Storms, honesty, family and friends

The Little Red Shed Honesty Stand near Ely, IA

Last week we walked up to Dan and Debbie's Creamery.  It's become a much too regular visit, especially for a dairy intollerant person.  The banana Cream Pie ice cream was worth it though.  How about Sweet Corn ice cream?  Yep, with real corn.  I haven't tried it...yet.

Just outside Ely is The Little Red Shed Honesty Stand.  As you can see it is LITTLE.  The owners have a goat farm.  In the stand they have a variety of homemade items ranging from brown eggs to jams, salsa, dog toys, take and make play dough jars complete with a cookie cutter, and MUCH more.  I selected goat milk soap and a mesh soap holder.  Chris selected salsa.  We combined our money and put it in the honesty container. Don't have cash with you?  No problem, just bring it next time!  It was started to prove to her teen-age son that this concept really could work.

Inside The Little Red Shed Honesty Stand

The entire area, along with several other states, is recovering from the Derecho storm that hit the area on Monday.  A derecho is a widespread, long-lived, straight-lined wind storm. I heard Linn County (Cedar Rapids) was the hardest hit of this storm that traveled through several states. On Tues. most of the town was still without power.  It was devastating, and has resulted in power outages throughout this area that could last from 2-8 days.  The large number of trees that fell is unbelievable.  They hit homes, cars and the winds damaged fences, roofs,  blew over semis and so on.  Lots of downed telephone poles and power wires. As always, Iowans have pulled together to help each other out.  As of Tues. we are still without power in Ely.

Our son's tree that blew down.

Tree that fell on our son's shed.

On Tues. the areas in front of streets were filled with branches.

Downed telephone poles and power wires in Cedar Rapids.

A semi near Cedar Rapids

We traveled to Lake Darling to have lunch and visit with Pat's  sister Sally and her husband Mike.  It's  a gorgeous park.  It was named after J. N. "Ding" Darling, a champion of conservation and editorial cartoonist for the Des Moines Register. It has a campground, cabins, beach, boat launch and trails.

A pedestrian bridge at Lake Darling State Park, Iowa

Pat's  sister and brother-in-law

We enjoyed a fun evening with Chris and his friends, Amber and  Tyler.  Amber fixed us a delicious dinner of chicken and potatoes.  It was a georgeous night, so we took our lanterns outside for a "non-competetive" Phase 10 game and we learned about Amber's  Ethan Allen furniture!  No work tomorrow since power hasn't been restored.

Lots of fun and laughter during Phase 10.  Tyler was the winner.