Independence Day conjures up all kinds of thoughts and memories to many of us, for me mostly of fun.  It’s a day that causes us to reflect upon the fact that we enjoy many of our freedoms because of the selfless actions of others.  While I realize that we are losing some of our freedom, we still don’t have it too bad in the USA. 

After a very long week with plenty of farm work, the kids were looking for some fun on Sunday (yes we do have fun on our farm) and since we can’t afford a boat , let  alone a pontoon, the boys decided to build a raft.   They wanted to build one strong enough to go down the Yellow Medicine River, but needed to test it out first on our local slough.  After a bit of work and planning, around an hour or so, we were loaded up and ready for the test run.  Would this funny looking raft hold us and if so, how many  of us at one time?  It did float and held 8 people and 1 dog, but could have had a few more riders.  Several of us passed up the opportunity using the excuse that the babies needed watching.

 The raft Luke and Peter built, or more correctly threw together, utilized 50 gallon plastic barrels, old wood planks from an old building, straps and screws.  It worked pretty well and the only mishap was when they lost a barrel briefly which was quickly fixed by Luke and Peter jumping overboard, much to the delight of the leaches, to re-attach the barrel. 

 Most of the fun happened on the 3rd of July because for Fred the 4th was a work day since he’s unable to be home all of the time.  We cooked out and played volleyball on Sunday.  We worked with the livestock most of the morning of the 4th, then we had a picnic lunch and later butchered a huge hog.  After that, we watched the fireworks from several of the area towns, visible from our yard, not so hard to do since we live on the plains which are very flat.  You can see for miles out here.  Caleb and Peter set off our own fireworks display while we sat around the campfire.  Everyone was rejuvenated for this weeks work which has been extensive and you can see by the timing of this post, started earlier this week, how Friday is almost here! 

 I’ll be posting, when I get a chance, the procedure/photos  that we used to butcher the hog for those of you who have never seen a hog processed and might like to try it.  I also hope to post soon the table tops  on my pizza oven that were completed last week.  Perhaps it will rain, but in the mean time, there are gardens to weed, lawns to mow, lambs to be wormed, fences to be moved, basil and zucchini to be harvested, hops to be weeded again, dishes to be done, laundry to be hung, folded and put away, meals to be planned and prepared…….sounds like life to me:)  Life may not be easy but it is very good, praise God for that! 

For those of you who may not know, if you hold your computer mouse on any of my photos it will give a small explanation of the photo.