Fall color, Furniture, two weeks till departure

Fall is coming to our little part of the country. The weeknights have been cool with temperatures in the 40s & 50s with daytime highs in the low/mid 70s. But the best part has been sunny skies each day. The trees are turning those bright fall colors that we are lucky to see for a few weeks each year. It’s kind of like spring when the trees and bushes are starting to come alive, just gives you a awesome feeling.

Can’t believe two weeks from today we will be heading south by way of north. Nope, that wasn’t a miss type; we’re going up through the UP then down to Sturgeon Bay WI to see friends Marilynn and Gary for a few days. Then we’ll head towards Texas. But with weather like we’ve had the last week and they are calling for the same for the next week it’s hard to get motivated on getting things packed. I’m trying to stay away from the grocery store and use up what we have here.

Finn was returned to his parents and Peppy is a happy girl. Although I think she does miss Finn, that night she just kind of sat by me with sad eyes. I had to post this picture on Pepper’s Facebook page with the caption “I miss Finn”

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And yes Pepper does have her own Face Book page and has had for a couple of years. This is  where she and several other puppies join in and talk about life through the eyes of puppies. If your interested it’s a open group and look up Pepperpuppy Moore.

We worked a little on the Estate Sale furniture we got last weekend. We were planning on leaving it until next spring but it was so nice out that Larry wanted to use the stripper out in the garage. While he did that I took some elbow grease, Old English and just cleaned up the sewing cabinet.

Here’s some Before & After

 

 

 

 

 

This morning we went to gr-son’s football game. They lost (first one) by one touch down in the last few minutes but it was an exciting game. Hard to decide who’s more vocal – players or parents – naa it’s the parents. But it was nice listening to the parents and coaches telling these 8-9 yr olds what a great game it was and how well they played. So many times you hear about kids getting negative comments when they lose a game.

On the way home we stopped at our weekly hang out “Menards”. Larry saw on line how Menards have buildings they bring out for xmas decorations. So he wanted to check it out and see if they would work for the future train set up. Besides we figured we’ve spent so much time and $’s there why not have their store part of the train set up. So here’s what we got.

The front

The Garden Area

It has moving parts, gates and people and even plays the Menards song.

Well that’s it for this week. Time to call in an pizza order, pick it up and head out to the farm to have dinner with the siblings.

Oh and speaking of pizza our gr-daughter Anissa starts her 2nd job at a Pizza Place today. I asked her why a pizza place, her response – grma I love pizza – daaa

Till next time…………………………………..

B-day Boy, Estate Sale treasures

Have lots of pictures to share this week so I’ll get right too it. Darrius (grandson) turned 9 years old this week so between school and football practice we slipped in a short birthday party. One of the biggest things he’s missed since his big brother went off to college was the PlayStation 3 that went to college too.

I think this picture says it all

Larry needed something to do so he decided to make a bridge for the train track. Still a work in progress but it’s coming.

We also went to an Estate Sale one day and he was able to pick up some more cars and track.

Of course he wasn’t the only one who found treasures at the sale. I came across a few things I couldn’t live without.

Found this neat sewing cabinet. Not that I sew but loved the look

  

Plus it had all these neat old sewing items inside

Then I found this mahogany night stand

And last this neat looking fold up table 

That needs Larry’s talents for repairs

All the pieces need restoring but these will be next summers projects.

Tomorrow our puppy sitting is up and we will meet the kids in Toledo to return Finn. It’s been interesting having two dogs and even though we’ve had a good time with Finn we know that we want to be a one puppy household. And I’m sure Pepper has no problem with that decision. She has warmed up to Finn some but the jealously is very there.

We did get most of the yard furniture etc in the garage and cut some of the plants down. I started looking at routes on my route planner for when we leave our friends in Wisconsin and head to Texas. Also started making my “to Texas” pile in the spare room.

Had Sears come out and clean all the ducts which after all the construction we knew they were bad.

Weather next week calls for picture perfect fall days with temps in the 70’s and sunny. Not too thrilled with the lows at night. 

So that it’s for this week. Till next time……………..

Puppy Sitting and Frost

We (& Pepper) have survived our first week of doggy sitting our kids dog Finn. It’s been interesting having a much larger one around but Finn is very well trained and has been a joy. On the other hand Pepper has had a hard time sharing her attention with another puppy. 

There hasn’t been any fights between them but Pepper seems to think if Finn’s in the room she has to be sitting on one of our laps. The biggest change has been me having to go on these early morning walks. Normally Larry and Pepper go while I finish my coffee and read my news on line. But with two of them which means double on the poop duty (one being super sized) it’s easier for both of us to go. Another week and the kids will be back from their vacation to Brussels and Amsterdam and things will get back to normal for Pepper.

The weather has gone from temperatures in the 90’s to frost on the windshield within just a couple of days. Today cold, cloudy, rainy and just a good day to have beef stew in the crock pot and watch a old movie (or in our case football). I told my family they better come and take the car keys or Larry will be packing it up to head south. But they are calling for temp’s back in the 70’s this week. Speaking of leaving we have a tentative date of around the 12th/13th of Oct to head out of Michigan. We plan on going up through the U.P. (ya I know we’re heading the wrong way) and then down to Sturgeon Bay to see our friends Gary/Marilynn and hopefully Jim/Pat. They both have places in our park in TX but won’t be coming until later.

We’ll probably start putting the yard stuff away this week. Will miss my porch, sure wish I could have one attached to my trailer down south. Trying to use up the food and not buy any more then I have too but it always seems like I’m always lacking one ingredient to finish the meal. Oh well daughter will end up with what ever is left and I’m sure she’ll be happy.

That’s it for now. Half time for the Lions and we need to take the dogs for a walk. Till next time…………………

A pool party with dogs

One day last week we along with my sister & sister in law made a trip to Turkeyville to a flea market they were having. And of course you can’t go there without having the full turkey dinner and it was worth it.

They are talking a couple of days this week of high 80’s & 90’s then the bottom will fall out and highs will be in the 60’s. Not looking forward to those cooler temps.

Saturday morning we made a trip down to Renee’ & Brians in Ohio. The Dog Adoption that Renee’ is really involved in was having a fund raiser that afternoon. The local water park allows them the use of the park for a day so anyone with dogs can come. Here’s a newspaper article about it. http://www.morningjournal.com/general-news/20130905/avon-lake-pool-preparing-for-big-splash-dog-swim-on-saturday

We were totally just how many people show up with their dogs, there had to have been over a hundred of them. Here are a couple of pictures.

Pepper wasn’t to thrilled with all the activity. We sat at a picnic table and just people/puppy watched.

This guy is all ready for a swim

One of the other reasons for going down there was we were bring one of Renee’s dogs back with us to spend the next couple of weeks. The kids are leaving this week for a vacation so we’ll be doggy sitting. Finn is a pretty Border Collie and is really a neat dog. Pepper isn’t too sure about having a house guest, she pretty much stay right next to us. But they get along ok so we shouldn’t have a problem.

That’s it for this week. Till next time…………

Neighbor Picnic

I just looked at the last post on my blog and the one I did the weekend of 8/24 isn’t there. Not sure what happened to it and of course I can’t remember what I wrote about. Thought maybe it was in the draft section but it’s not. Oh well I guess we’ll never know.

We had our first annual Neighborhood Meet and Greet Picnic on Sunday. For it being on a Holiday weekend  we still had 18 attend. I was sort of surprised that many of these folks have lived across from each other for 20 years and had never had a conversation with them or even knew their names. This is one reason that I love spending our winters down in Retama where RV’ers aren’t bashful about walking up to a new neighbor and getting to know each other. Here’s a couple of pictures.

And of course lots of food

We got the patio table and chairs painted and put back on the porch. Really like the bright yellow but I need to find some new cushions.This patio set has a lot of history. My folks purchased this when they had their cottage back in the 60’s.

We had to take Pepper over to the Vet’s today and for some shots needed plus a allergy shot. This time of year she really starts scratching and this shot clears her right up. She sure isn’t like most dogs, has no problem walking in the office and loves the vet. He lets her give him all the kisses she wants to, all the while saying “I’m not going to even think about where that tongue has been”. Two shots and one of drawing blood and she still wanted to be give him one last kiss before we left.

Today thousands of kids headed through those big wide doors ending another summer. Some were excited, some scared and some “not” happy at all. What do you think our grand-son Darrius was.

That’s it for this week. Till next time……….