Yesterday was a perfect day

I don't know what you consider perfect weather, but yesterday was my idea of the perfect weather day. It was about 75', sunny and had a slight breeze to keep the bugs away. Perfect.

I went to work and mail was light. That was great. It made the route go by quickly. Then I pretty much ran home and started working. The kids helped me until they wore out and then they came in and rested.

We raked leaves pine needles etc., we cleaned yard, we weeded stuff, we weed eated and we mowed. Then I decided to continue on with my quest of getting the house stained. I stained a good 2 or three hours and then weed eated my courtyard.

Too much to do and so little time. Although, I have been trying to get the housework done in the morning and then work on the "to do list" in the afternoon. The list is down from 9 pages to 7 pages.

Today Will goes in to help Dad move an electrical panel. Then this afternoon I hope to have him till the last part of my garden so that I can finish planting it. I have held off because of the bad storms we have had lately. If you hear about the flooding in Wisconsin, a good portion of it is in the southern part of our county. Gays Mills is in the next county over and is where many of my family are buried. I have to go check on the cemetery when this is all over and make sure that the stones have not shifted and clean up any debris. The reunions are next month so I will check on the way there. Now they are predicting up to 4 inches of rain for the remainder of the week. Just what we need.

The Oakes Family Gathering is in 17 days. Lots do to for that, but I'm actually farther along than usual. I have the supplies bought, I just have to finish adding new stuff to the power point presentation that I am showing. It is full of family pictures and genealogy information. I'm still looking for someone to put our family 8mm movies onto a DVD for me to share with the rest of the family. Still trying to get the power point presentation ready to make copies for anyone who wants it.

The day before and the morning of the Gathering, I have to make 12 gallons of tea, 10 lbs of hot beef for sandwiches, 50 ham sandwiches, 4 desserts, 2 corn casseroles, 2 gallons coleslaw and 100 oak leaf and acorn cookies. It will be fun. The kids and I will head out and be down there by 9:00 am on Saturday and will spend the night Saturday night near Wisconsin Dells and then come home Sunday. We have family flying in for the Gathering and I want to spend as much time with them as I can.

Different members of our family keep seeing the bears. I say bears because there seem to be many different sizes. Will and the kids saw a much smaller one the other day and a couple of weeks ago we saw the larger one. Jessalyn saw another one from the school bus window when it stopped to pick up one of the kids down the road. Evidently the kid was waiting for the bus while the bear was 100 feet away behind a shed, eating peanut butter out of a jar that it had found. It's kind of exciting, but we never seem to be able to find the camera in time.

My poor dog does not feel well. I don't know what it is....he is just sore. I cannot tell if it is a foot or if he just pulled a muscle, but he sure moves carefully. He was fine early yesterday but as the day went on he got slower. He probably hurt himself playing with Jessalyn. Whatever he does he does with his whole body and I think some times he moves wrong. We'll keep an eye on him.

Well time to get some more laundry done and finish the kitchen. Then it's off to work for another day of saving the world from mail.

Have a great day!
dea