We had a wonderfully normal weekend without drama.

The biggest drama revolved around a new horse that arrived.  Dakota brought a pony that belonged to her future brother-in-law.  See if you can follow this ...  Daughter Dakota got her first horse when she was 16.  Her horse's name was ... Dakota.  Forevermore known as Dakota H.(orse).  Any guess where I'm going here?  Yep, you got it.  New horse's name is Dakota.  But she doesn't look like a Dakota.  (whatever that means)  The new horse is a paint with blue eyes.  Beautiful and a wonderful personality.  She suckered me in quickly!

We went to Jim's 80th birthday party.  Good folks and good food.  We went and listened to Jeff and his band play on Lake Poinsett.  Great atmosphere and fun band. 

I got to try out my new soap molds.  Way too much fun!  I made 12 lbs of soap this weekend!  It was fabulous working with the new molds and now have to put in an order for some new scents.  I tried something new with some unexpected results.  I put together a new recipe that I was going to use for my Suds-weizer and Bubbly-Bubbles lines for Christmas/New Years.  So I add the lye to the wine / goat milk soap mixture and it turns ... SPLIT PEA GREEN ...  Panic ... But then I remember mistakes have had some great results so I stuck with it.  It went from green to orange and is now a light yellow/orange color.  It's definitely workable but I was hoping for a light pink color.  I may trying to mess with the order of things and see if it has any affect.

And I even got a batch of salsa made.  See what I mean ... just a nice easy going weekend ... with fantastic weather.

Have a great week yourself!  Penny

The lack of blogging activity is directly linked to the surplus of vacation days and a left behind computer.  Ahhh!
What we did ... fish ... sleep ... eat ... sleep <repeat> on the shores of Lake Michigan.

How embarrassing on the first day as we were a bunch of big wimps reeling in those fish, crying for help -- "hold my pole, I can't go on."  We did better the other days as we fine tuned our technique and turned up the determination.  Notice Jay's fine stance when reeling in.  No wimpiness here!

And here's his reward.  Look at the face...behind the weight of the grimace is pure happiness.

This is the stringer of fish for day 3.  Our fishing guides Captain Steven and First Mate Forrest delivered and we were only 4 short of our limit for the entire stay for the 4 of us (including cohorts - Bruce and Sheryl).  Forrest obliged the picture taking and even setup the shot.  Notice the little fish inside the big fish's mouth.  That was all Forrest.  But in case you're wondering what the little fish saw from that angle...

And on the way back, we stopped in Menomonie, WI to visit a high school friend.  It was wonderful company, conversation, and FLOWERS.  Thanks, Amy and Greg!