Summer's End

 Summer has been.... summery.  We have had HOT dry weather in May and June, and then in July we started getting the occasional rain shower and some cooler weather ... mixed in with the hot and dry.  I was able to turn off the sprinklers and only set them to go manually on a few occasions... good thing as the water bill for June was double what we usually have to pay!  But while it did not flourish, the City water did keep the garden alive so when the rains came, it took off!

I believe this was our first good rain, on July 4, of all days!

Rain to celebrate the 4th

Jim got to work on his garage project, starting with using all the insulation that he stockpiled two years ago!

Hanging insulation.

After the rain, it's starting to look like a garden, finally!

In July, Archie had a bout of Pancreatitis, and while he had a rough time, he is recovered at last!

This was a pretty sick doggie!

But he took time off from rabbit chasing to recover... for a bit. 
Then he was tempted to chase a bunny and slammed into the side of a raised bed and knocked the wind out of himself and got REALLY sore - which laid him up a few more days!
(And another trip to the vet and more meds... $$$)

We wanted to make a trip back to Illinois to visit family, but just couldn't manage to get DH away from his many part-time jobs for a full week to do all that.  So we just went to Wisconsin to visit DH the Younger.   We just visited and took some small visits to dairies, farm markets, street concerts, and the County Fair.

At Laclare dairy, where they make goat cheese.
It is delicious!

The veggies started to produce and I was canning by early August. I think I started with fruit: plums and pears from Dawn were made into jam.  And it is good!

Pear and plum jam, 6 of each.

Tomatoes

The process... cook in crock pot, out on the porch, to save time and keep the house cooler.
Then I blend with a stick blender (thanks to Marla for the idea) and pour into containers to freeze.  When I have time (and the temperature has dropped enough that I don't have to run the A/C) I pull them all out of the freezer, defrost, and can.

Some of the fun stuff we did:

Master Gardener stuff, like helping with the Garden Walk.

Watching Wimbledon
(And celebrating that it's over ;-)

Watching part of the Air Show
(At the Tennis facility)

Learning how to change a flat tire on my new electric trike.
(Thanks to God that it happened when I was close to a friend's house
where we could leave it and work on it safely!)

And GS the Eldest wanted to try tag football.
So I guess now I'm a football Grandma?

And I've done a lot of sewing... with mixed results.

drafting a pattern for a jumper.
first try, still needs work.

HUGE dissapointment.
None of this is wearable or salvagable...

New pattern for a top.
Okay, but I like other ones better.

Second interation of the jumper pattern.
Almost there.  Still need to cut the armhole deeper.
I've adjusted the pattern.

Another new top/dress pattern.
spent hours getting the bodice to fit right.
Just not the right shape for me...

Older tried-and-true pattern, I just raised the neckline a bit
to wear under the jumper and to make winter tops.

And now for the grandkids:

When summer camp was over, we had this one for over 2 weeks, until school started.
So I tried to do something fun most days.
This day was a visit to the Butterfly House, where I had never been.

So I occasionally got The Littles from Daycare so they had summer time at Grandma's, too.
(I'm opening a package of fabric, ordered from England)

They like to make smoothies, and some also like to drink them...

He does like to help sometimes...

And learn new things...

And then there was a day when I took them up to Mommy
for their dental check-ups... and some silliness with a dog house on a winding-down walk.

And finally, a real tag-football game.

And now it's almost September...