What a busy last few weeks it has been around here.  This weekend was certainly no exception.

My late Aunt Jane and Uncle Ivo's estate sale was this past Saturday.  My head is swirling with thoughts about that.  We did come home with some things that are treasures to me.  More about that in a post soon to come.  I promise.  Especially since I am pretty excited about some of my finds.

Sunday we went to the Heritage Festival in Columbia, MO.  Our friends, Bernie, The Osage Bluff Blacksmith, and his wife, Patti, the Osage Bluff Quilter, were there, demonstrating the almost lost art of Blacksmithing.

The Blacksmith had quite a crowd watching the embers fly as he hammered and pounded red hot mounds of iron into things like forks, dinner bells, crosses, and all sorts of things. 



Patti had her hands full answering questions and selling the wares.  I hope they had a successful couple of days.

 My mind is still boggling at the amount of work that goes into making the period costumes, setting up shop, working all day, taking everything down at the end of the day and dragging it home, only to return the next day to do it all over again. 

Patti & The Blacksmith

Jim bought this torture hook.  He claims he will be using it to turn meat on the grill.  Uh huh.

When we left the festival, we decided to head 15 miles or so up the road to Clark, MO.  Patti was telling us there is an Amish community there that sells furniture, wonderfuol baked goods, and stuff.  Even though we knew they would be closed on a Sunday, we decided to take the short drive before heading home.  We were glad we did.

Scenic drive to Clark, MO.
We must have hit the returning home from church services traffic.  Buggies were everywhere. 

I'm pretty sure Ida and Eula didn't know these grass mowers were on the wrong side of the fence. 
They didn't look like they planned on going past the green, green grass of home.

Children were playing in many of the yards.  It looked like they were all dressed in their Sunday best, but as far as I could tell, not a single child had shoes on.  I had to smile and shiver a little at this, since the high temperatures yesterday were only 65.

I'm pretty sure Mr. Stinkeye here is saying he hopes everyone has a wonderful week!

They're BAAck!

We have a few sheep again.  When we sold our flock a year ago, the plan was to buy a few sheep every summer and raise them up to sell just before winter hits.  That way Jim doesn't have to feed them hay through the winter.  What we didn't count on is the fact that it would be very difficult to find a few sheep at a decent price without going to sale barns.  But find them we did! 

Here they are - just in time to wish everyone a Happy Independence Day!





We were hoping to get four rams, but only came home with two... but two is better than none.  These two are already sold - to be butchered in November.  So, I don't dare get too close to them.  I learned that lesson a long time ago.

Some of our kids and grandkids are coming over later this afternoon for a cookout.  It should be a lot of fun.

Hope everyone has a great day.  I know I plan to!

GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!