First day of school,AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

 
Of course, that was dad making that sound.
My little girl is growing up, off to school, next stop Oxford.

And first day we all had to meet for the walk up to the school. So we had a pretty good parade going on.

Mom and daughter, in the parade line,  no tears yet.

 In front of 'The Classroom"

 'This is my spot.'

No tears from daughter, a few from mom and dad.

She had a great first day, and was in no hurry to leave.

This is interesting. . .

In today's global economy, there's no easy way to determine just how American a car is. Many cars built in the U.S., for example, are assembled using parts that come from elsewhere. Some cars assembled in the U.S. from largely American-made parts don't sell well, meaning fewer Americans are employed to build them. Cars.com's American-Made Index recognizes cars that are built here, have a high percentage of domestic parts and are bought in large numbers by American consumers.

F-150 is back; Toyota, Honda and GM still lead


The Toyota Camry topped this year's American-Made Index, extending its No. 1 status to four years running.Ford's F-150 landed by a photo-finish at No. 2, falling behind the Camry by fewer than two days of sales. The F-150 was once a common AMI leader, topping the index from 2006 to 2008, but lower domestic parts content had dropped the best-selling pickup off the list. With its domestic parts content back to 75 percent — up from 60 percent last year — the F-150 returns to the AMI for 2012.


Toyota, Honda and GM combined for eight of the AMI's 10 vehicles. Honda fielded two vehicles, the Ohio-built Accord and Alabama-built Pilot, while GM's related three-row crossovers — the Chevrolet Traverse, GMC Acadia and Buick Enclave, all assembled in Michigan — landed at sixth, ninth and 10th, respectively. Besides the Camry, Toyota's Tundra pickup and Sienna minivan also made the list. The Jeep Wrangler's domestic parts content fell below 75 percent this year, but Chrysler fielded another entrant in the Jeep Liberty. Like the Wrangler, the Liberty is assembled in Ohio.

Rank	Make/Model	U.S. Assembly Location(s)	Rank in July 2011
1.	Toyota Camry	Georgetown, Ky.; Lafayette, Ind.	1
2.	Ford F-150	Dearborn, Mich.; Claycomo, Mo.	-
3.	Honda Accord	Marysville, Ohio	2
4.	Toyota Sienna	Princeton, Ind.	6
5.	Honda Pilot	Lincoln, Ala.	-
6.	Chevrolet Traverse	Lansing, Mich.	8
7.	Toyota Tundra	San Antonio, Tex.	9
8.	Jeep Liberty	Toledo, Ohio	-
9.	GMC Acadia	Lansing, Mich.	10
10.	Buick Enclave	Lansing, Mich.	-

Country days. . . .

As you can see in the above picture, our morning started out a little rainy. Our first real rain in about two months.

So loading up for our day required umbrella's for going back and forth to the car.

We arrived up at Shelbina in time for lunch at Martha's, . . . .

. . . . where they were having a very busy lunch rush on a Sunday after church.

We met up with Great Grandparents who were celebrating 71 years marriage.

Way in the back over Great Grandma's shoulder is Grandpa Charlie and Great Uncle Cary.

Corn-dogs and fries.

By the front door of Martha's.
(Next time I want to get there for breakfast!)

Then out to the farm to visit and help Grandma with some hard to reach projects.

Laundry this time by the often posted old cellar.

Side porch, nice and shady.

Front steps.

Of course, no trip to the farm would be complete without a 'mule ride'.

Wife and Grandpa getting fishin' stuff together.

Out to the pond.

Pink practice reel to learn how to cast.

Grandpa caught the first one.

Fishin' buddies.

OK, this time you get to reel in Grandpa's.

One step closer to fishin'.

'Ok, but once it starts wigglin', I'm out of here!'

Reelin' in one for mommy.

'OK, this time I'll hold it till it is out of the water . . .

. . .and maybe I'll look inside it's mouth.'

We caught probably eight small bass in about 15 mins.

You never really think about the things your child may not know about that you took for being a common house-hold item. But I was caught a little off guard when daughter asked what these were.

She didn't know what a clothes pin was.

Or that women usually made the clothes pin bag out of an old dress and a coat hanger.

We told her how they use make dolls out of clothes pins also.

It just takes one generation for things to become unrecognizable.

That's one of the reasons we go to the farm.

After fishin' we headed to town for an Ice Cream Social at the old Methodist church.

Lots of folks on hand, getting out of the hot sun.
No one was in a hurry to leave.

Even local politicians shaking hands and campaigning.

Once again, a great day at the farm.

QS 349, a quick barn for today.

A local one, and it has made a couple of appearances here before.

Go UK!

What a year it has been so far. . .

and more to come.
UK has a chance of getting the third highest gold medal count this year.

and one of the best cloud painters ever was. . .

Eric Sloane

Cloudscape. . . .

With all the hot, hot weather we have been having, small thunderstorms keep popping up.
And after they pass through we are left with some wonderful clouds.

Hot summer days. . . .

Local barns.

And these are always fun . . . .

Shark attack. . .!

Past and present. . . kinda interesting.

Check out all of them here. . .

I hope this trend continues. . . .

"During the past 60 years, the size of American homes has exploded, but the trend is now moving in the opposite direction, proving once more that bigger isn’t always better. In 1950 the average American home size was 983 square feet; by 2009 the average home was 2,343 square feet—even as family size shrank. Finally, it appears people are rethinking housing size. "

Rethinking size. . .

This 450-square-foot British Columbia cabin is so comfortable its owners decided to make it their full-time home rather than a vacation retreat.


I know I would have to purge about 96% if of my things to make it work, but I love the idea.
OK! Maybe I would have to start with three cabins.

QS 348 - 'Headin' for Shade'

The hot weather made me think of this one.

Suppose to be 104 degrees today.

Made it. . .

I don't know where I ever heard it, or from whom, but I remember being told that if you got your first red tomato by July 4th  you were doing good.
Well daughter and wife made it, in grandma's garden.
We went over there yesterday and found one red tom.

This is not it, but it did look a lot like this one.
But, alas, ours did not survive the day.

It was the only one looking ready, but it was nice.

Ah, summer.

Wow! We loved it. . ..

We took daughter to see 'Brave' this past Friday and we all loved it.
The animation of people, animals and scenery was some of the best ever done in my opinion.
The textures on every thing in the movie were fantastic.
Merida's hair and how they did it was unbelievable.

My only wish would be that they had developed the story a little better to make a longer movie.

It seems like once it really got going, it ended to quickly.

For once they did a kids movie where the girl (or princess ) did not have to be rescued by a knight on a big horse.
Merida was a very strong individual and a good roll model as far as Disney Princess's go.

The Scottish landscape was very beautifully done and a visual pleasure. I only wished they could have used it more.

They could have done without the triplets. They didn't have enough to do and distracted from the rest of the movie. They were not played up well enough for comic relief, (although they did have a few moments).

The scenes with Mother Bear were fantastic.

Angus could have used a little more air time (right Bling?).

The witch was a little confusing, was she suppose to be funny or scary? Or both? Her hobby reminded me of all the rural chainsaw artists we see on back roads and Bass Pro. (You'll have to see it to get what I mean.)

But still, my biggest complaint was that it just wasn't long enough.

A visual delight.


And if ya love reading about stuff like this check out the book on how the movie was made.


Some of these books are real good, and some so-so.

This one is in the real good category.

The Art of Brave.

Franklin would be proud. . .

Read more. . . .

And if you can't make up your mind who to vote for. . . .

OK, I just love this. . .

For more reading. . .

Dry, dry, dry, dry, dry.

Got out to the cabin on the first, yesterday, and boy is it dry. Hardly any rain in the last three months, and almost a week of 100 degree plus.
Well, at least I haven't had to mow much (just once so far) this summer.