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Monday, July 7, 2008

July 4th weekend

Home from a great weekend up at Melinda's dad's ranch/farm/country home etc. It was nice to meet Melinda's brother Louie and his girlfriend Jenny for the first time also. Started out with the drive up on Thursday afternoon which was pretty uneventual. Once we got up to Bruce's, the kids wanted to go check out the horses of course, however this time the fence was hot so we needed to be aware. Melinda was the first to brush the fence as I heard the "POP" and turned just in time to see the look on her face. Victim 1.



The wood pile sunset.



This is Rebel. I didn't do the desaturate / history eraser trick on this pic. Only used the shadow / highlight function as Rebel is a BEAUTIFUL Paint but the backlighting was really bad. Anyhow, ended up with this by mistake but I like it.

We spent the 4th shooting targets, swimming at Tioga pit, and a charocoal grilled chicken dinner. The boys spent the day getting rid of some of the nuisance gophers and plinking with the .22's.


Matt may have been a fur trapper in a past life. Bruce paid him in firecrackers...seriously.


Cullen shooting targets with the Ruger. Melinda's brother Louie put on a pretty impressive target shooting display and Matt also showed his ability to hit the dot with amazing accuracy.



The night of the 4th, Melinda and I took the kids over to Hill City for the fireworks. It was pretty good and being out on a boat in front the city park would definitely be the way to watch the display.


Here is a pano of 3 shots showing the Milky Way looking south from Bruce's. As I stood there, I once again realized how much I miss living up north away from the chaos of the city. Yeah, I don't live "in the city", but it still isn't the as being up there.

Saturday was just a kick back day. The kids spent a lot of time with the horses but took a break to go swimming on Pokegama Lake at Wendigo Beach. Cullen and Matt were dinging around with the snorkle gear and saw some schools of sunfish. They though they would "old school" it with a piece of fishing line, a hook , and a peice of corn. Worked pretty well until they caught one and found out wet fishing line is about impossible to hang on to. The 2nd try had a better result as they used a snelled hook tied to the middle of a stick. Success as Cullen caught a pretty nice rock bass as the paddled along with the goggles and snorkle. Once we got back, the electric fence claimed it's second victim. Rocky the dog hit the gate lead which was hanging down to put Belle back in the pasture. Poor dog. Shocked the hell out of him. We put him in the house and he sat IN the closet for an hour or so. Looked pretty pathetic.

The 3rd and final electric fence victim was this morning as Jessica went out to say goodbye to the horses. As she went through the gate, her head wasn't quite low enough. POP!! A bad start to the day!

Ahhh, the drive home today. 169 was a MESS from the intersection of highways 169/6/18. Less than 10 mph. We opted to get off the idling parking lot and took the back roads home. What was really cool was driving past Melinda's gradeschool home near Pine Center. We couldn't see the house from the road but I could tell she was happy to be back in a part of here past for a few minutes.

All in all this was a fantastic weekend. It was really great to spend the time with Melinda and the whole posse of kids. I always enjoy being around Melinda's dad as I know I will learn something and hear at least 2 good stories. I wish we would have gotten to spend more time time Louie and Jenny, but he was busy showing her around the area he grew up in. As Melinda and I create more and more memories together, I am quickly realizing how much I enjoy being part of this family. I wouldn't trade them for anything...

1 comment:

Chris White said...

Nice Milky Way Panno, I should have tried doing some up in the Northwoods but, I had the kids and we were staying in the main lodge the townhouse was filled entirely so I had to stay with the kids and we got back to the lodge every evening between 11 and 12pm.

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