~Tractors and Tillers~

What a day, Hot as it was, it was fun. Larry, Mom, Dad and I all went to the Purple Hull Pea Festival in Emerson, AR, population 385.. Yeap a very small town and all of them were at the Fesival.. We saw tractor races, tiller races, pea shelling contests, arts crafts, and any type of food you could imagine. We ate home made vanilla ice cream as we watched the Tractor SLOW race, yes I did say Slow and Race in the same sentence. They have to see how slow they can make their tractor go and still keep it running. Once they start moving, they cannot touch the clutch or brake, they have to use the throttle and choke to slow it down. The track is 100 feet and one guy did it in 3 minutes 20 seconds, I am not sure I can walk that slow. It is cool to watch them. Then they have a barrel race and see who can push a barrel down the track the fastest without it going off the track.


They had small kids 5-10 years old out there with Mantis tillers and they were racing down a 200 ft track to see who could win. It was neat watching them. Those kids gave it all they had..

One little girls tiller died at the beginning of the race and she was so upset.. Then they ran again and she ended up winning the entire competetion...



We went to the shelling contest. The lady that won, shelled 7 5/8 oz in 5 minutes. Then they auctioned off all the peas that were shelled in the competetions. There was a little over 4 lbs and I think it went for $27.00 That is kinda high in my book. But it was going for a good cause..



Then we found a shady spot and parked our chairs for the parade, that lasted all of about 6 minutes, then over to the track again for the suped up tiller races. They had 2 tillers that had between 750 and 900cc motorcycle engines in them. The first race was 2 women (SMALL women, about 100-125 lbs). The lady in lane 1 finished in 6.5 seconds (200 ft track), the lady in lane 2 was drug about 100 ft and then let go and the tiller turned over. She was fine, but the tiller needed some welding, so that was the end of the tiller races. So then on to the WEDDING, yes they had an actual wedding performed there. At that point we were hot and tired, so we opted to head for home. They were having a Larry the Cable Guy look alike contest and a Street Dance later, but we headed for home.



On the way down we saw a junk shop in Camden. But decided not to stop. But, on the way back, we did stop. They had a trailer with iron wheels on it parked out front. Mom has this thing for iron wheels. they had a matching pair of smaller wheels she was interested in. They guy came down $10 on the pair, so I bought them for her Birthday, that was Yesterday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM.. I LOVE YOU... Then we went inside, no A/C so it was suffocatingly hot in there. We did find a couple pots that were Miracle Maid, we got them for $7.00 so now I am going to see about getting them replaced, Aunt Sue, can you tell me how you did this?? Could not pass that up.. One of them is in usable shape, the other has alot of stains inside, I may can scrub them out, I will try that..



Then on home. Mom and dad headed back to the lake for a few more days of camping. Just speaking for myself, I thoroughly enjoyed the Day, even in the heat.. Now Larry wants to find a Lawn Mower Race. So I am searching the I-net for that. Found some, but they were in May, may have to flag the calendar for that next year..



God Bless all... with cooler weather...

~Stay Off The Sidewalks~

You got it. Larry has permission from the Surgeon to DRIVE!!!!! I do not like that at all... But, oh well, I guess it had to happen sooner or later... He said his bones are healing back together perfectly. So now, they want him to increase his pace when he walks. He is walking 3-4 times a day at 30 minutes each time. Now they want his heart rate up to about 120 beats per minute.. So now we are working on that.. We go to the Cardiologist on the 6th of July and will hopefully know then when we can return to work.. I know mentally he is ready, but even he knows that physically he is not ready.
We are going to Branson on July 2nd for a few days. We have a hotel room with a balcony that over looks the Courtyard at Branson Landing and they will be having a fireworks show there on the night of the 3rd. So we will have front row seats and not have to look over, around, etc.... heads.. We did that last year and just loved it.. We can walk to anywhere we want to eat and if we do not want to we do not have to get in the car for anything.. So I am planning alot of relaxing.. Our hotel is part of the mall, so we have shopping... I need it right now..

Last Saturday, Larry, mom, dad, and I went to Uncle Roy's for the afternoon. Larry and Roy really hit if off when we went and got the swing in August. So we drove up there. Their power went out on Friday due to Tornados in the area, luckily their house did not get hit, but a HUGE tree between them and JR did get hit, not getting either of their homes, God is GREAT!!!!!!.. We sat on the porch with a shop fan blowing on us being powered by the Generator. It was GREAT... Then dad and I got stung by a Bumble Bee.. I got it on the leg and dad on his face. Dad swelled pretty bad, I just got a huge knot and a bad bruise.. Never heard of a bumble bee stinging, that one was determined, he just kept coming back to attack again.. Uncle Roy had the fly swatter after him, not sure if he ever got it or not.. We stopped and got lunch meat and fixings. Mom took cookies and Zuccini Bread and I made Brownies. We just sat and talked, laughed and ate.. It was really good... Oh, I picked enough blackberries to make a cobbler..

My baby grand daughter and her mother are back from 3 weeks in California. I am going to see her tonite.. I sure did miss her, but I had my hands full...

Cember and Gabby have been at church camp all week, they came home today. Hope to see them this weekend..

Buck and Bruce got called to work for about 7-10 days,, Rocky is busy remodeling their kitchen. He started it when Deanna went to CA.. Now he is trying to finish.. It is going to be really nice when finished.. I am going by this afternoon to see where he is with it. Buck and Bruce have been helping him.

Well gotta go,, More invoices to get processed before next Thursday. Trying to close out our Fiscal year at work.. They will lock us out completely next Thursday. Then I will have a week to get ready to start keying all those renewed contracts.. That will take about 5 days of nothing by keying.. My hands will be killing me by the end of each day..

God Bless all....

~I am not OLD enough to have a "30" Year Old~

Yes, my first born son, is "30" Today. Happy Birthday Son,, I love you so much.. I remember the day you were born as if it were yesterday... It Was FATHERS Day,,, You made a new Father and 2 New Grand-Fathers on Fathers Day. What a special day that was.. Of course every day a Child is born is a SPECIAL DAY in my book, Children are a sign from God that the world must go on... I would hate to imagine my life without children. I am getting a taste of that right now. I have not been able to have girls nite in almost 4 weeks now and I am having withdrawals.. But soon, we will do it again... This pic was taken in Pigeon Forge on their vacation a couple of weeks ago.. Not a clue what Gabby is looking at.

You have grown to be a fine young man and yes, you are YOUNG... You are a WONDERFUL Father to those 2 beautiful girls. They are 2 of the lights of my life.. My lights just keep growin in numbers. It is amazing how your heart just keeps filling with love for each one, but takes none away from any of the others..

LOVE YOU LOTS

Mom

~Hubby Update~

Larry is almost 3 weeks out of surgery now and things are healing well, at least the outside incisions. We go back to the surgeon on Monday to get x-rays to see how his bones inside are healing. Hopefully that will be doing well also. He is really bored and tired of sitting around the house, but does not yet have the energy (not eating properly to regain strength) to do anything either..
We got out last Saturday and rode around and checked out some of the lakes close by. He seemed to enjoy that. We got out a couple of times and did some walking, not much, just a little.. Just so he could get that in. He is supposed to walk at least 3 times a day. He has increased it to where he is walking about 20 minutes each walk. Mentally he is ready to go back to work, but physically, no where near ready yet.. He drives ALOT in his job. He covers all Central US from Canadian to Mexican Borders, covering 12 states.. Most of that he drives. On Wednesday night prior to Surgery he had driven in from Iowa.. Right now, he is no where near ready to start driving that kind of distance.. But he will be... He will have to start out driving shorter distances and build up to that kind of driving again. When he leaves, he may not stop for 4-5 hours and then it is just to fuel up and hit the road again. He will have to learn to stop every 2 hours or so and get out and walk a little bit... But that too he will learn how to do.
We are hoping to go to Roy's this weekend for a little bit, not sure how long we will be able to stay, but he says he needs to see Roy, They really hit if off last August when we went to get my swing that Roy had built for me. Mom and dad are supposed to go with us.. We may go over to the lake tomorrow and spend the day with mom and dad, not sure how Larry will be feeling when I get home. I am back to work 6 hours a day, That leaves him alone 8 hours and I do not like doing that, but I have to close out the year at work, so I have to be here some..
Speaking of work, I have invoices to process...

Later... Keep praying for strength, him and ME!!!!!