The 4th

[grumpy]

4:30 AM, the alarm goes off, get up, start coffee, look on puter to see what ya'' are doing.
6 AM, head over to Jarrod's to give him a hand with something, get a cup of coffee, decide to look at cows up close, everything fine til Jarrod misses one bout to calf, get on 4 wheel thing & go search, nothing, get on 2 other 4 wheel things, go search again, last round Jarrod spot's her, new calf looking fine.
7:30 AM, decide it's time for breakfast, that worked, load truck with stuff, go get quikrete & head to jobsite, don't really need Quikrete, ride all over countryside to find what we need, stop on the way back to get what we didn't get enough of at the first place
1 PM, decide it's time for lunch, exhausted & beat to death from all the work & riding.
1:30 PM, unload tools, decide to check on calf again, find her in another thicket, she don't like it, we go flying through thicket with her on our heels, flat land pretty much except for one gulch bout the size of Grand Canyon well it looked that big when mad mama on your heels, we survive, she looks at us like we're crazy & wanders off skeert, we showed her
3 PM, get home, haul in rifle that i found in back seat, wife raises eyebrows, how do they know
3:15 PM, decide wife/daughter aren't going to allow me to take nap, start hauling firewood to fire pit & other various things.
5 PM, get the brite idea to hook QT loader back on tractor by myself, sweaating like a fox when Jarrod walks around corner with puzzled look on his face. I'm wondering what's so QuikTatch to the blame thing, finally get it on around 7 PM with threat's from Jarrod to never remove it again
7:30 pm, WE EAT
7:35 PM, Jarrod goes after second 2 plate helping
7:45 PM, we think we have room for home made ice cream & peach cobbler, have to get help from family to carry all of Jarrod's bowls
8:30 PM, finally, relaxation in front of fire while son shoot's fireworks out in the field, couldn't hear booms or talk on account of women folk yakking away.
10:00 PM, Jarrod heads for the hills.

10:30 PM, i tell everyone else to leave, politely i might add
11 PM, showered & in bed.
If Jarrod calls, tell him i'm busy

Hope ya'll enjoyed the 4 th as much as i did.
God Bless the USA!

Grumpy

[Steve H]

Grumpy, now that is a great day and sounds like a lot of work/fun.

Happy Fourth to all!

Mine went something like this.

7:00 - Roll out of bed, first time in a while the dogs let us sleep in.
7:30 - Drink coffee and set 16 lb pork shoulder on counter to get up to room temp
8:00 - Continue to drink coffee and set out dry rub I mixed up the night before.
9:00 - Prep foil and open shoulder and rub thoroughly
10:00 - Start fire/charcoal chimney and prep smoker
11:00 - Put pork shoulder on smoker and think about other things to do
1:00 - Go for 15 mile bike ride after adding more hickory to smoker
3:00 - After showering, check on smoker again, add more wood and relax while watching Florida Sun Network and get my Salt fix
3:00 - 7:00 - Maintain smoker and help wifey do some things 
7:20 - Shred shoulder and prepare plate for me
7:45 - Think about eating more and decide better
8:15 - Shred other part of shoulder and bag pork
8:30 - Pour adult beverage or 3 and watch a little TV (4th stuff)
11:00 - Wander to bed and sleep soundly while rain falls

It was a good day.... 

[ALflygirl]

It was a nice lazy day unlike Grumpy's work-a-thon:

8 ish- wake up and check out computer for a while.
9:30 - go to grandma's house on the creek and play around with the sunfish for a while.  They were absolutely clobbering poppers. Nothing big but it was fun for a while. Then it got HOT. Time to go eat.
1:00 - Head to in laws house for a smorgasboard of holiday delights - ribs, baked beans, smoked bologna, pulled pork, chicken salad, chocolate pies etc etc etc - a 3 plater....I should be at the gym right now instead of laying on the couch.
3:00 - worn out from eating....time for nap
6:00 - time for movies and hanging with the husband. Holidays are not for being out on the roads...all of the amateurs are out!

Hope everybody had a safe 4th!!

[jarrod white]

 I hope everybody had as much fun as I had. My day went just as Grumpy described. I do want to thank Mr. and Mrs. Grumpy and family for the hospitality. My family went out of town, and prior obligations kept me on the farm. I am fortunate to have good friends to say , hey man come over to the house and celebrate with us.Thanks again buddy!!!!


                    Jarrod

[Curtis Martin]

Ya'll got it made. You should be down here on the river baby sitting all the amateurs. This could be the worst hatch of canoes the river has ever seen.


Curtis

[jarrod white]

Ya'll got it made. You should be down here on the river baby sitting all the amateurs. This could be the worst hatch of canoes the river has ever seen.


Curtis

I had thought about putting in a little time on the river over the holiday, but by the sound of your reply, it is probably for the best that I elected to stay at the farm .


                                                        Jarrod

[Mike Hill]

My 4th

5:15 - Woke up and finished getting fishing stuff in truck
5:30 - Did one of the three S's
5:45 - Wake up my wife and daughter - fixed breakfast for my wife (she had to go to work)
6:00 - Definitely decide not to go to Caney.
6:30 - Finally got going, but
6:35 - Had to get some gas - OUCH!!!!
6:45 - Found a fantastic breakfast sandwich and the Sonic - SuperSonic Breakfast Sandwich - Immediately will clog your arteries, but you will           
           enjoy the clogging up. 
6:46 - First Coffee - Ahhhh - life's good again!!
7:15 - Going past the boro, decided not to go to the Duck and head to Elk
8:15 - Drive past Bridge and almost decided - oops wrong decision as to river.  Shoulder to shoulder, fishing from chairs in the river, rods on   
          around the bend, cars packed all the way up to the highway.
8:16 - Decide to try to find a secret place.
8:30 - Pass secret place 4 times before deciding not to risk trespassing and to head to the Bridge.
8:45 - Arrive at Farris Creek Bridge parking area - while listening to redneck yelling at his family that was camped behind the MTFF PortaPotty
          get set up, went down to the river and was surprised to find only 10 -12 people waiting for their canoes to get out, Surprise of surprise -
          No one else was fishing. 
9:00 - Wade in and daughter catches first fish on second cast.  Starting to have fun!
12:00 - After 3 well behaved and polite sets of boats pass, decide to move up stream a little - we had been right at the bridge. 
12:05 - Noticed a hole that had fish stacked in it - explored a little and got 3 quick hits.  Decided to change my daughter's fly to a BHPTFB,
            adjusted her indicator and showed her where to cast and how the drift should be.
12:10 - Caught her first of many fish in the hole. 
12:45 - Redneck (probably at least half drunk) shows up and started trying to impress his date by throwing firecrackers in the river near where
             my daughter was fishing.
1:00 - Second set of Redneck show up (8 or 9), thought fishing was over, but the moved up river.
1:30 - Third canoe outfitter and his clients show up.
1:35 - Bottom falls out of the sky and lots of thunder chase us off the River.
2:00 - Stop in Lynchburg - Go into Tims Fly shop - talks to Tim's wife quite a while, especially about the TVA and their report and the water
           temperatures.  Daughter decides to go to a couple of shops around town.
5:15 - Get back home.
5:30 - Put on Country style ribs on the grill and smoke the heck out of them. 
9:00 - Go watch Nashville Fireworks from out secret place - no traffic problems
10:00 - Fall asleep in my recliner with smile on my face.

[MikeA]

Here are a few free fireworks we set off. I didn’t buy any fireworks this year at all. For one gas prices are eating up my expendable income and I also don’t like the idea of pouring even more of my income into communist China so I can celebrate the United States Independence….

[Travis C.]

July 4th for me went about like this:

4:00  – got up grabbed my gear and tried not to wake the baby.
4:45  – hooked to boat up at dad’s and pulled out for the Cumberland River.
5:00  – stopped at Baker’s Market for some coffee on the way.
5:30  – hit the water and started catching fish.
9:00  – rain caught us for a half hour with some of the biggest drops I have seen in a while.
12:30 – headed for the truck exhausted.
1:30  - arrived back at my house finally to my wife not feeling well.
1:31  - took a nap.
3:00  - got up packed my daughter into the car and headed to a cookout at my grandmothers.
5:30  - finally back home for good.
6:00  - heard fireworks until past 11:00 in our neighborhood and every night since.