Boo Hoo,

this wonderful holiday weekend is over. The weather was absolutely beautiful. Friday when DH came home from work, he decided that the pond wasn't going to clear up and needed to be drained and cleaned. Although I knew that he was right, it's so much work for him and takes a lot of water to refill it. So just after dinner he started to drain the water into the canoe we unhappily inherited when his brother died. Soon he was ankle-deep in crud, and knee deep in water trying to catch fish in a skimmer net. He quickly discovered it was faster to catch them by hand. It was pretty close to being dark when he finished cleaning the pond and starting to refill it. The fish stayed in the canoe overnight, and he filtered the water overnight.

Saturday morning we just sort of had a lazy breakfast, and talked about our plans for the rest of the weekend. Late Friday evening we had decided to have a family cookout on Saturday. Rod took the grocery list and headed for the local butcher shop while I showered. We did just a simple and easy meal plan. Burgers, Paul's homemade sweet sausage, and his homemade smoked kielbassa. Chips and the fixings completed our menu. Then after lunch we headed for Bubby's baseball game at Miracle Field. The game ended in a tie, as always since every kid gets to bat until they get a hit, and nobody is ever out. Every child scores a run, and a homerun ends each of the innings by emptying the bases. After the game, we headed home and Rod pumped the water from the canoe into the pond, and started to catch the fish to return them to their newly cleaned home. He finished before the kids arrived, emptied the canoe and flipped it over (I have two granddaughters who looovee to play in water). The twins arrived first and started to make the burgers. Mary arrived next with fruit salad and dessert, an assortment of cheesecake from Costco, and Kristin arrived with beverages. George had brought a "hard cider" which I thought was pretty good. We had decided to bring my mom out, and the twins surprised her by showing up since she hadn't answered her phone. We all had a wonderful time, and watched the kids play in the yard before everyone headed home to watch the hockey game. Yeah Pens!!

Sunday AM, Rod left early to pick up a truckload of landscape timbers at our local Home Depot. We needed 50, they had only 12 and they were in horrible shape. So, he headed for Cranberry (about 15 miles away) and found them there. Today's project was to built raised boxes at the end of the back deck. We have one on the side that is my herb garden. Due to our age and the cost of water, we have decided to plant a small garden in these new boxes instead of doing the large garden that we have done in the past. I worked on my Disney blocks and buttonholed the 10 that were done. I used the invisible thread with a light creme bottom thread from Superior Threads, and they look pretty good. I also started 8 new blocks. It was really warm, and so we borrowed Pat's truck and headed to the hardware store for bolts and then to the garden center for a truckload of mushroom compost. Rod waited until the sun had moved to the other side of the deck before he started working on the boxes. We ordered pizza for dinner, and had a campfire with Mary's family in the evening. The first s'mores of the summer and mmm they were good. Mom was taken to the emergency room after a nosebleed. It was her second of the day and she had a headache, so they had her checked out just to be sure. All tests were negative, and she was taken back to the home. Rod took a couple of Aleve and we headed to bed.

Monday, Rod finished the second box and we made another trip to the garden center for another truckload of compost. He picked up the few plants we had decided to buy and also two hanging strawberry baskets. His sister Kathy was celebrating her 60th birthday at a party given by her girls, and we decideded of the baskets would be a great gift for her. The second was for us, and they already had strawberries on them. We gave the one with the ripe berries to Kathy and she was tickled. After the party, we came home and planted our mini garden of 9 tomato plants, 6 hills of golden zucchini and one pack each of green and yellow string beans. We weeded the herb bed and planted the basil plant we bought. We discovered that the sage had died, so we need to replace it. It was a beautiful evening to sit on the deck and relax, and that's just what we did! I sat and marveled out loud about how when we moved in here the only back porch was two concrete blocks. That started a "Remember This" session for us which covered all 34 years. It started with the first garden tractor we bought used, on through the snowstorm when I got stuck in the snow trying to get to the house while I was verry pregnant, and up to watching the kids catch lightening bugs. It was a perfect ending to a great weekend, and I hope there's a lot more like this.