Ed was on the roof today adding a gutter shield so this fall the leaves will slide right over our gutters (hopefully.)

John Deere rides

Don't worry, Ed is Mr Safety.  The grandkids all love riding on the Deere with grandpa

Enjoying the lake with friends and fam

Brian and Maria, grandpa Ed and Maria and Ben and Maria with Eric, who has a neat haircut.

garden glory

Ben and me shown in front of the killer tomato plants and corn which is 7 feet now!  Hope the coons or deer don't get it.  

Lost pole

Maria wanted to fish so I made her a cane fishing pole.  However, we put it in the pole holder and went inside and when we came back it was gone!  Some fish must've bit on the worm and taken off with it.  Also shown our son, Jeff, who purchased his own fishing rod and reel for the lake to the tune of $200!

Raspberries!

My neighbor was gone a few days and asked me if I'd like to pick her raspberries.  The kids and I had a blast.  Nothing was made from these as the kids divided and ate them all!

Garden bounty

Shown are the first pickles and squash.  The squash looks like a pumpkin but is suppose to have a fabulous taste-hope that's true because my favorite squash is butternut and I don't want to regret not planting it.

An outing

2 sons-Bob and Mike and families and us visited Dells of the Eau Claire River-a very scenic area in Wisconsin

Love It!

I LOVE living on the lake.  As bad as last winter was, it was all worth it.  This has been the best summer of my life in every way-the weather has been near perfect here in good old Wisconsin with day temps in the low 80's and night in the low 60's-can't beat it.

I also have been enjoying the best garden of my gardening career!

3 sons together

Our 3 sons were together for the first time in a year and a half at our home in July.  Shown are Jeff, Mike and Bob playing pool in the basement.

Best garden ever!

Grandkids Grant and Maria enjoy eating peas in the garden.

Birthday party

We celebrated daughter-in-law, Shawna's birthday while she and her family were visiting her in July from Colorado.  Jen got the cake and I made homemade ice cream

hornets nest

We had a huge hornets nest starting in an outside corner of the boat garage.  Ed sprayed it and knocked it down-my hero!

Award winning beet

This is grandson Grant who found a baseball sized beet in the garden to take home to his mom.  He also took 6 quarts of pickled beets we all worked together on.  We had an assembly line going with me peeling, Jeff cutting, Grant and Ed filling jars.

corn

Oldest son Jeff came with son Grant-he is 6'7" so you can see how tall my corn is getting

Dells of the Eau Claire

Went to Dells of the Eau Claire River with the grandkids and 2 sons and wives.  All had a good time but we just left and hit severe thunderstorms as in you could hardly see the road or exit signs!

The big ham

Maria, our granddaughter, is a natural when it comes to posing for pictures.  Here she is shown wearing uncle Mike's hat.

Water sports

Uncle Mike rented a jet ski while he and his family were visiting us from Colorado.  He is shown with son Alec and his brother Bob and son Ben are also shown.  Mike is a little wild and after that ride Alec did not want to come near that yellow boat again.  We borrowed kayaks another day from the neighbor and enjoyed a more relaxing way to see the lake.

peas

Peas are ready and the grandkids enjoy going in the garden and picking and eating them.  Grandpa Ed and the rest of the adults think they are pretty good too.

Strawberries-fresh

Our daughter-in-law, Shawna, grandson Alec and I went to pick strawberries and Alec enjoyed most of his right there in the field and you can see by his shirt.  We made 2 strawberry pies and a batch of strawberry muffins plus lots of fresh eating.

Hot Air balloons

Took the grandkids to see the hot air balloons at the Wausau Airport.  They had fun trying out the balloon baskets.  It was too windy that day so the balloons could not go up but the pilots were giving out balloon trading cards so the kids could collect those and see what they would have looked like!

Chalk Fest

We went to the annual downtown Wausau chalk art festival and took the grandkids.  Maria is shown here next to a chalk tinker bell.  Unfortunately, I accidentally switched my camera to black and white that day!

jam

Where else but in Wisconsin can you go and pick strawberries?  I did it Monday and made jam.  I met a lady in the patch, Ann, who said she would send me arugala seeds-it's a green I want to plant.  She also told me she has a cold frame insulated with styrofoam and she is able to grow greens into December in it!

Vacation Bible School

I am helping with VBS this year and as  you can see it is a castle, king and queen theme this year.  The kids are having alot of fun and praying they fall in love with God thru these efforts.

Milwaukee zoo

Bob and his fam and Ed's mom Carm went to the zoo with us July 5.  It was nice. However the last wheel chair was rented as Ed stood in line for his mom.  Now Carm is 85 ears old so it was a little rough on her to walk so much but probably did her some good.  We ended up seeing most of the animals from the tram.

Ed's mustache

Ed's mom bribed him with $50 cash if he would shave his mustache!  Previous to that we all had an intervention and told him how ugly it looked so he finally shaved it off!  This is his new clean look for the first time.

July 4

Some photos from our trip to MKE for July 4.  Shown are Ed's relatives and one of Ed and I with our youngest son Bob.

Devon our nephew

We went to Milwaukee for July 4 and our little nephew Devon was there.  I took him to the park and couldn't believe how this kid climbs!  He is a natural gymnist.  He loved the weiner dogs!

blueberries

We've got blueberries growing in our yard around the septic system pipe!  Look closely and you can see them!

garden update again!

Shown here are pictures before and after camp!  It really grew in just a few days.  Also shown are the peas, corn and tomato plants!  This is by far the best growing garden I have ever had.