Summer 2014 - Day 6

I awoke today and made myself an egg, cheddarwurst, and colby cheese sandwich. I ate it while my mom and I watched a show about the Mormon Church. Around the same time, I got dressed and then was asked by my mom to get milk. I asked if I could go to the cheese factory, but she said she wanted the milk fast so I couldn't. I had every intention of being quick, but also to go to the cheese factory because, yeah.

I got in my car and drove into town then parked by Pete's Market. I walked into a very different looking Pete's to find out that they do not carry milk anymore. I went out to the car and drove to the Cheese Factory where I started to go nuts, then remembered that I only had $20 so I only got a few bags of churds. I also learned that they open at 8am and would have churds from the night before.

Then I was off to the Oasis, or maybe just the gas station - whatever it's called - and got milk and coffee. I paid for the milk and coffee, then opened the milk (2% because I was making the decision) to put in my coffee. I drove home and decided on a way to mess with my mom. When I went inside, I said, "this was the only milk they had left, and there was a little missing, but they swore that nobody spit in it." My mom's reaction was as expected, and I laughed, then told her the truth. She then made the scalloped potatoes.

Things happened, and then dinner was presented - tw for vegans and vegetarians.

This may be the best steak I ever had, for reals.

And here is Dad eating his dinner as somewhat back-lit because I wanted the curtains open.

After dinner, I was going to go with Dad to the back 10 and look for the deer and the duck family, but he had to do things. I walked around the house and got a few photos.

 

From the back, looking east northeast

From the front, looking northwest

From the front, looking southwest

Mom went to go get her computer and to pick up some peaches and blueberries. I didn't understand Dad's timetable, so I decided to go into Rudolph to ship some clothes back to Houston and get some cheese. I ended up visiting the Grotto to get more post cards and took some other photos. 

Ave Maria

Stations of the Cross

I chatted with the groundskeeper at the gardens, then went to the Cheese Factory and got American Cheese, some AA butter, then Mild, Medium, Aged Sharp, 4 Year Aged Sharp, and 7 Year Aged Sharp Cheddar. I came home and posted the photos. Mom came home with the computer, blueberries, and peaches. After some more chatting, Dad and I were out in the back 10. 

First, I got some photos of the water in the crick and the views. 

Then, as we walked west, along the southern edge, I took a photo of Dad and a selfie.

At the southwest corner, Dad took photos of me. 

The Mary Tyler Moore pose, same clothes even.

I got some photos along the western edge, as we walked north. 

I got some sweet pollination shots.

Once we got to an anthill, I began shooting a video.

I was unable to take video through until we reached the Taj Mahal (it's a long story, summed up with "Ursula doesn't edit videos"), so all I have are photos. 

The water source at the back of the ant hill may be why this hill is so big.

We kept walking around after the ant hill video and I took more photos. 

They were all so green, so when Dad showed me a dead tree, I saw an opportunity for a mostly not-green photo, but Dad was in the shot. I told him to move, but he tried to hide behind the tree, which was a failure. 

Eventually he did more far enough away and I got the shot I wanted. 

We ended up walking back along the north side of the pastures, through marsh and reed grass.

Dad turned on his oldest tractor on to show off that it still worked, and I got this photo.

It looks a little messy, but a Central Wisconsin ordinance requires all families to have some random junk in their yard.

When we got in, I took a shower and got into my pajamas. I took photos of the fruit and got a shot of the preserved, and cleaned, dragonfly on a bit of coral in the living room.

That's a real dragonfly.

I blogged some more, then Dad called me out to look at a pretty view as the sun was setting.

There were many more activities that night, including looking at Dad's photos from earlier in the year, finding really old photos of mine on my mom's computer, transferring them and stuff from my phone onto my thumb drive, eating warmed up churds, helping with the blueberry processing, eating blueberries, and finally eating vanilla ice cream with blueberries and blueberry sauce. Yum yum. Then it was off to dreamland before the trek back to Minnesota the next day.

Summer 2014 - Day 5

The day began with finding my mom's "lost" phone under the chair, then me cooking an egg and colby cheese sandwich and trying to play with my mom's cat, but nearly getting bitten. I guess it wouldn't be a trip home without a wound from Catcher.

Who doesn't love photos of cat bite scars?

My mom and I then began a load of laundry and I then began a nap. In the middle of my nap, my dad brought mail to me and told me that I could have it if I wanted a new car. He also told me about Menards and how it sucks. The thermometer that he has that is ten degrees too high is from Menards.

Well, I napped, and then it was 10 minutes to lunch, so I got up and showered and got ready to eat. I got my clothes out of the dryer and found that some of my items were hung in the garage instead of dried. I put them in the dryer for a while. Before lunch could start, a bird hit the window and was recovering in the flower bed. It took off as we were eating.

We had chicken, salad, potatoes, and sweet corn. The chicken was a little dry, but it was all tasty. I did not have the potatoes. Dad also told me that there are three new roundabouts south of Marshfield.

After lunch, it was 2:30 and we had to go to the Post Office to send two post cards, but Mom had to get her documents together so she could take her computer to Staples. Eventually, everything came together and we left for Rudolph. I mailed my post cards and bought additional stamps for the rest of the post cards, then walked off but oh wait! Mom asked me to find out how much a Medium Flat Rate Box costs to ship, and because she sat in the car while I did all this and would probably quiz me when I got back, I went back and asked, interrupting some other person doing her postal business. "$12.35" the lady said, in a very Central Wisconsin accent, so I had my information.

I was back in the car and we were off to check out the crowd at the auction at Fischer's, but no one was there. There were plenty of things there, but very few people. I'm wondering if the auction was rained out, since it was POURING around 2, but nothing on the websites indicates any rain dates. After that, we were off to Stevens Point, then we were in Whiting, and finally Staples in Plover. Mom took her computer there and I did some shopping, finding ear plugs for the airplane, a notebook, then a car charger with  USB ports, a Lindt Sea Salt Dark Chocolate Bar, and got two 16GB flash drives for $7 each. The computer people said that we had to call the virus company people, so we took the computer back to the car, but Mom was not convinced. She called the virus company, but they disagreed with the Staples people, so she went inside and then came back out to get her computer, then went inside again. I checked my Facebook where L suggested I go to Belts', since I was in Stevens Point, so I looked up directions to Belts'. When Mom came back sans computer and said that they would take care of it, I suggested Belts' and she was all for it.

The four or five miles to the Home of the Large Cone felt like 500 miles, but we got there and parked in the correct location, despite Mom's protests. See, when you go to Belts', you park in the lot on the other side of Church street, not in the pavement area in front of the shop. I quizzed the kid working about the types of flurries, and then settled on a Small Puppy Chow Flurry with Chocolate Ice Cream. Mom asked about the cone sizes and a Junior had "two bumps", small had four, and medium had 6. She settled on small as well. If you understand what a "bump" is in connection with a soft serve cone, you understand how Belts' is the "Home of the Large Cone'. It's epic.

We ate our ice cream and Mom told me about the first remodel on the house where they made the bathroom bigger. At first, it was pretty small, but they took some space from the closet in one bedroom to make more space for the tub. It's still a small bathroom, but not nearly as small as it used to be. She also told me about how she and Dad picked out the name of my sister. When we finished out ice cream, we took off for home. The storm clouds were magnificent.

The skies opened up on us at the west end of Rudolph. We had to drive home rather slow, but made it there, then sat for a while in the car to see if the rain would let up a little. The rain running off the roof was pretty intense, so I got a little footage.

For the rest of the evening, I organized my things, watched TV with my parents, and blogged. Tomorrow will be going to the cheese factory, going back to the post office, and check the back 10 to see how much water is back there, look for the deer and the duck family, and maybe other things yet to be determined. We also watched Young Frankenstein.

Summer 2014 - Day 4

Today began with a weird dream that included the actor that plays Pensatucky. My phone rang from my sister calling me, but I didn't pick up. Instead, I texted her to say that Mom and I would not meet her and her bf for bagels as we were still asleep, so let's plan on lunch. I was going to go back to bed, but decided to go for breakfast.

I got down there and put some eggs and a whole mess of sausages on my plate. There was a family with 5 [million] children that all looked about a year apart. The dad was also wearing a Detroit Lions shirt so, you know. I got a pastry, then coffee, and worked hard to get away from the toddlers. I sat and ate my pile of sausages and reached out to people via Facebook. After consuming my food, I decided to get a bagel, then also decided to get one for my mother. People people everywhere, just hovering in places, and so close to me. I got out of there eventually.

In the room, my mother was drying her hair and wanted me to get ready to go - it was 10 am and checkout was at 11. I rested, then showered and got ready. We were out at 10:53 - 7 minutes to spare, as my mom noted.

Down in the lobby, we decided to go to the Olbrich Botanical Gardens with my sister and her boyfriend. We identified directions, got our cars aligned, and were off to 3330 Atwood. We did most things right, and Monona turned into Atwood, but eventually, Atwood ended and we realized that we were lost. We stopped, discovered what to do, and set off again. Mom got caught at a light, so I got to the gardens first and parked. Then I saw mom's vehicle and she made her way into the parking lot, where I told her to just "find a space".  Sister and her BF were at the lily sale, and had purchased lilies for Mom. We met up with them, then Mom looked at other lilies and took two when she was only supposed to take one - it was some "buy some and get one of these free" things going on. All was settled, we looked at other lilies, then decided to go to the Gardens.

Inside the jungle part of the gardens, there were flowers, butterflies, and birds. All very purdy.

Bird  Flower  Waterfall  Colorful Leaves  Hanging Flowers  Chubby Bird Two Butterflies

Tan Butterfly Red Flower Fuzzy Vines Purple Flowers Orchids Purple Orchids White Flowers

I then found a Monarch Butterfly on some flowers and took photos. 

Then, my companions wanted to go outside, but I had a few more photographs to capture. 

Then we went outside where the flowers - THE FLOWERS!

My phone ran out of space and lost battery power.

My last photo from the Olbrich Botanical Gardens

After much time spent looking at things, I bought a few things and then we carpooled to a cafe & cupcakery to have lunch. I charged my phone a bit and transferred some files to my Chromebook to make some space. We ordered food and chatted about things. Food arrived and we chatted more. Then we continued to chat until we left. Cupcakes were purchased and we went back to the gardens to part ways. A cupcake was given to my sister, they left for Milwaukee, and Mom and I were off to Rudolph. I assumed that she knew where she was going, but we did have to stop to figure out directions. It turned out that we were on the right path, so we just kept going. Once we were both on 39/90/94, I was off, with Mom in the dust. When I was near Plainfield, Dad called me, but I did not answer. I got off the highway for the last hour to home and the radio stations got more and more familiar, though 96.7 has changed from Country to "Today's Hits" or whatever they call it. I find it a welcome change, but I assume that locals are less enthusiastic.

I got in to Rapids eventually and even managed to get a Facebook post out before I was passing the lovely scents of the paper mill. Three vehicles turned on to 34 from P such that I had to apply my brakes to not hit them. The person in the last car did have her hands up in confusion, so I wonder if it wasn't another caravan with a less than intelligent person at the head. It was all okay in the end, so I drove on, noting the changes in the homes as I went by.

I turned on my blinker at the neighbors to the south, then turned into the driveway. Dad greeted me and confirmed my question as to whether he was growing his beard to be part of a ZZ Top tribute band. I went in and Dad had me sit down to watch the end of a movie with Clint Eastwood as a baseball scout and Amy Adams (I think) as his lawyer daughter. We watched that, then went out to look at things, then saw the "tiny hummingbird" which may actually be a large insect. We failed to get a photo of it, so went off to do other things. He showed me the hay and described its provenance, then we fixed the closure on a bag of grass clippings that he was saving as a natural weed repellent for next year.

We looked at the garden and other things, then Mom came home. Dad showed me pictures from the massive auction that is happening near The Farm right now. We went in, I had a cupcake, then Dad and I were off to do other things, but this time, I had my camera. We went to the barn and I took a video of Dad and his cat, Suede.

We went up into the haymow, looked at pigeons and heard a bat. We went down and then looked at rocks in one location.

Then we went around to the front of the house and looked at other rocks.

Dad and I cleaned off all the plant debris to get this photo.

Dad showed me some Japanese Beetles going at it, but I didn't get a photo. We did go back around the house and got some more photos of other rocks, this time with little figurines.

After that, we went in where I wrote post cards and watched Hee Haw.

That's Hee Haw on the TV, on RFD TV.

Dad offered me a banana, told me that I had to do something special with the peel, then asked if I knew how to open it. Before I could answer, he took it away and made a small cut in it so it would be easier to open. I finished my post cards and finally ate my banana. It turned out that I had to throw the peel away OUTSIDE, in the garbage can BEHIND the garage, ugh. But I did it, and I turned off the lights when I came back inside. Then I got out my computer, uploaded videos, started this blog post. Dad went to bed earlier, but Mom is watching Star Trek. Bed is in my very near future.