Thursday, April 26, 2007

The river, surgery, tag, extention, spills and clean up

I bet you are all wondering what that title is all about right now. It seems to be the story of our lives lately. Here goes....
First there is the Mississippi River, which is the subject that Jessalyn chose for her Wisconsin Heritage Fair project. We are very proud of her. She had to chose a subject that she thought had some effect on Wisconsin's Heritage. They gave her many ideas in a packet, but she chose the river. She came up with some very, very good reasons for her thinking and has done a great report. Monday, we drove over as a family and went to the river on both the Wisconsin side and the Minnesota side. The picture above is in Minnesota on the opposite side of the river from LaCrosse WI, right next to the lock and dam. Quite interesting and we got some great pix of a tug boat going through the lock. She has to make her presentation today.
Tuesday Jessa went to the Doctor. She had been showing the same symptoms of Lyme's disease again and had this weird rash on the back of one knee. We had to do the blood tests and then while he was there the Dr. took a biopsy of these skin tag/bump things that she keeps getting on her legs. They just keep appearing. We sent one off to pathology to figure out how to get rid of them. Now she has 2 stitches in the back of her leg right where it rubs on the chair when she sits down. I'm taking her, her Wisconsin Heritage project and her stool to prop her leg on to school today. That should prove interesting. We got the blood work back, no problems! Praise God. I really was not looking forward to dealing with Lymes again.
My tag from Will proves not so interesting.
Famous things that happened on August 20th (really great whoopie do here).

1) 636 - Battle of Yarmuk: (I just liked the name not the subject)
2) 1866 - President Andrew Johnson formally declared the U.S. Civil War over.

Two people who were born on my birthday (not the same year):

1) 1923 - Jim Reeves, American singer (d. 1964)
2) 1926 - Nobby Wirkowski, American and Canadian football player and
coach ( I liked his name)

Two people who died on my birthday:

1) 535 - Mochta of Louth, disciple of St. Patrick (name thing again, think you
could say that 3 times fast?)
2) 1912 - William Booth, English founder of the Salvation Army (b. 1829)

Holiday?
Whew! that's over. Everyone else had interesting people and things.. Mine were pretty boring.

My mail route has been extended and it starts on Saturday. It adds about 6 hours a week. I'm looking forward to mail count. Maybe they will make me a full time route. I still should be done by 1:00 every day. Not too shabby, even though I would rather be lots of other places.

The state has come up with this new law that all counties have to have an emergency plan for evacuation during a chemical spill or natural disaster. They have been working on the local one for awhile. Now they realize that they need a different plan for the crowd during Cranfest. They contacted us to have meetings with them to decide on a course of action. Oh sure, let's just figure out a way to get 30-40 thousand people out of town on 4 roads in less than an hour. GREAT FUN! We decided to do more research and then get back together and talk. It tends to be overwhelming if you don't take it in smaller steps and not try to run the marathon right away. We kind of decided that the main problem is not getting them out of town, but back to their cars. People tend to get lost and forget where their cars are parked when they are calm, add in the stress of evacuation and you have disaster. Great way to spend the afternoon.

It's spring clean up time at the Donaldson house right now. We had a work day last week that was a great, great help to me. All of us went out and worked, including Luke who does not sleep here, but practically lives here during the winter. Everyone worked together and raked and cleaned. It would have taken me hours and hours to get the work done, but it only took about 2 hours to get a really good start on everything. Then we cooked burgers, Italian sausages and hot dogs on the grill. It was great fun and it was so very nice to have that much done. Now I have to get down to working on the courtyards. Amanda is going to help me. We are planting flower beds and laying down some pathways etc. Then there are my hummingbirds, so the feeders will need to be filled for their arrival. My tulips are starting to bloom and my dwarf iris's have already bloomed and are almost done. Last year my iris count was about 20 and this year it was over 50. I'm glad because the iris is my favorite flower. The way they are growing I might have over 100 next year. WOW!

We have been planning the garden for our new crop of weeds. The kids are really excited about it. Of course that will only stick around until the hard work starts in. Oh well, maybe they will work with me this year. Much to their disappointment I bought Kale seeds. I LOVE KALE in my soups and they both hate it. I'm really looking forward to fresh tomatoes and cucumbers. I could eat all summer on tomatoes, cukes, summer squash and green peppers. Throw in a little onion and I'm happy.
I'm looking for a recipe for a "sweet" chili sauce. Claire has been looking around some to buy, but I don't know if she's had any luck. I thought it would be nice to try to can some for this next winter. I know I'm making apple butter this year if possible. I miss it. I guess I'm going to have to make all the jellies and jams again. I just have to find the time to do it. That's my life for you.

Well, time to kennel dogs, shower, transport kids and deliver mail. My to do list only has about 10 things on it for this afternoon. Pretty light. Maybe I can get everything done. Have a great day!
dea

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