Red Beauties

Wow, that's a lot of strawberries. The kids went and picked berries this morning......15 pounds worth! Ended up making four batches of freezer jam, one Rhubarb Strawberry pie and then froze a few packages of berries. The berry making went fast with all four of us involved in the whole process.

Simply a beautiful day with lots of sunshine and blue skies. Bike man and I spent several hours out on the lake this morning taking water clarity readings to monitor for blue green algae. Just a nice day all around for relaxing. It's hard to believe we were dealing with a heat index of 100 degrees yesterday.....so thankful for nice weather today.

We Were Just Enjoying Our Dinner When......

So we're sitting on the deck eating our roasted corn on the cob and grilled brats, when all of a sudden the winds started howling. We literally had to scramble and pick up the plates, glasses and food from being blown off the table. Bike man and the Son tried to crank down the table umbrella before the table blew over. At the same time all of this was going on, we heard and saw a big huge crack.......

Right before our eyes, one of our large pine trees along the lakeside hill just snapped in the wind and blew over, hitting the compost tumbler, another tree and part of our small garden shed.

The tree even hit the canoe, cracking it and puncturing a hole in it.

Oh man, I loved our compost tumbler! Totally smash. I'm thinking we'll need to call our insurance company to cover the cost of the compost tumbler, canoe and cost of cutting up the pine tree. Geeze, what a bummer.

Later on we received some minor storms, but nothing severe. Surprisingly, it went from 90 degrees to 70 degrees in a matter of three hours.

Heat = Trail Ride

I wasn't going to let the hot weather drag me down! Hot temps mean trail ride.....to Durand. What's at Durand? DQ of course!

Kim and I treated ourselves. Afterall, it was a sweat ride. Ice cream helps, I promise.

Yup, this was how hot and humid it was today. My camera caught the moment! Great ride. I wouldn't trade it for anything. 20 miles.

Bikeman? He did his own road ride around Tainter Lake late today.....20 sultry miles.

All Work & A Little Play

Always hard at work. Bike man has now figured out how to haul his water monitoring equipment around. Today, he headed into Menomonie to meet up with some adult volunteers that are trying to get kids involved in the environment.

All his water equipment fit right onto the BOB. How cool is that? In and back from Menomonie (25 miles). The best part, he got out for a spin and accomplished some water monitor training. Ahhhh, the retired life......I'm envious.

Cooking Tip 101

Does anyone remember what soy textured vegetable protein is? Kind of a big fad back in the 70's. Well, we decided to buy some this past weekend at Mississippi Market (food co-op). I wanted to extend ground beef for making grilled hamburgers.

The hamburgers turned out great. So easy too. For 10 0z. of ground beef, I took 2 heaping tablespoons of the textured vegetable protein and added it to 1/2 cup boiled water, plus 1 tsp. beef bouillon....let soak for 5-10 minutes. Add to your ground beef with some chopped onions and seasonings to taste. Instead of a normal three hamburgers, I was able to make 4 hamburgers! Before serving I topped the hamburgers with swiss cheese and a slice of tomato. Perfectly juicy and moist. I highly recommend adding textured vegetable protein to hamburgers or meatloaf.

Holy cow, were did this wind come from? Came home after work all set to ride the trail with my friend, however, the winds were gusting to over 30 mph....even saw white caps on the lake!! Postpone our ride till Thursday.

Always a Gift

Every sunset is unique and I never get tired of them. It's kind of like a little gift at the end of the day that lingers just long enough to make you feel good!