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Man, there is no doubt that summer is here! Still no complaints. I would take the mid 90's over winter any day of the week. Still, it does make it hard to get much done.

Saturday was Tolono's fun day, so the kids and I were in the parade. Broderick drove the little tractor that Dad made years ago and pulled Bridget in a wagon. I walked along beside, just in case something happened, but they did a great job.

After the parade, we were hoping to go swimming, but there was some thunder in the distance so the pool closed just as we got there. We ended up going to see Madagascar in the theater. It was a cute movie and I highly recommend it to anyone with kids. I have no doubt that we'll end up purchasing it when it comes out.

Afterwards, we had just enough time to get down to Tolono for their fireworks. They set them off in two places at once, which kinda sucked, as we could only see 1/2 the show.

Yesterday, we got up too late to make it to church, so we went down to the pancake breakfast in Tolono and then spent the day at the pool.

Last night, the kids slept out in the tent all night, which was fun for them!

I got these pictures from a co-worker of mine and put them into a slide show. If you have more like them... send them to me!!

And you think your job stinks?

Other things like this are available on my downloads page...Brett's Downloads

These are pictures from Broderick's Baseball, the old tractor that Dad made, pictures from the Tolono Fun Day, pictures from the prairie, and more!

The Barnhart's Pictures!

Historic FarmDays 2005

For anyone interested in old tractors, this is a nice show close to home.

Pretty much, other then ball games, we didn't do squat this week. :)

Bridget was in Girl Scout camp all week at Homer Lake. It ran from 9 to 3 every day. We've done it every year for the last 3-4 years, but these year she really enjoyed it and she wasn't ready for it to be over.

Last night, we set up the tent out in the yard and the kids watched a movie and tried to spend the night. About 11:30, Broderick came in spooked from the night noises, but Bridget spent the whole night out there by herself!

This morning, we went to a few garage sales which was fun and then I spent a huge chunk of the day moving a few thistle patches. In truth, I mowed a ton more then I expected it it took me a good 5 hours... but I think I got them all.. at least in the center area. Mowing doesn't kill, but it does prevent them from going to seed.

Jim Zimmerman has been out almost everyday this last week spraying thistles in the northern prairies. Spraying is more precise then mowing and should kill them. The danger is if you miss one, then suddenly you have a 100 more to deal with next year.

Hopefully though, if we keep on top of it, we can bring them into control, but it will mean keeping a watchful eye on it for years to come.

I am still hoping to get some work done on the house this today... but most of it is gone.

Holly has been working on our bedroom and I think we'll be ready to paint in the next few days.

The website is doing well... I haven't had anyone sign up listings on their own yet... but I am getting about 400 hits per day on average and I am adding all the listings I can find, so I have about 70 active listings right now.

I found this on Carrie's blog and found it interesting...

PostSecret

This is pretty neat

Inside Tornadoes Multimedia @ National Geographic Magazine

Man, time goes by fast!

My website is coming right along. It is not getting a couple hundred web hits/day which is great, but I have been adding most (ok all) of the listings myself.

I have a postcard that I've been sending to people who have their homes for sale in the newspaper, but after sending about 50 of them, not one of them has listed their house. So, I am changing my message a bit for the next batch and we'll see if that does better.

On the brighter side, I've had a couple of people interested in advertising on the site.

We've been spending a ton of time at the ball fields these last 2 weeks. Bridget and Broderick are both doing well, although I need to spend more time practicing with them on batting. Broderick has some nights where he hits great and others where he misses everything. Bridget is pretty consistent in her batting (in a good way).

We joined Windsor swim club again this year which means that we've given up on the idea of getting a pool this summer... maybe next year! The temps have been nice and warm these last couple of days which is great!! Although, sleeping at night has been a bit tough... We may have to turn on the A/C soon.

Trent came down and visited last Thursday and Friday and spent the night on the farm. It was good to see him. Seems like everything is going pretty well for him, although, as always, he wishes he could come down more often.

Trent also brought down the old tractor that Dad made before my time and Broderick has been having a great time driving it around. I had to fix the clutch, but now it runs great. We are thinking of taking it into the Tolono Fun Day parade!

This last weekend was Homer's 150th B-day (the town not the Simpson). We went over on Saturday and saw everyone, which was a lot of fun. I bought the book Ray Cunningham wrote on the history of Homer as well as 3 books written by Alvin Decker. He also had some paintings there which were interesting. I need to find out how much they are.

Sunday was a nice lazy day... we didn't do much outside of the farm, but we played the whole day on the inflatables and sprinklers (and I got a nice sun burn to prove it).