It's time to play Catch Up ! or is it Ketchup ?

ok... I've been awol long enough, and probably like you, can't believe how fast this summer has been flying by. I've been busy with the usual.... family ( a new grandson was added ! ☺ ) and the old one ( 6 ! ) was here for over a month ...having fun with Grandma and Grandpa...taking swimming lessons, sailing with Grandpa..... quilting..... the band..... So now, I intend to get back to blogging, and will share some pics about our adventures.

You may have heard in the news... we have still been having flooding in North Dakota... seems every year now there is a problem, and not only has it been affecting Fargo, ( not so much Grand Forks anymore, because after the 1997 flood, they fixed that ! ) but now Minot and Bismarck, Valley City, not to mention many smaller towns, and Devils Lake, which just keeps rising and when it gets much higher, will find it's own outlet and be disasterous for much of the state. Anyway... this leads into a little event that we put on, our Not so annual USFEST. We have had a couple in the past, up at our other Money Pit ( at my old hometown) where we are fixing up an old 1917 home ( more blogging material......) . Well, in June, we have our annual Missoui River Bluegrass Festival on, where else..... Cross Ranch State Park on the Missouri River. You know, the one Lewis and Clark and .......was it Sea Bisquit ? the dog..... anyway, we are a big Lewis and Clark state... I digress. Well, the Missouri River, being one of the new areas of the state to flood now, was just reaching it's crest when the fesitval was to take place, so therefore, the festival had to be canceled. Well... what to do ? So many of us had taken time off of work to attend, so we still wanted to get together, and started looking around for a centrally located campsite that had openings and would let us jam all nite long. Well, there wasn't too many campgrounds around that weren't flooded, and of course all of them have a noise curfew, so I offered up our little place to have it. We just happen to have put up some full service campsites up there a couple years ago to accommodate all the wind generator workers ( we are now in the middle of a wind farm..... more blogging material for later....) so we had the perfect set up. About the noise ordinance ? Well there isn't one. There are only about 24 people in town and 26 when I and the DH are up there, well, that is an estimate... but we did double the population and made some pretty darn good music ! It was a great time and I hope we can do it again sometime ! !

This is Mel from Canada. He plays some awesome mando, guitar and banjo ! And he has the nicest wife Sheila.

Here are some of my friends from around town. I think we made Bluegrass lovers out of them ! They're asking when the next USFEST will be......One of our small town sunsets...

kind of a dark picture, but here we are jammin' all night long ( gotta love a small town). We put up a canopy to keep the sprinkles out, and of course have to put up the icicle lights for ambiance !

John and Joe.... father and son banjo pickers ! Gotta have a bass player ! we were lucky and had 4 in attendance !

Here we are in the middle of a bluegrass song. I'm the one on the far left - kinda in the backround....to my left are Linda and Terry, members of our band, Spiritwood Creek. You can see the back of another member, Carrie, she's the blonde with the teal dress on... check out the next picture....

Carrie modeling an old dress we found in the house ( it was my parent's home ).. I think it may be my Grandma Johnson's... and is probably from the '40's or 50's. Let me tell you, it is in awesome condition and the style is really cute.. it could be worn to any formal function today and still look in style. I only wish it fit me ! Picture taken inside the house. I am not too attached to the paint color, so it won't be there much longer. The stairway will, however !

ok... that is enough for now... if you have time, do an internet search on the Minot flood, it is just devastating. Minot hometown boy Josh Duhamel ( Vegas, the Transformer movies ) is hosting a benefit there in Sept. It is a Black-eyed Peas concert- he is married to Fergie . Hope it raises LOTS of money for the flood victims !

well... I am off to a Bluegrass festival in Minnesota ( more blogging material ) this weekend.... don't you think that this is all I did this summer.... I had already quilted more quilts by May of this year than I did all of last year ...... and of course, that is more blogging material, yet to come !

have a great weekend everyone !