Monday, August 18th - it was a fairly productive long weekend

Conditions at 5:30 am: 16' and overcast
Expected later: a humid 21' that may feel more like 27' but with showers off and on

Our long weekend started off with great music! On Thursday,  Lloyd harvested some fresh veggies from our garden for supper  and made a delicious meat loaf to go along with them. We were just having supper  when Brenda called to advise that she was heading out to Poole's Corner for the regular Thursday night Kaylee. If we cared to come along, we were welcome to! So that's exactly what we did. Brenda picked us up a little before 7:30 and we headed to Montague area. The place was packed, and rightly so. We were treated to a great evenings entertainment: Fiddler's Sons and Meghan Blanchard. Can't beat that!

Our Friday dawned cloudy and threatening rain, so it was up early and get to work. I'd been wanting to empty out and defrost the upright freezer and today seemed like as good a time as any.  While I waited for it to thaw, I baked a batch of homemade bread. Now we have some in the freezer for company next weekend.

Saturday morning started out much better - sunny and dry. We started out with hot coffee and fresh baked biscuits sandwiched around crispy bacon, fresh cooked eggs and cheese out on the craft room balcony. It was a lovely morning and it's so peaceful up there. But we finally had to make ourselves get on with the day. Lloyd blocked some wood and I set about splitting it. We're slowly making our way through the pile of logs in the back yard. Unfortunately Lloyd was having some trouble with the chainsaw so I had to find something else to do. I jumped on the lawnmower and before I knew it the entire yard was cut.While I did that, he emptied the garage, to get ready to prep for the concrete floor.  Not a bad day's work. I had time to get showered and ready to serve at a wedding at the Rec Centre. We did well and I was home by 9:15.

Sunday morning we had planned to cut more wood but we needed something for the chainsaw.  I spent a bit of time cleaning up my craftroom. It took quite a beating during the installation of my new heat pump.  There were muddy footprints everywhere and things were moved all around. So a bit of time was required to put it back in order again.  A little after lunch Lloyd suggested that he had to go into town to pick up insulation for around the base of the garage before the floor goes in and it might also be a good opportunity to have an ice cream. After Home Hardware we stopped at Phinley's for cones.

It was the end of Old Home Week but we didn't take in any of the festivities this year. Lloyd was trying to catch up after being away for over a week. As the summer winds down, we appreciate how much work needs to be done before the snow flies!

We pulled some vegetables out of the garden. I picked a lot of the beans and put them in jars, with brine,

garlic, hot peppers and some dill. We'll check out the results in a few days. I also picked some zucchini. A few of them have gotten extremely large. We stuffed two of them with hot sausage stuffing and they made a very tasty dinner.  We'll have to investigate other ways to use giant squash!

Lloyd suggested that he'd found a replacement for a bat that James broke last week, when he hit the ball a little too hard!

One last thing - a belated happy birthday to Will Van Gaal, who's out on the road somewhere between here and Bakersfield, California! Hope it was a great one.