Great friends and fireworks!

Every year our neighborhood gets together for a potluck picnic fireworks!   Our neighbor George celebrates his birthday that weekend and he also has a pyrotechnic license.  He loves putting on one heck of a show for the neighbors.    We have maybe 25 houses in a mile radius at the most so its a small area each with a min of 2 1/2 acre lots.  But we all bring friends and family to watch this show!   Now keep in mind there are less than 100 people that are invited (that includes the non neighbors that attend) and we all bring our lawn chairs, sit in the front yard and watch this - so much fun living out in the country!   The video is the last 34 secs of a show that lasts 20-30 min.   This is his grande finale - not bad for a fireworks display in his front yard!  He does  AMAZING job!  He is licensed and gets all the required permits.   The video is from last year but get to enjoy the get together again in 2 weeks!
Enjoy!

 

Yet another storm...

We have been hit here again with such bad weather.  I thank the Lord that we have not had this damage at our house, but this is all within 5 miles.   The winds came up so strong, I sat straight up in bed at 3:30 am.   I am ok with storms but winds scare me horribly!   About 10 years ago we had 90 mph straight line winds come down our road.  We lost 5 trees - one on the top of my sons car, making it into a instant taco shape.  I ran down to wake him up to get his sound equipment out and he thought I was playing a joke on him.  I asked him - Have I ever woke you up at 5 am to tell you there is a tree IN your car?  He jumped up right quick and went to save anything he could.  Car was totaled of course. The neighbors lost 23 trees on one side of us and the other over 30. It was a mess!   But the storms in the area last Thursday hit on the same path of a destructive storm just last year.  There was horrible damage July 2015 and yet again Thursday.  The country fair happened to be going on and the grounds were hit.  Thankfully a great group of volunteers were able to get the trees off buildings and patch together the tents so the fair could open just a few hours later than scheduled.

 We also have a amusement park here - Paul Bunyan Land, with Babe the Blue Ox.  Poor old babe could not handle with wind poor guy has a crack in his side and a bent horn.

They were able to get a hoist and put him upright - just looking a bit rough.

Christmas in summer!

Getting ready for market in Oct, means Christmas in Aug.  Im sewing reindeer for Santa to ride! I always have my helper close at hand -

I have become very good at sewing one handed as not to disturb the cat.  Any one else make things more difficult for themselves just so they dont upset a sleeping animal?   I find I wont move so I dont wake the cat - you know he doesnt get enough sleep with his 23 hour sleep schedule.

Here are some pictures of my work load.   It just hurts my hands doing all that stuffing!

 Above and all ready for paint.  Below are ones I had to stitch the legs on.