Wet feet

We are having rain! Ever since we had that 4 year or longer drought I really don't complain about the rain. I like rain. I am glad to have the rain as we have a well, and during the drought time our neighbor behind us had his well run low. He had cattle too so you can imagine that was a tough situation.
I saw on the news where California was having really bad wildfires, and also over in Athens, Greece. To all of you I hope that you get the much needed rain to take care of it.
Here are a few pictures from a previous rainfall. I told hubby, and we really did look at enlarging our pond, that we need to do it soon. It is overflowing again! Last weekend we laid out string and chairs just trying to decide how we want it done. Now I wish we would have decided on something since our little baby fish might be washing downstream to the river!! By the way our little pond is man made, but we do have a dry creek on the property, and when we have a good rain storm water will run in it.
Happy wet feet!

Two years gone by

This time two years ago I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off. I was like every other mother when your daughter gets married. In order to save some money so they could have a nice honeymoon I volunteered to do the whole wedding. Crazy huh? I did all the flowers, food, added the extra touches to the wedding cake, and got everything done here at the house since they had an outdoor wedding. It was hot, but at least it didn't rain. Boy, what a day, but it was worth it.

Happy Anniversary Lori & Dustin!

Wring by hand

Hubby says that I love to wash clothes. If there is something lying around he tells me that I'll grab it and throw it into the wash. Well, that's not entirely true, I do make sure it is dirty first! I think that the part I like the best is to hang the laundry out on the line. I just love the way sheets smell after they dry or anything else for that matter. Like snuggling next to my hubby when he puts on a clean t-shirt! I do have a dryer, but that was inherited with the house, and it has seen it's last legs. It takes forever to dry. So I have been planning on buying a new one, but as long as the sun is shinning I can wait. My daughter has my old dryer which is as old as she is and the reason it has lasted so long is because of the clothesline.
This past weekend I did a load of wash. Hubby, I said, I think the washing machine is making a funny noise. I listened again yet the noise went away. Whew! So this morning I washed a load, threw in another load, went outside and hung out the first load. When I came back in I thought, that's strange, it sounds like the washer is washing and running water at the same time. Oh oh. I open the lid and peek inside. Oh boy......then I look on the floor, yep! My washer has finally died. Well, not really died, but it sure likes to run water. Water everywhere. Thank goodness it was a light load so it was easier to spin out, because that would have been a bummer wringing it all out by hand.
I called hubby. Look, our washing machine won't quit washing. Well, hubby says, that's because you just love doing laundry. No, I mean that the water keeps on running. Didn't we just buy a washing machine hubby asks? That was for Lori. Oh.
(She and her husband live in our old place up the hill so if anything goes wrong we fix it.)
Hubby tells me that they are suppose to have appliance rebate just like the car rebate. I get on line to check, but that isn't till late fall. I could stand over the washer and turn the water on and off. Nah, I'll have to do that anyway until I find one that I like and will meet our budget.
Hubby says, you might as well start looking as you'll go through laundry withdrawals. You can even get one that talks to you. HA HA, very funny.
I hate appliance shopping. So far this summer it has been two dishwashers, a washing machine, and the biggie (hold onto my heart cause here's the big one), an air conditioner/heating unit. The original washer/dryer set that I first bought that washer lasted 15 years and the dryer is still going. Then the next washer lasted 7 years and we had to replace it. This set that we are now going to have to replace is at least 15-20 years old.
Now tell me, why can't they make them like they use to??????

Giant windmills

One thing that we saw a lot of over in Germany were the windmills. They seem to be everywhere. Hubby and I have been talking for years about doing something similar, of course, nothing that huge! We also want to put solar panels on our home. I think that if we can do it, even though it would be expensive at first, that it would really be beneficial in the long run. Do any of you have solar panels or small windmills? Were these something that you built yourself or bought?

Saying goodbye to my southern cousins

The week that we stayed in southern Germany was wonderful. It was really the first time that I had seen it with grown up eyes. When I was there last was 13 years ago with my daughter, and before that well......let's just say when I was a child!!!!! This time going with my hubby was seeing it like you were a child again; wanting to explore and learn everything! What fun we had!!! It was hard saying goodbye to my aunt and all of my cousins. We are all getting old now, and these days one never knows what might happen or when we will see each other again in person. Yet with today's technology and phone calls no longer being so expensive at least we are all able to stay in touch, but not as often as we should. A few of my cousins have Skype now so we can see each other, and what fun we have doing it!
So, I thought that I would show my cousins from the south, because seeing family again even though we never grew up together was the most important reason for going.
My cousin Rebecca and one of her daughters who was just tickled to see someone from America!

My cousin Marina, who is just so sweet.

Carola and I played together quite often when we lived over in Germany for a little over a year.

And here is Cowboy, actually Carsten with me and my aunt is standing in the doorway.
He and my brother played together since they are close to the same age. Hubby nicknamed him Cowboy since he just loves country and western music! This was the day we left and he showed up all dressed up!! Well, of course we had to get several pictures of him!!

Even now just looking at these pictures brings tears to my eyes. They did so much for us the whole time we were there. So now we head up north as I have more cousins and an aunt and uncles to see.

"On the road again" (That's for you Carsten!)

The little town my aunt lives in

Last week was a busy week with hubby home. We worked on quite a few things around the house and in the garden. It seems that a good rain, plenty of sunshine, and my not being in the garden really helped the weeds to grow! The following day I was complaining of my lower back hurting so much, and it wasn't until I leaned over to pick something up that I realized it was from using the hoe!!!
So, since I did not do much posting last week I thought I would supply a lot of pictures from the little town that my aunt lives in. It is a wonderful little town nestled in the valley, and just big enough that not everyone knows your business, almost!! It certainly did not take them long to find out that she had a niece from America visiting!!
We will begin with a walk about from her house around a portion of the town. We did not have a lot of time as we were going to go to my cousin's house for supper.
This is a charming street, but only big enough for one car so you had to wait your turn.

These two boys were using nets to get something out of the water. I went up and asked them what they were doing, and they were getting buckeyes (is what they look like) or chestnuts out. There was several trees along the bank and the nuts would drop into the stream. Look at the statue/fountain behind him. If you click on the picture to enlarge you will see all the detail to it. That was quite interesting!

I loved the turret on this house. That was a little unusual to see.

I took a lot of pictures with wrought iron signs which I'll show in another post. This one was advertising a beer place I believe. It was a very ornate sign. I didn't realize until much later that I had captured the cat crossing the street too!

The center of town with another pretty fountain.

The bakery that my uncle would walk to for our fresh brotchen every morning. Yummmm!!!!

Another fountain on the street. They had a lot of fountains in this town.

Here are mums, pansies, and other flowers for sale.

Does anyone know what kind of tree this is? The red really stands out.

I love this table underneath the trees. I could enjoy a dinner out here with friends!

These people have such a pretty garden spot.

A little whimsy on the side.

Look at the huge heads of lettuce and the beautiful black dirt!

Now here I can sit and have my morning cup of tea and look at the garden.

This house is across from my aunt. The flowers are so pretty.

And here I am next to the stream and the gorgeous flowers.

There were many little villages such as this one in the Black Forest area. I would have loved to have visited more of them since they all have something just a little different. Well, maybe one day....guess I better start saving my pennies!!

Short trip to the coast

This week with hubby taking a break from work was to be a sort of fix around the house week. After seeing my last post he decided that we need to take a short trip to the coast, and one that is close to us is Myrtle Beach, S.C.. Roughly around 5-6 hours driving time for us. We have been there before, however, we like a more quiet beach, but that was definitely not the case! Nor were rooms that easy to be found, but we made the best of it.
Here are a couple of pictures from the coastline north of Myrtle Beach, and these places were mainly houses and condos with no hotels. Very nice if reservations were made months in advance and you could share with another couple to split the cost.

Here is a picture of Myrtle Beach early in the morning...

and a few hours later...Whoa! Where did they all come from?!!

We found a really cute place a few blocks off of the beach. They had taken a motel and turned it into a cute bed & breakfast inn. The owner is really nice. He told us his wife does the breakfast part and she did make a really nice omelet to go with the pastries. Of course coffee and all sorts of tea too.
Here are a few pictures of our room, and some from the outside too.

We were planning on heading up to the coast of North Carolina where we have been before and really liked it, and there is a little place that sold all kinds of super, super fresh seafood. We had two coolers packed in the trunk too. I had even wanted to head over to Raleigh, N.C. where Mary from Across the Pond lives and has mentioned one of her favorite places to go to SuzAnna's Antiques. I figure a 3 hour detour would not be too bad! A little antiques shopping is always fun, seafood in the trunk and shopping goodies in the back seat. What more could I ask for?!! However that was not to be.
My daughter called us Monday morning and said that we might want to come home. Our dog that we adopted earlier this year was in a bad way. We had found out that he was a lot older than we were told, but that's ok. Old dogs need love too! The bad thing though was the vet told us he had a tumor so he may live for a long while or a short while. By the time we made it home we knew we had to take him to the vet. He was a really sweet and loving dog, and I'm glad that in the short time we had him that he was able to have a safe, loving, warm home.

So, it's a little quiet around here now. The outside cat is getting brave again although they were becoming friends in the end. And for my seafood I guess it will be the grocery store again until we can find the time for another break. There is never enough time in the day is there?.....

Smell the salt air

Can you tell I have beach fever?!! Plus seafood from the grocery stores are just not the same as by the beach!! I guess I'll get hubby to do the South Carolina commercial for me (it is so funny!!) Find a static radio station and turn it up and down, spritz salt water on me, and have hubby make sea gull noises! Sigh....

The road to the cuckoo clock

The last time I was in Germany with my daughter I wanted to buy a cuckoo clock, but I never did. Now with hubby we were on a mission to find a cuckoo clock for us and one for my daughter and son-in-law.
Of course, my Tante told us several places in the Black Forest that sold the cuckoo clocks and one was a quaint town called Titisee. Here are some photos of our cuckoo clock adventure.
We came across this little town, but never did find the big cuckoo clock store here.

We had to park the car so I could get a better picture of this building. I just love the geraniums, such a unique color!

This was my favorite picture from here of the flowers.

The corner drugstore next to this pretty building.

A few garden photos along with a photo from a candy store.



This is Lake Titisee

Starting to get hungry looking at all of this good German bread!

Check out the table where we sat. The inside of the table was filled with coffee beans.

Is this not gorgeous?!

This wooden statue has been here forever!

The trees starting to show their fall colors

Hubby wanted a picture of the train station here

Here he is patiently waiting by the car

A stop on the way back to pick up some flowers for my Tante.

So, all of that, but no pictures of the cuckoo clocks! I totally forgot to take some!! However, if you are ever in the Black Forest area and want a cuckoo clock, this is a beautiful town to shop for one!