Happy Trails To You....

Every year about this time our local senior citizens home throws a Pre-Fourth of July party. The object is to get a few free activities together that will attract kids. They get the entire property covered with children and wheel the residents of the home out onto the expansive porch to watch and interact with young people. The free blow-up buildings and dunking tank and human bowling and pony rides and face painting and food, always makes for a great turn out.
My daughter is in charge of the pony rides each time. She hires out for a lot of birthday parties with these diminutive steeds so this is right up her alley. I must say it is always a huge hit whether she is being paid to do a private party or a free of charge event like this one. She really enjoys getting to know new people.
They did the latest party at the senior citizens home last night. There was a constant line to ride horses that went on for hours.
The most fun my daughter has with this however, is when she mentions to an unsuspecting adult that she will be going to the senior citizens home to give pony rides. This is where their eyebrows get close together which is always followed with the 'stare.' Juli lets it continue for good length of time before she mentions that she will be giving pony rides to children attending a party there...not the residents of the home.

To Denver and Back... Again

This has been quite a ten day period. A week ago we were in the Loveland and Denver area attending the funeral of Marilyn's step Mother. She was a lovely lady with a neat family. Ralph and Char were of a huge help for us. We're used to them doing stuff like that.

Then this past weekend we gathered as a family again to lay to rest one of my Brother in-law's. They had a big family and he was well loved in the small Nebraska town where they lived.

We will miss both of these family members. They each had struggled long enough with their illnesses however.

While we were together last Saturday we went out onto the church lawn and tried to take a family photo. This is the best we could do. With these five kids and one more on the way, we find it very difficult to have everyone with their eyes open and someone not making a 'Popeye the Sailor Man' face. And sometimes the kids do that too.

For those of you coming to Blogstock, you will become familiar with all of these people. Our daughter (on the left) will be in charge of pony rides (if we have any kids attend) and horseback riding, and piano playing if we have singers in the group. The boys on the right (our two sons) will supervise the four wheeler rides and other diversions.

If you plan to attend any of the events at Blogstock, let me know so we can get an accurate count for food.

A Change In My Thinking

For years now I've thought that our self imposed ban on doing anything that makes sense concerning the production of energy by the U.S. was moronic. It's been like having a 50 point lead in the first quarter and our coach benching our varsity players because by golly it's just not fair. Now the other team is 100 points ahead of us and we still won't put the first team back in. As a matter of fact if we can find some small eight graders we're going to put them in the game. That will show the other side.
But now I understand why we won't do anything. I now too believe that we should let it all slide and hope someone will take care of us. I'm not sure which country will end up flying their flag over us but at least maybe they'll give us some cheaper fuel or 'black cats and roman candles' or maybe lots of 'sand flies.'
Personally I'm pulling for Australia because I've never seen a wombat and those people seem so darned friendly.
The other good news is that with this new way of thinking, I've decided to cancel all of my life insurance policies because you know what?...paying for life insurance will do nothing to help my situation right now.
Also, I've had some logs float in on a low land corn field. The water killed the corn and left a lot of trash. A few years back I would have waited for the field to dry and then taken my tractor and loader down and piled and burned the logs and trash and replant the corn. But now that I've been set free from having to plan for the future I'm simply waiting on FEMA to send someone to do it for me.
Not having to plan for the future or worry about where the next meal comes from is so refreshing.
And just so you know. If we lose this game it will still be the fault of those big guys we benched half way through the first quarter.
Could someone get me some Iced Tea? Soon?
Please.

You Might Live In A Small Town...

When your adult daughter walks into the local post office and is told, "Hand over fifty cents Juli, you and your Mother have got to have some one cent stamps out there."
It apparently has taken a while for the news of a postage increase to reach the farm.

"A Tornado Warning Has Been Issued By The National Weather Service...

This was the view from our back porch about two hours ago. It is looking west. Soon after this
picture was taken, we were put under a tornado warning. It was for east central Burt county. The tornado was indicated by radar a couple of miles north of here. We live in extreme southeastern Burt County. I snapped the next picture which is looking North, Northwest from here.

Then I went inside. Now a couple of hours later it's apparent that the tornado that was just north of us went across the river and hit our neighboring town across the Missouri River. Little Sioux, Iowa is about 6.6 miles north and east of our farm.
Years ago I attended the Boy Scout camp ground there with my oldest son.
We don't yet know the extent of the devastation but the reports are of at least 4 deaths with scores of injuries.
This was I'm sure, going to be one of the highlights of the summer for these Boy Scouts. It now has turned into a nightmare that probably will haunt them and their families an entire lifetime. I can only imagine the anxiety that is overwhelming a lot of families in our region right now as they speed toward this pile of rubble. Our thoughts and prayers go out to each and all.

It's About Time

This post is primarily for the locals. Those of you who live near where I live, and tell me things out of the blue like, "Oh, I read your thing on the internet everyday?" Then I say, "You're kidding right?" "Nope, I check it every day, and by the way who is this Ralph guy and is he crazy or what? (I just kind of made that up)
Anyhow, yes you people.
Well we're having Blogstock and a lot of these internet folks will be around the Tekamah area on July 3 to the 6th. We will be at several locations doing different things and you'll be welcome to come 'look' at our company. And hopefully you'll even visit and break bread with us. You know, join the group for fellowship and good times. We'll be at local establishments some and on the evening of the 4th as well as on Saturday the 5th we'll be cooking here on the farm.
So just let me know if you're coming because we'd like to inform the eating establishments, how many of us to expect and when we cook here on the farm we need to know how many chickens to sacrifice in your honor. The biggest day will be Saturday the 5th. Let me know, I'm in the book. Or call Marilyn or Juli at the kennel . Or email me. Say you'd like to come and we'll get you the details of where you can catch up with us. My address is in my profile on my side bar. If you have been conversing with Ralph, this doesn't apply to you because Ralph is keeping track of the bloggers who are coming. Right Ralph?