Ocean Camping

Hi everyone,

I love camping at the ocean! This year's camping trip was all that more special because we got to visit with my great-grandma for a few days. It was nice to see her and Mom's aunt and uncle and spend some time visiting and catching up with them.

I can't say the weather was very nice. It was a cold, salty mist or downpour every day we were there. It was amazing how the clouds would just hover over the water and how the rain and mist would swirl up and under the awning and every type of cover we had. There was water everyone, even inside the seams at one point! There were a few moments of dry, as you can see from the pictures below, and we definitely took advantage of those.

We also managed to snag a bit of dry time one evening to actually have a campfire. By the way, three of our four dinners were supposed to made over the campfire but we definitely had to switch gears.

We ran down on the beach and chased the waves. 

It was so much fun running so the waves wouldn't catch us!

And, when it was all said and done, everyone was tuckered out and slept well!

Until next time . . .

A Real Cattle Drive

Hi everyone,

I got to participate in a real, true cattle drive! And, just like many other cattle drives, this one didn't exactly go according to the plan. It was a herd of 20 cattle and they were supposed to come up the road about a mile and a half to the field closer to the house. But they didn't exactly cooperate! Below are a few of the pictures while we waited, and waited, and waited for them to make their appearance.

 

Finally, the first five meandered their way down the road, up and over the hill, and back down into the new field with a horseman bringing up the rear. Our job was the to block the driveways along the route so that the cows didn't decide to enter into greener pastures, if you know what I mean.

The next group of about 4 cattle decided to take a side trip into another farmers field so the horses, atv's, and cattle dogs had to round 'em up and get them out of there. Three of the four came out and along the way, but one high-tailed it back to the rest of the herd. After that fiasco, the head of the cattle drive decided to use a neighbor's field and have the cowboys drive the rest of the herd through the field and avoid the road. I'm sure the vehicle driving neighbor's were mighty appreciative because the cattle drive that was supposed to last 15 minutes took about 2 hours!

And when it was all said and done, I got to drive a tractor so who can complain about that!

Until next time . . .

Apple Orchard Field Trip

Hi everyone,

As I mentioned in an earlier post, our field trip to the apple orchard was in honor of the letter H (for harvest) for our week of preschool (we are now on the letter L, by the way, so this was a bit ago). The first apple orchard we went to was great because we were able to walk down the rows and rows of apple trees pulling a busted up wagon behind us. It wasn't so great because we only picked two teeny tiny apples, although we picked and sampled many from the trees. We did get to pet a cow and see some geese when it was all said and done, though, so that was fun!

The second orchard we went to we walked away with some apples for our fritters and just to eat, but we weren't able to venture out in the orchard. I guess you get something with one experience and something else with another and that makes it the complete package!

Until next time . . .

Halloween

Hi everyone,

Well, another Halloween has come and gone and I once again managed to find a costume to reflect my complex and astutely academic personality. I'm not sure exactly what that means, but I think it's another way of telling you that I went as Huckleberry Finn.

A few months ago, I asked mom if I could wear the overalls in my drawer. When I put them she said a light bulb went off in her head for what my costume would be this year. Follow the overalls up with a shirt and shoes from the thrift store, a straw hat, a paintbrush, and a fishing pole made out of a stick and string with a goldfish tied on the end and you have my ensemble. Too bad I couldn't have had bare feet but that would have been super cold and super yucky!

I included the second photo so you could see how I look with the backdrop behind me from the Arktoberfest Photo. I even won third place in the costume contest for that hour. Pretty sweet (and I do mean literally as it was an entire bag of laffy taffy as my prize)!

Before going to Arktoberfest at the church, we carved our pumpkins and shared a caramel apple. Actually, I'm not a big fan of sweets so I excused myself from the caramel and just ate the apple. I chose the face for my pumpkin but because it was so huge Dad was the one who ended up carving it. As you can see from the staged photo, I would only go so far as to the touch the edge because I really didn't want my hand in all that gross yuckiness. Dad said it wasn't so bad because my pumpkin was so big, but I was having none of the guts and seeds.

Until next time . . .