What's it mean??

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"Life is good when children sing their summer song of play and sleep deep from an exhausting day."

What's it mean?? Well it means that when children play so hard all day that they fall asleep in the craziest positions before they can even make it to their bedroom, hours before their bedtime. Two of them halfway on the couch and half off, one on the floor clutching a towel as a blanket and one on the spare bed. All of them still in their bathing suites.

Mom and I look around at the carnidge and smile knowing that we have some time to ourselves now. MMMMmmm Summer!

The 4-Fair and kids being kids without technology

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The important part of this entry is down a bit but I feel I need to set the stage.

Sydney and Erin just finished up their 4-H project of raising and showing their pigs. The project took three months and the pigs go from 65lbs to 250lbs and get judged at the local 4-H fair with all the other beef cattle, sheep and pigs. Getting the pigs on the truck to take them to the fair where they would be housed for the next two days was an ordeal. We really didn't have a great way of getting them on the truck. The plan was to back the pickup to a stone wall about the same height as our truck and walk the pigs from their pen onto the tailgate and into the truck. Sounds easy enough right? Wrong!! As soon as we let one of them out of their pen it took off running in circles, like a dog doing a little spaz run. After it calmed down we tried to lead it around the barn towards the truck feeding it Little Debbie snack cakes as a treat. Well we got it all the way around the barn and up to the truck when the pig looked into the back of the truck and wanted nothing to do with it, and did an about face taking off across the yard with me clamped to his back trying to stop him. It looked like one of those cartoons you watched as a kid. I learned an important lesson, you can't make a 250lbs pig do anything it doesn't want to do!!!! After a brief rest we used a few 2 x 4 foot pieces of plywood to herd the pig back to the truck. When he was just about to step or not step on the tailgate I rushed him from behind and hit him with my whole body like a linebacker hitting one of those blocking sleds on a football field and in the truck we landed!! One down one to go!! We decided to take the one we had over to the show and come back for the other one, so as to not push our luck trying to get another one in the truck and have the one in there get out when we opened the tailgate. Off to the show we go. At the show we just pushed him out of the truck and slid him down a ramp and into his pen he went. We took the other pig over the next morning.

The really great thing about the farm show is that once your there, your there all day. Picture a gym sized building with hundreds of animals, all in their pens and the kids are all taking care of them. Getting them food and water and bedding, cleaning out their pen, making sure they are cool and comfortable. They are not worrying about what they are wearing, or texting all their friends constantly, or talking on their phones, or playing computer games, of surfing Facebook. They are helping each other and playing tag and investigating all there is to see, using their imagination, just the way its been done for a long time.

Sydney in the show ring.

Water Beetles

Sometimes it can be hard to slow down and appreciate mother natures gifts to us, but this morning I was treated to a funny little water ballet by some water beetles in the creek behind our house. I was busy cutting the fields with the old Massey tractor that's about as old as me and trying to get it all done before I had to head to work, when I stopped by the creek to take a break. There I saw about ten little black water beetles flying across the surface and running in circles chasing each other. They seemed to float on the water. I watched them for a few minutes and was amazed at how they can live in the water like that. After a bit I was ready to get going again but the urgency of getting it all done before I left for work seemed to fade away and I really enjoyed the rest of my morning at home being out in the sun and cool breeze and the smell of fresh cut grass.

Everyone Loves Fireworks

Fireworks at the Morrison Funny Farm.

Don't need anything more, crying with joy!

"Life is good when children sing their summer song of play and sleep deep from an exhausting day."

Summer has Arrived at the Funny Farm

I can now say that summer has arrived at the Funny Farm. Tonight I was home cutting the grass after work and looking forward to jumping in the pool to cool off. The sounds of summer at our house were presenting themselves in force. The mower was going, little girls were running around making noises of joy that only they can make and Suzanne was cooking dinner to be brought out pool side. The best part was when it got dark out and we turned on the underwater pool light and the Christmas lights hanging on the fence around the pool. I sat there by the water listening to Sydney, Erin and Jessica romp around in the water like seals in the ocean. Diving and surfacing, looking for one another, pouncing on anyone that may have let their guard down and slipping away just as fast. Their little bodies sliding through the water effortlessly, moving like only children can move, like their bodies where as light as air, weightless in the water, and throwing shadows all around the pool bottom and the trees above. Then to add to the summer scene where the lighting bugs blinking through the air and the hundreds of spring peepers singing their love song. 

Life is good when children sing their summer song of play and sleep deep from an exhausting day. Now I must carry each one of them up to bed. A true labor of love, for each day they get heavier and trip harder but one no parent ever wants to not be able to perform.

Escape from Sowlcatraz

So I get a call from Kass on my way home from work asking how far away from home I am? I asked why and she said that mom needs me home right a way because the pigs broke out of their pen!  I still had half an hour to go so Suzanne was on her own. It takes a truly strong woman to take on four, hundred pounds or more pigs and three screaming kids in the rain and mud. Apparently the pigs were all over the place when she pulled in the driveway after work and they had no intention of going back into their pen or anywhere Suzanne and the girls wanted them to. In the end, Suzanne said the pigs got tired and decided to return to their pen all on their own. Moral of the story: over build everything and marry a strong woman! I have a strong one and yesterday was our twenty year anniversary.