Rosie and the Giant Puffball

If you look closely behind the tractor right on the edge of the picture, you will spot what looks like a white ball.

Upon investigation, I realized it was the largest puffball mushroom I had ever seen.  I don't have my mushroom book with me, but I was pretty sure all puffballs are edible.

When slided, the flesh was pure white and firm - just about perfect....still, I wasn't sure about it's edibility.  So I posed the question on Facebook, thinking my many mushroom hunting friends would be able to identify it.

Fried in butter, it smelled lovely and looked really enticing.

Our friends, Patti and Fran, who were visiting from Florida, politely declined to help me eat it - as did my husband, Ron.
Most of the comments on Facebook were negative (as in, "Are you crazy?") But my younger sister, Anne, came through with her opinion and a confirmation that puffballs are essentially edible, so I ate one slice the first evening to see if I suffered any ill effects.  The next day, since I still felt fine, I ate the rest for breakfast.  Now looking for more!!

Weeds, Weeds, Weeds

As usual, we returned to our Georgia property to find lots of weeds waiting for us!

I'm about halfway through the big flower bed - Left it for last, as the smaller ones aren't so daunting.  Ron has been mowing and hauling away the weeds I pile up as I work.

I added a new flower bed, but I have a good excuse for this one...first of all, it's about the size I can handle, and secondly, it rounds off the corners for mowing more efficiently.

This is one of the smaller flower beds - before above with the pile of weeds that came out of it.  After is below - didn't get quite enough bark, but it will be done soon!

New neighbors, Jimmy and Clarice

And every night a beautiful sunset!

Pike Road Hay Art 2014

The town of Pike Road, Alabama, has a hay art contest every year.  Here are some of this year's offerings:

Trip South 2014 - Iowa

Somewhere in Nebraska, we always pass this arch.  One day we may even stop to see what it's all about.  Part of the scenery in our Disney World type ride across the U.S.A.

 

 

Ron's brothers live in Iowa, and his sister in Missouri, so we all met in Oelwein for a mini-family reunion. 

A Crawford tradition - gathering around a table to play poker or dice. 

 

 Sheryl and Jim came up from Missouri to visit.

Gary and Evie - We usually stay with them and enjoy the oasis they provide us in the middle of our trip!

Ron's brother, Dale, and wife, Katreena, live a few miles south in Hazelton.

Ron's niece, Debbie, stopped by to say hello.

Dale, Gary, Ron, Sheryl - It's been a while since these four have been together, so we all enjoyed a great visit!
 

 

 

 



Trip South October 2014 - Salt Lake City

We began our trip south in a mad rush this year which left me feeling a bit disorganized.  So far, we haven't missed anything vital, but it's always a bit troubling to leave in a hurry. Even though we had been planning the trip for a month, we waited until we had word that our Washington building permit was approved before we left.  Since we had been waiting since July for that day, we didn't want to leave if we had some minor detail that still needed us to hand carry some paper to the County.  On our last trip to the County Jennifer assured us that our application was complete, approved, and ready for "copying" - which takes another 24 hours.  We took it on faith that we could leave and ended up leaving after 1 p.m.  (We usually leave around 5 or 6 a.m. when we travel.)

My camera quit working before we even got to Stevens Pass, so the first pictures of the trip were done with my tablet and I can't figure out how to transfer them to the computer. But we had a really nice although short visit with Tony, Tina, Sara, and Jesse in Eastern Washington where we stopped for the first night. 

So the pictures on our trip log start after we left Tonasket and stopped in Wenatchee at Costco for a new camera.  First picture - the mighty Columbia River at Vantage.

Second stop:  Salt Lake City to see Cameron, Anne, Gavin and Marcus.

Anne's uncle, Robert, grows an interesting variety of pumpkins every year and then hosts a party for the grandkids to decorate and take home.

 

The kids got lots of adult help decorating their pumpkins. 

Siblings debating the BBQ of bratwurst. 

 

Mom helped - or was she just trying to keep warm around the campfire?

Marcus found a truck to play with while the bigger kids decorated pumpkins.



On to Iowa - where we saw miles of windmills as the sun rose to blind us for several hours as we traveled due East.