Memories from Manville’s Christmas Past

Snow at the cabin!  This was Bob maybe 10 years ago

It’s the end of the year 2017!  It has left me with a lot of memories both good and bad. I’m sorry I haven’t blogged more often to document some of them. I’m getting old and the short-term memories slip away more quickly!  I do love to go back and read the “so many years ago” memories on Facebook. This past week Kathi posted a blog from many years ago about one of our very memorable family Christmases on her Country Chicken Girl blog.

( https://countrychickengirl.blogspot.com/2010/12/manville-family-christmas-part-one.html?m=1 )

We were laughing about it and remembering some more recent Christmas adventures that should be documented! So I have decided to take a stab at it. Kathi wrote her story about her first Christmas with the Manvilles--kind of from a newcomers point of view. My story is about a more recent Christmas adventure. I believe it took place 2 years ago. We (at least me, Bob when he was alive, and whoever of our family that was coming for Christmas that year) always planned to spend it at “the cabin”. It was not a simple “over the river and through the woods” type of trip to get there. It is at least a 2.5 mile ride in on snowmobiles or other tracked vehicles through snow covered meadows, draws, several kinda steep hills, up in the trees, and across a creek that is usually frozen and covered with snow. We have to haul all our presents, food, clothing and sometimes gasoline in on sleds pulled by the snowmobiles. Oh, and don’t forget computers, and other electronic devices.

On this particular year, only 2 of Danny’s boys, Danny, Kathi and I were in Walden for Christmas. Danny insisted we spend it at their house since he had to plow snow at the bowling alley and do some other chores before he could get away. He figured he could only leave no earlier than 4:00 and it would be getting dark by 4:30. He did not want to try going in that late in big snow!  The rest of us insisted we could go up earlier with Chris’s new snowmobile and get everything in to the cabin before then and Danny could get whatever we couldn’t fit when he got there. He still insisted it was not a good plan but was out voted.

Chris, Colton and I headed out from Walden to the end of the plowed road about 2:30. We had 1 snow machine, some of the food and our belongings plus Chris’s Labrador puppy. It was cold with blowing snow but the sun was out when we got there. We unloaded Chris’s machine and he headed out to get the sled we needed to haul in our supplies. He took the puppy with him.  We kept a sled at the neighbor’s ranch which was probably 1/2 mile away. Meanwhile Colton and I organized all the things to get loaded. Oh, and of course there is very poor to no cell service up there. We could not see where Chris was and could not call town to see if Danny and Kathi had left either.

 So after about an hour and no Chris we were pretty worried but had no way of looking for him. Finally Danny and Kathi showed up with 2 more snowmobiles and all the rest of the stuff. We got them unloaded and Danny went off to look for Chris. He had been stuck with the sled. Anyway they came back with 1 sled and the dog and as predicted by Danny it was getting dark. We loaded the sled with the necessities for the night and sent Danny, Kathi, Chris and the dog into the cabin. Kathi had the sled and dog, I think there was another sled involved that they had to abandon so that Danny and Chris could break trail as nobody had been that way yet and the snow was deep and powder. They also left Kathi and the puppy stuck in the middle of a meadow about halfway there. They could break trail and come back for her.

Colton and I had no idea what was going on. At least we had a heated pickup to wait in. Meanwhile Kathi was out in the cold blowing snow in the dark wrestling a puppy that wanted to run in the snow but it was too deep!  None of us knew what was happening with each other!  There was nothing Colton and I could do as time marched on. Should we go back to town and get help from my nephews?  Should we stay put?  We couldn’t call anyone so we gave them until 8:00 PM  and then we would go back to town!  Yes, it was several hours ticking by!  Colton took a nap, I was reading my book, and Kathi was still sitting out in the meadow after 1 1/2 hours not knowing where they were! 

 Finally about 7:30pm  Colton got a message from Chris that they had just made it to the cabin!  They had to go back to get Kathi, the sled and the puppy. Then they unloaded the 1 sled and came back for us and the rest of the stuff. As I recall they had to leave the other sled where it was until the next day but had to go out and get everything off it. It was close to midnight by the time we got everything there and got some dinner!  Needless to say, we will probably listen to Danny before we ever attempt a late afternoon expedition to the cabin again. Bob also always tried to get us to be smarter but some of us never learn, I guess. I say this because there are several more Cabin Christmas adventures that need documenting but they will have to wait.

*Note:  This year Skyler and his wife, Kara, Danny, Kathi and I were the only ones here in Walden for Christmas.  Skyler and I talked about going up to the cabin but decided not to even mention it to Danny!  We had a nice quiet fun time at Danny and Kathi's house. 

Digging out the snow machines and sleds!

My Bear

A smoky sunrise that I couldn't resist photographing

Last weekend I heard a story about a bear wandering around in a suburb of Denver. This time of year we hear a lot of these kind of stories because it is fall and bears are hunting for food to keep them going during hibernation. It seems like most of these stories end with the “authorities” loading them up and “relocating” them. I'm not positive but I think North Park might be one of the relocation destinations!  There have been lots of stories about bears getting into my neighbors' dumpsters and hanging around people’s ranch buildings and cabins even when there is a lot of activity going on. I have been living ( or spending summers) up here for over 40 years and had never actually seen a bear around here although I have seen lots of signs of bears on my daily walks. Our neighbors have had plenty of incidents and sightings even on our land but I must not be very observant. This brings me to the story of “My Bear”.

One evening about 9PM I was minding my business and reading my book when I heard a light scratching on the screen of the west window. I looked up thinking it was a chipmunk or bird even though it seemed too dark for them to be out. I thought I saw a big paw but just then the phone rang. It is a landline so I had to go across the room to answer. It was my brother and we had some business to discuss. The phone is located next to a big picture window with a smaller window on each side. The windows look out on our porch and then down to the creek.  One of those was open maybe about 6 inches. As we were speaking I looked out on the porch and right below the big window I saw a brown furry back of an animal. I thought it might be a coyote, so I yelled out the open window “Shoooo! Get off the porch!”  

The infamous window where the bear stared at me!

To my horror a bear stood up, put his front paws up on the big window and stared at me not 2 feet from my face with only a pane of glass between us!!!  The phone was still in my hand up to my ear and I screamed and screamed as loud as I could!  Poor Tip’s ears must still be ringing! (I had heard somewhere to make a lot of loud noise to scare bears away). The bear quickly ran away and I “calmly” said to Tip, “Well, that scared him away.”  My heart was beating fast and Tip had no idea what was going on!  I explained and he was laughing with me by the time we hung up. In my mind I was thinking, “His face sure did look like a cute Teddy Bear!”  That night I locked the doors and grabbed my air horn that my son-in-law insisted I take with me on my hikes, and took it to bed with me.  HA!

The next night I was in town until after dark and decided to stay with Danny and Kathi overnight.  We were visualizing me having to make a mad dash in the dark from the car to the door with “my bear” chasing after me! 

 When I told my neighbor about the incident she asked me if the bear had cattle sized ear tags, one in each ear. There were no tags. She had an incident a few years before and the Fish and Game fellows told her if they were tagged they were relocated bears. Mine had no tags so I guess he was wild.

Well, that’s my bear story!  I have some other wildlife stories to tell but none that exciting!  Oh, and my grandsons wanted to know why I didn’t take pictures!  I told them I was too busy screaming! Hehehe!

My Latest Project--Recipe Books!

OK, I finally have something for the blog!  This is a recipe book I made for my grandson Thomas.  He has just moved out on his own and I thought he might like some favorite recipes from his summers visiting us up at the cabin.  I am planning on making one for each of the grandkids, personalizing them with pictures of them from "the good old days".  I may even have to change some of the recipes depending on their own favorites from those fun summer days.

Free printable recipe card made with Smilebox Now, former students, don't get excited thinking I'll make recipe books for you anytime soon.  I have 10 grand kids and 3 (right now) great grand kids!  We'll see how long that takes!  I'm thinking if I did do a recipe book for each school I taught at, it would be kind of fun but the pictures for North Park HS might not be as good as WWHS because I didn't have digital back then and so not as many pics--well comparatively speaking.  It's a thought' though.

Catching Up on a Rainy Day

Puddles of water on our chairs

It's one of those rare ( for here) rainy, cool July mornings.  I could go out and sit on the porch, but I finally got in the mood to write in my blog and don't want to lose the chance.  I usually get my coffee and sit in the sun and read or watch the wildlife in our little neighborhood or just contemplate the day until Bob gets up and needs his breakfast.  I always have loved this quiet time to myself each morning.  Even when I was teaching and we started school at 7:00 AM I would get up early so I would have quiet time to myself.  Some of my best ideas and  thinking happens at this time.

Base Camp at the cabin.  We had extra beds in the house so many slept outside!

After our big fourth of July week with over 20 people here, I think we have recuperated!  What a great time we had.  All four of my children were here with most of their families plus we had a few extra friends that we love to have come visit.  One person dubbed our front yard "Base Camp".  I prefer that to "Tent City", which reminds me of jail in Arizona.

Some of us played ladder ball after most of the people had gone home.

Carla even brought up a portable potty with privacy tent included!  A real necessity with our one ugly bathroom (Which, by the way, is still waiting for renovations to happen!  Our life just seems to keep spiraling out of control).

Carla's portable potty tent.  Very handy for a crowd!

Even with about $300 dollars worth of groceries (some due to a power outage of the refrigerator and Danny's method of cleaning it--toss absolutely everything out including brand new mustard, Tabasco sauce and other sauces which last forever--so Kathi can scrub it out real well) and all the great food everyone brought up, we were running low on really basic stuff like salt, butter,bread--you get the picture.  Our car had a recall so we had to take it to Ft. Collins for service on the Monday that our last guests left.  While we were there, we went to Sam's and got stocked up on all the basic stuff to the tune of 400 more dollars!  Did I mention we have no grocery store any more in Walden?  (well, it 's bankrupt for the time being anyway).  We were home for a couple days getting groceries put away and me trying to get some embroidery done for the craft fair at the end of the month and then it was time to make our third attempt at getting Bob's driver's license.

One of the favorite hikes is to the lily pad pond.  It is 4.5 miles round trip and not for the wimpy ones!  Steep hills and a roaring river to cross in bare feet over slippery, sharp rocks!  Quite a group made it, though.

 Before I go on I want to clear up the refrigerator incident.  While Bob and I were in Seattle at Brendin's graduation and commissioning ceremony, a transformer was struck by lightning and threw 2 breakers( refrigerator and hot tub--weird but true).  Danny and Kathi had come up to Walden for Rodeo weekend and found the refrigerator off and very stinky.  They called and asked if we really meant to turn off that breaker.  Anyway they got stuck with spending part of their visit  cleaning out the fridge instead of with high school friends.  We are very grateful that they got that opportunity instead of what would have greeted us a week later when we got home! 

Darcy and Chris are cleaning their fish after a successful afternoon at the pond.

Now back to the Driver's license problems!  Back in March while we were still in Texas, Bob discovered that he needed to renew his driver's license before his birthday in late April.  We were not planning on being back in Colorado until mid May, so we went online to see how you get the license renewed when you aren't in state.  I found all the info and we went through all the hoops for people over 65 years old including an eye exam.  We sent in all the the paper work along with a check for $21 and waited for the license to come.  It had said it could be up to 6 -8 weeks so no big deal.  Well at 2 months I thought we should call to see what the deal was but Bob thought he had waited longer than that a couple times so we did nothing but wait for another month.  Finally the day before we left for Seattle, Bob decided maybe we needed to check on it.  I called Steamboat and they cut me short and told me people over 65 could not get a driver's license online and we had been on a fraudulent web sight.  I tried to explain that we had a cancelled check from the Colorado Department of Revenue but she insisted we had been bilked of our $21.  She wouldn't even look at her computer but did give me a phone number for resolving issues.  By the time I got done talking to her the other office was closed so I left our number.  The next day on our way between Saratoga and Rawlins I got a call from the issues department.  Yes, Bob had a license and it had been mailed on March 27.  They were very nice but said it was a Post Office issue and to deal with them. Our feeling was if we hadn't gotten it by then it was time to just say it was lost and get a duplicate.

How can anyone resist taking pictures of the Columbines.  Here's this year's offering.

When we returned from Washington and while we were stocking up on groceries for the Fourth in Steamboat, we stopped  in at the driver's license office only to find out they were not open on Friday 's and Monday's!  OK so the next attempt was on the next Tuesday.  By then JJ and Ozzie were here and were up for a trip over to Steamboat and a nice lunch at Cantina after Bob got his license.  Some of you are already laughing at us, I bet!  We got there about 10:45 and drew number 66.  There were people out on the sidewalk waiting!  They were on 50 and in the next half hour they never called another number.  They closed at 12 for an hour for lunch and still no number called.  We decided the Cantina sounded good so we enjoyed our lunch and got what we needed in Steamboat and headed home.

My latest effort.  A blingy cap.  Carla and I noticed they were all the rage in the tourist shops up in Deadwood.

The next installment of the saga happened yesterday.  We called over to the Hot Sulfur Springs Office and got all the info on what was needed and she mentioned we better come this week because she was going to have to go help them over in Steamboat for the next 3 weeks because they were having issues over there!  DUH!  Well we went over and got in line (1 person ahead of us no need for a number).  We were out of there and on our way home in less than an hour!  My only advice to North Parkers who need a driver's license is to call Hot Sulfur before heading over there!

That's it for today maybe a recipe for tomorrow.

Note to family who were at the cabin:  The baby robins (all 4 of them) just left the nest!  Bob sat there and watched them and the mother who continued to feed them on the porch.  She kept encouraging them until they finally hopped off the porch and went around the corner.  He never called me to come get pictures!

Meemo Is Back In The Mountains!

Looking over the ranch from the old airport hill.

And POOF! Powdered diet hot chocolate all over my face, down my front all over the counter and my shiny waxed kitchen floor.  Yep, I know we are back at our "cabin" in the mountains!  We have been here a week and I am beginning to get re-programed to our "high life" (as in 8500 ft. above sea level , all my 60's era friends).  I'm still puffing as I haul my laundry upstairs to the Blue Room to get washed.  My lips are getting over their dry air chappedness and I have caught my first fish from the pond so we know they didn't winter kill.

One of my favorite spring flowers, the Dog Tooth Violet

Here are some more fun adventures we have had this first week back home after 6 months on the road.  As usual the humming birds greeted us within 15 minutes of our arrival to let me know they needed their feeders put out.  The Canadian Geese are our alarm clock for a month or so before they head up to Canada.  We have spotted about 20 head of deer, mostly Does up on the ridge road and of course the antelope greeting committee was here as we came off the county road.  There are at least 2 Woodpeckers that have been pecking away on the house every morning and I have to go out and shoo them away.  Since the family spent Christmas up here without us and Thomas has been here several times over the fall and winter, I have to take stock of what is in the larder and what changes have taken place due to family members making repairs and leaving food up here.

An elk print in the mud.

My buddies, the humming birds are back!

As we come home from our winter wanderings, we have always made a stop in town at the local grocery store to pick up the basics before heading out the 25 miles to our home.  Imagine our surprise when we walked into the store and the shelves were bare!!!  Nobody managed to mention that to us over the winter.  They did have some basics but we were saddened to hear that they were in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and only could buy some basics for the last couple of months.  It does not look good for this community having a grocery store any more.  People are having to go to Laramie, Steamboat, or Granby at least 60 miles away to get their groceries.

The elk passed by here....

Signs of spring--some bear scat.

We spent a week using the staples left here and the meat brought up from Danny's and the shrimp and oysters from Rockport that we had brought up from Texas.  I made bread and we had fresh trout.  Someone had left some delicious cheesecake bites in the freezer and Mudslide and Pina Colada mixes in the fridge.  By the end of the week we were running out of fresh veggies, milk, cheese and peanut butter so we definitely needed to make a grocery run. We decided Steamboat was our closest store so we headed for City Market yesterday and picked up a couple weeks worth of food and wine, hopefully.  Bob got some shotgun shells and we picked up prescriptions at Walgreen's.

AAAh!  The buttercup up close.

 I love the drive over this time of year.  The leaves are actually out over there.  Still no sign of them here but give them a week or so.  I love the Yuppie grocery store over there, too. They have some great cheeses and lots of gourmet choices.  All come at high prices, of course.  One thing missing was the little peppers that I have written about in a previous post.  I also miss visiting with neighbors and friends while doing the weekly shopping.  But wait, we ran into two friends I used to teach with who happened to be visiting a teacher friend in Steamboat!  I hadn't seen them in many years!  I think we will be running into more North Parkers there too, as the checkout lady said they are seeing many people from over here.  They even furnished me with dry ice for the frozen stuff at no extra cost.

Spring flowers up in the trees

Back here, we had a few adventures as well.  We got the 4-wheeler out and took a ride up to the Little Jessie headgate to open it and get some water out on the meadow.  The Harvat's had beat us to it, but Bob was determined to set it right.  Since his Parkinson's Disease he has lost some of his balance(although his "miracle pills" are helping him tremendously).  I got him a walking stick and he made it to the dam but as he was climbing up on it he went over backwards.  I caught him and broke his fall a bit but he ended up in a pool of water so he was soaked but not hurt.  Nothing would do but he needed to see how far we could get up to the St. Joe headgate.  The ride was great. The buttercups and Dogtooth violets were forming a carpet  and we saw lots of sign of wildlife.  We made it to the "thinking rock" hill before we saw any snow.  About halfway up the steep hill was a huge snow bank.  It was time to turn around.
 

I love walking in spring!

A carpet of buttercups

I got off the 4 wheeler and decided to walk back so I could take pictures and Bob headed home to get out of his wet clothes. I had a great walk home, my first of the summer and got some nice artsy pictures along the way.

Crossing the Little Jessie weir so I don't get my feet wet.

There are lots more things to get done, like getting all my embroidery stuff set up, but we are pretty well set for another great summer.

I love my Dog Tooth violets!

Fall is Here!

The gate to our property.......

All that's left of the old red truck.

Here's a companion picture for the one in your guest bedroom, Kathi.

Indian summer is a favorite time for me!  Although summer is still the best season, I savor Indian Summer because it is the last hurrah before winter sets in for a looong time here in North Park.

The Haskins meadow with Delaney Butte in the distance.

The hay is up and the cattle are headed for home.

Funny how on the first day of fall I started craving "fall foods".  I guess I started seeing the leaves changing (very late for North Park this year) and digging out my sweaters and warmer clothes and that spurred on my fall appetite!  I also got on the ball and started some fall cleaning projects!  How weird is that!  Here are some pictures and a few of my "fall foods".

The pond looks like a mirror.

Bright red rose hips.

My Favorite Fall Foods

Chili, of course, is an all time favorite at this time of year!  Cream of squash, cream of cauliflower, tomato basil soups, potato soup, Grampa's stew, a new Mexican style stew I made up with Rotel tomatoes, Albondigos soup, posole, Beans and Rice Haitian, making chili sauce, tomato sauce, Italian sauce (anything to use up tomatoes before first freeze), fried mush (or polenta, a new favorite), cornbread, hoe cakes, potato pancakes, chicken pot pie, fall breads and muffins like apple, pumpkin, cranberry, banana, etc., corned beef hash, and chuck wagon beans.  Also anything zucchini to get them used up ( I found a great new recipe called Italian Zucchini Casserole with pepperoni, cottage and mozzarella cheeses, onions and fresh tomatoes that is really tasty!).  Pickled beets and eggs are a must using fresh beets from the farmers market! Hot apple cider or wassail, hot buttered rum, all kinds of hot chocolate, and, of course, all kinds of bar cookies but especially that all season favorite, Brownies!

  OK that's enough food fantasies for the day!  Now I'm going outside to take some fall pictures.

Our cabin in fall.

Oh the beautiful blue fall sky!

Today was absolutely a perfect day for picture taking and hiking so I was gone for several hours and took tons of pictures!  The peak of the fall colors here will be sometime next week, I think, so I may have to go out again but for today I took a lot of "artsy fartsy" pictures.  Some of them will have more meaning for the family but are still pretty.  I think I will have to do another post of just the fall pictures but here are a few to get started.

Lovely!

Fall is coming to the cabin!

Summer's last hurrah.  Indian Paintbrush is still blooming.

Lightning Strikes!

Carla and Izzy enjoy the view at the end of the Hidden Lakes road.

I found this in my archives as a draft so I don't think I ever posted it.  This happened in July during all our heavy rain storms.  I wrote this as an email to a friend and then decided to use it as a blog so here it is! I didn't take any pictures so this is it.

Awhile ago, we had some weather woes of our own! One Tuesday night, I think, we had a huge electrical storm with some very close lightning strikes.  It reminded me of Milwaukee or the PA mountains and the same thing happened.  I was taking a shower the next morning and all of a sudden there was no water!  It just came in about 10 second spurts and then was off for 20 seconds.  Although the lights never went out during the storm I felt sure we must have been hit by lightning.  I went out to the shop to see how the hot tub was doing and there were all kinds of problems out there.  The garage door was making humming noises and the hot tub was blinking on and off in time to the humming of the door!  Really weird.  Oh, and our phone didn't work either.  The phone guy came the next day and found the trouble about 3000 feet from the house.  The wires were fried!  He got that fixed and Bob called Harry Corkle (his nephew who is a building contractor) to see if he knew what might be our problem in the shop and our pump.  And as you may remember from my blog our road is almost washed out too and our little foot bridge is now completely washed out!  What a mess this weather has made this year!

Harry came to the rescue  this past weekend with big dump trucks of gravel to fix the road and all kinds of electrical stuff to test and repair our wiring.  It took 2 days and much digging up of lines and crawling around in our muddy crawl space to get the job done but in the end he determined that our wiring had been hit 8 places in all!!!  We were down here in Nebraska by the time he and Hughie got done fixing it and called us to tell me they had my hot tub back to heating again!  On the way down here we got to thinking that just maybe we needed to call our insurance man and see if it covered any of our problems!  So Bob called this morning and Yes!  it covered everything, so we are happy!

Choosing the Right Mug

Good Morning!  My most favorite thing to do is to sit out in the morning sun and drink my coffee

This morning as I was browsing through my vast collection of mugs, I got to thinking about my ritual of choosing the right mug for the day.   First I wondered if anyone else did this or if they had their one and only special one they had to use or the day wouldn't go right.  Then I realized I chose my mug according to how I wanted my day to go.

I have a whole set of these Norman Rockwell Christmas covers for The Saturday Evening Post.  I use them quite regularly because of their size and I love the pictures!

  I actually have several criteria I use.  One is the way a mug feels on my lips.  I prefer a rather thin mug rather than those heavier thicker ones.  They are for drinking cocoa not coffee.  Then, of course, I have to consider how hot they get in the microwave.  I have a few that get so hot they really burn your lips  and the coffee is still cold!  These I use only when I know I'm not going to reheat my drink or else I heat my coffee in another mug and pour it into the hot lips mug.  You may wonder why I would go to such trouble but each of my mugs has a story and I like the memories as I am sipping my morning beverage.  I really do go through my mugs trying to pick which one will brighten my mood for the day!  OK so I am weird!  My last consideration is how do I want to feel today or what do I want to think about while contemplating my schedule for the day.

Today I am using my Winnie the Pooh mug.  It says "Just a smakerel of Honey...." on the inside lip of it.  I got this mug on a trip to Nationals with a group of students.  We did Disneyland and I like to get souvenir mugs on those kind of trips.  (That's one reason I have so many mugs!)  It also reminds me of Mom and Dad and my sixth birthday when they gave me the book "Now We Are Six".  Dad would read to us every night and I have great memories of us memorizing many of the poems in that book!

Other mugs include one with a fancy handle with the bible verse, "Let the Earth be Glad!" from Psalms.  I like this one on a kind of rainy day.

A Chapman University one for grandmothers that Paul gave me when he was a freshman,

an "I'm an OHS Guardian Angel mug from my days up on the Duck Valley Indian Reservation (so many great memories!)

Side 1

Side 2, I love this mug!

My Rocky and Bullwinkle, Boris and Natasha mug from a Universal Studios theme park visit with students, 

a hot lips mug JJ gave me with my name on it, 

World's Best Mom one from Carla,

On the back of this is a description of a loon  from the encyclopedia !

A mug I got at the Mall of America in Minneapolis with a loon on it when I was at a Cluster Meeting with students,

a  mug that has a snowman on a lid  that JJ gave me for Christmas.  I think that one is a hot lips one, too and I  always forget it and get burned! 

Bob has a few favorites too (at least I always use them for his cocoa).  His newest one is a great John Wayne one that Chris (Kathi's and Danny's boy) gave him for Father's Day.  Marianne and Erin have always been my coffee for Christmas people.  Marianne also gets really good cocoa for Bob, and her boys have given us some great travel mugs!  JJ is the tea buyer for Bob.

A few more of the favorites

 I have plenty of other mugs to choose from but I'm sure you get my point.

This is one of a set of "cabin mugs" which must be used by the grandkids for cocoa after a day of playing in the snow!

Now that I have gotten all my mugs out and had a big memory fest, it is time to get to work.  Tomorrow will be another day with another great memory!  I have had so much fun sorting through my mugs this morning I'm going to have to do this with some of my other collections!

In the morning is a great time to sit out because there aren't so many mosquitoes!