A day of rest!

The softball tournament concluded yesterday for our team at 6:30PM with a 3rd place trophy.  Naturally, they wished to advance to the final championship, but fell one run short.  Despite, bringing home some hardware was an exciting ending to the day.

3rd place out of 14 teams 

The rain held off all day;  as did the sun for much of the day.  So, the day was perfect for softball!

Our 6th grade leaders

And today.... it is WIDE OPEN for a LOT of "nothing!"  LOL

This will be the first day in 14 where we don't have anywhere to be;  the first day where everyone can sleep in (which they all did until 9:30; and I did until 7:30!)

It's another overcast gloomy day.  However, mother nature is taking care of watering my garden :)  I'm thinking of heading out shortly to see about rescuing those tomato plants, however :)

And then, Bonnie is planning Quiltcam at 2:00PM EST.  I. Am. SO. There! 

Happy Sunday :)

SB Tournament - Rain Delay

Our weather typically moves NE, and that's exactly what this cell of thunderstorms did this afternoon.  At 3:30, the softball tournament was officially postponed until tomorrow morning; 9:30.

  

The weather was overcast all day, but truly truly pleasant!  70s and muggy, but OVERCAST.  Had the clouds moved out, it would have been H-O-T!  

Cassie's team unfortunately lost out of the tournament earlier in the day.  However, we decided to hang around to cheer on our other team, who still remains undefeated.  When the call was made for postponement, I read the stress and anxiety on the face of our concession leader.   This meant lots of reshuffling of workers (since tomorrow was never planned) IF she could even get any workers to commit. I jumped to her right away, feeling LOADS of empathy.  Dude....we have NOTHING on our agenda tomorrow, so I offered my services RIGHT away.  Cassie piped up and said she'd jump in to help too.

And THEN, as if that weren't enough of a relief for her...all the Shell Lake parents & fans that were in the area jumped into action, packing up the concession stand;  picking up garbage around the fields and bleachers;  ALL before the big rain really hit.  Lickity-split;  things were gettin' done!

As we were heading to our car, thankfully still only sprinkles falling, a BLINDING bolt of lightening struck SO close by, followed by almost INSTANTANEOUS CAH-RACKING thunder!!!!!   It scared us all;  to the point where lil' Candace terrifyingly cried out screaming and shaking.  HOLY MOLY!  I have NEVER heard such a thunder crack - EVER!

And now, two hours later.....sunny skies.   

Dinner has already been made and eaten, and we are relaxing with The Avengers.  I've never seen the whole movie before, so it's nice to be able to have all the parts and pieces put together.

Forever completed; Seven shirts progress

The finishing touches have been completed on Forever for my parent's neighbors who are planning to share nuptials at the end of the month.  I cut and pressed the binding while my embroidery machine was stitching up the label.

My embroidery machine hasn't seen much activity lately so it was nice to have a little project to do on it again.

So, FINALLLLLLY, another finish can be listed for 2013.  It's only my 2nd official of the year.  Good golly.

About yesterday's goal:  I pieced a backing for Seven Shirts and started quilting it.  I put another hour into it this just a bit ago, and I am almost finished with it, but I hit a wall.  Tired.  So, time to shut everything down and relax a bit before softball again tonight, and ALL DAY tomorrow.  

The 7/8 tournament gets underway tonight;  Cass has been asked to suit for the team since they are low on numbers (she's a 6th grader).  She will see lots of playing time this weekend due to two of the girls needing to be away.  I'm very thankful to hear from the coach that she is coachable and doing well.   Last night, she hit a fly to left field, leading to a double and an RBI.  Her favorite part of playing with the 7/8 team is they are allowed to steal home, which isn't allowed at the 5/6 level of play.

A morning tour of the hobbyfarm...

 I grabbed the camera and headed outside after a morning cup of coffee.  This morning is GLORIOUS!!!!!! so I thought I'd see what the lens could capture...

Since there's nothing to show in the garden yet, I didn't bother heading that way.

First stop was by the rain gauge.  Yes, folks, WE HAVE HAD LOTS OF RAIN this past week.  We haven't emptied the gauge lately, so over the past week (or so?), we have around 3" of precipitation.  I just wish we could have had the garden in before much of this rain came.  Ah well.....

Directly to the left of the rock pile (where the rain gauge hangs out), the chickens were enjoying a breakfast of crumbs that Paul had just tossed over the deck ledge.  Two roosters and five hens here.  Our clutch is MUCH smaller than in years past :(  We lost quite a few to predators last fall.   We do have ONE more hen, but she wasn't to be found this morning;  off protector her two lil' chicks that happened to hatch a couple of weeks ago!  YAY RED MAMMA!  You'll be adding two more to our lil' clutch :)

Further along my journey, there was NO mistaking the squawking rukus of our ducks!!!  They came waddling right up to me as I neared.  We have four Peking and three Mallards, and all of them are reaching the stage of losing their baby fluff and growing feathers.

Squawk, squawk, squawk!  MY GOODNESS!

So, when I peeked into their covered section (hinged open here), it was NO WONDER!  They were out of water.  AGAIN!  Let me tell ya folks... if you have never had ducks before....HOLY MOLY!  They go through water so stinkin' fast!  Fear not, their waterer was filled to the brim.  I'm sure it'll be empty in an hour :)

Here's a panned out view of the duck pen Paul and Candace worked on the other day.  It'll eventually be a "tractor-style" contraption that will be moved throughout the yard ever-so-often.  For now, the ducks (and us) are simply happy to be out in the sunshine.

Right next to our duck pen is our lil' piggy area.  FOUR of them this year.  Already tamed to come a'running when they hear us coming, the runt of the bunch was the first to get his (her?) nose out for a handful of weeds.  TRULY!  Isn't the runt usually the one picked on???  NOPERS.  Not this guy.  He got his nose right in there, head butted away some of the others, and snagged up the whole handful of greens!  Therefore, I took the liberty of naming him "Lil' Bully."  

I can already hear Candace now......"Mom!  Look!  It's a pattern!  Black, white, black, white."  

That's it for this morning's tour.

In other news, I'm still trudging through my knee pain, probably to my own demise. :\

But the weather was SO BEAUTIFUL last night, I HAD to enjoy an evening stroll :)

Softball is still in its infancy of the summer.  Cassie tried her first night with catcher's gear since our normal catcher couldn't make the game.  Her Aunt Jen (my sis) was a catcher back in her glory years :) Taking right after her, I could say.

Okay!  Time to hit the garden to give my tomato plants some TLC before needing to head back to school for an extended half-day of our meeting from yesterday.  We made great progress, but still have items to tackle on the agenda, so.... it got extended into today.  Then, MORE softball directly following.  Therefore, another non-quilting day.  I'm okay with that, though :)

HAPPPPY TUESDAY!

Awesome day to be a LAKER FAN!

Laker, as in.... Shell Lake Laker. (Not LA Lakers)

We have many female track athletes advancing to the Finals tomorrow at our State Track-n-Field meet 

Our softball girls brought home the Sectional championship earlier today and will be advancing to the State Championship next Friday...

It's an amazing day to sport our Blue-n-Gold school colors :D

And all the youth softball fun is JUST beginning!

Games every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night!

The summer schedule is sooooooo close to becoming reality :)

I can't wait.

1.5 more days.

But first.....this weekend, for the next 48-60 hours, there is only ONE word in our minds.....

G-A-R-D-E-N.

The time has finally arrived for us to get everything planted.

Happy Friday everyone :)

Cassie's softball party @ the beach

Cassie's last game for the summer was on Monday, so Coach Jodi called the team together for ice cream and fun at the beach tonight.

The water was PERFECT bath water, and with the evening sun fading and the air temps cooling, there was only one thing to do once you left the water.....

....make a run for it.....

....

and....

roll yourself up into a human-towel-eggroll!

Just before leaving, the girls found a frog at the water's edge....

...Candace tried to kiss it!

 Afterwards, it was shower time before bed.

And then braid time!

Candace sporting the double-piggy braid...

{{Note the blue-n-gold "Laker" hair-tie colors!}}

And Caitlyn with the right-to-left sweeping braid

What a wack-a-doodle!

 on a different note:  this morning, Lil' Mama had her 7 chicks out of the coop, so I grabbed some chick feed and sprinkled them some.  This makes me think that I should snap a picture of Big Mama's babies from the of May.

And now that the day is nearly over, I suppose I can say Happy Anniversary to Paul and myself.  If I hadn't seen today's date mentioned on a blog yesterday, I probably would have not remembered that today marked 14 years (at least not until my Mom called this evening).  'Tis just another day for us :D

Heavy sigh...

Why does one area get flooded with rain when another area in the state rarely sees a drop of heavenly-sent rain??? Oh you poor, poor garden!  You won't need to see water for another couple of weeks once today's rain is through!  Between Thursday and today, I bet we've seen (and yet to see) 6+ inches of rain!!!!!!!  Our beans and peas had troughs of topsoil eroded away; our mounded items are doing okay.  TOMORROW, the garden will receive LOADS of TLC!

BEFORE the rain hit today (or at least the bigger lines of storms), Cassie had her 2nd tournament of the summer softball season.  Despite losing early on in the tournament, Cassie had an incredible day at the plate, hitting the green (out-field) quite a few times!  She was 4 of 5 at-bat.  One homerun (scoring 3 runs), one triple (scoring 2 runs), one double (scoring 2 runs) and one single (scoring 2 runs);  nothing like needing to mix it up!  She really brought the hits when the team needed it except in the end.  The team was down one run and she found herself at bat;  and she went down swinging;  her only non-hit of the day :(  Still super proud of her overall bats today though!!!!

Taking a moment to catch up with yesterday.....

Paul did some small construction on our quonset so that we can have a better house for out 26 meat chickens.  Pictures like this remind me of when Judy talks about how much nicer the chicken coops seem to be versus our houses :)

While he was doing that, Candace helped me pick our first batch of strawberries and then made a batch of strawberry jam.  Naturally, we needed to try it out on a piece of bread (we scraped the bowl clean!)

I also spent a few hours working on some connector blocks for the Diamond Fields blocks;  nothing worth taking a picture of yet.

And now..... we're relaxing with some Tom and Jerry cartoons.  I could head downstairs, but......bleh.  Not really in the mood.  So off to catch up on everyone else's day.

Happy Saturday

Pitching...

Cassie is showing interest in being a fast-pitch softball pitcher, so we set up an area in the yard for her to work on her pitching form. 

 

...maybe she's taking after cousin Westin who pitched in yesterday's Sectional Baseball Tournament game and helped lead his team to victory.  They're State-bound!

We have an overcast day today.... I've put a couple of hours in downstairs already (nothing much to show yet.)  I pieced together the RWB string blocks (not a new picture here).  

And now.... I think I'm going to head outside with Cassie.  Throw the ball around...and just follow a relaxing-summer-day schedule :)

Sun-n-Softball!

8:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Lots of softball on a GORGEOUS BEAUTIFUL day.

Cassie batting with Coach Kevan looking on.

This was a great way to start summer vacation :D

The days of summer -- getting closer!

ONE MORE DAY!!!!!  I can't believe it!

I think I say this every year, and it NEVER FAILS!  

This year FLEW BY!

With every year-end, the 7th/8th grade students have a end-of-year party at the local skating rink.  And with every year, oooooodles and ooooodles of fun is had by all!!!!  (Two of my partners in crime shown here)

Cassie's first ball game of the summer was last night.  A year older, a year of tougher competition, and a year off to a good start!  

She had some hits...

She had some steals...

Lots of base time ...

and some fielding action.  

First victory of the season:  22-14.

Cleaning up my camera...... I didn't post yet about Paul playing around with a donut recipe on Monday. The outcome:  the best ones were ones left whole, not "donuted" open.  (Do any of you make up words too?)

SO.....

Last day of school tomorrow.

And summer officially kicks off with a full day of softball on Saturday.

And then.....

????

ahhhhhhhhhh............ 

Not a lot to show in pictures, but...

I've been keeping myself rather busy these past few days.

Tuesday, Paul went back to work, so I was determined to get some things done around the house.
Laundry; yeah, that's a constant given around here!
Gardening: 6:30 AM - 8:00 AM, then the day was getting warm already. Beans all weeded.
Bills; blah!
School's website work for a couple of hours
And then the rest of the day was spent mortaring the tiles onto the basement bathroom floor. I could run down right now to get a picture of it, but it really doesn't look much different than this picture from a few week's back; only now the tiles aren't movable!

Paul and I DID go looking at tile stores a week ago, but found NOTHING to take the place of the 12" tiles pictured. So, I went with it, and we purchased some blue bathrugs that match the lil' blue tiles PERFECTLY! It is what it is.

Tuesday night after my softball game, we spent an hour in the garden until the mosquitoes start feasting.

Yesterday, Paul had the day off of work, so by 7:00 AM he had all the girls out of bed, eating breakfast, in order to spend LOADS of time in the garden. Our tiller is awaiting repair and is scheduled for servicing next Monday, so ALL of the weeding/cultivating is being done by hand. Next Monday is NOT coming fast enough! BUT, with Paul as the motivator, ALL AREAS but one little patch of potatoes in the lower garden have been weeded/cultivated. The sun was quite warm yesterday :0(, and my arms are breaking out in some form of rash. It reminds me so much of the Poison-Ivy rash from last summer (and even in the same locations on my arms), but I haven't been NEAR any poison ivy; nor are there any tell-tale breakouts anywhere else on my body. ???? My other hunch is some form of a heat rash ??? It's quite itchy and annoying :0(

Anyway, after lunch yesterday, I sat down to catch up on a few emails and blogs....and my eyes were quite heavy after a few moments. I've been back to 5:00 AM mornings this week.....and all that sun in the morning from the garden work....I was pooopered out. {{yeah, Paul is probably saying "WIMP" when he reads this, but.....psht! Whatever! 'I'm rubber and you're glue; whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to you'}}.

I took a two hour nap while he went shopping for some fertilizer.

After waking from the nap, it was time to get organized to head out to Cassie's last softball game of the summer.

Rumor has it that Grandma and Grandpa are heading over this way sometime this morning to snatch up the girls and travel with them up to the Farm. I think it's a way for G&G to get us up to the farm this weekend, because we'd have to take the girls back home :0) But, we already told them that we were heading up.

My sewing machine hasn't been unpacked yet from the past week of travel----and it's already THURSDAY!
Since the garden is mostly in stable condition right now, I think I'll spend some of the day getting the sewing room back in order....and maybe even make a few stitches.

Happy Thursday!