Brain Move

MB, Dr. SCB, & Maddie stopped here with Gramma & Grampa on their way from Berkely, CA to Starkville, MS. Uncle Brain will be teaching at Mississippi State this fall in the History department. We wish him the best of luck in his new career.

Maddie was the center of attention. She is inches away from walking. It was different having a baby in the house again. We forgot how they get into everything. Our old house was baby-proof and had locks on avery cabinet door, gates at the top & bottom of the stairs, etc. This house is definitely not baby-proof; Maddie was into every cabinet & drawer. It was fun watching her explore.

Wild Hamster

Our neighbor found a wild hamster in his window well. Turns out that the hamster was tame and hungry. The boys fed her some carrots and JP took her to the humane society. Katrina was interested a little, but JP kept her away. We asked around and found that one of our neighbors had released the rodent into the wild after growing tired of it hanging out behind his washing machine.

July 4th

I have to say that Lincoln's firworks policy kicks butt. Fireworks go on sale a few days before and we can burn black powder all day on the 3rd & 4th. Lincoln proper does not sell anything that goes bang, but the neighboring towns do, and they are only a few minutes away.

The Hickman Kiwanis foreworks tent was running a special on pyrotechnic tanks. We grabbed a few dozen and built a couple tank divisions. CP had fun, but was sad to see all the tanks be destroyed. For some reason JP did not want a bunch of soot covered sulphurous burned-out tanks left in the garage.

We lit off fireworks on and off all day on the 4th and started for real at about 8:00 pm. By 10 pm I realized that we had too many fireworks (can that be a real problem?!?) and were not going to be able to burn them all. I kicked up the pace and frantically lit up as much as I could as quickly as possible. It made for a good show until a big mortar shell blew up 5 feet off the ground and sent GP in the house.

Oklahoma

One of the highlights of our trip to Oklahoma was a visit to Tinker AFB and the static display of planes there. RK's father in law flew B-52's in 'Nam and told us all about his career and B-52's. He actually flew this one (and every other one that was made!).

We saw an Air Force A-7, a Normandy C-47, B-47, F-4, B-29, B-52, F-105, and a B-1.

I wish I had taken some pictures of the rain & flooding we experienced on our trip. Oklahoma City had 18 straight days of rain and received over 10 inches in the month of June. Their normal rainfall for January-June is only 13". The entire area was green like a jungle and completely overgrown from all the moisture. We were in Edmund where the land is hilly (and RED) so there was not much flooding. Each storm that passed filled the creeks to the top and drained away within hours. The low country suffered as the rivers jumped out of their banks and flooded the floodplains.
The storms we experienced were part of a low pressure system that would not move out of the area. It looked like a hurricane on the radar - just continuous bands of thunderstorms spinning around a non-moving center. It rained the entire time we were in Oklahoma. We were glad to see blue skies when we got home to Nebraska.

Lt. Col. RK

Last weekend we headed down to Sooner country with the Grammas for JP's brother's promotion to Lt. Col.

The boys hit it off with their cousins and had a great time playing everywhere we went. CP slept past 8:00 am one day from paying so hard the day before.

RK has been in the USAF for a long time and is closing in on retirement. I remember when we were in school and he was in ROTC.

BONZAI!!

We wanted to get a pool for the kids this summer, but Lincoln requires a 48" fence around anything deeper than 18". We priced out fencing and it will be $5,000 to fence in the back yard (for a $49 pool). Needless to say, a pool is out of the question at this time.

We splurged and bought a Bonzai inflatable slide that requires no fence. The boys absolutely love it, and it's easy to move around so we do not have to sacrifice a patch of grass for it.

I tried it out and had fun until I jumped out a bit too far and landed on my tailbone and then caught my toe and just about broke it. I swore I'd never get old, but it seems I have no choice.

Lincoln Ethnic Fest

One of the beauties of Lincoln is that it's small enough that we can attend any downtown event without worrying about parking and traffic. It takes all of 10 minutes to make it from our house on the edge of town to downtown. We attended the "Ethnic Fest" downtown to experience distant cultures and foreign foods.

The boys were excited as they watched a Chineese dancing dragon performance. Their eyes were as big as saucers when the dragons lept off the stage and ran around on the street. The highlight of our visit was the Japanese drum team that performed synchronized drumming. The show was good, but the white guy on the team underscored the fact that we were still in Nebraska.

We tasted some ethnic foods: some sort of middle-east sweet treat, egg rolls, and a greek spinach & feta sandwich. Mr. Margarita was there serving up south-of-the-border frozen drinks, and the beer stand featured beers from afar.
The boys played on all the inflatable attractions and worked up a sweat.

Prairieview Dairy

Prairieview Dairy down in Firth (15 mi south of us) held a spectacular open house for the public. They had tours of the dairy, tanker truck rides, a corn box (sand box but with corn) for the kids, a hay bale mountain, food, ice cream, hay bale throwing contest, and a petting zoo.

CP was fired up to milk the fiberglass cow.

The dairy produces a near-organic milk that is sold in Hi-Vee. We were excited to get some until we found it in the store for $4 for 1/2 gallon.

Alex's Last Day

Alex & his mom moved away from us on 6/15. They went to California to find sandy beaches and people with differing points of view. We will miss them for sure. JP will miss afternoon margaritas and chats, and the boys will miss Alex's good nature.

God luck in CA!

Branched Oak Lake

We had a nothing-to-do Saturday and decided to check out Branched Oak Lake, just northwest of town. The lakes south of us have the consistency of chocolate milk due to the recent heavy rains. Branched Oak greeted us with beautiful blue water!
There was a jet-ski race in progress when we arrived.

After watching jet-skis for a while, the boys needed to go for a swim. The swimming beach is dirt. Not sand, but dirt. It looks like a corn field.

VBS

The boys went to a week's worth of Vacation Bible School the week after school let out. At the end of the week they put on a cowboy themed show and sang about the glory. It was very cute.

Is it just me, or does the paint scheme of the mountains behind CP look stange? I guess they are called the Grand Tetons for a reason.

Painting Assistant

We recently painted the front door & window frames. As usual, my helper was there by my side the entire time. I think we have now painted all the oak window trim white. Next step: the trim around the stairs.

I used to use this 28' ladder on little house to hang the X-mas lights; now I use it inside this house to paint. Next time I will get an aluminum ladder - fiberglass is too heavy.

Another Rocket Launch

We were able to get in another rocket launch before Alex moved to California. We had an amazing afternoon with no wind so we tried a 2-stage launch of the Comanche III (which had recently been repaired due to a 3-stage launch failure). This time both engines burned, but the when the booster popped to light the second stage, the motor fell out and the booster section remained attached, so the exhaust from the second motor toasted the booster section. I need to get one of those "designer's special" rocket kits so I can have enough spare parts to rebuild these.

Everything else flew great, and we even got a good launch of the Astrocam that Aunt Sue got us a while back. I need to find somewhere that will develop the 110 catridge in less time than the 6 weeks that Walgreens quoted. Speaking of Walgreens... they have some crappy digital cameras on sale for $10 that would make a great replacement for the Astrocam's 110 film camera.... Hmmm... Another project.

Last Day of School

June 6 was the last day of school for the boys. It's hard to believe that we now have a 3rd grader! Kindergarten flew by in an instant.

Rain, Rain, Here to Stay

Last weekend we focused on yardwork. We were going to shoot rockets, but by the time Alex from next door got out of bed the wind had started for the day. I needed something to do, so JP put me to work. Job No. 1 was to enlarge the front flower bed. The Spirea we planted last year had grown quite a bit and needed more room. After an hour of pulling sod out of the clay, we declared break time. The first project of the season is so difficult after a winter of lounging around...

Our break took us to ShopKo to get some gloves, yard bags, and topsoil. I found a pair of two left gloves, another pair of two right gloves, and then finally a pair that had a left and a right. Imagine that! I hate ShopKo. I cannot wait for the Super Target to open in July!

While browsing for topsoil, JP found a nice maple on sale for $50, so we hauled it home with the tailgate up. JP is not comfortable driving around with the back of her van wide open. The boys and I thought it was pretty cool.

We put the maple smack dab in the center of the back yard in hopes that it will eventually block the view between our neighbor's deck and our soon to be deck, as well as the view into our kitchen. After the maple was firmly secured against the wind, we continued on with moving the plants up front. By 4:00 pm, we finished the relocation project. Everything looks nice, but it was a lot of work just to move three shrubs two feet.



One of the problems we encountered when we were done was that of disposing of the sod we removed. In Woodstock, we would have simply dumped it somewhere in the back where we wanted to raise the berm. Here, it's not that easy. I drove around for an hour looking for a suitable construction site. I did not feel OK with just dumping a bunch of sod on someone's job site, and I could not just dump it in a field. I finally found a good-sized gully that was washing out up on the hill where the new mall is going to go. I felt better dumping it in the gully - after all, it would help control the erosion...

We had another 1" plus of rain this afternoon (like we have had every other day for the last month). As soon as the lightning cleared out, I threw the boys in the car and we set out to assess the flood damage. It was not as spectacular as before - Salt Creek had not yet risen, and most of the drainages were already dropping in level due to their steepness. We went up to the sod dump gully to see if I had indeed helped to slow the erosion. When I got to the edge, I was happy to see green grass showing through the brown water in a few places. My idea had worked! However, when I looked downstream my eyes locked onto a big pile of sod that had been flushed from the gully and was now part of the delta in the pond. At least some of it had held.

The boys did not take long to cover themselves with mud from their toes to their fingertips. The gully was the perfect size for them to explore - about a foot wide and 3 feet deep. Of course the sides were slippery clay-mud and required using hands to climb. I tried my best to scrape most of the big mud off of everyone, but the inside of my car still looks like the time I learned the meaning of "Minimum Maintenance Road."

We received over 10" of rain in May, and Omaha got over 15". Our normal for the year is 28".