Day of Leisure

Neil has been working hard on his days off for awhile now so we decided to take a sanity day today and spend it up at his parent's house in VA.

We went out for an early morning boat ride on Kerr Lake which was lots of fun.

The kids with Mimi Bensen.

This was Taylor's first boat ride... she seemed to enjoy it!

Then we relaxed on the beach as Evan and McKayla swam in the lake.

Later we took the kids to a local craft fair and got ice creams and hand crafted wooden swords and shields for the kids (under strict orders not to hit anyone with them!).

It was a very relaxing day... wish there were more like this!

Labor Day - a day to relax

In celebration of Labor Day today. I packed up a picnic lunch (grilled jumbo shrimp wrapped in bacon, grilled corn on the cob, grilled pork country style ribs, apple cole slaw and a watermelon, yummy) and Neil hooked up the boat and we all headed to Lake Kerr for the day.


It was a bit breezy when we got there but the sun was shining. Neil took the kids down to the lake for a swim while I cooked lunch on the grill. After lunch as we were cleaning up the skies became dark, the wind picked up and soon it was raining cats and dogs. Luckily we had set up under one of the wooden picnic enclosures and were able to stay dry while watching the rain and doing a bit of coloring. Evan also did a bit of playing in the rain as you can see here...

The rain did finally pass and soon everyone had returned to the lake. A group near to us was preparing gear to go parasailing right from the beach below us. That was fun to watch. Neil took the kids swimming again and they had lots of fun. Unfortunately, we lost too much time to the rain and never got the boat out on the lake ourselves. I wanted to get home before dark to get evening chores done. But still, we had an enjoyable and relaxing day at the lake.

Swimming on Mayo Lake

After working on odds and ends in the heat yesterday and this morning... Neil announced "I don't know about anyone else but I am hooking up the boat and going swimming on the lake!" Needless to say the kids went crazy and started running around getting everything they felt they needed to take with us... smile.

Once we got the boat loaded up we decided to go out on Mayo Lake, which is the small lake right near to us. The boat landing is only about a mile away so we were in the lake in a wink. We hadn't been out on this lake yet so we tolled around trying to find a sandy place to go swimming. What we ended up finding was a small island that had a sand bar to the mainland. We swam for about an hour when a storm blew in and it started to rain.
It was a torrential downpour! With the boat moving the raindrops felt like sleet. It took about 15 minutes to get back to the boat landing in the rain. It continued to rain most of the afternoon, which the pastures really needed.

And the winner is....

Well, Neil did it! After two days he finally pulled that pontoon boat out of the lake. The owner was as good as his word and he signed the title over to Neil so we are now the proud owners of a very dilapitated 28 foot pontoon boat. :)

It has potential (we think) and Neil will be working on it when he can to get it water ready. That may not be till next summer though.

It was just in time too as after several weeks of no rain we are expecting rain in the next 24 hours.

The race is on!

With a slow start anyway... the first bit of prep work that we needed to get done before even thinking about raising the sunken pontoon boat (see yesterday's post!) was to free up our flatbed trailer which currently has a seven foot tall enclosed wooden box on it that is packed full of stuff from Neil's last load of stuff up from South Carolina. It was still packed on the trailer as their is just no place to put it all.

Neil worked all day unpacking the trailer onto the deck, into the house, attic and the shop building. We also moved stuff out of the house and into the attic and shop as well to make room for the stuff coming in. So, once agian we are stacked up the walls with boxes! Sigh! At least this is the last of the stuff to find homes for things.

The house is so full that we can't see the kitchen counters and can hardly walk anywhere! We went out to dinner finally at 9pm as I couldn't face clearing way to cook.

I did take some time this morning to move the chicken chicks out of the 3x6 brooder area and into the 10x12 chicken coup area. Chicks are not the brightest birds and didn't want to leave the safety of their brooder. I had to catch all 50 some of them by hand and move them the 5 feet to the other side of the wall. I got the kids to do the last 5-6 of them. Once moved and settled down from the chase they seemed quite happy to have more space and roosts to sleep on too!

Oh... duck update: Great news! I can't tell the difference between the ducks today so all is well... yeah!

The Duck is still alive!

Great news this morning... the little injured duckling from yesterday is still alive!

He isn't perfect but he is drinking water for me still. He has a bit of a head tilt and I can't get him to walk at all. I am still not sure if anything got broken. He is articulating his neck well now so I think that is fine, his wings apear to be ok but I can't get him to stand up so I am a little worried about a broken leg.

Later in the afternoon the duckling was still looking better so I thought I would return him to his hatch mates to see if he was just depressed. When I first put him in the brooder he didn't want to move; even when the turkey poults walked on him. I sat back and watched for a while and soon he was scooting himself forward to get to the water! Yeah!

By evening chores he was up and walking to eat and drink and rest with his hatch mates. I could still tell which one was the hurt duck because it's back was hunched up and it held it's tail down and seemed to tire easily. But, yesterday I never would have thought he would make it this far so I am very happy!

Oh, Neil had gone to town this evening and when he returned he was very excited. You see, about two miles down the road there is a causeway that crosses over Mayo Lake on the way to town. For several months there has been a pontoon boat that is moored to the shore and is sunk on one side. It never moved and looked abandoned. Well, tonight Neil asked around with the local folks and found out who it belongs to. He returned so happy because the gentleman who owns the boat told Neil that if he was able to raise the boat and move it he would sign the title over to us for FREE! This is a 28 foot pontoon boat! It needs work but Neil loves that sort of thing. So now, Neil's head is spinning trying to figure out how to get it up as I guess several others have been made the same offer so it is a race of sorts!

On the lake at last!

Well, Neil worked really hard on the boat motor this morning and by early afternoon it was running great. We packed up some drinks, snacks and put on bathing suits (well... not me, mine is still packed in some unknown location) and headed out to Lake Kerr in Virgina. It is an Army Corp of Enginers lake and is very well maintained. We tolled around the lake for a while running the boat all the way up to Clarksville, VA which is advertised as the only lake side community (aka town on the water) in the whole state of Virgina!

Then we turned around and headed back toward the boat landing. Along the way we found a sandy beachy spot so we stopped and let the kids (and Neil) swim for a while. Evan said he never wanted to leave and that we should collect the logs in the woods to build a house right there! Finally, it was getting late so we headed out and made it back home before dusk, just in time to feed the animals. It was a good afternoon.

To learn more about the recreation available on Kerr Lake visit: http://www.saw.usace.army.mil/jhkerr/index.htm