The Christmas Chreche

Here is ONE PUZZLE of the Christmas Chreche. When done with your decorations, you just put it all back into the little shed. I've made several Hundred of these and I love making these. the first thing I've made in my shop....nope, it's not done yet, but soon will be.....I hope. I get quite bogged down during the busy Christmas Season and so I think I need to let all know about these just in case they'd like to buy early. $30.00 plus shipping. These are creative lovely pine and kids and adults have loved these for years. I have a wonderful poem that goes with this puzzle.

Irene's HAPPY HARP SHOP

These are some old photos that were taken when they were first digging the hole for my shop. yipes, it was in the winter, but there was one tiny window of warm weather and that was when the big bucket thing came and dug it here. whooooooooopies. Very tired of my "pretend temporary" shop was on my front porch.
Pat Hallman came and cut down the tops of these trees earlier. If I can find those pictures, I'll add 'em later. thank you Pat. He said after he got down from cutting that tree with the Chain saw....a bucket and his young son doing what he told him to do...."there's nothing like knowing you're alive then after you climb a tree and cut it down with a chain saw."
Here's the "supervisors" watching the machinery work. I love what these big tanks can do, but boy are they ugly. gonna figure a nice way to cover them up. One is my neighbors and the blue one is ours. Love cooking on gas, heating with gas (someday) and water heater & dryer on gas.
this is the last of the BIG BUCKET GUY. When he got done, Pat Hallman jumped into this newly formed hole and said, "this is a FINE HOLE for your shop!". Indeed it is. Sorry these photos are a little out of order, but hey, what's a blog all about, GETTING IT DOWN SOMEHOW...right? have fun figuring it all out. (very happy face here)
these are WONDERFUL granddaughters that learned how to roof and whoooooopies am I glad. They were my roofers for my harp shop. Rachael Montoya and Tehani Sewell. Rachael learned when she went with a group down to Mexico to help with building houses. Tehani learned from her Dad. OH THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. the Storm came a little later and harrah, the roof was secure! these two young women are attending nursing school in Keokuk, Iowa.
I got to cut the shingles and Vicki took 'em up to the girls and they measured and put them on.
and Vicki with the hammer and the girls on the roof.
the Petersen Brothers gave these to me. a PERFECT fit for the little bay....I'll be doing most of my sanding on the boards that will go on top of these and I'll have the most beautiful view

Here's the crew that came to work. Bless them all!
Bro. Pierce up on the ladder hammering away. It was a really cold day.
I'm sooooooooo grateful for these guys coming to help this job get done.
Tomasi painting the floor
Vicki putting on the windows on a VERY windy day. We're using 8 of the 10 windows I had left over from the house.

Tricky Vicki got a bunch of the High Priests Quarm of our ward and they came and started the work under her direction. She is amazing. this shop is 16 X 28 with a little "bump out" in the front. gonna put in the windows that were not able to put in our house. It is a "portable building"....see the blocks under the "foundation". yep. it's all sitting on ROCK like our house is.

this is Jack's truck pushing the gravel he dumped here.
I love seeing the big dump trucks do this and zowie, on my driveway is GREAT. Thanks Jack!
the big yellow truck
three walls up..

Tongan singing with the young folks

We had 33 folks come to our house this morning. Kim Smith brought them. They are from Utah and were the most reverent group of kids in this house. Polite and kind. After we did our "song and dance".....the dance was with my little wooden Dancing Dan........they got up to sing. I was so surprised that they sang a Samoan Song. Tomasi grabbed the Ukulele and then they sang it all again with Tomasi playing the Ukulele. Now I know I can hold 40 folks....... if need be for a performance. That is if they are as good as these kids were. sorry, it's a little blurry photo....cell phone. I was so excited to have this group of 8th graders sing in our home.

Sunset 7 June 2011

Folks, I'm wondering if I should just have a special place in my blog site JUST FOR SUNSETS? but this day, oh boy....this picture "looks cool" but it was 95 degrees and felt like over 100 because of the humidity. whew.....So I was glad to see the Sunset....cooker temps will soon happen. .....well, "relatively soon".

Civil War time lively Display

above here is my salad for this event....and I'm eating it with a civil war fork! look at that lovely bread! these photos out of order, but you'll get the idea anyway. Below is the cooking set up for this event. ZOWIE...........Lon has all of this equipment and can cook in rain, snow, sleet or a off and on rainy day as this was. yep. you can see Mulholland Street behind this set up. I was amazed by all that was set up and learned so very much!
The cooking set up for this event. ZOWIE...........Lon has all of this equipment and can cook in rain, snow, sleet or a off and on rainy day as this was. yep. you can see Mulholland Street behind this set up. I was amazed by all that was set up and learned so very much!
Our new friend Lon Simpson has moved to Nauvoo and has set up a most WONDERFUL wood shop. He used to teach shop in a high school and now makes Shaker furniture and does MARVELOUS work in all areas of wood. His shop is in the old building that was built with the rubble of the first Nauvoo Temple that was destroyed. It is a beautiful building. Truely shows what can be done with "rubble stone". He is also a reenactment guy in Civil War stuffs. Here he brought his friends during the Memorial Day weekend of 2011 and here is one weaver. ahhhhhhh, got me all excited about weaving again.
Lon set up this tent that represents an officer's tent. enlarge this picture and see what you see that you don't usually see......Lon's wife, Nancy is on the right and has made her own Civil War type of dress. A jewel of a lady. I'm soooooooooo glad they moved into Nauvoo!
this Civil War reinactment guy here made his own traveling bellows. WOW....and made stuff right in front of us. He lives in Ft. Madison, Iowa. To watch the REAL THING being made like in old times.....very fascinating. He's made bellows for blacksmiths all over the country. This is made to be a "traveling Civil War"type that was used "back in those days".
Here's the little band that played. Check out the hammered dulcimer player. she ballences her instrument on her knees and has one leg on this H. Dulcimer. I'm sorry I didn't take other pictures of others in this band. Tomasi and I joined them for an hour and how fun was that? SUPER FUN!!! great autoharp player and singer!
Here is Lon in the white shirt. He plays the harmonica. sings great as well. In back of him is set up a GREAT woodcarver. He's married to the weaver.....beautiful workmanship. You'll see more of these folks. They sang a song called "Rosen the Bow" and I liked it much! I just wished I'd taken more pictures!!

scrabble

Folks, we just love playing scrabble. I got a BINGO here and yet still lost the game to the "scrabble king Tomasi". As I type this, it's that hot, muggy time of year...so what we need is a little bit of "cooling time".....

Nauvoo Orchestra in May 2011

Folks, there are very few places for an orchestra to play and here is where the budding Nauvoo Orchestra performed in the Catholic Church here in Nauvoo. Their performance was really good. Below here are the folks that did some singing and it was truely wonderful. I am grateful for folks that want to make music a part of their everyday lives and put on such a performance.

our lives on the Mississippi

Gail and Dean Dalglish are dear friends of ours that we knew in Hawaii many years ago. yep, I know, not a clear picture with my cell phone, but we had such a short time with them that I just took it with my phone. they live in Canada and drove a bunch of young folks to come to Nauvoo. They had one hour with us. I'm grateful for the many friends we have had through the years. and in the "sunset" of our lives.....again with my cell phone. I have a camera, but it takes so long to load up that the sunset would have vanished by the time I "ran" up to the house to get it and then get it ready...oh well. cell phone again. I love my sweetheart when he smiles.
On my walks in old Nauvoo....there are soooooooo many lovely flowers.....here's some peonies.
and I looked up in one tree by the boot maker's house....wow, these blooms were all over this tree!
I still do not have my shop up yet ....and had to finish these two bowed psalteries. I'm going to be doing some painting on them now....here's a sorta sample. I've finished these.

sunset on the Mississippi

Here is just one of the MANY MANY Sunsets on the Mississippi.