The crab apple tree stump

We finally got the tree cleaned up out of our yard. The stump was the only thing left.  What were we to do with that?

Then someone had a great idea...Let's built a fire pit there, and roast marshmallows.

Ok....sounds good to me.

This tree stump has provided us with several evenings of s'mores and hotdogs. 

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade (or s'mores, in our case ;) )

Crab Apple Tree

There is a philosophical question that asks, "If a tree falls in the woods, and no was is there, does it make a sound?"

 

Interestingly, we lived this on a small scale this past week.

 

Last Saturday, Mike and I were talking about this one tree in our yard.  Some of the branches seemed to have died, but others seems to be thriving.  We were trying to decide should we chop it down, or let it be.  We decided that we would leave it, and let Adam continue to chop on the dead branches.

 

On Monday, Austin was looking out the deck doors and said, "The tree fell over!"  He did not see if fall over, it was already down.  But we had heard nothing. We have no idea if it fell down while we were home or not.

I guess the tree was maybe a little worse than we thought.

We started chopping it into smaller, more manageable pieces yesterday.  Dad came with his truck, he and Austin filled the truck.  Mike and I were out most of the morning, and Adam had been with Mamaw. 

When we got home, Adam went right to work, chopping that tree!  He worked on it for several hours once he started.

Until I got home and was able to get a few pictures, Austin had already been working on the tree for several hours.  Once Adam started, Austin stepped back and supervised a bit.  At that point he had already gotten 4 blisters on his hands.  I'd say that the blisters were proof he had done his part.

It will seem odd to not have this tree in our yard.  I have taken some really neat pictures of the boys in this tree, but apparently it was not healthy.  Although the tree is down, it is still providing hours of entertainment for the boys.

Sandy Bottom

One day this past week, Adam's science class went on a field trip to Sandy Bottom to study the water there.  He is still at the age that he enjoys me going on the field trips as well, so I joined them.

They were looking to see how clear the water was.  They filled a really tall tube with water and then drained the water until they could see the marking on the bottom of the tube. 

Here, Adam is draining the water.  He is waiting for the girl to say that she can see the marking, then he would turn off the drain tube.

They wanted to see the velocity of the water.  The kids got a partner, then they each went to their own line.  One line got a ping pong ball, they released the ball and timed how long it took to get to the partner.

Adam is listening to instructions, he is in the ping pong release side.

Another station was to find macroinvertabrates. 2 kids are are working up the bottom of the stream.  2 kids are holding the net, catching what the others have worked up.

Then they carry the net out of the water, and look too see what they caught.

I love this picture of all the kids hunkered over the net, looking to see what critters they caught.

Then they went back in the water, and switched places.

Adam was excited to be a "dancer" and work up the bottom.

Since I know that this phase of Adam will come to end at some point (probably sooner rather than later)...

I had to get a picture of Adam and myself on this trip.