We finally had some much needed rain. Over the last week we have had 4.5" at our house. We are still 10" short for the year. Our pond came up about 6" but still has another 18" to go before it overflows.
We have a lot of stumps in our yard. Some fresh from dead/dying/trashy trees I have cut down and others that were here when we moved in. I went to the local hardware/rental store in California to inquire about renting a backhoe form them. The guy said, "I can rent you one but you won't be happy with the results. You should have someone grind them out.". He have me the name of a guy, who I called that afternoon. The guy works a full time job in Kansas City AND runs a local lawn care business on his days off, Wed & Thur. When I called him Wed afternoon he said he was grinding stumps and ask if he could come over after he finished to look at ours. He arrived a little after 6 PM. We walked around and looked at the 10 stumps I wanted out. He gave me a price, I said OK, and he asked if he could do the work that evening. It was after dark when he finished. He is the kind of hard working guy who gives me hope that the US will last a few more years. He is out working 7 days a week rather than whining about no opportunity.
When Lydia got off the school bus last Friday we headed off to Lazy Day Campground in Danville, MO, about 75 miles from here. It was forecast to be a rainy weekend but we had promised to take her camping this summer and time was running out. A side note. I have been surprised at how difficult it is to find a campground that has sites available for reservations. ALL Missouri state parks with RV camping areas, and within 100 miles of us, were full up. We only got a spot at Lazy Day because someone cancelled a reservation.
Every campground we visited during our trip required that you buy firewood from them, if you wanted a campfire. The folks running Lazy Day were great folks, but their campfire wood was terrible. The flames you see are from a quart of diesel fuel. After much coaxing, and a lot of accelerant, we finally managed to get a campfire going both Friday and Saturday night. It was almost to warm for a fire. We ran the AC both nights we were out.
The campground was nice but had no playground equipment.
We used one of the hammocks for a swing.
And pitched some horseshoes.
Someone at the campground is pretty handy with a chainsaw. These were all over the campground.
Saturday we went to Dad's Junction Café for lunch. I had one of the best, and certainly the largest, tenderloin sandwich ever. I had already eaten a third of it when I took this photo. It had to be a full pound of meat.
We came back home Sunday afternoon. The camper is now parked and emptied out. Don't know if we will use it again this fall.
I just filled out my request for a TN absentee ballot. I'm can legally stay a TN resident until 2019. TN state taxes are far lower than MO's. The difference was enough to pay our property taxes and homeowners insurance on our TN property. While I consider MO state taxes to be far to high (9.3% overall), they are still lower than those in MI (9.4%), IN (9.5%) & OH (9.8%), according to a study I read. TN was 7.3%.
Be sure to vote this fall, it is important to get people elected who are willing to let States and the People make more decisions about how we want to spend the money we have earned (lots of Republicans I don't like much, but I like them a LOT better than big government, nanny state Democrats who want to tell me how to think and how to spend money I earned).
God is good. May He bless you and yours.
