Busy Days

This has been the busiest summer I can remember.! We just returned from Nebraska where we visited friends, watched our grandsons compete in a one mile race which was part of the town's festival, (one of our grandsons from Illinois who was visiting his cousins, won the youth competition in the race) and then enjoyed the festival parade as the two Nebraska grandsons drove their go cart in it to advertise their pumpkin business.  It was a fun weekend!

This week one of our granddaughters is staying with us so we are trying to keep up with her job schedule and cross country practice while working on preparations for the Redneck Pool Party this weekend.  It is one of our most popular events with the children in town and one of the most fun for us as we attempt to improve on building the swimming pool out of straw bales.  Every year we have a 'pool failure' when the bales begin to separate and water spills over the side.  Of course, the kids don't mind--they use the spilling as a waterfall and enjoy that part of the party, too!  Last year we used a piece of tarp from the grain elevator's corn pile as an 80 foot long slip and slide--a new addition which the kids loved!  Here are a couple of photos from last year:


It is quite the job spreading out the huge tarp to cut pieces to use for all the pools/slide/hot tub, but a great way to make use of the otherwise useless tarp that has been removed from the grain pile.