Chasin that Neon Rainbow...Livin that honky tonk dream...

And I guess chasing that neon rainbow worked out real well for Alan Jackson....he has arrived in Clayton with his yacht.

He is not here to entertain, he donated several antique boats to the Antique Boat Museum for auction this weekend. Thanks Alan!!!

A birthday cake on the table for me...with 10 pretty candles ablaze. I'll share it I will with family and friends, oh birthdays are wonderful days!!

Tuesday night Betty had a small family get together for the family to celebrate Emma's birthday. Salt and I decided to take the 4 wheeler as it was a beautiful evening. We took the shortcut through the fields and fields of beautiful Black Eyed Susans. There are so many beautiful wildflowers this time of year!!

From Pirate to Princess....Emma got all dressed up, but decided to take advantage of the fact that her mom let her sit on the couch to eat her dinner (due only to the fact there was a shortage of chairs). She is enjoying her favorite dinner, grilled wild turkey dinner!!

And of course she had to show us a few of her new dance moves while we were singing "Happy Birthday".....God forbid this kid ever just stood still...

When Salt and I were driving home, the sky was FULL of cloud formations. We played the old childhood game of finding all the different items being formed. Lots of laughs!!

It's great to be a pirate and live a life of pleasure...We fight with swords and swing from ropes and hunt for burried treasure...

July 28th....Emma's big birthday party at the schoolhouse!! God smiled on her for sure, beautiful sunshine and 85! After the summer we have had that was the best gift she received!!!

Monday night, two of her best friends, Michaela and Bella, spent the night with Emma and helped Betty prepare for the party. Here the three of them hoist the treasure into the tree. (Pinata)

A top the pirate ship getting ready to land......


Walking the plank......

At the helm.....

Carolyn was hoping they were not here to steal precious little KORRA.....


And I was certainly going to protect "little Kitty"....I told her mom if she ever came up missing I was sure she would know where to look for her. Her mother answered, "yea, I would probably start looking in about 4 days"...LOL. Guess she is living up to her name.

Michaela with her very mean parrot.....

Aunt Urch took all 28 kids in the schoolhouse and helped them make pirate hats..Here are the beautiful Rossmassler children modeling their creations. This is the family that bought our farmhouse here on the island. They all hold a special place in our hearts!!

Pin the patch on the pirate.....

28 scary pirates......

Taking a break......

Knowing how hard the older kids would swing at the pinata, Betty lined up all the little ones for the first few whacks....(Oh yea, it's a foam bat)....

Uh oh....it's starting to break....this is when the camera lady leaves!!!

Precious little Eva after her "Hawaiian Punch"....

Imagination....little Branch finds a deflated ball and turns it into a helmet...I believe he may have his Grandpa Rossmassler's hat fetish???

Tae....who gets very serious when it's lunch time!!

Presents....

The melting cupcakes.....

What a fun day.....so many memories made on our Magic Island.

After the party, Emma and her friends came to Grandma's to swim, and play at the beach. Needless to say her friends did not want to go back to town!!

This diamond ring doesn't shine for me anymore....

BUNKO last night....such fun with 16 of the island girls!! For some reason all of my pictures were blurry??? I don't know if I just had the camera on the wrong settings or if possibly (probably) my card is exhausted. I have never had a new one since I bought the camera 2 years ago....thousands and thousands of pictures through it. Maybe I need a new camera....hmmmm...new camera, new I-Phone? My heart is screaming YES and my pocketbook is screaming NO! Wonder who will win?????

Erma is engaged? Nah she just took top prize for the most games won!

Brenda's ship came in when she won the prize for "Traveling"


and poor Janice....she won the "booby prize"....who besides Janice would get so excited over the booby prize??? Love you Janice, you cup is always way more than half full!


Oh yes, I won the prize for most "BUNKOS"!!!

Well, I hide my eyes from the morning sun..And I keep on working til the work is all done....

Salt is not letting the rain bother him (although it has put him behind in some of his other jobs). He has been inundated with ATV repairs this year. This particular one is a complete disaster. He needs to put a whole new frame on it.

He is a genius....this whole thing will be a pile of nuts/bolts and parts.....and then he can actually put it all back together!!

It was a miracle that the young man who crashed this thing walked away unharmed!!!

We are headed to the other side of the island now to return another one he just finished!

Boats...Vessels of freedom...Harbors of healing...

The day Gene and Ruth were scheduled to leave (boo hoo.....we won't see them again until late November). It didn't rain....it POURED!! We had the top up on the boat so we did manage to get through the rain and fog and land at the Antique Boat Museum. http://www.abm.org/ Thanks to our good friends Peter and Frances Rossmassler we had guest passes. We are SO blessed with good friends!!


Our first stop was at George Boldt's houseboat, www.abm.org/laduchesse.asp which he lived on summers here on the river. It was later sold to E. J. Noble (who invented the lifesaver). During the time it was owned by Mr. Noble, it sunk and was under water for three months. Mr. Noble then sold it to the McNally family of Rand/McNally World Atlas fame. Mr. McNally brought it up from the bottom of the river, refurbished it ($$$$$$$$) and the rest is history. Well, I guess the whole story is history....

La Duchesse (my little dutchess) was the name given to the boat by Mr. Boldt, as that was what he called his young daughter, Clover.

with 10 bedrooms, it was quite the party barge.....

This is the screened in party room....all the floors are magnificent.

This is an original Steinway which was found behind piles of stored "stuff" in the boathouse. Fortunately it was never underwater!

As I mentioned when writing about the castle, Boldt had a great love for stained glass. This sun roof window is above the piano in the living room.

the living room....

master bedroom suite....

one of the guest rooms....two rooms each shared a bath.

the dining room with fireplace.....

the kitchen.... the servant's quarters are on the bottom floor next to the kitchen.

After our tour of the LaDuchesse....we went over to the boathouse which housed the in water fleet. Guests are able to take rides on some of these boats.

and the Pardon Me...

This is a boat which shows the all the breakdown of how it is made and what has to be done to restore one.

Beautiful, beautiful wooden boats!!!

In this workshop, volunteers restore an old Garwood.....

This is a boat building class which is offered for 2 weeks during the summer.

Here is a Birch Bark Canoe.....I wish my parents were here to see exactly what I was planning to build when I stripped all the bark off our beautiful HUGE White Birch tree that stood in our front yard. Yep.....I was a bit of an Emma....always in trouble, but meaning well!!!

Last stop was a dash between raindrops to view the speedboats.....

The Chrysler Queen....

One of the first speed boats....

clocking in at 36.6 mph....

and in 1978.....

clocking at 317.6. As of yet, there has been nothing to beat this speed. The owner is working on another racer which just may break the record????

Our last stop before meeting Salt, Peter and Frances for lunch at the Koffee Kove was a stop at the woodworking shop where volunteers build Adirondack chairs which the museum sells....

After lunch, we bid our guests farewell and I went home for a nap!!!