This weekend we sure got a lot done and also we spent some time doing nothing. It was the absolute perfect weekend for both of these things.
And guess what? We actually got our bicycles out these past two days. Normally we get them out around the first week of May – yea, that for sure didn’t happen. So this is the latest that we’ve taken them out of winter storage and hopefully we won’t pay for it on our upcoming bike rides. The big thing that I noticed these past couple of days is that I went brain dead on the gears. Now not necessarily how to shift but when we were going up this one pretty big hill today I thought what in the world is going on? I mean I was just saying to myself, one leg two leg, one leg two leg…. I’m sure you get the picture. I just focussed on the top of the hill and only to realize that the big gear is the top 12 to 17 gears and not the bottom 1 through 5 gears. Kind of a big mistake don’t you think? But it’s crunch time baby and what doesn’t kill you makes you strong right? Well I was sure glad that it didn’t kill me that’s all I’m saying about that! We started our training on the bike trail yesterday and I sure like the Prairie Farm Recreational Trail in Calmar Iowa. A lot of the ride is under a canopy of trees and we rode to a local town to see what was going on there. Just a really nice trail.
Other things going on was that I was reading from my soap bible book and in it there is a section that said if you are a soap maker, then you need to make some bar shampoo. Well if the book said that this is something that everyone should try, I guess count me in! It had coconut oil, olive oil, and then something called jojoba oil. This last oil, jojoba oil is kinda weird because it’s not really an oil but a wax that’s found in the seeds of the jojoba plant. Now who said you can’t learn something new about soap making every day 🙂 So this soap is fragranced with some of my essential oils. I used lavender and frankincense in it. After I put the frankincense into it I thought holy smokes that was kinda dumb! That oil is one of my more expensive ones. Oh well, I guess too late right? Hopefully I like the soap.
Drying the hair soap out
But I got done with the hair soap and then I thought also to make a double batch of ‘Sassy Come Home’ soap. This soap has about a cup of milk in it, along with oatmeal, honey, and the normal oils. It’s one that seems pretty popular and I sure hope it turns out because it made a pretty big batch! It kind of looks good to eat doesn’t it?
Sassy Come Home soap
A couple of batches of beef jerky made it’s way into the schedule these past two days and it’s like a broken record because I sure wish I would have kept track on how many lbs I’ve made over the years. So if I would’ve kept track, I’d add another 4 lbs to the list.
A tradition with us is to also see how tall the corn is on the 4th of July. The old saying is that it should be knee high on the 4th of July, but as you can see it’s much taller than that. Someone was saying that last week it grew three leaves in a week. Now you almost could see the corn growing if it grew that fast! Daryl said that it’s close to tasseling out. It sure seems early for that. 
And to finish out the weekend – make sure that you’re ready for this. If you’re not sitting down, I’d recommend that you do find a chair. I’m just saying…
Here is the picture of the garden a couple of days ago
This is the before picture of the garden
OK, it’s not pretty I know! And here is the garden all cleaned up
Wait for it…..
Wait for it…
Here is the finished product. SHAZAM! In the garden I’ve got a both eating tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, banana peppers, green peppers, and a couple of different hot peppers, peas, onions, lettuce, chives, parsley, and a strawberry patch. Not a bad haul underneath all those weeds! Daryl had some extra grass the other day so he put it around a couple of the tomato plants to keep the moisture in. Yup, she’s lookin’ pretty fine if I say so myself! 
And our 4th of July weekend wouldn’t be complete without getting the Chevelle out to celebrate our engagement anniversary. See we got engaged 33 years ago on the 4th of July. Pretty romantic right? Well it is a fun weekend to get engaged or it’s also an easy weekend to remember when we got engaged. Maybe it’s just a little bit of both!
Looking over the hood of the Chevelle heading out for the night