Sunday, February 19, 2012

Fun things to do on the farm

  Today we turned all of the electronics off and spent a few hours outside. We didn't get a whole lot accomplished, but it was still a great afternoon.
 First I convinced the twins to climb one of the big trees. They needed a boost to get up but, once they were up there, they were little monkeys. Ian did almost fall out once but a piece of wire embedded in one of the big branches saved his butt.

About 15 feet up in one of the big live oaks
Tiger felt the need to show them how it SHOULD be done
Aislyn wanted me to point out that she is hugging the tree
 After that I found poor Buddy the garden gnome had been viciously slaughtered by an unknown assailant. He will be missed.
RIP Buddy  
 Next I asked Mike to drag the oak tree that he cut down in January (it was already dead before he cut it down) up the hill with the tractor. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, I just wanted it up here.

30 feet of dead oak tree
 Luckily Mike knew what we should do with it. First we needed to teach the kids to use a saw.

Ian got to try first

Aislyn next
 I knocked all of the bark off of the tree and found lots of interesting stuff.

Apricot Jelly Fungus 
Tons of potato bugs
 In less than an hour we had two new pieces of rustic outdoor furniture.

The big one is for the kids

The smaller one is for Mommy and Daddy
Of course, they felt the need to tip back in their seats. It never goes well.

Oops, they broke it
 Mike also moved the other concrete ring that we found on the property up into the garden area to use as another fire ring. I can use it to burn fallen branches and add the wood ash to the garden.

We think it used to be an animal feeding trough but it makes a great fire ring
 After construction was done the kids got to go for rides in the small trailer that Daddy bought to pull behind the tractor. They all got turns but I didn't get pictures of the twins.

Gabe always makes sure he has a blanket for tractor rides
 Later, after a break for dinner, we went back out to hang out around the fire and roast some marshmallows. The dogs weren't sure exactly what we were doing but they were more than happy to run around and get some cuddles.
"I love you Mama, please scratch my ears" 
Puppy love

Bruno sees an ember and thinks it's the "red dot"

Aww, so sweet
 The kids seemed a little bit put out that they couldn't have time on the Wii or the computer, but they ended up having a pretty darn good time.

Happy kids
 After the sugar rush brought on by fire roasted sugar hit them they danced around the fire and sang some silly song they made up on the spot while the goats looked on disapprovingly.

Dancing around the fire pit

I can just see them thinking "silly humans"
 Like a said, we had a great afternoon. Blessed Be...













1 comment:

  1. Garden gnome violence like that is hard to stomach. Who would do such a thing!?!

    ReplyDelete