Small Town Snapshot Sunday #14

Bountiful Harvest!

With the weather being cooler than usual I've been going out to collect from my garden every other day and every time I have at least two of these baskets full of vegetables. I am currently giving away vegetables to friends and family because my freezer is full.

On Sundays our little town is usually very quiet. This afternoon I put two baskets of vegetables in my bike cart and rode over to my daughter's house. She only took a few yellow tomatoes and a bell pepper. I thought I might find someone else out enjoying the weather to give some veggies to but the streets were pretty empty. I did find my daughter's neighbor getting out of her car and she took one zucchini. I rode to my dil's house and she took the rest of the tomatoes and the other bell pepper. Her mother was there visiting and she took the zucchini off my hands to give out at where she works. I really hate for veggies to go to waste.

Update on my dad: He had gone home on Friday but was back in the hospital Saturday night, low blood pressure.

Small Town Snapshot Sunday #13

Wendy at On the Front Porch hosts Small Town Snapshot Sunday. Check out the other participating bloggers on Wendy's blog, then join us and post one of your own!

I'm having difficulty putting together a STSS for this last Sunday. Last Tuesday my dad was taken by ambulance to the hospital. He has had health problems for several years now. He's been in and out of the hospital, but this time was different. I called the kids and they visited him on Wednesday. On Sunday my dh and I, my daughter and her family and my son and his family loaded up in our vehicles and drove to the big city from our small town. Dad looked pretty good really. He was sitting up eating lunch when we arrived.
He talked a bit with the great grandkids, but his hearing isn't to great anymore and it makes it difficult to carry on a conversation.

So he watched cartoons with them.

Tomorrow mom will be calling hospice to find out what they can do to help if dad is released to go home. Please have a look as some of the previous post I've done about my dad, my hero.

Small Town Snapshot Sunday #12

Wendy at On the Front Porch hosts Small Town Snapshot Sunday. Check out the other participating bloggers on Wendy's blog, then join us and post one of your own!

This post is going to say it was posted on Sunday Aug. 24th, but I probably won't get it posted till late Monday. It's been Grand Central Station around here for the past week, every day we've had family here. Last weekend a bil (there are 5 of them) asked if he could come visit, where he's at was holding their yearly celebration and it gets a little too congested for his liking. Also on the weekends I usually have one of my daughter's two sons here on the computer in the playroom. On Thursday the hubby and I were talking about going to town to shop when there was a knock at the front door. I find one of hubby's nephews with another bil. The nephew's wife had to come to Wichita for a class of some sort so he was making rounds visiting everyone. We hadn't seen him in a while so it was a pleasant surprise. He said he tried to call but didn't get an answer. I checked the numbers he had and there was a mixup with the area code which is why he didn't get hold of us. He was back out on Friday with pictures that he'd left in the room the day before. On Thursday my youngest asked if I could watch his children on Saturday so he could take his wife out on a date and I told him I would. Saturday morning another son was out with his boy who always calls my youngest's boy to come play. Then in late afternoon the girls are brought over. They all want to dress up and I am told to take pictures and make another story. We'll see...

The Princess, being a true Kansas girl, loves her ruby slippers...

Princess Knight doesn't like being type cast and likes changing the whole good/bad, girlie/tomboy thing on a whim...

The wings she is wearing I purchased off Ebay several years ago. One of my future craft projects is to make my own wings for fantasy play.

Check out the pink dress up shoes she's got on. I had convinced her to leave them off when we were traveling around the yard.

After they tired of the dress up play they came and asked if they could use the walkie talkies and asked to go to the park. The park is only a block away. While they were gone, K-Monster and I moved the TV from the guest room and his Xbox to the still unfinished studio. He had also brought his new notebook from school which he was able to get on the Internet in the studio. When the others came back from the park we surprised them with the games set up in the studio.

K-Monster helped them with the games on on his notebook.

I think they're getting a little too comfy in my craft studio. :) But I'm glad that I have it to put to use in such a way.

I wish I had taken pictures later because we put up two of the tables and brought in two queen size air mattresses and aired them up. K-Monster put a movie in his Xbox and he and the son's children spent the night in the studio. Sunday morning they were up fairly early for breakfast. Saturday late I had gotten an email from my mom to meet them for supper at 5:30pm Sunday. I had forgotten, but a long time family friend was in town. So after the son finished putting in my new mailbox and post we went to town. We had a wonderful visit and didn't get home till quite late. The week ahead doesn't look like it's going to slow up any either. Shopping on Monday. Doctor's appointment on Tuesday. Possible visitors on Wednesday......

Small Town Snapshot Sunday #11

Wendy at On the Front Porch hosts Small Town Snapshot Sunday. Check out the other participating bloggers on Wendy's blog, then join us and post one of your own!

Just outside of the big city on the road we drive most often is a 'speed bump' of a town called Clonmel.

It consists of a fairly large Catholic church with a nice large fellowship hall that hosts a variety of affairs. The rent on it is quite reasonable.
Across the road to the south is the coop that has a healthy business with the local farmers.

Then there's the one small store. It has not been open in a number of years. When I first moved out of the big city there was a bar and grill at this location.

The Pit Stop was just that for me with small children that would be hollering, "I gotta go!" when you're miles from nowhere. It was the only public bathroom for miles around. Now there's new life in the quiet little town, a weekend flea market has open up in the little store.

The Clonmel Pit Stop Flea Market

Stephanie L. Myers, Owner

I spent a while just wandering around inside and found items that were refurbished...

...and items left fully endowed with their own character.

Many gently used older pieces...

...some that look quite familiar to me personally.

Tin cans, bottles and jars all placed neatly and not overcrowded.

The commonplace items and the more unusual.

I really like these chairs, but I don't have anywhere to put them.

...and I really like this picnic basket too.

So many things. so little space in my home to collect.

Maybe I can work some decorative boxes into the shelves in the craft studio when I get it finished.

If you're out and about on a weekend around Wichita KS you might want to take a little drive out to Clonmel and check out all the wonderful bargains at the newly opened flea market.

7015 S. 183rd St W.

(K-42 Hwy & 183rd St. W)

316-650-1111

Stmyers8@yahoo.com

Small Town Snapshot Sunday #10

Wendy at On the Front Porch hosts Small Town Snapshot Sunday. Check out the other participating bloggers on Wendy's blog, then join us and post one of your own!

I've had tummy troubles this last week and haven't ventured very far outside the house. My daughter says that there's "something" going around. She's had girls at work out with the same troubles. You'd think that since I was stuck inside I'd have gotten things posted during the week, wouldn't you? I just didn't feel up to it. So here's a weeks worth of pictures, the short form.

I had my first zinnia bloom this week. I actually only had a couple come up, so this really stands out in the garden.

Across the alley from me there is a berry thicket. Previous neighbors had planted it years ago. I don't see any berries on it so I'm not sure what they are. Can anyone tell just by looking at this photo?
Here's a nice little veggie crop I picked last week. Leaf lettuce to the left and arugula to the right. After our BBQ I took the left over corn on the cob and cut it off the cob. I cooked the corn together with some string beans and snow peas. The kids had a problem with it (didn't taste like canned) but I thought it was scrumptious. Now, see that little red tomato? It's actually got enough bad spots in it that I didn't eat it, but it was the first red tomato out of the garden. The funny thing is, it came off plant in the next picture.

See the scrawny tomato plant in the middle? It's been sickly, but looks like it's trying to make a comeback. Regardless, it had the first red tomato of the season.

My poor, poor pumpkin patch. I think I'm losing it. I hope my pumpkin survives.

I had a nice surprise this morning. The pretty pink bloom on the moss rose in the playhouse window box.

Isn't that a pretty flower? Just wait till the Princess sees it.

In my last post on Tuesday I said I'd post pictures of the work that my friends had done in my studio. Well, I took the pictures, but I never got them posted. So here they are. This was a lot of work. Any time you're working over your head it's harder to do.

All the way down to the top of the loft. Now I just need to get my son to put up the wallboard.

I've got wasps making their home under the eve of my showerhouse. I need to go to What's That Bug? Insect identification to find out if these are helpful to my garden or not. Last year I killed and chased off some that only the queen would sting and killed bugs harmful to my garden. So I don't want to make the same mistake this year.

I'll try to get out and about more to give you a little more of small town living. I just have so much going on at home and this is what I moved to a small town for, the peace and quiet.

Small Town Snapshot Sunday #9

Wendy at On the Front Porch hosts Small Town Snapshot Sunday. Check out the other participating bloggers on Wendy's blog, then join us and post one of your own!

Most of my days living in a small town is spent at home. I have no shortage of things to occupy my time with. Today I am late posting because I didn't get to sleep till around 5am this morning. Friday I called my BFF and asked if she could come help me put the insulation up in my studio. She had some things that she had to take care of, but sure, she could come out Saturday evening. So we started the evening with a pork sirloin BBQ. I also grilled zucchini dollars from a large zucchini from the garden and boiled corn on the cob from our next door neighbors. So after getting thoroughly stuffed we discussed how we were going to proceed with the insulation project.

We did finally get to work. She did most of what you see done here in the loft.
The whole ceiling needs to be done like the section you see below, only completely across. She and I decided that we're getting to old to try to balance on ladders to do this, so she's going to recruit some younger, abler help to come over and get this done.

She called it a night, it was around 1:30am and went on home. I stayed up and finished the walls that had been left undone so my son could finish the wiring to the showerhouse. I still had a couple small place that needed insulation but I didn't want to pull another package down from the loft and cut it open.

Today I went out to the garden and am fighting a battle against invaders. See the eggs on the leaf? These are squash but eggs and need to be destroy. I flip leaves over daily looking for them. This is the only way I know to combat these bugs. I don't want to use poisons.

The other invader is grasshoppers. I have found about the only way I can catch them is to come up from under the leaf and squish them in it. Otherwise they are too fast for me.

And what the heck is this! I found it when I was search for squash bug eggs.

I think the bugs are why I didn't have any pumpkins last year. See in the picture below how the flowers appear to be turning to gel. This is what all the flowers did on Sadie's plant last year. If you click on picture and enlarge it you will see a juvenile squash but on the leaf just right and above center.

The Rose of Sharon bushes are all a-bloom. Enlarge this one to see it's purplish/pink flowers toward the bottom. This is in the same area where the leaves are white only on the other side.

The Rose of Sharon in frond is in bloom too. Note the newspaper in the middle of my driveway.

I hope everyone is having or has had a Wonderful Sunday!