Harris Park

We love to take Zach to Harris Park, because it has a really nice playground, as well as the new and very cool water park.

He likes the Lion drinking fountain, as well as going over and looking at the water slides

Momma Woodchuck

We finally decided to trap and relocate the groundhog that was digging all kinds of holes under our barn and eating anything we tried to plant in the garden.

I got a nice live trap and found a place down by the railroad tracks that had other woodchucks.

I set the trap one morning, and it got very hot that day. Zach had just gone down for a nap and I noticed that the trap was full. I wondered and worried about how long the woodchuck had been there, was he dehydrated, starving? I went down and sliced a banana into the cage and rigged an aluminum foil drinking trough that I could insert into the mesh. I had to wait for Zach to wake up to drive him over to the release point.

It was not until I had watched the woodchuck run off into the woods, right after watching another woodchuck scurry for cover when I drove up that I started thinking about the fact that maybe the woodchuck wasn't a he, but maybe it was a she. What if she had babies?

The next day, Andrea told me she saw two baby woodchucks scurrying around, eating flowers, and running to hide. Now they live under the barn and under the front steps. Soon they will be old enough for relocating. It's the cycle of life.

Old Missouri Town Buildings

Some of these old rustic buildings out at Old Missouri Town are pretty in the spring.

Old Missouri Town Animals

We went out to Old Missouri Town on a hot day in May. They have sheep, cows, horses, and chickens out there. Zach loved to get a close look at all of them.

Zach's Gardening

Zach usually likes to do anything we do. You can get him to grub in dirt and rake or pick up star balls or sticks, whatever yard work you're doing, he's glad to help.

In this case, he decided he was going to do his own work. He sees the flower pots as needing to be stacked or arranged on the driveway. He was very intent at this task and made it last about 15 minutes, stacking and unstacking the pots. Bruiser helped.

Learning to Kiss

You don't think about this, but kissing is not a natural skill, it's something you have to learn with practice.

Zach finally started his attempt to learn how, with mixed results. Now he's an enthusiastic, but somewhat messy kisser.

Bubbles on the Driveway

Zach & Andrea hung out with Bruiser the newly adopted cat on the driveway blowing bubbles.

Notice Zach's snazzy KU sweatshirt and crocs.

Why do "dime store" (or should I say "dollar store"?) bubbles not work very well nowadays? Seems like the soap's too thin and the little wands just don't make bubbles well. I remember when I was a kid someone came up with this super bubble wand, and I think the stuff you were blowing was plastic or an industrial chemical or something, because it made these freakish basketball sized bubbles that were hard to pop. You don't see that anymore, but the chemical in the bubble juice was probably toxic.

Zach also had a new friend, the hanging hoot owl. He liked the way it swung back and forth.

Lake Vista Trail

I finally got back out on the walking trails in mid-May. The last time I had been out there, Zach wasn't walking that much, and he mostly rode in a backpack. This time, he got on the trail and pretty much ran the whole way out. Then he got tired and I carried him back in the backpack.

The white wild roses were in full bloom, as well as some other nice wildflowers.

Heirloom Irises

The Heirloom Irises are back! Those really tall ones that are light purple (almost white) were in the middle of the yard up to about 3 years ago when Andrea and I cleared out the old "tent garden" and moved them over to the "well garden". We named them because the one in back had a tent pitched the year we moved in (the summer of 1973) and it killed a big spot in the yard (we had so many visitors for so long that summer that we slept in the tent most of the time). Dad just put railroad ties around the dead spot and started a garden. The Well Garden was a well at one time. After the roof started caving in and our cat fell into the well and drowned, we decided to fill it in. It took me two days of shovelling gravel into it to fill it up. It was made of cinder blocks and the front wall was cracked and bowing it, so we were afraid to let the gravel trucks get close enough to dump directly into the hole. That was a hell of a workout shovelling all the gravel in. I think the gravel wicks water up from the ground, because it never dries out and kills whatever we plant in it.

The irises originally came from my Grandmother's house in Hutchinson Kansas. They are huge. The blooms are twice as big as other irises. Besides the lavender colored ones, there were also peach colored one, but we haven't seen any of those. When we dug up the old irises, we didn't put them back in the ground quick enough, and a lot of them died. I've also found that when you transplant irises, sometimes they take 2 or 3 years to re-establish and start blooming again. So we might still get the peach colored ones to come back.

I don't remember where the yellow irises or the two-tone purple ones came from. We dug up a bunch of them back in the woods, near a old fallen-in homesite down near the creek behind our house soon after we moved in.

Colonial Lake

Zach discovered that Colonial Gardens has a big lake. He ran down to the edge and started walking along the rocks on the bank, and that's all he wanted to do from that point on.

There's something linear to the way he thinks. He finds something he likes and does it over and over. I have to admit that the pond was pretty and a nice place to be. The view was nice across the pond and there's always something soothing about being near water.

The huge stones in the bank presented a small concern at first. After finding that they were all secure enough to walk on without having them tip over or slide into the lake, I stopped worrying about the rocks. I tried to stop worrying about his being at the edge of the pond. I knew the lake was only about 2' or 3' deep right off the edge, so if he tripped and fell in, I could jump in after him and quickly set him back on the rocks. I felt it was worth the risk. So I shadowed him close to see if he could be steady on the rocks and wouldn't fall. He did fall a couple of times, but no more than the normal number of falls from walking anywhere. And when he fell, he went straight down on the rocks and didn't tend to lurch out of control into the lake. All was fine until a giant beaver jumped out of the lake and dragged Zach in after him.

Now he lives with the friendly beavers in their mud and stick home. He's gone feral, but I think he's happier that way.

Colonial Gardens

I took Zach out to Colonial Gardens nursery in mid-May. He loved the greenhouses and all the plants. When there's not many people around, I tend to let him run and explore, just hanging back to see if he's going to get into any trouble. He did not try to destroy anything, which is good to see. I'd hate to be one of those parents whose head is spinning around trying to keep up with a destructive child bent on sowing chaos. Zach just seems to be mostly curious about everything.

He loved the fountains that were in the back of the main building. He liked to stare at them and sometimes touch the water coming out of the fountain spigot. He kept going from fountain to fountain, content to stare at the flowing water. You consider a fountain to be kind of boring, it doesn't really do anything but spill water on itself. I'm not sure what the fascination is, it's got to have something to do with the running water noise.

Unruly May

There is something wonderful about early spring when the grass comes in uneven and plants are bursting forth in an unruly display. The cats get more hyperactive and it's good to be outside after a long cold winter.

Zach was thrilled to be out in the yard with his Mommy. I don't normally post blurry photos, but he is having so much fun in this one, I couldn't resist.

Heart Pond April 2011

I love this little heart shaped pond just down the road. It's 100° outside in July as I write this, but this is what it looked like in late April with the redbuds blooming.