Leif & Regan's Visit

 It has been almost three weeks since Leif and Regan's visit... well overdue for some photo journaling.

Don't they look nice together?

Dad and Leif were pretty much alone out by the fire.  Temp was good... mosquitos, bad.

Had to inspect Mom's crop:

It's her part-time summer job:

And she does it very well:

Of course, we had to show her the world's largest turkey:

And they showed us a nice night out to dinner:

Then it was on to Itasca for the historic walk across the Mississippi:

And the photo op on the log:

And the walk DOWN the Mississippi:

And the obligitory photo by the headwaters sign (I think my parents have one like this from their honeymoon.):

And we couldn't forget the Wilderness Drive ending up at the fire tower:

It's a long walk:

Well, not for everyone:

Good time to get to know each other, though:

It does look a little daunting after that walk:

Not everyone felt like the climb:

And they got smaller,

and smaller,

and smaller,

but Glori couldn't resist and decided to join us:

Easy to look cool when you're cool, right, Leif?

Obviously, Regan is behind the lens on this one:

It was a beautiful day:

shared with such a nice couple:

Then, we went to the new museum:

It's worth the trip up there if you haven't been there for a few years. 

Andy & Kaylee Wedding

  I know some of you know Andy and Kaylee and couldn't get to the wedding so this is just a quick blog to post some photos:

Papa Terry coming in with Kaylee. 

A simple service at the Apostolic Lutheran Church near Wolf Lake.

Handing the flowers to Dan and Rhonda (Kaylee's brother, Billy, is on the right.)

Andy's brother, Isaiah, coming in to the reception with Billy's sister and Joelle's friend, Rachel.

Old friends, Lori and Enrique Vasquez, now living in Texas.

They had a beautiful reception hall.

Not sure if he's doing this right.

Ruth is good at getting candid shots.

Watching them decorate the car.

Joelle & Heidi H. with the Vasquez twins.

Tornados and Horse Shows

I didn't get any pictures of the tornado that passed by us last week, other than the hail, but here is a link to the article in the Frazee paper regarding the damage it did.

http://www.frazeeforum.com/main.asp?SectionID=21&SubSectionID=61&ArticleID=19608

We did get a photo of another small aftermath of the tornado.  A cow that had lost its way on our way home:

Back to the horse show, there was a nice photo and write up in the paper with Glori jumping Dillon at the Detroit Lakes show, but I couldn't find it on the web version of the paper so I'll include a couple of photos I took.  I had some really cool videos of her competition, but I tried all last week to download them and couldn't get it done.  Maybe they're too big. 

She's just standing next to us waiting for one of her events.

This was her barrel race.

It gets to be a long day so we made ourselves comfortable.  That was last weekend.

This weekend Ruth and Mom and I had a contest with the .22. 

I had to find out if Ruth's shooting skill was just a fluke so she and I did 4 out of 5 rounds and we had a little disagreement as to who won. 

I won't tell you whose is whose, but it came down to one last shot in the last series where both  "appeared" to be equidistant from the bulls eye:

Maybe you should judge for us.  Which is closer, the one in the top photo by the 8 or the one on the left in the bottom photo? 

With all the rain, Mom's raspberries are doing well:

She has dozens of orders.  It's also causing a few other things to grow as well.

The bottom lichen is growing out behind gramps' house and is about 12 inches across. Those pine needles are imbedded right through it. 

It reminds me of some advice I gave to one of you lately, namely "Bloom where you are planted, because 'if you're not happy where you are, you sure aren't going to be happy where you ain't.'" (Charlie Tremendous Jones)  Or to put it scripturally, ECC 9:10 "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest."  You only get one shot at life, so if life gives you thunderstorms, they're usually there to help you grow. 

Cats, Storms & Dead Things...

I want it to go on record here that I do not like cats.  Cats are evil, but they serve a purpose in keeping the rodents at bay.  That was a backwards way to excuse the fact that we got a couple of kittens.

They look harmless when they're sleeping, but they're really quite vicious.

I know it looks like I like them...

but all that attention has a purpose.  If they don't think I'm a friend they won't come to me when I need to practice my drop-kick when they try to come in the house.  (Right now they are allowed on the porch to get people friendly.) At this point in the above photo we were actually just sitting in the garage waiting for a storm to go through so I told Ruth to get another chair and the kittens to entertain us (another purpose of the kitten that doesn't always follow into the adult of the species). 

She got one out of the Durango and all three of us (Joyce is on the camera as usual) sat in the garage and watched the wind and hail, not knowing that a tornado touched down at Briards just a couple of miles south of us and near where Glori was working.  Forest lost some trees and a silo and another neighbor lost some buildings.

At our place, it wasn't even enough to destroy Joyce's flower garden.

And the raspberries aren't ripe yet so they were fine. 

She enjoys working on these almost as much as her vegetable garden.  She has made our home not only a productive place, but a beautiful one. 

Speaking of cats and rodents (one being only slightly above the other on the list of animals I like) Joyce told Ruth we had a visitor in the hydrant pit. 

You can't see him, but it was a mole.  Ruth said, "Let's save it and find out what it eats."  I put my foot down and said, "I may allow cats and racoons and ducks, but I draw the line at moles."  Then she said, "Well, can I shoot it then?"  (There's something different about that girl, but I like her.)  I said, "Sure, why not."  As usual, she was dead on with one BB to the head. 

Didn't mean to gross you out, but those things get bigger than I thought. 

Girls continue to baffle me, but I've given up expecting to understand them.  This puzzle has been bugging me though.  If you can figure out how it works, let me know. 

http://www.quizyourprofile.com/guessyournumber.php

Until next time...

Cleaning Up

My boss hates the word "try", but that's what I'm doing this year with the yard.  I'm trying to keep up with it, but as I'm slowing down and the labor exodus at home is speeding up, it's getting more difficult.  This spring I decided to "try" to clean out the bushes of all that's dead.  We came up with quite a pile. 

It was about the size of the small garage.  But it's a never ending battle.  The living cannot keep up with the dead at this place, especially on the trees.  There was this one Lord of the Rings wannabe next to the house that had been bugging me, though.

I just had to get that branch out of there. 

But when I got up there, I wasn't so sure it was a good idea. 

I tried cutting...

And I tried pounding a wedge...

And Ruthie tried to keep the ladder steady while keeping the dog away from falling debris at the same time...

Finally, we decided that we'd have to finish it off by pulling it down...

This actually worked without any major mishap so I decided we were ready for the juice...

This, of course, worked quite well and it only took about a half hour to disappear.

However, the coals took days to cool down.  We often act like this.  We like to get rid of things that have been bugging us and let it all go up in the heat of the moment, but the aftermath in others' lives lingers on.  It's been a month since the fire and the scars are still there.

All of this reminded me of something my boss sent me the other day:

Who retires early? The one who dreams of a house on the beach, or the one who invests $300 a month?

Who writes books? The one who desires to become a bestselling author, or the one who gets up early and writes for half an hour a day?

Who has the best marital relationship? The one who knows how much spending time with their spouse can improve their relationship, or the one who sits down and talks with their spouse every night?

Who makes the most sales? The one who believes they can become a great salesperson or the one who makes 10 sales calls a day?

I think you get the point. When it all comes down to it, we must act upon our vision, beliefs, and ideals or we won't see them come to fruition. I see too many people who know what is right, but don't ever do anything about it.