The email you don't want to get

Well we were woken by Elena screaming at 430am. Our house was on fire. We are all out safely and at Judi's house until the all clear is given. Do not know the extent yet.

I really am not too sure as to what to write here. I am having the knee jerk reaction of running to the vehicle and racing to...oh, what?

They no longer have a place to live and I think...think? wonder... where do they go from here?

My son blames the wife. I told him not to make blame but to look forward and not backwards, as it does NO good to lay blame anyway.

I could have lost my son, his wife, and two grand kids. Why place blame at this point? Just thank the gods that be that the 3 yr old got up to go potty by herself and started screaming bloody murder. Hmmm, smoke detector had NO battery.

For the moment they are at the mom in law's apartment but I think they are in contact with the Red Cross as this makes them 'homeless'.

I don't know what happens next but I do know that I am so happy to know they are alive.
I am lucky that I have a wonderful rural neighbor who whipped through her kids drawers and closets and I've netted 3 big bags of clothes for the little ones.

I'll be leaving in the morning to see my youngest son, wife and kids. I just sort of need to put my arms around them. I'll stay at a motel and then be back on the farm by Sunday.

Dennis's turn on Fred!

Dennis is learning to ride just like the other kids have been doing this summer.

I've thought that by teaching them that they can control their mount while walking alongside them, it will help build the confidence for being on top and...being in charge later.

They learn that it is amazing how with such a light touch they can control this huge animal. This hopefully transfers to a light touch with the reins later.

Let me say that I am not a certified trainer, I've just had many opportunities over the years to work with kids and equines. Fortunately the horses and mules I've worked with have been of exceptional temperament and have had lots of experience with all types of riders.

I think a donkey would work well in this sort of situation also. However most kids wouldn't want to learn how to ride a donkey. We, in this country glorify the horse and tend to look down upon mules and donkeys.

Balance without reins is first taught. Eventually the rider learns to balance without hanging onto things and without using the stirrups.

I was taught as a kid to first ride bareback. But my training was pretty informal. 
Get on the pony, ride and try not to fall off.
I fell off a lot.

Today Dennis will wear some boots. I'd rather see all kids wear the proper footwear, but unless they are riding a lot, I don't insist on having boots.
In the future? I hope all the kids can have a pair of boots to wear!

Today dawned cold and clear. In fact it was downright chilly on the porch this morning while I was having my coffee and watching Morris do his 'thing'.

A big thanks to Dennis yesterday for helping me clean up the porch after I mowed around it and spit grass all over it.

We sat outside and had supper on the makeshift table and watched the sun go down. 

What a good day.

The Wander-er has returned.

I had to take Lily back home to Wausau, she had to go to Middle School Orientation.

Whoa, does that ever make me feel old!

When we got to her town early we decided to go check out a place that I'd been wanting to visit since last year when Lily and I took our October adventure on Rib Mountain.
I am drawn to water, and love rocks and water. Give me a stream and rocks and some rapids and I can be happy for hours.

Lily and I only stayed a short time, but what we saw made us determined to return.

And we did so on Saturday afternoon.

Welcome to the Dells of Eau Claire. 

The scenery was fantastic. The kids were fascinated by things they found along the river.

This was just below the dam and foot bridge. The kids stopped to look at crayfish and frogs, along with snails and other creepie crawly things.

We eventually made our way down the North trail and I kept getting side tracked by the amazing fungi I kept finding.

I found a lot of Coral Fungi growing next to the path. The hardest part about photographing it was finding intact fungi. The folks who were hiking the trail must not have looked at what they were stepping on. 

A few times Sterling would be curious as to what I was doing crouched so low to the ground and he would come running. He is not yet two years old, so I didn't expect him to understand that I didn't want him to step on the fungi either.

It was a challenge to get a shot of the fungi before he stepped on it trying to look into the camera lens.

Elena had just turned 3 and she had an idea that this 'stuff' was pretty special. She'd ask, "What is that Mamma?"
I'd tell her "Fungi!" and she'd wrinkle her nose. Of course she wanted to touch everything.

Elena helped me set up The Doe and Fox near some Coral Fungi. She enjoyed playing with grandma's toys.

Her favorite toy ended up being the green iguana. She carried that on the rest of the hike. I was afraid she'd lose it, but never fear, when Elena has something she wants, ...she doesn't let go of it.
I was surprised that she actually gave it back to me when I asked.

Both of the little ones loved the trail we walked on. It actually was not a difficult trail at all. Sterling kept taking off like a rocket. His new found freedom of running without a parent yelling at him to stop was probably in the back of his mind.

We found spots along the river to explore and even a spot to just stop and enjoy the rushing water.

It was relaxing. My son Jer loved the place. I hope he decides to come back often as it is only about 20 or so minutes from his apartment.

Before we realized it, ... it was 5pm and we had only gone perhaps a half mile along the trail. We headed back towards the parking lot amidst the little ones' protests.

I decided that a potty break would be a good thing before the trip back.
Elena turned 3 just a couple of weeks ago and is potty trained. So I asked if she wanted to go.
We went in to a stall.

Elena took one look at the pit toilet and let out a yowl! "NO NO NO, I don't have to go! I want out, I want out!"

If you've ever been to a pit toilet in the summer, well, you know they stink and the drop from the seat looks terrifying.

Note to self. Elena would rather squat in the woods than use a pit toilet. And I don't blame her one bit.

I found out that these little ones will be like Lily. Good little adventure-ers. [I'm not sure that is a real word, but I'm going to use it anyway.]

Sunday morning came along and I had to head home. I had to work on Monday morning. My time with the kids and my wandering had come to an end.

However, I'm going to keep the Dells of Eau Claire on my list. I'd like to see it again in the winter.
Perhaps I will go if I wander north again to visit the little ones this fall or near Christmas time.

Trying to keep it together

I love spring for many reasons.  Mostly because I enjoy not having to wear so many layers while hiking.  I do like spring for the simple fact that I can go out and find new things appearing from what looks like a barren forest floor.

Here the ferns are just emerging on the 16th from on top of a rock. The curls are nearly as small as a pencil eraser.
Next to them is a Virginia Waterleaf emerging.

My grand daughter went on a very early morning hike with me on Sunday morning.
The dew was still heavy on the grass in the valley.

And as we dipped into the steep valley we walked into areas that the morning sun hadn't even come to yet.

Eventually we made it to the Big Spring.  It is a spot that water comes from a hillside and adds to the existing creek.  The spring sports a beautiful morning delight for us.
Marsh marigold everywhere.

Ariel busies herself while I take several shots of the flowers.  She works on a story line for Doe Story with a Meerkat and Fox toy.

Our journey kept us going.  Ariel asked if we could try a another route home and I said we could.  We decided to go along the rock ravine and climb up to the old logging road.

We had more adventures, but I am going to stop this here. I've run out of time today and have to get ready for work.
I know that we had a great time though.

To be continued...

Recipe for fun!

Morris was all up for sledding with the grand kids when they came...

In fact he was so excited he made sure that he made just about every sled ride there was.  Although sometimes he bailed and ran alongside whoever was sledding.

The video below is not of great quality, but you can see that Morris was riding in between my grandson and I.  Morris was trying to see over Dennis as we went down the pasture hill.  

I really don't know who had more fun, the grand kids, Morris, or me!

After lunch we headed to the creek to see the ice wall.  Morris and Ariel led the way.

There was a lot of exploring to do near the ice wall.

The creek may seem awful small here, but it really is such an important part of the valley.
The soothing sounds of the water trickling over the rocks is reason enough for a visit at any time of the year.

By this time Morris was getting pretty tired.  He had given up on running back and forth to physically check on all of 'his people', especially 'his' kids.

So he would pick a spot and watch everyone.

We gathered at the ice wall for a group shot of ourselves.  I set my camera up on a tripod and grabbed the remote.

Morris of course photo-bombed us over and over.

Of course we had to head back towards home and we all came to the conclusion, I think...that the visit was wonderful and jam packed with activity...but too short.

The kids wanted to sled again, or go hike to the east side of the valley.

But we would have run out of daylight.

Fresh cold air, snow, the creek, sledding, and outdoors?
That was the ingredients for Fun.

Morris was rather put out when the kids left.  He searched the house and then laid on the pink sweatshirt that Ariel had worn and sighed.

By late evening, he seemed quite a bit stiff, so we gave him half a baby aspirin.

This morning, he was back to his bouncy stuff.

Thank you to 'gtyyup' at Life at the Rough String for her advice for assisting elderly Terriers who get a bit sore after doing too much.

2 Days and counting!

Guess what?



Only 2 days left until the beginning of Grandma and Grandpa Camp  2014.
From what I understand the moms and some maybe the dads are more nervous about the kids being away from them than the kids are themselves.

I have it on good authority from young son that he will be relieved to have a break from his littlest child simply due to the fact that they are expecting another in September.

Maybe I am a bit nervous also.  It has been a few years since I've had this many children all under one roof.  But the old skills of wiping up baby drool, and handling all the demands of children will probably come back just like riding a bicycle.

I do however think that being a Grandmother has its advantages.  I can recall my grandmother Pearl with great fondness.

She was pretty cool.  But then again that is because she was not my mom and that makes some strange odd difference in children that I didn't understand before but do now.

Tomorrow will be the big shopping day for groceries and the last clean up and pick up of the house.

I leave to get Elena and Lily on Thursday.

Grandpa is going to get Dennis and Ariel on Thursday night.  Their trip is much shorter than mine.
My drive is 4 hrs one way.

So I will be staying Thursday night and bringing back Elena and Lily on Friday morning.

Let the fun just be great!

Being a Grandma

Some days are absolutely worth getting up for early.  I rose at 4am [yeah crazy huh?] ... and got Ariel up at 5am.
We hopped in the Subaru and headed to the ridgetop where I parked on the side of the road.

I wanted to share with her the wonderful pre-dawn hush of the world before the sun awakened the day.

I'd told her that she could come with in her PJ's and we'd enjoy the early calls of the pheasant and robins as light came to the ridge.

I'm pretty sure by the look on her face that this was a very cool experience for her.

Because I didn't want this moment to be forgotten, I set up the camera on a tripod and used the flash and remote to take a 'sunrise' selfie of us.

Surely, this will not be one photo tossed soon.  

~~~~

We discovered by a small rash, that Dennis had gotten into poison ivy the day before.
We found it rather quickly...or should I say his mom did.

Treated it right away with some hydrocortisone cream and then Jewel Weed soap and a gauze wrap for the night.

Imagine my surprise when the kids pitched in on their own to help do the chores yesterday morning.
I was pleased as punch.

I do think that letting them chose to do it and letting them figure things out on their own was a good thing.
They were very proud of the fact that they did this on their own.
They engaged in pretty tough work and I must say, I was impressed.

I'm thinking that this is what great fun it is to be a grandma.  Not only to infants, but to kids and to watch them grow and do good things.

Of course I've been a 'grandma' now for 10 yrs and it has been fun.  But never quite have I had a weekend like this.

I'm sure looking forward to a whole week of 'Grandma & Grandpa Camp'.

I'm pretty sure we are going to avoid Poison Ivy and Sunburn!
Well, do our best anyway!

If anyone told you it was not fun growing older and becoming a Grandma, they have NO clue.