Slow week at the resort

I was kind of surprised that this is usually a slow week at the resort since it is 4th of July week but the guests were all long weekend guests.  Once I got the cabins all cleaned, I moved on to painting...and I love to paint!  I did touch up on some trim on the lodge and 1 cabin and painted about a bazillion posts to mark the end of the lawn.  Okay maybe it was only about 30 poles but it took a whole afternoon but it was a gorgeous afternoon to sit on my butt and work!!

Do you ever have those moments when you go...duh, I am definitely stuck in my thinking about something?   K wanted to try going on her own to chemo this week so she asked if she could borrow my personal cell phone (which I never use up here anyway except for occasional texts with kids and friends).  I brought it along to Bible Study on Wednesday night and brought along the charger to keep it plugged in overnight as it sometimes runs down when it is searching for service all the time.  K looked at me and said, "Can't I just turn the phone off overnight?"  Wow, since we do not have a land line in St. Cloud, I NEVER think about turning off my cell phone!!  K had a good laugh over the look on my face as I figured this out and admitted that I had thought really thought about that option!

The Bible Study group was smaller this week but we still had really good discussion about spiritual gifts versus talents and trying to determine what our spiritual gifts might be.  We still have 5 weeks left and will be digging deeper into this but it was interesting to provide and get input on our gifts from the other participants.  I am really looking forward to learning more as this has been a topic that God has pushed to the forefront lately for me.

We had 2 young men come into the resort yesterday evening to request if they could park their vehicle while they canoed the Big Fork River to Craigsville (where they also left a vehicle).  We said yes, as long as they would tell us about the trip when they get back on Sunday.  We have talked about doing a trip like that so it will be interesting to see what these 2 have to say about it (since they are MUCH younger than we are!). 

Bill blew out a tire on the car yesterday driving fast (so he says!) around a curve so we made a trip to Grand Rapids this morning to replace all of the tires (which have needed to be replaced for a while but it was just one of those things that you keep putting off).  Note to my sister, Mary - be sure to tell Jerry that we got new tires since he commented on this last time you were up!! :-)

We stopped at the Farmer's Market and what a totally wonderful time of the year to stop!  We stocked up on onions, lettuce, snap peas, beets, and kohlrabi.  The kohlrabi brings back such memories of growing these when we were young!  We would pull them up and hold them by the root while we peeled them with our teeth and ate them.  There is nothing quite like a fresh kohlrabi still warm from the sun with dirt still hanging on the root!

If you are not familiar with kohlrabi, here is some info on them and a pic.  Kohlrabi or knol-khol or German Turnip is a stout, round "tuber" like vegetable of the brassica family; same as that of cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, collard greens, and brussels sprouts belongs to. This stem vegetable is native to  in Europe.  Scientifically known as Brassica oleracea (Gongylodes Group).

We stopped at Deer River at the "Wild Rice Festival" as there is a lot of wild rice grown and harvested up here.  We checked out the flea market and Bill got binoculars to watch birds and I got a T-shirt that says "This grandma ROCKS!".   There was an option of a wild rice luncheon with wild rice hot dish and lots of side dishes and pies but we decided that we probably did not really need the pie!  We did check out the local Lion's booth and have great hamburgers.  We had a very nice retired couple from Wisconsin join us and had a great time talking with them about their farming life and locations and people we knew in Wisconsin.  I got a fried bread (which probably was not much better for me than the pie we passed up!) that was as big as the paper plate and was still hot and fresh.  It was so big that we shared it with our new friends from Wisconsin as they had not had fried bread in a long time.

We listened to the practice for the country singer contest that is being held this evening.  Some were very good but some needed a little more practice!  However, the people watching was every bit as entertaining as the music!  Wow, I saw enough stretch marks exposed (on women and men!) to last for quite some time!  We also got to see some really adorable little kids running around and dancing.  Watching little kids dance is such a joy as they are totally uninhibited and having a great time!

We stopped at a couple of garage sales on the way home...who can resist garage sales?  Certainly, not Bill and me!!  We had been to one of them yesterday but decided we would stop again.  Yesterday, Bill got a great deal on some files to sharpen his chain saw and on a camping shower bag (where you fill it with water and hang it in a tree to warm up the water).  We will be giving that a try as it would provide us some shower facilities without having to run to the resort.  Today, I mostly got blankets, sheets, and comforters for the resort.  We go through quite a few of those so it is good to have an extra stock on hand. 

Now we are back at the cabin and trying to decide if we are going fishing or just hanging out...touch choice since both seem like good options!