Playing catch up...

The week after Esprit I didn't have to go to work because Grieser's were on vacation. You may think I got a lot done...I'll just leave that there...

Bryan got a new toy while I was on Esprit.

He found it on Craig's list and went to a small town in Minnesota to pick it up. It is really fun but also very helpful with hauling all the stuff he hauls around this place.

On Thursday last week Mark, Diane, Sandra and Natalie Tindle, Ferne, Jon and Alicia, Navy and Satchel Reisinger and Jayme came out to dinner. It was a nice visit. Then on Friday night Bobbi, Ashley, Jayme, Travis, Jill and Jake, and Mindee all came to supper and we played badminton. I am sorry to say that poor Travis got teamed up with me...not good. 

I will use the age old excuse that it was getting too dark to see...or the excuse that it was old age...

Always a fun time when the girls and their friends are out here.

Jake took the opportunity to catch a little nap.

Bryan had spoken at a meeting for the HobbyTown stores and the CEO gave him a tiny remote control helicopter. So the other night he was trying it out finally and flying it around the living room.

On Saturday our long time friends, Greg and Jeanine Budig, celebrated their 30th anniversary and their daughter, Emily, surprised them by asking Bryan to renew their vows. It was really sweet. Bryan and Greg went to high school together. 

Most Sundays Bryan and Tom Christie fish in the afternoon. I was doing some stuff inside and then decided to get the hammock and go out by the pond and lay in the shade and read because it was my first free Sunday afternoon since April almost. Just as I started out I noticed a man fishing off our dock. Nothing kills the desire for some quiet time like a stranger on your dock. So I look to see who it is and am getting a bit annoyed because sometimes our land is a mecca of fishermen and I can't relax down by the pond because of it. I don't know the guy and Bryan is out fishing and hadn't said someone would be using the dock so I watch a bit and then see him catch a bass and put it on a stringer!! CRIME against bass. So I thought maybe I better so see who he was and what was going on. I walk up and say hi and he says hi and keeps fishing. So I said "Do you have permission to fish here?" and he says "yes, (I will change the name to protect against angry neighbors) Joe Smoe told me I could fish here." I said "Do you realize this is private property?" He says "Yeah, Joe Smoe told me I could fish here anytime I wanted." I said "NO, this is a private dock, it is our dock and this is our pond front and lawn." "YEAH I know, Joe told me I could fish here!" "JOE SMOE told you that you could fish off my private dock and my boat house and my lawn?" "HUH?" (not the brightest person I've encountered...) "Let me explain, THIS is a private dock and it belongs to my husband and myself, this is our boat house and our stuff, this is our lawn and retaining wall and we own all this pond front all along here. Joe Smoe owns his own dock and doesn't have permission to give you permission to use our dock. If you want to have permission you can go out there and ask my husband if you can fish here." "Hey man, I'm not trying to make anyone mad. I just have permission from Joe to fish here." "Again, Joe doesn't own the whole pond but if he said you can fish on it that is fine but this is my dock and he can't tell you, you can fish here and by the way...the bass are catch and release only." "OH, well, Joe never told me that." In my head "Yeah, well I'm telling you now..." Suffice it to say I lost all desire to go down and lay in the hammock. Joe Smoe is lucky I don't know his phone number...

Yesterday I was supposed to go in and take care of the kids but their parents both have strep throat and so I just went in and brought them out here to give their parents a day of rest. 

Badminton was still set up so we had a rousing game of that.

Boden just kept driving the tractor through the court...

This morning I went out to give the chickens water and feed and found this little guy in the hen house for some reason. Wasn't sure what to do with him but I saw a nest so I set him back in it. Not sure it was his but not much else I could do except maybe take him to Bobbi and Jayme's neighbor whose house is full of rescued birds...

Life after Esprit always has a few days where I think I am forgetting something but it is returning to normal. And I am getting the pre-Esprit disaster cleaned up.