the sleppys

“A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.”
Proverbs 16:9

Who has gone camping without having done planning and a lot of work? Forgo one detail, and you come back to a house with garbage strewn throughout the kitchen and living room. Pre-camping is the stressful part of an other wise good time with the family, unless you drive the Charles Daniels.

The Charles Daniels is the name of our van. It is eleven years old and has over 161,000 miles. There is always something going on the with the oil, the cooling system, the suspension, the thermostat, the tires, the gas milage, the water pump, the gas pump, and even the door handle. It has taken us on every Everglades camping and hiking trip. Lately, the thermostat has been sticking and not opening up, so the engine will run hot. We were on the road, leaving our town, when Dad saw the temperature spike. We had to turn onto road that would take us back home. In the meantime, the thermostat finally opened, and the temperature dropped to normal. On our driveway at home, we stayed in the running van for several minutes and saw that the temperature stayed steady.

Dad had the idea of going to Castellow Hammock Park instead of way out to the Everglades. We had only been there less than a handful of times, so we became excited about the 112-acre woods.

Entering the hammock.

The very beginning of the trail. It is wide and thinly treed due to its many visitors.

Liguus fasciatus. The first moving tree snail we had ever seen. We see the shells in trees in the Everglades’ hammocks, but those are dormant.

Nephila clavipes, Golden silk orb weaver.

This rock pigeon was leading Ty down the path. We stopped to talk to it, and it wandered around the trail for a bit, then off the trail, then fly away.

See how the path becomes more narrow, and the foliage is thicker. Most visitors turn around before this point.

This is the tallest milkweed I have seen in a long time. It got really buggy, so I put the mosquito nets on the little ones.

Dormant tree snail

Kendall had the hiccups. She complained that she wanted water. I said that we would stop for water when we got to the van. Some moments later, she tripped over a tree root and fell, hitting the damp ground of the hike. She let out a cry, but Dad said she had nothing to cry about. I helped her up, wiped the dirt that she had on the palm of her hand, and asked if she still had hiccups. She seemed to have forgotten about it rather quickly.

Post-hike pictures:

Mom and Kyle sitting at the Nature Center.

Mom and Dad

Mom and Kendall

Mom and Ty. He’s not the “Let’s take pictures!” type.

Taylor and Mom… the sun was shining brightly.

Talon climbed this tree herself and got down herself.

We came home and made peanut butter and honey sandwiches, our usual camping lunch. I’d say it was a good trip.

Catherine Chalmers’ work is amazing. Don’t be lazy. Read her website and understand her art.

Thanks Leo and TWiT Photo.

Alliterative Verse :

Incredible iguanas insulted insurance.
Taylor tonguetwisted.

Then I explained metaphors: monkeys and kids as children, clams and bucks as dollars, etc.

And onto kennings: word-hoard for mouth. Brain handler for head.

Gretel whacked the witch into the cookie-chamber, rescued her brother from the cage, and they traversed together to their dwelling after having taken the hag’s trinkets and treasures.

On Saturday, the three older children performed at the annual piano recital. It’s Taylor’s first recital in which she played a couple lesson pieces. Both Ty and Kyle performed pieces from the Classical period and 50′s Rock & Roll. What do you think?

The three older children had been working on their recital pieces for several months. They played them for their grandparents by heart.

Ty began to show signs of stress, making the same mistakes, and he’d become so frustrated to the point where I’ve told him to get off the piano. Sometimes, he’s play mistakes out of spite. I’d tell him not to practice with mistakes. “Only practice correctly,” I’d say. He was just feeling a little stressed, feeling the pressure of performing.

If you can’t tell, Kyle added his own brand of syncopation. He was putting the rest after instead of before. As long as one can tap his feet and clap his hands to “Hound Dog,” I think any interpretation is good. It even makes one make the effort to listen.

Taylor was just a doll with her courtesies. She still needs to work on her form and rhythm.

On Thursday, Dad took the eldest and two youngest with him to run errands at the reptile and grocery stores. The middle two boy and girl stayed with me…

Taylor conquers the Ficus aurea.

Our hero dropped his shield.

They look like they are in another world.

Our northern European cousins are certainly inspiring. This video had me in tears, and I found myself wiping one eye at a time so that I could see the looks on people’s faces as they enjoyed the best of western culture.

Ty closed his physical science packet, slammed it shut. He got up from the school table, filed the packet away, and said, “Done! No more science.”

He walked into the living room and sat on the couch, clearly exhausted from the open-book science study guide he had just finished. “Now for some light reading. Oooh! The Human Body!”

I didn’t have the heart to tell him that he held a science book. I thought he should enjoy his bit of light reading.

When I came back from my run this morning, the girls were pointing out to me some bird feathers. I walked around and saw some flight feathers and thought that our cat Thor may have gotten himself some breakfast. The girls wandered around the front yard as I was stretching, and Taylor came back saying that she had found a bird

“Oh, yes. It’s probably the bird that Thor ate. Don’t touch it. The ants will eat the rest of it.”

“It’s blinking.”

BLINKING?  Gross.

I got up from my stretching, walked over to it, saw that it certainly was blinking, and I ordered the girls to go back inside the house. After a few minutes, it hopped up from against the house and wobbled on over past our yard, like it had a hurt leg or claw. I followed it but lost sight of it.

I walked inside, and the girls asked about the bird. I went back outside to double-check but couldn’t find it anywhere in our yard.

Flash forward several hours…

During my post-lunch/pre-work nap, I heard our neighbor calling out for Dad. I didn’t think anything of it until I heard excitement and commotion from the children in the backyard.

“We found a pigeon!” announced one of the children. Yes, I recognized it as the same pigeon as the one from this morning.

Dad found that it had an American Union tag on it.

Dad did some research and found the pigeon’s “owner,” but when he called, the man on the other line said that the last four digits didn’t match with any of his club’s pigeons.

What are we supposed to do with this wild bird? It’s not technically wild, and it acts fairly tame. When it heals from its wounds, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

They are supposed to make good pets…

Mine walked through my front door. This guy– found his in Walmart parking lot.