Pottawatomie County

Last night we traveled north to the tiny town of Onaga; this is where the Pott County Fair is held every year and has been since the dawn of time.
I'd never watched the "Miss Pottawatomie" contest before, but Brig's gal Paula was a participant so we wanted to see her perform. It was very nice, held in the high school auditorium with really well-executed paintings of old cowtown buildings as a backdrop.
We'd heard that since the dawn of time, an Onaga girl usually wins the crown, and 5 of the 8 girls were from there. All 8 performed a cute dance with barefeet, jeans, and cowboy hats. They all answered a question--Paula was contestant number 5 but the announcer accidentally called her by the wrong name and she was very tactful when emphasizing that she was 'Paula...!"
All the little ladies had spent an afternoon of questions/answers with 3 judges--NOT local.
Most everyone's 'talent' was either a dance, or an oral skit, but Paula sang a lovely operetta song in Italian and she had graceful arm and hand movements and natural poise. I think she'd won a state award with this song at school, but I hadn't heard it yet.)
Later, the announcer read comments about the girls' achievements while they walked in their evening gowns and Paula had some pretty impressive items... besides the numerous activities/clubs/extracurricular things she belongs to, she'd been to KU to Girls State for a week last month. She had been voted "Supreme Court Justice", some type of "Judge" and had also taken a bar exam and received a 100%. She'd also designed the blue formal she was wearing and beaded it, and also the 'Elizabethan' type-opera dress. (The pic up top is a fake crown on an old photo: Paula and Brig wore maroon to a school dance.)
As the judges left to put in their final votes, an awesome comedian came on stage and had us laughing til our sides ached--he was quite clever.
At the end, we waited on the edge of our seats...what was going to happen? Another Wamego girl ended up winning a Congeniality scholarship, an Onaga girl won some type monetary certificate too, then Paula ended up winning the overall title, so it was really fun!
So, this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, she will have to hand out ribbons/prizes/medals to all of the Fair contestants, so this means from 8:00am to late-- in a livestock pen, stepping around the poo!
Baaaaa.....We will go watch the parade on Sunday at 1:00 and collect candy for the little kids, wave at Paula, and bake in the sun!
Congrats!

CMM or Motorcycle Steve

Central Mechanics Man came by the yard a couple times yesterday—catching me pacing & yakking on my phone, then hammocking and yakking on my phone—guess that looks pretty lazy!

When Steve rode by the 2^nd time, not in his truck, I could imagine: the freedom of the blacktop guiding his way, the wind through his hair, exposed to the sun….aaahhh the joys of a Harley, I mean the Riding Lawnmower puttering on by on a return journey from the fixit shop…ha ha!

Motorcycle Steve informed me he was going home to mess on his computer, thus this blog. Yes CMM lives a block from the river, a block from Messiah Man, but I haven’t had any reason to mention him before, other than the fact that he doesn’t tie his shoes at 5:30am and I have seen him on the lawnmower in his yard, performing a daredevil hairpin turn on his extremely steep hill, nearly spilling himself into the street….ha ha again!

I should mention that many ‘normal’ people that do appear at the gas station in the wee morning hours do not have their boots or shoes tied—this must require a certain amount of caffeine before one’s spine is ready to take on the challenge of flexing down—and rising in an upright position again. I don’t know….I slip on flipflops.

Now, when writing a blog, they require illustration to hold your interest, so I was going to put on this Harley pic of my favorite rider and the Harley logo reminded me of an incident at Walmart this morning. (If you go fairly early, it’s not ungodly busy and I usually enjoy Gay Greeter Man gush ‘I jus luv yore haaiir!’. I feel sorry for this guy because I wonder if he has many friends.) I digress.

Over by the health/beauty aids I saw a large African American man talking on his cell phone—confused—standing by the feminine hygiene products. This amused me until he suddenly turned around and said, “Hey! I need help! Uh uh…what are ‘WINGS’? My girlfriend wants….” Etc. I was probably turning red (he wasn’t) and I just pointed to a box. Then he wanted to know which ones were heavy duty (in my mind I wanted to laugh and say ‘Ugh. The ones that feel like you’re wearing a diaper?’), but that would be too much unpleasant and tacky information, so I just pointed at another box while he read her the text…

Here's some better WINGS:

& another pic of Billy the God of Chopper's Inc..... (having trouble posting pics, hope his gorgeousness is here....)

Do CANADIAN Painters...

sing?
Dan, a painter from Canada, used his creativity to blog about Wamego KS. He posts interesting views here, although it looks as though he's out of commission at the moment (click his pic):


So, do professional painters in Canada SING?
Do they sing at 2:00am?
Do they sing while skipping, strolling, dancing (weaving!) down the middle of a dark street?
Do they belt out Judy Garland's "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" in a deep, rich voice?

Just checking.
Sigh. I realize that's another 'Oz' reference, but it can't be helped...one more of my neighborhood's true little oddities.
Let me know when you do the same!





(This moomlight painter DID remain clothed.)

Almost Married....!

A couple pics off of Sandy's camera--I don't have PhotoShop at the moment and don't want to ruin quality, but I think they are so lovely! Of course, I'm quite smitten by this darling couple! Just turn your heads sideways for the moment.

Raspberries and the G-String

I know you're thinking those two subjects are not even REMOTELY related, but yes folks, they are! I CAN combine yet another whacko with the prickery brambles of raspberries while writing another blog...

Landing in the lawn on my stomach in my spectacular touchdown dive, I managed to save a bowl of black raspberries from spilling as I freed myself from the clutches of a particularly viscous clump of cane. I was laying there in the crabgrass thinking, “Oh crap!”, because I had just spotted a ton more berries from my new angle—ankle high, looking up. This year these canes have gone ape-shit (or hog-wild, to be a bit milder) and instead of the usual waist and shoulder high heighth , they are way taller than my head and so thick that I might find Sleeping Beauty back in there...or the Prince!

I learned from past experience that wearing a tank top and shorts are NOT the way to fend your way through a patch unless you want to look like a lacerated fool, so I usually don army pants, long sleeves, and heavy shoes, which tend to trip me up.

I want these berries for the final Raspberry Liqueur wedding cake, so I was working up my resolve to head back in to get the lower berries. (Don't squat down in the midsts of thorny brambles until you tie your hair up too, unless you want to experience what a mammoth felt like in the La Brea Tar Pits.)

My dad gave me some raspberry shoots years ago; his patch was linear, tied up, trim and neatly controlled. I was thinking of this when I remembered an incident from several years ago...NOT all the plants were from HIM!

An old house down the alley was going through a restoration and part of the interior was torn down to 2 x 4's. The back yard was a wild mess of weeds, rotten lumber, and raspberries. Naturally, I had to 'save' the plants from future demolition, so I asked a worker if they cared whether I dug them up. “Hell no! Take what you want!” I said I'd probably walk over after lunch...

I returned a short while later with a wagon and shovel, but only thought it polite to let someone know I was back, just in case they'd changed their minds. I hollered at the house because I heard banging and then finally stepped inside-- to a freakin' bizarre scene: A lone, blond guy was standing there in a g-string, sweating up a storm, installing rolls of pink insulation between the walls... I gasped and wheeled around, frozen-- didn't have a clue what to do or think!

Oh my God! I think he asked if I was 'uncomfortable' and I didn't actually turn back around, yet still carried on a conversation while pretending to be nonchalant.....Oh my God! To think that someone would be messing with itchy insulation all over their bodies...I wondered if he really was just plain hot like he claimed, or if he did it on purpose to freak me out. I think it was for the reaction, which I wasn't about to let on that I thought anything was wrong and give him that smug satisfaction...

Well, I dug my plants, wheeled them home, then forbid the kids to play out back for the rest of the week.

Ahhh well, these raspberries are awesome anyway, despite the pricks!

Prairie Springs Cottage

Prairie Springs Cottage is a lovely restored barn that is now on-line! Here is the link:
Prairie Springs Cottage

I can see the corral behind Barry in the background and Nate's cool driftwood sculpture gracing the upper wall, along with Bailey's cow and calf in some of the website's photos. How cute!
Sandy and Barry Clay have created a little piece of heaven here...
What a wonderful endeavor! I will certainly pass on the word.

No Time.... June 28th is nearly here!

Stress! I can't get anything done right! Would like to blog more, but haven't the time. Today and yesterday I had to pick and pit cherries. Tonight I made 2 10" rum cakes and a 6", and 1 14" chocolate stout cake. I need 2 more of those. I already have several carrot cakes in the freezer and 3 lemon layers. Soon the raspberries will be ripe and it looks like there might be tons. Then apricots. So one of the cakes will be whatever fruit is ready when Bail comes back.
Big Cake/3 tiers:
Bottom-- deliciously heavy Chocolate Stout w/ 3 chocolate cream layers.
Middle-- lemon zest with tart lemon syrup and 3 lemon curd layers.
Top-- Carrot, 2 types, 3 cream cheese layers.
Other cake:
Tortuga Rum (you CAN'T stop eating this!)
and probably some type of raspberry Amaretto

A nice friend is making a white sheet cake for those non-adventurous types!

Most verything is wrapped and frozen and then I must start the glaze/filling/frosting stuff.
And finish the DRESS!
(When I thought we might be in a tornado the other night, I wrapped it up and took it to the basement with me-- by God, that's one item that will not get sucked out the windows!)
Table decorations possibly Thursday...Flowers-- Bailey can send 100 orchids from Hawaii for $16.00! yeah!....Punch?!