4th of July country style

Well summer is half way over and we have survived our first 2 months living in the country,  And  I finally now where at in the country we call it 'Dinkley". Apparently our property sits on the border of two of the smallest towns you ever saw delta and Hinkley and this left the local mail officials scratching their heads for weeks.  Now these small town people aren’t that hard to confuse anyway but when your bedroom is one town and your kitchen is in another they are completely lost.  Which probably explains why it takes an envelope that’s coming from a few miles away weeks to find your mail box?  After much deliberation, a few calls to the state’s main post office, a case of Tylenol and determining which postal carriers junk yard truck had the least amount of miles  they  finally gave me an address and a mailbox. I like our mail carrier though he has only hit our mailbox a couple times and always  has a milk bone for our pup who meets him at the mailbox to shred our mail.   The garden is growing but barely.  It has been a battle between me, and the  rabbits, mice, crappy soil and scorching desert sun but  I’m winning with the help of a semi-automatic  22 caliber rifle , a psychotic  ½ Australian  Shepard ½ blue healer pup and 100 feet of hose.  I’m excited for the fall harvest , should hopefully be enough to fill at least 2 or 3 jars. 

It has been pretty hot but the house stays fairly cool ,  and the reservoir is just a few minutes away with plenty of shade and shore side tables it’s a great place to cool off and there only a few beer cans floating in there and only has the faint smell and color of the dairy up river.

We just celebrated our first Fourth of July here and it wasn’t to bad.  Sweet little old farmers who smell like their cattle gathered eggs and slaughtered their  pigs and made breakfast in the park. Served with silver dollar…..make that copper penny  pancakes and fresh squeezed orange juice kept on the only table in the sun right next to the milk. Right after  breakfast was the parade where most of the business on main street we nice enough to provide rusted lopsided chairs to keep you comfortable why you watch the parade. It was a nice parade and lasted almost a whole hour and consisted of every farm tractor in the county, every horse in the county, the local cop, the volunteer fire fighter, and the high school kids…all 5 of them.  At the end of the day there was a demolition derby the third one this year. This town celebrates everything by smashing up cars or havin a rodeo….probably cuz that’s all they know how to do. They are very resourceful to.  Just because you just beat the shit out of your car doesn’t mean its not still a good car…you just get some new plastic and duct tape for the windows and your good to go for months and years…..you can even reuse them at the next derby.  There is no junk yard here and the local auto part store carries lots of duct tape, super glue and bailing wire…all other parts are special order.

But that’s pretty much how all the businesses in town are. They’re all open different days of the month except the laundry mat which is open every day and also doubles as a gossip center for the old timers and a used clothing donation center if you take your eyes off your clothes for more than 3 minutes.  There are 2 grocery stores 1 of which usually has some fresh food at one time or another.  There’s a small café called the rancher that actually smells like a ranch and 1 little 2 bar stool tavern called curly’s   ran by a little old bald man in bib overalls and is very popular with the 80+ locals who sit and take turns for hours singing karaoke to Buck Owens which sounds similar to the same sounds heard at the local dairy.  Mother nature helped the derby this time. The only thing better than smashing up cars is doing it in the mud.  Drivers spit mud all over spectators hanging on to metal  fencing and sitting on metal bleachers…..not even flinching at the big ol bolts of lightning flashing overhead.  They were careful not to get mud on the fireworks that they were lighting with their cigarettes. The volunteer fire fighter was there for safety and the show was a success.  Andy by the time everybody got back to their trucks, 4 wheelers, and horses and got home the rain had them all cleaned up and they didn’t even have to take a bath.  Hope you all had a fun 4^th of July to.