Exploring...

Today Claude and I shut out the world (for the most part) that is our day-to-day lives. We left our humble abode at 10am and returned at 5pm. Our goal for the day was to find things we were interested in seeing locally that we had not seen before (Exploring) and just have some time together.

I confess right now I am Martha in the story of Mary and Martha and the Savior. I'm the one that is constantly busy with busy stuff like Martha was. Claude and I are retired, that is true. What is also true is that 'retired' does not equal sitting on the front porch drinking lemonade. I even commented to Andie this week that it is a good thing we each have our own car so we can go our different directions and do our different things. Life is just VERY full of STUFF.

Today, we tried to eliminate as much of that day-to-day STUFF as we could and just enjoy ourselves and 'explore' our area a bit.

Our first stop was breakfast at McDonalds. Now, that was NOT the exploring part. I just love 2 plain biscuits and a Dr. Pepper from McDonald's for breakfast when we travel. Claude made sure we had this great start to our day together.

Then we were off to McConnell Springs. This is where Lexington was founded in 1775. I saw a great program on Public Television about this place. Claude participates with Blue Grass Pride. They are a group that picks up where things like Green Peace and all the more radical, large scale green seeking types leave off. They really focus on smaller projects in our Blue Grass area of Kentucky. Through them we get bags and orange vests to do clean-up days in Sadieville. We learned about making rain gardens to collect rain water in spots and grow natural Kentucky plants in those rain gardens. That is the kind of thing they do best.

Well, two of their meetings Claude has attended were held at McConnell Springs. They had a guide take them along the path that runs through this 26 acre historic and natural park. Today would be my turn to become familiar with this area and learn more about the history of Lexington, Kentucky.

First...the history in a nutshell:

• June 1775 - William McConnell and his kinsmen from the upper Monongehela River region had a crude cabin at this spring where they intended to obtain land grants and create a new town. They received news of a 'battle' two months earlier in Massachusetts where the Colonial militia stood up to the British regulars. They named their settlement 'Lexington' after the battle they heard about. This name would stick over the years.
• This area would eventually be purchased and become the Cahill Farm where a creamery would be built.
• This area also had a dam built at it and the Trotter Gun Powder Mill was built to provide gun powder for the War of 1812.
• Over the many years all these farms and other buildings have worn down and then been torn down and the possibilities of this being the industrial section of Lexington grew.
• At one point they were going to fill in these holes of water to build over them.
• Someone, some very wonderful someone, realized this was a place of great historic significance and set in motion the preservation of this little area.
• Today it sits in the middle of the industrial section of Lexington. But when in the park you wouldn't know it except for brief glimpses of the railroad track and a building in a couple of place.
• Today there is a path running through the 26 acres and it is covered with trees. There are markers discreetly placed to keep you apprised of where you are and what you are seeing. A brochure can be picked up at the Visitor's Center with a nice map on the back and pictures and numbered descriptions of the places you are seeing along the path.
• Basically there are three water points of interest. They are Blue Hole, Boils & Final Sink. These are places where the underground water has made its way to the top. They are considered 'artesian springs'.

Claude assured me I would enjoy taking pictures here. I did. The lighting was awful in some spots. But I'm happy to try to take pictures of things I find of interest. So let's go on a pictoral walk through McConnall Springs. Some will be pictures of vegetation, some will be pictures of historic things.

As we entered the Visitor's Center, they were making wooden bowls. We walked thru this very tiny Visitor's Center and then we hit the path. These are pictures of the path.

All of these interesting plants and berries are native to Kentucky. There is a concerted effort to clear non-native growth from McConnell Springs. The plant with the red stems and the black berries reminded me of a plant that grew in Louisiana. When I was a child and we visited my mother's parent, we would pick these berries and pretend they were food. We never actually ate them. But they were fun for play.

The last picture I labeled as 'Kentucky Kudzu'. It is not really Kudzu. But, if you drive in the south and find where Kudzu has taken over trees and hills, this little vine will remind you of that. We have some on our hill and it constantly threatens to take over flowerbeds Claude built for me. Hence, after seeing it covering the ground here and growing up trees, I'm gonna call it 'Kentucky Kudzu' from this point forward.

All of the previous pictures were taken as we walked from the Visitor's Center to Blue Hole. Now let's look at a few pictures of Blue Hole:

While Blue Hole appears to be a small pond, it really gets its color from being very deep. It is believed Blue Hole is where William McConnell actually had his camping site.

Now we'll walk the path from Blue Hole to Boils:

The rock wall would have been the foundation for the Cahill Creamery that once occupied this area. The large 'elf' peeking around the tree is Silly Claude. The pointy place in the rock is where the water can be seen a bit as it flows underground. Way Cool. The rock face is so we can all remember what Kentucky soil is like. Just a little top soil, a bit of clay, then limestone layer upon layer. When I complain about growing things on our hill in Sadieville, this is why it is difficult.

We are now at 'Boils' in our stroll through Lexington history:

'Boils' is the second spring at McConnell Springs. It is called Boils because of the action of the water emerging from the underground conduit. During heavy rains (obviously we aren't having any of that lately!!), a column of water rises from this spring 24 inches high. The water here is really about 55 degrees and not 'boiling' at all. It is the action of the water, not the temperature, that gives this spring its name.

We'll continue our walk down to Final Sink, the final spring in this series:

The yellow flowers in these pictures were covered with bees. They were totally unconcerned at my presence. I tried to take several close-up shots but all were blurry when they came off the camera. The one purple flower stem is a single blossom like the bed of them growing under the limb of a tree. It was as if someone planted flowers in a flower bed at home so they could cut be and used in vases inside their homes. They were just beautiful flowers.

Final Sink is the third spring we would visit:

Final Sink is a spring you walk down to. The first picture in this series is the Final Sink. The second picture is the rock wall that was part of the dam built here to provide water for the Trotter gun powder mill. The third picture is the stream bed flowing into the Final Sink. The last picture is another of the 'Kentucky Kudzu' growing up the base of a tree.

We have now walked over and beside the underground water system that is McConnell Springs. As we walked back we would walk through some of the acreage and see of other items of interest. The first would be the rock quarry used to get the rocks for the fences, dam and building foundations seen in previous and future photographs.

We followed the path to an huge old Bur Oak tree.

I want to remember that all these stone fences were built by Irish and Scottish emigrant masons from 1830 to 1833. These stone fences are all historic treasures and are found all over this Blue Grass area of Kentucky. They are protected by law. I just love this part of our landscape.

The second picture is Claude walking the 'strait and narrow path'. Well, that is what came to mind and I took this picture to remember that thought.

Now let's take a look at the huge, old Bur Oak tree:

This was a beautiful old tree. It almost looks like the 'tree of life' in the picture. I wanted to get a feel for the width of the trunk as you look at it. Before we left I asked Claude if he would go back and stand by it so I could get the perspective of its size compared to my hubby. Claude decided he would be a 'tree hugger' for this picture. Silly Claude!!

Our next destination in this walk through Lexington history was the foundation of a barn.

Claude said when he visited before, there was less undergrowth and you could see where the stalls were.

We passed another rock wall. This one had one end exposed so you can tell how they are constructed. At the base there is actually two walls of rock leaning against each other. This makes the rock fence sturdier so it will last longer without collapsing.

 

We have had hot, dry weather for a long while this summer. It has turned our 'blue grass' brown. The water level here at McConnell Springs was low. On the news this week they said that University of Kentucky's Agricultural Farm was growing corn. The heat and dryness have created an interesting phenomenon...the kernals of corn are actually swelling and popping. It is not 'popcorn' they are raising. It is corn to feed people and animals. Good evidence of the heat and drying effects of the weather could be seen in the vegetation as we did this walk. Anywhere the sun was getting to things, and sometimes in the shade, leaves were withered. I took this picture to remember how hard no water and high temperatures can be. 

We had one more stop to see as we returned to the Visitor's Center. They have built a pond with rock filters for the water to enter the pond and they are letting it grow into a natural wetlands area. It is in process and looks like a great pond with an observation walk around one side of it. But the plants will grow over time and it will fill in. It'll be fun to watch the changes on future visits to McConnell Springs.

Here are a few pictures of the walk to this man-made wetlands area and of the actual pond and beginning wet-lands development.

  

The first picture is red stemmed plant I enjoyed so much on this walk. The second picture is walnuts growing on the tree limbs. The purple flower is a weed, pure and simple. It is probably the one causing the allergies I'm struggling with right now. However, it IS purple and I do love it as I see it growing in mass on the hill sides and in the fields this time of year. If you look close at the yellow flowers, you can see the bees working so hard to gather the pollen. The last picture is the pond with the very beginnings of growth around it. Should be a neat place as it fills in.

Now we headed back to the Visitor's Center. We found a few feeders that I wanted to remember for possible use in our yard. One is a feeder to hold corn cobs. The other is a bird feeder but you could hang hummingbird nectar from it as well.

This concluded our first 'exploration' of the day.

Our next stop was to have been Weisenberger Mills. This little family owned business is on the Elkhorn River in Midway, Kentucky. They grind all kinds of flours from wheat, to corn, to other grains, etc., etc., etc. I've heard about them often and have wanted to locate the store and check it out. I did my Internet research this morning and knew where to find the store. Off we headed. We found the store but it was closed. Probably because of the holiday because they have Saturday hours. At least we know where to find it now.

Then we were off to find our third place to explore. Several years ago I found out about Boyd's Orchard near Versailles. I had it on the grid for our Camp Christensen that year. They have a Friday evening fish fry and there is a play land so that seemed like a great ending to an day trip for the grandmonsters. We didn't get to do that possibility because of all the other things we did, but I kept the place and interest in it in my head.

Today we located Boyd's Orchard. We were driving through Versailles, both of us remembered we saw a sign for Boyd's Orchard on one of our other drives thru that city. We were not finding the sign. Then I remembered I carry a Blackberry with Internet capabilities. I quickly checked it out and found the roads we needed to be on. As it turns out we got to the turn to Boyd's Orchard right after I told Claude the roads.

We love Evan's Orchard. We'll still probably go there before we go to Boyd's Orchard. Boyd's Orchard has a larger store and cafe area. Their playland has some different things for kids to play on. But there are so many similarities it really doesn't make sense to drive the distance when Evan's is closer. However, if you were closer to Versailles than we are, Claude and I would highly recommend it as a fun outing. We did purchase an apple pie, apple donuts, and some Vidalia onion & cucumber salad dressing.

Claude had one request for the day. He wanted a steak dinner. He was thinking we should go back to Cattleman's Roadhouse in Frankfort. We were just down Highway 127 from there so we pointed the Jeep in that direction and it found its way to Cattleman's Roadhouse. We both ordered well.

By this time my allergies were in FULL bloom. My eyes were itching out of my head, my nose was running. I was (and still am) a scary sight. But they let us in and we did enjoy our meal. When we left, Claude turned the A/C on in the Jeep to try and keep my sneezing at a minimum and stop my eyes from itching.

This left us one more place to find and 'explore'. Claude had heard about the Elkhorn Winery in Owenton, Kentucky. We set off to find this place. As always, when you are looking for something, it seems to take forever to drive that distance. The return trip is always much quicker even though both the going and returning are the same distance. I was keeping quiet about the distance we drove and finally Claude said, "I thought we would have seen it by now. I haven't seen a sign in some time." I grinned because I was thinking the very same thing. Out came the Blackberry and, sure enough, just as we got close to it I found where we were on a map. It is just a lot closer to Owenton that we thought.

This is a beautiful building, on a hill, with a great view. They really have just a restaurant. Didn't find a tour. But the restaurant is set on the highway side hill. It is a log structure that is really beautiful. It has a huge patio area on the outside that is a covered verandah (all logs). You can sit out there to eat and enjoy your wine with the view of the vineyard below. Here are a few pictures of the vineyard. I took 3 and if you could put them together you would have a panoramic shot from the verandah of the restaurant. The grapes were all covered with netting to protect them. It reminded us of seeing the bananas in Israel and Costa Rica being covered to protect them on the stalk as they grew. 

 

We have been told they hold concerts in the pavilion. It would be great fun to have a nice dinner on that deck and then listen to the music come up that hill. What a great combination of good food, music, and enjoying being outside. Who would want to spoil that with wine and cloud your enjoyment? Some would, but not me.

Well, this completed our 'exploration' day for just the two of us. It was fun finding these things we have wanted to learn more about. We enjoyed our day together. It was fun to just share each others company and learn together.

Aging...

"There's a lot of lead in those Golden Years."

That statement was made by President Gordon B. Hinckley who lived long enough to say that with actual life experience to back it up. I turned 60 a month ago and I'm feeling and observing in my own life some of this statement.

Tuesday morning Claude and I went to Georgetown to the funeral service for Ray Sowers. He was a friend from Church. He was a regular attender and had a place he always sat in the chapel. He had some dementia and other issues as he finished his time here on earth.

I played the organ for this service. That gives one a different vantage point to the goings on and the things people are feeling at a funeral service. The organ sits at the front of the chapel on the stand where the podium is. When not playing the organ, I usually just slide off the bench and sit in the choir seats. From the point and I can see all the people except the ones from which the podium obstructs the view. You can watch people and observe their facial and body expressions. I'm sure they can see mine as well.

There was only a handful of family at this funeral. Ray was older than me and had not attended Church for some time because of his health issues. He had a faithful home teacher who gave a wonderful eulogy at the service. Our bishop also gave a very touching talk about what he termed the '3 Step Program' (pre-mortal life, mortal life, & death with life after). Since Ray's family were not members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon), Debra Kumar selected hymns from our hymnbook that would have been in a protestant hymnal for the opening and closing hymn. Then Debra sang a special musical number, Amazing Grace. It was just a very nice service, about 45 minutes long, and just the right touch in words and music.

I sat in the choir seat and pondered a bit on my parents and their closeness to this funeral process for them. Then I remembered there is no real timeline for this. Strange things are afoot sometimes in life and I could actually pre-decease them. I felt comfortable again with my wish for me to just have a prayer at graveside instead of a full-blown funeral service. I find myself very matter-of-fact with regard to death and burial and funerals. They can be a difficult and painful thing to talk about and/or deal with. But being so near it and being basically a very practical person in my life, I've determined to just be honest with myself about this final process of our mortal existence.

Tuesday afternoon I was to have visited a lawyer regarding some of my parents personal affairs. She had to postpone that until Wednesday at 11:30am. It was fine but threw my schedule into a spiral. I had a reception with Claude Tuesday evening at a horse farm out by the Kentucky Horse Park. I had my Homemaker's Club meeting Tuesday morning that I would now not be able to attend. With the change in schedule, I needed to shift gears and just couldn't seem to get that to happen. After all, I had my stuff packed and by the door for other events in a certain order. I had lists made to purchase and accomplish things while in Georgetown at certain times.

After the funeral Tuesday, Claude picked up his prescription at the pharmacy and then took us to Pizza Hut for lunch. My Caesar salad and breadstick lunch did not set well on my tummy. We came home and I laid down to rest a bit. Being restless and not settling into any nap, I got up and went to my computer in the basement. Sat there the rest of the day. I could hear Claude snoring and knew he was enjoying a great nap upstairs. I went up at 5pm and told him I really didn't want to go to a reception that evening. He said fine so we settled into an evening at home. Back to my computer until bedtime.

Tuesday night I slept thru the night for the first time in FOREVER. No tossing and turning, no trips to the bathroom, just sleep. I woke up Wednesday morning and was amazed. It was a while before I grasped the fact that I really slept through an entire night. I am my father's child when it comes to not sleeping easily. That, and as you get older, it just is a fact you don't sleep as well. So sleeping through the night was a wonderful, welcome treat.

I got up on Wednesday and I felt great! Really great! No worries about the lawyer visit or all the other 'to do's' generated by caring for my parents. Just a wonderful rested soul.

My visit with this lawyer was very pleasant. She is a nice person and really cares about our situation. I left with some very good advice with the problem I came to her about as well as a few extra suggestions for other areas of their care I had not even thought of.

I treated myself to lunch at Arby's. I hit Kohl's and spent the Kohl's cash I had on Papa  two new pair of pants and a few other things. Then it was time to be at the nursing home to sing with Papa and discuss the events relating to my care of him and Mimi.

Back to Sadieville and my hubby. Claude and I sat in the living room and had a long chat. It was a pleasant chat about my day, his day, and possibilities. We talked about getting older and how be both feel about this beginning decade for us both in our 60's. We will plod on through them with as much direction as we are capable of. We'll find some fun things do to, see and visit. We'll experience some heartache. We'll learn a few things more. I mean really...is that so different from being in our 20's. Our personal package may be a little more out-of-shape and grayer but in our hearts and heads are still that same 19 year old girl and 20 year old guy that determined they would be together for eternity and are working day-by-day to make that young vision a reality. And that my friends is what real life is all about.

Air Conditioning Isn't For Everyone...

This weekend Claude did what we usually do when we are leaving the house for a few days...he turned the temperature to a higher degree so the air conditioner would not kick on as much with no one in the house.

We got home about midnight Saturday night and Claude immediately dropped the temperature on the air conditioner to our normal temperature while I check phone messages. He did note that the temperature was way up in the 80 degree range. This was a lot hotter than what he left the air conditioner set for.

Ususally we begin to feel the change in temperature quickly. We did not feel that happening. We headed on to bed and thru the night it didn't cool off like it should have. By Sunday morning we knew we had a problem.

We headed off to Church and didn't get home until about 3pm in the afternoon. It was sweltering. Claude tried breaker switches and looking at the air conditioning unit outside. Nothing seemed amiss from what we know to check.

Sunday evening we were still at 85 degrees in the living room at 11pm. We had all the windows open and all 4 ceiling fans upstairs going to try and circulate the air.

Amazingly, we slept fairly well. During the night the temperature dropped to a more comfortable range.

We got up this morning and Claude called the air conditioning repair people. They assured us they would come out this afternoon.

Well, our cheerful repair guy showed up about 5:30pm. He and Claude discussed what had happened and what Claude had checked. Then they headed outside to look at the unit on the side of the house.

A bit later Claude came in with a bemuse and amused look on his face. He came into my sewing room and said, "You are NOT going to believe this." Now, knowing we have a repairman and a broken air conditioner, I begin to see HUGE dollar signs.

Then Claude informed me something had made a nest INSIDE the air conditioning unit outside. Whatever it was took the mulch from the beds along the side of the house and fixed up a nest that wrapped itself around all the wires and things. Claude said I really needed to see this. He also informed me the repairman had gone to his truck for his camera. I grabbed my camera and headed outside with Claude.

I couldn't believe my eyes.  This is what I saw.

There is a little hole at the bottom left corner with a red wire running into it. This hole opens into the big unit sitting on the concrete slab. There are some holes in the bottom of the big part of the unit so that rain water can run on outside the unit. We believe our little critter came in one of the holes in the bottom of the big unit when it was cold, worked its way up the top and found the hole into a warm spot with all these wires. Then it made repeated trips to gather the mulch from the beds along the side of the house to make a nest. The little guy didn't know he was doing this around 240 volts of electricity.

First our repairman removed the nest.

Then he found 'The Critter'.

Yes, that's right folks, we had a mouse in the control box of the airconditioning unit. Somewhere along the line he (or she) stepped wrong and zhzhzhzhzhzhzhzhttt...fried mouse!!!

Our air conditioning repairman just stood in the blistering heat after working all day in that heat fixing air conditioning units and said to Claude, "Well sir, you have just made my day!! I've never seen anything like this in my 12 years of working on A/C's."  He shared several stories of larger critters and bugs in various places. He had NEVER seen any of these make a nest in the control box before.  I'm sure in the A/C world this will be a great story to share and have braggin' rights to.

The capacitor was broken, a little work and $331.69 dollars later, we can now have air conditioning. This is an expensive little mouse!!

So..."What do air conditioners & mice have in common?"  Apparently...not much!!

Bugs, Birds & Burgers...

This weekend Claude and I were going to watch Hayden and Bailey a little for Andie and Michael. We left Friday morning and did a session at the Louisville Kentucky Temple, had a quick lunch and then headed to LaGrange, which is only about 8 miles from the temple.

Hayden was in school. Andie and Bailey were out with the Mom's Club at the Speed Art Museum. This gave Claude I time to get into our grubbies so we were ready to play.

It wasn't long before Andie and Bailey got home from their outing. Bailey was very happy to have Ma and Pa in her home when she got there. She had her lunch and then I headed up to get her ready for quiet time. Andie had a meeting at Hayden's school.

I got Bailey down just in time to head to the bus stop to pick up Hayden. He is in Kindergarten this year. This was great fun for Gramma to watch the little guy get off that big old bus.

Hayden was also really happy to have Ma there to pick him up. He is a wonderful little creature and is always FULL of words when you see him. There is so much new knowledge he needs to share and other knowledge he needs to be sure you remember. We had a very chatty walk to the Marx home.

He knew his routine and went right to it when he got home. I reviewed his back pack while he had his snack. We watched one short show and then he headed up to his room for a bit of quiet time.

This gave me a few minutes to use Andie and Michael's computer to check eMails. Claude got a quick nap.

Then the mini-Marx's woke up, Andie got home and the house was a bustle of activity.

Hayden proceeded to vacuum the family room.

And Bailey and I went outside to play while Andie fixed dinner. Claude tried to catch up on all those news magazines he gets that he was behind on reading.

Eventually Hayden found his way to the back door and Bailey sensed his presence and we made our way back into the house.

Andie prepared a great meal with a pulled pork BBQ that had corn in it. My, it was tasty. She will share that recipe I'm sure. It came out of the cookbook she has that tells you how to take one piece of meat, cook it up and then get 3 meals out of it. Excellent meal.

Somewhere in the evening, eagle-eye Hayden looked quickly out the back door and saw a caterpillar tucked in the handrail by the steps into the back yard. How that child can find such tiny things I'll never know but he consistently does that.

All I can say here is that this little caterpillar would 'fulfill the measure of his creation' over Friday and Saturday. The joy and wonder brought into Hayden and Bailey's lives by this little guy was a delight to watch.

During this last year Andie purchased a kit to raise butterflies and the kids went through the process with them and then let them go outside when they turned into butterflies. Hayden has a caterpillar that is named 'Fluffy' in his kindergarten class they are watching. So finding this little lovely on the back rail was just great fun. He was officially named 'Mr. Green Caterpillar Marx' by the end of Friday.

Hayden and Bailey found their bug catching stuff and made a home for their new pet.

Then our little friend stayed in the house for an evening of observation and joy.

Poor Bo was left to believe he had slipped down another rung in the family hierarchy.

I love this picture of Hayden really pondering Mr. Green Caterpillar Marx.

Hayden would check the little guy out every direction he could.

Hayden demonstrated how the caterpillar makes a 'J-hook' when it is turning into a chrysalis.

And when it was time for bed, Bailey pointed and Hayden read a poem from his kindergarten work to their caterpillar buddy.

The caterpillar would be placed on the back steps in the bug catcher for the night.

Saturday morning Mr. Green Caterpillar Marx was brought right back into the house. Hayden gathered new greenery and some sticks for the bug catcher. Then he carefully arranged everything in the bug catcher for maximum fun for his little green pet.

During the morning Hayden was getting ready for a haircut appointment. But there was still time to exercise this little green pet before giving him some quiet time.

Then Hayden gave one last straigthening of his new pet's living quarters. Andie helped Hayden and Bailey prepare some sugar water for him. A milk jug lid was placed in the bottom of the bud catcher and a medicine dropper was used to fill it with the sugar water Hayden & Bailey made with Andie's help. Then it was quiet time for this little green friend.

After Hayden and Michael got back from hair cuts we headed to Waffle House for a late breakfast. Well it probably wasn't late by the hour technically but we had been up for a bit. Bailey had been asking Michael all week to take her to Waffle House. This little lady was ready for her waffle. She wolfed it down in short order. Hayden did the same. We played Johnny Cash on the juke box and let him "Walk The Line" one more time.

Then Michael headed to the Marx home to cut the grass and after that to referree soccer and the rest of us headed to a park with a lake and ducks and geese in it. We had hamburger buns left over from the MusicFest food and we were going to feed the birds.

This is a pretty little lake and we walked around part of it. There is a series of bridges making it very picturesque.

Then it was time to get home for quiet time for the Mini's. Andie gave Michael tickets to dinner and music at a winery for his birthday. They were going to head out for that in the evening and Claude and I were staying to watch Hayden and Bailey while they had a 'hot date'.

We got Hayden and Bailey and Claude down for naps. Then Andie headed up for her nap. Michael was out referring soccer games. I got a bit of time to catch up on eMails.

We determined we would take Hayden and Bailey to McDonald's for dinner and to play on the playland equipment. It doesn't really take a lot of arm twisting to get little kids to go to McDonald's.

No visit with Pa (Claude) would be complete with these two little ones without Claude telling them "You're a pest!" and them returning "I'm not a pest...you're a pest!"

We left the Marx home at 5pm and returned home around 6:30pm.  The little ones were worn out and tummies were full. We had a quick show to slow down, then bedtime routines, then quiet for Claude and Sandi.

Andie and Michael returned about 10:30pm. We chatted a bit and learned what a fun evening they had together. Then Claude and I hit the road back to Sadieville. We got home about midnight.

And that is Bugs, Birds & Burgers in one weekend.