Pumpkin Party

We went pumpkin shopping and got this entire loot of pumpkins for $17.00!

 It is a tradition that we started long when our boys were little. We have a pumpkin carving party.

We each, the four of us, get to carve a pumpkin, sometimes two.

After carving the pumpkins we roast the seeds. We already carved a pumpkin for Marv. I roasted up the seeds and tried something new, cinnamon and sugar. YUM!

Recipe

Fresh pumpkin seeds

Olive oil

Cinnamon and Sugar

Preheat you oven to 300° 

Toss your pumpkin seeds 

your olive oil .. cinnamon and sugar all together.

Spread on to a cookie sheet.

Bake, stirring a few times, until crunchy and golden brown.

About 30 to 45 minutes.

Let cool completely. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Car Show

 This summer we attended our local Car Show. The highlight was a co worker  and friend of my husband had a car at the show. Adding to the fun, my husband has been helping design parts for the car.

 As you can see the car still needs some parts. It is a fun hobby for my husband's friend Brian to hunt for the parts needed to complete the car.

 Below is my husband Jeremy, Brain and his sweetheart Deb.

Deb has the the dark colored car. Brain has the red car.

Let us peek at a few more of the fun cars at the show.

You never know what you might see at a car show!

 I thought this was a fun idea on how to set up your car for show and tell.

And our favorite car! We just loved this Volkswagen.

Do you have a favorite old time car or new car?

I would not mind taking this Mustang for a spin!

One of my grandpa's favorite songs.

 

Joy List Monday

Wisconsin Autumn and Woodsmoke

Joy List Monday

 ♥ a weekly ritual ♥

a reminder to stop and pay attention to the little beauties and graces

that make life magical and to set aside time for gratitude each day

 ♥ flannel sheets

♥ the smell of woodsmoke in the air

♥ banana peppers on homemade pizza 

 ♥ having garden help from my son Atticus

♥ homemade cookies from my friend Kathy

 

Moving Day ~ to 3rd Street in Eau Claire

 Moving Day

The last week of September we moved our son Sam to his first apartment. He is attending college in Eau Claire and has his Wisconsin National Guard work at Camp Douglas and Fort McCoy. Making the commute each and everyday from his home here in Cameron was getting to be long. He also was wanting to start out on his own. We started our apartment search in June, shortly after he graduated from AIT at Fort Gordon, Georgia.

Eau Claire is a college town and a growing city. In fact it is one of the three fastest growing cities in Wisconsin. We waited it out and found a fun apartment for Sam at the start of September.

 The apartment is on the upper level of a 100 year old house. A family lives below. They have made an apartment out of the upper level of the home. We think from the steep steps you have to climb we may be using the servant steps to get up to the apartment.

 Original woodwork and character are through out the apartment. Because our home is also a 100 year old home that Sam has helped and watch as we remodeled each room as he grew up. We called it our "This Old House Project"  I think this old time charm was something that made Sam smile when he first looked at the apartment.

 He has a claw tub. 

 He is just a block from the river. He may be able to see the river from his bedroom window this winter when the leaves are off the trees.

Eau Claire has made an old railway into a walking, running and biking path. The bridge you see in the photo is called the High Bridge. It is a beautiful bridge and well lite at night.

 Sam has to keep up with his physical fitness for the guards. I was excited to find that the trails are so close to his apartment. He enjoys the outdoors, so a river run will be perfect for him.

 Jeremy built Sam a new desk. This was Sam's design, using pipes as the legs.

I will show you more photos as the apartment becomes home for Sam. 

We found a few items at The Hope Gospel Missions Bargain Center in Eau Claire. We will peek in to that store again, they have a great turn around on inventory with new items coming in daily.

We also plan to head to the big city to check out what  we may find at IKEA.

Sam is enjoying school. He had a long Drill weekend this past weekend. And I LOVE that he is only an hour away. 

 

Joy List Monday

Kettle Moraine State Forest Wisconsin - Southern Unit  

 

 

 

Joy List Monday 

♥ a weekly ritual ♥

a reminder to stop and pay attention to the little beauties and graces that make life 

magical and to set aside time for gratitude each day 

♥ warm apple crisp

♥ continuing to create flower bouquets .. no kill frost as of yet here in Northwest Wisconsin

♥  continuing to listen to baseball as the playoffs are here

 ♥ pumpkins .. I love pumpkins and my son Atticus does too. We like all shapes and sizes. We did our pumpkin shopping together.

 

 ♥  creating a jack o lantern for our friend Marv  .. a tradition we started long ago. We carve him a jack o lantern every October and deliver it to him. He enjoys lighting it each evening.

When we visited him this week, he laughed with joy seeing that we brought with us the jack o lantern. He said "that tonight when I have my nightly beer I will tip my beer to that ol' jack o lantern and say here is to you."   

Oh the humor of our 91 year old friend!

Have a blessed new week my friends.

As I was walking

 During one of our walks, I just about stepped on this green thing. I looked closer to see that this little green thing was a baby snapping turtle.

He was on his way to a little pond across the road. 

We decided to help him on his way. Jeremy picked him up very careful and moved him to the side of the road.  NOTE .. we would never be able to pick up a grown snapping turtle. This little guy did not try any shenanigans and seemed genuinely happy we moved him along.

Autumn Getaway

The front porch of our sweet cabin.

 An Autumn Getaway to Lake Superior

for a boy and a girl

and a little canoe

staying in a sweet little cabin

sharing time outdoors

canoeing 

hiking 

evening campfires

revisiting goals and making new goals

talking about growing boys and a soon to be empty nest

this little getaway was perfect 

and 

just what we needed!

 

The below photos are of our sweet little cabin.

It was just perfect for the two of us. 

The kitchen was red. A red fridge, microwave, toaster and coffee maker. 

Soft lamps and candles making it cozy.

 We had a fantastic time canoeing, hiking, touring apple orchards, antiquing and enjoying campfires in the evening. It was just what we both needed. Sometimes you don't even realize you need a break from the day to day. Oh my, was this good for us as a couple. We had lots to talk about as our lives are changing as our boys are growing up and moving on. Sharing goals of where we want to be in the next five years. It was a fantastic getaway.

I will share photos of our hikes, canoeing and more.

Have a great weekend!

 ♥

Carla

 

Joy List Monday

Joy List Monday

 ♥ a weekly ritual ♥

a reminder to stop and pay attention to the little beauties and graces that make life

 magical and to set aside time for gratitude each day

 ♥ continuing to enjoy fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers from the garden

♥ taking a walk with my son Sam at dusk and watching the moon come up

♥ trying a new cookie recipe

♥ visiting one of my favorite Farm Stores

 ♥ the start of cozy nights .. as it is getting dark here by 8:00 pm

♥

I will be heading off on an Autumn Getaway this week. 

I will be back soon.

 ♥

Carla

 

 

Garden Angel

More about Marv

Hello Friends,

The photo above was taken in 2014. Goodness, can that  photo really be from 2014? Has that much time gone by? If you have been a long time reader of The River, you know about my garden mentor Marv. I met Marv back in 2010. We became fast friends and once he found out I enjoyed gardening, and I found out that he enjoyed gardening, well that was that, plant people!

Over the years Marv has shared his garden knowledge with me. We gardened together at the Community Gardens. I learned so much from him during those years.

He also played a few jokes on us.

He hung an orange on our tomato plant.

Read more about Marv's garden tricks here. 

Marv hanging HUGE plastic bugs in our tomato patch.

Marv travels to Texas each November. He usually calls us after we get a big snowstorm just to rub in how he is sitting on the beach soaking in the sun.

So we made our own jokes up. We gave him these grapefuit snowballs when he returned one April. We did not want him to miss out on Wisconsin snow.

We rolled snowballs and colored them with food coloring and placed them in the freezer until our dear friend came back to Wisconsin.

Hurricane Harvey washed away his cabin, he was not able to return to Texas the winter of 2017. 

November of 2018 repairs were complete on Marv's cabin and at age 90 he drove down to Rockport, Texas and enjoyed the winter.  We had a winter to remember in 2019 with negative temperatures dipping down to -50 degrees. We would receive those phone calls asking how we were surviving the winter as he was sitting on the beach eating a fresh grapefruit.

Click here to read more about saving snowballs for Marv's return 

The years continue to fly by. Marv saw Sam graduate and head into the Wisconsin National Guard. Marv is a Korean veteran. When Sam returned from training this May, Marv enjoyed sharing Army stories with Sam. 

During the summer Marv got very sick. He lost 17 pounds and it took him several weeks to gain back his strength. This past week he called me and asked if he could pop over to chat.

"I want to give you my garden angel, Carla. My garden days are coming to an end and this garden angel has been good to me and I want to pass this angel on to you."

♥

Sam and I went to visit Marv this week. After our visit Sam shared with me, "Mom, I am worried about Marv, he just seems to have really declined this summer. I know you shared with me that you felt he was starting to decline, but I did not believe you until today, today I see it."

Marv taught me tips and tricks about gardening. He also taught me life lessons. He saw terrible stuff in Korea. He stood by both of his wives as they each got ill and passed away. He once shared with me that at one time he was so sad he was not sure if he could go on. Then he thought of his other family and fought back that sadness and continued on.

Take time to say "I Love You" to your family and friends today.

 ♥

Carla

 

 

A differnt kind of Garden Tour

 Some of you may remember that we hosted Daybreak at our Little Garden That Could last summer, below is the post I shared about our first garden tour.

Click here to read.

Well, earlier this year Daybreak asked if they could come again for a tour in 2019. They had so much fun last year, they wanted to come back.

I said "yes"!

Well, wouldn't you know the day we planned to have the tour, our weather was not the best. 

We contacted our local Cameron Community Center and asked if we could bring Daybreak and The Little Garden that Could to the Center.

They said "yes"!

We set up tables and chairs. We shared our flowers and vegetables. 

 And we made bouquets for each participant to take home.

 

Plan B worked. We thank the Cameron Community Center for allowing us to bring the garden inside for Daybreak to enjoy.

Also a big Thank You to our friends Charles and Kathy who donated flowers for the bouquets.