The Fun Has Begun

Bill has been doing a little replanting of beans in the drowned out areas and spraying for weeds. He's happy when he can get spraying done. Sometimes they can't get into the fields at the right time if it's too muddy and it has to be done before the beans and corn get too big to drive through.















Today is the first day of the annual Greater Rolfe Days. I went to West Bend to pick up 12 dozen frozen muffins that we had a very good baker make for the firemen's omelet breakfast coming up Sunday.

Then I headed to the Pocahontas pool with Lacey. She REALLY wants to know how to swim. Today we worked on treading water, holding her breath so she can go down and touch the bottom in the deep end and worked on kicking. She's doing pretty good! I took this picture late in the day after lots had left.

Tonight was a meal at the fire station which is a fundraiser for the Shared Ministry Church ladies. They always make maidrites.

Then the firemen set up and run the water fights first for teams of kids and then adults. It's always a popular event.

Tomorrow morning is breakfast in town which is a fundraiser for the Farmers' Market, the parade, free swimming at the pool, a salad lunch with pie and ice cream social done by the VFW ladies that's always good (all of those homemade salads - yum!), an auction by the Lions Club and the rodeo tomorrow night. I'm working at the breakfast, Bill & I will probably be in a fire truck in the parade along with Bryan, and Diane asked for my help in the concession stand at the rodeo - just for even an hour she said!


Bryan and Bill running the truck for the water fights. Bryan is Bill's 2nd cousin and is here visiting from Colorado. He was here last summer and greatly helped with our landscaping and deck projects.

One of the female water fight participants very smartly wore these running shoes. I think her team did well. Some try to do it in flip flops or barefoot.

Clear Lake Trip

Yesterday I went to Clear Lake, a fun town on a lake about an hour and a half from here, with friends Terri & Sarah to celebrate Terri's birthday. In this first picture you can see the water down at the end of the main street just past a really nice park. We had lunch at The Rose Cottage tea room. The owner even played Happy Birthday to Terri on the piano.

After lunch, we browsed in the shops. I have a picture inside The Red Geranium shop and the rustic coffee shop. There was a cute little winery with window boxes full of corks.

As we left, we drove along the street by the water looking at all the lake houses and wishing we had a cozy, little one. That will probably never happen but we did see a paddlewheel boat that you can take a cruise on so we may all go back to do that! Fun day.

Happy 4th!

They used to say "knee high by the 4th of July" but as you can see, our corn is almost as tall as me! Bill says that the newer varieties these days grow faster.

We decided to go to the fireworks at Twin Lakes last night. They're the best I've seen since moving to Iowa! Seeing all the boats on the water, smelling all of the camp fires and really good fireworks was great! We'll be back there next year - earlier and with picnic. The weather was perfect this year too. Click on the video below to see a small part of the finale.

I'm babysitting Camry this afternoon while Diane is golfing and Lacey is fishing with her grandparents. This evening I'm going to walk along side our church bus with the puppets hanging out the windows singing in the Humboldt parade. We'll be passing out Vacation Bible School brochures, bubbles and candy.

Anniversary Getaway Day 2

Bill spotted this along the way - kind of backwards?
After spending the night near Boone in Ames, we went to Main Street where there are several neat shops and it happened that there was a Farmers' Market too.


I had found this street once before and knew I liked the store called Cook's Emporium. This inside picture is of the chocolate shop. They had some tasty gelato. I sampled chocolate almond. I thought the name Skunk River Cycles was interesting in the next photo.

































After leaving Main Street, we found another Farmers' Market next to the shopping center. This pasta stand was interesting. They have over 40 types and flavors of pasta like Sweet Red Onion Linguine, Jalapeno Pepper Fettuccine, Garlic Chive Seashells, Basil Garlic Penne and Spring Medley Orzo.

Boone Scenic Valley Railroad Dinner Train

We arrived at the Boone & Scenic Valley Railroad & Museum yesterday in Boone, Iowa at 5:00 ready to board the dinner train and depart at 5:30. This is the train in the first picture. It's a two hour trip going through the Des Moines River Valley.

In the 2nd picture, we're going over a 156' tall and 729' long bridge over Bass Point Creek. It was built in 1912 and 1913 and replaced a wooden trestle. The pictures just don't show how far down the ground is! You had to just not think about how old it is and how heavy the train is! Click on the underlined link in the 1st sentence to go to their web site and see a better picture of the bridge!

























































































For our meal, we had a choice of Prime Rib, Chicken Marsala, Roast Pork Loin, Salmon Steak or Five-Cheese Lasagna. We both had the pork loin. Everything was very good! But look at that monstrous piece of cheesecake!

Since this trip was for our anniversary, we booked a private cabin for our meal. We didn't really want to sit at a table for 4 with strangers. We're glad we did, but as you can see in the last picture, all of the couples had tables to themselves since it wasn't full on this day.

They also do a Dessert Train and Picnic Train.

This was Bill's first ride on a train! We both really enjoyed it. We stayed in Ames last night and looked around there this morning. Pictures of that next!

Ames and Boone are very near Des Moines which is about two hours away from us. Near enough to go to once in a while but far enough away that Bill promises Des Moines will never spread this far north like cities tend to do.

Boone Scenic Valley Railroad Dinner Train

We took a two hour ride on the dinner train last evening for our anniversary. It was a nice little trip and really good food. Pictures later!