Life with Dee

Creating a beautiful life...

HMF is going to the dogs

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Not only do people enjoy Happyland Music Fest (HMF) but the dogs have a great time, too.
 This is Herman and this was his second year at HMF.
(I wish I had taken one with a human next to him for size comparison. He is HUGE!)

 Calla is a veteran. She’s attended all five HMFs.
 This was Panches’ second HMF.
 Huck was a first-timer but after a bit he was runnin’ with the big dogs.
(I should have edited this to include a modesty patch. But I didn’t.)
And Shiloh LOVED all the attention! 

Herman’s owner also brought Lola (I think that is her name) for the first time but she was shy and overwhelmed by it all and he had to keep her away from all the commotion. Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of her. I had been concerned about how our tiny kittens on the front porch would do but they were fine. The dogs left them alone and nearly every time I went in the front door someone (or often a circle of several) would be sitting there playing with them. Needless to say, by the end of the weekend we had some extremely well-socialized kittens. 

Happyland Music Fest – Part I

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We are still trying to recover from Happyland Music Fest last weekend. I did get my kitchen clean and I moved all the stuff left in my family room to the exercise room and closed the door…which is my latest excuse for not getting on the treadmill. The house is basically back to livable standards. On Wednesday David had to make a trip to the city so he took a truck load of glass to the recycling center up there (we still don’t have glass recycling here in town). Yes, I said a truck load. The incredible thing is that there is still more that wouldn’t fit in his pickup. Most of the trash has been picked up and disposed of although I’m still picking up bits of streamers, bottle caps and cigarette butts each time I go outside. And the back patio is still a bit of a disaster zone. But all in all, we emerged from our annual crazy fest unscathed. Nothing was broken and no one died or even had to go to the E.R. so I consider that a win. 
Chris had asked me to try to take a lot of pictures during the weekend and I did. So many, in fact, that I’m still trying to get them sorted. I’ll be sharing some of them over the next few days, a few at a time so as not to overwhelm those (like me) with slow internet service. So here we go:
 Cas Simmons, one of our attendees, designed this gorgeous poster. Click on it to see the list of musicians and bands which played during the weekend. These posters (and t-shirts) will be available for purchase soon. 
 Casey Howard, Anne Capshaw and David Winchester
Shiloh had a blast! So many people to love on him.

Some of the decorations (those white wire things are lights)

Blowing bubbles

 Everybody is happy at Happyland.

 Nice wig, Aaron.
“Bonesaw” returns!

Yes, that’s my boy. 


Okay, enough for now. In a future post I’ll share some of the great comments being left on our Facebook group page, “Happyland Survivors Club”. It does my heart good to know that everyone had such a good time and that new friendships were formed as a result of this event.

AND…I’ve been reading something which has given me a great idea for a blog post series so stay tuned for that. 

Memorial Day weekend at Happyland

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Happyland Music Fest ’11
In just a few short hours the 5th annual Happyland Music Fest will kick off in our backyard. Tents will be erected, burgers will be grilled and music will fill the air. (I am just hoping all our neighbors have decided to go to the lake for the weekend.) What started as one evening of music with about 30 people has expanded to a full weekend, two nights of music, and probably somewhere around 100 people. This year there will even be an independent film premier after the music tonight. 
A lot of planning and hard work goes into putting on a music festival and we still have some setting up to finish this afternoon. But at 7 p.m. the first musician will start and for the rest of the weekend we will all bask in the glory that is Happyland. 
There will be pictures to share later…after we have recovered a bit. But I wouldn’t plan on that until at least next Tuesday. I hope everyone has a wonderful, fun and safe Memorial Day weekend!

Wild Kingdom

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Anyone remember this?:

My family used to watch this and The Wonderful World of Disney every Sunday night.  Good memories.

We live in the country and it is sometimes like living in our own “wild kingdom”.  First there are the raccoons that I posted about the other night.  And yes, I mean “raccoonS”, as in plural, as in, there were TWO of them on the patio night before last.  And remember this?  I still shudder to think about having a wolf on my patio, although it’s also kind of cool.  Then tonight I went out to put up our poor, lonely rooster and was greeted by a ‘possum on the back patio.  I didn’t get a picture this time but I’m sure he’ll be back.