Red Flannel Warm

Welcome to the underwear capital of the world. We like our underwear so much we throw a party in it’s honor every October. This was the 70th time this celebration has been thrown and it was fabulous- even with a bit of rain. My kids loved the festivities and especially the food. Take a stroll down Main Street and stop in to a booth for an elephant ear. There is nothing quite as welcoming as a small town festival. It is Red Flannel Day- enjoy and stay warm.

 

 

Abbi and her friend Kaitlyn chow on some pizza.

 

Folks are milling about before the parade.

 

Lining up to watch the parade.

 

Everyone had to be prepared for the elements but the Rotary Chicken didn’t seem to mind.

Caelun was all about the elephant ears.

Some of the tents on Cherry Street.

These hang as a welcome on Main Street all year long.

Soaring at 70 was this year’s theme.

 

Some of the famous drop seaters for sale.

 

Look even the trees are wearing red.

Fireworks.

Of course we had to end the day with red flannel jammies.

A Bountiful Harvest

Both Clint and I are avid gardeners. Ever year our vegetable garden gets one rotatiller width wider. This is a quick tour from mid season to just about the end. We grew: tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet corn, peppers, egg plant, green beans,onions, potatoes, summer squash, zucchini, cantaloupe, pumpkins, acorn squash, butter nut squash, carrots, beets, sun flowers for fun, and a variety of herbs. We have added some dwarf fruit trees and you saw the berries in the earlier summer post. I planted okra in the flower garden this year and the bunnies chowed it down. Considering that was pretty much the only casualty we feel like we did pretty well. We still have the beets, winter squashes, and carrots to harvest. The freezer, and pantry are pretty much full. We feel very satisfied with the garden this year.

This was early season. The lone corn stalk was a carry over and we let it be. “Volunteers” as my dad would call them. We got some corn off of it.

Mid-season and the sunflowers in the middle were also “volunteers” from last year.

Look at those sunflowers now! Of course the tomato plants are bigger than Caelun.

 

   

All of the ingredients for spaghetti sauce.

  

        The bushy plants toward the back by the tree are potatoes. We plant them in between the daylilies along the road in front of our house.

Broccoli

  

The first plums off our dwarf plum tree.

 

Cauliflower

Cabbage

 

Sweet peppers

Lots of tomatoes

 

Egg plant

Look at those sunflowers!

 

Mid- late summer

 

We had one hill and ended up with 3 good sized pumpkins.

 

Making “sun dried” tomatoes in the dehydrator. 

We were astounded at our dwarf peach tree.

I couldn’t believe the first year we got almost a half bushel of peaches.

Summer Vacation 2009 Part VII-Last stop before home- Columbus, OH

We came back to MI through Columbus OH. For those who don’t know I have four older brothers. They were 17,19, 20, and 21 when I was born. My oldest brother Jim, has four children of his own. Three of those four now live in Columbus OH- my nephew Chris and his family, my niece Deanna and her family, and my niece Shelly. We stopped in to see them and all took our kids for ice-cream at Culvers. I posted almost every picture I took – even if they weren’t very good-for all the family that doesn’t get to see them much.

  

Chris, Ethan, Betsy, Deanna, and Ben

My goofy girls

Chris and Betsy’s boys-

David is a good big brother pushing Ethan in his stroller.

  

Look at that grin.

 

 

More pictures of Chris and Betsy’s boys  Andrew and Ethan

Deanna and Jeff’s boy- Ben

such a serious look

Look at Ben eyeing his mommy’s ice-cream

Love those ice-cream faces

My little mug-whump  as my Grandma Medford would have called him.

Gosh Chris looks like my brother Jim

 

Bring on the joy!

Shelly and I the next morning. She is one of the few full grown people in the world who can make me look big.

Abbi and Caelun on the way home