More Vacation Fun!

I have one more thing to add to my list from my last post.  Learning how to change a tire out on the interstate [on the way home].  Unbelievable!

Here are some pics of the rotten wall I told you about:

We did get to watch a Painted Turtle lay her eggs right next to where we were working, didn't seem to phase her one bit that we were there banging away.

There was a subdivision's worth of goose families on the lake.  Here are couple of them.

J caught a good sized Bass.

The boys in the rowboat Jene bought them:

I tried to take a pic of the rainbow after the rain but the pic didn't turn out well so here is a pic of a gorgeous sunset we witnessed one night:

Isn't that something?  The colors The Lord can produce, awesome.

We did get out to a garage sale and I got some thing that I have wanted for a long time.

Ooo, what a horrible pic, sorry, I didn't realize that.  Well, it is a barn vent than going up there is the glass ball (this one is broke, I can get a reproduction one though) then part of a weather vane (this particular one has my FIL's name on it! James), there is a spot for a directional, and then the lightning rod.  Now I wanted to know if the glass ball was for decoration or purposeful, knowing that many things were not just for decoration back in the day I assumed this was not the case here and I was right!  After a storm if you went out and saw the glass ball from your lightning rod shattered on the ground you knew to check your electrical system for issues.  Jene said he can't put this one on his barn because the roof pitch is dif. than what this vent is made for but don't you think this will make a neat piece of garden art?

 I also want to show you my birthday treasures.  

Before we left on our trip I got a package in the mail from my good friend Michelle (Simple Pleasures) and she made me these 2 penny rugs:

She knows me well!  I have the one out right now but I can't wait until fall to have the other out.  Michelle does such nice work, thanks so much Michelle, my sweet prim friend!

Jene surprised me with cake and ice cream on Friday afternoon and then 2 boxes with these 2 things in them:

A signed piece of handmade pottery (cookie jar) and a Rowe pottery lamp, I just need to find the perfect shade for it.  The man knows me well too!  Thank you sweetheart, I love you sooo much!

Today will bring grocery shopping, lunch at IHOP with the boys, shopping for wrestling shoes (I HATE SHOE SHOPPING!!!  I would rather get a root canal without Novocaine than shoe shop, but Jene can't get J over there this week...pray for me!), and then J has wrestling practice tonight at 6pm (yes, the insanity continues!).    

Love and blessings to all,

Kendra

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

[Let me start by telling you that there is a guest house (The Little House) next to The Stone House that we are working on.]

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

by Kendra Burno (age 4-0...today!)

Getting close to nature...by having squirrel and bird's nests fall on me as I tore down soffit.

Taking long hot showers...after the above.  I still feel gross.

Dancing in the rain...as we hurried to get the power tools put away when it started pouring.

Getting lots of exercise...I didn't even know that I had muscles in some of the places that hurt.

Discovering new things...like that the studs in the wall behind the chimney were rotted away.

Learning new skills...like how to rebuild the above said wall.

Learning a new language...when Jene missed a nail and hammered his thumb.

Watching nature...as carpenter ants did their work eating the wall of my house!

Sitting around the fire...that was burning all of the rotten wood and old siding.

Discovering new foods...a few times we had the boys prepare dinner while Jene and I tried to                   button things up for the night. 

A few day trips...both to Menard's (an hour away) once to get a new nail gun after ours broke

and then another when we ran out of house wrap (I thought I figured correctly!).

Getting back a simpler time...after the washer broke down I had to wash socks and 

underwear by hand until we got to the laundry mat.

Longing for things back home...like one of my washboards from my collection for the

above reason, my knuckles sure would have appreciated that.

Of course all "good things" must come to an end so after we get back home to reality I am going to use the gift certificate that my dad gave me for my birthday for a massage and the one J won and gave me for a manicure (not that I am a manicured girl, but my hands hurt!)! 

Love to all,

Kendra

More Swap Goodies!

A couple more packages have come in the mail this past week!

First to come was a package from Cyn over at Cyn's Place.  She made this gorgeous Americana candle hugger for me.  She was one of my partners in the candle hugger swap that I hosted recently.

I love that the stitching forms a scene all the way around the candle!  Thank you so much Cyn!

Then a total surprise came in the mail the other day from Francine at Primitive Star from the Bees, Blooms, and Butterflies swap that Amy is currently hosting.  This was Francine's first swap ever!  I hope that she continues to participate in swaps so that she can spoil some you the way she did me (I'll try to spoil her the same way in order to make a good impression for you-needless to say I am not as prompt as Francine so hopefully she is patient and will feel it was worth the wait :)!

Everything was wrapped in this great summery birdhouse material.

The last few swap packages I have gotten have had material in them and I think that is such a great idea!

A beautiful summer pillow, bee's wax candles (J saw them and said "oh, I love these things.  Mom, remember Moma-my mom- used to get these?"), a garden angel, so much more but check this guy out a little closer...

When I added him to the flock I saw that he has some pretty little flowers on his other side.  

He holds a votive candle.  Love him!

I also wanted to show you a trash find that I can't wait to get into shape with some sand paper and stain.

Yesterday J and I went for a long bike ride together and then worked on the pond and that garden...that one will take a while longer for me to show you than The Outhouse Garden as it is bigger and needs to be completely reworked.  The pond was leaking last year and that was on the back burner last summer. 

Today will bring a trip to Target to buy Delsum for Hiney who has been home from school the last 2 days due to asthma issues (poor kid is missing his last few days with some of his classmates he won't see all summer-he'll go tomorrow for an hour so he can clean out his lockers).  I also need to get more Depends for Grandma because she decided to wash hers in the washer...and then couldn't figure out why there was lint all over her towels yesterday.  Also need corn pads for her.  Then go and visit Gram, bring her some lunch, do her hair, and cut her toe nails.  She has run off a couple of her care givers and most recently accused my uncle of some unthinkable things...not the sweet grandma that I grew up with... dementia stinks.  Then back to the house we're trying to sell to show it at 3:30 and ending the day with a sports meeting at the HS at 7pm... after that...collapse. 

Tomorrow after Jene gets home we are leaving for The Stone House for 9 glorious days.  We will be working on The Little House (the guest house) most of the time because the only guests that are staying there right now are the squirrels that have eaten a hole in the soffit  to get in and then eaten the electrical wires in the attic!  We have to get the siding and windows done on that side so they won't be able to get back in there again.  

My dad will be coming up there Wednesday evening until Friday morning.  Thursday is the 9th anniversary of my mom's death (cancer stinks too).  Friday will bring be a big day...the 11th anniversary of my 29th birthday, how did this happen?!

Enough rambling...gotta' go buy Depends and corn pads :)

Love to all of you and thank you again Cyn, Francine , and Amy!

Love,

Kendra

Swap With Tam

Good morning all,

I wanted to show you the swap goodies that I received from Tammy Closson from Scentfully Country Gal in a Summer Swap that Valerie at Yorkie's Primitives hosted.  Thank you Tammy and thank you Valerie!

 How about that sheep.  This is the first one that she ever made! 

  I am seeing dollhouse place mats in this material she sent!

Jene is distraught and going through the grieving process because the microwave that we have had for 10 years died on Sunday.  Oh course I was the one using it at the time so I am the one that killed it, LOL.  All I have heard for the last 2 days is "that microwave made popcorn perfectly, we'll never find another one like it" spoken with extreme drama.  Poor Jene...do you hear the sympathy in my voice?

J graduated from 8th grade last night...I now have a high schooler!  Ahhhh!  My parents in-law and one of my BILs came over afterward for brownies and ice cream.  He is home now while Hiney has 3 more days of school.

Today will bring mowing and laundry...always laundry.  Though I do enjoy hanging the clothes on the line to dry...better mow under there first.

Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Kendra

The Outhouse Garden

You ladies are all so funny.  After I mentioned The Outhouse Garden in my last post it was obvious from your comments that I needed to get to work and get it in order so that I could take a photo and get a post done with an explanation!  Thanks for holding me accountable ladies, it drove me to get it done.

Without further ado I present to you all...

The Outhouse Garden

See the "tree" in the corner there.  I rescued that from the burn pile because I liked the shape of it.  I set it aside over where I was working.  Jene was burning the other day and walked over by me a mumbled "this should be over in the burn pile" and started to walk off with it!  I screamed "No!  I want that!"  he said in a disgusted voice "for what, it's a dead tree!?" and gave it back to me.  I trimmed it up yesterday and put it in the ground, I love it!

OK, so the story behind The Outhouse.  GJo (dad's mom) got a free outhouse or privy as she calls them, for use as a garden shed (talk about re-purposing!).  Outhouses had always been a fascination of hers and became an interest of mine.  I have an extensive library of books on the history and styles of outhouses (yes there are a lot of books on the subject believe it or not LOL!). 

This particular outhouse has been in the family since 1967!  My grandfather (mom's dad) built it to have a place to "go" down by the lake.  After being inspired by GJo and the garden shed idea I asked if I could have the family outhouse and was told "OK?".  Jene was not on board with this whole idea so I had to recruit my dad to help me move it the 35 miles to my house.  After cleaning out a few bird skeletons and a skeleton of something unknown Dad and I managed to drag it out of the brush and trees to load it up in the back of his pick-up truck and drive very slowly back to my house.  Can you imagine seeing a pick-up with an outhouse in the bed driving down the road?  I wish that I had taken some pictures at the time.  This particular outhouse is a single and needed some restoration, it needs a little more work now as the door is falling off but it works so well to just put the long handled tools into "the hole" and then Grandpa had some shelves in there that are perfect for pots and small hand tools.  GJo sent me an old Sears catalog as a outhouse warming gift after we got it settled.   It is quite a privy-lage to have this fine piece of history in my backyard...whether Jene agrees or not :)

Now Grandma was always about keeping everything fair between the the grandkids so I figured it was not fair that I got the outhouse and none of my cousins got something, right?  I spent the next couple of months collecting toilets...again, Jene was no help!  For Christmas each of my cousins got a toilet that year...one green, one blue.  They didn't seem as appreciative as I was to have the outhouse, hmmm, I don't get it?! 

Then we have  

The Herb Garden

In an old rusty wagon that I got from the garbage about 10 years ago. 

Heading to get some seeds and plants for the veggie garden Jene tilled yesterday.  I feel so far behind because of the weather but my heritage is telling me I am  too early (May31st was what we always told people at the nursery).  It has been years since I have had a veggie garden, the last time I had a veggie garden was the year that my mom passed (2003), gardening got me through the initial depression from the loss, I felt so close to her as I was tending the garden.  I still talk to her and pray to Him as I work in the dirt.  It will be nice to have those conversations again.

Lots of love to all of you,

Kendra 

    

Reminder and Conservatory Pics

REMINDER:  Candle Hugger swap participants, please remember that your huggers are due to be mailed out by tomorrow.  Please send me a pic of the hugger that you receive and your confirmation # when you send your's.  Thank you!

For Mother's Day we met Jene on his way back from The Stone House at the conservatory in Rockford, IL.  A small but beautiful tropical conservatory.

Firecracker Flower

Lobster Claw

Dwarf Jasmine Tree

Milky Way Tree

Water Lily

Happy Mother's Day!

Today will bring a trip to the post office, mowing, and getting The Outhouse Garden in shape...after years of neglect.  I will show a pic when it is done and yes you heard me correctly, The Outhouse Garden.  There is a story behind it that I will share when I show the pics :)

Love to all,

Kendra 

Bench Update

Now that I have painted the bench I have decided I can't part with it.  I went to start painting with one of the two colors that Dorothy and I picked out and saw that the green was exterior, PERFECT! so I did the whole thing in that.  The thing is too heavy to load in and out of the truck anyway!  So one coat of primer and three coats of sage green paint later, it is staying here.

I have been planting up a storm around here, my hands are so dry and there is dirt soaked in under my finger nails!  The greenhouse that I went to the other day reminded me of years ago working at my grandparent's greenhouse in the spring, I still can't look at a geranium or petunia without pulling off any dead leaves and flowers.  I remember sitting with Grandma on the patio at lunch break and eating the ham sandwiches on potato rolls that Grandma would pack for she and I.

  
I got the pump pond going yesterday.  I pulled the Bog Iris out of the garden pond and divided it today (it had become a monster!), soon it will bloom with beautiful yellow flowers.  The pump is from Jene, it was a Mother's Day gift a few years ago, I had the half barrel so I put the two together and wallah!  Now I need to convince the boys to put the two goldfish that they won the other day in there and get them off my kitchen counter!  Excuse the hoses and sprinkler please.

Garden club sale is tomorrow, I can't wait.  I still need to put together and wrap the raffle baskets tonight.  Jene is at The Stone House to mow so I will wrap the baskets while I watch a chick flick after the boys are in bed.

I think we are going to try to go to the conservatory on Sunday.  Moms get in free for Mother's Day.  Hopefully it will not be a really hot day.  I'll be sure to take pics if they allow it.

Hope you all have a wonderful Saturday and and even better Mother's Day!

Blessings to all of you,
Kendra