes, for raised bed planting. 

She wanted two bucks a piece so I sent her a message and asked her how big they were and then told her I would take them

. 

I'm not exactly sure how I will use them, but I do think I could make a raised bed someplace with the eight tubes and be pretty successful maybe at raising a few vegetables. 

Or they may just end up with annuals in them I'm not sure.

They are actually bigger than I expected, but that was not a deal-breaker, 

I will say the car was pretty full coming home.

It's going to be fun to noodle on what to use these guys for. I suspect they are some kind of industrial sewer pipe segments, I love that they look like clay.

$16 out the window, but just wait, these are going to be something good.

Rain drops on Moonflowers

One of my favorite things.

Rain droplets on last night's Moonflower.

Mad love. 

Sometimes they don't

I picked the ripe tomatoes, but got a nasty surprise. 

All had blossom rot.  Major disappointment.   I picked off a few more green ones with the same issue.  I read that a calcium deficiency is the cause of blosdom rot. 

.

Kind of gross. 

Tomorrow I'm headed to the Farmers Market, I'm hungry for ripe tomatoes

Sometimes things work out

I think I wrote about a greenhouse visit in late Spring that ended with me taking home 2 tomato plants that I didn't want.  Since then, I've had to transplant them into bigger pots and now I am watering them at least daily as I'm sure the pots are full of roots!

And I've been complaining about all this tomato care for 2 plants that I did not want...

But today I see that I am about to have 3 beautiful tomatoes to pick in the very new future.

Now,  I'm singing a different song.🎶🎶

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Fun watching this Eastern Tiger Swallowtail at work on the verbena 

in my backyard 

on Sunday afternoon. 

(A male I think, thick stripes.)

I have seen quite a few Swallowtails in the yard lately, this was my first chance to catch them in action.  

I've been seeing a few Monarchs too, hopefully I can track one of them down for some photos soon.  It seems like summer is going fast, 

do I say that every year?  

Probably.

I'm loving it for now.

Whooping

On Thursday, friend Mary arrived from Mason.  

We had a fun lunch at the Blueberry Line Depot in Barron.  

Delicious quiche in a restored depot.  It was fun and I'll go back.

Then we had our toes done, a tradition whenever Mary comes to town.

It's nice to have soft feet again and pretty nails.

The main reason for Mary's visit was to attend Birds and Beers, a program sponsored by Hunt Hill Audubon Sanctuary.  The topic this time was Whooping Cranes.

The venue was Cheers at Tagalong Resort in Birchwood, WI.

The speaker was excellent 

and arrived dressed in a costume that is used to help raise crane colts in captivity.

It was alarming to learn that the Whooping Crane population had dropped as low as 14 in 1942.

Now, after much hard work and much experimentation in raising colts in captivity for release, the population is back in the 400 range.  Still not very many birds.

We learned a lot of great information about saving the Whooping Cranes and I will continue to $upport those efforts when possible.

More information about current populations and efforts.

https://www.bringbackthecranes.org/project-updates/?fbclid=IwAR0Sa7YRBofpe-OgnWmJk-ZFuj7_2-AHDt6oicVQhr1-r6vutY3TN3cF394#August

After the presentation, we made a beeline for Lehman's and had a fine dining experience.

We had a delicious meal and a good visit.

As always, Mary is up early, so we had coffee and a little breakfast and she headed North

Another fun visit for sure.

Looking forward to the next one.

Day-Cation

Last Thursday I was in Luck to visit the cemetery and do some other errands.  On my way out of town, I stopped by nephew Kyle's house.  I arrived right at dinner time and Kyle had made a feast of pork ribs, corn on the cob, Brussels sprouts & even had potato salad.  I was invited to join and stayed for a couple of cold beverages.  It was a nice summer visit and a delicious meal.

In our conversation, Kyle mentioned that he was taking the family to Blue Fin Bay for a night on Friday.  I told him how much I love that place, truly a magical place to stay on the edge of Lake Superior.  He and Heather said I should come along since Jack was going to stay home to heal his mouth after removal of wisdom teeth, so there was an empty bed.

I kind of felt like I should not tag along in their family day, but after sleeping on it, decided I would meet them in Tofte and stay the night with them.  So, the day-cation was planned.

I drove up in the afternoon on Friday and arrived at Blue Fin Bay at about 4pm.

While Kyle was checking in, Ruby and Jens and I were treated to a viewing of a Great Horned Owl on the deck.  An injured bird now used for education and he was magnificent.

I'm not sure the kids were as impressed as I was.

Our condo was very nice.

Full kitchen, living room with big fireplace, one bedroom & bath on the main-floor, master suite upstairs & a loft.  Plenty of room for all and I had my own bed with attached bath.

The door goes to the lanai, that is where I spent most of my time.

The kids were eager to explore the shoreline and climb on the rocks.

Jude got fitted up with a new life jacket.

Then Gage, Stella, Jude & Jens headed off for the beach.

It was nice that we could see the beach from the Lanai where I sat and visited with Heather.

Kyle took Ruby off to find a new swim suit.

I snapped this photo from the lanai as Gage & Jude were posing for photographer Stella with Jens looking on.

Gage was doing a live Instragram while Jude and Stella got their feet wet.  Jens in the black trunks.

Clever Stella used the telescope viewer to capture Kyle and Heather on the lanai.
I'm there with Ruby in front of me, I was putting a couple of stitches in her new swim suit to keep the neckline consistent with 10 year old values.

After a walk on the boardwalk, Jude got a free ride while Gage showed him something on his phone.

Right outside our condo, on the lanai, a flock of seagulls were eager for attention.

Ruby tried to see if they would grab a chip out of her hand, but they were not that tame.

She did have fun tossing crumbles in the grass and watching the frey.

That evening we had fine dining at The Blue Fin Bay Grille.

It's a nice restaurant, walking distance from the condo and nice vibe.

We sat upstairs with a great view of the lake, table for 8.

Our waiter was great and made it a nice evening for the kids and the adults.

Once the kids were finished, Gage walked them all back to the condo, and the adults had a nightcap.

My tab.

You know you had fun when your Manhattans were more than your fancy fish entree.

Saturday morning the lake was fogged in.

There was a thunderstorm moving across the area, but the lake was strangely still.

I sat on the lanai in complete quiet until the rest of the family woke up.

Then a rain storm swept through.

Jude and I sat inside where it was dry and watched the storm and he was quick to point out whenever the sun would peek through the clouds.

Once the storm was passed, the sun came out and it was a perfect day, hot and humid, but that is summer.  Ruby's friend Jarod hung around and she gave him a few more Pringle snacks.

The bees were very busy in a bush just off the lanai.

It's fun to watch them do the pollination work.

We packed up and headed for breakfast.

It was about an hour before we found a place to eat, but it was worth it.

We had a little wait, Jude was getting some hugs from Dad.

It's fun for me to watch the kids with their parents, especially at this sweet young age.

Once we had breakfast, I said my goodbyes and headed home.

I had thought I might do some sight seeing along the way, but August Up North, is very busy.

So, I decided I could wait and go back in September or October when tourism settles down.

It was a fun day-cation.

I had lots of good visiting with Heather and Kyle & the kids.

I am thankful that Jack didn't want to go

😊😊😊