Cream of the crop

Yesterday, we attended the Markerville Cream Day at the historic creamery in - wait for it - Markerville. The creamery is the bones of a socialist program that funded the operational costs and a butter maker to pioneers who could muster the funds to put up an acceptable building and had about 300 head of dairy cows. Now it's a museum, but they still keep in touch with what matters to plain folk, by selling Foothills Creamery ice cream. Yes, it is a celebration of the pioneer dairy industry and ice cream all in one. What a day! The kids enjoyed the craft station, the face painting, the cow-that-you-feed-hamburgers-to-and-they-come-out-the-bum. It was all very educational.

The Stand

Someday, when Britta and Elsa grace the cover of Forbes and have a feature article about their liquid refreshment empire, they will point back to this afternoon as the moment that started it all. Britta and Elsa set up their Spruce-View-almost-famous lemonade stand and sold refreshing drinks for 50 cents a glass. It was a hot August summer, and with Britta's business acumen and Elsa's panty-flashing burlesque, business boomed. In an hour and a half, the girls earned $6.80 each after costs -- mostly through tips. The whole enterprise nearly unraveled when Elsa began drinking away the profits and fell into a lemonade-fueled temper, but Britta covered for her sister while she reclined in the shade. Britta was reluctant to pack up at 4pm but Elsa said it was the longest afternoon ever.