Happy Birthday Howard!

We extended our stay to include Howard's Birthday (Rose's Dad), on August 19th. Carlene and I helped out with the cooking and picture taking:

What's a birthday without baloons:

A good time was had by all:

Matt and his brother Luke: Why is this girl looking so wary?

Rose was chasing her with an egg and evil intentions...

Hanging out in the hammock:

Climbing the tree:

Lugging benches around... otherwise known as Savana showing off...

And of course, Dancing!

And when all of that gets a little old, you play softball with the kids:

Dale (Rose's brother) and youngest daughter at second base:

The third base crew taking it easy:

Parker navigating the gates in the giant slalom

And, in the end, the dogs are feeling just a little left out and need some love:

The best part?

Presents!

Prairie Life

Rose's house until she was nine. The property is gone to waste now, everyone has moved on or into town and it's changed hands several times.

Still a unique character:


Here is a shot of Matt in the window:

Can you imagine plowing a mile long row with these tools?



We visited a local museum in Rugby, ND --the geographical center of North America:

The strange things you see...

Most interesting were the belt powered tools driven by a 8 HP gasoline engine.

And of course, there is the one room school house and the World's Tallest Man...

We also found a couple of very old hand-stitched quilts:

And of course, I picked up another nice picture of Carlene:

Update

Hello All,
We finally have sun after days of off and on again rain and mist.Thunder storms are so fun to watch out here in N.D. as the locals would say "it's flat here," I don't agree more like rolling hills, but you can see for a very long way and they last for a long time. We have been resting and some sightseeing, visiting Rose and Matt's families.

Lance and I have been picking digging up herbs of all types and drying,so many grow wild out here. Did you know that sunflowers and Flax are grown out here in N.D. in abundance? I have the figure's as to how much but have miss-placed the flyer. Beautiful fields of flax (purple) flower's and of course the beauty of sunflower fields for miles takes your breath away!

We have been cooking and baking for Rose and Matt as they have busy work schedule's. Let's see got my right hand shut in the car door by Matt, by error but you know me I have the need to rub it in. It hurt a bit and of course every one thought I was playing around, even my screaming didn't seem to be enough LOL! All turned out well, just bruised and sore , Matt felt real bad which made it more fun to remind him. :)

Roscoe is much better, we were so worried he was so ill. But is back to his happy self and does not seem to be eating anything but what we give him, guess he learned his lesson. It's like me and chocolate start out with just a piece and before you know it the entire bar is gone :).

We are going to Rugby, N.D. today, which is The Geographical Center for North America. I am sure we will have picture's.

The Perseid Meteor showers are going on this week, so grab a blanket something warm to drink and your favorite person and enjoy the show.

Most of our friend's are back from Iraq with there families safe and sound. Lance nephew (Rose son)Trevor will be back in the State's by the 24th of this month. Thank you ALL for your service.

Hugs Love and Peace Within, The Gypsies

Dakota Territory Air Museum

We paid a short visit to the Dakota Territory Air Museum just North of Minot today. Great little place to spend a couple of hours wandering around in aviation history.

A C-47 in the D-Day Invasion paint scheme.

And a T-33 belonging to the "Spittin' Kittens" (5th Fighter Interceptor Squadron) flying out of Minot AFB.

They also have a P-40 Warhawk painted in the "Flying Tigers" Paint scheme under restoration. Someday, it will like something like this:

Credit where credit is due: R.T. Smith and the Flying Tigers web site. The beast uses a V-1710 Allison 12 cyclinder engine:

The data plate:

Other items of interest include a Beechcraft 18 or C-45:

and "Texan" T-6:

All in all, a great place to visit if you're ever in the neighborhood...

Resting, Relaxing, Reading

A very peaceful place indeed --Matt's place. O.K. the dogs next door are annoying when they bark in the middle of the night... at anything... any noise whatever... raises an alarm like armageddon was upon us...

Well, maybe that last part was a little overly dramatic...

Did I mention that once they start, every dog within 50 miles sings along?

The view across the valley:

Roscoe and I went for a walk while Carlene and Rose went shopping. He's taking it easy now...

Matt is making a trailer, from scratch. A very talented guy:

It's a start...

The reading? Well, Obama is an idiot, Bill and Hilary Clinton are tools, and Congress should be tarred and feathered. En masse.

Enough said...



UPDATE: The trailer is about done...

Shelby, Montana

Hi, Something very special I forgot to tell. If you look back on my post's you will read about us stopping at a visitor's information center to use Internet. Such a nice place. Well Maryls when we left she said "when I work on Thursday I will call and say hello." Well she did! What a great surprise. Nice to make friends at this age, she also had said to me that day "wish you could stay longer and chat some more." this Thursday we will call her. Just a neat thing to have happen. Bye for now. Carlene :)

Resting

Hello Everyone, Hard to believe it is August already. We are still in Minot, N. D. at Matt and Rose homestead. Ten acres and beautiful views all around. We are camped on a hill and the winds are very warm and strong. They have had rain a lot this summer and cooler than normal. It feels like Washington actually.
The downward spiral of the economy does not appear to have hit Minot as we have seen in the other States so far, Washington ,Idaho and Montana. Gas 50 cents cheaper than Whatcom County. Food clothes camping supplies are about 30% less even in Wal*Mart. Lance and I went to stock up on supplies at Wal*Mart spent $68.00 and our cart was FULL! We were giddy with excitement,LOL.
We have been meeting a lot of Rose family and Matt's also,nice folk. Love to hear them talk about the horrible winter's they have here,this would be a place to live if not for the nasty long winter's.
We will be staying for a while, most likely a week or more then off to S.D. Badlands where we can be bad. :) Roscoe is doing great he has 3 other dogs to play with and 2 cats for me this is heaven,having all these animals to hug and hold. We have been so worried about Roscoe's hips the first day here he ran the 10 acres with the other dogs like he was a puppy!
Today's project is to dig up by the roots echinacea that is growing in the fields and dry for cold remedy's for this fall. Matt has an old school bus here that Lance keeps saying we are going to fix up so we will have room for all the stuff I brought! I just give him a look that dares him to, lol! Well for today that is it, as usual no worries very happy and health is fine. Miss you. Life is good and peaceful.
Do want to send a huge "WELCOME HOME" TO Chris and Kent a couple of our Army friends. Kent last week, Chris is in Washington for a week before he gets to go home. Not sure of the others yet. Hugs to all.