Fun 4th at our house

We started off the day with some squirrel shooting.  I did well considering I have old eyes.  Boy took two shots and decided to go play instead.  He'd rather target shoot because the target doesn't move.  He's eight and doesn't quite have the attention span needed to get better.  He just likes to know that he can shoot the bad guys if he needs to protect the family.  He also wants to learn to drive since it's so much fun.  Fortunately for me he still can't reach the petal.

Granddaughter got a lesson in washing clothes.  She's been looking forward to washing in a bucket for a while.  We got two buckets out and put the load of laundry into the bucket.  She put in a little soap and filled the bucket with water.  She filled the other bucket with water for rinsing.  We got the plunger out and she plunged the clothes for about 15 minutes.  During this time we talked about how we got the water from our well but in a real no electricity situation we'd either have to get it from our stored water or walk across the road (about 1/2 mile) to the neighbors pond.  She realized that the buckets of water were heavy and told me that we needed a cart to bring the water home.  Smart idea.  I wonder if I can get our Radio Flyer wagon back from son and that set of grandkids.  Probably not so I should pick up another one for our house.  The clothes were rinsed by using the plunger in the clean water.  I explained that if the clothes were wrung out well between the wash water and the rinse water that the rinse water would stay cleaner longer.  She wanted to know why we didn't have one of those old fashioned wringers.  Sorry, I don't now twist the clothes to get the water out.  After rinsing them she hung them on the clothes line.  When she finished she asked if she could change her chores from sweeping the kitchen floor to washing the laundry in buckets.  I told her no, she still has to sweep the floor but at any time she can wash laundry in buckets. 

The no-electricity game worked well until company came.  They did not want to play.  Daughter-in-law had to work so son came over with his kids.  Son, Army daughter, and son-in-law all hung out inside and watched a movie.  The grandkids and I still wanted to play no electricity.  We went out and played in the "pool", which at our house means the nice 8 foot stock tank that we bought last spring.  The water was probably around 90.  Just the way I like it, not even one hint of getting chilled.  The three year old was practicing his swimming, including keeping his eyes open in the water and kicking his legs.  The two year old had a good time too.  Both boys thought it was great fun to get out of the pool and pee on the ground next to the tree.  The older grandkids played swimming games and let the two little ones sit on their backs as they swam around the pool.  We were in the water for over two hours.  The tree is in a location that it gets shaded in the later afternoon.  Everyone had fun.  I then decided I had enough water and got my rocking chair and sat under the tree with my feet on the edge of the pool.  Absolute heaven.  An no electricity to boot!

It dawned on girl that we could use the pool water for the laundry and save our good water for drinking.  She's getting it.  Son wanted to know how much the pool cost.  He said that it was the same price as oldest daughter spent on their Big Lots above ground pool.  True, and theirs holds a lot more water. One also expects that pool to last a year or two and then the plastic will start to disintegrate.  Our stock tank will last years and years.  I think I'd rather buy a water tank for larger amount of water storage than a pool that needs replacing every year or two.

We are heading off to the local hill.  We hope to catch several different fireworks productions at the same time.  If not, well, nothing beats the Disneyland fireworks we saw last week anyway.  This will be fun because it's hiking in the hills at dark.  Happy Independence Day.