The weather was just about perfect this morning, so John and I took a longer walk--three miles. Our sore and stiff muscles are starting to recover and we both felt much better today. Hanna had called and asked us to come to the baseball games this morning, so following breakfast, we packed a couple of chairs, water bottles, camera and headed up to Clearbrook. There is a large softball complex north of town and that is where all the games were being played.

We spotted Hanna soon after we reached the ballpark and she told where everyone was playing. However, there was a slight problem--four grandkids, four different fields, and all playing at the same time. John and I just kept walking from field to field trying to be sure we saw the kids when they had an at bat and to hopefully see some of their fielding plays. They played three games each, back to back. We stayed for the first full game and then some of the second. Then we headed home as John still had grass to mow and trimming to finish up. Here are pictures of the kids batting--Rachel, Sam, Josh, and Hanna. They all can swing a pretty mean bat.





While John was working outside, I got the rest of the prints matted and framed. The only thing left to do is to put the backing on each picture. John will probably get to that tomorrow some time. I took a little time to check out the garden and the flowers. Our Tiger Lilys are starting to bloom and they are just beautiful.


John picked two more buckets of strawberries this evening and got them ready to freeze. After such a busy day, we spent a quiet evening just vegging out.

Every once in a while we like to get out of town for a day and since the weather was so beautiful, we decided to take a road trip to Grand Forks, ND. We took our morning walk, ate breakfast, made our list, and then headed off. Grand Forks is about 90 miles directly west of us on Highway 2, just over the Red River.

John and I took care of a few errands before we left Bagley and reached GF around noon. Our first stop was Burger King for lunch. We just can't resist those Whopper Juniors.

I have been working on getting photographs ready for the fair and needed a few more mats, so our second stop was Michael's Craft Store. I brought the prints along and John and I spent some time matching up mats and prints. I think we made some good choices, now I just have to get everything in frames.



From Michaels, we went to the Columbia Mall where we did some birthday shopping. Two of the grandkids have birthdays in July so we thought we would get a head start on the gifts. We found a cute pair of shorts and a T-shirt for our grandson.

The last stop on our shopping trip was Sam's Club where we stocked up on cleaning supplies, soap, and a few other miscellaneous things to tie us over for the next few months. It was then back through the downtown area, over the river, and back into Minnesota.



We did make one final stop on the way home--McDonalds for a hot fudge sundae. After unloading the car, John decided to do some more mowing. While he was doing that, I started matting some photos and putting them in frames. I have two completed. Hanna just called and asked us to come see their baseball games tomorrow morning so the photo matting will probably have to wait awhile.

Finally--a morning with sunshine!! Last night was the first in several that there were no thunder storms or rain showers. We were up and out by 7:00 a.m. for our walk. Both of us are a little stiff from our 5K on Saturday. I think its from walking faster than we normally would--we took our time this morning. Hopefully in another day or two things will return to normal.

After breakfast, John went down to the shop to finish up a chair leg he has been making. We needed to replace a cracked leg on one of our Texas chairs. With that job out of the way, he wrapped an underground wire in some mesh to help protect it from the gophers and then reburied the cable. Hopefully the gophers will stay away from it so our electrical service doesn't get interrupted again.

Today I just did some chores around the house--changing the sheets on the bed and doing some laundry. We had a call from one of our Fort Clark friends--Wallace Inge. He and his wife, Becky, are currently in southern Minnesota and are planning to be up our way in mid July to attend a wood carvers festival. It looks like they will be camping in the Bagley Park for a day or two.

I have finally settled on most of the photos for the fair. I ordered some larger prints online and then went into town and printed a few more. Now I have to get the mats and frames sorted out. Looks like a road trip to Grand Forks to check out some matting. Amy called this evening to let us know that they were home from their trip to California and that they had a wonderful visit with Susie's family and saw some beautiful parts of the country. Hopefully we will have another sunny day tomorrow.

We had some strong thunderstorms with heavy rains again early this morning and the sky was still overcast when we got up. Following breakfast, we headed off to church. By the time the service was done the sun was shinning and it turned out to be a beautiful day--the humidity was finally getting lower.

We made a quick trip home to change clothes and to pick up the salad and strawberries we prepared for today's lunch at Matt's. The church's new pastor was moving today with the help of his family and Sara invited them and John and I for lunch. We ate a delicious meal of hamburgers, hot dogs, brats and salads. As usual, after eating, Sam and John had to get in their basketball game.


Since this weekend was the Clearbrook Centennial and All School Reunion, that meant a parade. We headed into town with our lawn chairs and found a good spot to watch all the action. There were floats for the different classes along with the fire trucks, antique cars, tractors, and much more.
The kids enjoyed picking up all the candy that was thrown by the parade participants--even John got a hat full.







When the parade was over, we headed home. We spent a quiet evening catching up on email and watching some baseball.

Today was the big day--the 5K Walk/Run race. We set the alarm for 6:00 a..m. so we would be sure to get up on time. The kid's race was set to start at 7:45 a.m. with the 5K starting at 8:00 a.m. John and I ate breakfast and left home around 7:00 a.m. The weather was overcast with heavy clouds and fog. By the time we got to the school, the fog was beginning to lift. Since we registered in advance, we just had to walk in the school and get the numbers to pin on our shirts.


When we got back outside, the rest of our family had arrived and were getting set to go. Hanna, Rachel, and Jenni ran in the kids race. I think their distance was about a quarter mile. Hanna came in second and Jenni, fourth. Not sure where Rachel placed, but all three did a super job. Try running that distance without stopping. Rachel is left in the green shirt, Hanna is in the bright blue shirt, and Jenni is next to her in the red.



After the kids were done their race, it was time for the walk/run. John, Sam, John and I did that race. John and I walked while Sam and Uncle John ran. Everyone did a great job, including me. My goal was to complete the walk in under an hour. I did it in 51 minutes and 41 seconds. John and I also won an award as the oldest walkers in the race. Sometimes it pays to be older. Here is a photo of all the prize winners.


It was a lot of fun doing this race; especially with the grandkids. As I was coming to the end of the race, they were all lined up cheering me on. It was great! Here is our running/walking family: Sam, John, Carol, Hanna, Rachel, John, and Jenni.


After the road race, we all went to the annual Breakfast on the Farm. This is a complimentary breakfast of pancakes, sausage, ice cream and strawberries, made possible by the many local sponsors and organizations. Each year it is held at a different farm--usually a "century farm". Today's breakfast was held on a farm down the road from Matt and John. Just about everyone in the county attends. It was especially well attended this year at this weekend Clearbrook is celebrating its centennial and all school reunion. Following our meal, we spent some time visiting with folks we hadn't seen in a while.

It was a rather lazy day again--the humidity was very high and the clouds continued to linger with a threat of rain. We spent the evening watching the Transformers movie. Tomorrow will be another busy day with church and reunion parade in Clearbrook.

Thunder storms returned during the night and we had clouds and showers during the morning. By noon it was partly cloudy skies with very high humidity. With everything so wet, John spent most of the day in the shop working on a special custom order and was able to get it all finished. He still has one more custom order to get done.

Today was laundry day for me. I had started it several days ago, but never got the last few loads done. In between switching clothes from the washer to the drier, I worked some more on picking out pictures for the fair. So far I have two decided upon--that means matting and frames matched up with the photos.

All in all, it was a pretty quiet day. Tomorrow is the 5K race, so it's early to bed tonight.

Strawberry Jam and Visitors

We had a very pleasant surprise when we read Kit and Jerry Bertelsen's blog this morning. Kit said they were leaving Wisconsin and heading to Bemidji, Minnesota, to visit some friends. John asked, "Are we the friends they are coming to visit?" This was news to us as I hadn't seen any email from them. I then remembered that Jerry has a different email address for us, so I went into my gmail account and, sure enough, there was a message from Jerry saying they would like to make a stop in Bagley and visit with us this evening. He had included his cell number, so I gave him a call. Jerry told us they would be in Bagley by mid-afternoon so we invited them for supper.

The rain showers of this morning cleared out, so John went back to picking more strawberries. I spent the morning cleaning and cutting them up and getting them ready for jam. I also made more shortcake and some macaroni salad for this evening's supper.

After lunch we started on the jam. We have a pretty good system--I do the cooking while John gets the jars and lids ready. It only took us about an hour to make two batches of jam. This will give us enough strawberry for the year.



With the jam finished, I got the kitchen cleaned up and did a little picking up around the house. Kit and Jerry arrived about 4:30 p.m. We took them on a little tour around the grounds and then showed them the shop and our house. It was a relaxing and enjoyable time catching up on news from Fort Clark and hearing about their travels. The evening ended all too soon and we had to say good-bye--we'll being seeing them again in the fall. Have a safe trip and a great summer!!