Oyster Party 2015

An Action-Packed July 4th 2015!

During the week prior to the 4th, we spent almost every day working on our water system problems.  It seemed to mushroom into an almost unbelievable amount of work.  We replaced a valve, two broken pipes, a pressure gauge, a pressure relief valve and we had Travis, Tim, David and Dave Wildman and Retired Mountain Man on the repair crew.   The night before the 4th at approximately 8:00 p.m., it was finally fixed.  (there are still a few more repairs to go, but everything is working now)

The morning of the 4th of July:  

Waiting for the parade to begin.

Larry and Petra

Eric and the kids

This Land is Your Land!

Grand Prize winners!

One of the new events this year was pole climbing.  They climb up the pole and ring the bell.

Joe on his way to the top!

This guy really wants to beat Travis in the saw contest.  Last year his chainsaw bar was painted with the words  "Kiebert Killer".    This year, it's a t-shirt with "Travis Who?"  

He didn't beat Travis.  I knew he wouldn't.

Joe on the medium saw.

Mr. Joe always has the most stylish chainsaw outfit. 

Joe on the large saw.

Trav on the medium saw.

Travis was the winner of the medium saw contest with an awesome time!

Trav on the large saw.  

Ty Oliver won the large saw contest.  Sorry, I did not get a photo of it.  There was also another new event, Axe Throwing, but it was so hot that we had to escape to cooler temps.  


AND THEN................................

 During the night on the 4th we had a huge windstorm.  It totally flattened everything in my garden.  It also blew two of my flowering planters right off the deck rail.

The rescue crew!

We managed to get everything propped back up.  It looks like it is all going to be OK.  Thank you rescue crew!

This year we have so many hummingbirds that we have three feeders out.  They empty them all every day.

Thanks Julie, for the great photos!  

And finally, two extra photos that I have neglected to post:

This beautiful bow was on my Mother's Day Gift!

I have started playing with the band, Running With Scissors, at Trinity at City Beach on Friday nights. This is a view of the beach from the restaurant on the first night.   It is one of the highlights of my summer.

The other highlight would be meeting my two new great-grandchildren for the first time, Caleb and Quinn.  I do not have photos to post right now, but will later.  

Do you see them?

This is like one of those tests on Facebook.   Can you find them in under two minutes?

Someone planted pole bean seeds in all of my begonia pots.

That person will remain nameless, but should know that there is a thing called payback.

A Wine First for 2015.

This will be the first year that we had enough ripe green grapes to make an entire carboy of white wine.  

It's almost time to bottle the white.  

All three wines have cleared very nicely.  I won't need to add any fining agents this year.  

Both red wines are aging well.  They are still a bit acidic, but they have 6 more months to age before bottling time.

The first one of the season!

Retired Mountain has good eyes for finding these little jewels.  They are very hard to spot.

As you can see, this one is not very big, but it's the first one for 2015.