Independence Day

I hope you had a meaningful Independence Day.

Independence Day has always been one of my favorite holidays.

When I was growing up, we’d have the traditional Independence Day food: hamburgers, hotdogs, potato salad, cole slaw, potato chips of various types. We had epic water balloon fights, played volleyball, and ended with a campfire in our firepit. My Dad had a small cannon and he’d shoot it off (minus the cannonball). It was fun. When our son was small, we’d go to town fireworks–and later he liked us setting off our own little fireworks.

These days, EJ and I have a very quiet holiday. We went to the local farm store for a few things. I barely restrained myself from buying more chicks, on sale for $1 each. Then we came home and puttered around on our property.

After dark, we heard booms of fireworks all around us so we went and sat outside hoping we could see some. For a year or two a neighbor set off spectacular fireworks that were close enough and went high enough that we could clearly see me. However, we couldn’t see any this year because they never rose above the trees. We still enjoyed sitting out at night and chatting as loud booms echoed around us. I wondered to EJ if the fireworks disturbed the wild animals. Then I looked at our trail camera the next morning and saw this opossum, which answered my question. (The date/time on the video is completely wrong because I forget to reset it when I changed the batteries.)

So it appears that the wildlife are fine. EJ said the animals might think the booms are just thunder.

Independence Day is even more meaningful to us because of the events of the last few years. It might not seem like we had much of a celebration, but we enjoyed the freedom to spend it exactly as we wanted. We don’t need crowds and activity to make us happy.