Die Hard Geocachers

This is where we spent yesterday afternoon - in the woods where it is hot, humid, and poison ivy, deer fly and mosquito ridden.  Actually this is one of the tamer looking places we were and Dancer was still smiling at this point.  But we are not the die hard geocachers.

That would be these two, the ones on the left, it's Spark on the right.  Notice the long pants, sleeves and hat even though the temps were at the top of the thermometer?  They will trek through anything, crawl over or under anything, drive their car anywhere and do just about anything to find a cache.  They call themselves extreme, we endearingly call them crazy, even their teenage kids won't go geocaching with them.  We live where there is frost all but 3-4 months out of the year to kill the noxious weeds and bugs so there really isn't any reason to be out there in the summer when we can go in the spring, fall and winter without all the nature drama.  We tend to stick to the in-town, out of the woods caches in June through September.  Besides I don't need to go in the woods to get a deer fly bite, I got one this morning watering the lilacs.

We bailed on them right after this picture, it was about 5:30 p.m. and Dad had homemade pizza crust rising at home calling our name.  I will admit we had a good time and will happily go out them again.  I think part of the problem was that, while I was sweating and swatting bugs even with a quarter inch layer of bug spray on, I was thinking about Dad home comfortably sleeping in the air conditioning since he worked the night before.

Dancer took this picture of the little snowman that sits on our dash.  He got put there somewhere along the line and no one ever took him out.  He didn't even get a name and still sports his tag.  I guess he is appropriate looking in the winter and in the summer he makes us feel a little cooler, he has never melted after all.

Sporting Clays

This spring/summer the kids have been participating in a sporting clays group and last night was, well, our last night.  Here Spark is ready to go out on the course.  I was glad they took the cart because otherwise I usually get nominated, that is my nice way of saying the kids say "Here Mom", to carry the shells.  Shells are heavy, especially when it is hot and buggy.

Dancer in a stand.  She is really, really good at the ones that fly in from behind, so I would advise if she is holding a gun, don't sneak up on her.

The tower where they shoot clays that fly or roll along the ground.  The deer flies and mosquitoes were horrible so I stayed down on the grassy, sunny part with the hopes of not getting as many bites.   At a  few of the stands the kids ran in, shot as best they could while swatting bugs and ran back out to the mowed path.

Spark the score keeper.  They take a total of 50 shots at eight different stations but we got in to the club house and left for home before their score sheet, which got left on the cart, got back in so not sure what their score was. 

Dancer and Joe, one of the guys that volunteer to coach the kids.

Spark taking his turn.  This was their first year and they had a lot of fun at this.  Originally, just Dancer was interested in shooting but, since Spark has to come with, he joined right in and did a great job even though he is younger than they usually start the kids.

Celebrate Good Times Come On

More appropriately would be "Sweatin' to the Oldies."  It was melt in the shade kind of day.

The heat didn't keep Dancer from walking in a parade

with our church. 

Too hot for Nikki, she was miserable. 



Downward dog yoga pose.

Fireworks right in our front yard.  We had a fun 4th!

Keeping Bunnies Cool

Rabbits tolerate the cold much better than they do the heat, these 90+ degree days are hard them.  To give them a little relief we freeze soda bottles of water and put in their houses.  They roll the bottles back and forth, lay on them and lick the condensation off of them.  Of course, as soon Dancer was about to take their picture they got this deer in the headlights look.

While in the barn she got a few "nose" pictures.  The goats are lead by their stomachs and as soon as they see us, the food givers, they assume a treat is coming their way.   Their greedy tummies mean we usually only get nose pictures.  

Here she caught Nico in the middle of putting his hoof up on the top of his stall.  It looks like he is doing the front crawl out of water.  She probably couldn't catch this picture again if she stood out there for hours.

Love this one of Lola because it looks like she smiling and oh so happy, which she is or should be, because she lives the life of Riley.

Dancer got back in the house and looked back out only to see a mother turkey and five little ones in the backyard.  When we opened the door to take a picture they started to meander into the trees making this the best picture we could get.  It seems that every year we get more and more wildlife making us wonder if our little oasis of chemical free habitat among the sea of sprayed fields is the attraction to our yard.

This, That, and the Other Thing

Dancer got her driver's permit on Monday.  She is doing quite well driving but I do have the urge to grab the wheel once in a while.  I am able to hold back........most of the time.  I thought it would be weird to be in the passenger seat with her driving but it isn't.  Now that she has her permit, she wants to drive everywhere we go.  Her wanting to drive is a surprise because we had to push her to go and take the written test.  A teen has to have the learners permit for six months before they can get an actual license and I have heard plenty kids that wish they had gotten their permits earlier because when their 16th birthday rolled around they hadn't had their permits long enough.  The mark to six months to her 16th birthday is July 14th so we finally just said, we are taking you in and if you pass, great, if not you have a couple more weeks to study before we take you in again.  Thankfully she passed on her first try.  

I found out that sun screen really does work.  I also found out that your shorts are about three inches shorter after you sit down.

If you hold a baby bunny long enough it will pee on you, for being so little they sure do go a lot.  I knew this because it happened to Grandma Pat once, tonight I was reminded of the fact.

We had our first dinner of sweet corn for the season. 

The goats had their first dinner of corn husks for the season.

If you drag the garbage cans all the way back up to the garage, it is best to realize that they are still heavy and full while out on the road.   The garbage man was late today, guess how I know that.

When Grandma Shirley and Grandpa Bob say they will be here at 12:30, be ready for them at 11:00 because that is when they showed up.  We were ready because this happen every time, that or they are a couple hours late.  Why my dad and I have trouble communicating about time is beyond me, we don't have trouble with any other topic. 

It has been 4-H project central around here.  We have been working feverishly on projects over the last week and are getting the list whittled down.  It is still three and a half weeks until the fair but to me it feels like crunch time.  A good thing this year is that the kids have had projects in aerospace for so many years that we now have enough spare parts to make rockets without having the buy anything.  Rockets tend to be expensive.

We have spent a lot of time sitting out in the yard under the trees because it is cooler than in the house with the airconditioning on.  Unless we sit in the basement where it is so cold a blanket is almost necessary.  Our cat, Vidalia, has been panting we think from the heat.  When Dad looked up cat panting on the internet he found the symptoms constatute an emergency and the cat should be taken to the vet immediately where it needs a complete blood panel, chest x-ray and EKG because they probably have heart disease.  We love you Vidalia but, that is just so not going to happen.  Tonight she was on the steps eating and looking perfectly fine.  She is at least nine so it is possible she does have heart disease.

We have a rule, or strong suggestion, that you wear shoes outside at all times and never, ever, ever, ever go barefoot.  Two reasons for this: chicken poo and thistles.  It does not put you in a good mood if you decide to break this rule, step on a thistle, get a thorn in your foot and have your sister give you a "why do you think you are suppose to wear shoes?"  Ahhh, older siblings, I have one too Spark.

Dancer took a swing/salsa class last night that another homeschooler is teaching.  She came out and gleefully said it was so great to be dancing again.  I thought so too since it was $3.00 for two hours instead of $10.00 per hour, there are no costumes, recitals, competitions, early mornings or, best of all, drama.  If you have ever seen that t.v. show "Dance Moms" it really is like that.  They may have stepped it up a little for the show but not much.  Dance is a cut throat sport where the girls and moms eat each other.

Lastly, when it is this humid the clothes on the line never get fully dry.  Dissappointing since we had three loads out there and three loads of even partially dry clothes do not fit in our dryer all at once.  It also means hauling them all back downstairs and up again.   

Donut Recipe (Crochet)

Dancer is entering these yummy donuts in the fair - under needle arts, not food and nutrition.  She made them to go with her crochet coffee cups.   The recipe, or pattern, is from the Lion Heart website but we changed it a bit to make different sized donuts.  The sizes are listed in the (s,m,l) size in the pattern.

Chain (8,10,12)
Rnd 1:  Join with slip st to make a ring.  Work 2 sc in each ch. (16,20,24)  Place marker in first st for beg of rnd; move marker up as each rnd is completed.
Rnd 2:  *2 sc in next st, sc in next st, rep from * around - (24,30,36)
Rnd 3-(8,10,12):  Sc in each st around.
Rnd (9,11,13):  *Sc2og, sc in next st, rep from * around (16,20,24)
Rnd (10,12,14): *Sc2tog, rep from * around - (8,10,12)

Put a blog of stuffing in the middle of the tube you just made and make a hole in the middle of it.  Sew the last round and the first round together to make the donut shape.  Glue on snips of yarn for frosting.

Longest Day Challenge

Every year Dad and Spark do the "Longest Day Challenge."  They get up before sunrise and then, as usual, are up at sunset so they can say they see the whole day.  Normally they would have done this on the longest day of the year but, Dad worked so they chose Sunday.  It took two days to get the pictures to load so that is why it didn't make the blog until Tuesday.  This year Dancer joined them because they were going fishing, and she doesn't want to miss out on a chance to fish. 

Sun rise 4:51 a.m.

They were up too early for the bait shop so they went to breakfast first. 

They had a couple fish tales but didn't bring any fish home. 

There was no time for a nap when they got home because we had to leave for our summer 4-H party.  Three hours of go-karts......

water slides......

friends and......

bumper boats.

On the way home we saw a sign for bunnies and stopped to get a couple.  Our girl rabbit will not accept a male.  She has two to choose from and I guess she doesn't like either one.  We tried singing Lionel Richie songs, several opportunities with both boys, and even resorted to holding her for them but she is an ice cube.  So we got these two cuties who came with pedigrees.  We have never had an animal with papers before so we are feeling pretty hotsie totsie now.

Dancer named hers Miranda. 

Spark chose Willow.

Willow must have felt she got dirty on the car ride home and needed a bath.

Sandal surfing.

Supper on the fire pit. This is what we do when I don't feel very creative with diner, or just plain don't feel like cooking.  We make these parcels by double wrapping (prevents most burning) in aluminum foil veggies and fruit.  I just butter the foil and add a couple pats more butter and then either throw in some salt and pepper or cinnamon and sugar.  We have done everything from pears to broccoli and they all turn out fantastic.  Brats on the skewer and dinner is done with almost no clean up.   

Sunset was at almost 10:00 p.m.

We finished out the day by stopping for ice cream on the way home. 

A Day At The Beach

Dancer went to a beach birthday party so Spark and I moved further down the beach and had our own party. 

It was a perfect day, the water was warm and the breeze was cool.

Our home away from home.



Our ceiling.



Spark's Last Day Camp

4-H day camp only goes through 5th grade so this is the last year Spark is young enough to go.  It didn't seem like such a big deal when Dancer was too old because Spark was still young enough to go for four more year.  But this time there is no one younger.

In two years he will be old enough to be a day camp counselor like Dancer.  If you still love camp after you are too old to be a counselor you can be a chaperon.  I was there for the day as a chaperon because they have a ratio they need to fill for campers to adults.  I spent the day setting and cleaning up activities so everything ran smoothly together and, of course, taking pictures.

4-H Favorite Food Show

One of our favorite 4-H projects, the favorite food show. 

Spark made a tuna sandwich on dill pickle bread.  His theme was Picnic In The Park for which he earned a blue ribbon.  The rest of his menu was chips, potato salad, chocolate chip cookie and lemonade.

Dancer's theme was Breakfast In Bed.  She made one of her famous cinnamon rolls.  She carried the theme so far as to even wear her pajama pants and slippers.  She was awarded a blue ribbon.  The rest of her menu was fiesta eggs (scrambled eggs with onion, green, red and yellow peppers), peaches and milk.

When they were announcing all the premium winners at the end, Dancer was awarded an honorable mention!  A good start to the 4-H year.