SPELLING BEE

BY BEA WESTERBERG

Crunch time!

Its getting to be crunch time for State Fair, Back to School, Rug Hooking Camp, National Sandwich Month and Mouse Winter Home Search.

The State Fair is on and there for those who feel the need to be part of it and all the food choices. My feet puff up just thinking about it so I will leave my space available to those who can really appreciate it. They say the Fair Bus from Cottage Grove will be one of the few bus stops being run this year, so check it out if that is your transportation method.

Bus driver shortages is also affecting back to school for a lot of kids. I see in some places the school districts are paying the parents to drive their kids to school. There appears to be a lot of opportunities for people who want to be part of this scene. I have surprised myself with lots of things that I thought I could not do and did them, but I think being a bus driver or having to back up a semitrailer will remain in the untried section of things to do.

Notice to Duluth Minnesota: The Rug Hookers (or Crafters as they say up there) are going to be roaming around your neck of the woods the first full week after Labor Day. Of course, it was one of almost everything that was canceled last year so things are really worked up for this year. I ended up getting the teacher I really wanted to try, so it will be interesting to see if he gets scared of me and my wild ideas. He is new and has never met any of us. My plans for this year are to work on burlap which I very firmly said I would NEVER do, work with old, washed out looking colors, and do lots of repeats. As some people would say all 3 ideas are against my religion. Gee, I might even scare myself, but I bet a few Lavender Martinis will have to be tested to get me back in line.

The whole month of August is National Sandwich Month and maybe you might be trying things like Japanese Milk Bread or Kansas Sunflower Bread to make your sandwiches. So go ahead and make sandwiches for every meal for the rest of this month or just declare that it is sandwich month every month. I don’t think sandwiches have a season like hot soup but do change a bit depending the time of the year. The Bacon, Lettuce and Fresh Local Tomato Sandwich is for sure seasonal so concentrate on that right now. Once the PlayDoh tomatoes come to be the only ones available; its a whole different story!

The millions of years of life cycles of the M_O_U_S_E population is running true. Lots of plans have been made to secure a nice, warm, food ready place to overwinter out of the harsh, cold weather. One of the highly recommended locations with very high Yelp ratings is the Westerberg old farm house residence. It has everything a good mouse might ever dream of and can accommodate large families. The market must have been tight for them also this year as the #$*()!!s have been making themselves known extra early this year. They are making noise in full daylight and are taking the unhealthy pellet things and the baited mouse traps away to the secret nests. Right now they must be storing the pellets because it does not seem to be cutting back on the number of residents. Maybe some day I will find a pile of traps all stacked up in a neat pile but in the meantime I had to go buy more. I declared “THE WAR IS ON” very loud and clear when I discovered that “they” made a huge hole in my half gallon plastic bottle with dispenser Dove dark chocolate syrup!!! I got it as gift and kind of forgot about it on the bottom of the rack so not a lot was used by me. The buggers must have double enjoyed every drop of it as the bottle was empty and only a bit of floor drip! If you feel that you are low on mice for ANY reason, I will gladly share with ANYONE. They might want chocolate, but I will not jury you.