a walk in the park

My husband has been walking in our town's little park several times a week. It has nice walking paths that go along the Salt River.

I went with him one day last week. He said the river was higher than usual.
This river gets it's name from the natural salt deposits in this area.  A salt works was established near here in 1779...huge kettles of water would be boiled over fire pits until the water was evaporated and only salt remained. A vast surrounding area was deforested for wood to fuel the fires.

But back to the walking path...sunny in some spots, shady in others. 

They keep the park maintained but allow areas of native plants and trees to remain. 

I noticed a lot of walnut trees. I can identify them for sure by smelling the leaves which have the same smell as the walnut hulls when they are green.

These Elderberry bushes were in bloom...lighting up the shady places.

A pleasant place to get a little exercise.

demolition - day two

Sasquatch  Junior was back on day two to finish tearing down the horse barn. If anything, it was more humid than the day before. This photo was taken early and his clothes are soaked with sweat already. 

Those boards on the ground in the front left of the picture seemed too good to burn. They are in good shape except for nail holes in the ends...really heavy and hardened with age. 

The same kind of wood is in the doors ( those sections with the barred top). We saved those out too...maybe to sell.  But I am getting an idea about using them to block the truck body shed there.

Maybe mount them to posts and plant some blooming vines to climb up them and twine around the bars?

But back to the demolition....He used his car to pull the last wall down in one piece. 

And we burned it right where it fell. I wish I would have gotten more action photos, but I was taking care of the fire. That black post in the foreground of this picture was a dilly to get out of the ground. It was in there deep and it was heavy! Cedar.

The next morning and every thing is burned. Metal going to recycling on that trailer there.

 Nice work!

We are thinking of putting up a building of some sort to replace it. Checking into different options for now.

horse barn demolition - day one

This sad looking little horse barn was here when we moved to this house in 1986. It looked a little better then - but not a lot. Lonnie put it to good use when he owned two Morgan horses, Sky King and Miss Lily.

He would let them in the stalls every morning and night to eat their serving of grain or sometimes bring them under the overhang to groom them or have their hooves trimmed.

The door on the right was to a good hay room that also had a few shelves to store grooming supplies. 

The building had electricity but we removed the line a few years ago when it was sagging and the horses had passed on.

For awhile now it has been leaning, leaking and the roof sagging. The floor was buckling upward in the hay room ...it was like stepping onto a sliding board in there!

It wasn't really worth fixing and we were concerned it could collapse and hurt someone - plus it was just so danged ugly.

So, we asked my younger son if he would like to take it down. He agreed and began the job on a broiling hot day.

Here, he already has the over hang off. The posts came up easy but the roof didn't crash down like he expected. It needed a few boards removed.
 

( this almost looks like that Sasquatch sighting picture, doesn't it?)

He kept the job site tidy...stacking metal for later recycling...putting aside some decent heavy oak boards that someone might be able to use. Everything else came to the burn pile that I was watching and feeding.

It was too hot to work out there more than a few hours. Better to split the job up and start again the next day in the cooler early morning hours.

Unfortunately, this reveals another ugly thing. A truck body on concrete blocks that we use as a shed.

Maybe a good pressure wash and a coat of  paint will help it out. 

Banana Pudding

At my quilting group potluck dinner earlier this month I ate some unusually good banana pudding that my friend Pat made.

Knowing that she always makes good stuff, I had asked Pat what she had brought that day, then jokingly I asked "It isn't fattening, is it?".
She started talking about how she sometimes uses sugar free pudding and so forth so I really wasn't expecting it to be that good.

After the first bite I knew Pat wasn't telling the whole story. She smiled and told me it had cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk in it. Definitely fattening but really good.

She gave me the recipe and I made it for Sunday dessert. Everyone liked it.

Banana Pudding
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
14 oz. sweetened condensed milk
5 oz. vanilla instant pudding mix
3 cups milk
1 t. vanilla extract
8 oz. Cool whip
4 or 5 bananas, sliced
 Vanilla wafers ( roughly 8 to 10 oz.)

With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese until fluffy, add sweetened condensed milk, instant pudding mix, milk and vanilla, beating well after each addition.

Fold in half  of the cool whip.

 You can use any dish that's big enough to layer the ingredients. I used a large 9 x 13 clear glass dish.
Cover the bottom with a layer of vanilla wafers, then a layer of sliced bananas. Pour half of the pudding mixture over this.

Repeat the layers with your remaining vanilla wafers, bananas and pudding mixture.

And spread the other half of the cool whip over the top.

Chill for several hours so it's deliciously cold and the vanilla wafers get a little bit soft. 

Use a big spoon to serve. All you will hear for the next few minutes is spoons clinking on the plates as everyone gobbles theirs down. 

I sent the leftovers home with my sons so I am not sure how long this holds up after the first day...but I would guess it would begin to get watery and the bananas would darken.

that new car smell

Ahhh...that new car smell. It's coming from these new floor mats I got for the Jeep!

They aren't really there to protect the carpet, more to hide it really. They are molded exactly to the contour of the floor so it's a nice snug fit.

I had been thinking about getting some floor mats for awhile - then I had to order a new door handle/latch for the passenger door...and I needed a new door pull for the inside of the driver door (but they come in a set). By adding the floor mats to the order I was able to get free shipping.

My younger son removed the door panel and installed the new handle. Nice to be able to use this door again! It would open from the inside but it was an annoyance to have to go around and climb in to open it every time.

The new pull handles for the inside aren't on yet...the hardware wasn't in the box. I called the company (Quadratec) and they are sending another pair of door pulls, and they said don't bother returning these because shipping expense would make it not worthwhile to them. 

I have had a jury-rigged strap on there for awhile so a few more days won't matter.

I hope I'm not tempting fate by spending a little money on the Jeep!

family reunion

Saturday we went to Lonnie's family reunion in Nashville.  We had very nice weather..pretty warm, but we were under a shelter for shade and someone had brought a portable generator to power some fans.

Here is Lonnie with his brother Jimmy, with their sister Terri .

There were lots of family members and all seven brothers and sisters were there, but everyone couldn't make it, of course.  

 There were a lot of kids there, cute and sweet and well behaved.  

One little 4 year old boy kept calling me Uncle Darla ! He asked his mom if they could have a party at their house so Uncle Darla could come and see his toy monster truck. Funny! It makes me nostalgic for my sons were little! 

Here is Lonnie's sister Mary and his brother Don.

I missed getting Brother Charlie and sister Betty in a picture. Betty organized the event and planned out every detail...from tablecloths to band aids.

Instead of everyone bringing a dish like usual - they decided to have barbecue, beans, and coleslaw brought in by caterers. We all brought beverages, chips and desserts. That worked out nicely without as much leftover food.

I had an unfortunate failure in the kitchen when I was making a dessert to take that morning...with not enough time to make anything else.  Of course that's when it would happen.  Dough blopping over in the oven and not cooking through inside...sugary mess burning and smoking...but at least the smoke alarms didn't go off.

I am not sharing a picture of that disaster!

Lonnie had to buy a pie at the grocery! There were plenty of desserts there anyway.

baby bunny

What could be any cuter than a baby bunny?

He is a little bit hard to see in the photo...he blends in...and he is standing very still!
 I have seen two of them in the yard recently but this one was just racing around in the mulch bed by himself this evening.

I took these pictures from my kitchen window. He is getting a little nervous and zoomed off after I snapped this photo. He is really hard to see here... he is still between the rocks.

Minutes later...here is skunk. He certainly doesn't blend in. He has been coming up in the yard fairly regularly. So far he has been a gentleman...no bullying, no spraying.

Just comes to look for dropped seeds at the bird feeder and to get a good long drink of water.

I've also been seeing a big raccoon , but it's darker when he comes out and I can't get a good photo of him.

It sure was a  lovely early summer evening. I always enjoy this view to the east.