The Little Library

I really want a little library in front of my house.  I think it's a perfect location.  I live at a point in the road that forms a T. There is a crosswalk on the edge of the property and we are the second to last house from a park so lots of people walk by.  It just makes sense. 

I've been trying to explain the little library to my husband. I've given him articles to read about them. I want him to get excited about it. After all, he loves to build things so this makes perfect sense.  As we were heading out for dinner, we came across one.  Now he is excited.  I can't wait to get started.

Supermoon

Supermoon 2013

The full moon falls on June 23, 2013 at 6:32 a.m. CDT in the U.S.  Thus, for us here in the Midwest, the moon appears about as full in the June 22 evening sky as it does on the evening of June 23. This full moon is not only the closest and largest full moon of the year. It also presents the moon’s closest encounter with Earth for all of 2013. The moon will not be so close again until August, 2014. In other words, it’s not just a supermoon. It’s the closest supermoon of 2013.

Astronomers call this sort of close full moon a perigee full moon. The word perigee describes the moon’s closest point to Earth for a given month. Two years ago, when the closest and largest full moon fell on March 19, 2011, many used the term supermoon, which we’d never heard before. Last year, we heard this term again to describe the year’s closest full moon on May 6, 2012. Now the term supermoon is being used a lot. Last month’s full moon was also a supermoon. But the June full moon is even more super! In other words, the time of full moon falls even closer to the time of perigee, the moon’s closest point to Earth. The crest of the moon’s full phase in June 2013, and perigee, fall within an hour of each other. (copied from earthsky.org)

Ride to King Veterans Home

Today we went with the Legion Riders on a ride to King, Wisconsin.  I had no idea where King was so I googled it and found it to be west of Appleton, around 130 miles from our house.  We met the ALRA group at the Harley plant parking lot at 8:30 and left there at 8:45.  It was almost a 2 hour ride to King so we did stop halfway to get gas.  It was a nice break from the ride and the weather was perfect.

We got there and parked the bikes.  We were on our own until 1:00 when the parade started.  So we purchased their famous chicken dinners and enjoyed some of the best chicken ever.  The side dishes weren't great so I skipped them.  We sat with our group and ate while people watching.  Since it was Fathers' Day we noticed lots of family members with the residents.  There were people in wheelchairs everywhere. 

The campus is beautiful.  It is located on Rainbow Lake and is like a mini-village.  There were plenty of small housing units all located on the lake.  The Wisconsin Veterans Museum is also located on the lake, right on the grounds so we walked through it. There were two large buildings that housed the residents and a very pretty little park with a fountain and a bandstand in the middle of the grounds.  This is a gorgeous place. We watched a man carve eagles with a chain saw.  That was pretty amazing.
We really enjoyed visiting the residents and the ALRA members from the other chapters.  There were Legion Riders from all over the state here.  This was my first visit, and others who have been there in years' past, who stated that this was the largest turnout of motorcycles ever.

The parade lasted a whole 20 minutes.  We rode through the compound, which was probably equivalent to 4 or 5 blocks.  There were motorcycles, a few antique cars, a convertible with dignitaries, a Gold Star mom vehicle, and a firetruck.  There was also a high school band who were very good.

We took the back roads home and didn't pull into the driveway until 5:45.  It was a long day but a rewarding one. I am so glad I went along. 

New Brick Shed Approach

When Jeff originally built the approach to the shed, he used leftovers from the deck.  It was the cutest mini-deck and it matched the deck so nicely.  However, because it was built on a sloping yard, it was prone to be wet and water-logged after heavy rains and winter snow thaws.  So it rotted over the years.  We tore it out and replaced it with bricks. 

Jeff was really hoping I would pick some nice big bricks so that there weren't many to install. I didn't do that.  Instead, we had to put four bricks in three different sizes together to make a pattern. It wasn't terribly complicated, but it was putzy.  And as always, he had to install them perfectly which made the project take even longer.  He started the work on Sunday late in the morning and by supper time he had almost all of it done. On Monday, he finished the last two sets of four, then filled the cracks in with sand and watered it down, as required.

I was instantly inspired to finish my chair planter I found on Pinterest. I painted the chair red, dug an old hanging basket out of the shed, and attached it to where the seat used to be. With the addition of a coconut liner and some potting soil and a few annuals, it is done and looks perfectly perched on the new brick shed approach.

 

Wine Bottle Path Border

I got this idea off of Pinterest.  I saved up our wine bottles since winter and placed them in the garden as a path.  It seemed like a lot of bottles when they filled up a large garbage can, but once I got them in the ground they really didn't go as far as I would like.  I guess we will have to keep on drinking. I think it will look much prettier when the beans start to climb up the poles.

Bike Nights Begin

We love Thursdays in the summer because it is bike night.  Both Motor Bar at the Harley-Davidson Museum and the Iron Horse Hotel host bike nights all summer long.  We have a long-running tradition of getting on the bike and heading to Conejito's which is right across the street from the Iron Horse for a quick, cheap dinner.  It starts with a small pitcher of margaritas and an order of chips and salsa.  We order our inexpensive dinners that are served on paper plates, enjoy the margaritas then pay bill which is always less than $20 and head out. 

We start at the Motor Bar which is on the other side of the Iron Horse Hotel.  We park and take a random walk around the grounds.  There are lots of theme nights however, I don't think there's one on this night.  Lots of people are out and we look for familiar faces.  Usually our Milwaukee HOG chapter friends are somewhere in sight.  And sure enough, we found them at a large table inside the bar.  That's rare, this group usually has a long table close to the canal outside on the east side of the bar (where the shade is).  Anyway we stop and say hi only to find out that one of our favorite people in this group has had a stroke over the winter.  Although he is better and was in attendance with the group, it's always hard to hear about things like this.  It's another reminder of how our group is aging and of our own mortality.  We usually just walk off our margaritas here, it's not exactly our favorite hang-out so we don't stay long.

We head next door to the Iron Horse Hotel.  The Yard is open.  It is a comfortable outdoor bar with a great view and wonderful comfy seating.  Whether we sit under the pergola, by the fire, at the bar or on one of the many sofas, it's a nice place to be.  We relaxed on a sofa and people-watched for a while and enjoyed our cocktails.

Tonight's theme for their opening night is the BUILD Moto Mentor program.  The local high school students compete by each school building a motorcycle and they are all on display in the special motorcycle parking area. It's amazing that these bikes are all done by 15 & 16 year olds. We stopped and chatted with a few of the builders. They seem so mature for their ages. 

The weather was perfect until about 8:30.  The skies turned an ominous gray-black and the clouds were moving in circular formations and a quick rate.  So we quickly got on our bike to head home. On the road we felt like we were just a half-step ahead of the storm.  Even a driver next to us shouted, "don't worry, I think you'll make it before the rain".  And it turned out he was right. We pulled onto our street and felt a few drops on us.  As we got in the garage, the rain started coming down in buckets.  I swear Mother Nature was waiting for us to get home.  It was that close. We sat on the porch and watched it rain grateful that we left the bar at the right time. 

Here's to many more Thursday night bike nights.