Biding time…

Now that the fireworks stand is set up, we have been cleaning it; they get pretty filthy sitting all year, plus they don’t get cleaned at the end of the season – by that time, we are so tired of fireworks that we just box the foreworks up, throw them back in storage, and lock up the dirty stand! LOL!  We have been making price tags for each of the big cakes,

We get a printed tag for each kind of firework, but for the big cakes, we go through and make one to tape on to each cake so that when we get busy we don’t have to remember to pull the tag as a cake sells to put it on another of the same.

and learning the descriptions for the fireworks that are new this year.

My sister stopped by the other day.  This has been her stand for the past 19 years, and she is (nearly) as outspoken and opinionated as I am, and likes things done her way too!  Right is right.       And I know that I set her stand up WAY different than she does.  I’m pretty sure she took one look and about had a coronary, but she hid it well! 

It’s keeping us busy, as is grocery shopping; we eat almost soley fresh fruits and veggies at the stand, with a few crossiant/roast beef sandwiches in there – it’s too hot to cook, and fresh foods don’t last long in the heat of the rv.  We are located fairly close to Costco tho, which makes for easy shopping trips – or quick runs for frozen yogurt or pre-cooked pizza.    -I love having Eli around to run errands for me!

we always have popcorn when we have pizza. Organic popcorn cooked with coconut oil in pan on the stove, slathered in real butter and sea salt. My mom grew up in a family where they had homemade pizza and popcorn every Sunday afternoon. I gave up the homemade part when we sold the house, and it’s never worked to have it on Sunday afternoon, but I still wanted to keep some part of the tradition going… we usually have it on Friday nights with a movie, but Bethy said pizza sounded good last night, so pizza it was! (and popcorn and watermelon :)

I think that Vaughn and Greg have been subsisting on hot pockets and frozen burritos, but there is an A&W very close to their stand, and I know that they have had a few floats (and probably onion rings too! ;).

The bigs have some of their own stuff going on even while we are here – Eli and Beth are still doing Farmer’s Market.  Bethany sold 12 of her clips last Saturday at market, and we are hoping that she does as well next Saturday – if she does, she will be on track to be able to order in another 40 clips, and hopefully work on her goal of having 100 clips on hand for a festival the kids are showing at in August.

Eli put up a display of his survival bracelets up in the stand…

Greg makes bracelets and single-point tactical rifle slings (everyone asks if they are belts, but one guy walked up last week and knew right off what it was, which made them strike up a conversation on mutual interests! LOL!), and Eli makes multiple kinds of bracelets, keychains and zipper pulls, and some necklaces that all the little league kids around here are into.   The boys had purchased a bunch of quick release buckles for their bracelets while we were in Las Vegas this past Christmas, but their bracelets have been selling so well that Eli had to go online today and order more.  He ordered 150 buckles and a few more skeins of cord in some great colors.

The past few days, the kids have been watching the nearby wildfire.  Eli has spent a couple of hours up on top of the RV taking pictures (he still has to upload them and look through them…), and has gotten what he hopes are some great pictures of the slurry bombers, and helicopters with buckets.   Beth has been reading while she watches the stand for me (Lord of the Rings trilogy.again.), and Thomas is heading up the house this year – he is so good with the littles, and he is pretty tactful when asking for help from his brothers, so he is in charge of the ‘house’.     This year they will be payed in cash instead of fireworks since we don’t have a place to light off fireworks, but they are glad as they want spending money for this year’s travels.  While we have some down time at the stand, the kids are making a bucket list for this winter.  Can’t wait to see what they come up with!  We are already getting the itch to hitch!

In the meantime, we are just biding our time until we (hopefully) get crazy busy peddling gunpowder next week!