April 15, 2006
| The Strites in front of our buckeye tree. |
It was good to have the whole family back home for church Sunday morning. We got dressed up in good time and asked Jordan to take some pictures of us before church. (Ina Sue needed a picture for our scrap booking page for Uncle Howards) Unfortunately, due to numerous problems with malfunctioning cameras and high wind we were not able to get a satisfactory picture. On to church then where I dropped off the ladies and headed into the jail for Bible study. Back at church, Gary Hege brought the message on "Laying up Treasures in Heaven". When we got home I volunteered to make the dinner. I served up fried ham, Red Lobster garlic biscuits, noodles in beef broth, corn & a salad. The wife took a nap while I washed up the dishes and worked on my devotions for this evening. We tried again to take pictures before church in the evening and were reasonably satisfied. The service in the evening was a song service. |
| Naomi Heatwole took Carolina on a ride. |
We got up and around in good time on Monday. I went off to work and Ina Sue jumped into a gigantic washday. It was a beautiful day to hang out clothes to dry though. After I got home from work Ina Sue cut my hair then I mowed while Ina Sue vacuumed the car and sprayed Round-up. We also replanted our six rows of beans that never half came up. :( |
| Picking collard flowers. |
I went in to work early on Tuesday while Ina Sue and Carolina slept in. Ina Sue dropped Carolina off with AnnMarie Diem and went with the group of ladies to Columbia for prison ministry. They had dinner at Fazolis then had a good time at the prison. The prison has a new building opened up so things were a bit different then normal. After I got home from work we had a quick supper together then I went back in to Barnwell to the jail. |
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The buckeye is beautiful right now. |
Ina Sue had a baby doctor appointment Wednesday morning. Since I had to be at work she just took Carolina Sue along with her. Thank God everything still seems to be going fine with baby "Elmer". After the doctors appointment she did some shopping at "Fred's" then came home and did some baking for Sunday. When I got home I immediately started mowing and was able to finish up most of the yard while Ina Sue scrap booked. After I came in I used our KitchenAid to grate up most of the cheese that Ina Sue bought in Virginia. It was a pile of cheese! Nearly two dishpans full of grated Cojack plus quite a bit of Mozzarella & Swiss. |
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Grating cheese |
I had planned to take the day off on Thursday and had already put a roast on the oven to cook when I got a call from Grant Allendale's IT person around 9:00 asking if I could help cover for him since he had made spur of the moment plans to be off-site today. I wasn't really pleased to lose my day off but went ahead and went down for the day. Ina Sue worked on preparing more food for the weekend. When I got home I worked on finishing up the mowing while Ina Sue replanted our corn, sprayed Round-up and cleaned the porches. After we came in I mixed up and baked a batch of dilly rolls. We love these longer evenings! |
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The Window Washer. |
I went in to work on Friday with hopes of taking off for part of the day to make up for losing yesterday. I didn't make it home until about 4:30 though. Ina Sue cleaned the house and then worked on washing windows while I worked on getting our garden tiller working again. Thanks to Nelson Hochstetler's help I was able to diagnose a really dirty spark plug and replaced it to good effect. Unfortunately, as I "drove" the tiller out around the end of the garden I stomped my foot down on the edge of a sharp crevasse and turned my ankle something terrible. I was afraid I had done serious damage. It was really sore and swelled up quite a bit. Thankfully, I can still walk on it if I'm carefull. Ina Sue spent the evening washing windows then finished working on Uncle Howard's scrapbook page. She made me write up the memories section. |
| Maria Byler with Carolina Sue again. |
Saturday was a wonderful busy day. My ankle was hurting me pretty bad but I tied up my high top tennis shoes tight and was able to hobble around. I worked on some mulching out in the garden then drove with Carolina Sue to Driftwood Nursery to pick up some Candy Tuft Iberis for our landscaping. Before we left I picked all the kale that was still good in our garden and had Ina Sue wash it up for me. When we got home I worked on planting our new plants while Ina Sue made up two cheesecakes for Sunday. Our good friends and ex-neighbors, Bill Bylers stopped in for a while to visit in the afternoon. We really miss having them next door and it was really nice to be with them again. While Bill & I talked I cut up four huge heaping dishpans of kale to freeze. |
| Cutting up lots of kale to freeze. |
After they left I blanched the kale and froze it (13 pints) then went outside and planted vinca along side our front walk. Ina Sue took a break inside while I worked on planting 27 tomato stakes in the garden. (She came out to help me line them up) Then we hurried around and cleaned up in time to go to Uncle Howard's 50'th anniversary drop-in at the school. The family served up some delicious food and drink along with a slide show of old pictures of Uncle Howards. After we left we drove into the shop to pick up a Firewire card. Charles Heatwole had taken some video during the anniversary event and Steve wanted it recorded to CD for Uncle Howard's daughter Phyllis (who wasn't able to attend due to a health condition) to see. I got the video recording to the computer then we welcomed Kent, Rhonda & family for a drop in. After they left I drove back in to the shop to finish work on a server that I needed to finish by Monday morning. |