Housewife, 54

 Well, I did it.  I had a Master Gardener event at my house.  The group decided not to have a Garden Walk this year, but they wanted to do some events open to the Masters as well as the General Public, and something that they have done in the past is a 'Masters in the Garden' casual evening at some garden.  I volunteered mine as one of my goals as a MG is to encourage others to grow their own veggies.  I've been trying to keep things up, but you know how it goes... you let some things slip and don't tidy up this or that until you have to.  After I volunteered and we set the time (only two weeks out) I had to make plans and a list and get things crossed off quickly.   We had our family vacation right in the middle of my prep time, and only 2 days to finish up after we got back! I was assured that this is to be a casual event and not to worry about perfection (as if I could), but that people wanted to see what other gardener's gardens really looked ...

  YAY!  Finally, we get to have another Family Vacation  It's been 4 years since our last vacation together - it was 2018 - and so much has changed.  We still found a vacation rental on Lake Pepin, the Mississippi River, but this year we found slim pickin's and went to the Wisconsin side of the river.  As most of these rentals have been, it was a really old building (not a home) and classified as "rustic" and it was.  But still comfortable and had everything we needed.  Thank goodness the weather had cooled down here because while the bedrooms were air conditioned, the main living spaces were not!   Once a General Store, also a Hotel... Built 1880's Friday morning started off with a nice, late breakfast and good visiting time. After-breakfast, the activities plannng committee. DS the Elder, enfolded by his children. Stockholm, Wi is an old river town that had been close to deserted but is being rejuvinated by an arts/food/tourist movement and...

Summer heat = Dried up patches of lawn and hoses snaking all around.  We knew it would happen.  It always has.  Summer arrived and today feels like a sauna.  So far we have not had horrible humidity, but now it's getting there.  Earlier we have had a few days in the 90's and then some relief - at least with highs only in the low 80's, but for the next 10 days it is forecast to stay hot and humid.  Blah. We have had some nasty summer storms - yes, worse than usual.  The result of the May 29 hail storm is that we got a new roof!  And then when I went to dust off the cars after the roofers left, I found a HUGE dent in the middle of my Honda's roof!  Insurance has paid for the roof (except for the difference in $ for the upgraded shingles) so we got lucky on that.   A crane to lift the shingles - And they didn't ruin my new flower border! DH and I are trying to remember... but we don't think we have EVER had a claim against our homeowne...