Now I Know Why my Mom Dreaded Summer

Happy Summer Folks! It feels like the season is really, really here. Tomorrow is the last day of school and Wyatt is going to be home as a kindergarten graduate in need of constant occupation.

This picture of pretty flowers from my garden is supposed to calm me regarding the inevitable.


Well, nope. That didn't really work. Oh crap. I'm doomed.

We spent some time outside this afternoon in the lovely weather. Temperatures topped out at a mild 80 today and even though I could probably survive in Siberia and be happy, I tolerated the heat. Huh huh. . .

Ella, meanwhile, made the pilgrimage out to the arena to drive her wheelbarrow around and tie some invisible object down with a ten pound chain.


Wyatt, not to be outdone, found a spare building anchor in my barn and was spinning circles around the base as fast as he could.



My kids are kind of like cats. They are attracted to sand and can be occupied by strange but fascinating things that are not real toys. I swear that I could give Wyatt a bottle cap and a piece of lint and he'd find some new way to use it.

Getting bored with heavy chains and such, Ella took a seat on the cavelletti's in the middle of the arena. I've been meaning to move them for weeks but somehow just forget. They are really in the way when I am trying to do lateral work on the horses but I just ride around them. I guess I've been lazy like that.

I just love this photo for some reason.

I think Ella was gazing in amazement or in dizziness at Wyatt spinning around and around and around. Knowing he was being watched, Wyatt interrupts the moment to show Ella that one can "taste" sand. He's a smart cookie. Yep.



Mind you I warned them both, "Your mouth's not gonna like that!" But sometimes one must figure it out the hard way. Plus, there being a whole ham between the two of them and a camera in the vicinity, a show must be put on.

Not being one to turn down a dare, Ella partakes in some grit tasting of her own.

Then of course there was this.

On to smarter animals. . . Horses. Now they know what is edible and what is not.


While it looks like they are eating dirt here, actually they are picking up bur clover seeds (Medicago polymorpha) that are all over the ground. It is one of the last thing that gets munched out of their little pasture. When the seeds dry out, they are edible. Earlier in the year the horses don't touch them. Most "clovers" are more bitter earlier in the year when they are super green.


And because I can't enter their field without being attacked, here's the two nice horsie faces up close and personal. Meet the Vegetation Destruction Team. I think they would like to be like the A team. And the have enough legs between them. Gemma is a professional escape artist and Sharpie could be the look out.

I ramble. . .

Our little vegetable garden is going strong now. My favorite are the snap peas. I LOVE LOVE LOVE eating them right of the plants. And I am strangely fascinated by the twisty tendrils.


At our house the rule is "If you pick it, you eat it." So certain children better not pull any peas off the vines that he does not plan on putting in his mouth.


Lastly, Bingo is living the good life. Some food, some exercise, some socialization, and some restful sleep.

It's all in a days work!

How is your summer starting?