Sparky Has a New Nickname!

Elkhart, IN     High: 51   Low:  41     WIND........It's nerve wracking!

Sparky was given a new nickname by her daughter (who just had Sparky's first grandbaby this past June.) "Just call me 'Grandmarrazzi' ".  Kerry came up with her own moniker for her Mama Sparky after seeing the word here:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=mamarazzi.....If you don't care to go clicking here it is:

mamarazzi

1. Mothers who constantly follow their children around with several cameras and video taking equipment, snapping photos at each turn and documenting each milestone or event with at least two dozen photos and a video. 2. Groups of aforementioned mothers 3. When referring to yourself as described above  1. You can’t even get close to the swings because of all the mamarazzi. 2. I can’t believe how many photos I took of baby Madison on the slide! I’m such a mamarazzi!

Oh, yeah, I'm a grandmarazzi,  and I'm proud of it! says Sparky. Sparky has already told Kerry to be prepared when she comes to visit Sparky and Eldo in December around the holidays, that the camera WILL be out, and the cheeks on that baby WILL be smooched-- a LOT!

                                        

                                   ****************************

What did we do today?  Headed back to Shipshewanna, Amish country. Got some more zucchini bread at the Blue Gate Restaurant to freeze and save for eating later in the year, ate our last Jojo's pretzel at the Davis Mercantile, ate some yogurt at the Hitching Post, a cool toys and candy shop...

and visited the Guggisberg Deutsch Kase Haus cheese factory in Middlebury. You can watch championship cheese being made (they won an award for this year), eat samples, (we did) and buy cheese and/or meat. (We did.) 

Bonneyville Grist Mill

Lastly, we stopped by Bonneyville Mill, a free county park with Indiana's oldest operating gristmill that continues to produce flour.....When other mills expanded and updated their equipment, Bonneyville chose to stay true to a mill of the Civil War era. It grinds flour the old fashioned way with a horizontal water wheel/turbine. They produce flour from May to October. Sparky purchased a small bag of cornmeal flower and is gonna make cornmeal muffins. (She's gonna COOK? This I gotta see! says E.) "Hey, now, I just made some brownies, I do know how to use the convection oven!" retorts Sparky. :-)

Bonneyville Mill is a beautiful park, 222 acres of rolling hills, woodlands, marshes and open meadows. There are over five miles of hiking trails here. We sort of stumbled upon the park and didn't have time to hike the trails today, but we did check out the mill and the herb and flower gardens on the grounds. The ornamental grasses were gorgeous! (You can tell Sparky likes to garden, more photos of the grounds than inside the mill! explains Eldo.)

It's really cool and full of charm.......You can feel the grist stones vibrating under your feet and hear the rushing water as it powers the mill. The ancient equipment inside really made you feel like you were back in the early 1800's. 

Even the cash register was over 120 years old and they used it to ring up Sparky's corn meal purchase.

Everything was numbered, explanations were provided by park personnel and the mill was put into operation for us to see.

The mill is getting ready to close at the end of the month. We were glad to get there today before it did and see a piece of history!