Hostas and stuff

Good morning from a cool Lansing. Currently 56 with a high today of only 60 with scattered showers. But it's looking good for the big 4th of July weekend! Mid to upper 70's!
Yesterday Craig finished with weeding the rock garden and made a batch of Freezer Slaw. It's a type of coleslaw, but with a vinegar/sugar base instead of a creamy base.
I finally cleaned the last bike wheel, they all look so shiny now. Sorted pots that people have been dropping off for next years plant sale, cleaned leaves and such from the mo-ho gutters, washed the mo-ho, and waxed the front and part of one side. Waxing the front a lot sure helps with removing the bug guts from trips.
And we almost bought an ice maker for the mo-ho. They had a portable one on sale at Target for $109.00 Way cheaper than the $169 we've seen it elsewhere. We had it in the cart and on our way to the cashier, when we turned around and put it back. Just didn't feel we could justify the cost for just a dozen trips or so a year. And we have an ice maker at home, so I just bag up some ahead of time to take with us.
But now on to the Hostas!

A group of dwarf Hostas,
3 types of Hostas around a tree.

A Hosta called 'Stained Glass'.
The leaves on this one curl and pucker.

These 2 have very light leaf color. Look real good in the shade!

Another dwarf Hosta, blue with a nearly white edge.

And a group of 'Blue Angel' Hostas. These are giant Hostas, getting nearly 4ft tall and 5ft wide.

I have some 40 to 50 Hostas. You can see the rest in my webshot album.

flowers, flowers, flowers

The weather has been great! And with that, more work in the yard. Craig weeded the rock garden and did laundry, including the sheets in the mo-ho while I cleaned the inside of the mo-ho and fixed the exhaust fan in the mo-ho kitchen. Also did some weeding and deadheading in the garden. And we cooked a Turkey Breast on the grill, and Craig made his wonderful Potato Salad.
And as promised, more flowers!

Above, I have no idea what this is, but isn't quite unusual? And below, a Cranesbil called Splish Splash. It has a bi-color flower where each one is different.

And above. a variety of Coreopsis. And below, one of my 50 or so Daylilies.

And below, Knautia floating above and around other perennials.

And tomorrow, a Hosta post!

My sister in law post

Okay, here's the pics of of me and my sister in law Lori in my Salon.

She use to spend $80 for a haircut and color in Grand Rapids. I told her I could send her the color for a fraction of the price and she could do it herself. But with Lansing only about an hours drive, she thought it'd be fun to come here and have me do it, and I agreed!

Lori is the wife of my youngest brother Bruce. The only sibling with a college degree. He is one smart cookie! And since we never seem to find time to get together, it's nice to see Lori and catch up on things. And she's fun to do. Always wants to try new stuff with her hair cut and color.
And she had me sit in the chair so she could 'hide' behind me. She thinks pics make her look fat. Umm Lori, there's a mirror right behind you. hehehe, no place to hide! But seriously, these pics make 'me' look fat! The way my shirt billows over my pants. But who cares? I don't. hehehe

Clematis, Tree Peony, and Candy Cane Rose

Good morning from a warm Mid Michigan! There weather is great! mid 80's. Not that I'm getting to enjoy it though. I worked 10 hrs yesterday, 11 1/2 hrs on Thursday, and am working again today. Though I should be out around 3pm. And those long hrs are do to the long weekend we took off last week, so now it's catch up time. And that's okay. Always need the money!
I was going to post a pic of my sister in law Lori. She comes from the Grand Rapids area for me to do her hair. She wanted some pics taken to show her girl friends and promised me to e-mail me copies for my blog. But apparently she's a little slow getting them to me, so here's more of what's blooming in the yard instead.

Clematis on the arbor by the pond.
Candy Cane shrub rose. Every flower looks unique!

A Blue Clematis.
And a late Tree Peony.

More flower pics this weekend!

funny friday

Before we get to our ff, first a pic I thought was interesting.

This is a vending machine that was in our campground and it sells live fish bait. Now I wonder, just how long does this live bait live in there? Does the same company that stocks the soda and candy machines stock this too? Anyway, on to our ff........

SUCCESS:
At age 4 success is . . . not piddling in your pants.

At age 12 success is . . . having friends.

At age 17 success is . . . having a drivers license
.
At age 35 success is . . . having money.
At age 50 success is . . . having money.

At age 70 success is . . . having a drivers license.

At age 75 success is . . . having friends.

At age 80 success is . . . . not piddling in your pants.

do you see a trend here? ;-)

Have a great weekend!

Ummmm food!

This is a food post so be careful, you might get hungry!
On out trips, we tend to eat lunch out, and dinner at the mo-ho. Cheaper that way.
So this trip was no different. We try to find interesting places with out door seating. Summer is to short to be inside.




We stopped at this little Mexican Restaurant on Sunday for these tasty treats!

And on Monday we hit a nearby town of Lake city. Below is an appetizer called Frickles. A Dill Pickle wrapped with ham and Swiss cheese and breaded and deep fried. Yummy!

And of course, my favorite, wings! These were breaded and soaked with hot sauce. Wonderful!

So now you know. We travel to eat!

Mitchell State Park

As I said yesterday, we stayed at Mitchell State park. Here's our campsite.

This pic was suppose to be me on my bike. Do you see a bike? I don't think Craig can aim a camera sometimes, that's why I take most of our pics.

And see the look on Craig's face? He hates having his pic took, so I have to be sneaky. Hehe

The restaurant was over looking Lake Cadillac. The area was very nice. And just over the railing we could see little fish clearing a space in the sand for their nest. They would swish their tail over the gravel to clear the area. We saw numerous little fish doing this.
The campground was busy, but not packed. We did have a group take the 2 spots next to us, and they weren't good neighbors. Had a radio playing the entire time they were there. All day every day. Even when they were gone from their site. And there was nothing to block the view or noise. These pull thru site were quite long and they had a pop-up next to us, but it was back by our car so their little 'party' was right there in front of us. If we would have been staying longer, we would have moved to a different site. But we weren't at our site that much fortunately.

And more of our trip tomorrow!

We're back!

Good morning! Sorry for the lack of posts, but we've just returned from a long weekend trip. The destination this time was Mitchell State Park near Cadillac MI. I don't post much about upcoming trips before hand, because Craig's a bit paranoid. He thinks there could be some weirdo reading my blog, and just waiting to see when were going to be gone, so they can break in to our house and clean us out. I suppose that's possible. I have a lot of anonymous readers. And it doesn't hurt to error on the safe side.
But about our trip.....
Except for a deluge of rain on Friday night that left many campsites under water, (I'm sooo glad we don't tent any more!) the weather was the best! Sunny and mid 80's every day! And like most Michigan State Parks, they pack you in like sardines. They must want as many people as possible to be able to use the parks. It was a nice park though, sitting right between, Lake Cadillac, and Lake Mitchell. Very popular with boaters and fisherman, though we don't fish or have a boat. But we did bike every day, exploring the area, and ate at several nice restaurants. And as we've heard from many people, digital TV sucks! When we had analog, we could get many stations where ever we went. But now with digital, we're lucky we get 1-4 stations. At home, it's a different story. With a high rooftop antenna, we LOVE digital, but with the mo-ho antenna, we're not high enough to get the digital signals which don't travel as far as analog. Do any of my full timer readers have this problem?
Any way, more about our trip with pics when I have some more time.

funny friday

A modern fairy tale......
Once upon a time, a guy asked a girl 'Will you marry me?'
The girl said, 'NO!'
And the guy lived happily ever after and rode motorcycles and went fishing and hunting and played golf a lot and drank beer and scotch and had tons of money in the bank and left the toilet seat up and farted whenever he wanted.
The End.

Have a great weekend!

Trollius, Siberian, Astrantia, and Lupine

Good morning from a rainy Mid Michigan. This is perfect! Beautiful weather the 3 days I had off, and now back to work with rain. Yesterday, I did manage to polish another bike wheel, and the other 2 mo-ho tires. Craig mowed the yard, and I sprayed the paths for weeds.
And here's more of what's flowering in the gardens.....

A beautiful Trollius chinensis above. I almost didn't buy this because of the soil requirements, but it seems quite happy and flourishing where I planted it.

Above and below, 2 Siberian Iris

Above, Astrantia just starting to bloom, and below a purple/yellow bi-color Lupine. I thought I'd lost this plant. It was in front of a Tree Peony and didn't come back last year. But I noticed a new one self seeded about 2 ft from the original, and this year has exploded with growth.
And the next 2 days are very busy in the Salon. So see you Friday!

They're a Shinin!

Good morning from a beautiful Lansing, MI. Yes! Summer has arrived! Finally! Temps well into the 70's. And have I been busy! Since we got back into biking, I decided I needed to clean them up good. Now we've had these bikes for probably 20 years or more. And they've been hanging in the back of the garage unused, for at least several years. And although mechanically they are in great shape, they don't look so good. But after washing them down good, I've started on the wheels. As you can see in the first pic, there is a lot of surface rust.

I used a chrome cleaner and polish, and with a lot of elbow grease, got it shining like new!

But I did just one wheel yesterday, as my fingers started to cramp up, so maybe I do another wheel today.
I also managed to polish 2 of the mo-ho wheels, and I did get the PT Cruiser washed, waxed, and the inside looking good as new. And that was a job! Living near the Airport, you get all this gunk on your cars surface. It took nearly an hour with a bug and tar remover to get most of it off, but it sure looks good right now!

And for dinner, I cooked a Turkey Breast on the grill, and had Corn on the Cob, and Stove Top Stuffing.

busy, busy

After cleaning the salon this morning, I decided to wash the entire motor home. Then wax one side and the front. Wash all the windows, inside and out, checked the tire pressure on the mo-ho, the car, and the car kaddy, and checked the water level on the house batteries. All in getting ready for our next mo-ho trip. Craig did his usual bookkeeping and laundry. And Craig is fixing a special dinner for this evening, Meatloaf! He makes some great Meatloaf! With Scalloped Potatoes, and Broccoli.
And tomorrow, I plan on waxing the PT Cruiser, and giving him a good interior cleaning.

Saturday

Well, here you have it. My old water heater,

And my new, very expensive, water heater.

And this is a piece of pipe taken off where the house turn off valve is. This is unbelievable calcium build up. The plumber couldn't believe it. Thankfully it was only on this one section of pipe, which is cast iron. The rest of our pipes are copper and they were completely clear. But they have to use cast iron as the connection between the meter and the copper. And apparently the cast iron attracts the calcium in the water. But I'm still surprised we have that much calcium in city water.

Anyway, that's done.

In other news....

It's been very busy at work which is good, and this weekend I hope to get a vehicle waxed. The yard looks great and I can coast with that for a while. I'll have more pics as the flowers bloom.

Oh, and Craig's making Tacos for dinner! Yum!

funny friday

There seems to be a pattern here..........
.
2007 - Chinese year of the Chicken - Bird Flu Pandemic devastates parts of Asia
.
2008 - Chinese year of the Horse - Equine Influenza decimates Australian racing
.
2009 - Chinese year of the Pig - Swine Flu Pandemic kills hundreds of pigs & sickens 1000's humans around the globe.
.
Has any one else noticed this?
It gets worse........
next year......
2010 - Chinese year of the Cock - what could possibly go wrong?
.
hmmmmmmmmmmmm

Have a great weekend!

plumbing emergency

It has not been a good morning.
I got up at my usual 5-5:30am time, and was sitting at the dining room table doing bookwork, when I heard water trickling. It was coming from a large closet next to the dining room. Are house sits on a cement slab, so the furnace and water heater are in this large closet. Well, the water heater was leaking! Thank goodnes there is a drain in the room! So I turned the burner off, and tried to turn the water supply off, but no good. It just spun and wouldn't stop the water. So I had to turn off the whole house. I thought, well, we can use the mo-ho for showers. So I turned the water back on and hooked the hose to the mo-ho, and filled the fresh water tank. And also turned on the mo-ho water heater. Then turned the house water off, rolled up the hose, and checked the mo-ho water to make sure the heater was working and it was. We have a pump the keeps the mo-ho water system pressurized, and about 15 sec after I turned the water off, the pump came on for a few seconds and switched off. It did it again, and again. You know what that means, a leak! So I looked under the sinks and saw nothing, went out side and opened the water access door, and the outside faucet was dribbling. Whew! I found it! just needed to turn the handles a little tighter. and when I did, the right one broke right off spewing water all over me! I ran inside to turn off the pump. I assessed the situation. I needed to replace the faucet. It was now nearly 7am, and I had to be to work at 8:30. So off I ran to Home Depot to get another faucet. Got home and disassembled the old, and put in the new, and then turned on the pump. It pressurized, turned off, and stayed off. Yay! But now I needed to shower and get Craig up and get to work. I woke him up and said, 'I've got bad news, and good news, and then more bad news, but also more good news'. He was not amused. But I explained, better to have the water heater go out while we're home than on a camping trip. And better for the outside faucet to break at home than on a camping trip. So after I got to work, I called a plumber and tried to schedule a replacement. We ended up doing it this afternoon, as they were completely book for tomorrow, and I didn't want to wait till next Monday. I had to move a few customers, but all were very understanding when I told them I had a 'plumbing emergency'. That's why I'm here writing this now. They are currently working on the replacement. Hopefully they'll be done in the time frame quoted, as I need to go back to work.
This is not another bill we needed right now. But then, is there ever a 'good' time?

ps, here's an update.
They get the water heater installed, and asked me to turn the water back on to check for leaks. All of a sudden, the handle just spins. It's broke and now also needs to be replaced. ouch!

pretty pics and a rant

And more pics of my yard. First up my Sedum garden between the path and the pond. Sedum loves the heat and dry soil. I have about a dozen different varieties planted here.

A Red Wiegelia behind a White Potentilla, and below, next to a Blue Cranesbil and Pink Dianthus.

And this was the project I worked on this morning. I edged the sidewalk, and trimmed back the bushes. We have Little Princess Spirea in front of the house with Blue Cadet Hostas, another variegated Hosta, and a couple of ornamental Grasses.

We also took the mo-ho in for repairs. We still don't have tail lights, and traced it to the mo-ho wiring. And since I'm not very good with that stuff, we took it to Dennis RV, where they've been very reasonable in the past.

In other news.........

Our health insurance went up $71.00 a month each! We are now paying for the both of us $986.00 a month for heath insurance! When will the madness stop! I think we should just cancel it and take our chances. Just put the money in the bank. But Craig thinks as soon as we cancel it, something will happen.
I'm thinking, a THOUSAND DOLLARS A MONTH? And we don't even have Dental, Vision, or Prescription! I don't know, I feel we are insured to death! House ins. life ins. health ins. car ins. It doesn't end!

Am I the only one who feels this way?

Peonies

As promised, some more flower pics...... All different varieties of Peony.

I love Peonies!

And in other news, I cleaned the salon this morning, since I couldn't do it yesterday. I also took the truck in for what I thought would be a new muffler. It was making a very throaty noise. Turned out, it was just a bad gasket between two brackets. $86.00 later I was good to go. And while Craig does his bookwork, and laundry, I'll clean out the mo-ho from the last trip, and get it ready for it's next one.

A success!

The plant sale is over!

Here's some pics from the sale. I started out with 340 plants.

Craig took this pic of cars parking across the street. There's no parking allowed on the street. See our mo-ho there too?

As Craig went to take pics of the crowd, the camera wouldn't turn on. Battery was dead. So by time he got it recharged, the sale was over. 300 plants in 40 minutes! Grand total.........$1002.00! Better than last year with fewer plants! But I did have larger divisions, so priced them a little more. But still nothing over $5.

And I'm completely exhausted form all the preparation, but it was well worth it. People gushed over the yard, and loved the selection and organization.

And here's all that's left. 33 plants. I was surprised at some of them. I'm going to plant some back in the yard, and put the rest out by the mailbox with a free sign.

I'm glad it's over. It really consumed most of my extra time.

But now the yard looks good for the summer, we have some extra gas money for the mo-ho, and we can play the rest of the season.

And I'll have more pics of the yard tomorrow.