Grapes

 The first time I laid eyes on our current home in Wisconsin it was in February. 

Everything was covered in snow and ice.  I had no idea what type of  trees, vines and plants

were on the property and at the time it was not a huge concern.

When Spring decided to show up and my stuff bloomed out 

I made great discoveries. I had an apple tree, two pear trees, tons of wild berry bushes

asparagus,chives and a huge grapevine.

I was very skeptical about future production because our place had not exactly been

well maintained the last couple of years.  In fact,  I heard neighbors talk of how

the yard had gone unmowed for an entire year!

But this overgrown vine produced!

And what do you do when you have grapes?

Make jelly of course.

Here is the mass of vines.

They produced great Concord grapes

I picked a bowl full.  About 5 pounds or so.

I rinsed them off, removed the stems and put them in a pot.  The jelly directions suggested that you mash them with a potato masher but I didnt have one so I used my submersible blender instead.

Worked great.

Turned the stove on to bring them to a boil. 

It sure looked pale and foamy.

After they boiled, I ran them through a strainer and had grape juice.

It wasn't as purple as I thought it would be but nothing you could buy in the store 

would ever smell as 'grapey' as my kitchen did at this time!

 After I brought it back to a boil, I added the sugar and pectin.

 Then I jarred it up.  All that work and just four and a half pints.

Sure am thankful our winter meals don't rely on what I can in the summer.

 Of course I had to try it out as soon as it cooled and set.

It is a success.

Camping

We have had the Botteron boys for the week. 

 Its actually the first time that they have ever stayed with us minus their Mommy.

Of course we always want the trips to Gramma and Papas to be memorable.

So we took them camping on the Wisconsin River.

They played in the dirt.  Levis favorite camping thing.

Levi was digging a hole.

Mason was building a wall around his buried Minion.

They got a little dirty. But that is part of the fun

 Mason roasted some marshmallows over the fire

 And Levi loved his s'mores

Then the boys ran to play in the forest

"Gramma, can you see us?"

"Take a picture of me running"

 They took showers in the camper but 

they really needed a good soak bath.

Balloons and Chocolate

Summer time is here and we will be having a few of our Grandsons for a about a month . 

 Right now Adrian is visiting and we have been doing some fun things.  Most of them his idea.

Today we made chocolate bowls.

We started with  some water balloons.

Minus the water of course.

We blew them up and dipped them in melted chocolate.

After we let them cool in the fridge for a bit, 

we took them out and popped the balloon so we could pull it out.

Oops!  some of the balloon stuck. 

No worries, we scrapped it out with a spoon.

Chocolate bowls ready to fill.

We chose some vanilla ice cream, strawberries,

whipped topping and of course, 

MORE chocolate!

Roxy a.k.a. Roxanne, Roxster, Roxy Doxy

On January 14, 2015 we gained a new member of our family, Roxy.

Its kind of like gaining a toddler and a sassy teenager all in one.

Lets just say that she was a little more than I bargained for.

But she LOVES to go for rides

 So today I took her to the river.

and she loved it!

"That was fun Mom!"

Happy dog

Shake it off

Wait! Who is that?

This is Alex. He was making his first solo canoe trip down a 92 mile stretch of the Wisconsin River.

He planned on it taking about 2 weeks. Unfortunately , a dam up river opened up and the river is high and swift.  A lot of the large sand bars that he had planned on stopping at are 6 feet under water.  

So, he decided it might be best to stop after day 3 and try again another time.  

I dont make it a habit to stop and talk to random people.  He saw Roxy playing in the river

and asked me if I knew where the nearest pay phone was. 

 His service provider didnt cover this area and he needed to make arrangements to get picked up.

So I let him use my phone.  He called his Mama. She is picking him up in the morning.

Botteron Boys

So, it was a long, long winter and I seriously did very little.

 And my good lense got broken so my picture taking was minimal. 

The photos I did take mostly ended up on Facebook instead of this blog.

Anyway, I am almost afraid to say it but winter is mostly over here.

Kate and Mason had spring break from school so the two of them and Levi

came up for a visit.  We did lots of stuff.

One of the places we went was called  the

It was great fun and well worth the cost! 

We were having way to much fun to take pictures.  

That and I didnt even take my camera.

But here are a few photos of things we did on other days.

(Not in this particular order)

The day before they arrived I colored some pasta 

with rubbing alcohol and food coloring.

Super easy!

Then I laid it out to dry.

 I was mostly concerned that the purple looked very brown 

when it was wet but when it dried it was beautiful!

  

Levi loved making a necklace out of it.

While he was stringing it up he was listing all the people that he was 

going to make one for.  "Gram and Gramma Betty and ummm, okay I'm done."

Modeling the only one he completed.

Dont mind that huge green knot on his forehead.  

His mother assured me it was from last weekend and he was fine.

 Papa  bought a child size .22 for the grands and Mason couldnt wait to try it out.

There was lots of instruction

Taking aim.

Let's check it out.

They did this every. single. day.

This was the last day.

Pretty darn good if you ask me!

He did inform me that the hole in the head was a zombie shot.

 I also made delicious corned beef and cabbage on St. Patricks day.

But they opted out and had hot dogs and mac & cheese

Arent my little Irish boys adorable

One day we cut a noodle in half and had marble races on the stairs.

The giggling was endless.

And yes they wore out pajamas a lot.

They were on vacation you know.