Second Tree Blog » Easter 2009

Easter Weekend at the Farm: Spring has Sprung

Tim — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 22:36:37 +0000

No kids here — just an assortment of nature photos I took over the weekend.

Easter Weekend at the Farm: Carson on the Move

Tim — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 22:40:28 +0000

Benton just got a new bike for his birthday from J and Boppa. He hatched the idea of taking it to the farm for Easter weekend. This was a horrible idea — it’s too hilly, would be muddy, and just generally wouldn’t be fun.

I was wrong.

We took both Benton’s and Carson’s bikes.

It was hilly…which meant they could really go fast down grassy slopes.

It was muddy…but that just made it more fun. A muddied Carson (click on the photo and then click on All Sizes to view a larger version and see the mud speckled across his face and coat):

Carson and I went for a ride on the ATV. We stopped a couple of times to admire the view:

Easter Weekend at the Farm: Grandpa’s Birthday

Tim — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 22:34:22 +0000

Two cakes and five grandkids singing you happy birthday ain’t bad.

Easter Weekend at the Farm: How Long Did You Think I Could Stay Away from an Alana-Centric Post?

Tim — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 22:34:06 +0000

When she saw the first post I put up recapping last weekend, Julie commented that she was impressed that I managed to not lead with Alana. I decided to really show her a thing or two by holding off for many posts on that front. I made it to the third post before I cracked. So…Alana’s weekend:

Giving Grandma very explicit directions on how to play (get two paper plates, get assigned one crayon at a time, color anything you want…unless Alana tells you to color something different,…):

Spreading corn for the deer with Grandpa:

Getting ready for a walk with Mom and Dad:

Being documented on her Easter egg hunt:

With one of the treasures she found during her Easter egg hunt:

3 years old going on 27:

Easter Weekend at The Farm: Potatoes

Tim — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 01:25:39 +0000

I’ve just uploaded 30 photos from our weekend in West Virginia…and I’m struggling to figure out how to break them up for a series of posts. Going with the, “If you don’t know where to start, start anywhere” approach, I’m going with “potatoes.”

Potatoes.

As in “potato gun.” Benton and I made one a couple of years ago, have shot it on a number of occasions, and took it to Julie’s dad’s farm some time last year and just left it there. We’ve shot it a couple of times since then. If you’re not familiar with the concept, it’s a PVC pipe construction that has a chamber into which you squirt hairspray and then ignite with a flint-based igniter. It will launch a potato 100 yards, easy.

This weekend, the kids went through two 10-lb. bags. Benton and his cousin, Tyler, really got to perfecting their technique:

Benton and Tyler have been a pretty good pair for several years now, and the fact that they see each other more often since we moved to Ohio seems to be tightening that bond. They were inseparable all weekend.

Not that Benton just hung out with Tyler. He also spent some time sighting in a pair of binoculars:

Birdwatching perhaps? Counting deer off in the distance? Um, no. Sorry, Mom. He was prepping to make sure he could focus in on the potato…that his cousin Meg was shooting at with a BB gun:

I did say I was going with “potatoes” for this post.

More from the trip to come in future posts.