Toasting marshmallows

Last night we enjoyed our third Friday night craft get together. I brought a bottle of homemade blackberry/blueberry mead (made by my friend's husband). This was perfect with the chocolate brownies and chocolate covered strawberries that other friends brought.

The cut backs in school funding and the upcoming (next Tuesday) tax override vote was discussed as we worked. None of my children have teacher assignments -- nor will they get them until sometime in August when the final cuts in teachers are made. This whole process is so frustrating. I only hope that the town votes in the override or we will suffer with cuts in the town budget and fire and police. The class sizes are already going to go up and they are losing many teachers.

We spent most of the day outside doing yard work. The weather and the temperature were perfect. I mulched the vegetable garden pathways with relatively fresh stinky chicken manure and covered this with pine needles to hide the smell a bit. Next year when this has aged a bit I will shovel this mulch onto the raised beds as fertilizer. The older girls returned from a sleep over and I gave them some outdoor chores to help with. My sister and her children will visit next weekend and we need to get a so much done before they come. We also set up our replacement pool that my husband brought home from a friend at work. They no longer used this pool so I think this is perfect solution for us this summer. I think the older girls are a bit disappointed because it is only 42 inches deep but I promised them a deeper one next year.

We ended the day with a fire in our little fire ring. We toasted marshmallows and tiny hot dogs on sticks for dinner. Then the girls played a little softball with dad. My youngest was looking out for fireflies but we didn't spot any. I was surprised when she announced that this was our summer solstice party and of course there should be fireflies. It was probably a bit too cool for them yet.