Visiting

 We arrived at around 4:30 pm yesterday. Got the machine dropped off first and gave Kris the slips to pick the machine up when done. I will pay over the phone so no need to write a cheque to leave with Kris. 

Today we, well Kris and I went shopping and pulled up his carrots. I did some cleaning and will continue tomorrow. Just little things to make the house a tiny bit more presentable.

Kris is going to have lots of leftovers for the next while. He probably has enough Baked Spaghetti for two meals and Beef stew for another two. Who knows how many leftovers will happen tomorrow. 

I will visit with you all once I am back home.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

PS I thought I published this, but guess I did not hit the publish button.

Made It

 Just a quick post to let you all know we are safe and sound in the city. I will post more tomorrow morning or when we get things done around here. 

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Menu Monday

 

The house is very quiet, both boys are gone now and it will be awhile before they are both home together again. 

We had a lovely visit. Both of them are doing well. However Alberta teachers will probably be going on strike very soon. The strike vote was held June 6th to 8th. Kurt does not know when they will go out, hopefully they finish off the year, and since they have 180 days to call a strike it could happen at the beginning of the new school year. That would give him a bit of time to stock up on groceries and if we go up to visit perhaps I will take some items from our garden to share. 

Kris on the other hand figures the city will not go on strike this year, too much happening what with road work and the evacuees. He is working on an irrigation system for his raised beds now. As he says, bit by bit he is getting outside work in the yard completed. 

So on with this weeks menus.

Monday

Using up the leftover salad and the leftover Jambalaya. I was going to make Spicy Moroccan Lentil Soup, but going up and down the stairs has pretty much tired me right out. I will still make soup one day this week though.

Tuesday

Leftover chicken made into a tetrazzini. I will probably make a cucumber salad to go with, or maybe fry up some of the leftover cabbage.

Wednesday

I will pull the last bag of leftover pork out of the fridge freezer and make a stir fry to serve over rice. There are bits of frozen veggies that need to be cleared out. 

Thursday

We will finish off the leftovers from Tuesday, and either fry that cabbage or make a cucumber salad.

Friday

Salmon patties, served with the leftover rice from Wednesday.

Saturday

Pork chops on the BBQ as well as tinfoil potatoes and onions. Pulling out a bag of green beans to use those up as well. I will also make the Lentil Soup today and get that in the freezer.

Sunday

Baked ham, scalloped potatoes and mixed veggies.

So that is hopefully what we will be eating this week.

Off to catch up with all of you.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Midweek and Planting Done (I Hope)

 

First off let me say that in no way do I blame any of my readers for the Orange menace and his crazy behaviour. I do blame those that did not believe that what he was saying was exactly what he was going to do and voted for him. I know the vast majority now disagree with what he is doing to both of our countries. 

I finished my planting (I hope) at 7 am this morning. I have really cut back and that is amazing to me. Still, I hope that I have enough of everything planted and that nothing will need to be replaced. I just do not want to spend more money. Next year I am going to see if anyone has perennials they wish to thin out, or perhaps get Kris to plant some flowers for me. A package of seeds, while quite expensive, still costs less than bedding plants. 

Once my deck is cleaned up and things put where I want them I will post some pictures. Things are pretty small right now, but will definitely grow over the summer.

Went out for lunch with one of my sister-in-laws today. She picked me up and we had a lovely time chatting. I don't think we have ever done this before, and I think we should make a habit of it. Must get the other sister-in-law who lives here in on it, she was a bit busy today and so could not join us. I managed to find out a few things about the family, some of which really surprised me. 

Off to get the fries cooked in the air fryer. Harvey is smoking the hamburgers. I will also pull out the leftover coleslaw to use up as well.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Midweek Once Again

 My goodness the days are just whipping by as well as getting much shorter. Soon winter will be upon us here in the Northern Hemisphere bring us time to stay in and get our homes in order for the next set of holidays.

I promised pictures of my sister and I visiting the last two living sisters of our Mom. Both of them lost their husbands many years ago.

First we traveled to Norquay to visit with the youngest of the girls.

Aunt Alice lives in the house she and Uncle Russel moved into when they left the farm right in the village.

This is a picture of my sister, my cousin Brian, Aunt Alice and myself. Her other daughter lives in B.C and was not there at the time we visited.

Here is a picture of her immediate family.

Brian, his wife Joy, Aunt Alice, Velda, her husband Ken.

We laughed and reminisced about our visits when young to the farm. 

Of course they put on coffee for us and you can tell they were farm folk as the table was loaded with squares, cookies, donuts, and so many other lovely edibles. 

As we left we promised to try and visit at least once a year.

We made it to Yorkton in time to visit those that are no longer with us. The cemetery there is so beautiful and very peaceful.

Aunt Alice decided that she wished to be buried near her sisters and so buried her husband amongst all the Koch's. 

The flowers were lovely and we found out that our cousin Greg's wife, Ruby, made all of them when they came up from Chicago to visit Aunt Isabel. 

We then went out for supper and checked into our hotel room.

The next morning we did a bit of window shopping as we did not want to bother Aunt Isabel too early. At 97 she deserves her rest, though I am pretty sure she was up and waiting for us to arrive.

She finally moved from the home her and Uncle Sam (who just happens to be our Dad's brother) moved to about 40 years ago. She is living in one of the two retirement homes in the city of Yorkton and just hates it. The suite she lives in is very nice, but she does not like the meals and says things are stupidly run... If the fire drill we went through while there is any indication, she is quite correct.

Aunt Isabel and I out in the backyard of the home. We were kind of stuck there and could not get to the muster point as the gate was locked. Guess we could have had some bad burns.

After we got back in the residence Aunt Isabel phoned our cousin Cam and we traveled to Bunkers (the business he owns) to visit for awhile. 

After taking her back to her suite, we headed to the restaurant to meet up with our brother's and Jay's significant others and twin girls. Our youngest brother decided not to come, which was a pity.

After our supper (mix up over the time, of course) it was the long journey home.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Thrifty and Frugal Thursdays

 Thrifty and Frugal  

We are home now from out trip for my appointment and our visit with Kris. So nice to be able to sleep in our own bed. Got back early enough to do some needed work around the house and get everything put away or in the hamper to be washed. 

While the last couple of days have not really been overly frugal, everything I did purchase was on sale, and I did save lots of cash. 

On the way home we stopped at the Warehouse store in the city just an hour away from us. Mostly just to pick up my tinfoil containers and lids, (my goodness the price has really gone up on those) and decided to take a walk around the store. Years ago we used to purchase large rolls of summer sausage, chicken breasts, turkey breasts and roasted beef (sometime bologna). We would bring them home and cut them up and package them into sandwich meat sized freezer bags. It has been a very long time since we have done so, but picked up a large 5 pound summer sausage roll to see how it could save us some money. The roll cost $19.00 but we got 12 packages of 12 slices each, and a small package of 5 which is in the fridge. 

Now to purchase the same 12 slice packages in the store would cost well over $7.00, and that is on sale. So the 12 packages would have cost us $84.00. The roll cost $19.00 so I saved close to $70.00 when you take into account the package of 5 in the fridge. 

Harvey has now decided it might possibly be worth our while to make a trip there every couple of months to pick up a few things for this purpose and perhaps get some other meats as well.

Before we left I did the usual frugal/thrifty things like hanging clothing on the lines downstairs, opening the drapes on sunny days so the sun would heat the house during the day, using small appliances whenever possible to cook our meals, shopping sales, taking walks on those nice days for free exercise, reading free or inexpensive books that I had downloaded onto my ereader (used gift cards to pay for those that had a cost) and turning off lights in the evenings.

I also saved some twist ties, and washed out some plastic bags to reuse.

We took two meals up to Kris's, after all he is saving us about $250.00 in hotel bills when I need to go and see my specialist. Having to supply some of the meals is no problem and saves him some money as well. I should say that he does supply the electricity to reheat or cook the meals. 

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Sunday Ramblings

 

Well, we seem to have gotten ourselves storm stayed here for another day, and we are hoping the weather is better tomorrow. It is kind of scary when the police send a Tweet stating that a semi has jack-knifed on the road we would be using to get home.

So instead of being bored I cleaned Kris's microwave, scrubbed down his sinks, and dusted his living room. I think I will clean out the kitty litter box next, and perhaps sweep the floors once again.

Kris is using some hydroponics to grow some lettuce. He is planning to get something set up in his basement to grow some herbs, and perhaps a few more veggies. His basement has huge windows and gets a great deal of light.

Here is a photo of the lettuce growing and the weird lighting that is necessary.

He plans on adding two more plants once he figures out the timing. He also has his strawberry plant beside and plans to move his small cherry trees in front. 

Here the guys are watching hockey last night.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Tuesday Tidbits

 

I thought that today I would share a few pictures of our holiday. Only the ones we took while we were at Kurt's and on the way home as if I shared them all you would be pretty bored.

Kurt lives in Drumheller, Alberta, the home of dinosaurs and in the heart of the badlands. In fact his backyard opens up into the hills surrounding the valley. 

Have I said I love his yard cause I really do.

It is so relaxing and private with no homes behind him.

We spend a great deal of time on his deck enjoying our visit.

Since he went to the gym one day while we were there, we decided to go shopping. 

Now of course we needed to take a picture of one of the many dinosaur statues downtown (really they are scattered throughout the city).

Harvey decided he needed to sit with this one.

They look kind of mad at each other.

On the way home we had a surprise.

This is a blade for a windmill traveling down the Trans Canada Highway. They are huge and I couldn't get the whole blade in the picture. We actually passed two of them on our way home. All I can say is thank heavens for double lane highways. 

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.