I Did Not Break My Back Lifting Hay Bales At The Prairie Fest Preparation Today

I did something this morning that had my shoulder blades sending shooting pains to my built-in pain detector. This made me a bit wary regarding the idea of helping put the Prairie Fest together, something I'd been drafted to do.

So, I decided to park on the top of Mount Tandy and hope that hiking to the Prairie Fest Grounds would cause endorphins to abate the pain.

By the time I reached the Prairie Fest Grounds the pain had abated.

Upon arrival I reported to General Young. The Prairie Fest set-up is run like a military operation. Such precision, such organizational finesse. I was given my uniform and ordered to report to Captain Jan.

Captain Jan ordered me to report to a squad assembling umbrella stands and tent frames.

As you can see in the picture at the top, it was being a bit stormy. Very windy.

You might think, looking at the picture, that some phallic symbols had been erected for the Prairie Fest, with the theme of the festival maybe being the Fertile Prairie, or something like that.

Well, you would be wrong. Those are the unopened umbrellas we were tasked with sticking in to heavy umbrella stands, not phallic symbols.

Eventually a load of hay bales arrived. My squad was tasked with removing the hay bales and laying 3 by each umbrella stand. Either I have gotten hugely stronger since the last time I lifted a hay bale, or these were extremely light hay bales.

In the picture with the sticks stuck in the ground, you are looking at an art installation in progress.

I was a little surprised when I came off the Tandy Hills, to the Prairie Fest zone, to find painters already out on the prairie painting. I thought they did that when the festival was underway.

Betty Jo Bouvier was flying in from Seattle to go to the Prairie Fest, but now claims she was unable to book a flight. I'm very disappointed.

Using a different camera setting than the setting that made it appear that the Prairie Fest was peppered with phallic symbols, in the 2nd picture, of the same scene, you can clearly see the unopened umbrellas, the hay bales, the tent frames and one of the work squads busy working.

I suppose I could have used the second photo of the unopened umbrellas in the first place and not had this phallic symbol confusion.

But, I found that first picture to be amusing and so I amused myself by using it.