Longest Day Challenge

 

Dad, Dancer and Spark got up to see the sun rise.  There are a few things I think just a father should do with his children and watch the sun rise while mom sleeps is one of them.

 

 

After eating breakfast at McDonalds they went fishing.  They caught seven nice big fish but, didn't bring the bucket with, so they all went back in the lake.

 

 

They got back home around 9:00 a.m. and Spark went right out to the camper to take three hour nap.  Nikki, while she looks like she was up to see the sun rise, is just lazing on the couch in her normal dog fashion.

 

 

Excited by all the fish they caught in the morning we went back that night to try and recatch them.  A dog fish that Dancer excitedly reeled in.  It is all dirty because it fell in the drive and then it took a little chasing to get a good hold on it.  Dog fish are not really a food, I suppose if you were really hungry you could eat it.

 

 

The bait station.  Spark isn't all that interest in the actual act of fishing, he likes to come with and bait hooks and take off the fish.  Dancer is our true fisherman, she always catches way more than the rest of us.  I think she has so much success because they can sense that she doesn't eat them.  On the other hand, the family is lucky they don't have to rely my fishing skills for nourishment.  I have a license solely so I can legally hold the pole. 

 

We left the PWA just in time.  As we were driving out, the sky opened up and the rain started to fall like it was being poured out of a bucket.  No sunset for the longest day challenge.When we got to our house the rain hadn't started yet and we were able to get inside and close all the windows before it started. 

 

 

We had enough fish for a snack so we cleaned them, fried them up and enjoyed them right away.  11:00 p.m. is not too late for eating fish. 

 

 

Mr. Fluffles was seriously hoping this had his name on it.

 

Dancer caught this bullhead and we decided to keep him and see how he tasted too.  I remember my aunt Loretta use to go out at night and fish for these ugly buggers, they were her favorite fish.  We cleaned it up and I have to say, in the future we will be saving them, she was pretty tasty.

 

The longest day then turned into the shortest night.  Once it started raining it didn't stop.  We went to bed because it looked like a normal rain storm.  At 2:45 though we were awaken by the electricity going on and off, on and off and everything beeping when it would come back on.  It did this for about three times and then we lost power.  I got up to find flashlights and see what was happening.  What was happening was that our basement was getting wet.  We have a low spot outside the door and it comes up over the door jam.  So with the wet vac right by us, but no power to turn it on, we started to scoop and mop water.  Thankfully right about then the rain stopped and we only had a couple of buckets come in.  Outside it sounded like a tornado was coming through, that freight train sound, and the trees were whipping back and forth. Thought we should try to find a local radio station and it sounded nothing was mentioned for our area.  We sat up about another hour and watched.  By about 4:30 I prayed for safety and went back to bed.  I don't know how long it lasted but in the morning we had a tree down and about a bazillion branches.  We have a couple more nights of storms forecasted so we are going to wait with the clean up until after all this bad weather leaves us.  We are very fortunate, a lot of people in the area still don't have power back since Friday morning and it could take as long as Monday or Tuesday in some places.  Ours was back on by the time we go up.  There was also a couple houses that burned from lightening strikes.  And another positive note - the garden got watered!