Flowers and Wine

As I mentioned in a post earlier this month, the downside of being away from home often or for extended periods of time, is the flowers and the garden. I needed the color of flowers pots by the back door as that is my 'Welcome Home' or 'Welcome to My Home' statement. Everything was planted before the trip to Chicago. We were home for less than 48 hours before traveling to the Black Hills. I needed to come up with something for watering the planters. The garden plants would be on their own. The temps were to be in the 70s, which isn't too hot, but next to white siding, that is hot. Rain is always a hit or miss situation. We got home Sunday afternoon. The rain gauge had 3 inches of rain in it. Yipee! The garden plants look great. I'll update those flowers later, but on this posting I wanted to share how I watered the planters.

Yes, wine bottles filled with water

A two-fisted drinker

A brown bottle for the front of the house

I thought it might be less noticeable

This planter is on the south side of the house

It gets morning light

The bottle was empty & the soil dry

It did NOT get its share of the 3 inches of rain

We plan to be home for at least a couple of weeks

This established bed will get some attention

A new columbine plant from last year's $1.00 buys

Now that I know the water-filled wine bottles will work

I will certainly use the method again!

Rural Cemeteries

You just never know what you might find when geocaching at one of the rural cemeteries around SD. The first photos are on our way to the Black Hills, taken in the eastern half of the state. The last few photos are from a cemetery in the western part of the state, in other words, on the west side of the Missouri River. Notice in all the photos how green it is right now. Every part of the state has had sufficient rainfall to produce the luscious, tall green grass.

an active rural church 

and large cemetery

these fine fellows were enclosed within an old,

rural cemetery

it had the cemetery fencing and we could see a 

toppled headstone amongst the tall grass

this herd was NOT in the cemetery, but in a pasture next to it

just curious or maybe posing for the photographer

Another Black Hills Adventure

Late on Monday afternoon Jon & Sherry joined us for some geocaching and dinner. The four of us cached several times in the Black Hills last summer. We did a couple of night caches and at least one day-long journey.  The Peaceful Woodland series was 13 caches on good roads.

This wasn't the final one, but almost.

Once again, the clouds moved in and just as we found

our last cache, thunder & lightning filled the air.

We got a bit wet, but made it into the restaurant 

before the downpour. It was a fun afternoon until

the hail put a few dents in the new truck.

There has to be a first time, right????

(That is why we were a bit skittish when the clouds 

move in on Tuesday's adventure.)

Lost? Caching in the Black Hills

Finally, a decent, in fact GREAT, Internet connection, so I can share some of the fun from our recent stay in the Black Hills.


There is a cache series entitled Lost. It has a total of 109 caches and has a 'story' behind it.
I decided to create the Lost Series after getting lost in this area on my way to a monthly Meet & Greet in Sturgis. It will take you on a tour of a peaceful area in the Black Hills on mostly well-groomed gravel roads. 

Curt has wanted to tackle this series since last summer, so on Tuesday of this week we loaded the GPS and headed north. It was a very "peaceful area in the Black Hills on MOSTLY well-groomed roads." Here are some of my photos of the peaceful area...

And here are some photos from the MOSTLY well-groomed roads...

This was not our first encounter with fallen trees,

but is when I thought of grabbing the camera.

We had moved several and had shifted into 4x4 before

this one...

That is not a wave at the camera, but a 

BACK-UP

so he could swing it to the side of the track (not really

a road). We thought we were home free until...

OH CRAP!

Going back wasn't a very good option.

We were unable to budge this tree from its fallen position.

Luckily,  a couple of straps and reverse

moved it out of the way.

Other than rolling a few more fallen trunks,

we were 'out-of-the-woods'.

We collected another 17 of the series after our 

'logging' experience. We called it quits after #60 because 

we were tired AND...

because we needed to be out of there before the 

skies opened up and let loose, AGAIN!

Norske Nook

We stopped at the WI/IL border rest stop on the way home Tuesday as we traveled from Chicago to Minneapolis. We needed a short stretch & bathroom break. Hubby got to chattin' with tourist booth staff asking some questions about a winery in Eau Claire and the roads to take to find it. We got a city map and some advice regarding a great stop for pie in Osseo WI. Perfect. That would be our linner (lunch & dinner) stop for the day.

When we turned onto Main Street a large

touring bus was parked in front of the 

restaurant.

The place was larger than it looked

and packed for the time of day, 3:00 PM.

(The bus people were leaving)

The placemats with all the tempting pie choices

Made from scratch pie choices

LOTS of pie choices

Light, flakey crust choices

Rosemaling detail along the ceiling

Waitresses in Norwegian attire

On every table

Hubby and I ordered Hot Beef Combo

although I was tempted by the Rueben on

homemade cranberry & wild rice bread

Delicious, by the way,  with real gravy

and mashed potatoes

Hubby chose the rhubarb pie

OFD chose the pecan stout pie

YUMMY!

And I chose the raspberry white chocolate

FABULOUS!

There was a showcase with slices so one could

actually see the temptations.

They also sold whole pies, cookies (the size 

of a saucer) and other tempting home-

made treats.

There are 4 Norske Nook Bakery & Restaurant locations.  

If you are in the Osseo, Eau Claire, Hayward or Rice Lake, 

it is worth the time to stop and check out the pie.