Party time at the farm, a smelly oversight

The 4^th was a lot of work but also a lot of fun. I spent most of the late morning and all afternoon cooking. I smoked two chickens and a small brisket by about 1:30. Then I fired up the charcoal grill and used it and the pellet grill to cook over fifty hamburgers and about sixty hotdogs. With twenty-two adults and ten children in attendance, a good portion of the meat was eaten. We also had macaroni salad, potato salad, baked beans and all the fixings for the burgers and hotdogs – chili, slaw, cheese (six different kinds), as well as multiple desserts available. Mama dessert was mostly focused on brownies and ice cream. Sarah Fox baked sourdough hamburger buns, decadent cinnamon rolls and peanut butter blossom cookies. Brenda Fox made a chocolate fudge cake. Norman brought a lemon cake. So, we had plenty.

To give the kids something fun to do, Norman set up squirt wands and water buckets in the circle in front of the house. All ten of the single pump squirt wands were all in use during multiple battles. There were, over the course of the day, almost three hundred balloons filled with water to be burst on a variety of persons and targets. The temperature was near one hundred degrees at the height of the day but there was a steady, soft breeze stirring the hot air so everyone that ended up getting thoroughly soaked was quickly able to dry off. Only to go back into the water fight and get soaked once more.

Meanwhile, the adults visited in smaller groups moving about through the groups to visit with a different batch of guests. Some outside. Some inside. We all had a great time getting to know each other and just passing the time in casual conversation, hearing delightful stories from each of our pasts. The young mothers in those groups were constantly herding their little ones back outdoors when they came running inside, soaking wet, to report some bit of urgent news from the water battle raging in front of the house. Norman and Seth made a batch of smaller water balloons that could be easily managed by their tiny hands – and they were eager to join in the fun. Our front circle was a mess of refuse from the burst balloons, but everyone pitched in and cleaned up the mess before anyone headed home.

I continued to clean up inside through the day, so what needed to be washed was minimal once the leftovers had been packaged and put away. We will be eating those leftovers for many days. I predict we will tire of the macaroni and potato salad before we are able to consume them fully. The leftover meats will be finished off more quickly. Hotdogs, stuffed burgers, smoked chicken, and brisket all lend themselves to multiple dinner applications. Needless to say, I did not manage to follow my low carbohydrate diet, but I did attempt to keep the carbs to a manageable amount by limiting the dessert portions. The most difficult part was getting up the next morning to teach a class.

Mama, Norman, and Grandpa are in Gainesville for a doctor’s appointment for Grandpa scheduled for later today. So, while they are in that area, they will also pick up a few things we need for the container retrofit. Mama is also going to look at windows we need to cut into the container, but I do not know if she is planning on purchasing the windows or just looking at what is available and at what price in the surplus store in that area. Regardless, we are slowly gathering the required materials for installing the electric service, the windows, and the sliding glass door.

We are also studying/researching the best ways to install the windows into the sides of the container. That has been a fun study watching YouTube videos made by those who have done what we are considering doing. So many ways to get the job done and so many different looks as the final outcomes are achieved. I think we have decided to weld frames into the side of the container, then use those frames to house those windows. It seems to be the best way to seal the window into the container without the window sticking too far past the exterior of the container sides. If all things work out, I am planning to have the container finished and ready for Mama to fill by the end of the month. It will be very nice to have a dedicated workspace.

On the farm, we have been dealing with very large rat snakes. Over the past few days, I have had to kill four of the snakes that were each over five feet long and very thick of body. These were mature snakes. We have not seen such large, mature snakes at the farm during the ten years we have lived here. Mama is concerned but there is little we can do about it other than catch and kill the snakes as we encounter them. In a humorous turn of events, I had one dead snake in the back of the truck to be thrown in the creek on my way to work Wednesday morning, but I forgot to do that. So, the snake spent the day in the bed of the truck through the day Wednesday as I taught the class. The temperature was a little over one hundred degrees that day. The truck was parked in full sun. By the time I got done with class I was startled by the stink near the truck as I loaded up to head home. I thought, “Woah. Something is dead.” It was only when I got back home that I discovered my oversight. Boy, did that snake stink.

I had hurried home because Mama had trapped another large snake in one of the quail cages and I was to kill it after Sarah Fox got to the farm to watch how I accomplished that task. Once that was done, I put that recently dead snake with the very stinky snake and pitched both of them out for the varmints to eat.

One of those deposits was long overdue.