Around Here

 When you picture a cute lil' vintage trailer you probably don't think of this...

This a painful part of the project.  Hubby is a perfectionist and I am not.  That said, he is right and I am wrong because he is a craftsman and I am a decorator (my time is coming).   Thus the floor was replaced and will last another fifty years.  Just in case I want to go camping when I'm 105.  Yesterday he did get one of the walls cut and ready to nail.  Many cuts and curves so it's not an easy project.  Patience grasshopper.

 I went junkin' with Chris and Shelly to an estate sale.  I was a doubter and really thought there would be nothing I wanted or needed.  I stand corrected.  Vintage Christmas and a cute little suitcase came home with me.

 We have a very prolific fig tree.  Not really a fan of figs but make a little jam and give many figs away.  Friends, Mike and Chela love the figs.  Saturday Mike showed up with Chela's tamale pie for us.  They wanted to show their appreciation for the figs.  Again, I stand corrected.  Something muy bueno can come from figs.

 I usually leave summertime kicking and screaming but this year we actually had summer in the Pacific Northwest so I am just enjoying the last bits and ready to move toward Fall.  Evenings on the patio are savored and the beginning of fall light enjoyed.

 A little game of whiffle ball ended badly on Sunday at my folks.  My Mom was like no big deal, we replace those windows easily.  She loves having her family and the guys' friends over for Sunday dinner.  And we all know that Collin is her favorite.  So it's all good.

 Snowflake is for sale.  Snowflake and the '57 Aloha both need to be in the carport for winter and it's pretty tight.  She is a fun car.  If interested please send me a private message.

 Once a year I make a peach pie to share with our favorite wait staff at Streatfood and Kulshan Brewery. Last night was the night.  Braden joined us one last time before going back to college.  It was a perfect evening, the friends, the food, the weather, and so much laughing.  And the peach pie was pretty tasty too.

Now you're all caught up and you know I'm not always right.  But that's okay.  

It's all good here at the Stone House.  We will be laboring for Labor Day this year with a bit of fun thrown in too.  Enjoy the last bits of summer!

This Week & A Guys Update

 Our friend from MO, as in Missouri, is visiting.  Becky Beck is here!  We had a lil PaRTay at Jodi's #fancyshanty at Birch Bay on Tuesday evening.

Jodi and Becky are best friends and when your sister has a best friend you become friends too. 

 My other sister, Kathi and her BFF Janice.  

A nice series of pics of my sisters with their other sisters, if you will.  

We walked to the C Shop for dessert and to the beach for sunset.  Holly wanted to jump the fence for a vintage trailer.  Two trailers on one lot, one for each of us.

 Yesterday I had the trifecta, I talked to all of my guys.  It makes my day!

Danny was on a local morning show making a martini for restaurant week. 

Besides being on television Danny is busy working at Mercy hospital and Bistro Bella Vita.  Next week he starts school.  His sweet girl, Jess is teaching school and going back to school to work on her masters degree.  They are very busy with jobs and school but the end result will be worth it because Danny want to move back to where he belongs, the PNW.  

Danny sent me this real life pic.  Yeah, it's not all TV personality...When I look at the picture of Danny in his scrubs I think of the show Friends.  Remember when Joey Tribbiani played Dr. Drake Ramoray on Days of Our Lives.  Oh yeah, it's close.

I've talked to Sam several times over the past few days.  His car was broken into and his camping gear stolen. Sam and Angela went to Montana with a group from their church, they spent a night in Spokane on the way there and were robbed.  I had to find receipts from Christmases past.  Not an easy task but I did pretty well and it looks like insurance will cover a decent portion.  They did have a great trip in spite of the broken window and the loss of their backpacks.   Sam and Angela are busy living happily ever after...
I "borrowed" this pic of Sam and Angela from their pastor's FB.  I love how Sam is watching Angela.
Such a love as this.

And Max.  He finished his internship yesterday and is moving to George, WA.  I had asked him several times if he wanted me to come to WaWaWA to help him move.  Oh no, he'd be fine.  It turns out I should have gone because last night he called to ask how to pack.  Uh, put it in a box.   Well Mom what about...? Uh, put it in a box.  Some days that momwisdom is valuable stuff.  If I had a dollar for every time I said, "put it in a box" last night I wouldn't be going to work today.  I think he got the hang of it though.  I'm excited for him and this next step.  When I asked him about unpacking he told me that Kassie would come over to help him.  

So, it looks like my work here is finished.

And I'm good with that.  Good luck Kassie.  I love you!

Come On In

Come on in, it's been a awhile.  We'll get all caught up on life at the Stone House.

 Last post I shared my blog book, today I'd like to share my instagram books.  I found out about these little gems on Dear Lizzy.  Sixty instagram photos per book, you may edit, choose your cover, and give books a title.  I used @tamraraery On Instrgram.  Not very creative but that is what it is.  The books are $6 each and I am now set up to automatically receive my next book when I hit 60 more instagrams.  I think I'm at 36+ now so it will be a bit.  But when I do, they will notify me to edit and then book will arrive by mail.  

Who doesn't love some happy mail?

 These little books will be nice for me to take to the old folks home.  A small basket of books by my rocker to flip though and get nostalgic with someday.

 Yes, it adds a date at the top of the page, yes, it prints in chronological order and yes, it prints your caption and hash tags.  The app for your phone is called chatbooks and it is a free app.  Shipping is also free.  That's a lot of free!

 I spent a day cleaning appliances for the '57 Aloha last week.  The bottom heat shield in the oven was written off as garbage but I scrubbed and scrubbed and it is once again shiny and silver.

 Hubby got the trailer base cleaned up, removed the rust and painted it.

 He also worked on the new floor.

At the end of the afternoon we were feeling pretty good about our accomplishments.  I went into the house to get some ice water for us when the phone rang.

We got a call from Max, he had an accident.  A large tire blew as he was adding air.  He was taken to Urgent Care and treated there.  The gashes on his chest were pretty nasty. The air ripped his shirt and skin off.   I'm not including photos cuz it'd give you a sick stomach.  He temporarily lost his hearing and he permanently lost some skin but he's okay.  It shook him up but the guys working with him were even more upset.  They could not find him because of the dust from the explosion.  The disc (I found it spelled disc and disk)  machine was new this year and the tire had less air than the others so they aren't sure why this happened.  We are so thankful Max is healing and is going to be fine, it could have been so much worse.

So, I laid awake Monday night wondering if they'd really checked him for internal bleeding, cuz I'm the Mom, that's why...  But it's all good now.

 We are loving the garden produce that comes with August.  And we had a few cooler days for walking.  I was trying to balance out the fair food last week.

 Hubby and I spend our evenings on the patio soaking up the last of summer nights.

 Karen and I spent a day in Anacortes shopping and lunching.  We had lunch at Girl'd Cheese, which I highly recommend.  Your grilled cheese sandwich comes with homemade tomato basil soup for dipping.  We shopped in the antique stores and at Pearl Buttons.  A fun girl's day out.

 Shelly and I worked at the Tough Enough to Wear Pink booth at the NNW Fair on rodeo night.  Of course, we had more fun than should be allowed.  We pretty much had a class reunion at the Fair, including Audrey Doesburg!

 Saturday evening we went to the fair and saw Collective Soul in concert.  Thanks Dor!  We went with Mark and Karen.  Braden dropped us off and picked us up at the gate so we didn't have to find parking.  All we had to do was bring him home a plate of poffertjes.  It was a fun night and a great show.

 I love a baked potato at the fair. And I got a new potato cookbook form Farm Friends.  That always makes my fair experience complete.

I think we are all caught up.  This week I need to dust, vacuum and start cutting back in the flower beds.   August is dry and dusty and my house looks it.   

The last two weeks of August are the fastest weeks of the year.  Enjoy!  

Volume Four

 While there may be several reasons why I have maintained my blog one of the big ones is Blurb.  Blurb is a company with software that  slurps  the blog, has editing tools, and then prints the blog into a hard cover book.

 Volume IV of  The Lady in the Stone House  arrived this week.  I don't change the writing or content but I do use the editing to arrange and resize the photos with each post.  I keep some photos fairly small to keep the book size reasonable.  I usually slurp about a year and a half per book.  My next slurp will begin April 2013.  I choose my end date based on number of posts and events in my life.

It's rewarding to get the blog in print and for someone that doesn't scrap book it is a nice alternative.

Can anyone buy a copy?  Yes, but my books run between $95 to $125 per copy.  So, you may want to think that through and just read it online.

By the way Blurb doesn't pay me to mention them on my blog.  

No one pays me anything, ever, to write this blog.

A Long and Rambling Post

Last week Hubby went to Eastern Washington and brought home three boxes of peaches.  I've been eating peaches for every meal and freezing tray after tray of peaches for winter.  They are delicious.  And they were ripening fast.  So, though Hubby had just been there and though I really needed to stay home and freeze peaches we took off for Eastern Washington on Thursday evening.  Hubby had found a source for appliances for the '57 Aloha on his last visit and the seller was ready.  We looked at the calendar and decided we should make a quick trip.

 We left after work Thursday evening and once we were on the road we realized that DOT is blasting on top of Snoqualmie Pass, at eight p.m.  We decided to try to beat the clock and get over the pass before eight.  This meant no stop for dinner, pray for no traffic and GO!

Once we were past the blasting area we started to think about dinner.  We drove through Cle Elum and didn't find anything that looked good.  We like to take the back roads to Ellensburg, it's a gorgeous drive.  When we got to the Red Horse Diner we were hungry.  But it was worth the wait.  It's a great little diner filled with memorabilia and it has yummy burgers.

 We tried their local IPA and it was a winner.

 Anytime I can watch beef cattle grazing, I'm pretty happy.  We finally got to George, visited a bit and went to bed.

 Friday morning we had coffee with Hubby's Mom and then went to do some picking and harvesting.  Okay, so the trailer doesn't look like much.  It's going to become a duck blind so that is why the appliances could be sold to us.

I didn't realize that we were getting a sink too.  I did a happy dance.  It's all cleaned up now and the pump works.

 The ice box still had its instruction manual inside.  Squeal!

We got everything in the Element, went back to the farm, showered, took Mom for lunch and then hit the road.  Since we still had a little room in the Element we stopped in Thorp and bought peaches for my folks and one more box for us.

We took I-90 all the way into Seattle, where we met Sam and Angela for dinner.  We went to Vons 1000 Spirits on First Ave.  I took one lousy pic.  It was fun to be downtown on the Friday night of Seafair with all of the Coast Guard and Navy guys walking around in their dress uniforms.  We had a nice visit with Sam and Angela and then drove home.

 The sunset on Friday evening was crazy gorgeous so it was a pretty drive.

 I was looking at Pinterest on the way home too.  Ooh, I can not wait to decorate the '57 Aloha.  Peaches!

 Millions of peaches, peaches for me.  Peel, slice, freeze on a tray, break up and bag them, repeat...

 We had a rustic peach tart on Saturday evening.

 And the figs are ripe so I need to make fig jam.

 If you want some figs, send me a message.  They are particularly nice this year.  It is a u-pick situation.

I'm off to clean my new stove and ice box and yes, freeze more peaches.  It's just peachy here!