Founder's Day

Here in Wellsville they celebrate their beginnings on Labor Day. We start out with a Cannon that goes off at 5:30 in the morning. I remember the first year that we heard it burst into the air, we thought the end of the world was here. At seven, they host a 5K and a 10k run. Aubree and Katee joined the neighbor and ran the 5k. Then at 10 is the parade. They do real well with their floats and candy. (Candy is the most important for some) A sham battle is played out for their audience, a cowboy and Indian war. The Indians are painted with red dye and they all have long black hair. The contenders battle it out with fake blank shots and wrestling. Pure craziness. After the parade they have booths to visit at the park. Come 6:30 that evening their is a children's rodeo. Kids sign up to ride a sheep or a cow. It's hilarious to watch the kids fall off and then come crying to their parents like, "I can't believe you signed me up for this." Cheap entertainment, at the expense of the child. Ha. They have a critter run, where children under 6 run into the arena for an animal; a bunny, chicken, rooster, cat. Every now and then they have a goat. It's fun to watch them. They catch an animal that the parents don't want to have and the animal ends up going home. That's how we ended up with our bunny. A calf run for the women is also done. Women 18 and older run after the tails of calves for a two night stay at Sherwood hills. Pure craziness. Never did I think I would be involved in such fun events. It reminds me of Manassa on the 24th. I feel fortunate.

Dispite his wife

Well for my birthday yesterday we watched Gary get set apart in the new Bishopric of the new 10th ward. (1st Counselor) Amazingly he got put in even though his wife cusses at the chickens 24--7. Our stake changed boundaries and created two new wards. Our meeting time will now be 8:30 until the new building is built. So, lots of changes for the coming year.

chicken hell

Okay so I'm like going crazy with our chickens! hey are going to have to take me to the crazy house---soon. We have done the stinking fence three times and they are still getting out to roam the neighborhood. If fact today as the children were waiting at the bus stop, a chicken crossed the road (Now my version of joke about why the chicken crossed the road would be "to get ran over!") The children at the bus stop yelled, "there's your chicken." and then they laughed. I have to admit I was embarrassed. As soon as it went into the neighbors yard I knew I had to chase it home. Damn chicken. So here I'm out in my jammies chasing the chicken home. Come to find out four more are out!!! Aurh! I hope I make it through the year. (maybe they will freeze this winter like our bunny did)

School days, school days...

The Hansen children started today... maybe they can tell us how things went? Okay...

(this picture was taken at Treasure Falls at the base of Wolf Creek Pass this summer)

Watch Dog

As I ran on the treadmill, I saw a silver car drive into the subdivision. (My view is great from the loft where my treadmill sits in front of the window) I saw it slow by the house out in front then make the turn. It then stayed the mailboxes up the street for a while. I was confused, I didn't recognize this car, what was it doing? It then proceeded towards our line of mailboxes (about four) I stepped off the treadmill to see if it was going to stop by ours too? It did. And I could see the individuals open every box. That was when I was put on alarm. What were they doing? Taking mail? I ran out the front door down to the mailboxes. I yelled, "hey, what do you need?" But the hurried on their way. I wasn't sure what to do? SO I called a neighbor, they said to call report it. SO I did.
A friendly officer came to my house to ask questions. I told him the man in the car got out at one time and was in a red shirt. The neighbor I had talked to told me that across the highway a friend suspected his mail to be stolen. Once I finished talking to the officer, I figured that was that but hoped they didn't take anything that wasn't theirs. About ten minutes later the cop called to say, "I found the car and . . . it was the mailman, his car was broken down so he and his wife were using her car to deliver mail. Okay so I didn't know whether to feel dumb or relieved.

Rodeo

We took the kids to a rodeo this weekend in Preston, Idaho. They enjoyed it. Of course the part I loved the most was the rodeo clown. I've never been a rodeo fan, but it was nice for the kids to see one. We then let them take a ride at the carnival (boy is that expensive.) Sadly my kids memories of such events will not be like mine, living in the valley had it's perks. ( the parades in Manassa were great! ) At least they can say they did it this year, right?

The Break

Grandpa and Grandma Vance have the kids this week. So I've been slowly getting out of bed and slowly getting around to my chores. I'm on vacation, right? So today I watered the garden and pulled some weeds. I then read some out of my book, checked emails and spent time on revising a new book I'm writing. It was around 4:30 and I was still in my workout clothes but had not worked out yet. After finding out that Gary was going to be later I decided to finally get on the treadmill. It happened to be a cool night so the heat in the house wasn't bad. After I had finished my exercising I opened the front door. The back door was opened too, but it had a screen. I went into my bathroom to clean up. The scouts were going to be coming around 7 and the neighbor was going to be picking up some equipment around 6. I had only been in the bathroom about a half hour and decided to turn on the AC since the temp. was raising above the desirable number. I walked to the front to shut the door and noticed the chicken poop out on the sidewalk. My thought was, "They been in the front yard? Those pooping creatures." I then walked back to the kitchen. TO MY SURPRISE, 6 chickens were standing in my kitchen. I screamed. They had poop everywhere. I started to shoo them out the side door but they just ran around the kitchen table. I screamed some more. I couldn't let them get on my carpet! I shoo again, still they didn't know where to go. My cat "Coco" just sat and watched me freak. I grabbed the flyswatter and swatted. I needed help but didn't dare leave for the phone! I asked coco but he didn't budge. Finally I was able to scare four out the door. Amazingly, I was able to scare the others out. But not without them pooping a few more times first. I couldn't believe it! Thankfully, they walked through the front to the kitchen were there is tile. Not one pile of poop ended up on my light colored carpet. I'm definitely counting my lucky stars for that one. (oh, having chickens has been so much fun---not)