Plymouth Farmers' Market

This morning we had breakfast in Plymouth, Indiana, then headed for the downtown farmers' market.

This event is held in a nice park called River Square. There was a man playing a guitar and singing tunes like " Oh when them cotton balls get rotten, you can't pick very much cotton",
a song made popular by Charlie Pride I think. 

As we made our way around the square we bought a cupcake at a cupcake specialty booth and some apricot scones at a church bake sale booth. There were 5-6 produce stands selling corn, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, onions, ground cherries, and more. We are going to have sautéed veggies with Italian sausages tonight. Jewelry and plants were also being sold.

I thought it was rather clever the way the cupcake was packaged to go by placing it on a plastic cup lid, then putting the cup over the cupcake. She had boxes for multiple cupcakes, but one almond raspberry seemed like enough to share at lunch.

The books I ordered online for Grace Village Library are starting to fill my mailbox. Lots to do next week getting them ready: removing stickers and library labels for those that are ex-lib, cataloging (adding to data base), printing labels, then finally taking them to the library for the label protector and the ownership stamp to be added. 

I knew I had number one of Finding Sanctuary series by Nancy Mehl on my ipad. I started reading it several days ago before the books arrived. Yesterday I read Deadly Echoes, number two in the series, when it came in the mail. There is a third book, but it hasn't shown up yet. These are suspense/mystery books. They have been well worth reading. Mrs. Mehl is a new author for me.

Back From the Dead?

I make no pretense to be a gardener. In fact, I struggle to keep the plants in my patio plot alive. 

Last year a plant started to grow unplanted by me. I finally decided it was a sunflower that sprouted from a seed from the bird feeder. I considered it a gift from God.

This summer when a plant near where it had grown came thru the soil, I thought maybe it was another sunflower. I didn't treat it as a weed and didn't pull it up. To my amazement, it got taller and taller and branched out. It looked something like the Rose of Sharon that had been in our plot when we moved in in 2011 but died in the harsh winter of 2014. We had cut that bush down in the fall of 2014. My husband calls it the Big Weed.

 I found on the internet that Rose of Sharon usually doesn't flower the first year, but it had a late start so I was hoping maybe in August there might be a few blooms to verify its identity. Wednesday morning when I opened the blinds I found many of the tips of its branches chewed off. There will be no proof this year. If it is a Rose of Sharon, it is a miracle. A plant cut down suddenly reappearing 4 years later!

The hoof prints indicated a deer had eaten this bush. Unfortunately, it also ate all of the colorful pretty portulaca blooms as well. The landscaper had planted on Tuesday a hydrangea bush in the middle berm between the condos. It also was pretty badly chewed up. I'm thinking the deer saw that nice tasty specimen and then wandered over to my plot to see what else might feed it. I have never had my moss roses eaten. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.

The rudbeckia are blooming now in the front corner of the condo. The Stella d'Oro lilies did not open when my neighbors' did in June, but are blooming in July. The front corner looks nice. 

The time a few hours before sunset when there are long shadows is my favorite time of day.

Here you can see a sidewalk in the background behind the geraniums. This sidewalk was something the residents have wanted for a long time. Lots of people walk on the easement from the condos over to independent living and health care. If the grass was wet even from dew, lawn clippings stuck to shoes. Muddy places also weren't conducive to walking nor the uneven contours of the ground.

Since we live at the end of the cul de sac, we had quite a show of the construction work. Trucks and machinery parked where my husband usually parks his pickup. It took two weeks to make this sidewalk. A middle-aged man and two teenage boys started it when we had outside temperatures in the 90's with heat index above 100. They even worked on July 4th. They used with our permission our outside faucet and sat under the shade of our front lawn pear tree. They stacked boards used as forms for the width of the concrete next to the west wall of our house and stored a wheel barrow there. 
They finished while we were in Michigan so we missed out on a few dusty and noisy days. I've only used the sidewalk once because of rain or because I had heavy loads of books to haul to and from the library necessitating the car, but I am sure it will get more use. We don't know whether Grace Village will clear it of snow; if so, that would mean being able to walk in the winter.

The Blue and the Gray

We have had lots of rain the past 1 1/2 days; more could come tomorrow and Monday. We needed the moisture, just not all at once. The lawns are greening up some, but my flower plot next to my patio does not drain well so the plants are in pooling water. 
The sun came out about noon today and lasted for 20 minutes. Now we are back to gray skies.

Yesterday before the winds and heavy rain arrived, I picked a hydrangea from the side of the house. I also cut a wee rose off the front bush to add to the two I already had in the bud vase. I was afraid the blooms would be beaten down by the storm.

I did buy 5 pounds of blueberries at the grocery store. I may have misquoted the price in my previous blog. With my Martin's card, the box of berries was $9.99, limit of one box. Regular price $11.99. I spent this morning washing and sorting. In the box were a few dried-up berries, some stems, no leaves or twigs, and best of all no bugs. A few of the berries were smooshed. I disposed of them in the most efficient manner: popping them in my mouth.

 I think these Michigan berries have a deeper flavor than the ones we picked.  I am pleased with the quality of the berries. They were picked and packed in South Haven. My husband is already hinting that maybe next year we should just buy the blueberries from the grocery store. We'll see. I think the berry picking is a nice diversion from our routine day as long as it isn't hot and humid or rainy.

I had already removed and processed berries from the above box; it was fuller before the photo. With more berries than we usually pick, I will have to get out some of the recipes I saved these past few years and bake something or make my blueberry sauce. Many of the recipes can use frozen berries. 

I had a gift of $100 to the Grace Village library. Yesterday I went on a spending spree, ordering 22 books from Better World Books and from ebay. I am starting to like ebay for buying books now that the sellers don't charge shipping and offer buy it now option. You can even add books to a cart if you have more than one from the same seller. I received 10 per cent off after I bought more than 4 books from one seller; another had buy 2, get one free. It makes the money stretch further. I spent almost $82. Most of the books were listed as "very good" condition. I get annoyed with Better World Books sometimes because it is hard to tell if the book is regular or large print. When the email confirmation came, it showed 2 of the books as large print which is good for the library, but not what I would want for my own personal library. It should be more obvious in the description what the print size is. 

By the end of next week to the middle of the following one, books should start arriving. I will be busy. I now have 16 books on my series gap list to find; I started with over 150. Real progress was made in the past 2 years because of generous monetary gifts. I have also used some of the money to buy non-series books.

Since April, Wall Street Journal has been offering to its subscribers one free e-book a month through BookShout. I downloaded the app to my ipad. Usually there are 3 book choices. This month was Magpie Murders by Horowitz, a book my husband borrowed from the public library and is currently reading. This is only the second book I have added to my ipad from them via WSJ offer. Normally, these books would have a fee if not subsidized by WSJ. I have to log in with my WSJ ID and password to get the free book. I browsed BookShout and found a free book I also added. I will save Magpie for my cruise reading.

Blueberries and Blooms

We have had a few days of low humidity and cooler mornings. We even had the windows open last night. Today we went to the Berry Patch in Etna Green and picked 8 pounds of blueberries. This is slightly less than the 10 pounds we usually pick. I see Martin's has a 5-pound box of local blueberries for $5.99 with store card. The trick is to get there when they are in stock; at this sale price (about what you pay at the u-pick), people tend to stock up on them. They disappear fast.

The first time I picked blueberries, I washed them and then spread them on a cookie/baking sheet to put in the freezer for 10 minutes. This supposedly was to keep them from sticking together. I have discovered this freezer step is entirely unnecessary. I now have my own method (madness) for getting blueberries ready to eat or to freeze.

The place where we pick lines plastic pails with plastic bags. They take the bag full of berries out of the pail to weigh as you pay by the pound. 

Once home, I take out batches of blueberries and wash them in a colander.

 The washed berries are then spread out on paper towels.

 I roll my hand over the berries to spread them out to get rid of any moisture. In the rolling process, I remove stems and other inedible items. It is rather surprising what ends up in your pail: leaves, twigs, dried up berries, bugs (this year 3 Japanese beetles--one year a little green worm). Some probably fall in unnoticed while you industriously pick away at the bush. They are by no means intentional additions. 

We wear grubby clothes. This morning while my husband was changing once we were home, he realized he had two small berries in his shirt pocket. I have an old pair of Nikes I use for berry picking or weeding in the flower bed.

These are still in the garage. Amidst cleaning and sorting berries, making lunch, and working in the library this afternoon, I didn't have time or energy to clean them yet.

I select the firmest berries to freeze as they are heaped in a gallon freezer bag. In November or January I want berries on my cereal, not a purplish blob. As I put the berries in the freezer bag, I put the less firm ones in the little green Tupperware container. These are the "eat now" berries.  I have never had any frozen berries stick to each other or clump together using this method. 

My Bloom of the Month for July is a mixed bouquet. I picked it up on Monday. 

Exploring the South Haven Area

We spent a few days in South Haven, Michigan, July 12-14, staying two nights in a B&B. Usually, we make daytrips, but we wanted to explore the surrounding area with the idea we might in a few years rent summer lodging for a week to ten days. Since we had already visited Saugatuck and Fennville, we skipped them this trip though we would enjoy returning. South Haven is about 2 hours from us.

We started our trip by having breakfast at Uptown Kitchen in Granger, Indiana, north of South Bend and near the Michigan state line. The food was tasty, but the acoustics were bad for chatting because of the hard surfaces of ceiling, floor, and furniture.

We mostly stayed on rural roads to get to Bridgman, Michigan. Weko Beach was almost deserted at 10 a.m. We paid $10 for a day pass. We soon learned that Warren Dunes abuts Weko and as we headed south from the Pavilion we were quickly in Warren Dunes as indicated by the signage.

Uh, oh, if we wanted to continue we needed to wade the inlet water.

I'm glad we did as we soon came to some logs where we could sit and enjoy the scenery and listen to the waves.

The beach crowd at Weko started arriving around noon.

After an unmemorable lunch, we made two more stops before heading for South Haven. Our check-in time was 3 p.m. at the earliest at the B&B.

We stopped at Bit of Swiss Bakery in Stevensville. I thought this would be in a strip mall. It was next to a restaurant in a tony residential area. I had seen ads and read a feature story in Edible Michiana magazine that I pick up from time to time. We bought two almond horns for Friday morning as the B&B didn't serve breakfast until 9 a.m. The free samples worked as I loved the cranberry-pistachio biscotti and bought a bag. Usually biscotti is so hard that to eat it you have to dunk it in a hot beverage. This biscotti was crisp but easily eaten out of the bag.

Our second stop was at Great Lakes Antiques in Coloma. A couple of years ago I had success in finding items to buy, but this time we found nothing. When we entered the store, there were plastic containers of blueberries for sale. My husband asked if they were antique blueberries. It is definitely blueberry season in Michigan. We plan to pick some locally toward the end of the week here in our area. I was sorry we were about two weeks too early for peach season.

Martha's Vineyard B&B has a large guest house but also some more modern suites in a separate building for those who want more privacy. The B&B is north of South Haven on the Blue Star Highway, less than ten minutes from downtown South Haven.

We stayed in Martha's Garden, the only main floor room. I didn't feel like lugging bags up a flight of stairs and, more importantly, this room though smallish had its own screened-in porch. The guests in the house ate breakfast on the verandah. Those in the suites had a basket of breakfast delivered to their doors.

The verandah ceiling was covered with Boston ivy.

There were hammocks and benches and chairs on the grounds to relax in.

Those in the suites (above) were welcome to spend time in the guest house, but I didn't see anybody do that. At 4 p.m. lemonade and cookies/brownies are set on the dining room buffet. Granola and a pretzel mix are always available. I appreciated the small fridge on the verandah where we could keep our water bottles cool. I saw somebody had stored some cherries there as well.

We went to Subway on Broadway in South Haven to pick up a sub to share along with drinks and chips. Parking was hard to find. We had to carry our folding chairs several blocks to the park where the Thursday evening concert took place. We enjoyed sitting next to the Black River watching the boats come and go while we ate our small supper. The sound system for the concert wasn't very good and it wasn't our type of music so we left a little before 8 p.m.

We nibbled on another cookie sitting on our porch reading our books. We found the queen bed to be comfortable.

The breakfasts were served in three courses. The first morning we had a dish of grapes, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries; followed by a cinnamon roll baked in an individual ceramic cup; then eggs, potatoes, sausage mixture.

The second day we were served fresh pineapple with strawberries; a creamy parfait (yogurt or yogurt mixed with sour cream?) with fruit in it and topped by granola crumbles; then a scrumptious blueberry strata with sausage patties.

This picture from the internet will give you some idea of what the strata was like. Bread soaked overnight in egg and milk mixture with berries and seasonings, then baked and topped with more blueberries.

Friday after breakfast we headed for Pilgrim Haven south of the town. This had its grand opening in May of this year. There had been work putting in a gravel parking lot and making a wide cement walkway to the beach so handicapped people could also enjoy the lake. We hiked the trails a little bit before going to the 700-800 foot beach. The chimney from the dining hall of the summer camp that had stood here originally was in a clearing.

There were maybe a dozen people at the beach unlike the hordes at the beaches in South Haven. We set up our folding chairs and relaxed to the sound of the breaking waves. One lady was collecting small rocks and fossils to make jewelry. She told me that sometimes she found beach glass (like sea glass), but not much this year.

I found just three itty pieces. The rocks were interesting though. This was the kind of place we were hoping to discover.

After some time cleaning up a bit and sitting on our porch to rest and read our books, we left for ice cream at Captain Nemo's. I had chocomania. Delicious. We walked out to the lighthouse, then returned to our car which was parked under the farmers' market shed (Wednesday and Saturday) in the shade. It is nice to become familiar enough with a place to navigate smoothly.

We played a round of Upwords sitting on our porch, then perused the menus in the lobby of the B&B. On our way to Everyday People Café in Douglas we passed an interesting park that looked like it edged the lake. We decided to check it out on the way back.

Casco Township Nature Preserve was a lovely area with paved trails to picnic tables and scattered benches in the forested part, a meadow to observe wildlife, and steep stairs to the lake below.
A local couple on the bench at the top of the stairs told us the park is about 4 years old. When asked where we were from, I said Winona Lake, Indiana, expecting them to know nothing about it. The wife said her family had gone there for Bible conferences when she was young. They were both graduates of Wheaton College. When I mentioned Pilgrim Haven and my lack of success at finding beach glass, the husband reached into the pocket of his swim trunks withdrawing a handful of nice glass. He said he finds quite a bit on the beach below. Another treasure to add to our discoveries of the South Haven area.

I had selected this past weekend because I wanted to stop at the Krasl Art Fair in St. Joseph on the way home. We had gone to this arts and crafts market a few times in previous years. We found the shuttle parking easily using GPS. I took my umbrella as it looked stormy. We had a few sprinkles, but no serious rain until just when we had arrived at our car again to head home. 
I bought some pottery from a woman who lives in Indiana. She had been at the Winona Lake Art Festival in June she said, but I don't remember seeing her pottery. I wasn't shopping that day like this time. 

Blue of course, my favorite color. I liked the raised texture, too. I have several places I might display it, but for now it is on the lamp etagere. 

We had a successful outing in many ways, but especially glad for the new discoveries. I see on Airbnb some places near our B&B that though listed as single rooms are actually B&B type setups for half the cost of Martha's Vineyard. Maybe next summer we will stay for 4 nights instead of 2 for the same cost. We have to go during peach season though.

115-Year-Old Club Bumps Up Against Modern America

The Winona Literary Club was formed in 1903 and has met continuously since then. The checking account being used was at least 20 years old. The checks even had the original name of the bank rather than the current name when two banks merged. For the small amount of checks written each year to meet expenses out of the dues, it worked fine. Then the bank decided an account with a low balance should pay $7 a month as a fee. Considering the club only had around $600-$700 total after the dues were collected, and that money was disbursed on a regular basis, $70 or more a year in fees was a sizeable expense.

The change to another bank should have been researched before closing the account. However, the newly-elected treasurer took it upon herself to have the former treasurer close the account. No discussion in the club or among the officers. She had asked at her personal bank and found an option with no fees. She thought she was doing a good thing. I have to admit I had no idea how complicated the process of setting up a checking account for an organization would be.

Last Friday around noon I (the president) received a frantic phone call from the new treasurer. When she went to deposit the check and set up a new checking account, she was asked for all kinds of documents. A certificate of good standing, a certificate of legal existence, etc. The club has no such documents. She made an appointment for the afternoon so I could go with her. I found out that besides those documents, the federal government required the bank to ask for an EIN (Employer Identification Number). Between the phone call and the appointment, I started researching what was needed to set up a club checking account. I saw the EIN mentioned and explained, so I can't say I was surprised when it came up.

I had also started finding via the internet other banks that set up checking for community organizations and clubs. Yesterday I visited two banks. Neither required certificates but they did require the EIN. No way around that unless we had an individual willing to use their personal account for club business. Establishing the EIN had the benefit of removing liability for lawsuits or court claims from the individual officers and members. We certainly didn't want to put any of our members at financial risk.

This morning the treasurer and I went to a bank that required no certificates. Yesterday online at the IRS I had set up an EIN. The automated process does have a category for non-businesses such as religious or community clubs. The catch was that a "responsible person" (me) had to provide personal information including SSN. I wasn't very comfortable with that, but it had to be done. We now live in a post-2001 United States that requires even a piddly club of senior-aged women to jump through hoops if they want checking. We have to be vetted that we aren't laundering money or pushing drugs or supporting terrorist groups. 

 Part of the online form asked for the date of founding. When I typed in 1903, I immediately got a pop-up message telling me the date could not be earlier than 25 years from the current date. The other option was to type in the date when I "acquired" the business/organization. I didn't acquire anything other than the position of president, but I typed in May 2018. Everything was sympatico. I was pretty sure that by applying for this EIN, I or the club was going to have to file paperwork every year. I had no idea!

The last part of the application process after submitting the information was the appearance of a letter from the IRS to print and to give to the bank. Several paragraphs in that letter informed me of IRS form this, and IRS form that, to be filed next year. If I wanted to be tax-exempt, I needed to apply with the IRS. We as a club have a tax-exempt number that hasn't been used in a decade. The number was handed down year after year, but if there ever was supporting documentation, nobody knows where it is. The Indiana DOR states that this kind of number never expires. We are out of compliance probably since it too required registering or filing something regularly with the state. Also, in the olden days, the state issued the number; now an entity has to apply and register with the 
IRS which issues a number that one subsequently registers with the state. There is a hotline to call about tax-exempt questions on the Indiana DOR, but at this point I am worn out. Maybe I will explore later.

I haven't read the instructions for 990-EZ, so it is possible with our only revenue being dues and a donation collection for the Salvation Army, and small fund amount, that we do not have to file.

The other option to explore is that though an EIN never expires, the ability to use it expires with 3 years of non-compliance in filing. We could let it expire and then later "renew" it if we needed to change banks again. 

It would have been easiest to pay the $7 per month. Too late to go back. A Pandora's box has been opened. I definitely will need to do more research before next spring. It hasn't been a restful summer even though the club is on hiatus June, July, and August.