Red Pony Farm: A journey in motion

An Arena Full of Sand, 4 Buckets, A Gardenhose, 2 Shovels, APile of Rocks . . .

. . . 2 pair of Safely glasses, 2 bottles of bubble stuff, a whiffle ball and bat, a Frisbee,  and 17 acres of woods-land to explore, make for a day of non-stop fun and learning for two little boys.

There is so much learning taking place while playing with dirt and water and rocks! Put your safety goggles on before smashing little rocks open with bigger rocks. 

Near the end of the day Eric had a go at photography:

Not too Bad!

So what's with toys these day? These Transformers don't even transform!

Their father and Uncle had transformers that really changed from cars / jets to robots and didn't make loud noises or play theme songs like radios. I think all the noise is a imagination stealer. But what do I know--only that today the great out-of-doors held the attention of these two little guys much longer than the noisemakers with the laser beam eyes.

We went on two hikes and they were delighted to discover that both trails made circles and ended up back at home!

And eight hours later, does Grammy look tired yet?

Snow Angel

Cassie is writing a book

Cassie, who has always been very imaginative and intelligent and creative and out going and I'm only slightly biased of course, is writing a story. She narrated the plot and characters for me as we drove very slowly on the snow covered roads to Bridgeton on Sunday.

I want to add some books to her library. I don't know where to start (well that's not entirely true. I have ordered her a magazine: Muse ). Has anyone seen this magazine? I haven't yet just knew that it was form the Smithsonian Institute. I'm hoping my readers will help me by providing more suggestions for 11 year old girls.

Mushing

The Final afternoon of the Annual Mushers Bowl on Highland Lake in Bridgeton.

$20.00 a head for a half hour ride. Alicia was the name of the musher who took the grandkids out.

Somewhere out on the Lake cassie got out of the sled and stood with the musher. She immediately apon arrival said she hoped they got the Purple sled with the pretiest golden lead dog. She jumped for joy when it turned out they had. I was thrilled that they got such a kid friendly musher--though I'm sure all of them were very pleasant, judging by the many smiling faces all afternoon.

Alicia gets a kis from one of her lead dogs. She said her dogs do race but had not been part of the racing this past week. They were just there to give rides. They all seemed very happy about it too.

Beautiful animals. They work hard and eat a lot.

There was a fair amount of trading out of dogs during the afternoon. A fresh dog would be brought out of its box from the back of a truck to eagerly replace one who was taken to a tether line for food and water and rest. These dogs are so full of energy their traces are tied off to trees between runs. Notice in many of the photos of the dogs in traces that they are often testing that tether while waiting. There were some who would dig at and kick up the snow impatient to be off and running.

Ghosts & Goblins

. . . Or in our case: Fairy princess, Pizza, and Buzz Light-year. "Tell Grammie who you are" chirps Kelly. "I'm Eric!" proudly and matter-of-factly announces the Buzz light-year clad little fellow standing in my kitchen. "but what is your costume" "Buzz Buzz Light ear!" The Eric / Buzz Light ear is flanked by a rather large slice of pepperoni pizza holding a bag of candy and a delightfully pretty winged fairy who is trying to get a rise out of us by puffing on her candy cigarette. I had no idea they still made those things. My Lord they grow up fast! The fairy princess has promised to pay us a visit this Sunday, She is busy Saturday. She has a social calendar that almost never has time for me anymore. She's growing up so fast!

Summer is Going going . . . .

It's happening. Not so much on the trees tops but down on the forest floor there are signs of Autumn to be found. Eric & Tiger came for the Day Saturday. Mom & dad were both working with pappy to get the shop moved. After breakfast we hiked through the overgrown skidder paths to the Stone wall at the back corner of our property. We followed the stone wall through the "deep dark" woods to the trail, and looped around and back to the top of the hill. Tiger and Eric collected beautiful leaves from the ground as we walked. Eric would lag behind when he wasn't getting a shoulder ride or a piggy back. Once Tiger yelled back to him that the ghosts would get him. When Eric got close and stopped screaming, I reassured him that there are no ghosts in Grammy's Wood (TS's woods really). Tiger whispered loudly," Grammy don't tell him, he won't hurry!" "We don't need to hurry." I answered. When he had completely caught up, Eric Asked, "There's no ghosts in here?" "Nope" "No Gorillas And no Monsters?" (big growly emphasis on "Monsters") "Only Tiger Monsters!" He had to stop and think about that for a second, then grinning, he took off running down the trail past Tiger. Tiger took up the race and was in the lead in no time. Eric kept looking back over his shoulder to see if I was keeping up. I thought for sure he would fall, but he is getting pretty sure footed as he races towards the three year mark.

In the after noon we had a picnic in the woods, and did some exploring. Tiger stacked up dead branches along side a moss covered fallen tree and called it his house. He made separate doors for us to enter as I am so big.This is near to the spot where Pappy is planning to build the tree house play area. He bought the design book at Home depot Saturday night. I'm excited. They have tree house designs in there for grown ups too!

  Wednesday was the first day of school. Here are Tiger & Mom waiting for the bus. Tiger is starting kindergarten. Cassy is 5th grade this year! The first day of Kindergarten in Buxton students bring either mom or dad for the whole day.

School Shopping: Not us . . .

Grammy and Eric stayed on the mountain. Eric put on Grammy's riding hat and wanted to go out and ride a horse. He managed to snap the chin strap all by himself. He's amazing smart and speaks very clearly too--but I try not to brag. Here he is sporting my riding hat and the shiner he got catching the corner of his bureau when jumping on the bed.

"Can I pat her?"

"She likes Me!" (Slight squeal of delight on the word "likes") I Love her. Can I get on her Pleeeaaasssse Grammy Leigh?

I wish Eric,But not today. Lucy is not ready for you to ride, And it's too hot today anyway. 100 degrees F. in the shade!

"Can I get on her now? She likes me."

"Hi Willie!"

"That's Dove."

"Oh. Can I get on her?"

"Still too hot. Wanna see the sand mountains?"

"I can climb this really big mountain, I'm str o  n  g!" Eric uses a deep growly voice when he says "strong".

His little cheeks are Rosy red in no time climbing the sand mountains and Grammy is wiping sweat out of her eyes to see to take pictures. "Grammy Leigh?" "What?" "Can we go in now?" "Sure, it's probably time for lunch." "Carry me? I hot" he whispers in a sighing voice.

After lunch and lots of cold drinks and some story reading. Eric decides it's time to go back out side. I turn the sprinkler on for the newest patch of grass I planted last week and Eric decides immediately how best to enjoy this.

He just stands in the cold spray holding his hands out, feeling the cold mist and watching the palms of his hands get wet. He hauls a few buckets close to the spray to catch some more water. He hold the wood stove shovel he had been digging with under the spray and watches the water dot the black metal. After a bit he comes across my yard rake.

"Don't pull the mulch off the grass seed, please."

"OK"

He comes back to the shade and the cold mist of water.

Frog Pond

If you click the photo to enlarge it you can see the pollen line on the rocks that marks the water level the day the grand sons came to play. I didn't have my camera then however. There were so many polywogs in various stages of transformation, their bulging bellys glinting in the sun light as they rolled back under the surface of the water after grasping some invisible food bits. Tiger was busy for a couple of hours trying to scoop up a frog in a bucket. Thoses frogs were fast! There was one two fister that kept calling out from the edge of the puddle: "chug-a-rump" we could look between the bolders and see him tucked in safety under the edge of the rock where even Tigers slender arm could not reach him. He continued mocking us all morning. We saw dozens of tiny fully formed frogs hopping through the mud that were smaller than a pencil eraser. I have never seen anything like them. We soon discovered they were more fragile than even they appeared. we left them alone as best we could, and moved on to trying to catch the bigger ones.

Eric had so much fun throwing rocks into the water. He liked it best when I would throw rocks with him. Twice he got too far out in the deep sticky mud at the edge of the water and got his sneakers stuck. He struggled to pull out but the effort made him fall sitting in hte mud. Grammy had to come pull him free. After that he would keep pretending he was stuck. He'd walk into the ruts the tractor tires had made, where the muddy water covered his sneakers and he would wriggle his but back and forth calling out to me "Gammy, I stuck!" and grunt like he was really trying hard to get out. At lunch time after getting cleaned up we went in and ate bowls of  type of Organic Cheerios and packed up to take them home. They were asleep before we got to Pleasant Hill Road!

April 2007

April 1st we played in the sand. It was lovely and starting to dry out.

Uncle Tim took a break from working on the cabin and did some sculpting too.

The yard looked a little different on the morning of the 13th.

"Say Cheese" Eric smiles as I lift the camera. Saturday the 14th we made a snow fort from the pile of snow that fell of the roof. Lots of scraps of wood from construction to shield us and serve as snow ball shelves. We Blasted Daddy (David) as he stepped out of the truck completely unsuspecting after a trip to Home Depot. He never saw it coming. The guys got both ceilings up in the rooms in the basement on Saturday. Tiger has chosen Green for the bedroom that they will use when they come over. Grammy gets to pick the tone of green however as they must understand the room will be shared with guests-- on occasions when they are not using it of course. At one point Eric strolled out behind the cabin and found a chain of connecting puddles where the snow melt was running across the back yard. He stopped and starred at me when he saw me come around the corner after him. I think he thought he was about to be repremanded for being up to his ankles in water. I smiled and said, "What did you find?" He answered, "Mud Pud" very seriously and stomped through heading towards the next, intently focused, "nuh wun mud pud!" Grand Babies! I love it, I just love it!

Friday morning (13th)on the way down DeerWander.

Then crossing the Saco river at Bonny Eagle. This is not my usual route to work . I was heading to New Glocester to pick up Flu / Rhino vaccine for the horses. Even though the Vet was sceduled to come on the 25th I was in a hurry to get that particular vaccine done in light of the current situation.

Then on Sunday night the 15th around midnight began the Patriots Day Nor' Easter of 2007 lots of wind and bunch of rain. We did not get hit as bad as some places.

Here a picture of the dam at Bar Mills taken in February 2007 for comparison of water levels.

That's a lot of water. I will edit this post with more on the Storm later . . .

Expensive toys

Bubble stuff .50 a bottle. When the soap is all gone all you need is a bucket of water and the fun continues!

STAY COOL everyone.

PS:  Home PC is down. Not sure what's up or when it will get fixed. Not likely to be any photos of the topless cabin this weekend.