Randomness

[Alelou]

Yay!

I'm so used to Facebook now that I'm always looking for the damned LIKE button.

[Linda]

The 33 abandoned places are hauntingly beautiful. Some of the images were missing though, so I guess they are more abandoned than the others? LOL.

[Alelou]

LOL. Maybe they've gone missing in the interim? I find some images load a lot more slowly than others.

[Weeble]

and now for something completely different...

Here in beautiful NW Michigan we are having a weird summer, cold and dry, wet and hot. Its been strange. BUT it is an awesome fruit season. Rooby Roo the wonder mutt (my yellow lab) and I picked 1 gallon plus a cup of blackberries this afternoon. Well I picked and she ate so only God knows how many I might have had but no bears interrupted us so she must have been on the job. The wife and I put up eight pints of chokecherry syrup yesterday to go with the strawberry and raspberry and previous blackberry jams and jellies. Guess what all the inlaws and outlaws are getting this holiday season.
For those of you who don't pick wild berries especially old vine blackberries lets just say the shower this evening was a bit painful. Tomorrow I am either going fishing or knocking out another gallon or two of chokecherries. Blueberries are just coming on and there will be lots of raspberries still out there. Oh and wild raspberries are everywhere. lets just say life is marvelous..

[Alelou]

Huh. We must have choke cherries around, based on the range shown on Wikipedia, but I have never noticed them. Now I'm curious. Probably long past fruiting now, though, right? I planted some Nanking cherries last year, and all the fruits disappeared before I could taste any this spring.

My first flush of raspberries is gone, and now I'm waiting for the fall crop. Hopefully it won't be too impacted by the serious Japanese beetle leaf chewing that went on earlier this summer. (And Jeezum Crow, I never saw a plant so intent on spreading as raspberry.) I was lucky with the blueberries -- they're so young, none of the pests seemed to realize they were sitting there, unguarded, so I actually got to eat them. (Of course, there weren't many.)

I've yet to can anything. I just eat it up. I'll freeze my peppers, onions, garlic and tomatoes for use throughout the year, though. They're only just coming in.

What I really need to do is start spraying for powdery mildew on the squashes, which are all running late anyway.

[Weeble]

Hi nice lady,

by the way just finished re-reading "missing scenes" from Harbinger to da end. Damn you're good. Got nostalgic.

Chokecherries are just coming on now. most of mine are not read yet but this years crop is ridiculous. I got another gallon and a quarter today, now I just have to clean them. Wife and I bought a steamer/juicer and it is a whole lot easier then cheesecloth. Blueberries (farm) are just getting started. I also grabbed my first potato (yukon gold) out of the garden for dinner.

Oh chokecherries are inedible as a fruit (way to tart) they make awesome syrup thankfully. Looks like I will end up with many gallons this year. It keeps near forever when canned.

[Alelou]

Ah, okay. So I wouldn't like them unless I processed them anyway.

No time this year for picking up THAT new skill.

Glad you enjoyed MTnTS second time around. I'm trying to get Trip out of his hole in the ground in North Star, but there are a heck a lot of competing deadlines right now. Among them, I have four classes beginning in two weeks and I still haven't revised my syllabi...

Since I somehow managed the summer finances really well, we have four classes this fall, and my car payment ends next July, we might be able to skip selling the house for another year. Thinking about it, anyway. It would be really nice to take something big off my list.

[Weeble]

Well nice lady, I'll keep praying for ya. Seems to me you are living where you would just as soon stay. Hope you are able.
God's Peace.

[Alelou]

Thanks, Weeble, but I'm also really okay with moving when the time comes. In any case, getting ready to sell has been very good for us in regards to de-cluttering and doing some postponed maintenance. It might be really nice to keep going as if we're going to sell and then decide not to at the last minute and just enjoy our newly painted, streamlined household for a year.

[Linda]

I was really surprised when I got my high white belt in Taekwon-Do tonight, despite my knee being uncooperative. My doctor said to lay off the Taekwon-Do, but what the heck. Instead of the instructor doing the honors, I had my nine-year-old high green belt granddaughter tie the 'knot of knowledge' in my retired white belt. The new belt is white with a black stripe down the middle just like the black stripe down my pet rabbits' backs, LOL. It is too bad that I will be out of town in a couple of weeks when Skyelar (granddaughter) is in a Taekwon-Do tournament. Her dad will be taking her to that.

[Alelou]

Congratulations, Linda!

[Distracted]

Yay, Linda!!

[Weeble]

Remind me not to piss you off Linda

[Distracted]

I don't think you've got to worry, Weeble. Martial arts are pretty ineffective at long distance.

My karate instructor was fond of saying that we should train really hard to get in shape just in case we were ever faced with someone who wanted to kill us with a gun or other projectile weapon from a distance where we couldn't reach them. At that point some eager beaver white belt in the class would always ask him when we were going to learn what to do in that situation. Whereupon my instructor would say that all of us already knew what to do... run away. And he was going to get us in shape so we could go really fast.

[Weeble]

Hey now,

You forget lethal weapon Linda is just a short swim across the lake...