the 4th of July, and the 3rd and 5th too~

so, even though we did go to the lodge for the 4th, the party started in chanhappenin on tues. the 3rd. look at the cars lined up behind our house for the carnival in town.

(doesn't it kind of look like we live in malibu here?)

                           this is what the packing pile typically looks like as i'm getting ready

      our newest acquisition for the lodge is a brush cutter. we were afraid we were going
to wreck our riding lawn mower using it to keep all the trails through the woods mowed.

we pulled it up on the trailor and then eric meticulously lifted it up and off...made me a little
nervous as his father wasn't there- but the dude knows what he's doing. watching him reminded me of those cranes at the county fairs that we played as kids- do you remember them? you'd slide in your quarters and then try to maneuver the crane to pick up a prize? I always wanted the stuffed animals that were elusively stuffed back in the corners.

                   eric bought a canoe and he and seth had a fun day trying it out for the first time.
           I dropped them off at the river and picked them up in town several hours later. look
                    how many people were hanging out tubing and having fun on the 4th of july.

                "of course" I asked all these swimsuit clad folks if they'd mind being on my blog.....

      the pic below cracks me up....all these boy cousins were swimming/helping launch the
                    canoe. one of them pritnear got run over when another one gave the
                                        back a big shove to get the guys going.

                                                                                  and they're off...

 

 

back at the ranch I spent hours weeding my new garden. look at this

beautiful young deer that was on the trail camera.

(I have one pointed at the garden to see what critters may be trying to get in

and mess with my veggies)

                                       lars, tilling. in a bug suit. now that's dedication to the cause!
                                              i used an entire can of deep woods off whilst
                                                             out there weeding. sheesh~

                                                  i do realize you can just go to a grocery store and buy
                                                                 tomatoes, but is there anything sweeter
                                                          than produce you've grown in your own black dirt?

                                      i outsmarted the mosquitoes by sitting inside by candle light at night.

 

sunday i had a wild hair to make strawberry shortcake and look at it! i actually

made the shortcakes from scratch. no bisquick here girls- i had a cookbook with

directions and i whipped them up!

 

                    driving home it started to rain. really hard. then the sun broke out and this
                               beautiful rainbow showed up in front of us. a perfect ending to a
                                                      long holiday weekend. simple joys-they're the best.


                                                                            beth~ xo