Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Sometimes a great notion.

Sometimes I honestly think we are trying to scare our daughter away from camping.


Her first camping trip, a couple of years ago, was the camping trip from ‘Heck’, what with it being heckishly hot, three vehicles breaking down, daughter and mother getting sick, and daddy losing his wedding ring, you would have thought that that one trip alone would have scarred her for camping.

And you would think that would have left us wise enough not to try again.

But we are made of sterner stuff, and would not give up.
But this time we thought we would train a little before we went.

Mother and Daughter ‘practiced’ this spring by sleeping in a tent on the sun porch several times.

We have her outside, a lot, doing our ‘expeditions’. So surely we were ready.

The weekend had promised to be nice all week, highs in the low 80’s, and lows in the high 60’s.
We were a little worried about the fact that daughter is going through a phase of being deathly afraid of bugs.
But we thought we could handle that.

We were unable to leave Friday night (which turned out to be the best night) because of late getting home from work.

So we set out Sat. a.m. Promised high around 77 degrees.

We went to Onondaga Cave State Park and arrived in time to snag the last camp site.

Afternoon threatened rain, so we waited to set up the tent till later in the day and played in the water and at the playground.

It was already getting oppressively humid (at least for me), but we mustered on.

Daughter got fire starting lessons from mom.















We set up the tent.















She got to roast her first hot dogs on an open fire.


















Made her own somemores.




















And got to take pictures.
















All in all still good.

Now if the night stayed cool, all would be fine.

After playing in the playground for a while, we went to the camps out door theatre to watch a kids program.

After the talks about keeping your camp clean and what to do if you see a bear, we got the weather report of severe thunderstorm warnings till two-thirty a.m...

And as the short movie ended, the sky started putting on a wonderful light show for us just to let us know what was coming.

And by the time we got into our tent it had started to rain, which did not help the oppressive humidity one bit.

I did not get into the tent right away, (I went to the showers to cool off), and my walk back down the hill was met by a loud chorus of, “Where’s Daddy’, and “I want to go home.”. Apparently this had been going on since I had left.

It did not however last a real long time after my return and wife got her settled down and read her a book.

The first rain storm was not real bad, but did force us to close our tent flaps, adding to the oppressive heat.

When the second set of storms came through I was actually hoping the tent would leak and cool me off.

I got my wish. But it only leaked over my bum.

After about an hour of soaking, wife and child headed for the car.

Here is where I was trying to figure out how we could leave in the middle of the night without it seeming like we were giving up and caving in, but knew there was no way without sending bad signals to daughter about giving in. Damn.

I stayed in the tent, knowing the car would be oppressively hot and humid, and found that where child had been sleeping was still dry.

I think it cooled off for about the last fifteen minutes I was in the tent.

Surprisingly daughter was not clamoring to go home as soon as she woke up; well at least not after wife killed the bug that was dumb enough to be in the car when child woke up.

So we mustered on.

Wife prepared a wonderful camp breakfast of pancakes, eggs and sausage, which put everyone in a better mood.

Luckily we had packed most stuff away before the storm, so taking down camp was not as wet a chore as it could have been.

Camp cleaned up, we head for the next part of our adventure; canoeing.

Now daughter has canoed before, so we knew what to expect. And for the most part all went well.
We rode on an old school bus, which was cool.. .



















We only had a few “can we go home yet’s” and only a couple killer bug scares.
















And she was really a little too sleepy to enjoy the water, but did give it a shoot.




















But she did find a canoe her size,















and one in her color















and she did direct a worker on how to lay stone . .















And she did say we should leave all our stuff in the car so we can go again.

And wife wants to go in two weeks when it promises to be hotter.

Oh, Boy!

Monday, June 20, 2011

High moor farm QS

Dreaming of cooler places.
I know, summer just started, but that's how I am.

Expedition Day

Had an outdoor expedition day with daughter and her grandma today.
We saw deer and horses and. . .

Slugs and. . .

 Daddy Long legs
And yucca flowers. . .
 and spiders
 and log cabins
 and gazillion leg centipedes
pretty moss













We played in a creek and spotted mushrooms and treehouses.
So, all in all, a great fathers day.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Where does Loghead come from. . .

As most of my friends can attest, I get really excited about three things; My family, Kayaking, and Log Buildings. Well actually there are more, beer, bread, tea, good animated movies, and  . . . .  Well you get the picture.

But I do get really excited about log buildings. Especially ones I have not seen before.

I had posted a picture of this place once before, and its barns. . .














A beautiful old farm house, and although sided now, keeps much of its old charm and charector. .
Even has the old pump. . .


















I have posted pictures of the little log barn in the back before, and here it is again
with a few more close ups and details.




Some fine detail of the chinking between the logs. . .




















While walking around this little gem I had to walk in the back of the main house
and I discovered this. . .



















At least part of the original house was log. Very exciting.














More of the stucture may be log, or this could be the original one room that the rest of the house was added on to. Or this simply could have been an addition at one time.

I have posted here in sketch form and photo the barn located on the property also. . .
















Also on this drive. . .

Maybe one of the good things about our current economic state is that old buildings may be torn down at a slower pace now.

I have driven by this wonderful classic old farm house many times, and today finally had time to stop and take some photos.
This is a very old building and is in wonderful shape, as are several of the out buildings.


Part of the stucture could be log, but could not tell from the outside.



I will have to go back and take more pictures of the barn for better lighting, but
it has a wonderful classic shape for small barns.


















Monday, June 13, 2011

Weekend at the farm.

We left Friday night for the about 2 hour drive up to wife's
family farm near Shelbina Mo.
The farm has been in the family for several generations now
and it is always great to go back.
Daughter always loves her days there.
The house was built in the early 1900's and it feels like
the kinda place a kid should go to for a visit with great grandparents.














Still has the old root cellar.
And Grand Ma's feather bed.

A nice big shady front porch.
Antique's in the kitchen. (an early I-phone; "I had to use my fingers to make it work phone").
Always cattle around the barns and fields..
Down the gravel lanes are lots of farm-scape's. . .
and wild flowers. .





And plenty of time to fish. . .

Uncle Chuck caught the biggest ones . .






Aunt Tina caught the most. . .


But mom held her own with a couple real nice ones. . .

Daughter even tried a few casts before moving on to other things. . .
Frogs kept a close eye on the kids bushwhacking to get
to the best spots. . .


There was time to give a turtle a bath. . .

But daughters favorite thing is to ride on the mule. . .
Budding NRA members learned to shoot marshmallow guns. . .


Daughter even stood still long enough to get pictures taken . .

Even a four generation one. ..
This is what summer weekends are suppose to be like!