2008 MN State Fair

For lack of anything better to do, we went to the State Fair yesterday. The weather was absolutely gorgeous! I think it is one of the few times I've gone to the fair where the outside temperature was better than the air-conditioned buildings. Cool and breezy.

Of course, it was mandatory to go see the piggies. Piggies are the cutest things. These piglets had only one thing on their minds....FOOD.












I feel sorry for this cowboy! I guess ol' Bessie didn't want to be milked today.












We took one of the sky rides back from the far end of the fairgrounds, which gave me a great opportunity for an overhead shot of the antique tractors.











I also got a nice view of the ferris wheel from the sky ride.












We finished our day at the fair by buying our first-ever bucket of Sweet Martha's Cookies. There was a bigger crowd in front of that building than anywhere else in the whole fairgrounds! Maybe it's because she winks at you as you go by. Who can resist a cookie that winks at you?


Techie Corner
I took three shots of the Midway ride. Out of the three, I liked this one best. I like the fact that the Cuckoo Haus is still in focus in the background. I also like the silhouettes of the people.
Shot at 1/10 Sec @ F5.6, ISO 200

Busy Bee

It's almost 90 degrees today, and boy, does it feel hot in the sun! This little buzzer doesn't seem to mind, though.

Techie Corner
I used my +4 close-up filter and my 50mm lens. Manual focus, hand-held, and the bee was moving, so I'm amazed that the bee is in focus!
Shot at 1/500 Sec @ F2.8, ISO 200

Fireball Hibiscus

This is the second year for my Fireball Hibiscus plant. Unlike the tropical variety, this hibiscus can survive a Minnesota winter. And the flowers are HUGE! This flower is almost 10 inches across!





The plant has gotten a lot bigger this year. Which is remarkable because it gets cut back to the ground each year. All this is new growth for the season. I love the pretty flowers. Each flower opens for one day and then it dies. But there are plenty of buds on each stalk, so there is at least one open flower every day.







Here is what it looked like last year. It looks positively puny in comparison! This year it has pretty much engulfed that whole corner. I wonder how big it will get next year? Hmmmmm.

Duluth Tall Ship Trip

We rode the motorcycle up to Duluth yesterday to see the Tall Ships on display in the harbor. These were two of the three ships on display. They look big in the picture, but they didn't really look big at all when we stood next to them. Maybe they seemed smaller because their sails weren't out. The one on the left is the Pride of Baltimore II . The one on the right is the US Brig Niagara. They are replicas of 1812-era topsail schooners.

Notice the truly authentic 1812-era radar near the top of the right mast.

I want to know how they keep all those lines from getting tangled up. If only the cords behind my computer desk were this neatly organized!

Here's a close-up of some of that rigging.

Being a port city, Duluth has numerous water-themed flotsam and jetsam strewn around town. This young female creature looks like she is about to get soaked.

We saw these nifty little Whizzer motorbikes while we were there. You can find out more about them at their website: http://www.whizzermotorbike.com/index.html


We also met up with a nice Ventureriders.org couple while we were there and had lunch together. (I should have gotten a picture of them too!) All in all, it was a very enjoyable day away.

Fence Post #3

We finally have the toughest side done! Yippie! This side of the fence was all at the top of a hill.

That's not to say we haven't had problems along the way. June 21st we were going to get a lot of this side done. However, after finishing a section of fence and taking a Gatorade break, I happened to look up at the last remaining mature tree in our back yard...















Maybe it isn't apparent enough in the above picture, so let me show you from another angle...
















WHOA! Our tree was splitting in half!















Not only had a large portion already split, but a crack continued down the trunk another 30 inches past the split! The wind was blowing pretty hard that day and we watched the two halves bounce in the wind. Visions of it splitting to the ground and falling on all the wrong things, danced through our heads. My husband made a beeline to the garage to get his trusty little chain saw. We figured half of it would be easy to get down, but even with a line tied on it, it didn't fall quite where we had hoped...











It fell right on a little maple tree (which you can't even see!) And the chain saw got bound up in the split when the branch fell. Note the circular saw at the base of the tree. He had to use that to get the chain saw out of the tree. Once that limb was finally on the ground, all the branches had to be cut up and stacked in a huge pile. (This is the one advantage I could see to living in the country... We could have lit that pile on fire and be done with it.) By the time we finished all that, we were pooped!

The rest of the tree is trickier since there are so many things in the way, including power lines. We decided to hire a tree service to deal with that. But first, Xcel has to come out and clear the branches away from the power lines. I won't hold my breath waiting for them!

But this weekend, nothing stood in the way of getting that side of the fence done. On July 2nd, I hauled the mountainous pile of branches to the compost site. They fought me all the way! Afterward it looked like a wild pack of gerbils had attacked the insides of my arms. Mean, mean branches! My husband took July 3rd off to work some more on the fence. The 4th we were on hiatus because of a very enjoyable BBQ. And on the 5th, we finally made it around the corner. (Maybe "around the bend" would be more appropriate! We'll be glad when this project is finished.)

It's all down hill from here...thank goodness!