A 12″ x 12″ square of one, that is.

And you are wondering why. Of course you are.

Life is full of surprises, as the saying goes. Around here the surprises have been good and bad and we survived the bad ones and celebrated the good ones. Don’t we all!

Will’s leaving the bbq pit and embracing the world of teaching elementary school was a great surprise, one that recently led to my making classroom quilts and shopping for animal skins on Etsy.

Because? FRONTIER FRIDAY!!!! Will’s change of classroom from 4th grade to 2nd has given him freedom to teach a little US History his own way, hence the once-a-month “Frontier Friday” and the various activities Will has been creating all summer. I think there will be panning for gold, a trading post, coonskin caps, arrowheads and–ta da!–identifying animal skins.

Check out the moose hide and the rabbit pelts, purchased here in Idaho:

Contributions of all kinds are welcome, should you have any skins, furs, bones, etc. in your basement and you don’t know what to do with them.

Another surprise:

The Funny Grandson sent this picture yesterday. He is learning how to cook Shepherd’s Pie and says he is going to make it for all of us next summer. Grandma is very excited about this.

And then there was my surprise from Wayfair Saturday. Just so you know, this is not the cast iron grill basket I ordered two weeks ago.

At first Banjo Man and I couldn’t figure out what it was. A treadmill desk? Googling soon produced the answer: a bamboo bathtub caddy.

It is quite lovely and expandable and even has a book holder, but we can’t use it. Wayfair refunded my money for the grill pain and told me to keep and/or donate the “wrong item”.

And because Daniel Boone and Lewis & Clark never used bathtub caddies, we are giving this away to the first person who wants it. Come and get it!

What was your best surprise this summer?