Action Adventure Boys

While W may have touted "No Child left behind" we prefer
"No child left INSIDE"

Jonas putting his new camp bike through it's paces.

Sam checking out my new kayak.
He followed us for about 2 miles one evening as we paddled the canoe and enjoyed the sunset and baby loons.

It's SCIENCE!

As I've written before, the kids spend a lot of time up here catching wild things, and I tried my hand at photographing the wild things.

One of the cousins had "the talk" with her mom while here at the lake. I can't imagine my boys ignorant of the facts of life after watching all kinds of critters mate and reproduce.

Of particular interest in this area right now is a beautiful loon pair that lives just one bay over from ours. They have two tiny black babies that often ride on mom or dad's back. We've heard that loon babies will fight to the death if resources are scarce in order to insure that at least one of them gets proper nutrition. With these doting parents, however, that hasn't happened... yet. There are also lots of predators below the water (snapping turtles, muskie) that would love to have a baby loon snack. We have been watching the pair, anxiously checking to make sure there are always two little bits of fluff on the water. So far so good!






In addition to the lessons in biology (and sometimes microbiology, but we won't talk about that), we get quite a bit of other "ologies" up here too, especially in the area of meteorology. We were surprised by a pretty big hailstorm the other day.




This afternoon Sam went diving in the lake for what looked life golf balls. When he pulled them up off the bottom they turned out to be smaller than a golf ball, the softest hue of pink and felt "like soggy ping-pong balls" as Murray put it. They definitely had a plastic kind of texture. But our guess was that they were eggs. Turtle eggs, to be precise. But turtles typically bury their eggs in the sand or even up in the lawn. We were puzzled, so we cut one open.



Turtle egg omelette, anyone?

What happens when you put the kids out in the wild and read a lot of books to them? They turn into little Bacchuses. We just finished reading Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis and Edmund described the little boy Bacchus as a chap who looked as if he might do anything. Big brother made Jonas this Bacchus crown while he was feeling guilty for getting Jonas into trouble. It doesn't look like he has any difficulty finding his own trouble!



Sam's been reading almost a book a day. The latest was A Wrinkle in Time, preceded by several Chronicles of Narnia books, cowboy action adventure stories, etc. He just started The Golden Compass and I'm hoping that it keeps him occupied for a while.



So, what happens to a kid after a long day in the sun with so much adventure to be had? They sleep like this:



Sweet dreams everyone!

Happy Canada Day!

Canada Day is July 1 and it is basically Canada's birthday.  You can read up on it here.  Canadians celebrate just like we celebrate Independence Day––grilling outdoors, beer, fireworks, live music and bug spray.  

I made a Canada Day White Balsamic Vinegar pie (recipe here) and it was mighty tasty if I do say so myself.

We shared pie and beers with Erin and Murray on their dock, looking out over the lake toward downtown Kenora.  It was a lovely way to celebrate!

shhhh

Back to Canada...

Hello everyone!

We've arrived safe and sound (barely) in Kenora for another fabulous summer of work and play. We've enjoyed great weather so far, even though it has been a very late spring here. When we arrived the lilacs were just blooming and the trees were still leafing out. The flora and the fauna have come out in full force. The insects (conspicuously missing in action the first week) have also come out to entertain as well as to pester us.





When we arrived, we had been dodging rain and thunderstorms all morning. Greg ingeniously planned our transfer from the car to the boat during a sunny spell. It would have worked too if we hadn't of stopped to get gas in the boat. We (and all of our stuff including cello and computers) were hailed on, and then our boat tried to catch fire after heading for the cabin. I guess the water pump broke and the engine got a little hot.

We were lucky enough to flag down some helpful boaters who towed us to camp. We were also lucky that no real damage was done to the boat engine. (Or to us!)

Greg has been playing with new toys. The first is a kayak which he has been researching, shopping for, and generally lusting after for probably a few years. It is very fun. You step into a canoe, but you "put on" a kayak. It's much more like riding a bike in terms of using your whole body to maneuver the craft.

The second new toy is a video camera which not only shoots beautiful, high definition movies, but also takes really nice still photos (at the same time!).

You can vicariously enjoy a dip off then end of our dock into the Lake of the Woods water which was ice not long ago:



The boys are up to their old tricks here, and I'm teaching on-line and working on the dissertation. I love my "office" which is often out on the porch overlooking the lake.

Easter!

The boys sure are growing, and are ornery, as you can tell from these Easter pics. Enjoy!

Fall Update

Most of you know that my computer hard drive died in Canada, so we weren't able to keep up on the posts. I was saved, however, by an angel who loaned me a laptop so that I could finish teaching remotely.

The big fall event would have to be Jonas' birthday.




Jonas invited friends to the pumpkin patch for his party. They spent about ten minutes carefully choosing pumpkins, and then spent an hour playing on this big dirt hill. Too much fun. It was one of those beautiful Colorado fall days with the brilliant blue sky.