Glacial Tills Vineyard, Palmyra. NE

About an hours drive from here is the town of Palmyra, home of Glacial Tills Vineyard.  Three years ago when we stayed here in Gretna, we visited this vineyard to help harvest their Seyval grapes with which they make their Seyval Blanc wine.  We had such a good time then that when we arrived in Gretna this time, we asked the vineyard to let us know when they were harvesting so we could help out again.  They gladly sent us notification that today was the day to harvest the Seyval grapes and we drove out to help out once again.

We not only helped with the Seyval grapes but also harvested the Marquette grapes which we have become familiar with in red wine and enjoy.  So we helped pick white and red grapes.  Again we had a great time and again they fed us and sent us home with several bottles of their tasty wine to enjoy!

We will probably help out at least one more time during this stay and are looking forward to the next time!

Glacial Till Winery

Mike in the middle getting down to business!

Seyval grapes

We came across a few nests amongst the vines but this was the only one with an egg which probably simply did not hatch.  Sure pretty though!

 Removing the nets from the vines so we can get to the grapes!

Marquette grapes

 Grab the bunch of grapes, shove the tool across the stem......

 And voila!  Grapes to help fill your bucket so you can empty it and fill it again, and again, and again!

 Our pickins for the day!

Sioux Falls, SD

When Mike and I drove up to South Dakota last weekend, we spent the night in Sioux Falls.  As we were in Sioux Falls we thought it would be interesting to see the city's namesake so we drove to Falls Park to check out the falls.  How beautiful!  The falls cascade over about a quarter mile of beautiful red quartzite rock.  We went there after dinner and ended up spending 2-3 hours exploring the falls.  Well worth seeing if in the area!

lovely sunset over the falls

 After dark the falls are lit up....beautiful!

How we get mail

Mike and I drove up to South Dakota for a little weekend trip.  Mike had been wanting to check out our "home".  When we retired, we decided to become residents of SD because they are very RV friendly and SD is fairly centrally located in the US. So our "home town" of Emery, SD,  is where we get our mail.  We have mail sent to a company called My Home Address there.  Emery is a tiny town of about 400 people.

We found our address and it is indeed a home:

 Rooms behind the garage actually contain the business.

The file we are holding up is our mail folder which is our "address".  We were joking that our file has a "view" out the window there of the back yard;)  When our mail has accumulated for a couple of months, we just call My Home Address and have them send it to our current location.  We do most of our necessary business by email, of course, but some things still have to get to us via snail mail:)

The town of Emery

The post office in Emery is actually smaller than My Home Address!

Welcome Nathaniel Joshua

Well we did not have to wait long for the happy event.  Our third grand child, Nathaniel Joshua, was born the day before yesterday, August 10th, weighing in at a healthy 8.5 pounds.  Mother and baby are doing fine.  I must share:

Nathan, Jen and Jared

Allie and Dad

healthy!

brother and sister!!

future Husker fan, of course!

what a beautiful family:)

and happy Gran!!!

Omaha, NE

We are actually now in Gretna, which is a suburb of Omaha, and will be here for 3 months!  My son and daughter-in-law are expecting their second child any day now and we are happy to be here for the wonderful event!  Allie, their firstborn, is now 3 1/2 and we are looking forward to doing a little spoiling.

I am sure I will find some interesting things to post which I will do weekly while we are here so don't go away ya'll!

On the way here we spent a couple of nights at the Winnebago plant in Forest City, Iowa.  There we had a few things looked at on our motorhome .  We also enjoyed a tour of the factory which was quite interesting. We had lousy internet there so here are the past few days:

Before we left Antigo, we went rhubarb picking and Phil made pies!  Yum!

Bob  watching out for his thumb;)

Mike and Phil

Linda enjoying raspberries right off the bush while the guys were cutting rhubarb 

Winnebago visitor center and museum:

 One of the first motorhomes made in 1966:

 The factory produces 200 motorhomes of all classes and styles a week!

A Day at Pelican Lake, WI

My mother-in-law, Joyce, celebrated her 83rd birthday yesterday and we had a wonderful day on Lake Pelican with cousins!  Bonus, 2 young bald eagles!

Beautiful and a young 83 today!!!

Jo, Jane, Joyce and Linda

Phil's catch of the day:)

Cousin Bob and Jo