We had a great Fourth of July here with 30+ friends and family joining us to celebrate. The sprucing up wasn’t all done, but in the end it didn’t matter, we had a great day anyway.
We got up early yesterday morning and hit Willow & Jim’s Country Cafe for the firefighter benefit breakfast. On the Fourth the Silvana firefighters come take over the cafe, doing all the serving and clearing. At the end of the day Willow & Jim donate all the proceeds to the firefighters. It was a pretty good time with everyone in high spirits and a lot of chatter all around.
We came home and finished setting up tables and sweeping. Then we got the food ready to go and re-iced the keg. Mid-afternoon everyone started showing up and we went strong all the way to 12:30 am.
The food was excellent – brats from Silvana Meats, burgers made with ground beef from our steer, chilled asparagus, salad from the garden and that’s just what I made. Everyone brought something to share and it was quite the spread. We had everything from potstickers and lettuce wraps, to watermelon and strawberries, to homemade fruit tart and s’mores. I’m pretty sure no one went hungry!
We finished off the night with a fire and fireworks. Luckily it rained the night before so we were more than comfortable lighting off the small show that friends’ brought. To top it off we almost killed the keg – it’s not quite floating but pretty dang close. If anyone comes by tomorrow I’d guess that it will be gone.
We wrapped it up this morning with a breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, skillet potatoes, coffee cake and fruit. It took a bit longer to cook than expected due to the unwilling to get hot outdoor stove. After an hour of trying we finally moved the whole operation inside and eventually ate. Oh well – it was just as good as brunch.
Everyone slowly left except for friends Kevin and Megera. The guys worked to get our ski boat ready to go on vacation in a few weeks. Megera and I killed a couple hours weeding in the garden. I feel like I took advantage of having her as a captive pair of hands, but then she didn’t complain either. Between the two of us we got about 75% of what needed to be done complete. Yay! So nice of her to pull weeds in a garden that isn’t hers! I paid her back with broccoli and some of the first potatoes (pics tomorrow).
All in all it was a very relaxing, if exhausting, two days. I can’t wait to do it again next year. Unfortunately I was so busy playing host with Mike that I never even took any photos. Oh well.
You made me homesick!
I miss having breakfast at Willow & Jim’s. We always stopped there on our way to our family up on Camano Island and took the old Pioneer Hwy.
I’ll weed for food anytime! The broccoli was so yummy I ate the whole head in one dinner.