Summer's End

Teachers enjoy the liberty of having 2 months off every work year.  Activities like family trips, home improvements or an extra job are commonplace among us during this time, but one thing is certain: August 1st beckons us back to our classrooms and the teacher-like mentality most of us have put on hiatus for June and July.  I've had a little longer mental break from teaching this summer than most, and while I had a few visual flashbacks at the city pool, most of my summer has been teacher-free.  While I love my job and the people I work with and for, summer is a special time for family activities in our household.  Here are a few captioned snapshots of what a teacher's summer might look like from our life.

 

Father's Abilene Tennis Super Open.  Or as Mr. Manning like's to put it: FATSO tourney.

 

  

My reward for playing 4 hours of tennis in old shoes.  As a side note, I would have tried putting the dead skin in a pop machine to see if it was worth anything, but then where would my souvenir gone?

 

Summer means "Fishing" which means "Worms" which means "Really cute faces on kids"

 

"Fishing" usually means catching fish.  Unfortunately, this was about all that was catch-able that day.

 

I love taking the boys "fishing" which really should be called "Keep-away from the hooks!"

 

We found a dead dog this summer.  He'd been dead a looooong time. Nothing sparks the interest and imagination of a little boy (and big ones?) like a dead, mummified thing in a barn.

 

Conveniently for Americans, the 4th of July happens over the summer.  Wouldn't that stink if it had been during the winter?  Those founding Father's new what they were doing waiting around until July.

 

Abilene allows the locals to discharge large quantities of grade A explosives giving you a new appreciation of what it might be like to live in a warzone.  This pic may look like a terrorist attack, but it's all about context: Blowing up stuff near a pile of grain is just fun in Abilene.

 

My genius wife +Emily Engle had the idea of visiting as many state parks as possible this summer.  We notched 5 on our belts this year and Milford is a great one that's close.  We had a blast checking out a variety of parks.

You might see a pile of feces.  Or you might see a swarm of feces loving flies.  I see a magnificent green color created by God.  It's all about perspective!

 

 On one of those State Park visits, we "Buckled down" and paid a little extra for the comfort of a shack-abin. It was pretty tiny but awesome.

 

Summer means a lot of swimming.  This beach was perfect for the whole family. Too bad the next morning it was covered in green/blue algae.  It's been about a month since that swim and we haven't grown any new limbs yet.

 

Summer means staying up late.  And fishing.  And star-gazing.  Truly "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork." Psalm 19:1

 

Taking God's palette of nature and adding my own weird creativity.

 

Summer means seeing animals.  Summer also apparently means being watched by crazy googly-eyed hawks!

 

Summer means frozen Popsicles!

 

This summer will be remembered for #Rain.  Lots of rain.  We were definitely blessed with rain after a very dry summer previous.

 

When there's rain, there's....Waterfights!

 

I don't know why but this picture makes me laugh.  Maybe because it's the antithesis of these pictures; which seem so tough and manly.  Watch out for the Mafia Cat Boys!

 

State Parks have a lot of geese!  I may or may not have encouraged my son to chase them.

 

So many beautiful cool nights this summer.

 

Summer means riding on boats.

 

Summer means butterflies.

 

More rain!  They're pretending to be ducks.

 

Puddle jumping has to be one of those activities kids love almost as much as their parents don't. 

 

All the moisture made the ground think it was spring again.  Weird seeing these things in July/August.

 

Summer means parades with friends!

 

Is the re-occurrence of water pictures getting annoying? Water was everywhere and we were thankful, but maybe a little ready for some sun and heat too.

 

Summer means the county fair and talent shows.  +Emily Engle  took 1st place in Abilene!  She won a bucket of car-care products.  I was so happy......for her I mean.

 

Summer means camping with family.  Mom and the kids.

 

Summer means Thomas K.'s birthday! +Shannon Keltner 

 

Camping and Birthday's are a good combo.

 

Summer means playing glow-in-the-dark-frisbee.

 

Summer means eating breakfast outside.

 

Summer means eating lunch outside.

 

I'm not exactly sure what +Lance Powell is doing but I'm pretty sure he's hailing a new era of awesome shirtless-ness and finding disc-golf discs at Tuttle.

 

Summer means eating supper outside.  #Steak

 

Summer means lots of family time. +Rachel Powell 

 

 Another cabin camping experience.  Not bragging, but that was one good breakfast right there.

 

Summer means 1/2 marathon relays with my wife.  

 

Summer means watching dad still show everyone up at skiing slalom.

 

Summer means family and boat time.

 

Maybe one of my proudest moments of the summer.  My 4yo son loved skiing with me.  Couldn't believe it!

 

 Summer means finally catching some real fish, even if it was the last day of summer!

June means "Harvest"

June is possibly the most anticipated month of the year in our house due to several reasons: 
   1) June means freedom from school.
   2) June means outdoor work on the farm.
   3) June means "Harvest" which may seem like hard work, but it's always a joy to participate.
   4) June means camping.
   5) June means swimming.
   6) June means fishing.
   7) June means Family.
I personally think the last reason is best since we love to share what we enjoy and all of the prior reasons are merely enjoyable opportunities to share with one another.

Here are a few highlights from June 2013.

 

One does not simply swathe into Brome-grass.  Breakdowns and field fix-its are almost traditional.

Why yes, that is a dashing young prince dashing through the pristine waters of the pasture pond.

 There's another prince, just waiting for his princess to show up.

 Family: Father's day at the cabin.

 Moonlight and sunset fishing.

 Water-slide! 

 Summer Solstice moon, aka; Super moon on June 23rd. (The actual solstice is the 21st)

 Harvest began under the threat of rain, but it was idle.

 Beautiful harvest scenery.

 Harvesting goes on no matter what time of day it is.  This is a post-supper run.

 Greater threat of rain during harvest, but still idle.  It went around every field of ours so we could keep cutting.

 Boys and adults love combines.

Family: Lunch and Supper have been traditionally held in the harvest fields for generations. We continue to support family tradition.

 Mr. Lance  +Lance Powell inspecting the grain for weevils and fungi.  He has quite the knack for spotting inconsistencies in the matrix.

 Sunset shadows on clean-cut wheat make some interesting patterns.

A lovely pair  +Rachel Powell and +Lance Powell helped us get close to finished on a Saturday night.

Two for One

Turkey season again.  With my failed attempt at deer hunting and archery in general, I was glad to get a shotgun back into my hands.
Opening weekend, my brother-in-law and I were able to call in a nice tom.  Lance shot him at 10 yards, full strut!  It was about as perfect a hunt as you can get. 

 My first weekend to hunt started off with great weather.  The birds were gobbling in the roost like popcorn popping in the pan.

 The blind has served its purpose, albeit maybe too well.  I don't know if you're supposed to feel comfortable AND drink coffee while hunting, but that ended up not hurting my chances!

 

 I have yet to go hunting and NOT see something amazing or beautiful while I'm out.  Whether it's interesting patterns in the clouds, new noises in the woods, or dew droplets in the wheat, God's creative nature is always on display. (Rom. 1)

 I had arrived that morning about 6:00 am just as dawn was beginning to break.  Basically I was showing up too late and risking getting spotted by a roosting turkey.  Apparently that's exactly what happened because as soon as the turkey started flying down, they headed in the opposite direction of me.  However, with so much activity in the woods, I was able to listen and call back to several different groups of turkeys within a half mile of the blind.  Eventually, without warning, a group of Jake's came running out of the woods directly toward the decoy.  I didn't notice them until they were already in range.  All I had time to do was pull my gun up and aim at the "biggest" one.  The turkey were so close together that when I pulled the trigger, not one but two turkey bit the dust!  I couldn't believe it, but there were two turkeys flopping on the ground with five others milling around with curiosity.  If I'd had more tags, I'd have kept shooting!

 Even though the birds were young, (1 yr or less) they still weighed a fair amount.  Short beards (3-4 in) and barely any spurs mean I won't get to brag on size, but I couldn't pass the blessing of two birds in one shot.

 To show how cool it was, I photographed the ice-crystals on my boot from walking through the frosty wheat.

 

Photo-Op!!  

  

 Since getting two birds was so "easy", there had to be a challenge.  Thus: plucking  and prepping two birds with the skin on.  The clock below shows 10:29 am.  I shot that bird at 7:30 am.  Besides driving home, that's how long it took to get one turkey plucked!

 The nasty plucking process. The amount of bloody water left over made me seriously consider creating a short zombie movie and using that water for special effects.  Problem is; I have no idea how to do that.

 Back was sore at this point.  I really need to talk to a professional about better plucking techniques.

 This is not the final product, but the work was definitely worth it. (I finished the 2nd turkey right before lunch)  We roasted this bird and it came out really moist and tasty!  Even the upper leg meat was superb.  (btw: that's not blood, but Syrup, BBQ sauce, Lemon juice, A-1 sauce, and a couple other secret ingredients!)

 

Recap:

1.  Super blessed to be in the woods on nice day.

2.  Super blessed to get two birds.

3. Really thankful to my wife for letting me spend all morning cleaning and plucking these birds and using her pots and pans and maybe getting a little blood on the deck while she watched our two boys.

Get outside!