What a wonderful day

Today was just an amazing day!
Although there has been a lot of cleaning and packing that has been going on - we still leave some time in there for a whole lotta play! Scott started the morning with the cattle drive. It happened WAY too early for the rest of us so only Scott was up and out the door. Let me just say that it was out of control! and Scott was just fuming by the time he got back. His comment was that it is amazing what a little team work can do and how things can come together so easily when people just take the time to work together, but when that fails, well, the cattle are tromping all over Highway 132! So, by the time Scott got home from that he needed a little quiet time and we were all glad to give it to him!
It may not sound like a great challenge, but one thing we did accomplish was raising the windmill 10 more feet to be about a total of 30 feet now. Scott was convinced that if we could only get it higher, it would be spinning more frequently. It was a great challenge on how to get it up. There was a lot of sitting and looking at it and thinking at first because the last thing we wanted was our investment crashing down! One idea was to connect cables to the pole and then attached that to the 4wheeler and then guide it up. After looking and thinking, doing some head scratching, Scott said he was not comfortable with that. I was glad about that because I was going to be the one on the 4wheeler slowly pulling it. Not a good idea. We started to do it this way and I told him I would pre-apologize about the looming disaster even before I got the 4wheeler in drive! Then we were going to use the truck bed and just walk the pole of the windmill up, but that was not going to work either. After more pondering, Scott thought he would just "hump it up" the ladder so he could be on the roof of the shed, then I would be holding it from below and walking it up while he was supporting it from the roof. Needless to say, the whole thing was rather intense and my muscles were shaking at the end from strain and my heart was beating a million miles a minute waiting for Scott and the windmill to come crashing down off the roof. It would have been like a super sized pole vault. Not good. When you are the only two around though, you just have to figure out a way to make it work and outsmart what's outsmarting you.
I do have to admit that when I look out at that windmill, I do feel much pride.
And it is refreshing to not have to run the generator if we want any power at the cabin!
All of us went 4wheeling and looked at a beautiful site for a future cabin. It was great to have the kids all hiking around and playing the "can you see me now?" game. We came upon a tree where there was a hawk's nest and sprinkled around the entire area were feathers. I even found a hawk tail feather. Katie and Hunter had hand fulls of them. I gave Hunter the tail feather I found and Katie was a little grumpy about that, but she had so many other feathers, I though that was fair. A little while later I heard Hunter catching up to Katie, calling her name over and over, and he gave her the tail feather. It was one of those parenting moments we were really proud of. Scott and I just watched them and smiled at each other. This has been such a great time for them to really begin to see one another as a play mate and it's heart warming when they get along, are thoughtful to one another and kind. I will not ruin it by telling you about when they are not!!
I was also proud of Hunter at the pool today. He FINALLY went down the slide and after he did it once, he just went over and over again! At first, he stood at the bottom, looked over to me with that determination he has and said, "I am gonna do it Mom!" You catch me." And I never even had to catch him. Even the lifeguard was cheering him on! Katie looked like a dolphin swimming and splashing and jumping up out of the water all glimmering in the sunlight with her hair flying all over. It was a fun afternoon.
On the way home from town, we could see all the sheep were close to the fence. A fair amount of land out here is used to graze sheep as well as cattle. Anyway, the sheep were practically leaning against the fence and there were two big white dog just barking and barking at something across the highway. They were just going wild and the sheep where just like ding-dongs tra-la-laing around. It was just a glance, when I looked over at what the dogs were barking at and I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw a coyote sitting there, just perched up on a high part of the ground, just drolling over the sheep. Okay-we could not see the drool, but it was just sitting there! We actually pulled over and sat and watched it...and then the sheriff pulled up behind us. Do you know what I said? "Oh, we aren't having any truck trouble, we're from Wisconsin and there's a coyote over there!!!" He just kinda tipped his cowboy hat and was on his way. The coyote, just kinda paced back and forth a while and went back up the hillside, but would not be surprised if there is one less sheep out there in the morning. He was just plotting his plan.
It's wonderful to sit here at night with the screen door wide open. I bet we will be carried away by mosquitoes when we get home. There are not really any here. It is too darn dry! I tell ya, Hunter's little dry patched he gets in the winter are started to get irritated again and the rest of us have just accepted the fact that regardless of how much lotion we put on, we are just kinda scaley looking! So, some hot humid Wisconsin air will be welcomed-for about a day. With no air conditioning, we will most likely spend the better part of the summer in our cool basement and at the beach!
Ben's dentist called today after he received the x-rays we had taken out here. Sure enough, he is quite certain he will need a pulpotomy or ectomy-some kind of pulp-something or other which I am disappointed about. But, hey, things could have been a whole lot worse. When I think about all the machinery Scott has been around and all the adventures we have been on, our trip has been pretty blessed. And, yes, I did just knock on wood.
Does anyone need a kitten? Now there are three up here at the cabin!!