Dog Day Sunday

Text: Hey, would you like to join us sledding?
Answer: Absolutely!

My young neighbors went out to do some sledding. Unfortunately, the adult in me had to stay indoors and fix someone an early lunch. When I got dressed and ran outside, I could hear that the sledding up on the ridge had ended. 
Little kids don't tolerate a lot of sledding like teens do. 

I texted back that sorry I was too late, but they had given me the idea to go sledding anyway.

I grabbed my old plastic sled. Charlie decided to come along for the adventure. What a dog!

The snow was deep enough even with the warm temps that he had to do the Charlie Leap to get through the snow.

We hiked across the ridge cropland out to where there is a gentle slope with no obstacles other than perhaps some long grasses and corn stalks in the contour strips. I picked the waterway that is left as grass in the summer. Linda cut it and baled it the fall so it was a perfect gentle hill.

The first pass was rather disappointing as you have to make a trail before getting a good go at it.

The second was great and I put Charlie in my lap. The ride down the cropland slope lasted at least 30 seconds.
Since the snow is so deep Charlie elected to ride with me and by the 4th trip he didn't even try to jump out.

The walk back to home was nice too. Charlie was worn out from Snow Leaping. When we got inside, he immediately curled up on the couch and went to sleep.

All that fresh air and walking back up the long hill made for a very good night's sleep.

Bear and I

What do you want to do?

It is dreary outside. I don't want to do anything.

Oh I think we should. 

Want to go sledding?

Okay. What is it?

I'll show you.

...

This is nice. 

This is scary!

...

and fast!

How about we just set here for a while and watch some birds, Bear.

Yes, I like this very much.

We can do this any time.

Any day spent with spent with you

is my favorite day.

So, today is my new

favorite day.

~Quote

from 

Winnie the Pooh

Home again update

I got home fairly late in the afternoon on Sunday as I had a midnight shift Sunday night.

Update on the 'kids' and their apartment fire. Everyone was safe and sound. 
My son's wife had gone to the Red Cross and received some funds for replacing some clothes and some other assistance.
For the moment they are living in their mom in law's house/downstairs apartment which is now very cramped. 
With a two and three year old that are rambunctious that doesn't make this anything but a temporary spot to stay.
At the moment, they sleep on the floor.
There will be assistance for them to help pay the first month's rent and a deposit when they do find a place. That is what Sam [son's wife] is working on. Something they may be able to afford.

I went shopping early Saturday morning at places like Nice As New in Wausau. I took Lily and we did some power shopping.
We made out very well with the used clothes and got the kids prepared for an outing.

One last stop at a sporting goods store for some sleds and we were ready. 

I had a grand plan. Let them play their hearts out while mom and dad were at work and I could then take them back to the motel and sort through the donated clothing from my neighbor with them.

We could watch a movie and have some quiet time.

The plan worked.

After modeling clothes and winding down. We had some quiet time. I got a movie on the Kindle and turned the volume down so they would have to be 'quiet' to hear it.
Viola:

I can say that the next time I am asked to donate to the Red Cross or the Salvation Army, I will indeed do so.

At the moment, everyone has clothes and the donations for toiletries are coming in.
My son will be going back to see what else is salvageable soon. The building inspector doesn't want him in there until the structure above the apartment is deemed sound.

They were lucky. What do they need now for the future? Well, most of that is up to my son and his wife. They need to put their heads together and formulate a plan.

I thought I'd be helping with that or at least making suggestions, but apparently not. This is okay with me. They need to stand on their own two feet.

I'd like to jump in and give them advice, but the night guy at the motel and I were talking about that...grown children and advice.
He laughed and said, "We can talk until we are blue in the face...and still it may fall on deaf ears."

He couldn't have said it better. 
I went and helped out some.
I hugged the kids and Jer and Sam a lot... Lily too.

And I left Sunday at dawn.

I was 17 minutes from the Dells of Eau Claire, I was not going to miss a chance at seeing it with incredible ice formations.
But that is for another blog.

Such a fun day!

It started with a snow storm. And how nice that it was on a day that I didn't have to drive to work!

I called my 'upstairs' neighbor around noon to see if she and the kids were going to be around after lunch.
I sort of...well.
I knew.
That sledding would be the activity of the afternoon.

If you have a hill and a willing heart. You go sledding.

The photo above is of me and our neighbor's oldest son going down their 'lower driveway' hillside.
We had such a blast. I can't think of a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
The whole family joined in and we just had so much fun.

After sledding the kids had some hot chocolate and then I invited Allie and Carson to do chores with me.

Their dad was plowing the driveway. Rich was also plowing.

So we had the 'men folk' plowing with a skid steer and tractor... while the kids and I went and did the chores.

Carson and Allie were so helpful. 

This was a sneak shot of Allie

It was so fun to have them help with the chores. Of course it wasn't their own chores that they had to do at home.
That really makes a huge difference.
Ask any kid.
Doing chores somewhere else is so much more fun!

Really.
Are my chores that much more fun than regular household chores?

I suppose I could have gone skiing, hiking, or just decided to be lazy...
but hey...
this was so much more fun.

Can you come out to play?

I finished putting away the groceries and then stood in the kitchen and pondered my next move.

Old ladies.  I wondered, why in the heck was I thinking that???.  

Was I getting old?  I was going to be 60 in June.
I didn't feel old. I didn't want to think about it really. Ugh.  

On a whim I called up our 'new' neighbor and asked if she'd like some company.  She suggested we visit and play outside at the same time.
Yes!

The kids had on their snow suits and we grabbed the sleds.
Time to take introduce them sledding in the Merry Meadow!

I paired up with Alli and Lauren paired up with Logan.  We rode from the line fence deep into the Meadow.
And we laughed.

And we screamed with joy.

And we bailed out and did face plants in the snow.

And we laughed more.  I felt young and happy.  This was much better than standing in the house trying to figure out what to do.

Alli does the 'bail' move.

Climbing 

After quite a few runs I asked if they'd like a tour of the Merry Meadow.  I explained that my Grand daughter Ariel had named it 'Merry Meadow' years ago and somehow it just stuck.

We took a long walk and I introduced them to the Dexter Cattle and Thor the donkey.
Thor granted us with a nice long bray.

The kids almost seemed a bit worn out as we walked back up the driveway.  

We had coffee and visited some more, then I headed home.

I'd had so much fun playing and sledding.  Kids keep you young, especially when you are my age.

I can't wait to 'go out to play' again.

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.