This-n-That

I've been having a great time visiting with family and friends since I've been back. I only have limited net access, so I've been very bad about posting lately and I've also been quite enjoying not spending so much time on the computer each day! Lots of things have been going on and you'll have to forgive the randomness of the tidbits I'm choosing to include.

My Aunt Sonja came up to visit my Gma over the 4th of July weekend. It was lovely to catch up with her and find out about her art, the new addition they are building on the house and all of the news about my cousins, newlywed Ashley and vet tech Jenna. Of course we hit Woody's Pizza in Estherville so she could get her Knutson fix (one of their specialty pizzas - double hamburger and double cheese...not one of my favourites, so I had spicey Italian sausage and pineapple!) and we also went out for a family dinner to celebrate Dad's birthday (July 8) and she gave him this neat portrait she had created in pastels from a photograph she had casually snapped on her last visit.

Most of my days are spent hanging out with Dad and that means a lot of truck time. It's great coz I get to see a lot of the country, meet and chat to a wide range of folks and often we stumble onto some cool stuff.

Emergency Services from several towns responded to a call that turned out to be a broken gas line. A bolt of lighting had hit the house and caused the line connecting to the stove to break. No one was moving too fast, but they had a lot of people milling about. We saw the action from the local NAPA store, a daily stop for us!



While Dad was checking on the crew starting a new job site, I noticed someone had a bit of a menagerie happening in the backyard - this was in town. There were goats, donkeys and a whole lot of other animals milling about so I tinkered with the 100-400 while I was waiting. The goat was having a great time climbing up onto this perch and surveying his domain. And people think we spoil our dogs & cats!



The front lawn at the lake house was a bit uneven so Dad did what any homeowner would do - he ordered a load of new black dirt to be dumped, then got the bobcat and leveled it out before reseeding so it will be easier to mow!