Let's Cut Ol' Cliff Down to Size

I accompanied my Bride on a trip to a neighboring town to deliver a load of freshly groomed dogs last evening. On the way I was listening to Union Station. They are the band often found in the company of Allison Krause.
I was in my little dream world, the one where I'm singing or playing to ten thousand screaming fans. At the end of one my favorite songs from the CD I said, "Someday, when Union Station calls me, I'm going to leave you and the farm and go on tour with that band." (This is more unlikely than you think if you know that I can't play an instrument AND I have trouble singing anything but the melody.)
After a pause that lasted about an eighth of a mile, and while staring straight ahead Marilyn said, "I'll bet they've already got a truck driver".
I tell ya, I get no respect.

Wondering.

July 1st Nebraskas new Concealed Carry gun law goes into effect.
The Omaha City Council, just last week, banned smoking in public buildings.
Is it a good idea to take cigarettes from folks and at the same time give them firearms?

Have you ever watched the circus act where the guy has about 15 poles and is trying to keep a plate spinning on top of each pole? That's what it's like trying to keep 6 irrigation wells running. I'm staying home this weekend for that reason and the fact that it won't rain. AND I was ill (make that a 60 hour bug instead of the 24 hour variety) and can't afford the time away. So here I am recovering and working. What, you ask, am I missing? Well let me tell you.
A very good friend of mine is graduating with her Masters Degree in Counseling. Some of her friends are having a party for her and Marilyn and I were planning to attend. I think her husband influenced her decision to become profiecient in counseling. After all, who needs counseling more than Ralph. Best wishes can be extended to her here, or at Ralph's blog.
Ralph and I are good friends, but Char's the real reason we invite them to the farm so much. She is talented, charming, and oh so much better looking than Ralph. Congrats Char!!

Stay Back

I hope none of you stopped by yesterday. You could have caught something. I had a 24 hr bug. My body is not being run by Ray Nagin. I had a 12 hr, complete and total evacuation of my digestive track. Traffic ran..well I was going to say in spurts but let just say 'smoothly' via the two major routes. All that was required by the road crews was turning a bunch of 'one way only' signs around to point the other direction.
I've slowly been losing weight over the last year. The 6 pounds I lost yesterday was not by design and I'm sure will return.
I will return when I've regained conciousness.

Riverfront Days--Decatur Nebraska

On Saturday we attended a parade in a neighboring town. Decatur is on the Missouri River and is on the North end of our county. They have a two day celebration each year and a parade on Saturday. They wanted the County Supervisors to judge this parade. It was fun but much more difficult than I had expected. Judging a parade, regardless of the size, should be avoided. I did notice that even though the parade route is only about 5 blocks long, it takes most of an hour to go by. There is a limited amount of kids along the route and an unlimited amount of candy being slung from the floats. The result is children with plastic grocery sacks bulging to the point of bursting, the streets paved with unwanted candy, (if you can be picky, you don't bother to pick up hard candy or those miniature Tootsie Rolls) and kids staring at the next float wondering what they might throw that could possibly be worth bending over to retrieve.
The picture was taken from the Ferris Wheel (sp) and shows the entire midway. Grandma got to go with our Grandon to take this. This may look like a tiny midway to you but if you have a Grandson in tow, it"s quite big enough. The part of mainstreet that is past the carnival is where the parade had been.
The river bottom land is about 7 miles from Tekamah, but is disappears at Decatur. The famous Dryland Bridge is at Decatur. The bridge was completed on dry land and the river was to be redirected under it. They ran short on funding for moving the river so the bridge sat over dry land for a few years until Federal funding was available. This happened in the 1950's. I was about 4 or 5 when the bridge finally opened.

Happy Fathers Day

Three of the reasons I consider myself a very blessed man. Their Mother should be pictured also as someone who played the most important role in making me a Father. I didn't include a picture of the lovely lady so as to be able to keep sleeping with her.
I'm easily bluffed.
I'm proud of these kids. They turned out well.

First Home

My youngest and his future bride (this summer) have purchased their first home. They are in the process of gathering their 'things' together. Tom is going to move in now. His free time that used to be spent on the golf course will now be spent on home improvement.

The Order of Things

Recently here on the farm I have witnessed tomcat A and B in a fight to the death until tomcat C came in to rescue either A or B. In a cat fight it's kind of hard to determine which side to root for. Well, it's hard to determine anything in a cat fight. Cat B left the fray to A and C. So B must have been the rescue e.
I've seen cats catch and eat mice. Dogs kill Racoons. A Redtail Hawk kill a rabbit and five or six Turkey Vultures tear a dead whitetail limb from limb.
I have therefore determined that I like my place in the food chain. At least here in Nebraska we don't have bears. Being at the top means you don't have to keep looking behind, to the side, up, back, left side, right side, up, ... It would make it hard to blog and read the paper.

GATEWAY TO THE WEST PARADE- Blair NE

You might try this for a tour sometime. It's located between Omaha and Lincoln near I-80.

What'd you say Grandpa?

"Grandma, that float is upside down".

Mom!! Can we ride the horse with you?? Mom is on the dark bay. More pics later.

Did You Hear Anything?

There has always been a question about whether a tree in the forest makes a sound when it falls if there's no one to hear it.
I was cultivating corn today. A large dead tree fell from the timber into my corn field making it impossible to cultivate without picking up a large mess... I can't tell you if the tree made any sound when it fell. I can tell you with all certainty, that this farmer made a clearly audible sound.

A very nice, and quite pregnant lady is turning, uh, very, no, well... she is having a birthday Friday!!! She is a disgustingly young age and nearly still in the fetal position yet, herself. It's TERAH. Click on her link on the right and say HI and wish her a Happy Birthday. She likes Cadbury eggs (currently out of season) and Dr Pepper. And she's from Kansas.

Safe In Mothers Arms

I wanted to share a photo with you that always makes me smile. This picture of contentment, are of two of the loves of our lives. Our Daughter in-law and Grandaughter.

Caption Contest!

I've had trouble thinking what to write under this photo my wife took. I read Nephew Marty's blog about adding a caption to his pic, sooo, rather than be creative, I will shamelessly copy his idea. My caption is "I'm SINGING in the rain, I'm singing in the rain.....

Wildfire!

We've been very busy as of late. One of our projects has been the demolition and burying, and burning of our old barn. The fire was started with a single match. It burned with fury, and couldn't have been controlled even if we had tried. The destruction that little match caused was irreversible.
Kind of like a rumor.
Also like a news article written with just some of the facts.