LATEST ODDS 'N ENDS

Here is a photo of Fritz looking pretty weary and dragged out after his tussle with the raccoon.

Finally, a pretty nice spring day in Shelley with Blaine & Nikki and Chris & Ryan.

Chris and I drove to Tremonton to see and hear the oldest grandsons perform--Ryan in the band, and Daniel on the baseball field. Looks like the band had plenty of DRUM POWER. The wind was terrible and the band members had a hard time hanging onto their music. But they sounded great! (Check out the kneeling tuba player--don't think you'd want to mess with him!) Ryan's playing his trombone just behind the white tuba.

Here's the lineup of the teams while the band played "The Star-Spangled Banner." Daniel and his teammates looked VERY SHARP! Each of the seniors on the team was spotlighted so we cheered loudly for Daniel. The game was very relaxing and not much stress for the home-town crowd as the Bears way out-scored their opponents. We were also treated to free hotdogs, drinks and chips--a fun afternoon with the Elwood Cannons!

Many of us enjoyed a pre-Mother's Day feast with Blaine & Nikki hosting us in Burley. (Steve & family were unable to come because of the state baseball tournament Daniel played in--and brought home a win for his team, pitching the final inning after a tied game! Yeah!) The delicious meal included baked ham with pineapple, amazing scalloped potatoes "Daffin-waugh" (I have no idea how to spell it, but that's how it sounds), corn casserole, creamy cucumbers, mouth-watering fresh-baked biscuits, juice, and finishing up with warm oozing chocolate pudding cake and vanilla ice cream. We were well-stuffed and happy!

The younger generation enjoyed their meal picnic-style on the plush bright green lawnish carpet in Nikki's sunroom. (She encouraged spills so that they would have an excuse to replace it--but no such luck. The kids were neat eaters and the carpet remained mostly spotless!)

Blaine provided some guitar/singing entertainment. Carlee also shared her piano talent, but I didn't get a picture. She is really doing well and it is fun to listen to her.

The kids played some Boggle while Lorie and Peter harrassed each other.

Walks around town and playing in the park were refreshing after-dinner activities. Nikki gave the little kids a BIG whirly gig! They wanted Lorie to go for a ride on the merry-go-round and she said she'd go if Grandma did. So I climbed aboard for a very SLOW circle or two.

It was a GREAT outing for all of us. Many thanks to Blaine & Nikki for providing ANOTHER wonderful meal and good feelings all around.

This past week government workers have been fumigating our field to try and get rid of the potato nematodes--some kind of pests that wreak havok and keep potato plants from flourishing. It's amazing to watch how they spread plastic over a whole field while gasses of some sort are injected under the plastic and trapped on top of the dirt. The strips of plastic (about 8 feet wide) are sealed to each other as they lay them down with specially designed machines, and then the workers go around the edges of the field with shovels and put dirt over the outer borders to keep the plastic held down. After a few days they cut the plastic in strips, gather it up and dispose of it--who knows where! The fields look like they're covered in water as the wind causes a few ripples in the plastic. It's a huge effort to erradicate those pesky nematodes. They'll plow the field now and plant raddish seeds because that crop is supposed to help eliminate the todes as well. Interesting stuff.