Our Freshman

Ten years pass so quickly!

From Connor's "First Day of Preschool"....

To his "First Day of High School"!    He's a little taller now; his head exceeds the height of the wheel well!  

Connor started school on Tuesday, officially a Freshman at Central.   He's bummed that his summer vacation is officially over.  But, he's opening a new chapter of his life and will have many new experiences in high school!
And here, his Ping Pong pics already came back!   What a change from 20+ years ago; we had to wait WEEKS to get them!    Isn't he a cutie?  :-)

Another County Fair

Alas, it was that time of year again; mid-August... county fair time.
Years ago, when I was in 4-H showing cattle, it was a big event; lots of work, lots of fun, and lots of cattle show events to conquer.  :-)

It is now a nice family trip to town, to eat fried cheese balls and corn dogs, walk around the midway, look at exhibits, and see all of the animals.  Now, I am merely a spectator.

We went to the fair mid-morning and walked through the midway first, which was not yet open.  Ramsey isn't ready for rides yet, so that was a non-issue.  He enjoyed looking at all of the games with stuffed animals for prizes, jumping over large cables that crossed the pathways, and looking at  the colorful carnival rides.

We veered to the livestock area and started out in the Bunny Barn, as that is typically high on Ramsey's list of favorites.

 He needed a closer look at the furry little fellas!

Then, we headed off to the see the Shetland ponies.  A local horse rancher gives rides every year.

 One of the ponies had a baby, a small cream-colored foal.  She was precious!  And, apparently very hot... given the fact that she was panting quite a bit.

 Based on Ramsey's reaction, he's not quite ready for a pony ride.  Next year!!!

 And, onto the goats.  The goats were Ramsey's all-time favorite last year.

 And, they were his favorite again this year.  We half expected one of the little guys to give a nip at Ramsey's finger, but they didn't.

 He wanted to pet every... single... goat.

We had to drag him out of the goat barn; he did NOT want to leave!  

 We then walked to the barn that housed the dairy cattle and the show ring.  At the time, the open class beef heifer show was going on.  I remember those days!!  At least they had a nice cool day for the showmen and the cattle.

I had walked away for a few minutes.  When I came back, this was Ramsey's expression.  I had never seen this one before!  Apparently one of the dairy cows had let out a very loud bellow.  It scared the dickens out of Ramsey and he freaked...out.  Eric had calmed him down, but it took a few minutes to get this look off his face.  Poor kid!!   I thought it was precious, so I snapped a picture. 

Knowing the fish would cheer him up, we went into the exhibit hall, straight to the US Fish & Wildlife fish tank.  Eric propped him up on the wheel well of the flat bed that the tank was sitting on.  He was entranced and sat there so nicely checking out all of the fish; various species of bass, carp, bluegill, northern, perch, walleye, etc.  He sat.

 And... he sat....  "We need to get one of these at home," we thought!   

Maybe we'll get our little 20-gallon fish tank out of storage and fired up again.  Maybe.  :-)

We checked out the bald eagle and animal pelts at the refuge table.

We walked the booths a bit more (after joking around, decided not to get a picture with the Trump cardboard cut-out - lol), got some yummy fair food, then decided it was time to go home.  Ramsey had about had enough by then.
So, another county fair has come and gone and we'll look forward to the next one.

New Guy Behind the Wheel

I'm going to admit... I was frightened, nay SCARED... at the thought of this....  lol.

Connor, now 14, and having passed Driver's Ed, can drive (with another licensed driver).
Mom and Eric had both ridden with him, but as of yet, I had not!

Connor and I took a drive to Aberdeen to fiddle around and get some ice cream.
When I was buckling up, I remember thinking,  "This kid's growing up!  Yay!  And... this kid is GROWING UP.  So sad!"  It was bittersweet.

Connor did well on the way in.  He's got "some work" to do, driving in town and such, but we'll keep working with him.  :-)

He's had a car for a few months now.  In October, it will be legal for him to drive by himself, from dawn until dusk.  When he's 16, he can legally drive by himself, anytime.

Still... I can't believe it.  He's old enough... to drive!   Saying "time flies" all the time is really getting to be a theme around here!!

Let the High School Football Begin!

It was an EARLY morning for Eric and Connor; they were both up at 5:30 AM.   Connor had to be at football practice at 6:30 at the high school!

There are three divisions for football at Central; Freshman Football, Junior Varsity, and Varsity.  Connor, of course, is starting out in the first division, where he will learn higher-level routes, tactics, and be trained much harder.   They will have weight-lifting as a group every Tuesday at 6:30 AM.   Typical practices are daily for 2-3 hours (depending on the day).   Then, games are every Thursday in September and October.    He definitely has a grueling schedule!    I'm looking forward to going to his first game... as a high-schooler!

 I was not actually at the practice, but I did manage to snag a few pics from another source.  :-)

First Time on Play Set

Yes, so tons of blood, sweat, and tears (literally, all three of those came into play! lol) went into the production of Ramsey's play set.

Even though it wasn't QUITE finished on Saturday (we still needed to push the pea rock onto the pad and level it), we decided to let Ramsey see it and play on it.

When he first saw it, his eyes lit up like a Christmas tree!  There was so much to see; swings, a slide, a tunnel, a climbing wall... and a big pile of pea rock!

When Ramsey first "tried out" the play set when it was in town at its former home (a few months ago), he didn't know how to use the rock wall or the climber to get to the tower; we had to help him.  Knowing this, I had planned to build a "normal" set of steps for him.

Eric first veered Ramsey to the climbing wall.  He showed him how to monkey his way to get to the tower, spotting him.   We may wait until he's a little bit bigger to show him how to use the rope with the climbing wall.

 He was sure using his little muscles, finagling his way to the top!

Ta-Da!  He made it!

 Then, he blasted through the tunnel.

And down the slide, he went!

After the first time, it was all Ramsey... no help from either of us!  I was amazed at how this kid could climb!  Eric said he knew he'd be able to figure it out quickly.  lol

 Around and around he went, climbing, crawling, sliding, then running back for more... over and over..!  He started to look like a little master, maneuvering his way up and through the course.

 He was so proud of himself!  And... so were we!! 

He had to add in some King of the Mountain time on the pea gravel pile.  He had so much fun climbing up to the top, then tumbling, scooting, and sliding down the hill.

By the way, he was fine - cried for about a second (after he bonked his head).

Oh wait... he found some sticks.

Then, back to the play set for more climbing, swinging, and sliding!  Since he's doing so well without the steps, I may just take a break and not bother making them.  I will, however, add a fireman's pole in its place (just next to the slide)!  That'll probably be a "next year" project.

Yup, there's that big blup of spilled stain I was telling you about... Yeesh.

 

After all of the playtime in the rock pile and on the play set, little Doodlebug needed a bath (the second one of the day!).    

After all of the hard work getting this project completed, it was well worth it.  :-)

Project Play Set

PROJECT PLAY SET has FINALLY been completed!
It's taken about two months (which seems like ten years for impatient ME!) to complete, but we're finally done.

It's always fun to have "before", "during", and "after" pictures of projects so we can actually see our progress and what we've done.  I wish we would have taken more pictures for other projects!

Here's how the play set looked when I purchased it (from Connor's Mom).  It was in Aberdeen, in a friend's yard.  The cute little guy in the picture is Connor's other little brother, Bridger.

 Here's our yard, before we started moving dirt.  The dirt spot there is from an old apple tree stump that we had removed.

 Our neighbor, Pat, started to level the ground for us.  We were going to do this project ourselves!  Oh yes, what grandeur ideas I have.   Murphy's Law struck once again; as the pad was being leveled, the skid steer hit an old well or cistern that was underground.   We had to move the location of the pad back to accommodate, making the retaining wall much more complex to build (a much larger wall, particularly outer wall, would be necessary).   DIY notions for completing the pad and retaining wall came to a halt.  I had to call in a handful of contractors to bid the project.

After receiving two bids back (one was RIDICULOUSLY priced), we accepted our fate, pulled the trigger and approved the work to be done by a local skilled crew.

Here's the play-by-play:

 They're almost done!

 DONE!   We were impressed, as it took a 3-man crew only one full day!  It would have taken us... months!!

Then, the following Sunday afternoon in July, we drove to Aberdeen to fetch the play set.  We took it apart and hauled it home.  We joked that we looked like a cross between the Clampetts and some gypsies, with this huge set hanging out of the GMC pick-up.  When we pulled into our yard, we pondered how we were going to unload it, having a toddler with us and no one to watch him.  We took the plunge.  Leaving Ramsey in the back seat (content), Eric and I [unbelievably] unloaded it ourselves and placed it on the pad.   I won't begin to tell you how heavy that main tower was... uh...muh...gawd!

Over the next few days, I put it together (I needed some help from Eric to get the A-frame carried over and stood up - that darn thing was heavy and awkward) and then power-washed every crevice to revitalize the wood.

 Here's a partially-completed pic of the new tunnel deck that I built.  It doesn't look like much, but it took me HOURS to assemble.  I love puzzles and building things, but I didn't dream it would take as long as it did (I estimate 8 hours).

After that, on another evening, I attached the deck of the tunnel to the main tower, installed the green tunnel hood, added the new slide, plus the new red glider (which also needed assembly!) and the two swings.  Voila!  Done.  Well, almost.  The pad still needed pea gravel.

 I ordered 10 tons of pea gravel from the local rock and gravel business and contracted a truck driver to haul it in with his pup truck.  He said he'd give us a few hours notice before he would come, depending on his schedule for the week. 

The day the driver had called to set up the delivery, I had to decide whether or not I was going to stain it this year.  Truthfully, I was bushed and burned out from the project and just wanted it to be over.  But, if I didn't get the legs stained now, I would have to deal with trying to stain it in pea gravel next year.  So, I decided to start staining (*groan*).  I got the legs done, plus anything that was within 6" from the ground.

Back to the delivery... it was quite... uh... "interesting".  The (super nice) truck driver was masterful, weaving around and between our trees, backing in, missing the culverts and other obstructions, etc.  We (to include the driver) were all worried that his truck was going to tip over, so I didn't have time to get any pictures.  That was a little stressful.  :-)   And, unfortunately, he couldn't dump it directly into our retained pad and had to leave it in a huge pile on one end.  Rats!   

I got the rest of the darn thing stained.  That took a few days.  I felt like a monkey most of the time, balancing on beams, reaching for odd places on the roof, crouching and contorting in weird little spaces, etc.  I did have one little accident and spilled stain on the plastic and part of the wall (the bucket I was standing on wasn't exactly sitting on level ground and I lost my balance - in true Kara non-ballerina form).  OOPS.  Oh well, the rest of the retaining wall (and the new tunnel) gets stained next summer anyway (the treated lumber has to breathe for a year).  :-)  

Our neighbors saw our pile and offered to move the rock onto the pad for us in a few areas.  The skid steer tore up the grass, but moving 20,000 lbs of rock by hand, or even with a wheel barrow, would have taken eons!

The last few nights, I have just been leveling the rock, little by little.  There's still a bit to do, but I'd say "Project Play Set" is 95% DONE.

HOO-RAH!