Mini-Grandcamp

The first priority was Naomi's pre-birthday treasure hunt.

The clues this time were all written out (in very clever verse...  :)
She was able to read them all.

Easy clues.

Some a little harder.

Finally, the Treasure!

Next,we went outside. Naomi had a lesson in 'backing a trailer' (for which she actually used the wagon.) It will take another lesson or two before she is ready for a big rig.

Guess who loves potato chips?

We had some wagon rides down the hill. Naomi is becoming quite an accomplished pilot. No mishaps!

There was a thunderstorm, so we went inside. The power went off for about 20 minutes, which called for finding our way with flashlights (after closing all the curtains to make it really dark.)

It was Danielle's turn for a treasure hunt. This time there were drawings on the clue cards.

She found most of them by herself.

Trying out the 'cool patch'.

After the storm was over, we played in the garage. Naomi made a fortune-telling game.

The fortunes had to be hung on the clothesline. Safe climbing techniques were used.

Danielle tried out the round swing seats we made at a previouse grandcamp, but never got to use.

Thanks for spending time with us, Danielle and Naomi!

Treasure

We're having a short Grandcamp today and tomorrow. Since the girls seem to enjoy treasure hunts, we put this one together.

Ceiling Ninja Alert!!

The temperature has been approaching 100 degrees the past few days.
Today we noticed that our ceiling Ninja, which John and Christopher set up last Christmas, is losing his grip.

We hope he can hang on, but it's not looking good!

Inflation By Another Scheme

While prearing a new tuna can for measuring the amount of watering on the yard, I noticed a bit of difference between it and the one from a couple of years ago.

The old one was in the days of 6 oz. tuna; today's is 5 oz.
That's how we do "price dropping"!!

Signs of Technology

Outside

Since it has gotten hot, and we are about to leave on a trip, we decided to remodel our landscape.
Right now.
We roto-tilled and mulched half the front yard. The shade from the oak tree had pretty much killed off the grass. We think mulch is nicer than dirt.

We also tilled the back yard. And since we are tired of our dirt washing down the hill every time it rains hard, we built a little retaining wall across the back.

A couple of nights ago, there was a beautiful full moon.

Mena to Clemson Ride and Visit

On my way from Mena to Clemson, I went through Huntsville, Alabama. NASA has a lot of stuff there, including a full stack Apollo/Saturn 5 vehicle.

Mentone has a nice art gallery/cafe.

They made a delicious veggie omelette.

When I arrived in Clemson, Julie and the boys surprised me with a cake. (Apparently, someone had a birthday.)

The boys always enjoy climbing on the 'spider web' at Clemson City Park. We found a geocache, too.

We found another cache at ?? Park. There was a lot of climbing and leaping, too.

We got to meet Kerri for lunch, and she gave us a VIP tour of her lab. The showpiece is a 'cell printer', used in their biology research lab.

I got to enjoy walking with Fly. Most of the time, he enjoyed going. But occasionally, he would decide he didn't want to.

Fly really enjoyed getting food pellets from his treat ball.

Thanks for a great visit, Julie & Tony & John & Christopher and Fly!

(I didn't take any photos on the ride home.)

Ride to Mena

In May, some motorcycling friends invited me to ride to Arkansas with them - Syd and Hayden, Thomas and Richard. They planned to spend a couple of days riding around the Mena area. I decided to ride on over to visit Clemson.

About half way along the Talimena Scenic Byway, we encountered a group of people riding "Gravity Vehicles" down a long steep hill.
There were skateboarders - up to about 45 mph. (A local sheriff's deputy was there with his radar gun, providing traffic control for the riders.)

And there were street luge riders - 84 mph!

The luges were quite sophisticated.

After they all came down the hill, they loaded up in a U-haul truck for the ride back to the top. They do this here once a year.

Our destination was Iron Mountain, the CMA campground at Hatfield. The other guys stayed in one of the cabins.

Like this.

Fortunately, they ran out of beds and I got to stay in the 'toy box' trailer.

Nice and roomy! And quiet!

Grandcamp - Better Late Than Never?

We didn't do very well with photojournalism during this Grandcamp.
Here is the only photo we got:

 After that, she said "Take a funny face!"  So we did.

 It was a fun time, anyway. Maybe we'll do better next time.

Aunt Bunny

Back in March, we had a delightful weekend visit with Charlotte, aka 'Aunt Bunny'. It was soooo nice to have her come see us, at last!

We did some shopping in downtown McKinney, and had a wonderful lunch at Burger on the Square.

Naomi and Aunt Bunny really hit it off.

Of course, who wouldn't!!

Thank you for making our weekend wonderful, Charlotte!

Three Chicks

Turtlehood

When Naomi visited with us a few weeks ago, she entertained Turtle.

Turtle likes to ride in a pizza box.

Turtle doesn't eat pizza, but does enjoy watching someone else eat some.

 Turtle tried some cheese.

Turtle enjoys architecture.

Turtle likes to meet other turtles.

Turtle also enjoys talking with other animals. Especially when dressed up in a napkin.

When Turtle gets tired, watching some videos is the best thing to do.

Night-night, Turtle.