Have a great week.
Rose
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Friday, August 28, 2015
Bring on Winter.
After living in this house for 50 years, we finally have a
fireplace. I have wanted one for years but hubby didn’t want to chop wood.
After spending a few days with daughters this past spring, I convinced him how nice fireplaces were on those mornings and evenings with you
need just a little bit of heat. He
agreed that one would be nice. So after shopping around, I found a ventless gas fireplace on line we liked and ordered it. I hired Brad, our local
contractor to install it and now we are set for those cool mornings and evenings. What
a difference it made in the size and appearance of our living room.
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| The Beast (home entertainment center) |
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| Almost done. |
After the beast (home
entertainment center) was gone and the fire place was installed we needed a component
cabinet. I wanted all those wires hid. We couldn’t find one to purchase that
would fit our space. What to do? I had a vision that this old night stand would
work and Brad was able to make it happen. I love it. Perfect size for our space
and best of all, most of the wires are out of site.
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| Future component cabinet. |
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| Night stand converted to component cabinet. |
Have a relaxing weekend,
Rose
Saturday, August 22, 2015
Rainy night in Iowa
Rainy night in Iowa. Strong storms were predicted but so far
just a little lightning and thunder and an inch of rain. Made for a noisy Mass
tonight. Perfect ending to a nice week. We spent a couple of days with our
daughter and son-in-law in Bondurant. They have a very productive garden and
were willing to share the produce. Couldn’t pass up a deal like that. Plus we
had a chance to visit with the grandkids before they get busy with jobs and
college life. Dan and Tammy both have very green thumbs. Dan's tomato plants are 8 ft tall and there are 28 of them.
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| Dan peeking out from the tomato plants as he picks. |
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| Tammy and her Dad |
The fence is to keep the tomato loving black lab, Lucy, from eating all she can reach.
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| Fresh from the garden plus freshly made salsa. |
It rained while we were there, too.
And windy and cold the next day. But we were still able to go outside and enjoy
checking out the vegetable garden, flower gardens and the huge prairie garden.
It has gotten so thick since the spring burn that you can’t walk through the
prairie garden this time of the year.
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| Results of Tam's green thumb. |
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| Always room for more plants. |
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| Prairie Garden |
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| Lucy. The tomato loving black lab. |
It was a fun, relaxing time.
Hope you all had a great week and an even better one coming up.
Rose
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
HURRY, HURRY, HURRY, One Day Back to School Sale
HURRY, HURRY, HURRY, One Day Back to School
Sale, 10% off all my products, bundles included. Just enter code MORE15 at
check out for discount. Load your cart,
sale starts at Midnight tonight.
Visit my store my clicking here: Smalltowngiggles
Here are some more stores that might interest you;
Thank you, Rose
Rain, Rain, Finally came our way.
We finally go the rain we needed. Storms have passed us by
for the last two weeks. The rain will look like it’s heading our way but then split
us and form again once past. It has been the strangest thing. Areas around us
have had too much rain but here in our town we have recorded just .2 of an
inch. Well, that all changed last night. We had lots of rain, and thunder and lightning.
There is 2 and .2 tenths in our rain gauge this morning with more on the way.
Rain barrel is full now in fact overflowing.
We have been using the hose. And that isn’t good in this
town as water isn’t cheap. Besides plants grow better with rain water. Now
maybe the tomatoes will ripen faster with the needed moisture. We are so
wanting some fresh salsa. Speaking of
salsa, our son-in-law makes the best salsa around. He cans many, many jars
every summer and keeps us in salsa for the year. It is so good. Did I say he
makes the best around. Anyway, we did
get a couple of small, and I mean small tomatoes for nachos. Dan’s salsa made
it the perfect supper for a hot summer meal.
I love raining days. Enjoy
Rose
Monday, August 3, 2015
Back to School Time. Get Ready
It's that time of year again. Time to get ready for school. Teachers Pay Teachers is having a site wide sale. Check it out. Just use BTS15 when you checkout.
Check out my store here; Smalltowngiggles
Here are some more stores that might interest you;
Covered Bridges of Madison County and other interesting sites in Winterset IIowa
After spending last Wednesday catching up with family, Hubby
and I spent Thursday touring the covered bridges of Madison County and other
sites in Winterset Iowa. We spent a couple of hours touring the Madison County Historical
Complex.
We then took the scenic drive up to Clark Tower. “Clark Tower is a castle-like limestone tower located in Winterset City Park was erected in 1926, on the eightieth anniversary of the founding of Madison County, in memory of Caleb Clark, a stonemason who was the first white settler of Madison County, and his wife Ruth Clanton Clark. The tower stands at a height of 25 feet.” I loved the drive through the woods and the surprise when we got to our goal. We had never heard of Clark Tower and had no idea what it looked like. It was very cool.
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| Road up to tower. |
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| Clark Tower |
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| view from top of tower |
We next checked out a couple of covered bridges. They are
pretty cool, too. This was an interesting fact we learned that day. The bridges were covered to
protect the roadway, because it was cheaper to replace the boards of the roof
and walls, then the heavy beams of the actual bridge.
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| Cutler-Donahoe Bridge was built in 1870 by Eli Cox and moved to its present site in Winterset's City Park in 1970. |
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| Cedar Covered Bridge |
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Cedar Covered Bridge is the only Madison County covered bridge that vehicles are still permitted to drive across. |
A trip to Winterset isn’t complete without a stop at the
John Wayne museum. Winterset is the birthplace of John Wayne as most know. We
toured the museum especially enjoying the 15 minute movie before you enter the
museum. Tour of the museum also came with a tour of his home until he was three
and the family moved to California
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| Childhood home of John Wayne |
It was a fun and interesting day. Learned a lot about an
area only a couple of hours from home. Do you have interesting things to see in your area? I suggest you take the time to check them out, if you haven't. I am glad we did. In fact, we are thinking of checking out a few other interesting areas in our state.
Saturday, August 1, 2015
Trip Back In Time
Last
week my hubby decided he wanted to travel to his hometown to check things out and
reconnect with cousins he hasn’t seen in many years. When I say many years, I
mean many years. I had never met them since we have been married and that is 53
years. I thought, OH Boy, this could be interesting. We stopped at a gas
station to take a break and he asked if there was any of his relatives still
living in Emerson. Well, lo and behold, there was one cousin still there. A customer
was just leaving and volunteered to show us the way. When hubby knocked on the
door, Kirk knew him instantly. Hadn’t seen each other in over 45 years. I was
amazed. After a nice visited we toured the town. Took pictures of the house he
lived in before they moved to Shelby. Found out the farm house where is dad
worked had been torn down and the three stores that the family owned on Main
Street had been destroyed in a flood in 1982. That was kind of sad but all and
all it was a fun time.
We
then traveled a couple of more hours to the home of his cousin who he hadn’t
seen since he was a kid. We have been keeping in touch though at Christmas time
via cards and letters. It was so nice to finally meet someone I have been
writing to for years. It was a fun visit hearing about the summers hubby spent
at their farm. Came home with pictures of his mother’s graduation, his
grandmother and an interesting fact. We knew that hubby’s family was descendants
of an Indian tribe but know ever said or knew which tribe. Well, thanks to Dorothy’s
granddaughter who researched it for a term paper, they now know they are one
eighth Cherokee.
It
was a two day trip I can truthfully say I wasn’t sure about but it turned out
to be a very fun adventure. Just goes to show you. Never be afraid to venture
out and do something out of the ordinary.
The
next day we toured Winterset, home of the covered bridges of Madison County and
the birthplace of John Wayne. More on that in my next post.
Some photos from our first day out.
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| Jerry's grandmother on the right and her sisters. |
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| Jerry's mom. |
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| First childhood home |
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| Directory at entrance of Emerson Cemetery |
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| Rural Iowa |
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| An exciting fact we learned from the trip. |
Rose.
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