End of Summer

I've got a blister on my hand today from raking.  My granddaughter and I played outside from about 10-3 today.  It was such a beautiful day.  Not a touch of humidity to be had.  A nice cool breeze.
I raked and picked up the yard.  Time to start thinking on winter preparations!  While I raked and picked up she played with her two new friends.  Let's see if I can remember their names. Sally the Caterpillar and earthy the earth worm I believe.  Probably have those both wrong.  She tends to change names of toys quite often.  For a while it was Diesel.

 She built little habitats for them with food and water.  I'm expecting the caterpillar to escape during the night.  The worm I'll have her let go tomorrow.
The yard looks good.  Much better than it did.  I raked all under the swing set and the table and chairs that I like to sit at.  All along the end of the house where stuff seemed to just get left until "later".  Wound up the extra water hoses but did not put them in the shed because of the bees nest.

My next project is to clean that room as you walk into the house.  It is the biggest catch all in the house.  I need to have my husband's dump truck on hand so we can fill it and haul stuff to the dump.  I'm thinking this coming week might be a good one to do that.  No rain in the forecast so if I need to move everything outside and start fresh, I can.
And of course while we played outside the boys had to come visit us and "help" out.  The only thing they "helped" with was eating the grapes and ripping open my bag of shavings.

These guys have crazy horns.  They had been burned off but are growing back all weird.  Bo, on the right has only one. Luke on the left has two but one is really deformed and growing every which way!

I made ice cream this afternoon.  Was one of the best batches I've made so far.  I've only made vanilla but would like to start playing with different flavors.  I have strawberries in the freezer that I'll take out so they can add those to it.  My husband, granddaughter and grandson are BIG berry eaters.  I am just starting to eat a few of them.  I don't remember eating berries when I was younger except the wild ones I would try now and then when I found them.
I also made another loaf of bread today in the bread machine.  I find that very handy.  Just pop in all the ingredients and forget it.  I like making bread in the oven too but I have to be right there with it.
This loaf I mad dropped, same as the first one I did the other day.  I'm thinking maybe the yeast was old.  This was the last of the yeast so I'll pick up more tomorrow and hope that it doesn't do the same thing.  I didn't get any photos of the bread because it tends to disappear rather quickly.  :-)
I did get a picture of my veggies I baked up the other day.

Potato and tomato from the garden with onions, garlic, Feta cheese, olive oil and shredded cheese.  So yummy.  Love those baby potatoes!
Last night my granddaughter came back from her visit at her mom's (Friday to Friday during the summer) and she wanted my home made chili.  I didn't have any hamburg so I used left over boneless chicken breast instead.  My husband wasn't sure how it would be.  I am happy to report, it was a hit.

Of course there is my Tupperware spoon.  I love Tupperware and even sold it for a little while.  I have lots of it!  If anyone is looking for a wonderful consultant, I can point you in the right direction!
My friend, Sandy, and I have started a puzzle.  Oh boy, what a puzzle.  I have never done one this large before.  2000 pieces!!  It's a hard one too.  This will take us quite a while I believe.  I do love doing them though.

I stayed up till after midnight working on it the other day so there is quite a bit more done.  Pretty much all of the buildings are completed, you know, the easy stuff!  lol
We were going to head to the ocean the other day but my car was having problems so we started the puzzle instead.
Well, I'm off.  I was in my bedroom writing this up but hubby says bed time!

Church tomorrow and then after a trip to WalMart.  I'm on the hunt for something really yummy.  If I find it, I'll share it with you.