We are ready to safely view the eclipse here.
Have my homemade viewing box.
Now if the cloud cover would just roll out of here we might actually get to see some of it. Where we live about 83% will be covered. I hope we at least get a glimpse of it.
I missed T stands for Tuesday last week while Mini-me and I were up north enjoying time with family at a resort. There were 16 of us which is a lot smaller group than it has been over the last few years.
It’s been a long standing tradition for the maternal side of Mr. G’s family to gather at a resort for a week each summer. The first few years we were married the yearly gathering was at a small resort in Wisconsin. We went for a few days when we could but after the resort changed ownership the tradition faded. That is until about 4 years ago when the group gathered in Alexandria, MN.
We tried out a new resort this year and don’t regret it at all. It’s in a beautiful yet fairly remote area…as in there are no decent sized towns within an hours drive. We were a very short distance from the southern edge of the Chippewa National Forest.
The resort sat on a small bay of a much larger lake. It was very quiet with little boat traffic.
Just the occasional Loon.
There was a great beach volleyball court for Mini-me to practice her skills. She gave me and my BIL quiet the workout playing with her. Neither of us are sporty in the least.
Each year we have a themed potluck gathering. This years theme was kind of vague…Greece/Olympus. Honestly, I didn’t really “get it” other than the food. I brought a Mediterranean salad.
Typically everyone goes all out dressing up, menu planning and decorating according to the theme. There was Gyros, hummus, kabobs, salads, crockpots of goodies, homemade wine and cider plus so much more.
So much food!!!!
The kids enjoyed games.
And of course S’mores around the fire.
We aren’t sure what the plan is for next year yet but I’m sure at least Mini-me and I will go if time allows.
Tuesday has an appt. and back to school shopping for sure…who knows what else we’ll end up doing. The summer is quickly fading away.
What are you doing today?
Last week we had a beautifully cool, breezy, low humidity day. Outside projects were definitely on the docket. The biggest of these was replacing landscaping. This has needed to be done for quite some time.
Here’s a photo from 2 years ago…
The log border was already starting to get a little wonky. Fast forward two years and it was rotting away.
Now it looks like this! Mini-me and I did this one ourselves. The edging is recycled rubber. Nice and flexible to bend and form to what your little heart desires. We had a couple of surface tree roots to contend with so we just made sure to line things up so that I wouldn’t have to pound a stake through the root. 
I did end up going through what I can only assume was root a couple inches underground on the back side of this flower bed.
We were so happy with how nice this one looked and how easy it was to install that I went back for more material to fix up another eyesore area in need of upgrade.
I’m not sure if you can tell but along the right side of the photo is some black edging that was basically laying down…definitely not how we installed it so many years ago. Frost heave has done a number on it.
Now it looks like this….
Complete with a couple new perennials.
I love how this looks so much!
Since at least half of the black edging pieces were still salvageable, I put them around my water barrels.
That is kind of our haphazard area. Mismatched pieces of this and that have all found their way over here. It all works though. Now if we’d only get some rain to refill my barrels.
So after a hard days work a little refreshment is always in order.
Just a couple more days of taxi driving for volleyball this week…then two weeks off before it starts up again…everyday. Mini-me and I are also getting ready for a little trip north. The boys are too busy working to come with us. I’ll be sure to share that adventure in a couple weeks.
What are you doing today?
Oh and just for you Chris…
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