Calhoun Point Trek

Calhoun Point Trek

October 31, 2010

Another day of walking in the great outdoors was on our agenda. We headed out to what Stewart calls Calhoun Point but we had named "Dave's Place" after my brother-in-law David who chose this as "his camping spot." With our packs in tow, we head out on the expanding sandy beach that was created by the lack of rain. We saw a sand piper walking along the shore, we got within a pretty good range of it but we turned away so we would not disturb it from getting its lunch. Austin came across a black caterpillar. I announce "Oh cool a Woolly Bear!", hoping the kids thought I was talking about a real bear but I didn't fool them any. Anna found a set of raccoon tracks "Mom, the back foot looks like a kids foot print!"

Where we was walking, was far enough out that if the water level had been where it should be, the water would have been over our heads. This made for an interesting view of what has been a camping spot before. Stewart walked up to a stump and said " Hey, I think this may have been where we put out our trot lines before."  I looked around viewing the place we would have been swimming and commented, "Well, at least when we come back we don't have to worry about the kids swimming out here, there are no drop offs." We kept walking around the point and we come upon a rocky area.

Adam brings me a rock "Mom, this looks like it has Chinese writing on it!" I comment, "Well more like cuneiform but yes it does look like writing, but I think it is just wear marks." Austin brings a funny rock to me that looks like a skull. Anna is busy trying to get out on the rocky muddy mound without getting wet. "I can do it mom...really I can..."

Then Adam gets up on top of the hill. "Hi, mom!!" Then Anna comes up and takes the hill by storm. "Hee, hee" she says with a grin, the little stinker. 

Out on the next point was a very large expanse of beach. Stewart and I sit on an old log that was a piece of driftwood. It was a very scenic view from where I sat resting. Withs the kids out investigating the beach we enjoyed the peacefulness of GOD's great world. We sat with full contentment watching the kids run races, play in the sand, and look at bugs. Adam comes up and sets with us to watch for a while, of course he uses his monocular so he can see them better. "Mom, Anna is very far away!" he says, looking up I notice his monocular is turned around backwards, on purpose of course.

"Mom, this is Fred. Fred is my friend. I want to keep Fred. I will take care of him and... and..."

Hmmm..."Anna, Fred needs to stay here, this is his home."

"But Moooommm, I like him!"

"Yep, lets get a picture so you can remember him." "OK, now go toss Fred in the lake far out so he can live."

By the way, in case you didn't know, "Fred" is a fresh water mussel she had found.

We had our rest and it was time to head back. Stewart suggests we go back through the wooded trial instead of covering ground we had already covered. Austin found some briar trees that had no leaves, something that must be googled during school. Adam found a piece of a log that looked like a hatchet, so he totes it around whacking on various bushes and trees with his "axe." We walk and Adam swears we are not going the right way.

"What if we are lost. What if we never find our car. What if...What if..."

"Adam, trust me sweety, I know where we are going."

I love spending a wonderful day with my family, I would not trade it for anything in the world. We laugh, learn, and love GOD's beautiful gift to mankind, the outdoors.

Harvesting the Corn

Harvesting the Corn

November 1, 2010

We have tried for several years to grow corn. Most of the time we would get a few spindly stalks with no ears or we would grow great stalks with scrawny ears. This years after our purple hull harvest Stewart had decided to plant some corn just to have something to grow in the pea patch. We assumed it would do poorly as it had in the past but much to our surprise it did really well.

Shucking corn by the pig pen seemed like the perfect place to do the job. They would shuck the husks and toss them to our pot belly piggies and then cut off any bad spots and give them to the pigs or the donkey. Our little piggies thought they was in Heaven.

Adam comes up to me with corn silk on his head and says, "Mom, now I know how they make wigs!" I just love that child's imagination.

We harvested over 290 ears of corn off of this small corn patch. We blanched and bagged right around 50 gallon bags of corn on the cob. Thank you LORD for such a bountiful harvest.