Communing with nature

One of the things that I like the best about our time in Missouri and with our family is the large amount of time that we spend enjoying, observing, and learning about the natural world.





The day after the 4th, we loaded up and headed to the country again. My grandpa, the two oldest boys and Brad were heading out in canoes to fish another section of the river.






I love to see their eyes when they first get their feet in the water. It is cool, clear and begging to be explored. You can't help but dive your fingertips into the gentle rush of a small current beneath you as you rapidly look at all the different rocks below your feet. Rocks that are great for skipping, throwing, using as a dam, and sometimes using to kill snakes (but not on this trip). As we put the canoes in a deer was crossing the river just ahead of us. Time stood still. We all watched in silence and awe. After the deer crossed into the brush on the other side, we all seemed to exhale as if we had all held our breath as we watched, wanting to be completely aware in the moment.

The boys had many natural experiences that day. It turned out to be rather stormy and from their reports they had to go to shore a couple of times and take cover. I believe that lightning struck nearby a couple of times and they had to bail water occasionally as well.

But the fishing was good and we will be having a fish fry soon enough.

The Conservation Department for the state has many conservation areas throughout the state. There is one here that has a wonderful hands-on museum. My mom is a volunteer there and was conducting a class this last weekend on dragonflies. Little E and baby O went and had a wonderful time. We went to one of the ponds and tried to find dragonfly nymphs (no luck) as well as adult dragonflies (lots of luck). We also explored the museum, which we intend to do again this coming week. Mostly because they have a turkey in the bird area and I find turkeys to be very funny.

4th of July

I know this post is coming in a bit after the fact, but as this vacation has gone so far...

Nothing happens when I expect it to.

The 4th of July is my third favorite holiday. Christmas and Easter are of course my first two with them being the birth of Jesus and his Resurrection. But, as for the independence of the country that I am so privileged to be a part of, it certainly ranks third in holiday favorites.

I love how we as a people come together to show our respect and appreciation for those who have come before us, and those who currently serve our country, to grant us the opportunity to live as we do today. I am so very thankful.

I have to be honest though...I also love the food that comes with the 4th of July. This year was fried chicken and garden fresh veggies at Granny and Papa's. Then downtown for all the festivities.

We wandered the streets and saw old cars and monster trucks,

visited the local firefighters,

watched a motor cross exhibition (the boys were in seventh heaven!),

played in the children's area,

and let the kids ride some of the fair rides,

Then fireworks while sitting on the state capital lawn.

Total dream!

Blackberries and spiders

We have had a relaxing week back from the country. Each of the kids have had the opportunity to have a "special" day out with Granny this week and we have had a good amount of time in the pool.

The lawn was in need of a mow so yard work was on the calendar one morning and this is what was found on a branch by our oldest....

Little E, the little scientist he is, immediately asked for a jar and captured it. Luckily for the critters he captures, they are released quickly after their visual inspection. We are not sure what type of spider is was. Hopefully my entomologist sister will be able to identify it in the photo.

GPop planted blackberries this season and the harvest has been plentiful. He is picking around a gallon each day. One morning we went to help. Everyone used their blackberry spotting vision and we cleaned those bushes of each ripe berry we could find. So sorry birds, none for you today!

I'll just leave you with this thought.

Blackberry cobbler each night after dinner...Mmmmmm.

Snakes in a boat

I know it does not really sound as exciting as snakes on a plane, but when you experience it in person, snakes are exciting. Especially the surprise snakes. We experienced two of the surprise ones on the river.

With river snakes you have to be mindful of the venomous ones. You know, the ever dreaded cottonmouth or as I like to call it, the "Oh, S*#t" snake. It is the most common venomous water snake.

If I had time, I would tell you the tale from my childhood when my dad killed a huge cottonmouth on the bank of a river with just some rocks. It is a great story. Ask me sometime and I will tell you all about it.

But this time we had a snake sighting up river and notice from other swimmers to bale quickly. And so we did. It is really funny to see some one get notice that a snake is coming their way and then see them high stepping out of up to 2.5 feet of water to shore.

Go ahead, get up, try it. Remember that you have water resistance to confront. Oh, don't forget to have a beer or cool beverage in hand. Oh, don't forget to grab what ever young child is near you as you plow to shore.

That being said. We all stood on shore and watched this long black snake swim gracefully through the water, fairly close to shore. He tootled along until he got a little too close and someone felt the urge to throw a rock at his head. I believe that he has had previous snake killing experience because he hit dead on first shot. He took a couple more rocks for good measure and them threw him to shore to investigate.

My crew couldn't get down there to take a look fast enough! I did not go. Neither did baby O. The report was that he was probably a cottonmouth. I am not buying that at this time. But, it makes for a good story.

Roughly a week later, several of us went canoeing again. I believe that it was our 3rd canoe trip and we were all feeling a bit big for our britches. We were having to paddle in some pretty strong winds and were doing quite well for ourselves. This trip the canoes lined up as so:
Brad, our oldest, and our baby O in one canoe
My sister, her husband (also known as my brother in law) and little E in another canoe
My brother, his wife (also known as my sister in law) and their oldest son in the third canoe
Me and my dad in the last canoe

We all did extremely well with the winds and some challenging rapids. Then we were hit from the side with an unexpected wind which blew dad and I into some low hanging trees. Everyone knows that you will occasionally find snakes hanging out in trees. So, always look before going under them. Well, we didn't have time to look as we were shielding ourselves from being taken out by the trees. Once we were through and had gathered ourselves, we made our plan to get back into the stream when dad yells, " SNAKE IN THE BOAT!"

Yes, I said a few choice words. Remember I did not have children in my boat. I looked around and it was coming my way. If we had a child in our canoe, the snake would have been on the child. I have no idea what I would have done. Perhaps I would have done some superhero magic and flung the snake to the other side of the river while managing not to tip the boat and continue to paddle in the right direction. Maybe, maybe not.

Imagine if you can the shape of a canoe. I quickly balanced myself on the tip of the front of the canoe waiting to see if I needed to jump ship. I didn't, somehow dad got the snake out with his paddle. I don't know how, but he did. I sat back down, said a prayer, said a few more choice words and we went on our way.

Can you guess what type of snake it was?
Wrong, it was just a common northern water snake. I think it was still out to get me. I could see it in his eyes.

We will go to the river again in about a week or so. Maybe if you are lucky, I'll have another snake story or two. If I am lucky, I won't.

Till then...
Happy canoeing.

Rocky Falls

We all recovered from the reunion and illnesses and decided that we needed the healing powers of water. It has been several years since we had gone to Rocky Falls. Too much fun! A stream flows down over a rock face that has been carved over many years and makes a small pool area before moving on down to another stream. The pool starts out shallows for quite a while and then drops into a deep hole, perfect for swimming or diving from the rocks.

Baby O really enjoyed floating around in the pool and swimming on her own.
All the boys wanted to jump from the rocks and swim to shore. They did great!

Go Av!

We were only there for about an hour before a thunderstorm came up and forced us out. Swimming and thunder/lightning don't mix. So we bailed and decided to go to Alley Springs. Check back tomorrow and we will explore a natural spring that produces 81 million gallons of water a day!

Reunion

Family is a wonder, right?!

Leave it to my family to make a already eventful and busy day, even more exciting.

First, little E came down with a 103 degree temperature in the early morning hours that Saturday. So, he was thus confined to the camper so as not to infect the masses with whatever he had. We still are not sure what he came down with. Brad and I took turns hanging out with him and all his sadness. He fell in and out of sleep all day, mumbling through his fever induced sleep with crazy comments like: "Isaak don't do that, I'm sick. You don't do that when someone is sick." Or my favorite, "WOMBAT!"

Unfortunately, my baby O, my nephew, my niece and our oldest all became prey of the same virus over the next week.

Second that day, we required a visit from the local 911 responders for a family member who had a diabetic seizure. She and the two family members that followed the ambulance to the hospital spent all the morning and a good portion of the afternoon away from the festivities.

All this before 9:30 am. Oh yeah, it also stormed and rained most of the early morning. That was not good since our plan was for outdoor dinning. The weather did clear up and the sun came out, but so did the humidity. However there was a nice breeze, that was redeeming.

Family began to arrive around 10:00 and the visiting and consumption of DELICIOUS food began. It was a great day. Grown-ups visited and talked, talked and laughed. The kids were everywhere playing together wonderfully and having a great time!

Here are all the kids in the family!

It is amazing to me how people who have not seen each other for so many long years can just pick right up and chat, like they had just talked yesterday.

I am so proud and honored to be a part of this legacy of Barnes.

River Recap

We have made it back to the land of wireless high speed internet, word processing, and my external hard drive. I failed to pack it down to the cabin as well as my laptop which prevented me from posting anything of substance. So I have decided to use each day this week to post about the last two weeks down in the country.

Our time in the country is always precious. This is the area of the state where both of my grandparent's grew up.

It is where we always went as a child to see family and commune with nature.

It is where some of my greatest childhood memories were made swimming, floating, canoeing, and boating the Current River and surrounding springs.

It is where I will provide my children the same opportunities.

We started our week with some quick swimming trips to the river and a day of breaking in a new slip and slide at the river house.

There is never a lack of nature at the river. Whether it is catching minnows and crawdads, or watching schools of fish swim by, there is always something to observe and discover. There are tons of turtles and even snakes to see as well, but I'll tell you more about our snake adventures later in the week.

My sister Jessie and her husband took E on an environmental adventure one day and they came back with this monster.

Can you guess what 9 out of 10 of us said?

Yes, you are right. We said he looked tasty and we should take him home and cook him up!

Lucky for him, E is about conservation as well as exploration, and sent him back to his home.

Did I mention snakes earlier?

We did encounter a snake on our first day at the river. But that is a story for another day. I'll just leave you with this...
When we were aware of the snake, I had flash backs to my childhood at the river and the speed at which people can vacate a body of water. I think people are faster now a days. At least I am, and I was carrying two kids.