Slaters' Funny Farm

Our county fair is in full swing and although my daughter is not showing this year, it has been fun to go see the projects, watch some of the livestock shows, and enjoying the chocolate milkshakes from the Farm Bureau building as well as the delicious foods that many of the vendors have. I absolutely love the fair! Things that I have noticed is that the number of kids involved seems to be down as well as the number of projects and animals that are there. It is sad as I have always enjoyed the fair and once we became involved in 4 H certainly looked forward to it each year. I am going to try to share much of the week with you. I have taken some photos and I have enjoyed sharing some of the ones that my friends have shared as well. This sign sits at one of the entrances to the fairgrounds. The fairgrounds is a beautiful area even when the fair is not going on. Livestock is a big part of the fair. 4H kids spend a lot of time with the animals and I have seen tears when auction ...

My post that I began writing was about our county fair, but it is with great sadness that I feel I must write about the horror I am seeing on the television right now. It is of a gunman shooting innocent people at a McDonald's in Munich, Germany. Reports are that six are dead and there are possibly 3 gunmen on the loose in that city. Witness reports are that the gunman entered a bathroom at the McDonald's and came out opening fire and targeting children. The reports are coming across that it is potentially another terrorist attack. There is no credible confirmation that it was ordered by any particular group, but there have been reports of ISIS activity in Germany for several months. It seems that we are still shocked by these types of attacks and yet, it seems that they are becoming almost a daily occurrence. Munich is warning residents to stay in and away from all public places and mass transportation has came to a halt due to this attack. It seems that terrorist attacks ...

After we returned from our vacation, I promised that I would share some of the photos that I took of the area we were in and just realized that I never done that so I will on today's post. With all of the trouble going on around us, it is nice to wake up in my small corner of the world with the ones I love and a beautiful view of my garden, my horses, and a wooded area that seems to cut us off from the rest of the world at times. Spending nine days camping this year for vacation was a true delight. Nine days of no news, no shootings, and a fairly calm and nice trip. There were a few glitches and a rather large snake involved in that trip, but overall, it was a nice break from reality. A nice time with family and friends since both of my girls were able to go as well as my grand doll, a term I have borrowed from other bloggers. I would wake before others most of the time and so I would walk around camp just to enjoy the quiet that comes from being camping. Here was the view that...

Those that choose careers that serve others can be called heroes even if they never do anything extraordinary in their careers. These days our police officers, fire fighters and military are in harms' way at each turn and we take those people for granted. They have a job and they do it. When I think  of Sept. 11, 2001 and the tragic events of that day, I think of how many fire fighters chose to rush into those buildings to save lives of people that they did not know. Yet, they went! Their duty and honor to serve and protect came into use immediately! The Dallas Police officers that were policing a peaceful protest that turned deadly for some of them never once thought that they did not want to do their job. Their duty and honor to serve and protect meant that they put themselves in harms' way when the shooting began. They chose to defend themselves the best that they could under a planned attack on them. The only reason those men died was because they were police officers. ...

My heart breaks as I hear of the ambush on police officers at a protest in Dallas, Texas yesterday. Suspects in custody doesn't ease my mind as I think of the families that are dealing with the sudden loss of a loved one that was only doing his/her job. I realize that police officers are always putting their lives on the line, but this was totally an attack on them. 5 lives lost due to someone else deciding they should die. This attack involved multiple shooters and was a precise attack on the officers that were aiding with the protest and were not wearing assault gear. Dallas officers, Dallas Transit officers and civilians were all under attack but the attack was set to kill officers. I believe that there are 12 others injured and some of those are civilians. Police are saying that the attack was a planned attack with 2 shooters that were set up in high areas to viciously attack these officers. A sad day in America when police officers can't go to work without fearing that...