rain, rain, go away.

Good morning.
Finished up a busy week, came home to mow the yard, and it started to rain. When all was done a couple hours later we had this....

Look closely, and the float is just above the 3 inch mark. That's a lot of rain for a couple of hours!

And this is what our little creek looks like the morning after 3 inches of rain.

And when I took this pic this morning, the water had already receded a bit.
We've had rain forecast for nearly every day this last week, and it's still forecast for the next 4 days. Fortunately, it hasn't rained every day.
Good news, we get to finally pick up the mo-ho this morning!
So I get to wake Craig up early for a change.   :-)
And with that, time to get going.

mo-ho update and more yard pics

Good morning.
It's been another busy week in the Salon, and today is another one. We have Saturday off, due to a planned trip, but we had to cancel it because of the mo-ho, but was too late to open it up to bookings, so we decided since we couldn't go anywhere, we'd still take the day off. We did open up next Wed. and that day has filled up.
I finally heard from the Ford dealer about the mo-ho, and it was nearly finished yesterday. He said the have installed the transmission, and today they'll re-install the drive shaft, take it for a test run, and if all is good, call me this afternoon to say it's ready for pick-up, which we'll do Saturday, so I guess it's good we decided to take the day off.
And now, time to get ready for work, but here's a few more yard pics.....

A creek that runs along the lot line on the west side of the property. I've spent years hauling in rocks to build this nice dam and rapids.  The creek doesn't go in a straight line from front of the property to back, and during a very rainy June many years ago, a 6x12 ft section of the bank, (part of my yard) washed away. So I've spend a lot of time hauling in broken concrete and rocks to reinforce that area and slow down the water flow and thus slowing down the erosion. There's approximately an 8 ft drop from the front of the yard to the back, and the creek has dug several ft deeper over the 28 years we've lived here. But my little dam and rapids has helped a lot!

In the front yard, over toward the side I have a large planting area fronted with Stella D'oro day-lilies which are just coming into full bloom. And yes, that's a nice grouping of milkweed just behind and to the right of the ornamental grass. I didn't plant them, but a few years ago, tore out an unwanted shrub there, and a few popped up there the next spring, so I left them for the Monarch butterflies and each year, they've filled in more. It now looks like a real nice group of plants. And as you know, Monarchs only lay their eggs on Milkweed plants, so I'm helping to propagate the species.   :-)

And some more ornamental grasses around the front tree and at the ends of the driveway.
Now I'm off to get ready for work....

weekend update

Good morning.
It was a fairly nice weekend, although not much was accomplished.
We've had unpredictable weather systems, that have threatened rain every day, and will continue throughout the rest of this week.  I have managed to do more weeding and deadheading, and the yard is looking nice.
I lost my internet Friday after I came home from work, and after an hour of tech support, they decided to send someone out first thing Monday.
Why does everything happen on a Friday afternoon and then have to wait until Monday to get it resolved?
Anyway, for some reason, it came back Friday evening, worked all weekend, so I cancelled the call.

Craig has been a real trooped concerning his diet and lifestyle since he got the news he's pre-diabetic. He's eating several small meals a day instead of his mainly big one at dinner. And 4-5 times a week, he's either exercising to videos I downloaded or taking brisk 20 minute walks when weather permits. He's even cut back on his evening cocktails. 

Oh, and if your looking for some easy low impact cardio exercises, HASfit is the place to look.

His other doctor was just letting him slide. All she wanted was the money from his every 2 months visit.

Even with Craig's sugar issue, his new doctor has ordered tests for 5 weeks, and if the results are good, doesn't need to see him for 3 months.

In other news......

No mo-ho update. Haven't heard from the dealer yet this week. Maybe today or tomorrow. Doesn't really matter, we have no trips scheduled until August now.  :-(

I just want the mo-ho back here so I can work on him. He needs waxing and I need to get on the roof and check all the caulking. And I just miss him.

And now, time for another busy work week, but first, I leave you with a few more yard pics.....

Various Hostas around the yard.

sunday post

Good morning.
I've just returned from cleaning the Salon.
It was a very busy week in the Salon.
I called Friday for an update on our Mo-ho. They have the transmission, and it's scheduled to be installed Monday or Tuesday. 
We have another busy work week coming up, so it looks like we won't be able to pick it up until Saturday afternoon. If it's done by then.
So it's a good thing we cancelled our upcoming trips. We'll just stay home for the 4th.
Anyway, here's a few current pics of the yard I took this morning.....

There's a chance of rain today, so I won't be sealing the driveway as I had hoped. It's a good thing since one of the buckets of sealer is oozing out some watery like stuff from the lip that smells rancid! And the top is bloated looking. I think it's gone bad or something, so I'm taking it back to exchange. I don't want to risk trying to open it and have it burst or something.
Anyway, that's all I got for now....

busy work week

Good morning.
It's been a busy week in the Salon, and today and tomorrow are booked also.
I haven't heard from Brighton Ford yet on the status of our Mo-ho. I thought I would yesterday, as he said last Friday, they would have it done this week. So if I don't hear from him this morning, I'll call this afternoon. If it's not done until tomorrow, I won't be able to pick it up until Monday, as I work later than they're open tomorrow.  Not really a big deal, since we cancelled a couple of our next trips, we won't be going anywhere for awhile.
Anyway, the weather has been nice and looks to be a hot weekend.
And with that, a few more yard pics....

A couple of paths in my shade area, one pine needle mulch, and one brick.
Have a great weekend!

asphalt, gardens and diabeties

Good morning.
It was a very nice weekend.
I edged the front and back sidewalk, and edged the driveway. I also filled the cracks in the driveway, in preparation for sealing hopefully next weekend.
We have an asphalt driveway, that probably should have been replaced a few years ago, but I keep nursing it along, trying to get a few more years out of it. I went through 3 gallons of crack filler, and I probably could have used another one. Yes, my driveway has more cracks than solid surface.   :-)
But when I seal all the cracks and then seal the driveway, it real looks pretty good!
So I'll keep at it.

 Here's the worst part of it. I know, it's pretty bad.

Now this end looks pretty good!
And just wait until I seal the driveway. I'll take a pic, and really, it'll look good!
And also, here's pics of the 3 flower beds I downsized....

There area to the left of the path was all flowers. Now it's a nice border flower bed.

The area behind the house is almost half the width it was.

And this flower bed, if you look closely is about 1/3 thinner.The darker grass is newer grass.
So, I still have all the flower beds, just less of them. And it has really helped with the weeding.
And Craig has been to the doctor yesterday, and has been diagnosed as pre-diabetic. Soooo, that means some dietary changes and lifestyle changes if he wants to stay off medication. I think the doctor got the message across. We'll see how he does.
And it's time to get ready for another work week which is looking busy. And that's good. I've got a mo-ho transmission to pay for!

a little yard work

Good morning.
I was able to get out in the yard yesterday. We had rain during the night, just over 1/2 an inch, but it ended by morning.

It's been a wet spring here in Lansing, as our normal rainfall for the entire month of June is 3.6 inches and we've already received 4.45 inches.

And that's on top of Aprils 7.6 inches of rain compared to a normal April of 3.1 inches

The national weather service is saying we are having or 5th wettest spring on record. I believe it!

Anyway, Craig and I spent the biggest part of the day burning.  I cut some dead branches out of the crab apple, trimmed up bushes and trees, and burned up all the branches from last fall that we couldn't because of last years dry summer. And I've been tackling weeds as the rain sure has made them grow!

This morning, I edged the driveway and sidewalks and swept off the paved paths in the shade garden area. 

And here's a few more yard pics.....

dwarf hostas around the tree,

white Penstrum, Star of Persia, and a little red rose.

Sky blue Siberian Iris.

water lilies in the pond.

dwarf cattails in front, and purple Cranesbil on each side of the waterfall.

pale lavender clematis on the back of the arbor.

Giant hosta, "Blue Angel".

And today, our usual running, and later I'll start prepping the driveway so I can hopefully seal it next week.
Now time to go.   :-)

mo-ho update

Good morning.
It was a crazy busy week in the Salon, and that's good because I have a mo-ho update.
Brighton Ford called Friday and informed me the transmission was shot.
I had 2 options.
They could pull the transmission, find how ever many parts failed, order new parts and rebuild the transmission. Or they could pull the transmission and replace it with a re-manufactured one, which would also come with a 3 year warranty.
The first choice would cost somewhere  between $1500 and $2500, depending on the number of parts that they find that need to be replaced.
The second would cost $4000.
Since my mo-ho only has 46000 miles, the transmission shouldn't have failed to begin with, so I ask, "if you re-build the transmission, what promise do I have that other parts won't eventually fail, since apparently, it's a crappy transmission to begin with".
He said he wouldn't be able to promise anything, and that's why he recommended a re-manufactured one.
So despite the added expense, we decided to go with his recommendation.
And because of the unexpected cost, and the persistently high gas prices here in Michigan, we've decided to cancel our other 2 long trips we had planned, which was to Starved Rock in Illinois, and Pictured Rocks in the UP.
So now, I'll have more time to spend in the yard.
And speaking of the yard.....

The ground cover is filling in nicely around the fountain.

And the herbaceous Peonies are in bloom.

So, Our RV trip schedule has been whittled down a bit, and we'll stay home the rest of June, but hopefully, we'll find something closer to home for the July trip, and the rest of the season's trips are fairly short, so we plan to keep them right now.
Brighton Ford said they may be able to get the mo-ho done sometime next week. Since it looks to be a busy week in the Salon  next week, it may be the following week before we get it back.
We'll see how it goes.....

Hocking Hills State Park. Trip #3

Good afternoon.
I'm unable to work in the yard, since it's raining today, so I figured it was a good time to do my trip post..
Our 3rd trip of the season took us to the far southeastern reaches of Ohio to Hocking Hills State Park. This is no place for a motor home like ours. Although we did see several other gas mo-hos in the campground, the hills around the park are steep and very curvy. I didn't think we were going to make it up the last hill before reaching the campground. Even the campground was a hill climber, as it sits atop a ridge.

But we arrived, got set up, and enjoyed our stay.
We left Saturday morning instead of Friday afternoon, as it was to be a nearly 7 hour drive, including a few rest stops. 
Even though we had a large site, it was mostly unusable due to the steep banks. But like I said, the campground was sprawled across the top of a hill.
We spent the rest of the afternoon pouring over the park maps, deciding what to see first and so on.
The park has 6 distinctive areas. On Sunday, we ended up hiking the following....
Old Man's Cave,
Ash Cave,
Cedar Falls,
and Conkles Hollow.
We would have liked to have seen the other 2, but that was all we could muster hiking for one day, and it rained the most part of Monday. But we saw a lot, and it was really cool.
Here's just a few of the many pics we took.

And of course, it looks much more impressive in person than in pics.
And if you want to see the rest, they're over here, of course.
And being out in the "wilderness" there was no wi-fi or even cell phone service. And I think we were able to pic up only 2-3 TV stations. But we did just fine disconnected from the world. I had my laptop, Craig had his tablet and we had DVDs.  :-)
It was a very enjoyable trip. I wish we would have taken an extra day to see more.
Hocking Hills is one of Ohio's most popular parks and it was easy to see why. So much rugged beauty.
Unfortunately, the trip didn't end well as you know from my previous post. I don't know if all the steep hills were a factor, but we'll deal with it and move on. Hopefully, we won't have to alter any upcoming trips, but until I hear from the repair shop, I won't know.
And now back to work for a short week since we took Wednesday off, but its going to be crazy busy!

back home safe.....kind of...

Good evening.
Yes, my absence means we've just returned from another RV trip.
Much later than planned.
This trip took us to Hocking Hills State Park in south eastern Ohio.
We made it there safe and back safe.   :-)
Unfortunately....
The mo-ho didn't make it back.  :-(
He gave it his all, but could only get us to Brighton MI.  About an hour east of Lansing. We had to finish in our Kia.
First, the overdrive went out, then, at a rest stop, I put it in drive, and we just sat there. I put it in 2nd, and it moved, so then I tried drive and it took, so I said, no more stops, let's just get back to Lansing.
It wasn't to be.  I got back on the highway, and could only muster 2nd gear. It wouldn't auto shift to 3rd.  We couldn't drive home on the highway in 2nd, so we pulled off to find a parking lot to call a tow truck. We got to an intersection, and when the light changed, we didn't move. Not in drive, not in 2nd, not in reverse, nothing. We were dead in the intersection.
I called my Good Sam's Road Service, and when they found out I was in traffic, told me to call 911 as they could get a tow truck there quicker.
Long story shorter, our mo-ho sits at Brighton Ford, waiting to see exactly what's wrong. They said they wouldn't be able to get to it for a few days.
I'm not thinking it's going to be good.   :-(
I'm also thinking the $315 tow bill will be cheap, since it sounds like a transmission issue.
I'll keep you informed.
:-(

more flowers

Good morning.
It's been a fairly slow week in the Salon, but I do have a busy day today.  With the extra time, I did go to a couple supply places to stock up on things like tp, coffee supplies and cleaning supplies.
And here's some more things blooming right now in the yard...

A white Siberian Iris.

little purple Cranesbil.

Clematis.

Purple Siberian Iris and father back, yellow Swamp Iris

And a standard Iris.

And with nothing else to say, time for another work day.