June 14, 2008

4 year old girl & tree.	I got up early Sunday morning again and studied to teach the youth class.  Wendell Schrock and his wife were down to help Korwins get moved north.  He had a devotional before the sermon, then Wendell preached.  Ina Sue fixed Swiss chicken, herbed rice, and squash for dinner.  The rest of the family laid down for naps while I got down to work studying for my topic in the evening.  I was asked to speak on the subject of "Palm Tree Christians".  It was actually an interesting topic to study for but I wouldn't have chosen to spend my whole afternoon studying...  After church we came back home to a dessert of home made ice-cream.  Just when we think we are starting to make some progress with Landon's behavior, we have another all out battle with him.  Needless to say, by the time we both got to bed we were ready for the rest.
Picking beans at sun-up	We got up at daybreak on Monday and the wife and I went out to pick our beans.  Thankfully, it wasn't too hot that early in the morning but it did certainly warm up later.  I headed in to work and Ina Sue started on the laundry.  She got the laundry almost completely done and also canned up 8 quarts of our beans.  When I got home, supper of sloppy joes, green beans & cabbage salad was waiting on me.  After supper I went up to Ivan S.'s to use his table saw and bandsaw.  We are re-doing our stereo cabinet at the shop and the job of making new speaker face-plates fell to me.  While I was working there, Ina Sue took the children with her over to Carl's to get milk.  By the time I got home the children were ready for their bed-time story & bed.
These hot days even wear out the cat...	Tuesday was another cooker!  I spent much of the day on the road and my car air conditioner doesn't work very well when it really starts to get hot...  Ina Sue tied up the tomatoes and did a little weeding.  Mary dropped Erica off here to take her nap in the afternoon.  For supper Ina Sue fixed us a tuna roll and fresh broccoli.  I love her tuna roll recipe.  After supper we worked to straighten up the house then Ina Sue did some scrapbooking while I worked on this webpage.
Carolyn Heatwole & Dale Bange's girls helped snap the beans.	Wednesday was a normal day with me at work.  The children wanted to swim in the fish pool so Ina Sue worked for a while to get it all cleaned out nice and refilled with fresh water.  She also made bars and pies.  Three of the pies are for my sister Laura's wedding that is coming up.  For supper, spaghetti, and green beans.  I worked for a while after supper cutting out the speaker faceplates for in at work.
Heading to Virginia with Gordons.	We got up and hit the bean patch again on Thursday.  This was probably our peak picking.  I hurried off to work and Ina Sue got ready to go for her doctor appointment.  RuthAnne Bange very kindly brought her children with her and stayed here at the house to babysit and snap the beans we had picked.  So very nice of her!  Carolyn Heatwole also stopped by for a while and Mary dropped her children off too.  There was quite a crew here for a while.  We were happy to get about 15 quart of beans canned from this picking.  We had a grab & growl (misc. leftovers) supper then I went down and mowed the square for my exercise.
Having a muffin & banana for breakfast.	Friday was a very long day.  We got up at 6:00 and ate breakfast then got Carolina Sue all ready to head for Virginia.  Gordon Amstutzs were going up for a family reunion and consented to let her ride along to Grandmother's.  They left around 7:30.  We are already missing her.  Landon wanders around the house saying "Nina, Byebye"  Ina Sue housecleaned for much of the day.  I came home at 7:00 and we had a quick supper of sandwhiches then we all went over to Carl's to get milk.  Ended up staying until about 10:00.  Visiting and working on his computer.  After we came home and got Landon into bed I drove back in to work and worked until about 4:30am.
Our re-finished stereo cabinet	Thankfully, I was able to sleep in a little on Saturday.  Ina Sue very kindly picked most of the beans before I got up.  I went out and picked the last 2 rows while she made us breakfast.  We ended up with another 8 quarts canned.  That gives us a total of 36 quarts from this year and we had 23 left from before.  That puts us above what Ina Sue had wanted to get done so we are planning to give away any further bean harvests.  I drove over to Carl's and picked up his skid loader to help with some tasks I had lined up.  First I pushed out an old camelia tree that had died a year or so ago.  Then I worked at pushing out and cleaning up and old block hotbed that had been attached to the back corner of the house.  After it was cleaned out I dug numerous loads of sand and clay and mixed it with manure  to build up our beds around that part of the house.
Tearing up the old hotbed.	Ina Sue and I drove over and raked up a truck load of pine straw to mulch the new beds that I made.  It looks much better if I may say so myself...  For supper we had fresh corn-on-the-cob, tomato sandwiches, & homemade banana coconut ice-cream for dessert.  After supper I mowed for about 2 hours while Ina Sue did some house cleanup.  Tired but very happy for everything we got done.
Fresh sweet corn for supper.