Entertainment - Ozark Style

First off, to TJ, I apologize for not putting up a post about the stairs up to the deck being completed yesterday. It was a busy day and we ended up having some 'company' visit in the evening.

First off, yesterday morning's project went much better than the previous morning's of taking down the trees. We try to pick the most strenuous project to complete in early morning before it gets too hot. For yesterday, that was building our stairs up to the deck so we would no longer need to use a step ladder every time we came and left the house. The house is built on land that slopes a bit so the stairs at the front needed eight steps while the ones at the back will have six. We decided to conquer the longest first, plus their location gives us easiest access to both the back door which goes in through the laundry room and the French doors which lead into the kitchen. We had this project completed before the temperature reached 90!

We then started the project of wiring the house with a 12V DC system. We had hopes to use some of the existing wiring to various overhead light fixtures and outlets and connect them into the 12V system we set up with the golf cart batteries. But when the house was vandalized, all the wiring was cut and most of it was pulled out of the walls. Alan commented that it was frustrating knowing all that wiring had been done but that we did not have access to it now. But he then added that is if it had not been vandalized, we would have never been able to buy the property because it would have been way out of our price range. The vandalism that had occurred caused the bank to drastically drop the price, selling it as property only with the house having 'no value'. I responded that where most people would consider it of 'no value' and a lot of work, we were probably the only ones that looked at it considered it to be much more than we ever expected to be able to get for what we were planning.We started this adventure just looking for vacant land to put a camper on!

One of our Friday night visitors.

Sorry, I am sort of rambling, I will post more about the electrical project when we complete a bit more and I take some pictures. For now, back to yesterday. We went out for a bit again yesterday afternoon. We do not plan to have to run errands every day, but in the heat wave we have been experiencing it is nice to get out of the house during the hottest part of the day, so if we have errands to run, we schedule them for the afternoon. We came back in the early evening, I am once again admiring our steps and I here a noise towards the north end of our property that sounds like something rustling in the woods, I turn and there is a horse walking out of our woods, followed by another horse, and another, and another. They all have halters on and must belong to one of our neighbors. They walk along our drive way and start meandering up the road in front of our house. I try to get close to them, thinking if I can catch the leader the others might hang around and we could go ask the closest neighbor if they know who owns them. We think they are from the pasture that is the next property down the road. But, as I get close to them they turn around and head down the road in the other direction. There was no way I was going to be able to catch them and they were heading back home, so I guess the just stopped by to say 'Hey!' or would that be 'Neigh!' and left some road apples in our yard as a house warming gift.

Thanks for coming, guys., but
you didn't have to leave the road apples!

Gee, all that and I haven't even gotten to the entertainment I refer to in the title of this post. This morning we decided we had made a lot of progress over the last few days and we could take a break. First item on the 'time for fun' agenda was to try out one of the local swimming holes. There is one at the end of our road that we have seen people at, so we decided to start there. We have stopped at a couple different swimming holes in a nearby town that are popular to check them out, but we liked the thought of this nearby swimming hole being the first we actually dipped our toes into. We made a good choice! As soon as Alan stepped in he said "Oh, you're going to like this." That made me smile because I knew that probably meant the water was not too cold. While he has always had aspiration to join a 'Polar Bear Club' and dive into Lake Michigan on New Year's Day, and he has actually gone swimming in Wisconsin lakes during late October camping trips, I tend to be a 'hot tub only' kind of 'swimmer'. But the water was great, and even though it has been a hot, dry summer, there was still an area that was deep enough to be over your head, not that I ventured over there.

Alan at the swimmin' hole

 I did not venture quite so deep. 

Entrance to the 'theater'.

Our next entertainment of the day was sort of spur of the moment. We had seen a rather dilapidated building in a nearby town that advertised live entertainment every Saturday night. We googled it a while back and thought it sounded interesting. Neither of us are country music fans, but several years ago, while visiting nearby Branson, we went to the 'Sons of the Pioneers'  show  which precedes the Shepherd of the Hills play and enjoyed it immensely. It was more Country Western with a lot of the old-time cowboy songs and was more fun than we expected. This sounded like it would be similar with local talent. It turned out to be great, and quaint at the same time.

When we went in to buy our tickets, we were told tonight's show included a free ice cream social before the show started. We had already decided to eat across the road at a little food trailer that had become a permanent fixture in the town. We ate there once before and enjoyed it. I don't think this place has a name, it is basically one of the food concession trailers you would see at a fair. On our first visit we were impressed with the cleanliness and variety of the menu. Tonight we shared a steak basket (deep fried steak strips with fries), deep fried ravioli and deep fried broccoli. OK, I didn't have to share the broccoli with Alan as he claims he is chlorophyll intolerant.

After dinner, we returned to the 'theater' and grab some dessert before taking our seats, the place is almost filled to capacity. The show was quite good and it varies each week. There appears to be a 'house' band, then multiple guest acts perform with them each week. This week the guests were mainly young local artists that performed more contemporary numbers like songs from Martina McBride, Alabama, and Luke Bryan (I had to google that one to see who sings the 'speakers go boom boom' song - gotta love google when searching for answers to things you actually don't know the question to). Anyway, besides several upcoming pop country singers, there was also a more 'mountain music' trio that included a gentleman that played both the washboard and spoons that was very entertaining.



Remember I said the event was both good and quaint? The quaint was the intermission activity. When we came in, I had noticed the gentleman in front of me in line was carrying a jar candle, then when I sat down I noticed there was a table with an odd assortment of items in front of the stage including the gentleman's candle. It turns out that during the intermission there is a door prize give away with the prizes being whatever people 'in the know' brought with them that night. I can't remember all of tonight's prizes but they included - blackberry jam, chocolate covered cashews, several packages of cookies, Little Debbie brownies, a patchwork pillow and the one I was hoping to win, which was a bag of fresh peaches. The bag was the paper type with the paper handle that you often see at apple orchards, I believe it was a half-peck. I had to giggle when they said they first had to put them in a plastic bag  before giving them to the winner as the bottom was 'getting mighty juicy sitting there'.

So, a very fun, entertaining day in the Ozarks and, now that I am also 'In The Know', I am already planning what my door prize donation will be the next time we go to the Saturday night concert - it has to be something worthy to be from the Geeks' Quad...