Bakers

The grandkids spent a Friday and part of Saturday with us earlier this month. When I asked Miss W what we should do...the parks, the zoo? She asked if we could bake again. I said Yes, because I had blueberries to use and G'pa had asked for cookies.

They played at the park in the morning, but after lunch and afternoon naps...it was baking time!

washing dishes?

or playing in the sink?

Doesn't matter, as it keeps them busy for a LONG time!

the blueberry muffins

I found the recipe in a book I had read, about a culinary artist 

in Colorado who solves murder mysteries. Donna: I know you will 

know the author, as you have read the books. 

It is an excellent blueberry muffin recipe.

 I had to buy more flour as Miss W and I have used all I had on hand. I also stocked up on sugar and will have to get eggs before her next visit later this week.

Our May & Early June Road Trips

Other than birthday celebrations and activities with the grand kids, we have been geocaching road tripping. We've had several goals we have wanted to reach when we got home this spring. One was a milestone of 100 Multi Caches. For non-cachers, multi caches have two or more steps or stages, usually solving some sort of puzzle or doing some research, before finding the cache at the final location. We accomplished that goal by traveling to area cemeteries. We had around 25 to complete successfully, and we did before the end of May.

Once that goal was checked, we worked on the next one: 1080 geocaches from the southern tip of SD/IA north along the border of SD/MN and then east along the ND/SD border to north of Aberdeen. We completed more than half of them from IA north along the SD/MN border last summer and fall. Hip surgery in October curtailed further geocaching. That was okay as more caches were added to that trail of over 700. Our goal was to get them ALL before the end of June. We made a couple of little day trips getting more than 100 one day and about 70 on another. But we knew if we were EVER going to complete it, we would have to go for several days, staying in hotels. The cool part of this series of caches called the BLT (Border Line Trail) was that most of the caches were Unknown or Puzzle caches. In this case, the coordinates were not where they were expected to be. Sometimes we would be driving east for a mile or two and then head north for some miles and then west for some miles. I know we put nearly 1000 miles on the van the past two months completing the 450 caches that remained in the BLT. As of last Sunday, we can check that goal off the list!

This post is some of what we were treated to while geocaching from Aberdeen to the MN border.

statue at a cemetery in Aberdeen

finding a cache on an old school bell in a small town

a small chapel at another country cemetery

a children's slide attached to a tree trunk

there were steps cut into the trunk on the other side

a replica (dog house?) of the original farm house

the farm house today

soybean field

many, many ponds in northeast SD

mallards

but we also saw geese, sand hill cranes, pelicans

shetlands still wearing their winter coats

caching in North Dakota

abandoned farms

winding country roads

there should be a great pheasant hunting this fall

my friend passed away just before Thanksgiving 2014

she was diagnosed with cancer in August and gone in November

coming upon her grave was a bonus to the day

my dad told me about the granite border markers

I was tickled pink to see them in fields along the ND/SD border

turtles were migrating across the country roads

we also saw deer, wild turkeys, and lots of rodents

wild roses growing along the sides of the gravel roads

and in the ditches

as the flowers 'age' their color becomes less vibrant

the community of White Rock

it once had 7 grain elevators, 3 hotels, 4 saloons,

2 banks, a large department store, 2 lumber yards, 2 drug stores,

2 churches, and a K-12 school

population: THEN 600; TODAY 4

at the corner of the ND/SD/MN border

(actually MN is across the river)

I was thrilled the cache was at one of the granite markers

White Rock was in SD

once we crossed the bridge, we were in MN

To complete that part of the BLT and get some other area caches that included some first to find caches, took 4 days, Sunday through Wednesday. We did a previous 1 day trip collecting some caches between Watertown and Aberdeen. We went back north on Friday and again on Sunday. We don't have EVERY cache in the northeast part of the state, but we do have most of them.

We saw wildlife we don't normally see. We drove through small towns we had never been to before. We saw new, large homes on farms and abandoned farmsteads. One day we traveled the same roads 6 times to get to one cache. Because of all the lakes in the northern part of the state, the trip was 9-12 miles...six times. We finally got it! We saw flat farmland of black, fertile soil in the James River valley and then the grassland on the rolling Coteau hills, ranching country. We geocached in the fourth or maybe fifth largest community in SD and in ghost towns like White Rock. This road trip certainly had variety.

Our Little Yellow Bird

I apologize to the faithful followers who are wondering what has happened because nothing new has been posted. All is well. I have lots of material from several adventures. So stay with me...

[I bought a new computer before leaving AZ knowing the antiquated lap top would die at some point. The antiquated one has had all my photos, all 31,000+ photos. I did not want to transfer all of them to the new computer and then have the same issue of no extra hard drive space in a year or two. I did not want to loose all 31,000+ photos, although some of them could certainly be trashed.

I asked the advice of an expert and friend who uses extra hard drives as his photo storage and work space. We talked external units, their size and compatibility with mac. I ordered two; one for the photos and one to back up the new computer. Then I had to visit the expert again, to make sure I was transferring the old photos to the external drive and to set up taking photos from my camera to the external drive. All of this was new to me. Scott was very helpful. I believe everything is working the way we want it to work. I will know better when I have some new photos to download.]


But for now, Miss W's dance recital was May 31st. We were not allowed to take photos or to video the recital. However, Miss W did stand still long enough for a photo following the afternoon of dancing.

They danced to "Birds of a Feather". Her age group was a small flock of birds, of varying colors, flitting and fluttering on the stage. Cute. Short. She did good. She knew her dance positions and the routine. She made us proud!

I Do

On this date, 45 years ago, we pledged to honor and love each other. (I do not know if I agreed to obey?) I know I did not imagine what our lives would be like in 45 years. Nor did I imagine we would be married 45 years. At age 20, 45 years was an eternity. When I look at the photos, 45 years ago seems like yesterday.

7:00 PM on June 6, 1970 was hot and humid. I was so pleased to have gotten my wedding dress from the sales rack at Feinsteins. Of course it was on sale, it was a winter wedding gown! But it was a great bargain and would have been perfect if not for the 90% humidity and the 90 degree temperature.

I chose a very pale pink for my color. The cotton candy pink was not a complimentary color for any of the three brides maids. Their polyester dresses were long and sleeveless.

My Aunt Mildred made the wedding cake. We served ham sandwiches, dill pickles, nuts, and pillow mints to our guests.

Reverend Barrows had a great sense of humor, as did the Best Man. Jerry enjoyed beer and had been enjoying it for the past 24 hours. When Reverend Barrows asked him for the rings, Jerry took two beer can pull rings from his breast pocket and handed them to the minister. The reverend smiled and said, "I'd like the real ones, please."

45 years! Where has the time gone? I know we won't have another 45 years together. We have been blessed to have the first 45; not every marriage gets that many. Just as I was at age 20, I can't imagine what the future holds. With love and honor...Happy Anniversary!

My Flora

I have enjoyed watching the changes in the flower beds this spring. I did not remember what I planted last fall. It is exciting to see the transplants and first year plants that survived the winter. The new neighbors to the south have a dog, a big dog. He/she/it has kept the rabbit population to a minimum as my flowers were not chewed this spring. Or so I thought the dog had an influence on the rabbit population. Hubby saw a couple of large cottontails frolicking in the neighbors yard the other afternoon, as if to say, "Ha, ha. You didn't get me!" But so far they, the rabbits, have left the flowers alone.

delicate flower, only about 6 inches high

from son's MIL

I planted these last fall, but don't know what they are

Iris-like leaves, about 8 inches tall

the Lily of the Valley

I am going to trim this plant back this year

it is huge and crowding the columbine

it's cousin in the other flower bed 

it has become gigantic; it needs dividing after just one season

the California Poppy just keeps blooming

good thing because the Oriental Poppy isn't blooming this year