Chapter 478

 

Editor's Note: I *thought* I'd published this blog but when I returned to do this week's blog, I find it sitting her waiting for me to push the "send" button.

Bob is remodeling the front yard, most likely back to plain ol' grass. This means that all those large "interest pieces" (rocks) have to taken out of the front yard and deposited in the backyard from whence they came. We've moved a lot of them, but you can see the large size of rocks we have to transport.

I hear you saying to yourself "How do old people move such large rocks?" We use our trusty rock-hauling snow sled as we have for many years.

We just roll the rocks onto the sled and tow them to their destination with the lawn mower.

Once to the destination, we winch the sled up into the trees with the lawn mower a pulley todump the rocks off and repeat. Sadly, there is no place for me to ride for entertainment on any of this stuff during these exercises.

My almost-black petunias and a corresponding "latte" color coordinating companions. I love this color combination. Plan on seeing here again in a few weeks!

My other favorite petunias are the "constellation" series in a variety of colors. I started the dark blue ones from last year's seeds but they aren't big enough to produce flowers yet.

Remember the "Unclaimed Property" site that you can check to see if the state is holding any money from random sources? Well, I've known my name is on the site, I've just not taken the time to apply for my funds. It turns out it is super easy and the "free" money is pretty exciting too. Check it out at: ClaimYourCash.org. I think I've pretty much inserted everyone's name I know to see if they have anything.

Pizza and beer. We went out today for pizza and Bob bought his next beer kit but, sadly, the two of them won't be consumed together!

So once we got home, Bob was off to the garage to get started on his brewing. Boiling the spent grain,

and stirring the boiling wort.

The result of the above processes end up in this carboy to bubble and simmer for a couple of weeks while it turns into beer.

Cheers! We took a hydrometer reading to see if the wort is in the right specific gravity to start with.

Mary Lou (on the right) was entertaining her sister Linda (2nd from the left) and Linda's friend Carrie (left) and they decided to drive around Mt. Rainier and I tagged along. We had a wonderful drive stopping often for pictures.

I don't usually go to Rainier so early after the spring melt so all the streams were flowing, green, and very pretty.

The old rock walls and bridges built by the Army Corps of Engineers so many years ago have so much more character than the modern cement jersey barriers used today.

The weather was perfect for exploring the new growth the forest had to offer us.

Let me tell you, blooming skunk cabbage is not one of the better fragrances found in the forest.

 We ate our picnic lunches in our t-shirts at these tables right by the snow bank. What a wonderful day.

Have a good week, Everyone!