Soccer begins! Fall 2013

There are two little tikes taking the field by storm this fall and I am hoping they don’t take each other down out there in the process.  So far, so good.  Skeeter is mainly interested in taking water breaks and looking pretty out there in her gear.  Rooster is just out there to socialize and enjoy his friends I think. He really doesn’t care about actually winning.  Now, Knothead is out there to win it.  He LOVES the sport and LIVES to hit the field.  Even after two soccer camps in subsequent weeks this summer, the kid could not get enough! 

Skeeter is a budding engineer these days: destroying, taking apart, figuring out is her game.  Her little hands are NEVER idle. Still, she might also still be a nurse. She is enjoying her Doc outfit and loves to see blood and boo boos happen!  She also likes to comfort the injured, thank goodness!  She will do some serious surgeries on me and recently pulled a fruit snack out of my right leg. 

Rooster is still a little scientist.  The 10 bucks I spent on 3 butterfly bushes have entertained him for months. He sees moths, butterflies, and even hummingbirds out there and catches them often.  He studies all the wasps, bees, and critters he can get a hold of…even it if mean tearing up my landscaping to find the things. 

Knothead is a budding teacher/social worker. He lives to be with “Bugie” our foster baby and is so compassionate.  If he can’t play professional sports, I am decently sure he is going to be helping people one day. 

I can’t believe my oldest little man is an independent (even if golf cart) driver around the farm.  Sarah is cute, but really no help!  Sarah Belle gets so mad if someone takes her seat on the cart. 

Loveland Farm's Fall babes

It is has been an odd summer and fall on the farm for me with a young baby.  I have not been out much. I think I have been on the 4W once this winter/summer, and now that baby, baby girl is growing to be an 8 mos. old it is time to bring back the grand tradition of strapping the car seat on the golf cart and checking cows.  This fall we had another set of twins and I THINK these are going to make it! Yeah!  One is usually/sometimes not accepted by the mother, but this one is nursing two with seemingly no problems.  I am thankful since we certainly don’t have time to feed any more bottles.  This torrential raining has made for some abundant grass and happy cows!  The farm looks like a video game with florescent green grass and electric blue skies when the sun DOES come out! 

Twin Sister

Twin Brother

Happy July 4th!

My son's journal entry today really moved me. Yes, I am a mean mama who has him keep a journal in the summer. He can write about whatever he wants. Please forgive his spelling; I am just trying to convince him that it matters. Why July 4th is important. We celebrate July 4th with fireworks and sparklers, but that's not what it is about. It's the day America became FREE! It was a very happy day. Now, let's have a moment of silence for our ARMY who helped us those years and now. I just want to say THANK YOU USA Army. That's what is is all about. Say Thank you for things. — with Benjamin R. Moorhead and Malissa Sanders Stephens.

Another "rugged" adventure with my man

  We have been wanting to do this longer hike on a day we don't have kids in tow.  We went to "Three Forks" where Overflow Creek, Big Creek ,and Holcomb creek tumble together to make the West Fork of the river we love so much.    I told J I just could not reconcile our hikng book, with the internet directions, and with the map.  He found a route...and then once we were out there we were trying to reconcile the book's description of a shorter "rugged route" that we had decided to try, a small not very good map, and what was described as a creek to cross that actually looked more like a raging river during this spring and just after a day of major rainfall.  We DID hike to a beautiful spot on the West Fork of the Chattooga river that involved hanging on for dear life down the side of a bank (as told in the "rugged route's" brief description. Still, we climbed down the wrong mountain, but the fishing was grand and it was beautiful!    I still could not get past the feeling that we were not at Three Forks on the way back out.  Sure enough, on the way out God sent us a guide.  I have always said that bald men are usually great folks and that I have met very few I did not like.  This guy was bald as can be and had a chocolate lab (like us), and even was packing heat (which I did not notice until J told me?!).  So, we followed him to what amounted to a secret passage across a "creek," which was more like a river I'd say. He lifted a heavy branch of rhododendron at place we had already fished and then BOOM--a secret trail did appear!  So, we follow baldie through and under some rock overhangs, waded across said "creek/river" and found our faint trail that we could scramble down the correct mountain and to Three Forks.  It was really cool place where indeed THREE river/creeks come together to form the Chattooga and a nice island/camp site area was right in the middle. 

"the creek"

Brown Trout--not many other folks had climbed down this embankment so the fishing was good!  Getting out caused the lungs to do some burning. 

Jonas fishing/me on GIANT boulder above.  I did finish Ron Rash's Serena novel!  A Great book! 

Looking up Holcomb Creek From 3 Forks Island

I love the river! 

Rainbow Trout down the Wes Fork of the Chattooga...getting lost for a while is not so bad when you find good fishing! 

Souvenirs from "the rugged route."

Now that I am home safely I find this note on the internet: (Jonas in the hole in the picture)--A few yards to the right of the creek crossing, look for another path entering the woods through a 
duck-your-head hole in the rhododendron. This trail 
will lead you downstream, above the long, tilted chutes on Holcomb Creek to Three Forks (1,840 feet). The path becomes 
progressively steeper (two short, very sharp pitches) toward its bottom 
end beside Overflow Creek.

My love...oh the states we have been together in the woods!