Paradise Pond

Toby and I went with the older scouts on a campout for the Wilderness Survival merit badge. Some friends from our old ward have 40 acres outside of town--and they also happen to have a little stocked pond, that nobody ever fishes. (This is the same location where I caught the bass while reeling in a perch--my hook was in the perch, the perch was in the bass)

Last night, we got a few nibbles.

This morning was a different story. We were using 3" lures that look like little frogs, and we were pulling in bass every time we cast. We let the other boys each catch a fish. I was careful to explain that this isn't what fishing is really like.
Toby cleaned one up, fried it with cajun seasoning, and ate it for breakfast. Fishing is more fun when you catch fish.

Decastuff!

This reminded me of the Letterman bit on Rejected FDA Products back in May, 2006. Along with Bird's eye Monkey Pot Pie, Windex-icles, and Gerber 5-alarm chili, Dave had Oreos "Just Stuff"--a plastic bag filled with nothing but Oreo filling.
Yes, she ate it. First she ate the cookie ends, and then she ate the frosting.

Window shopping

Is she shopping for birds? Or golfers?

Little bully

We noticed a hummingbord visiting the flowers on our patio, so we put up a feeder. Now we see this little birdie all day, every day.
Apparently, hummingbirds are territorial. This one sits on top of the hanger to guard his feeder. He chases off the other hummingbirds and even the wasps and bees.

Kind of a bully for such a small bird.

No trespassing

Yesterday I was sitting at my back door taking pictures of the hummingbirds when I saw this. We live on a golf course. We don't golf however. We bought this lot because we didn't want backyard neighbors. I think that backyard neighbors would be more considerate than the golfers. Before we had a fence, they would mosey through the back and side yards looking for balls. Some would even drive their carts into my yard. Others would hit their balls from my backyard. (I don't need divots in my lawn.) Now they either hop the fence (as shown above), or they just walk in through the gate. Private property doesn't apply to golfers apparently. In the picture below you can see the golfer in brown pointing out more balls in my yard that the golfer in blue needs to pick up. (He picked up 5 golf balls. They weren't all his.)

I did not know all these things before we bought a house on a golf course. I can accept the broken windows (of which we've had many). I can even accept the holes in my house's siding and the dent on my car. But the golfers are getting on my nerves.

Back To School '08

The summer has ended and it's back to the grindstone. On the one hand I'm ready and glad for the kids to be at school. On the other hand, I really dislike waking up at 6:30 am (it's still dark here) and doing the whole homework-be-in-bed-on-time thing. But we made it. Isaac was only 5 minutes late; Aspen was way early. They said it was a pretty good day. Aspen got one class she didn't want - but her best friend is in it too, so she'll keep it. And Isaac's school hasn't sent any hatemail about his green hair. (We'll see how long that lasts.) I'm just not ready to buzz it off yet. It will fade out eventually anyway.

Toby isn't in the first picture because we are trying out home school this year. Dealing with the middle school's administration/teachers/counselors wasn't working last year. And the almost daily bullying was negating any positive social experiences we wanted him to have. So we're trying something different. It is an opportunity to spend some much needed one on one time with Toby. I think it will work out. Here he's working on spanish on the computer. It's pretty cool. He repeats the word/phrases into the headset and it makes him repeat it until the pronunciation is correct. Gotta love technology!

Today went well anyway. It must have been a long day for everyone - they all went right to sleep before the sun went down. Now it's my quiet time.

Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center

I took my dad to the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center last week. I haven't been for about 8 years and it was better than I remembered. (I think that it had just recently been built when we went before.) There were lots of natural and native plant gardens. But the kids' favorite place was the pond in front of the visitor center. There were turtles and fish and snakes. The kids played in this spot for an hour. I think they would have stayed here all day.

This was the other little stream on the property. Their second favorite place.

This is looking up the drain in the observation tower. It had a lovely view of the Hill Country.

I would love to have a bit of land to create this kind of place for my kids to enjoy. Someday...

It's always fun when Grandpa comes

My Dad is awesome! He came to visit last week. The kids were so excited! Hazel was his best bud from the moment he got here.

Dad very graciously offered to help out with any projects we had. So we found a couple things for him to do:There was a painting project (my dad is a very fast painter. It would have taken me 3 days to do this). More on the finished results when I finish hanging up all the pictures and then take some after shots.
Hazel took this picture.

Dad also repaired some baseboards that had warped, some doorframes that Copper had chewed up, and patched the hole in the ceiling in the bathroom from a plumbing emergency 10 months ago. My Dad is just awesome!

But lest you think that all we did was work:

Dad played with the kids. We went to dinner at Rudy's (Dad's favorite BBQ joint) and Chuy's (our favorite Tex-Mex joint),

we went to the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Research Center (more on that in another post), played at Zilker Park and then

we went to watch the Congress Avenue Bats come out for their nightly feeding. This is one of the coolest sites to see in Austin. This downtown bridge houses the largest urban bat population (1.5 million bats) in North America. They stream out from under the bridge for about 45 minutes every night.

If you click on the picture you'll be able to see the bats.

We loved having you here Dad. Hopefully we will see you again soon.