4th of July

I've been so busy and spending so much time out in the yard and garden that I haven't had time to update my blog. We didn't have as large a gathering as we have in the past for the 4th but we totally enjoyed those that were able to be here. The weekend of the 4th was a rainy weekend, but not a stormy one. The rain was bearable without the wind and craziness. We set up the tables in the studio for games and eating...
Two long tables lengthwise out from one wall...

...one long table lengthwise for the food and the third table out lengthwise to the center for use as needed.

The ladder, above, was so the older kids could climb up into the loft to free up more room below.

Below is how you get a fire started with wet wood. You just need a good bellow to get a hot fire.

The rain stopped just in time for the kids to start lighting their fireworks.

The big kids were ready to voluntarily get wet.

Also notice in the picture below the large white area above the pool. That's the screen for the movies.

Here's a shot of the yard. You can see the barbecue grills under the canopy.

The pool is new this year, the one we had for 5 years finally bit the dust. The new pool is much larger and came with a volleyball net and ball which the kids soon put to use.

A lot of energy was exerted having fun.

Then darkness fell and the light show began. This was on the street and went on for quite some time.

The city fireworks was shot off the night before for the school's 100 year celebration that was going on. It was still raining off and on and I didn't take my camera outside because of it.

Members of our family had bought some nice fireworks...

...and there were other families in the neighborhood shooting theirs off, too.

I like this silhouette shot.

The person in town that shot off the city fireworks had a few of the same to shoot off for the 4th. There was a whole series of ones like the one below....

...with one like this between...

...another like this.

The rain was really a blessing because it hadn't rained in a while and things were rather dry, easily burned. So the rain made for a very safe 4th. We all had a wonderful time, missed those that were elsewhere but felt their presence.

Princess Birthday Fireworks 2 & 3

Below are the rest of the fireworks that I said that I would post. The second set of fireworks was taken by the Princess herself with my old digital camera. I think she got some rather interesting effects. The camera was handheld and strictly auto-focus. One picture reminds me of what I think a comet should look like.

Princess Birthday Fireworks 1

I seem to have problems posting the html for the photobucket slideshows. Every time I copy and paste them blogspot alters it in some way that it won't work. The only way to get them to work is to have photobucket post from my account on their website. If I attempt to edit it once it's in my blog, say I want to add a title, when I save the edited post, the slideshow no longer works. If anyone knows what is happening, please let me know.

I have posted the first set of the city fireworks slideshow which I have titled "Princess Birthday Fireworks". I had a little difficulty keeping the fireworks framed because not all of them shot up like they were suppose to. If you look closely at the picture below you will see the field and vehicles. Click on it to see it larger.
The following post contains 50 more pictures of the fireworks.

Small Town Snapshot Sunday #6

Wendy at On the Front Porch hosts Small Town Snapshot Sunday. Check out the other participating bloggers on Wendy's blog, then join us and post one of your own!

It's been a really busy couple of weeks for me, as it always it this time of year. Our family get together here is the 4th of July and then the weekend after is The Princess's birthday. We usually do another BBQ and outside fun for it, also. This year the Princess's birthday fell on Saturday, the same weekend of our city harvest festival. Because of all the work I needed to do at home I never ventured to town to see what all they had going on there. Saturday night was the fireworks, which was right across the street from our house....
I'll post more fireworks pictures later. They also had ballgames going on at the diamonds which are right down the road from us.

We weren't the only ones "camped out" in our yard this weekend. This is our neighbors yard on Sunday. Saturday they had a much larger group over. It's funny to see a fan in the yard in Kansas. But for most of the day Saturday there was little or NO wind. IN KANSAS!?!?

A little while ago I was reading the paper and heard a noise outside.... It was just that fire tank truck hosing down kids as part as the festival.

I'm trying not to go outside much today. I had enough heat the last week to last me for a while. Hope all the rest of you are having a safe and cool weekend!

Independence Day 2009!

July 4th is when the family gathers at my house.

The grandchildren make full use of the pool, keeping cool on the hot July days.
My son-in-law is our grill chef and this year they had a new grill to use with our grill that we got last year.

Friday night we had rain. It started out nice and gentle. It came and went, came and went. Later it came down heavier and around 4:30 or 5am my campers all came inside to sleep. The tent below caved. These tents are just NOT designed to deal with anything but nice weather.

My handyman son and I had stayed up cleaning up the studio and making it ready to use, but the campers didn't know this. Here you can see that we later set up a table and chairs and the grandchildren ate their breakfast in the studio. They were really enjoying the shade in the backyard too.

Time for fireworks and getting them all sorted and divided out. See the large red package in the center of the table? That's 4,000 firecrackers in 4 bundles. These were set off all at the same time, 4 people lighting one each of the bundles. I was in the house when this was done and it sounded like it went on forever.

When I went outside the street was cover with what looked to be little pieces of red tissue paper. Click on the picture below and look at the street. This is what it looked like for at least a block.

The sil got out on the street with a broom and cleaned this all up before it had a chance to blow anywhere. This picture may look a bit blurry because I was experimenting with the settings on my camera. This picture was taken after sundown without a flash. I was trying to remember the settings for taking pictures of fireworks.

I am attempting to put the slide show for my fireworks in this post. If the slide show doesn't work I may have to post it by itself.

Slide Show Removed and posted individually on July 7

After the fireworks the big "boys" got down to the games on the side of the house. I sat back at the firepit and help the grandkids make s'mores.

Here's a flash photo of the outside theater from behind the firewood pile.

We had a wonderful 4th of July, even with the rain interrupting out sleep.

City Fireworks

The small town where I live doesn't do 4th of July fireworks because usually a week later they hold their city celebration. This used to be the harvest festival, but I'm not really sure how tightly this is tied to the harvest in this day and age. Where they fire the fireworks from is diagonally across the county road from our house. If anything, we're too close. Much of the time the fireworks were going off directly over my head. The evening was cool if not a bit chilly, so I lit a fire in the fire pit and set up my camera to take pictures...

I took 84 pictures in all, these were some of the best. I hope you enjoyed looking at them.