Beaver Round-Up Fireworks

We took Jasmine to see the fireworks last night, and they didn't start until after ten! We are all so tired today. Jasmine enjoyed freezing outside attempting to take pictures of the show. The boat harbor was full of cars watching it all. It was fun. We also tried taking a picture of us in the car. Yep, we are getting pretty good at this.

Sled Dog Racing

During our Beaver Round-Up we had our sled dog races which start and end at the Lily Pond. I was playing with features on my camera and wanted to share a movie here. Anyhoo, the second team to leave the chute on Saturday proved how well the teams listen to the musher. At the start they had a dog come undone. The team stopped, and when the comman was given the lead dog started them again. In my video footage you can see the lead dogs looking back at the musher, while the other dogs are waiting for a command from the lead dog. Pretty neat. The still picture, which I will share here, is of an old-timer named Blunka who has been racing since before Phillip and I were around. He is really fun to watch.

Dilly Capers

The other night I was pleased to accompany Des to Dilly Capers, the talent show and "Little Miss" Beaver Round-Up contest. We went late since we were serving a spaghetti dinner at the firehall to raise money for the Youth Center. Phillip went to a pinochle tournament, or something, so I was left to entertain the little one. Thanks to smokers we were able to get seats during the break. Des wanted to take pictures of the contestants so I let her use my camera. I would show her photos here, but I think one will represent the whole. Thus, the back of a head... The other picture I took pointing the camera at us as she sat on my lap, she didn't know what I was doing. I love her face! She cracks me up.

Playing Catch-Up

I just need to quickly play catch-up on here. Here is a picture of Phillip working on his ancient Arctic Cat that sat collecting leaves for the last six years. By compiling parts from another one he was able to make one that runs and has a track! After about five days of work on it he can take it out and it only quits every once in a while. It also is still lacking brakes. Guess what else? I have yet to ride on it! I am not sure I am missing out though.

Aside: Since this picture was taken last week, we have a path cut to the deck that has three foot sides of snow. So he fixed it in time for the biggest snow fall of the year.

I am a Lumberjack (and its OK)

Sometimes your days are so busy you forget to change your shoes. And since I haven’t been keeping up with my blog, you can imagine the state of my feet. However, I don’t feel too guilty since I haven’t received much feedback on the site so I suspect I am only doing it for myself. That is fine by me! (Shoot, shortly after writing that Rebs came in and said “You need to update your blog! I check it every day, you know!”

Beaver Round-Up has started and I am very excited about it. Phillip and I will have a busy schedule, but it will be great. We are volunteering to help raise money for the new Christian Youth Center through a spaghetti feed, a cribbage tournament, and who knows what else. Tomorrow I am in inservice until 1PM – then I get to play for the entire weekend!

The only amusing story I have to tell for the week so far was going to help Phillip with getting wood. He has been gathering and cutting wood to sell to make money. Jobs are kind of tough right now and no one wants to hire a fisherman right before fishing season starts. Anyhoo, he keeps popping the tire on his trailer. (Duh, don't overload it!) He had help getting all the giant logs out of the forest. The last load of ten trees was on it so I went and helped him. First we had to unload some of them, which was quite easy. Then we had to fix the tire, a task that required going to three businesses just before closing time to find a tube and then to his Grandpa’s to fix it. Getting the tire back on the trailer was a chore as well, and one I gladly let him do on his own while I huddled in the car trying to stay warm. Finally we were ready to pull the first load home. No problem. Phillip suggested I stay home while he went for the last load, but I put on my snowpants and insisted I could help him. We all know that I am unnaturally strong for a girl. We arrived back at the logs that evening and I tried to help him reload them. Let me just say that as strong as I think I am, I discovered that night that I am a wimp. I was a better anchor on the tree than lifter. If he could swing one end up, then I held it in place, he could run around to the other side to lift it. You can imagine that he was huffing and puffing in no time. Unfortunately, I actually made one giant log fall off the trailer right after he loaded it! I was determined to help him get at least one log on there. Thank goodness he was patient with me. I thought he would lose his temper, I was waiting for it, but he was fine about it. He even made a joke! I think he was happy to have me along even if I didn't help as much as a man could. I guess I am better than nothing - haha.