It has been a “different” summer this year and things really didn’t go as planned. (I will have more on that in my next blog post). We had high expectations of getting things done with helping Dan’s mom (Joan) downsize all the stuff in her house. Things started out well, and we made a lot of progress on donating his father’s clothes, art supplies, golf clubs and other miscellaneous items of his.

But we discovered his mom is very attached to her own stuff, and our progress slowed down. “I have the room, why can’t I keep everything,” and “someday I might use that” were frequently uttered. Unfortunately, we did not accomplish as much as we had hoped this summer.

We did finish the list of things Joan wanted us to do for her while we were here this summer. And we were able to add some “safety features” such as an extra stair railing for the basement, new smoke detectors, and removing items from the top shelves in the kitchen. Dan’s sister Linda purchased a fiberglass Fire Blanket, and we spent some time practicing how to use it. Hopefully it will never need to be used, but it’s a good item to have if you are not comfortable using a fire extinguisher. Safety first!

Our time in Wisconsin is winding down and we will be leaving next week for our winter home in Yuma, Arizona. We are bringing several boxes of our belongings that we had stored down in the basement of his parent’s house, so we need to decide what to do with our own stuff. I am still in a decluttering mood, so it’s time to go through the stuff in our park model and shed!

When we arrived back in Wisconsin in May, we stayed at my brother Brian’s house, and helped them out with a few things. Annette was busy setting up their garden when we arrived.

When we visited again in July, the garden had grown so much, you could not even see the trellis in the back that their cucumbers grow on. It was a good season for vegetables.

During our stay at my brother’s house, he was taking care of their neighbors chickens and ducks while they were out of town. Brian and Annette had a dinner with friends one night, and so we were put in charge of rounding up the chickens and ducks, along with one stubborn guinea hen.

The chickens and ducks were happy to follow us into their pen for the night, but the guinea hen had other ideas.

That’s when we discovered the hen could fly, and off it went! Apparently we were too early to put them back in their pen at night. They like to go in at dusk, but given that we had never done this before, we thought it would be good to get them in before dark. (so it’s not just kids that protest an early bedtime)! It took about 15 minutes of coaxing the hen back, along with several of the chickens and the rooster coming back out of the pen to see what’s going on. Chicken farming is not in our future!

Also in May, I had a routine colonoscopy scheduled, so we spent some time at my sister Margie’s, while I was doing my prep. She had their half bath all set up for me, with a candle and magazines! It was needed after drinking my gallon of “delicious” lemon flavored prep juice. I’m happy to report my colonoscopy was normal, and I don’t have to do this again for 10 more years.

When we arrived back at Dan’s mom’s house, we began our summer of chores. Joan has always had a vegetable garden, and she wanted another one this year, so Dan rota-tilled the dirt and we put up the fencing to keep the deer and rabbits from eating everything.

The garden has provided plenty of beans, peppers and tomatoes this summer. The cucumbers, zucchini and peas were a bit hit or miss.

Our great niece, Raya, was graduating from high school, and we were able to see her final school choir concert.

Kami and Paul, her parents, had a fun graduation party at their house. Raya is attending Five Towns College on Long Island, New York where she will be pursuing a Performing Arts degree. She has already landed a role in the college’s performance of Godspell this fall.

Dan was able to go on a walleye fishing trip with his college roommate Mike. It has been over 13 years since Dan was able to join Mike on his annual family trip. They had a great time, and everyone came home with their limit of walleye.

While Dan was out fishing, I was able to help out with our nephew Kyle’s annual golf tournament, Babe Rock the Red, which is a fundraiser for the American Heart Association. This tournament was started several years back to honor Doug “Babe Rock”, his father (Dan’s sister’s late husband). This year’s tournament raised over $10,000. Amazing. Many of the foursomes co-ordinated their outfits, but this group took it up a notch!

We couldn’t figure out what was going on with the gutters/downspouts when it finally rained this summer. So Dan took it apart and discovered a huge amount of dirt, roots and debris had accumulated in the downspout. It took a few hours to clean this up because the downspout runs under the deck step.

My sister Margie participated in her second Sprint Triathlon for breast cancer survivors. You can read more about the Team Phoenix event from last year here.

We are so proud of Madge and all of her Team Phoenix members!

Another event that I was able to attend since we were in Wisconsin for the summer was my niece Breanna’s baby shower. (Brian and Annettes daughter). Bre lives in Colorado, but flew home for the shower. It was nice to see her along with other family and friends that I have not seen in years.

We had a few get togethers with two of Dan’s best friends from high school, Keith (Judy) and Kevin (Kathy). It was fun catching up with them, even if we had to listen to some of the same old stories!!

I’m an early bird, so I was able to get a nice sunrise photo off Keith and Judy’s deck.

And finally, Joan just celebrated her 88th birthday this past week. We were able to get together with Linda and her kids Kami and Kyle/Lauren for an early dinner followed by a trip to an ice cream bar. A good time was had by all!

Although it looks like we had an eventful summer, we had to put many things on hold, due to an annoying health issue that I had battled (and still battling) this summer. I’ll have more on that in the next blog post. As always, thanks for following along. It’s time to pack up and go!

Quote for the day: “‘Later’ is the best friend of clutter” – Peter Walsh