Pure Gold

I (we) survived the "Minnesota Move". Uncas and Sally are safely installed in their new home "Up Nort" eh? For a change, we had a fairly uneventful experience. The great weather, a couple of able bodied friends and Uncas' parents helped make it a relatively painfree project. Although, before leaving home, I did have an impromptu knee-to-floor encounter in our garage. It was probably just a Freudian Slip (or more of a Freudian Trip), an attempt to avoid any real work during the move, I carefully placed a folding chair right where I could uncarefully run into it on my way to the car. Since there was no one to witness the tragedy and I couldn't sue myself, it was kind of useless lying there for very long. I swore a little bit, (Another case where a thousand very colorful words is better than one picture) got up, and limped to the house where I accused the @%#$+&@%# squirrels of tripping me. After receiving a minimum of sympathy, I was told that I didn't qualify to go on the DL (Disabled List). So it was off to "The Move". As I said it was pretty uneventful and I managed to stay out of the way while the real workers worked. We returned to Fennimore on Sunday. Got home just before the foul weather arrived.

Monday we attended the annual "Amish Flower Auction" (the AFA from here on). Talk about a big deal. This was a chance to meet everyone who lived within a fifty miles of our town. Them Amish can work a crowd as well as they work the soil. The event featured every variety of garden flowers imaginable being auctioned off by some of the best Wisconsin auctioneers in three separate locations around a large barnyard. No small time, fast talkin', farm guys here. These were the top auctioneers in the state and they have their championship trophies to prove it. Anyway, money was flying like the dandelion seeds in my neighbor's yard. Little tiny Amish boys in their dark blue shirts, black vests and straw hats were toting flats of flowers to cars parked along the road in all directions. This allowed the "Shoppers" more time to bid for the "Blooming Bounty". They waved their little white bidding number cards as guys, who were bigger, huskier versions of the tray toting kids, held up tray after tray of future flower beds for all to see. The Amish ladies weren't standing by idly, they were busily whipping up burgers and brats as well as hawking fresh baked goods for the bargain hungry crowd. Just imagine the of the aroma of thousands of flowers mixed with the scent of hundreds of brats along with that wonderful Wisconsin "Dairy Air" provided by a few dozen Amish horses attached to those charming little black and gray buggies. After absorbing as much country charm as we could handle, Jo purchased a couple of trays of some flowers whose name I can't even misspell close enough for spell check to recognize. Here's a helpful tip to remember when attending an event, such as AFA, is that when you get your "treasures" home, they have to be planted, and SOON. Jo got her plants into the ground in a couple of hours but, I'm sure that there are still some women out there scratching away in the dirt around their yards while their hubbies are standing around with their Pabst Blue Ribbons and Brandy Old Fashions, shaking their heads and saying, "I tried to stop 'er". Meanwhile as you drive down the dusty country roads around the area, you can still hear, "ein$, zwei$, drei$, vier$, funf $" coming from the darkened little farmhouses. Next year I will try to post the details of the 2009 AFA for those of you who might want to take advantage of the great deals on flowers. It's a real chance to save a lot of money on plants but, at the price of gas, you may just want to buy your own greenhouse.(I didn't mention this but, there was also a BIG Amish Quilt auction after the flowers were gone)

Once again, I hadn't planned on a long winded narrative today.
But, this is, as the title states, Ronning Off.

Hopefully these "Arty" pics of a little visitor to my big deck
will be a treat for you bearing with me.