A parade a caftan and a carnival

I got a new caftan and Megan fell in love with it so I chopped off the bottom third and now it is hers.

She wore it for several days and nights straight.

She looks great in it and I may actually try to hem the choppy ends and make it even more wearable. Plus the neck line in adult and the sleeves leave her a little more exposed than she ought to be in public.

We had a lot of rain this week and so she spent a lot of time talking to Pebble under cars and trucks.

On Thursday the Mount Airy Volunteer Fire departments parade took place. We joined. It was hot and fast and energy consuming.

Kiernan hadn't wanted to do it but then said he would and since Megan wanted to we went.

As you can see he had fun for at least part of it. 

He was more than ready to go home. Megan on the other hand was ready to party.

The parade goes from the fire station to the carnival grounds.

Megan and Nana did the carnival.

It was the only dry day of the entire week and the ground was saturated and muddy and stank. Megan did not care!

She got to stay up past her bed time.

She got to ride rides and be sassy.

There was a full moon and Hawaiian Ice.

By the last ride she was sleepy and happy. She bragged to anyone who would listen that she got to stay up later than her brother and that she was only 6.

This week Opa had a successful heart procedure. Aunt Lore was out there for it and only got back from California at the end of the week.

She got to spend some good time with him and his garden and his life out there generally. She took this great pic of him with his roses.

Even though it was raining all week it was also hot and on Friday I brought a watermelon in for a work treat.

I claimed to know how to pick a good one and therefore suffered a fair amount of performance anxiety. It turned out great. A very respectable watermelon was had by all.

We were determined to get the truck working this weekend. I made an appointment at the mechanics for it for Friday morning but we just couldn't get it started.

David made this handy dandy tool to bridge the solenoid and he banged on the battery terminal in just the right way and we finally managed to get it up there on Saturday

Pebble was not very pleased to lose her under-truck home but she decided that any car would do.

I opened up the shed for her but she is not to be indoors even a little bit. She wouldn't stay even when there was lightning and high winds and pouring rain. At first I thought it was the gas smell from the lawn mower but she was hiding in the truck engine so probably not that.

The next door chickens have spent a fair amount of time checking out the shed though.

Ha!

David helped me with my Jorvik pipes project on Sunday.

The measurements are surprisingly thin and I was afraid of chopping off my fingers with the table saw. at 1.1 cm they just sort of drop through the saw blade opening but they have a fair chance of spinning up and spitting out as well. Yay David.

I also worked on my shaker. I ran into a let glue sit for 24 hours section and went back to the pipes.

I am going to try to work my way through this book of build your own instruments. If I make it I will have cool instruments and lots more wood working skills.

As you can see it is good that we made so many blanks for the Jorvik pipes because clearly we have a few kinks to wrok out in the process. 

I have ordered a vise for the drill press.

On Sunday morning I did a 5k.

It was local and fun and hard. I cut some serious time off of last year. On the other hand I didn't manage to crack the 30s but mount airy is super hilly and I have been training in the flat of Frederick. After the race I took Licia to our buyers agent to see about getting a house of her own in Mount Airy.

Then I stayed in the hammock for a while to recover.

Then I went to the parents orientation at Cub Scout Camp.

I hope it goes well.

Megan worked on an art project and told me that I was going out to much.

Oh dear.

Behold the front yard that will hopefully become Dad and Marys new home.

Here is the house. It is surrounded by fruit trees and has coffee trees/bushes on it. If all goes well the will close in mid August.

Future Hawaii trips here we come.

I went into Haven to bend the ears of the intrepid leaders about things I would like to try out soon.

If all goes according to plan then once the majority of members return from Pennsic.

Pennsic is my new thing to obsess over. You may be hearing more on the subject in the future.

You probably need to see this important video of Kiernan playing the recorder with his nose.