Labor Day Adventures

This Labor Day we did something a different than an ordinary picnic or cook-out. Since Dad and the boys were out harvesting corn, Mom suggested that we girls pack a lunch and just go out and walk around the farm. So we did! It was quite fun.

We packed some sandwiches, mint tea, chips, and a couple other things which I can’t remember (XD), and took along backpacks filled with books and cameras.

This is my cucumber sandwich. Say hello. I didn’t want to waste the bread crusts after I cut out the sandwich, so I flattened them with a rolling pin, spread some cream cheese on, and rolled them up into roses. 😛

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First we headed past a place we call “The Sycamores” because… there are a lot of huge sycamore trees by the creek. DSC_2030 (853x1280)

I found some lovely periwinkle morning glories along the path. Aren’t they charming?

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We finally settled on a pretty, peaceful corner of the pasture filled with smartweed – a dainty little pink flower. We spread out a blanket, hung the hammock, and relaxed.

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This looks kind of weird…

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I love this one. ♥

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I did a really fun, cute photoshoot with my little sister here, but this post would be insanely long if I included all those photos oh wait it already is, so I’ll save it for later. Anyway, this was a great spot for taking pictures of little things. My favorite! 😀

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In interesting twisty stick.

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I love the bokeh in these pictures!
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Have you ever tasted sourgrass, or wood sorrel? That’s what this is. It tastes, well, sour.

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So pretty! ♥

 

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I found a beautifully shiny, polished nut.

 

The scenery was more scrubby here than the rest of our farm, but still pretty.

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Trees are nice.

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After we ate lunch and read for a while, we decided to move to a different spot. We crossed the barbwire fence (no easy feat in this pasture), walked over the field, up the hill, down a lane, and up another hill to a beautiful hidden spot behind a pasture. We’d never been there before, which is something rare since we’ve walked pretty much everywhere on our farm, and it was delightful to explore it.

Unfortunately I didn’t get many pictures with my camera because it ran out of battery, but Megan lent me hers.

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HA HA cows are such funny creatures. XD

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I think this picture is so neat but I don’t know why – it’s rather cluttered.

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I had the idea to play mancala while we were there. (Have you ever played that? It’s really fun!) I dug out some holes in the dirt with a stick and used corn kernels for the marbles. It actually worked!

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It’s really hard to see on camera, but Carmen and I built a great fort around this perfect square of trees. There were huge logs scattered everywhere (one pile was in a huge sinkhole O.o ). They made great walls but were exhausting to carry. We didn’t finish the fort, but we did make a good start.

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Mom and Carmen and I also built this little campfire area in a pretty shaded nook. We stacked stones for a firepit, hauled in some rocks and stumps for chairs, and made benches from logs and rocks. 🙂 It was fun.

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Mom also found this really odd-looking spider. O.o (She’s for you, Clara. 😉 )

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In the evening our whole family came up and had a picnic with us, and a bonfire too.

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So that’s what we did for Labor Day! It was great fun, even though the mosquitoes practically devoured me. I got over 40 mosquito bites (yes, I counted XD). O.o Anyway, the memories will last for much longer than the bites will, so it’s all good.

I hope you enjoyed this loooong post, my dears! Which was your favorite picture? Which was your least favorite? What did you do for Labor Day?

***Allison***

Mountain Hike {Photo Dump}

Yesterday we went on a beautiful hike in the mountains with our friends. It was tiring, but so fun! Plus there was a stream and a waterfall, so that automatically makes it a good trail. 🙂 I took quite a few absolutely TONS of pictures, so do some finger exercises, get comfortable, and start scrolling. 😛

Such a beautiful view, don’t you agree?

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Ahh, so sunny. ♥

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Beautiful ferns…

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We’ve seen these weird corncob-like fungi before, but I don’t know what they’re called. We probably looked it up but then I forgot. XD

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There were a bunch of mini cascades and waterfalls like this before we got to the big one.

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A few people pictures: 😀

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The kids were splashing rocks into a little pool and I got some really neat pictures with fast shutter speed. 🙂

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I love how clear the water was!

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Ahhh isn’t this waterfall GORGEOUS?!

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I love the next picture, even though it sort of looks like Megan’s holding up the fallen log with her head. XD

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Ha ha, my brother Jeff was climbing all over the place.

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The fallen log kind of got in the way of the pictures, although it looked neat, too.

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If you wade to the other end of the waterfall you find another, much steeper and narrower one. It’s basically just a shoot of white water.

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BOKEH!

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Aww, look at the cute little millipede. XD

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Trying out my new lens on some flowers here…

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Ohhh it was a gorgeous day, and the sun shining through the new leaves was just too pretty!

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My little sister and her friend are so cute together. ♥

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As we were driving back, I got a few good shots out the window. (Surprisingly, it worked a lot better when I rolled the window down. 😛 XD )

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AHHH I absolutely LOVE this next photo! I love all the layers and shades. ♥

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*Gasp* Okay Allison, maybe you went a bit too far this time. O.o I applaud you if you persevered to the end and actually looked at most of the pictures. XD I hope it wasn’t too strenuous of a journey. But wasn’t the waterfall gorgeous? And the mountains? Ahhh, it makes my heart happy. ♥

Have a lovely day, lovely people!

***Allison***

Path-Breakers (and Other Woodsy Stuff)

We were recently at my grandparents’ house for three days while my parents when on an anniversary trip, and during that time we made ourselves a path through their woods. It was so fun! (But, heh heh, I had to pay for it – my face is half covered in poison ivy rash now. Yeah. But it’s not so bad, actually. It doesn’t itch that much right now, although when I woke up today my face was all puffy. XD )

Oh, and sorry, but I didn’t take any pictures of the path. 😦

*Bursts into laughter* I’m just kidding – of COURSE I took pictures. XD XD

We made the path by clearing away the leaves, rocks, nuts, and sticks; and pulling out and trimming the many roots, saplings, and maybe the occasional unbeknownst poison ivy vine. 😉 It was hard work, my friends. But it was FUN!

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The beginning of the path (and my brother with a wheelbarrow).

But the our pride and joy was a nice-sized clearing we made in the woods. We even cut down a smallish tree with a handsaw that was in the way. (Uh-huh, yep! XD ) For the clearing, we made sure the ground was especially clear and free of stumps and other poky things because we wanted to be able to walk there barefoot. After we got it all cleared we rimmed the whole thing with rocks which we brought to the clearing via wheelbarrow. Then we added a fire ring (made from rocks), chairs (from stumps), a bench (from stumps and a board), and little table (also from a stump), and hung up a hammock (which we didn’t make. 😀 ).

 

Ta-daa!

You can see the size of the clearing best in the third picture.

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Now for some more detailed views.

You can see in the picture above that we made a little fire, but we had to put it out because sparks were kind of flying about, and we weren’t hankering after a forest fire. :/ We might try again when it’s wetter outside. We specifically made the fire ring around the stump of the tree we cut down so that we could burn it off.

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Stump-chairs and the bench:

We dragged this stump to the clearing for a little table/chair. (The white thing is a quartz rock)

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The day we made the clearing, Megan found a snail and a salamander. We made them our “mascots” and put them on the stump in a little container. And the next day they had disappeared. 😦 XD

I only have pictures of the snail, but you can go to my sister’s post about this here to see a picture of (the back of) the salamander.

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Aren’t snail shells beautiful? I love the way God designed them.

And the hammock… ahh!

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Looking up at the sky from the hammock…

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I can’t wait to see the path in spring! All the new leaves and blooming forsythia bushes will make it beautiful.

So far the path is about 400 feet (we added some past the clearing too), and we’re going to keep making it longer!

I hope you enjoyed this little tour. 🙂

***Allison***

P. S. Before you leave I wanted to show you some neat pictures I took of my sister puffing a puffball. I LOVE puffballs, don’t you?! 😀 (Click on a pictures to enlarge.)

P. P. S. I took gobs more pictures of things like sunsets and farm landscapes while I was at my grandparents’ house, so look for those soon. (By the way, my grandparents live just up the road – we are so blessed!)