Pole Fishin' on the Ninnescah

Yesterday we went to the Ninnescah (known round these parts as Cougar Country) to fish with the boys. We refrained from tellin Wyatt about the trip until Saturday mornin for fear that he would forego sleepin more than 24 hours in anticipation. Plus, he's only 2 1/2 and doesn't quite grasp the concept of time in minutes, hours, let alone days. When we told him that mornin, he was all about packin the truck.



I'm not sure why he wanted to drag the cooler all the way out to the road but I convinced him it needed to sit by the truck so we could pack ice around the food.

This is the view lookin upriver:

It was a perfect day as far as bein outside. We had cloud cover most the day except for short periods of sun later in the afternoon. Uncle Mike was the reigning king of catches. He caught 4 or 5 fish and one soft shell. Soft shells just look pre-historic. They look like you should be out runnin for your life from dinosaurs and hiding from pterodactyls. Straight outta Jurassic Park is the feelin I get evertime I see one of these. It's hard not to jump when a shadow passes over the ground and throw my arms up to fight off a homosapian-hungry flying dinosaur.





Wyatt was all sorts of excited about the turtle until the thing felt land beneath his feet and tried to bail. He went clawin right in Wy's direction to which Wy replied with a big scream, a scramble to get away and of course, tears. I'm sorry, but yes, I laughed. I also held him when he came runnin over to me but by laughin it got him settled down and pretty soon he was gigglin about the turtle tryin to get away.
Aunt Rene caught a fish and had the boss reel it in.

He was proud as punch!

Here's the boss, checkin on lines and patrollin the bank.

He did really well with the whole 3 foot-drop-off-into-the-river thing. There was just a couple times my mama's heart almost stopped beatin. I wore shorts and a light shirt just in case I'd have to jump in and drag him back to the edge. I didn't want any resistance with swimmin if I had to put my life-saving skills to work.
'Ole Hoss had quite a time.

He was pretty sleepy by the time we got to the river so shortly after we got set up I took him up to the truck, nursed him, and strapped him into his car seat for a little siesta with the music on. After his nap, and some lunch, he was a much happier kid. We tied off his walker to a sapling behind him so he wouldn't try wind-surfing off the bank and into the water.

I swear the kid believes that walker is equipped with floats, all-terrain tires with snow chains, wings and a motor!
We did some scoutin around for more fishin holes. The guys went down river, under the bridge, and caught a few and lost a few. Aunt Rene and I went upriver and found nothin but slick-as-snot muddy banks, spiders, thorn bushes and lots of life. Here are some pictures.

Now for the other part:



My camera kept focusing on the background so the spider is very blurry. I didn't think to put it on manual focus and I couldn't find a leaf big enough to hold behind it to bring the spider into focus.

Cricket frogs-try cathin those suckers on a muddy bank!

Yeah, it didn't work out so well for me.





It was either this fungus growth that stunk like feces or the fact that there was a fox den just beneath all these clumps of black fungus, but I'm tellin ya, it stunk!



The light wasn't the greatest when I took this shot. As I stood and looked up the tree the green foliage was a stark contrast against the dark bark.

Another den, this time from a smaller animal:

Last, but not least, the boss got in one more frightened scream when I tried to put this little guy on his shoulder and take a picture:

He wanted N-O-N-E of it! He was content to watch him in my hands and no closer!



Hoss wanted to grab him right away and without a doubt, put him in his mouth.



That, I didn't let happen, but he did almost eat a worm. Just kiddin. But he would, if we'd a let him!

Yard Work

This past weekend we spent waitin the storms that were supposed to come. They didn't show up til Saturday night so Saturday we spent the day outside. Kenneth, our good friend, and his son Austin, our god-son, came over. Austin's birthday is comin up and one of the things he wanted was some rails to ride his skateboard on. Eric had some leftover tube steel pipes so he welded them onto pieces of angle iron for a base. They worked on them from noon til about 8 in the evening. E made a double rail and an inclined single rail. After the welding was done, they bondoed the joints, sanded and painted them a sky blue. They look really sharp. Austin was pretty excited about them but didn't realize they were gonna be so slick. He hit the double rail, stayed on for a bit, and because of the downhill speed off the driveway, the board slipped right out from under him and he hit the driveway pretty hard. I'll have some pictures up soon of the rails and hopefully a video of Austin ridin. Austin drove the boys around in their truck and the boys had a great time!





On Sunday, we filled in the buffalo wallow the dogs had made in the front yard with fill dirt and seeded grass. In other areas, like the spot where we've had the fire pit all winter, we turned up, added dirt and overseeded. We also mulched the flower beds and raked up the side yard. This is one of the flower beds with views from either side of it.



I killed the first black widow of the season in the pile of bricks that the kids just happened to not get into these past two weeks. The first thing Wyatt did after he walked out the door was to take a pass thru ever-single-lovin mud puddle he could find! He was soaked from his toes to his knees within 5.294 seconds. His jeans, after we took them off, had slightly dried and could almost stand on their own. Take a look-see:



E sprayed weeds again. They seem to have permanently taken over the back yard. I planted tomatoes, bell peppers, jalepenos, green onions, sweet onions, carrots and zucchini, and lots of different kinds of flowers. Wyatt helped E chop out weeds in the yard.

E cut down to size a small-headed hoe for Wyatt. At one point, E stopped, leaned on his hoe and asked Wyatt, 'Well, what d'ya think?' Wyatt stopped workin, leaned on his hoe (his hand all stretched upright to cup the end of the handle) and said, 'I don't know. What d'you think?' Daddy got Wyatt to hold some worms.



Up til now he's not wanted to touch them no matter how hard we've tried and no matter what we've told him. We've been talkin about fishin a lot and he's been askin to go. We keep tellin him he's got hold the worms so he can put 'em on his hook and catch fish when we go to the lake and river. I think he put two and two together and obviously his love for fishin took precedence over a crawly snake in his hand. He also held a grub worm. Now, I don't touch those unless I'm usin them for bait so I was glad he was holdin that one by himself! Of course, if he'd a asked me to hold it I would've had to because I don't want him seein me not likin it. Wyatt also took a ride on the dolly:

Redneck entertainment, I know, but it was fun and he obviously enjoyed it so we don't care!! This kid don't need expensive toys and movies to keep him occupied! All he has to do is dig in my utensil bucket and drawers and go outside and he's good a quite a spell!

Passel of Kids and a Barrel of Fun

The past two weeks I've had a small remuda of kids runnin around the house. Besides our friends' 4 month old baby and our two boys, I've been watchin our niece and nephew. Wyatt and Easton are only 3 months apart and Addyson is the oldest, at 4, and has been my little helper. Wyatt loves to help too...don't get me wrong...

...but with his cousin's here he's kinda been busy. Really, they all have been busy. I've just been the referee. We've had issues of 'that's mines!' and 'it's my turn!' and some certain individual words that have popped up more than I'd like to hear, like, 'don't!' and 'stop that!'. For the first week and a half Wyatt was still in his no-sleepin-during-nap-time phase which made the days dark and gruesome (for everyone). His poor cousins got the brunt of his grumpiness and I had to intervene and reap that bushel of dealing with him after consequences had been enforced. In this past week, he's actually slept during nap time and it has made a world of a difference in the evenings and consequently the mornings.
Those kids! They've grown up outside and would rather be there than any other place. Through the cold mornings, rainy days, and hot sun they have spent every spare moment outside. By 9 a.m. each of them have hands caked in dirt and mud, hair speckled with dry grass and peppered with dirt. Their faces are dirt-smudged and their ears are the catch-all for anything airborn. Somewhere, this past week, they found a paintball in the yard from the neighbor kid. Naturally, one of them had to pick it up and squeeze it. Splat! Bright sky blue paint spattered all over Addyson's upper body! There's been fights and arguments and kiss-ups:

Like I said, they've been busy! They've scattered bricks all over the yard, only to turn around, draggin the big red muck bucket to pick up all the bricks. They tell me they were pickin up horse poop.
At one time, they chose a brick, and pretended it was their baby. I found that baby in the swing:

These bricks here in a pile were at one time all dumped in my flower bed.

The poor hosta took a beatin:

I know they'll survive but they look pretty mauled.
The kids tried to handle the wheelbarrow. That didn't work out so easy for them.
In this first picture the rubber tire Addyson is holdin is Buster's chew toy which he never chews on. It became her baby one day. It went with her everywhere!





Most the bricks ended up in the big trash can:

The yard now looks like this:



A messy yard means happy kids:







He is happy, he just had sun in his eyes:





And happy kids mean happy dogs: