Duke turned 5 on July 8th!  Grandma Kaye came down just for his birthday so we had party #1 on that day, with a Spiderman cake she brought along.  Then, we had another party at the (flooded) lake with just us, cake #2 included.

I’m way behind, as usual, so I’m going to just do the ol’ slap-a-bunch-of-pics-up trick to play catch up.

Fourth of July in Wister, we went to the parade in the morning, followed by playing and water slides in the town park in the early afternoon:

Then off to Poteau in the late afternoon until evening for games, more water slides, and fireworks (when my batteries gave out):

David brought back a water closet tile hanging thingymajig from his trip to Greece last year.  I’ve liquid-nailed it to the bathroom door (also adding a mirror to each side).  Just in case anyone ever gets lost and isn’t sure which room is which…

I slapped a mirror up on the wall above where the sink will be, too.  I think I’ll also put on the wall immediately to its right.  This is the area behind the door when it opens.  (The board across it is just a temporary thing to hold it in place while the liquid nails dry.)

The frame in progress that goes to support the hardware end of the tub.

Attack of the purple-gooped plumbing monster.

The hardware all in place finally.  The off/on lever is mostly to the right/open side of the tub for easy access to adjustment before you climb in a too hot/cold shower.  Yeah, not exactly traditional placement but I think it’s cool.

Think rednecks stop at keeping their cars on blocks?  Ha!  We have the bathtub on blocks!  It is for room to run the drain plumbing under it but it makes is a great height for bathing the kids whiles sitting a chair beside it.  Very nice!  At least it will be once we get the blocks covered with something civilized-looking.

Okay, so I suck and don’t have any pics ready to put up right now. But it’s already after midnight which means it’s officially after Nellie’s birthday now which means that maternal guilt will give me bad dreams if I don’t put up a Happy Birthday post for her.

The Strawberry Festival in Stilwell has an annual 5k run through town. Race day was Saturday. We had to leave here from home at 4:30 a.m. to be at registration by 6:30 a.m. to start the race at 7:30 a.m.. (I don’t do mornings. At all. So I pretended it was just really, really late at night.) David and John both flew in for the race. Grandma Kaye came down for a visit and to play cheerleader. I, being her favorite and far superior to either of my brothers, was the one being cheered on, of course. Isaac and Charlie also entered the race so I tried to slow down my blazing-fast speed so as not to discourage them. Sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice. It’s all I do.

A few pre-race pics, showing the I-know-I’m-doomed-to-lose-this-race looks on the faces of everyone but me.

And they’re off! (You’ll notice I’m not in the shot. It’s because I was hanging back at the end, giving everyone a head start on my blazing self, you see.)

Isaac and John partnered up for the race with the hope that four legs are better than two.

Charlie and David teamed up as well.

I ran so fast that the cameras just couldn’t get a photo of me. I was nothing but a blur and a breeze. Yep, I blew everyone away. But then I figured I’d slow down to a walk so that the mere mortals in the race had a chance against me. Yep, more sacrifice. I’m a giver. During my selfless act of walking, someone was able to take this rare pic of me.

Duke wondered what I looked like when I ran since he had never seen me in action (due to me being nearly as fast as the speed of light).

Here’s Grandma Kaye doing a recreation of what I looked like as I went blurring by (before I so selflessly stopped).

So, no, I didn’t officially win the race. But I could have.

Wienie roast! We always have a wienie roast when Grandma Kaye comes for a visit.

Ah, roasted marshmallows!

David, sucking up to Grandma Kay the night before the race, trying to talk her into tripping me as I ran by her.

A group pic of the gang (except Cody who was in the bathroom, me who was taking the pic, and Steve who was I don’t know where).

Oh, yeah. Just a touch of life in Redneckville for ya. This spoonbill carcass was wired to one of the road signs on one of the roads leading out to civilization. It’s been there for several days but the birds and bugs are slowly eating it away. Yes, you really did need to see this. It’s important, ya know.

The Chronicles of Narnia, The Last Battle, by C. S. Lewis

The Adventures of Ali Baba Bernstein, by Johanna Hurwitz

The Sisters Grimm, The Fairy Tale Detectives, by Michael Buckley

It’s Me or the Dog, by Victoria Stilwell

Silver on the Tree, The Dark is Rising Sequence, by Susan Cooper

The Chronicles of Narnia, The Magician’s Nephew, by C.S. Lewis

The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis

The Chronicles of Narnia, The Horse and His Boy, by C.S. Lewis

The Chronicles of Narnia, Prince Caspian, by C.S. Lewis

The Chronicles of Narnia, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, by C.S. Lewis

The Chronicles of Narnia, The Silver Chair, by C.S. Lewis

While the boys were playing this afternoon, Nellie and I hopped on the skidsteer and did a little work. (No, nothing dangerous and we were on flat ground or I would not have had her on it.) Isaac grabbed the camera and caught Nellie not doing her share of the work so I’m posting it as evidence to be used against her later when I dock her pay.

This weekend has become designated spring cleaning weekend. This afternoon, some fella is following Steve home from work to haul off some giant piles of useless scrap metal. That’ll be a HUGE improvement!

The plants have all been moved outside, divided into three sections: edible, nonedible, and ICU/morgue.

The new pot and tool corral.

The forks Steve built for the skidsteer, already put to work.

Here, I’ve taken a pic of the (still unfinished) wellhouse to point out what the plan is. The yellow arrow to the left is pointing to a pier — see it? Gray concrete. And the right arrow is pointing to where the other pier will go. Remember when I said that the roof of the wellhouse will extend out beyond the wellhouse itself? The piers are where the legs of that extension will go. It’ll make a nice spot to park the bigger toys in (4-wheeler, skidsteer), as well as bicycles, etc.

And one last pic of the hired help.

The legs are up on the well house. The roof will extend back towards the camera to cover an area of the drive there, for parking the toys. It will extend to meet the edge of the house if it ever gets done.

Nellie being Nellie.

And Duke being a big ham because he’s just so good at it.