Pentecost Weekend

Driving in Winnipeg is STRESSFUL!

I don't think that I've ever been as 'on edge' as I was while driving around Winnipeg! The roads and intersections are strange and small, the roads were of poor quality, the street signs were tiny, and worst of all - the drivers... some of them drive like they're maniacs. I guess that last part applies to any major city, but seriously, not a fan of the Canadian road systems.

Yes! We were in Canada! - This weekend Charlene and I took a jaunt up to Winnipeg, Manitoba to celebrate Pentecost with our brethren in the area. We met together for the Sabbath service on Saturday and then got the chance to have some fellowship time at a restaurant called Montana's. BTW Montana's has fantastic steak - I would say the second best steak I've ever had. We got to meet some newer members and some others from quite a distance away--Calgary to be exact. We stayed on the floor on an air mattress of one the couple's from Winnipeg (which was surprisingly comfortable) and met again for brunch with the other members. After brunch we had our Pentecost service. We learned so much over this weekend!

Char and I got to load up on ketchup chips and Canadian Coca-Cola, which tastes better from Canada btw. We bust that stuff out at parties like it's some sort of exotic treat - which it is!

~~~transition to Char writing~~~

Before we headed home, we went to "The Forks/Le Fourche" (French in Canada!!!) to stretch our legs before a long drive and take some pictures. The Forks is where the Red River of the North joins with the Assiniboine River which flows in from the West. It was a big trading area back in the day of people transporting stuff by river. Probably a lot of beaver pelts involved. They used to be quite the hot commodity!

Here is Luke being all monkey-like and climbing a tree (I actually told him to in order to create a photo op! I was in heels! I couldn't climb anything!). He obviously was having a good time! This tree was probably surrounded by water a few weeks ago when the river crested in Winnipeg. If they hadn't been expanding their spillway since 1997 downtown Winnipeg would have been destroyed! Fortunately it all survived!

Here Luke is doing a controlled slide down the side of the tree. I feel like the words "controlled" and "slide" don't belong together... Luke was complaining about how I was the only person in the blogs at first... and now he's here in all his glory! Cessez de regarder son bout!!!

Here you can see Luke's artistic side. Over by the Manitoba Children's Museum there's a constellation guide and these big metal arch things point in the direction of certain constellations on certain dates. They had the explanations written in three languages: English and French of course and then something that looked like squares and triangles to me which must be some sort of "first nation" language. (In Canada they call Native Americans "First Nations").

Here's a better look at the constellation guide area. This is me in my modeling pose... tres chic I know. Kids were mostly climbing all over the pillars and not reading about constellations...

Another artistic shot by Luke. Very nice! I'm not sure what type of stone it is (some type of sandstone) but it was everywhere! Must be a quarry nearby.

la tercera post

Sunday was another day of gardening...



Luke planted the plants that Sam brought from her spree at the greenhouses in Pekin, ND (not anywhere near Fargo...). They look a lot healthier than our home grown ones!



You can see how they are already big and bushy! Luke has already claimed himself king over next years seedlings...since I apparently am not as good at growing seedlings as a professional greenhouse! Sorry! My tomatoes and peppers might not look that great.....but my cucumbers, pumpkins, and squash look amazing!



We finished part 1 of the patio project (and by we I mean Luke). Part 2 is finishing a path to the shed.



Here are the seedlings from round 2 of pea plants. A few from round one can be seen to the left. These seedlings grew up the side of a bucket of dirt I collected from getting pots cleaned out from last year. They may not have survived transplanting, since I thought there roots only went a few inches deep, not the entire height of the bucket (2 feet) so many were sliced! Round 3 is along the South fence of the garden and round 4 is along the North. Round 5 will be by the compost bin. Round 6 is yet to be determined. We shall have a lengthened pea harvest!



Here is my amazing cucumber seedling! It already bloomed and was pollinated and you can see the gourd beginning to form! Already!



These are my tomato plants. They're tall but wussy with small stems. Luke did some YouTube research on tomato plants and lectured me on how the stem is all that matters and tomato farmers pick seedlings based on nothing else but the stem and blah blah blah blah...........



These are the herbs and exotic flowers that Sam also bought in Pekin. One of them is an Asian Poppy which is apparently illegal in Europe (but legal here....we aren't breaking any laws that we know of...). They didn't enjoy being outside today so I didn't plant them...hopefully the survive!

Mango Salsa - You Heard Me

This is Mango Salsa.

1 Avocado ~ 1/2 Red Onion ~ 1 Mango ~ 3 Roma Tomatoes ~ 1 Jalapeño

Dice them!

1 Lime

Zest and Juice it!

1 Tsp Kosher Salt ~ 1 Tsp ground Ginger ~ Cilantro (to taste)

Add!

Now Mix!

Seriously, this is fantastic stuff. This picture shows how to eat it. Luckily Char "is from Venezuela" and so she knows how to pick perfectly ripe Mangos and Avocados - I've got to hand it to her - they were quite perfect. This salsa is especially good in a hammock!

This picture shows how to love Mango Salsa. Enough said.

Post Numero Uno. Your Welcome.

This is the beginning of our soon-to-be flourishing botanical garden - keeping our tomatoes and pepper plants warm with some old soda and orange juice bottles. Hooray for re-purposing! So far we've planted pumpkins, tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapeños, chili peppers, garlic, tomatoes, red onions, russet potatoes, yukon gold potatoes, corn, green beans, peas, watermelons, squash, zucchini, shallots, radishes, and we already have rhubarb and raspberries from last year growing. Also, today we put up a fence of chicken wire to keep out the rabbits and squirrels that have just assassinated a cucumber vine!

This is the picnic table I built about 2 weeks ago that we just finished staining yesterday evening. Interesting thing about that - Char and I wanted to get it done so badly on Wednesday night, but the sun said "I'm not going to help!" and left. So we broke out our propane lantern and stained it by lantern light - BOOYA. You can see our raspberry plant already big and healthy - we expect to get at least 35 berries this year! Also to the right you can see some baby pumpkin vines keeping cozy and humid underneath an old milk jug. GROW! GROW!

Charlene complained at how big her legs look in this picture, I just think they look like that because they're pale... both the Anderson children have noodles for extremities (thanks to Eugene) - so, no, your legs aren't fat Char. Anyways, here we are doing what we always do with a free day - not acting like it's a free day and working our hind-quarters off in the yard to get anything and everything done as if tomorrow our lives are going to be graded, did I mention that I love being married? But seriously, I really do like how much gets done in our life with Charlene around, but Charlene is lucky to have my muscles around - we need a picture of those in here...

Here we are re-purposing the junk we found left in the dump-like looking corner of our yard by the last people that lived here by turning the random chunks of concrete into a patio. Going green is not, I repeat, not easy.

This used to be a giant heap of ugliness - now there is order, and the German sides of Charlene and myself give sighs of relief.

Now it is the Sabbath and we will gladly rest from our work!