The past 30 days...

Been a little busy around here lately, hence no blog updates. 

Here's a little of what we've been up to.

We recently attended the year-end band banquet at a moderately fancy hotel. Below are some pics.

Here are 3 of the Directors involved with the band, meticulously arranging the band's winnings from this past year. The band basically swept all the competitions, bringing home a bevy of impressive hardware. It's no wonder the other schools in Texas have it in for Marcus. Nobody can compete on their level.

 Full-frontal hardware view.

Taylor was called up front and presented with numerous awards for her accomplishments this past year. There were only 4 other students out of the entire band that matched her accomplishments. NONE of them were Drum Majors, I might add.

Just so you know, Taylor has been selected as a Drum Major for the coming academic year. And here are some of her accomplishments this past year: Regional Wind Symphony, Regional Orchestra, Advancement to Area, Texas All State Band, Outstanding Soloist at Solo and Ensemble, Performed at Midwest in Chicago in December.

 Receiving awards.

  Receiving more awards.

 Receiving more awards.

  Receiving more awards.

We are currently fostering 2 puppies for the Humane Society. They were rescued by a college student, and turned over to us. It was a little challenging since they were so young. They required bottle feeding when we first took them in. It would have been much easier of I was currently lactating...but thankfully, I'm not.

 This is what they do most of the day.

 Ready to pee and defecate on anything that is NOT in the crate.

This wooden fence has been my project over the past 2 weekends. I'm adamant about getting rid of the cobbled together electric fence that has been our method of keeping the horses in the pasture the past 10 years. Lord knows I have absorbed more voltage than I care to remember – or even CAN remember, for that matter (the fence puts out 10,000 volts). I mean, who wants to instantly urinate or defecate in their pants when their leg accidentally brushes against the hot wire? I'm done with that. We have indoor plumbing and I'd prefer to take care of my business inside the house, not inside my attire, thank you very much.

After digging the first 5 post holes with my tractor, the damn governor decided to call it quits. Since parts are a little hard to come by for a 1957 Ford tractor, I had to dig the rest of the holes by hand. This is not fun, people. After about the 20th hole, that 10,000 volt fence and soiled drawers began to look like a pretty attractive alternative to digging more post holes.

We had rain last night which has suspended the fence operation this weekend. I was hoping to finish it today, but it's going to have to wait. Once this run is finished I have about another 20 holes to dig to get to the far side of the property. I'm trying to get the tractor running for that section. I'll post a few pictures of that effort the next post. Since the tractor is so old, it's not easy to find anybody who knows how to work on 'em. I'm a do-it-yourself kind of guy, so should have it back in the game by next weekend.

 I also stopped by a tractor show several weeks ago and got some advice from the old timers on fixing the governor on my tractor. I spotted this odd 3-wheeled tractor while I was there. Never saw one like this before.

Alissa is about half way through her summer internship at this point. She was quite proud of her participation in one of the latest Reinvention Dayton stories. She's having a great time. We're both very proud of her!

Until next time...whenever that may be.