A Parade, and Playing With Tractors

This past Saturday, was the Carnation Parade in Alliance, Ohio, nicknamed the "Carnation City" -long story, and I think President McKinley wearing a carnation in his lapel has something to do with it. They have a Carnation Festival, and it ends with the parade. My parents and I picked up my nieces and drove the 20-some miles up to Alliance.

The parade lasted about 1 1/2 hours, and was a very nice parade. My favorite float was one by a church. They had a Noah's Ark on it, and a couple of kids dressed up as Adam and Eve - evidently after the fall, as they were wearing clothes......... :-)

Dad has taken up quite the project. There is a small creek that runs through their property, separating the garden and swing set from the rest of the property. Over the years, it has been wearing away at the yard and bank more and more, til it looks like the beginnings of another Grand Canyon. OK, that was an exaggeration, but due to fears that the whole yard may disappear and fall into the widening gorge, Dad decided to get a couple of big pipes, and cover it over.

One of the neighbors has a backhoe and truck, so he was asked to do the work. He brought 9 truckloads of dirt and piled in the driveway to Mom's dismay - made getting in and out of the garage difficult. Day after day has gone by, and the guy still hasn't done the work, nor given a date, so yesterday, Dad dug out where the pipes were going. Today he got one of them in with his John Deere and was going to try to start moving dirt with the plow on tractor. The neighbor to the one side came over and loaned him his tractor which is pretty big and has a big scoop shovel on the front. As Dad dropped scoops of dirt, I was on the smaller tractor pushing the dirt around and trying to level it out. It was actually fun. :-)

The work isn't done yet, but a lot of it is. Mom and I think there is too much dirt, but Dad thinks he can use it all up. We will see. But at least the problem is being fixed, and you can walk over to the garden without using the bridge, and that is cool. :-) Some pictures below:


The massive dirt pile.





Another view of the dirt pile, along with the two pipes to be buried.









A couple pictures of the mess where the pipes are going to be. Take note of the caving bank to the right.






And lastly, a couple of pictures of the progress so far - pipes in place, and covered up. Still a lot of leveling to do.