Nature 101

Hubby has always been the outdoorsy type. He loves to fish and camp. And he considers camping when you do it in a tent outside, not in a cabin in the woods or a camper.

Me on the other hand. I didn't catch my first fish until I was 31 years old. It was in Hubby's grandfather's pond. Hubby was not there. When I sent him the picture of the little fish hanging from the hook on my pole, he didn't see it. He couldn't figure out why I sent him a picture of me smiling so proudly, holding a fishing pole like that was some big accomplishment. So what if the fish was only a few inches long. Maybe two. It was a fish. I saw the line wiggle and I reeled that fish in all by myself while it fought me off. I was proud of my catch. So there.

I guess the point here is that I am not an outside girl. But Hubby knew that when he married me. Now don't get me wrong. I love to look at God's beautiful creation. I especially love to watch leaves change color in the fall. I love to drive down the road and see it. I love to pull over at the designated spots to admire the breathtaking views. To get out of the box and take a risk, I might pull over at an undesignated spot to admire a breathtaking view. I love to see old barns in their natural setting. I love to see pretty flowers blooming in my yard. I like to run back in my house if I see a spider or a bee or a snake that might threaten me. I need boundaries. Outdoorsy people don't have boundaries.

Our kids. Outdoorsy kids. Hubby took them Saturday to a local cider mill. They're big up here in the fall with all the apple crops. I wanted to go play with my family, but I had to do yucky stuff in my garage to finish getting school stuff organized. I'd been playing too much and had several hours of things I needed to do with uninterrupted time. It was the perfect opportunity, although I really did just want to go play. Well, until I heard some of the things they did.

Here's some fun they had outside the mill. We always call Caboose "goat boy," so it was very appropriate for him to be the goat. Too bad I wasn't there to be the fluffy sheep with all my hair.


They had apple cider and donuts before they went hiking in the woods down the trail. I love this picture that Hubby took of the kids from behind walking down the main path. I even put it over on the sidebar I like it so much. We're going to have to do it again when the leaves change and then when there is snow on the ground. Won't that be cool?

Here are some really pretty nature pictures that he took along the way while he was losing the lens cap to the camera.

Here are some great pictures of the kids down by the river. The water was cool, but not like in North Arkansas where they take it off the bottom of the lake and it's like ice water. By the way, Hubby did an excellent job taking pictures for me.

The kids didn't just want to walk on that main path you saw up above though. (That's the one I wouldn't have minded too much. You can walk in the middle and stay away from the edges where something might get you, and if there's a spider hanging down there's enough room to walk on the other side.) The kids wanted to walk on the foot paths. Little trails down through the woods.

I was glad I wasn't there. Because you know that little trip to Sam's on Saturday I was telling you about. There was a little conversation going on with one of the kids. "Blah, blah, Mr. Potato Head, blah, blah, Christmas decorations, blah, blah, can you believe they have that many Hannah Montana things, blah, blah, the snake we saw today, blah, blah." I perked up. Hubby was a couple aisles over from me, but I wasted no time in making sure he heard me as I immediately questioned him, "You saw a snake today?" Hubby's surprised looked and slight, "Huh?" was really my answer, but I did repeat the question, to which I received the answer, "It was just a little brown one." Now my husband is as freaked out by snakes as I am by spiders, so I'm a little surprised by the calm exterior I'm seeing, but I'm not questioning it. I just started secretly quizzing the kids. They did not all see it, and there were various opinions as to the actual colors that went with the brown. But there was a snake.

And you know that river they went wading through? They smelled something and went to check it out. It wasn't a pleasant smell but a very bad odor, as in something decaying. Hubby finally located what looked like a dead and decaying deer on the opposite shore. Now I have failed to tell you that Hubby dropped a cable box corner on his big toe during the Big Move, and it just came off over Labor Day weekend. So he didn't take off his shoes and go wading through the water and mud with the kids. No. He sends Sparky, our little nature lover, over to check out what appeared to be the remains of the dead deer. Part of it was down to the skeleton, with flies hovering, and he actually had the other kids go over and take a peek if they wanted to. Let's just all let out a big "Ew, gross!" together, shall we?

But there is an award for the day! We'll call it "The Big Buzz." The award winner came out of that water with her bare feet, stepped on a bee, obviously got stung, and had to have her dad get the stinger out. She decides to bring it home to show me. She held the stinger, keeping it from poking her hand, walking back through the woods to the vehicle, walking back through the woods to find the lens cap, walking back through the woods to the vehicle again, falling about five times (must have been those pink flip-flops she wore), and riding home. Oh, and while carrying a purse. She held the stinger through all that. No small accomplishment I think. Here's the winner of "The Big Buzz," Chatty:

Even though Chatty is not allergic to bee stings, and even though she didn't really have many problems with it on Saturday, by the time we got home from church Sunday her foot was no longer looking so good. It was red, hot, painful, and very swollen. We ended up taking her to a local urgi-care place and she had to go on a steroid along with the Benadryl we were giving her. Mean bee, that one.

I'm glad I only had to battle the roly-poly bugs in the garage this weekend.