Time Well Spent

So last week at this time I was rubbing shampoo into my dry hair, but luckily I remembered almost everything and we were off to the family cabin. We were so lucky to be able to spend the weekend with Wood, Woodine and Mary P as well as my parents. The weather could not have been better!!

There was boating, fishing, frisbee and catching crayfish. I think 27 crayfish were caught but the kids did return them to the creek so they could be caught again. They also had a lesson on extinction from Uncle Wood. Ainsley enjoyed her trip to "bone island" and wanted to spend all her time there. Daniel found the skull of the beaver that he "removed from the pond" back in July. The teeth were amazingly long and curved. There were fireside chats, BIG fireworks and a yummy outdoor cookout.


On Sunday we decided to walk down to the creek where a very large tree has fallen across. My dad wanted to survey it to see how long it would take to cut it up with a chain saw. We were also trying to empty the house so poor Woodine could get a nap. She looked utterly exhausted and with 11 people staying in that tiny house she didn't get much rest. Daniel stayed behind to fish but the rest of us made the long walk to the creek. The kids love it there. The kids were wandering around the rocks and water when Chase began to SCREAM!!! I didn't realize it at first but my mother called to him and said "What Chase, What's the matter?" He was frozen on the bank of the creek just screaming. My parents seemed to realize that he had been stung and yelled for him to start running from where he was. My Dad grabbed him and started swatting around him and lifting his shirt because he was grabbing his back. Well it ended up that Chase had disturbed a yellow jacket nest that was between some large tree roots along the banks of the creek. We all swatted the air for about 30 seconds and then started running back up the trail. It was our quickest visit to the creek ever. Chase just wailed and wailed and paced as we pulled out the first aid kits and searched for ice packs and anti-sting medicine. He was pretty miserable for about an hour and a half. He got stung on his back (right on his spine), on his wrist and on his face (side burn near the top of his ear). All places without any muscle. He can't swallow pills yet so after several failed attempts at swallowing a Motrin I had him chew it up. We then put on a "3 Stooges" DVD to act as a distraction and he finally felt better. He was really lucky that he didn't swell up like a big balloon, especially on his face. My mother was thinking that he might end up on the first day of school with a face doubled in size. Thankfully not.


A few minutes after getting Chase settled I walked around the corner of the house to see a stranger walking up the drive. He stopped to talk to my Dad. I heard him ask my Dad if he could take his daughter fishing in our pond. I hadn't stopped to listen to the rest. A few minutes later my Dad walks around the house and told us how the conversation unfolded. My dad told him that we don't allow anyone to fish the pond. That they had had problems in the past finding people's garbage around the pond, . . . beer cans, worm containers, fire pits and even fish heads (don't let Daniel hear you say that!) So my Dad told him it was a private pond, incidentally there is a public pond about 2 miles up the road. Also we are afraid if we tell one person, yes - go ahead then they'll be back all the time (when we aren't there)and tell their friends, "oh the owners said I could", so then their friends will come too and then their friends etc...


Well the guy got fierce! He said, "so you're really not going to let me fish?" " well you don't own that road out there! I can fish from the road" (there is a road that curves around very near the pond) " My dad said, no I don't own the road but I do own the pond" Then the guys says, "You don't own that water - that's public water that runs in from the creek. I'm going to fish!! What are you going to do - call the cops on me? Go do whatever the *&$#! you want!" Well now, that wasn't what any of us thought would happen when you say no, that someone couldn't fish on your private property. So as my dad was telling us the story, the guys drives to the part of the road that is closest to the pond and parks his truck. We were all sitting outside the house about 60 or 70 yards from the pond. And we wait. My dad thinks he was waiting for someone to go over to him and continue the confrontation but we just sit. He never gets out of the truck. Then the guys stepped on his brakes and spun his tires for 20 seconds or so (it felt like much longer) spitting rocks and gravel into the pond and then he peeled out spitting dust into the air. Wow too much excitement!! Woodine really missed a lot of adrenaline moments during her nap. We were all a bit worried that someone that psycho might come back in the middle of the night and do something stupid. Luckily we slept safely Sunday night and hope that the house is safe while no one is up there.


On Monday between breakfast and lunch we walked down to a different part of the creek. It's called "Snail City" Ainsley LOVES the fresh water snails that live in the pond. This one part of the creek is loaded with them. The 10 feet just prior to snail city is the deepest part of the creek. It is just one section about 6 feet in length and it goes up to the boys neck. Anyway, a lot of baby bass and minnows get trapped in the deep part because then can't get pass over all the rocks when the creek is so low. The boys smashed a few shells and threw the meat into the deep pit. The tiny fish swarmed to the snail meat. I was amazed to see little fish about half the size of my pinkie swimming around with pink meat in their mouths. We then tried to removed the rocks in the creek between the "fish pit" and "Snail City". We created some actual flow and hope some of these little fish will now end up in the pond! We had loads of fun doing this.




The kids got to swim for about 45 minutes before we had to pack up. The boys floated way out and were even jumping from the rafts and boats into the wild growths of "coontail". It's a pond plant that thrives in warm water. Next year we hope to treat it before it grows hog wild. We reluctantly had to leave early so the kids could get to bed at a decent time for the first day of school.

Our most favorite part of the trip was meeting Mary P of course. She is such a doll!!