Happy Independence Day

Happy Independence Day! I got a great start to the weekend by breaking a molar Friday night while eating dinner with friends. I stuck some dental wax on it and did well with it. Stacey stayed to watch her mothers dogs and I made it home alive. Saturday, I gardened through the morning and when Stacey got home, we went to B's party.
B (Bernice) Caruso was the secretary at Transcore ( Syntonic at the time) when I hired in. She was a wonderful person, full of life and unable to suffer fools gladly. I won her over with bribes of peonies, fresh eggs and honey. She had already retired once when she took the secretary job and retired again some years ago. We kept in touch and attended her Saturday Before The 4th parties when we could. She died a couple of years ago after getting cancer for about the 8th time
The parties are incredible. They are filled with family, friends and neighbors along with whatever strays happen by. I don't think you can really crash this party, just bring a dish. The food tables are linked to Jesus's Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes. The longer the party goes on, the more food on the tables. Since the neighborhood is filled with Old World ethnics, the food is superb. Nick Caruso still hosts the party but I noticed he was letting someone else grill the burgers and dogs. We visited with many people we don't really know, ate heavily and said “Adios” for now. We headed home.
Arriving home, I discovered that I left the sprinkler going on the front garden. That will add to the water bill. Back on the road to the Oak Harbor fireworks display. We got a good parking place, settled into our chairs and watched a pretty good display. I did take a while to get back out of town but no real problems.
Sunday started with church, then back to feed the animals. I decided to hook the sickle bar mower up to the tractor. That worked but it was getting hot so I went in to cool off. After a cooldown, I took a look at the various problems the mower has and decided to work the garden. I mulched and watered until it was time to visit the in-laws. We had steaks in Perrysburg and played tiles. On the way home, we saw many fireworks.
Obviously, Monday is my day to mow the back of the farm. When I walked out side, I wilted like a rose in a flame. It's really hot. There's no way I'm going to wrestle with the mower today. I worked in the garden watering and mulching then went in to cool off. Repeat and had buttermilk pancakes for lunch. I sat down for a minute to let my lunch rest and blearily woke up at 2:30pm. I could tell that this day was shot. So I cleane up and took Stacey to the movies.
The movie was The Last Airbender. Save your money. The popcorn was good.
Stacey wanted real food so we ate at Crackerbarrel. Afterwards, we took a drive through downtown Sandusky. It's been several years since I've been there and I was impressed. A few years ago, the sidewalks were busted up, the buildings were all empty and the homes on the way in and out all looked abandoned. Now, most of the storefronts seem to have something in them, everything is neat and tidy and the homes are well taken care of. Good job, Sandusky!
Well, that was my weekend, how was yours?

More Vacation

I'll say this for W.Virginia, it's pretty. Ah, it's down right majestic. It just doesn't look real prosperous. I saw some good gardens but not as many as I thought. I can appreciate the problem of finding enough flat space to garden on but when they did have flat space, it was usually in grass. Strange.
We had another good breakfast and headed for the caverns. The Seneca Caverns were discovered by a white guy around 1790. There's evidence that the Injuns were there much earlier. They weren't opened to the public until the 1930s. They've gotten very old and worn since then. Stacey says we're jaded by all the good caverns we've seen. Well, that's not exactly what she said but it's the same thing. She's right, of course. Not too far away is Organ Caverns and it puts Seneca to shame. There are some interesting formations but not enough.
We had a meal at the restaurant. It's not bad but they used the local sulfur water for the ice. Stacey couldn't face the smell. I've drunk worse and a little sulfur keeps the parasites down. Back on the bus for 8 hours of riding , about half up and down hills. My knees are trashed from bracing. We were happy to be home. So were the cats.
The next day, I played hooky for awhile and went to the National Threshers Convention at Wauseon. I walked around for an hour or two looking at the tractors. It was fun but hot, so I went home. Our favorite is coming up in the 3rd week of July. The 5 Points Threshing is on. They actually use threshers to thresh grain there, plus there is killer bean soup and pies.
The plowing demonstrations are good too. Where else can you see a steam traction engine pulling a 7 bottom plow with 7 guys riding the plow to work the levers?
Since then, my spare time has been used on the garden and it's going well. We'll be drowning in tomatoes in about 3 weeks. The beans are good, the cucumbers producing and we've got to pull the garlic. Not bad.
I'll see if I can include less random pictures.