A real chill in the air ...

I think summer is over.  The calendar doesn't show it but it is.  My fear is that we'll rush right into winter and skip autumn (my favorite season)!  I love the colored leaves, the clear crisp air, mums, apples, and pumpkins!  I've already started to clean my flower beds, pulling weeds and cutting back some of the dying flowers; cutting off the heads of the cone flowers and black-eyed Susan's and throwing them into the prairie area where they'll spread next year.  It seems like everything I do now I'm thinking, am I doing this for the last time here?  We don't know if we'll stay here much longer with Wendell's change of health.  But, we'll see ...  I really don't want to leave this place.  I love it here and almost all my friends are here.  Plus, change is difficult!  LOL!

We've been out and about.  In late August we drove to the Ladoga area to visit Moody Meats, a butcher shop we like (took a cooler and brought home some free-range chickens and some other meats for the freezer).  While we were up in that area we had lunch in Crawfordsville at a neat little deli in the college area, then drove over almost to the IN-IL state line and tried to visit the Skinner Farm Museum.  So disappointed that they weren't open during the week ...  But we still looked around as much as we could.

The round barn at Skinner Farm Museum.

The animal barn at Skinner Farm Museum.  The sheep were very active the day we were there; I like the brown ones.  REALLY loved this old tin barn!

We also went to Monkey Hollow for the second time this summer.  We are enjoying one of their dry red wines so much that we wanted to get some more before they ran out.  While we were in the St. Meinrad area, we went back to the monastery and drove through the grounds.  Got out and walked around the ponds until W. was tired out!  It was hot that day, too ...

Last weekend of August we went to Connor Prairie near Noblesville for a Friday night concert.  Our investment management company puts on an annual dinner there in the pavilion and then you can stay for the concert.  This year it was the Beach Boys.  Well, they were surprisingly good, considering that they are all older than me and need to retire!! They started out with 10 songs back-to-back with no break and they were good ones!  Just right for people of a certain age ...  Only bad thing was it was a very hot night.  I was sweating just sitting there. The AC in the car felt good on the way home ...

I was surprised how many people were there!  It was the biggest crowd I'd ever seen there for a concert.  And like I said, it was HOT!

Here's a close-up; I think only two of the original band members are still with the group.  (White Hair!)

Last weekend we went to Elnora for a quick visit to the annual WRVAA steam & tractor show.  It was so very hot!  And humid!  We only stayed about 3 hours.  Got to see some tractors, visited the consignment area, flea markets and watched a couple demos.  The most fun was visiting with the people working in the sorghum shack where Wendell used to work (maybe next year?).  We had lunch there and enjoyed the home made ice cream, too. -- How can you beat it?  Homemade ice cream for a dollar?  Yum.  My favorite part.  You should go around back of the ice cream building and watch the big ice cream makers if you go next year!

Here's my favorite picture from Elnora.  A lot's going on here!

Before we went to the show at Elnora, we made a quick stop at a new event in our area.  It was the first annual Chandelier Barn Market on the Wilson Farm in Daviess County (right in the heart of Amish country).  It's a few miles north of Montgomery.  I hope they did good; there sure was a good crowd when we were there.  Ran into Neil & Margo as we walked in.  I only bought a bracelet; but I saw almost everyone with something it seemed.  Wendell enjoyed the entertainment and just walking around.  It hadn't gotten so hot yet that morning and I felt sorry for the people set up in those barns later in the day!  It had to have gotten hot in there!  Here's some pictures from the Barn Market ...

Well, like I said ... it was called the Chandelier Barn Market ...

This barn market was really a great idea and I look forward to going back next year (maybe with some women!).  There were lots of unique re-purposed items and it was a great place to get ideas, too.  I especially liked the yard art made from old metal scraps.  Someone is clever!  Wish it were me!

Well, that's what has been goin' on in my life.  Have a blessed weekend coming up. 

I'm back ...

I'm back to a new normal.  Wendell is on the mend.  It is unbelievable what has happened in our lives these last two months.  I'll not bore you with all the details but just say that we received some unexpectedly good news last Monday and now I truly believe in miracles (especially considering where I was sitting two short months ago today -- in the CCU wondering if my other half was going to ever come home with me again).  God is good, all the time!

Well ......  what have I been doing these past few slower-paced days you might well ask?  Surprisingly, I've been able to get some sewing done.  I've sewn lots of previously ripped strips together for weaving and got them wound into balls.  And I've pieced a few more blocks on my red and brown quilt that's been in process for a few months now.  Unfortunately I have not hooked for several weeks.  I did teach a newbie how to hook couple weeks ago and that's a good thing.  I'll get back to hooking -- I'm in the beginnings of a rug that I'm not happy with and will have to make some changes there before I proceed.  But here's the one I finished this spring.  If I've already posted a picture of this one, sorry ...

"Mille-Blocks Sheep"

I really love this background and may use it again.  I entered it in the Greene County Open Class Fair and it got a blue ribbon with an honor ribbon attached.  To my chagrin, followed quickly by pride, two women I taught to hook got the grand and reserve grand champion ribbons with their rugs!  Yeah for Jan & Marilyn!!!  The judge didn't like the way I bound this rug, preferring the "whip it" method of finishing the edges. 

This is about half of the hats and scarves I crocheted while Wendell was in the hospital and McCormick's Creek rehab center.  I've donated them to Project Warmth in Spencer.  This crochet project truly saved my sanity.  Along with some Sudoku puzzles ...

Interior of one of the Hutson Cabins, south of Hutsonville IL.

We've gone for several drives since Wendell's been home.  We enjoy seeing how beautiful and green everything is this summer!  (And the farm kid in both of us wants to see how the crops are doing.)  We've had a nice, comfortable summer I think with not so many white hot humid days like is normal for the summers around here.  One day we went to Vincennes and got some fruit, checked out an antiques store, then crossed the river and drove to Hutsonville IL and walked around "the cabins".  There were two docents there that day and it was such a beautiful day!  I found it interesting that in the weaver's cabin there was an unusual tie up on one of their looms and I will have to find out from a woman I am acquainted with (who volunteers there) how to achieve this effect ...

How did the weaver get this "rowed" look ???

I've been enjoying lots of quiet time each morning now.  It's such a peaceful time to sit and read my daily devotion and drink coffee.  Since Wendell's had this health care experience, he sleeps later than he used to.  (He needs to get the rest or he wouldn't be sleeping is my theory.)  One of the things I've been seeing lately, just about every other morning, is this large flock of turkeys somewhere in the yard.  Often on the driveway as in the picture below.  There are three mothers and about a dozen poults of various sizes.  I think they especially like the driveway because it's warm there in the sun; they have spent as much as half an hour just messing around out there.  They'll lay down and rest, groom themselves, or just jump and play while the mothers watch.  Sorry about the quality of the picture -- it's taken through the screen.

Just part of the turkeys who live here with us and visit almost daily.

We had an exciting thing happen last week ... a crop duster sprayed the field below our house.  It was so loud!  At first I thought a plane was going to crash into or near the house.  Then nothing happened for a few seconds and here it came back!  Guess I'm pretty slow on the uptake; it took two rounds for me to catch on.  I took a picture but it doesn't do justice to how low and close he seemed to be to the house.  Wendell said he waved back to him!  Keep your hands on the stick, I say!!!  It was a beautiful yellow plane.  It sure would have been fun to have been up there with him!

Taken from our front porch on about the 10th trip around the house!

We've enjoyed family visits, dinners and lunches with friends, mowing and all that goes with that (yes, enjoyed), fix-up chores, feeding the hummers -- just all of the things that I was taking for granted before.  Never again!  

Well, that's just a little of what's been going on around here.  You get the idea -- we're getting back into a routine which we're so very thankful for.  But I want to add that from now on we're just living in the moment.  It's my life now.