Vacationing with sand and gators

We left our farm last Saturday morning and headed west. After several hours of driving we ended up at the Great Sand Dunes. Although first we checked into the campground, set up the tent and unloaded some of the paraphenelia you take camping. Let's just say for the record right now, I HATE sleeping in a tent even with an air mattress.
So we headed down the road to the Sand Dunes. It was still pretty warm and since my knee is still bothering me, I stayed at the truck with the dogs. We took Eliza and Jack with us.
So I don't have pictures of the Sand Dunes. The guys didn't stay on the dunes for long, the sand was still pretty hot and Alex went face down in it and had enough.
We went to Alamosa for dinner. We ate at a restaurant called True Grit. If you are a John Wayne fan, you seriously need to check this place out. They also serve very good food. And were quite accomadating in keeping my ice tea glass full.
Sunday morning we were going to go fishing at San Luis Lake but it is very low and surrounded by yucky black sucky mud. So no fishing.
We then turned our attention to the Zapata Falls. You hike up half a mile of rocky trail to get to a pretty awesome waterfall.






Sunday evening we ate at the campground's restaurant. Before I forget, Saturday evening the well pump went out at the campground. There was no water for showers and no water for the toilets. It wasn't until Sunday morning at 7 a.m. that portapots were brought in. And by 10 a.m. they were not pleasant.

Seriously, if I wanted a vacation with sand and wind, I could have stayed home and saved a lot of money.

We left the sand dunes on Monday morning and headed for the Colorado Gator Farm. They raise tilapia (it's a fish) and feed the dead fish to the gators. They also have crocodiles, emus, ostriches, a peacock, giant turtles, snakes, lizards and other creepy crawly things. The gator farm was, for me, the highlight of the trip. As was returning home and sleeping in a real bed.

The good news is the new truck did well on mileage. Many thanks to Magie for taking care of the farm while we were gone.

Father's Day 2011

We started Father's Day weekend by going fishing. Naturally. Peter got to drive the new truck. We went to our usual fishing hole, Willow Springs Pond. It has mostly blue gill, as shown by Alex's catch. He released it, on purpose. It also has a few lake trout, not very big ones. We did see a turtle. There have also been a number of cranes on previous visits

While Alex and Peter were busy catching the fish, Andy and I took Eliza for a walk around the pond. It's not a real big pond but there are two of them. We don't eat the fish we catch because just across the way is the water treatment plant for Fountain. Sometimes the smell can be...just bad.

During the walk we observed two sets of Canadian Geese families. One family had three juveniles and the other family had one youngster. Both families had both sets of parents. I'm guessing this wasn't a good year for goslings.


So...Happy Father's day to my dad. I hope this post makes sense, I'm doing it on four hours of sleep.

Wet fun in the Sun

Andy and Alex both had the same Kindergarten teacher. At the end of the year, Mrs. MacDonald has a splash party for her kids. One of the activities is a slip and slide. This year I bought one although our ground is bumpy. The boys are still having fun just playing in the water.
The slide goes down between the rows of our skimpy tomato plants. The winds have been beating the plants pretty bad.
Right after these pictures were taken, Andy jumped on the water tube and it split. Maybe we'll try that big ball that sprays out water.

New Baby

After eight years my Jeep Cherokee finally gave it's last. We bought the Jeep when I drowned the Taurus on our country road after one of our rare heavy rains. My grandma, Andy was 16 months at the time, and I were driving home at night in the rain. The kind of rain which brings out the millions of little frogs. The neighbor went through with his little sports car, I followed and the engine just sucked up the water out of the puddle and cracked.
Dare I mention that I was 8 1/2 months pregnant with Alex.
So Peter's brother, Charlie who was a car salesman at the time, found the Jeep for us. It worked well for the last eight years but started having more and more behavior issues. With 300K miles on it, it just made more sense to get a new vehicle rather than pour more money into the Jeep.



This is a 2001 Dodge Dakota pickup. We named it Penny. It should work a lot better for farm activities, especially hauling hay and feed. It even has some farm critters in it already.

Speedy

Since I wrote a post about Andy, I have to write one about Alex. He wanted it to be about how fast he can run. This child has been running since he was born, almost. Our house sits at the bottom of a hill and the driveway goes up the hill (makes for not so great run-off when it bothers to rain) Since he started to walk/run, Alex takes that hill at a dead run all the way to the top about 100 feet or so.
He tells me he runs faster than some of the older kids at school as well. He's very competitive. I'm thinking he will be very athletic in school, in addition to being on of those brainy kids. He'll be graduating from college in a few years at the rate he's going. And his principal was worried about Alex graduating when he was 17. He will but will turn 18 a few weeks later, my cousin did that and she turned out okay. But in the meantime, the picture is of Alex almost 2 years old.

Musical tastes

Nine year old Andy has begun developing his musical tastes. Right now he likes jazz and celtic music. He will sit and watch Celtic Thunder on PBS. I always knew that Andy had good taste in music when he was three years old and his favorite song was "One of Us" by ABBA. I would have to play it over and over when we went on a car trip. And the car trips from out here in the boonies can take awhile.
Andy will come and tell me when a song that he thinks that I like is on the radio. He has been listening to 92.9 in the mornings. He thinks that Goose and Woody are just too funny.

Gosling Guardians

On June 1, Juliet hatched out three baby goslings. They are doing well, surrounded by their four guardians. Juliet left four eggs in the nest, which I tossed. The ducklings which Giselle had adopted disappeared. Lucky the muscovy is still sitting on seven eggs. Mrs. G, the African goose, is sitting on eggs as well.
Andy and Alex are enjoying their summer vacations. They are required to read for at least half an hour, a real book- not one of the Calvin and Hobbs collections. Andy is reading "The Lost World" (dinosaur story) and Alex is reading different things. Both were spending too much time on-line so they were limited to one hour apiece.

Real geese

Three days ago, Juliet the embden goose, hatched out three babies. This time we have actual geese raising actual goslings. (please see previous post) She is still sitting on a few eggs, while dad Romeo and aunts Garnet and Grizzelda all take care of the kids. It's rather funny to watch these large geese all surround three little babies. Mrs. G, the African goose, is also sitting on a nest. Lucky the Muscovy duck hen is sitting on six eggs. Mr. D is finally paying better attention to her. Probably because the other geese won't let him near Juliet sitting on her nest.