Buick Alert!

The Buick rolled in last week along with my parents.



Here is a picture of Dan assisting my mother cook bacon (of all things!). It was a cholesterol-gathering event.



During their visit we sat on the porch and watched the soybeans grow. We went for walks, too, and man, are they both in great shape! They also watched Dan play baseball.

The Pond

We put the pond float out yesterday. It's not a simple task because you must anchor it to the bottom which is some 20 feet down. Tom found an old wheel well that his dad had filled with cement years ago to serve as a 200 lb weight. We tied the rope to the anchor (wheel well), and then carefully placed it on the stern of the kayak. Dan perched himself on the bow to offer some counter balance. My job was to swim all of this weight to the middle of the pond without losing the anchor too early. Tom was shouting directions from the shore, "you need to go more west, now more south west..." I suggested that pointing might be easier to understand under the circumstances. When it was time to sink the anchor, Dan slid off the bow making the kayak look like the Titanic for a moment.

Rain, rain go away...

It has been a wet, wet planting season. You can see the rain gauge has 2 inches of rain. The pond is in the background along with some "ponds" of rainwater in the field of soybeans. We have farmer friends who haven't been able to get their crops in, and there are many more in southern IL who are probably in worse shape. So we'll see what happens this season.





Here is Tom's planter and tractor. Note that the tractor is green (John Deere) and the planter is red (Case IH). Tom's farmer friends like to rib him because his equipment isn't color-coordinated.






Here is a picture of Dan's 13th birthday party. There were nearly 50 at the party. Thanks goodness for the Party Police who helped maintain order.






After our meeting the other night we decided to go out for a beverage. This sign was posted in the outdoor "beer garden" where we were sitting. We figured it had to be a joke because certainly no one would actually... Suddenly a silhouette of a male walked up to the other side of the fence and, well, the sounds told the rest of the story. We thought our gales of laughter would shame him but apparently he had to go. You never know what you'll find in Fairbury, IL.