Celebrating

While I was finishing up with my on-line classes, the Mr. finished the back deck and steps. He did an excellent job. They are much nicer than that cement slab and old rusted cast iron hand rail.

My last assignments were due on Friday; we hit the lake on Saturday. What a great day it turned out to be! Sun, cool breeze, quiet day on the lake. We got a few bites, but no fish. That was okay, we had a wonderful time.

It was a wonderful, warm relaxing day on the lake. This short stop at the dock gave us an opportunity to get jackets out of the truck. It was about this time of day, as the sun started to set, that it started to get a bit cooler.

I love this shot taken from the rear of the boat in the warm glow of the setting sun. The water absolutely glowed with light from the sun. It seemed like sparkles on every ripple.

We stopped to take a bit of a break at the dock, grabbed some jackets out of the truck and what do I see? The breeze quieted and left the lake nearly smooth like a mirror. Beautiful!

The landscape is typical of North Dakota with very few trees to dot the view. The prairies stretch for miles in every direction. Typical wide-open spaces.

Cool summer breezes blew across the lake, you see me here with an old long sleeve shirt. This was just enough to take the nip out of the breeze so we stayed and fished a little longer than planned.


Fishing in the channel was quiet and peaceful. This time of day the sky picks up those dusky pink hues. It was absolutely beautiful reflected back against the water. Since the breeze calmed to barely any movement on the water the reflection of sky was like looking at a mirror.



Another way to celebrate -- and save gas! The Mr. got a new toy. Woo-hoo!

He said he has been wanting one of these for some time. He used to have a motorcycle in our younger days and kept his old helmet with the hopes of getting another one 'sometime after the kids left home'. Now was the time.

Here's a look at the Mr. just before he sets off. He chose a nice bike, now to get out for a spin.

And boys, no, I don't think he's going to want to share for awhile! :) You might have to wait till the newness wears off before he'll let you on it! Sorry ;)

Ginger peers out between the cast iron rails on the front steps. She accompanies me on my outings, but looks ready to go indoors with this shot. It's as if she thinks getting photos of the new bike is no big deal. Like she's thinking, "Come on guys. Put the camera away and let me inside, already!"

My peonies have bloomed this week. I have white ones, these pink ones and one bush is white with just a bit of deep pink streaks. They're absolutely beautiful with a light fresh scent.

This variety is somewhat different from the others because it opens up more wide and flat. The others are the usual big balls of fluffy petals. They smell luscious.

My clay chicken pots are waiting to be planted yet. I think they'll be happy housing these pink and white flowers. I have just a few other plants to set into the garden, then lots more weeding to take care of. This year is mostly flowers, some tomatoes, cucumbers, peas and carrots, watermelon and cantaloupe.

Done with four

I just finished submitting material for four of my six classes. Last day is Friday the 20th so I've got three more days to finish work on my HTML and Dreamweaver CS3 classes. I'm hopeful I'll be able to finish up with all my assignments. Don't know if that's too optimistic since I am a bit behind and need to do some catch-up on assignments for both those classes. I'm definitely going to give it a try. I checked and there were only a couple submissions of websites so far out of all the students in both classes so it doesn't look like I'm the only one being a slowpoke to get things posted.

Right now I'm extremely tired from another late night writing papers. I got to bed this morning around 6:00am so feel like I'm really dragging right now. I may head off to bed for a couple hours sleep before I jump into this next round of marathon class work on my websites.

I've got to get some "in progress" pics of the deck and steps. There's been a lot of cutting and pounding wood since Pat got home from work today. I think I need to check it out.

Yep, the deck is coming along wonderfully! Pat is doing such a great job! He worked on putting up some of the pickets (pickets? is that just for fences? what is the name for those slats on a deck?) today and staining them. Just a few more pickets/slats to go.

While I was outside with the camera Ginger decided it was time to play ball for awhile. She's so good at hanging onto that ball it hurts my arm. She just loves a good tug-of-war. We played so much her tongue started to turn blue.

Guess it's time to bring her to PetCo and pick out another ball. This one seems to be disintegrating on us. It's been well used (and left out in the rain and snow)!

That sounds like a plan for later this weekend. We'll go ball shopping.

The little dogs had fun watching -- and trying to stay out of Ginger's way. Talk about a danger of being mowed over! Poor little Sparky, for a moment of panic there he thought he was a goner. Then he saw his moment to skedaddle out of the way. What a look of panic, though. I wish I would have got that on film!

Go ahead and stick your tongue out at me, Sparky. I still say it's not time to go in till I say it's time to go in.

Here's another one just waiting to get back indoors. I think we've certainly got two pampered HOUSEdogs on our hands. You'd think the backyard was the wilds of a new frontier the way these two coddled pups act. Com'n guys, let's stay outside! It was nice out today!

Decks and Roses

My husband's work on the deck and back steps is coming along nicely. I think he's done such a great job on this project. He's staining the boards as he goes. The rails were going up today along with the floor boards. The dogs were out enjoying the sun, notice Ginger relaxing nearby. She didn't seem to care that sawdust was flying. And the sound of the saw and assembly work were no big deal.


The little dogs were enjoying their time out in the sun today. Earlier this morning it was bright and sunny and quite warm. They just love to soak up the sun. I call this one "Squinty Sparky".


And here's "Squinty Sugar" to match. She seems the least thrilled with the noise and commotion of deck building. Sugar constantly indicated her desire to go back indoors.


I looked out the window this morning to find lots of blossoms on my Prairie Rose bush. They look just gorgeous with a delicate pink shade and a light floral scent. I love seeing them all blooming right now.


And so do the bees. This big bumblebee was a delight to watch. I mean that in a funny way, I had to start laughing at it. Poor thing, the wind was blowing the rose branches around and with its poor coordination it had a lot a trouble aiming and landing on its little rose petal 'heliopads'. Numerous times it seemed to almost fall right off. Here I was able to get a shot of it hanging on for dear life while trying to gather pollen. There were two bumblebees working their way through these blossoms.


A bit later another type of bee came swooping in on the roses. It was very accurate about landing and more methodical about pollen gathering. But it didn't stay long on each flower. I think the bumblebees managed to gather much of the pollen beforehand.


Another look at the roses, here's three in a grouping. Such a pretty flower.

I have a few machine embroidery designs of prairie roses digitized by Sue Box. Check out her website, SueBox.com for some very nice designs. Seeing these blossoms makes me want to get out those designs and stitch up a few things. Sue Box calls them Briar Roses in her Golden Classic Collection, but they're the same flower.


I am very pleased with the growth of my honeysuckle vine this year. I was afraid I might have killed it last year with the lack of rain and my neglect to routinely water it. Apparently it was working more under the soil putting down roots because it came out in full force this year. One little trumpet flower has opened so far. I just love the smell of honeysuckle!

Prairie Rose Buds

I've been blessed with a natural growing Prairie Rose Bush in our backyard. My husband and I have had debates on the merit of having this bush, especially in it's current location. At one point he tried to convince me we should get rid of it because it sends it's prickly branches across the walking path along the side of the lodge. I consented to allowing him to move it over a few feet from its original position. That bush is a sturdy thing. He only managed to transplant a second bush by digging it up by the roots in his attempt at relocating it. Obviously he didn't get all the original roots removed. Now it is two-three times the original size as it is more spread out than before. He just works on keeping a portion of it cut back now.

Yeah! I love that Prairie Rose. It is ideal for our state and our climate. It's such a hardy plant and has such pretty, delicate pink flowers.

We have had rain for awhile now and cool weather. The photo was taken yesterday after the rain; notice all the raindrops on the leaves. This year it sent forth many more buds than in previous years. I'm excited to see them all and hope to have a wonderful summer with Prairie Rose flowers making a great show.

I've been absent from posting very often because we are getting down to the wire with coming to the end of the semester with my on-line classes. It has taken up so much of my time I just haven't had the time or energy to post often. As it is I've already been up all night working on papers and such. I'm about to head off to bed for some sleep before I get up to continue with class assignments later this evening. Everything is over and done and needs to be posted for class by next Friday.

I cannot wait till next Saturday!! ;)

A New Start from the Rubble

This weekend has seen some improvements on the back step contruction. For one thing my hubby has finished tearing down the old concrete steps as evident by all this rubble. He was hauling it off a little at a time, so what is shown here is only a portion of the rubble.

Those steps were pretty much solid concrete with some compacted rubble and rock in the interior. We found one tin/aluminum can and part of a small tree limb had been tossed into the mix as it was being poured. What a job my sweetie had on his hands. Several days work busting it up, hauling it off and clearing up the mess.

We had some rain showers here and there so there were a few breaks during the process. He definitely got a workout!

The task of mixing and pouring a fresh slab of concrete around the pillars took place last evening. That had an opportunity to set up and harden throughout the night; this afternoon work consisted of setting in some 4x4 posts as deck supports.

Now that he has a good start, Pat doesn't think it should take much longer to get the steps completed. We should be making use of them sometime this week.

In the meantime, the dogs have had to be let out through the front door. This was a quick outing for them this afternoon. We got a bit more thunder and some sprinkles today.

Here we were trying to take a quick outdoor exercise break around the front yard before the rain started pouring. The dog photos at right are not very good. They were not in a photogenic sort of mood. They seemed to only want to get right back into the house.

By this time it had just barely started sprinkling, but they were having none of it. They did not cooperate very well for me to get any decent pictures. Nearly every single shot I took they turned their backs to the camera and had those ears laid back. They were whining and making all kinds of verbal complaints while displaying their impatience with me dilly-dallying around instead of letting them back inside.

We are getting some wind as well this weekend. Everywhere you look outside in the yard you will see these little seeds blown down from the trees. To me they look like someone came along with big boxes of rolled oats and let loose sprinking them all about. They'll eventually blow away, but every year we end up with lots of these seeds plugging up the gutters and filling holes and cracks. Most of them don't end up making it to the seedling stage, but for those that do it's another chore to work at pulling them up from the garden and the flower beds.

I've been putting off tending to my planted area in the front yard and even some of the back garden. We spent a bit of time this past week laying down a soaker hose to water in and among the plantings in the back patio garden. I put in two rose bushes earlier this year along the chain link fence. I'm hoping the fresh scent of roses will make using the patio a much more pleasant experience in the heat of summer. The honeysuckle vine I put in two years ago managed to survive last year's dry season and seems to have established itself inspite of it all. That will also be a pleasant sensory delight. I love the scent of honeysuckle on a warm summer breeze.

These big black ants finally found something to do besides roaming around in my basement sewing studio. I think they were bored with nothing to do this year so they made their way into the house. That is something I don't recall happening in past years. We got some bug killer, but didn't put it out. I was a bit concerned having it inside the house with the dogs around.

The problem is the weather has been so cold this spring not much was growing or blooming till just lately. Spring was certainly slow to come to North Dakota this year.

Now that the peonies are up and have buds, the ants have not made their presence known inside anymore. It was starting to creep me out since they don't usually come into the house. I'd be sitting at my computer doing some work for school or checking things on-line and out of the corner of my eye think I see something moving. I'm freaked out thinking it could be a spider and here it is a big ole' black ant. Of course they all got squished, ant or spider makes no difference. They're in my territory and I don't want them around. So, boom, they get squished and swooped into the trash can. As long as they're outside working away on opening the peonies they're happy and I'm happy. Just as it should be.

Eh? What'd you say?

It was another noisy day here with breaking up cement, but (yeah) it's done. Yeah! My husband has the steps completely demolished and the evidence is scattered all about. Tomorrow he'll concentrate on collecting and hauling away the remainder of the rubble.

He's still got his work cut out with building a new wood deck platform and steps. At this point we are taking the dogs in and out the front door. Now Ginger doesn't seems to want to readily jump that height since she sees the little ones going in and out the front door.

I decided to get away for awhile this afternoon and took all three dogs on about an hour long walk up and down and throughout the neighborhood. They seemed to love it. I really enjoyed the walk, and the mostly sunny day. It's still seems cool and breezy to me, so I was bundled up warm in a sweater. We all got tired out from the walk and the dogs laid down and slept afterward, even through the noise. I took a few pictures of the rubble, but will post them later this afternoon.

I've been up working of my studies for this week. Busy, busy, busy with school work. We have only three weeks left. Yeah! I can't wait to be finished this semester. I am looking forward to taking the summer off. I want to be able to review more in depth on the HTML coding and learn my Dreamweaver program more thoroughly before I start up again in the fall. But I know it will seem a lot less hectic than it does right now. Hopefully I'll have time to work on a business plan and get some other things taken care of - like finishing the sorting, organizing and purging I started some time ago. So many plans, I can't wait for more time to commit to them.

And of course once the new back steps are done Pat and I will likely celebrate with a nice week boating and fishing. I hope the weather cooperates and we get a really nice, warm sunny day at that time.

Making Noise on Memorial Day

"Rat-tat-tat," goes the jackhammer. "Crunch, crunch, crunch," goes the rubble. And there she goes. Bye-bye to the broken steps!

Beginning last Friday my husband started work to remove our cracked and broken back steps. It is slow going, but he's making progress. We had rain and thunderstorms Saturday. This left him unable to work outdoors. Instead we spent some time together, went to see the new Narnia movie, and relaxed a bit before I started in on my homework again.


This is the view I woke up to this morning from our back door. It's too big a drop off for me and the chihuahuas, but Ginger makes the leap in fine form.


I took the dogs on a long walk this afternoon to get away from the noise awhile. We enjoyed our little reprieve, basked in the cool breeze, and met another little dog friend along the way. She was a cute little Yorkie who ran away from her mama about half of a block to come greet and meet us.


While we walked, Patrick kept chipping away at the back steps. As shown here, they are more than three-quarters gone now.

Word around here is when we replace the front steps, we're building a new deck over top of the old. My dear, hard working sweetheart says, "This is the last time I'm doing this!"

While I was out and about with the camera I got a few shots of the lilacs. They smell so good right now. I absolutely love this time of year when they bloom.



These are in the back yard hiding the neighbors behind us and giving us a nice tall backdrop to enclose our yard. They are very tall, at least eight or nine feet in height.


Here is a close-up of the pale violet color. Just gorgeous, and they smell so wonderful. I do not know that much about plants and flowers, but one can easily see the front and back lilacs are of two different varieties.


There is one lilac bush in the front yard. It was quite large when we moved here. We trimmed some from around the bottom because it wanted to keep spreading further out. Now it has grown so tall it seems more like a very bushy tree. This is a shot above my head, so you can tell they are very tall. They go up over the corner of the house.


This front yard lilac is located near the front bedroom window. When that window is open we have the scent of fresh spring lilacs on that side of the house. What a blessing to enjoy beauty along with the fresh scent of lilac.