Such a Beautiful Day.

 There is a chance of rain every day this coming week, but today was so nice, I had to do a Chalk drawing in the park.  I used to like weekends because there was little chance of Kids bugging me as I worked.  But now that the kids are out of school,  I can begin working on the weekdays as well without worrying about them coming home at 3 P.M. 

Now, all I have to worry about in the rain... and later, the Sun.  But for today,  the weather was pleasant... even sunny.  But not too hot.  Even the wind was gentle.   I know there is a risk that the rain will wash it all away within the next couple of days, so I decided to choose a design I didn't mind losing to the elements.  

Everyone loves Elephants, Right?  Not very flashy.   Just brown and gray and BIG.   I had forgotten how challenging these things can be with very few reference points.  I have done this design dozens of times back in the carving days.  It was kind of like learning to re-ride a bike again. 

Hope everyone is having a happy "sad" weekend this weekend. .   I feel like I can act indignant because I'm a veteran.  I would like to think that all those soldiers would want every American to be grilling out and eating hamburgers and hotdogs  this weekend.  Hmm, that does come off as a little callous.  Perhaps I should soften up the tone with a joke, since I do not like feeling all sad and serious at funerals or Memorial days.  But mostly I hate feeling awkward around people who say they are sad when they really shouldn't be.  And before I end up down this rabbit hole, I should sign off with this:  Be grateful!   But you don't have to tell or show anyone.  Veterans will know when you post a flag on your porch on the days NOT set aside for remembrance.  Being an American is a full time gig. 

Sorry about that....  I'm not lecturing.  ( Didn't mean to.)  Just time with friends and Family should be thankful enough.  Thanks for stopping in.

Cold and Dry Farmer's Market. Windy and Wet Muscatine Run.

We managed to dodge a bullet yesterday with the Rain holding off until after the farmer's market had concluded.   I was very happy about that.  Almost as happy as Cheryl was after selling all but three of her baked treats! Given the size of the crowd, I was amazed as well! It appeared that there were fewer people there this week as compared to last week.   I can't blame them, given the cold, the wind, and the ever present risk of rain. Even several vendors failed to show up!

But a few of them did!  And the ones that showed up were enough for the people to come and grab some Thursday Home-cooked nibbles.  I sampled all three of the Burger grills this time.   Cheryl and I agree that the guy with the home farmed, grass fed, all natural "organic" beef patties was by far, the best burger in town.  The others were good too.   One mixes southwester spices in the beef and grills it crispy around the edges.   The other guy grilled his fresh in front of you and offers the best price and the most condiments.   But the simple burger with catsup and mustard and cheese was the best.  Juicy, filled with flavor!  The burger was the star.

I'm very happy that the rain held off yesterday...AND that we made similar sales to last week.   It was going to be very difficult to deal with all those treats had they not sold.  And, we were not going to gather much information if the event got rained out.   But, it appears that people will brave the elements if they can get their treats and fresh grilled burgers.  We are hoping that the crowds will hang around longer in the summer, possibly buying ALL of our stuff.  ( We sold the majority of our offerings within the first half hour of the show.) 

Today, however,  the rain greeted us first thing.   Cold and rainy mist.   Cheryl decided to run anyway, since this is the perfect temps and conditions for her to run in.  ( 46 degrees at noon!) As for me,  I froze my fingers off  while on the bike.   Riding a bike simply does not keep you warm enough on those rainy days.  

The Muscatine Fountain is up again!

 The main reason to run in Muscatine today was to pick up Cheryl's racing packet for Monday.  Seems odd that they would not offer a Saturday packet pick-up, but there it is.  We drove all the way to Davenport's Fleet Feet to get it.  A bit of a drive, but we managed to fit it in with a Muscatine visit, so it all worked out.  Time to take the rest of the day off and blow some Bubbles in the High Humidity....

It continued to blow, rain, and freeze here in Iowa.  Frost warnings are out from tonight until Sunday morning!   Frost!  And I just planted my Cardinal Creeper a few days ago.  It is just peeking out of the ground in certain places.   I'm not going to mess it it and simply let it do it's thing.   Every time I mess with a plant... in order to SAVE IT, I end up killing it instead.  So it is possibly "better off" taking a chance against the frost than having me help it. 

Hope everyone is staying warm and dry.   Cold and misty days like today make my coffee and tea tast so much better.   I'm enjoying my Mushroom Coffee as I write this.   Fingers crossed I will be able to post this without Blogger throwing me a curve-ball like yesterday.   We shall find out soon enough.  Thanks for stopping in.

Kitchen Time with Cheryl! Earth Time with the Cats.

Having no Instagram account, I have to post my food pics on the blog.  I don't know... these are the times we live in, I guess.   But Cheryl wanted some of the fresh mushrooms on Pizza.   She whipped me up some Pizza dough and I grabbed whatever we had in the fridge (Which was not much, as far as pizza toppings goes...) to make a pizza.  This explains the "hot dog" chopped up on top.  Hey!  When you make your own pizza,  you make your own rules.  

It was awesome, as usual.  Every pizza we make is different, with toppings varying wildly.  We used sauce that we made from last year's tomatoes,  we used the Dried tomatoes from last year as well.  If we could grow our own Garlic, we would have said we had foraged or grew all of the toppings.  ( ok, not the cheese.  Or the Hotdog.) 

Cheryl has been cutting brownies and all morning/afternoon.  ( technically, it is almost noon as I write this.) We have the car packed and are ready to rumble... as soon as the rain stops.  

Yes , rain!   It was thunder and lightning this morning.   Rain is supposed to start up again later in the evening, but fingers crossed it will hold off until after the show.   Cheryl has been working on a bunch of new recipes and I cant wait to see how the Washington crown responds to them.   The lemon bar is to die for! 

Yesterday was a wonderful sunny day.  Just a touch cool in the shade.  The cats and I had a good time rolling around in the overgrown grass. ( Well,  overgrown by Wellman Standards!) Leo spent most of the day with us, which is uncommon.  He usually gets up in the morning and disappears until about 6-7 P.M. But lately, there have been several timew when he hangs out all day with us.  Usually inside if it is raining or too hot.  Everyone enjoys the visit.  Even Hiro.  

If you think Leo looks like a Teddy Bear,  he certainly plays the part.   Especially when we pick him up to cuddle him.  He is certainly a Cuddle Bug.  

4 hours to kill before the big show.  I'm looking forward to another burger.  Cheryl is looking forward to unloading all of her baked goods.   Being only the second farmer's market,  we still are trying to feel things out and gauge the response.   We always knew rain and heat would play a roll.   Time to find out just how much.   Wish us luck!

Apparently, Blogger is not letting me publish photos at the moment.  I'll have to try later.

The Kind of Mushrooms Even I Can Find...

I mentioned the other day that we found a stash of Golden Oyster mushrooms along the Kewash trail.   Turns out,  They were blooming in Coralville at the same time!   We were actually too late for several of our favorite spots.  Once the "Gold" is gone,  the Mushrooms are just a little too old for our refined palates. 

But we managed to find a few worth taking home.  Several of our favorite Trees have been completely consumed by the mushrooms by now.   They have the consistency of wet cardboard and are pretty much compost.   However,  there were several other spots that are just coming into our radar for Mushrooms. 

We harvested what we could yesterday, but there were a bunch that were just "pinning",  so we left them for today.  Besides, I didn't have my camera yesterday, so I was eager to get some pictures of them in their prime. 

Well, the Mushrooms did not disappoint!   They are what we consider "the perfect size" for harvesting.   Still a bright yellow!  They look like flowers in the foliage. We took all we could find and Cheryl is drying them up  for a third day in a row!   She has even hinted that we fire up the Pizza Stone for one of our awesome, "Everything Mushroom" Pizzas.  I'll take it! 

Cheryl spent the rest of the day baking up new recipes and I have been folding, cleaning and making bubbles.   I was having fun with bubbles the other day when it was humid and raining.   But now that the sun peeks out occasionally,  the heat and the sunlight make for short lived bubbles.   Even so, I manage to get them to float over several houses before they pop.   Sometimes I can get one to drift out of sight before popping,  which is one of the goals of the large, lazy bubble recipe.

And lastly,  Cheryl and I kicked up a Deer on the Coralville path today.   She about scared me to death, as I never saw her before I was right up on her.  She was right next to the trail.   Cheryl shouted and the deer ran off.  But not before I was able to capture her with the Camera.    Hurray for Snap Shots! 

Tomorrow Muscatine... More baking,  Perhaps more folding.  We have to prep for the Thursday show to make sure it was not a fluke.   Cheryl is constantly doing the math in her head, so we visited Stringtown and purchased 50 lbs of King Arthur Flour and 25 lbs of Michigan Sugar.  Buying in bulk is the easiest way to get your costs down without raising the prices and scaring away new customers.   But what do we know?  We have failed at just about every business idea we have ever tried, so eventually something has to work, right?  I guess we will find out.   Thanks for stopping in.

Being Busy On A Lazy Sunday...

 Yesterday,  The bottom bolt on my front brake Caliper Bracket fell out!   Just fell out... boom!  Gone.   How?  Why?   Well, I did go down a dirt road on our way to Stringtown yesterday.  But I did the brakes about a month ago and have had no problems.  I even torqued them to the proper spec!  At least I did for the Passenger side...  Hmm, Maybe I forgot to do it on the driver side.  

No matter!   We were stuck!  Brakes locked up and we were parked near the Cheese factory near Kalona.  Afer removing the tire, figuring out the problem, and realizing NAPA in Kalona closes at 3 P.M.  I was off on my bike.. IN the rain!  To score a bolt and 17 mm wrench.   It was 4.5 miles to the store, but Cheryl says it did not seem to take me very long.   After replacing the bolt, tightening it as tight as I could...  We were back home in less and an hour.   It was almost like it never happened. 

But...  Things bother you when events like this happen. ( You know.. Who wants to be stranded alongside the road???)   So today, I removed the two driver's side tires and inspected the brakes again.   This time I torqued them down to spec as best I could and even inspected the rear brakes that I did last year.   Everything looks good.   The funny noise we were hearing from the rear might have been just loose or dirty parts.   After taking everything apart and inspecting stuff,  I probably fixed it just by cleaning the brakes.    

Last Wednesday,  we took the Subie to the Local Mechanic and he said that there was rust building up on the parking brake, causing a "rubbing sound" that was bothering us. He filed it down and removed the parking brake permanently ( it was not working anyway...) so now the only sound is coming from the unevenly worn tires.  

While I was at it,  I changed out the blower motor for the defrost and heater.  I have done this before with Misty Dawn and Hello Kitty Subaru, as both of their blowers needed replacing in the past.  Blower's are just electric motors that wear out, just like my old Dremel tools.  ( the brushes wear out in them. )  They are fairly inexpensive, and just three screws hold them in place.   Easy!  ( Though, you do have to remove the glove box, and unplug everything... ) I get to do this all over again when the replacement cabin air filters arrive next week.   Good times! 

A bunch of little stuff I have neglected to blog about over the last week.   Kind of boring. 

But today!   We discovered GOLDEN OYSTER MUSHROOMS are out and about!  We scored a decent amount and are currently drying them. Good thing too, because we were completely out of Oyster mushrooms.   Cheryl wanted some for Pizza, but I "apparently" ate them all in my soups this winter. Opps.   

No matter!   Now that they are showing up, we will be able to gather them all Summer long... when we can find them.  Several of the bunches were too old to harvest,  so we are actually a little late.   The ones we managed to harvest were HUGE!  Usually we harvest them well before they get this big.   Cheryl cuts to caps off because the stems are a bit tough.  I personally like the chewy stems... just a little.   Too much stem will be like chewing leather.
As for ID'ing the other "non-edible" mushrooms I found two days ago,  they spoiled before I could properly key them out.   I do have the spore prints though, so I may still fire up the Microscope for some "Microscopic fun!"   

And that is about all for me today.  After a 10 mile run/bike,  Subie repair and maintenance, and Mushroom harvest and processing,  I'm ready to take it easy. 

Cheryl and Hiro look up new baking recipes.

I don't know how I used to work a 10 hour day, six days a week, scooping 20-30 lbs of fish for a living.  Oh, to be young again.   

But for now, I will play the "old man card" and sit back and tell stories to my blog.  So I can reread them in the future when my mind begins to go... (Hopefully not for a very long time.)  Thanks for stopping in .