You Just Never Know...

what a day will bring! I'll work backward and tell you about a few of our recent days.

Our friend, David, is (finally) retiring from the state job that he has for a long while. I understand he didn't really want a retirement party, but who listens to men anyway. Bobbi, his wife, managed to throw him a successful surprize party on Sunday. He really was a little slow in picking up on the whole thing; I think he was genuinely surprized and I know he loved it! This is a picture that Bobbi took shortly after he "got it".

We didn't stay long but there were lots of people there and I know the day was a success. CONGRATULATIONS, DAVID on your retirement. We hope you nothing but the best. As the card said, "We wish you a snagfree, weedless, and untangled retirement where your fish are bigger than your lure."

On SATURDAY, we hung around at the lake for "Take A Kid Fishing" - what a wonderful event hosted by Bob and Corky and coordinated by Sheriff Dave and the LeSueur Posse. There were over 50 kids who each received a rod and reel and a life jacket to take home as well as the privledge of fishing with one of the Minnesota Vikings - yep, there were 16 vikings present who fished with the kids, signed footballs and added a special touch to the day.

This was the group from the Vikings, mostly rookies I think, with a retired Vike on the right back and Sheriff Dave on the right in front. The young fellow in the front is the retired guy's son who participated in the day.
Here, one of the Vikes is enjoying a bit of "toilet toss" which is like horseshoe with, well you know.
It was a great day for everyone involved - my hat is off to all the organizers. I thoroughly enjoyed my job of taking pictures of each child with one of the Vikings; another souvenir for each child to take home.

On Friday (and many other days prior) Bob worked on cleaning the weeks from the lakeshore in front of his home - can't have weeds when the kids launch on the pontoons on Saturday. Now, who else do you know that owns a cranberry picker... yep, that is the machine that Bob bought at an auction a while back and now uses, with DNR permission of course, to clean out the weeds - it is quite a process! This is Bob picking up weeds - they go up the front and to a conveyor belt in the back.
Then the thing is turned around and the conveyor belt dumps into a shoot that takes it up to a waiting truck to be hauled away. Corky said they tried using it as fertilizer one year but the grape tomatoes got 2 inches in diameter and had no taste - probably not too healthy... So, now it goes "to the farm".

On Thursday, I spent a part of the day at mom's place. My neice, Pam, was there and so were three of her children. She had brought lots of plants for mom and then spent time repotting some flowers that needed new soil. Meanwhile, Kate (I'm 3), Elizabeth (I'm 4) and Joseph (I'm 5) enjoyed climbing in Great Grandma's tree.

What a pleasure to see mom doing well, get mom's and our laundry done and spend time with these three well-behaved children. Thursday night David and Bobbi came out for dinner and, as usual, the boys beat the girls in Sequence. We miss these sessions with FS and his wife.

A week ago Monday, Mike learned a new skill. In preparation for the events of the coming weekend, Bob wanted to get the golf course in good shape and, of course, he has the right equipment. Mike has been mowing the fairway for a few weeks and now has learned the fine art of greens mowing.

At least three machines are needed...
After a word of direction...
He is on his own. This machine is only used on the greens - take a look at the units in the front - they kinda look like old washing machine wringers - they each have a roller to bend the grass over after it is cut - who knew...
Last week, Mike mowed three times but that routine won't be repeated this week - too bad, I think he kinda likes it - Bob said he would give him a good recommendation if he wanted to add "Greens Keeper" to his resume...

In between, we had a couple of Dr. appts. and did the usual stuff people do, but gosh in this life... "You Just Never Know...