We have a new printer.  It only has one problem, I can't use it to download pictures from my camera yet.  We have to get a USB card reader first, whatever that is.  I know so little about computers, it's  ridiculous.  Our friend from NC just visited.  He's knows practically everything about computers.  He very patiently explains things to me, and when he's gone I can't remember a thing.   My husband is not interested in learning.   I think our friend is going to send us the card reader thing, so I hope I can figure it out when it comes.  The point of the story is that if I post any pictures they will be old ones.

It finally warmed up here today.  I even sat on our swing in the sun for a few minutes this afternoon.  The wind was blowing enough to make the cottonwood murmur.  I do believe we have the mother of cottonwood trees in our yard.  Did you know that only female cottonwood trees produce cotton?  That surprised me.  I don't know why because it makes sense.  Men don't birth babies.  Roosters don't lay eggs.  (At least I don't think they do.  If the Africans found a very small egg, they said it was a rooster egg.)  I was curious so I looked up cottonwood trees on the internet.  That's how I learned that only the female trees produce cotton.  Don't you believe everything you read on the internet?  Anyway this tree is huge, and usually makes a terrible mess for a long time each year.  This year wasn't as bad as some years.   I wouldn't mind if that particular tree was gone.

The NC company left, the OH company came, and next will be the Madrid people, next Tues.  Today I went to a birthday party for our 7 year old grand-daughter.  She had a good time.  Snacks, presents, cake, a pinata, and lots of playing.  Lots of children, and several adults came.  The party was outside.  So glad the weather was nice.

Mama Cottonwood on right.

I'm still working on grapes.  This is now my grape juice pillowcase.  I hope I'll be able to find it next year.  This was a suggestion I found on the internet.  At least the pillowcase was.  The rest of it I rigged up by myself.    The case is pinned around the pole using diaper pins.  I wonder if you can still buy diaper pins?  I hope so.  Sometimes they come in handy.

Our son in law went fishing in the nearby lake and caught a huge bass.

It weighed over 6 lbs and was 24" long. He was happy. They kept it to eat for dinner.

Central African Republic is a world away. Why should I care?

Switzerland is one of my favorite countries.  It is so beautiful.  We were able to visit there in the 1960's and 70's because back then you were allowed to make stops on international flights without  paying extra as long as you were going in the same direction.  Plus we had friends there to stay with.  So, no extra $ for planes or motels meant opportunities for us.  Since we were traveling with our children, we wouldn't have been able to afford it otherwise.  We made all our trips to and from Africa in December which is probably not the best time for sightseeing.  I'll tell you this...........there is nothing colder than a castle in December!  Of course, when people lived there, they would have had fires in the huge fireplaces, so I guess you could warm up once in awhile.

What countries have you been to that were beautiful? Of course, many parts of the US are beautiful. We're not able to travel much now because of my mother living with us. And when we do travel we usually go to TX to see the family........kids and grand-kids, and now 2 great grands and another one on the way. We are blessed.

October is coming.  Does anyone know whether I will still be able to access my archives if I don't renew my subscription?

We have good friends coming Tues. for a short visit.  They plan to leave Fri. morning and Fri. afternoon 2 ladies are coming from Ohio to participate in a conference at Grace College.  They'll leave either Sat. or Sum. morning.  The following Tues. my brother and his wife will fly here from Spain.  They'll stay almost a week.  So the rest of Sept. will be fun but busy.

Our weather has turned cold.  It's been a crazy year...........weather-wise.  When the sun shines again I hope to go pick the rest of the grapes.

John 15:1,2 "I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he trims clean so that it will be even more fruitful."
Verse 9. "As the Father has loved me so have I loved you. Now remain in my love."

I think the grape juice/jelly marathon is almost done.  Whew!  The grapes must have been trying to make amends for the lack of apples this year.  Shh.  Please don't tell anyone.  I don't put the jars in a hot water bath.  I just sterilize them real good, fill them, turn them upside down for 10 minutes, and cover them with a towel, then right side up, and listen for the pop as they seal.  It's such a satisfying sound.   So far none of us have ever died or even been sick from doing them this way.  If by chance a jar doesn't seal, it goes in the frig and we use it first.

I was supposed to take my mother to the Dr. today for a routine check-up.  It rained hard this morning, and has been raining since then.  There's a short distance to walk from the car to the front door of the Dr's office.  It slopes gently.  For my mother it's a long steep hill, and she walks so slowly that we would be soaked by the time we got there.  So we postponed the visit until next month.  They do have a wheelchair for general use, but   she  refuses to use a wheelchair or even her walker.  She does use the walker to get to the bathroom at night, but  so far she hasn't used it in public.

We might get some storms tonight, but I'm ready if we do.  We have a basement, flashlights, kerosene lanterns, and buckets of water in each of the bathrooms.  If electricity goes out the only thing we won't have is water.  We have a gas stove, a small gas heater, and a woodstove.  We do have an old generator too.  We haven't used it in so long that we don't know if it works anymore or not.  I hope we won't have to find out.

For your viewing pleasure, here is a picture of the Chutes ti Mbi (Mbi Waterfall)  in CAR.

Please keep praying for peace in that country (and others too, of course.)

Yay, I found a picture of Katy.  She was the first dog we had after we were married.  Our oldest girl was so afraid of animals that we thought it would be a good idea to get a dog.  Her brother was only 15 months younger, and he usually copied her so he was afraid of animals too.  We went to the pound and picked out the most laid back puppy they had.  She was, as I said before, half basset hound and half terrier.   The first 2 weeks we had her the children would not walk on the floor when she was in the room.  They spent the days on the couch and chairs, climbing or running and jumping from one chair to another.  Finally they got used to her.

We had Katy until we went to Africa, then we gave her to a family in the church who gave her a good home.
The baby in the picture is our 3rd child, Margaret, the one who lives in TX. now. We moved from Calif. to Indiana when she was only 3 months old.

Katy was not fond of the snow when it came. We had been given a sled, and when we tied Katy outside she stood on the sled so her feet wouldn't get cold. She was a California girl.

The loyal watchdog, defending her master's garage.

This is Isabella, commonly known as Izzy. She belongs to our daughter and son-in-law who live next door to us. Izzy is loyal most of the time. Occasionally she takes off and runs for parts unknown. She has even been known to go roll in the horse poop at a nearby stable. Of course then when she comes home she gets a thorough bath.
Most of the dogs I have had or known well have been girls. Let's see, there was Katy and Carolyn, Susie, now Izzy and Judy, and my very favorite......Mindy. Someday if my printer ever decides to speak to my computer again I will try to show you a picture of Mindy. She was a schnauzer-poodle mix. Katy was a Terrier-basset hound mix. People used to look at her and say "What is it?"  Carolyn was  german shepherd. Izzy is a boxer with some greyhound in her. I don't remember what Susie was....we didn't have her for long. When I was young we only had one dog for about 3 months. He was a boy dog, and we named him Duffy.

Katy had puppies. We don't know a thing about the daddy, but her 8 puppies were too big for her, and she had to have a C-section. Now this was a dog that my husband never liked. If the phone rang she would try to lead you to it, walking slowly right in front of you. She had one puppy at home, and then nothing else for a long time. When I took her to the vet he said she would have to have a C-section because the next 2 puppies were stuck. I borrowed the vet's phone to ask my husband about it. (This was way before cell phones.)  He grudgingly said OK, so the vet delivered 7 more puppies. We named the boys, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. The girls were Daisy, Rose, Lilly, Pansy and Fern. We had a full house for awhile, and a lean pocket-book after paying for the surgery. We hadn't exactly budgeted for an event like that.
My mom lived in Florida then, and we were still in Calif. She decided 8 children were enough for any girl, and sent us a check to cover the cost of another operation for Katy. So no more puppies after that.

If we're friends on FB you may have already seen these pictures.  This is why I haven't posted for awhile.

I think the grapes must be trying to make up for the lack of apples this year.

Washing, and waiting for the bugs to crawl off.........little stink bugs, spiders, etc.

Stemmed and ready to cook, but no room yet in the big pot.

Aren't they pretty? I canned 8 pints of straight juice last night. There's still a pitcher of juice in the frig that I want to turn into jelly sometime today. Also about a pint in the freezer. Plus there are still more grapes on the vine. One of my grand-daughters came yesterday and I watched her 2 little girls while she picked a bucketful. It didn't take her long, which was good because it was So Hot out yesterday afternoon. Thankful that today is much cooler. Well, I'd better get dressed and get started. Two little grand-daughters will be over this afternoon, so I'll be busy then. I'd like to make oatmeal-raisin cookies for them first (and for me). Grin.

My mother is a good artist.  We have lots of her paintings in the family.  I'm not much of an artist.  However, apparently my grandchildren are artistic.  The picture below was drawn by the 6- almost 7 year old.

The next one was done by the barely 5 year old.

God is the Best Artist of all.