A Festive, Soggy Fourth

Every year for the 4th of July my parents' friends, Carol and Ken, throw a cookout on their farm. We usually grill and feast next to a beautiful spring-fed pond on their property. This year, however, it rained steadily all day long. So we had cook-in instead, which was still very lovely. The food was yummy; the company was entertaining; it was an all-around nice day.

During a brief break in the showers, we all went outside to see the animals and prove to ourselves how un-farm-savvy we city folk are.

Moments after this photo was taken the rooster jumped straight into the air and thumped Will in the chest with his feet- a move straight out of one of the Matrix movies. The rooster hit Will hard enough to knock him down and left some pretty dramatic bruises on his shoulders. I guess I shouldn't have encouraged Will to get so close to the rooster for photo purposes. Remarkably, Dundee the farm dog ran right over, grabbed the rooster, and shooed him away. We're sending Dundee a little 'thank you' treat.

Will recovered pretty quickly and got busy feeding the goats "bamboo". It was actually leaves from nearby trees, but for some reason Will is under the impression that all wild animals eat bamboo.
Ken and Carol's son, Jeremy, showed us all how to milk a goat. We didn't get to drink the milk, though, because at the very end the goat stepped in the bucket. Darn.

Will had such a rich, full day that he didn't make it to the end of their lane (or the end of his cookie) before he fell asleep.

All the big fireworks shows were rained out, but later we had our own front yard amateur display: giant sparklers, little spinners, and shooting tanks.

The front walk looked like a lilliputian war zone when we were done. We celebrated the truce with old fashioned rootbeer floats on the front porch.