Back at the ranch,
the heat of the day seemed a perfect opportunity
for Paul to build a little
character in
The boy.

Here Jacob is being instructed on the proper technique for hoeing weeds in the driveway.

 

Hoe those weeds, Jake!

 

A girl and her story binder are seldom parted.

The rest of us spent the heat of the afternoon lolling around the cabin with the cooler blowing.

Sissy Jupe,
who truly believes in her very large 8-year-old heart
that she is still a puppy,
nonetheless requires more naps than she used to.

 

Thoughtful...

 

Meg,
having discovered that being enrolled in Great Books means homework,
needed to spend some time
studying her Prometheus Bound for school...

 

Cookies.
An Essential Ranch Food.

 

Two Old West Gunslingers.

 

Condensation.

 

Reflection.

 

Trigger.

 

Husband.

 

Cricket.

 

Toes.

In the evening we had a beautiful time fellowshipping
with our neighbors, Ron & Sherry, and Gene from across the valley.
They brought their BBQ grill, some corn on the cob,
potato salad, baked beans,
water melon, and pumpkin pie,
and we provided the T-bones, fried mushrooms & sweet onions,
cole slaw, sodas, and tables.
It was absolutely grand.

I was having too good a time to take pics of our party,
until afterward, when we were sitting around
recovering from the repast,
and
the dogs were enjoying
their portions.

 

T-bones are high class eatin' for our doggies!

 

Happy boxer!

 

My beautiful Sissy!

 

A little evening sunlight through the leaves.

 

Boy with Beetle.

 

 

Saturday morning we were up with the sun
(because that is what happens when you have sky lights)
and Megan fixed a delightful, tasty, and enormous batch of oatmeal.
"It's 'double the water' - not 'double the oats'!"

Been there, doubled that... live and learn!

After brushing our teeth we locked the dogs up in the cabin and headed out for
our morning jaunt to Springerville.

As always, our first stop had to be the wetlands -
or
"The Swampy Place."

Here are my pics of mostly plant life, some creepy-crawlies,
and a few humans thrown in for balance:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That is one healthy looking grasshopper.
And there were thousands of them!
I observed that they have very pretty designs on their wings,
which can only be appreciated during flight.

 

 

 

 

Pretty Meg in a pretty field.

 

 

Geneva navigating the rocky edge of the creek.

 

So fascinating to watch this one consuming a flower petal!

 

He ate all the way down the length of one half of a petal,
and then went on to the next one.
There were several half-eaten petals on that flower.
Is there such a thing as grasshopper OCD?

 

 

 

 

 

Can you see her?

 

It's Meg, beneath a very large tree!

 

 

These two were quite fascinated with a critter they found on the path...

 

This is the critter.  About 2 inches long... interesting!

 

Dad and the youngest two rascals.

From there we went on to the Western Drug Store,
spent time and money and fooled around
and enjoyed ourselves,
and managed to get home to the ranch in time for
a tasty lunch of cold cuts and cheese on rye.

 

After our Carrizo Wash photo shoot,

it was Laurent's turn to take the wheel.

It took a little maneuvering and back and forth
to get ourselves out of that soft silty sand,
but the Heidmann Pioneer Spirit
is strong, and we were
not to be defeated.

Along the return trip this grandiose skyscape caught my eye.

 

We stopped by an abandoned corral and looked around a little.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dusk was upon us when we turned back into the driveway.
I had my driver stop part way up so I could
squint across the valley to see
where my husband
had gone.
Zoom lens to the rescue!
(Not a great zoom lens, but enough to make out figures 1/3 of a mile away!)

There he is, standing in Gene's driveway, looking back at me.
"C'mon home, honey - time for supper!"

 

 

The Heidmann Junior Driving League was eager to head out on an explore,
and so that is what we did, once Paul was done with his
water pump labors.

The younger two went
shooting with dad,
and the older two
went driving with mom.

But in order to get into the van, we had to pass through a veritable thicket of

these vicious, nasty brambles.

 

Heading up the hill I snapped this pic of the cabin.

A grand view from the top of the hill, looking east.

 

The road ahead, through my dirty windshield.

 

The first of many obstacles in our path,
a minor wash crossing that had washed out,
and was only made passable by a few hardy 4wd vehicles going through before us.

 

Sun and shadow on the hills.

 

Lookin' like a seasoned veteran...

 

Besides the driving practice,
a major requirement of the excursion was photographing anything and everything that took our fancy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Having reached an impasse,
I looked back the way we had come.
I'm reveling in all the green while I can... will not last!

 

There was plenty to see on foot though...

 

Like this wee little bug on a leaf...

 

 

These are pretty bugs, and they seem to be particularly fond of the purple flowers.

 

 

 

Meggie climbed up the embankment to see what she could see...

 

Hi Meg!

 

Epic.

 

I feel rather sorry for whoever left this 10" deep footprint,
and am rather surprised that there is not a shoe at the bottom!

 

You know, in this picture it really doesn't look too bad...
however, that the soft silt is not really quite dry,
and even stopping where we did
before entering this wash,
we almost got stuck
(and me without my phone!)
turning around.

 

Down along the wash there was much happy green and yellow.

 

Can't get enough of these flowers!!
They are everywhere EXCEPT my property...
I must find some seeds and scatter them,
in hopes the ants will leave a few to take root.

 

So, so green.
And so, so terribly buggy!!!
We would have stayed longer and walked further but for the thick haze of mosquitoes.

 

I never cease to be impressed with
the power of water to shape the landscape.

 

A lovely girl amidst the flowers.

 

She was a trooper to pose for me,
considering those bare toes,
and the colony of ants she found herself standing in!

 

Gorgeous.
God is quite the artist.

 

 

~*~*~*~*~
NOTE:
Here begin my journal entries for the weekend of Labor Day...
if you visited the links I posted to pics on FB,
(which is a format that works better for some)
this will seem redundant,
but I chronicle all this here for our family.
~*~*~*~*~

Friday morning we were up early, packed, and on the road to our gas/beverage/breakfast stop at QT by 7am.  Since we traveled via both the mini-van and CEL, the kids had the chance to switch between vehicles at various stops, which is always fun for them.  Jacob, however, insisted on riding in the mini-van the whole way, so he could be with the dogs.  A boy and his dogs must not be parted.  I particularly appreciated being able to drive the little car with air conditioning, since 65mph wind whipping through my hair and against my skin is rather numbing after a while.

I enjoyed the time with, by turns, Megan, Megan and Geneva, and Laurent and Geneva as we traveled.  I found, however, that persistent lack of sleep was catching up with me by the time we were halfway to Show Low, and the only way to stay awake was to sing!  We had a good old fashioned hymn sing, with standards like

Oh, the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus
 Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
How Firm a Foundation
 Amazing Grace
Be Thou My Vision
  &
Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation.

It was quite invigorating!  I was reminded of our travels when the children were young, before they all became readers who bury their noses in big thick books wherever we go, when our van would be filled with glorious hymns  and joyful noise as we rolled along. 

We always pray and commit our journey to our Heavenly Father’s care as we are leaving, and He has always protected us along the way, even last trip, when our guardian angels worked overtime with the brakes failing along the way, and a flat tire that we noticed when we arrived at Wilbur’s IGA in St. John’s.  This trip was, by comparison, blessedly boring and uneventful. 

We arrived around lunch time, and out came my camera.  (You don’t know how aggravating it was to have to drive the whole way and not be free to snap pics at will…)

 

Here's my Megan, happy to be out of the car and done with the unloading.

While ominous looking, these clouds did little more than blow over our heads and shield us from the sun - which, come to think of it, is quite a bit!

We always turn on the water right away when we arrive, so as to give the dogs a drink... this time however, nothing came out of the faucet.  Here Paul is attempting a low-tech solution to the apparent vacuum problem.

While my husband strove valiantly against the forces of physics and a water pump that wouldn't start,

 I wandered around blissfully with my camera taking pictures of pretty flowers. 

We each have our allotted spheres in life,

and pretties definitely fall into my sphere.

This plant, which usually stands upright, was virtually flattened by the wind sweeping across the range!

These vicious thorny plants are the bane of us all... they're everywhere, and they have no mercy!

 

Wind in the gras...

 

Lovely clouds...

Ahhhh!  At last, the pump began to work!

 

First a trickle...

Then a stream....

And finally, gorgeous, clear, fresh running water!

Back inside the cabin, the boy had his shoes and socks off before you could say barefoot!

Go HERE for pics from Sunday!

 

Go HERE for Saturday pics from the ranch!

 

 

 

 

Go HERE for pics from Friday!

 

 

I'm home.  Did you miss me? 

 

 

 

I meant to leave a note saying "Happy Labor Day weekend, see you when we get back from the ranch" -- but as I was running around Friday morning gathering last minute supplies, someone came by my computer and helpfully shut it off for me before I was quite finished!

 

I'm so happy to report the weekend bore none of the trauma and car troubles of our previous excursion.  It was terrifically calm and restful, and included a jaunt to Springerville, and several "explores" with the junior drivers at the wheel, and plenty of photo stops along the way.

 

I'm off to cull through my photos and will post them at Facebook (with links here) presently . 

~*~*~*~*~

Just as we had started our pizza supper,
the doorbell rang,
and Paul went to see who it was.

When I asked the girls to look out the window and describe the visitors,
they said "It's a couple of guys in white shirts and black ties..."
and I said
"...with black pants and backpacks?"
Yup.

I said,
"Oh boy.  This is going to take a while."

And there was knowing laughter... Paul is notorious for his thoroughness
when visiting with missionaries.
All the kids have memories of being outside with Dad on
various occasions when
Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons have come by,
and listening to the discussion.

Jacob was not content to peer through the window,
but had to go right out and observe
up close.
He would come back in to report,
and then go back out and listen some more.

We had a good family discussion after they left that covered
the history of the LDS,
as well as a brief outline of Paul's presentation of
the Church Christ founded
as being the more viable alternative.

All in all,
a very useful inter-mission.

~*~*~*~*~