Summer vacation is nearly over, and our two boys have done everything possible to waste the whole of the summer. Well, that’s their choice. Dylan did read for about 12 hours a day for most of it, and Jordan did progress with the horse to the point he is now able to ride off the property with the one that was our most difficult to manage. So in all, I can’t totally complain. We also watched a lot of videos on history and how to do things. And Kirynie has learned to speak more! She is even ready to start learning to write. Her mom drew her some letters to trace, and Kiry sat down and traced them perfectly. Not bad considering she only turned three mid-summer.
As for me, I am happy the boys are off to school on Monday. Any parent can understand that! It puts me squarely back with Kiry and the house chores, but I think the boys will find they are delegated with some of those so that I can remain free to work on some lingering projects, such as the chicken palace, and some plumbing issues, and a good many other things like that. Hell, it will just be nice to have some time to focus without someone sneaking up behind me to ask me a question, or talk about some subject that has already been hashed over ad nauseum repeatedly! It will be nice to have some (mostly) me time.
One of the highlights of the summer for me was shooting photos of our neighboring galaxy, Andromeda. I can only gather enough light to see the hub, but still, it gives me such a sense of wonder and awe to know that like our own galaxy, there is another so close as to see it, and it contains so many stars that it would be impossible for a person to count them all accurately. There are so many galaxies out in the Universe, as innumerable as the stars in any galaxy! But nothing brings it home like seeing one with your own eyes. It is like knowing there is such a thing as an elephant, but not truly understanding their size and shape until seeing one with your own eyes at a zoo, or even better, in the wild. The universe is such an immense place! And yet, for all we know, it exists in the atoms of another, MUCH larger universe! But never mind finding out about that! We will be lucky to ever figure out how to travel to our nearest star outside of our own solar system! So, yeah, seeing and photographing Andromeda has been a real highlight for me! And happily, now I can find her in the night sky with ease!
It has been a good summer, and we have learned and contemplated a lot! I really look forward to where we are heading as a family, and hope that we can make the realistic dreams that we have dreamed up come true. If we can find a way, there will be wonderful things afoot!
One of the most sensible realizations we had this summer is that the money we are spending on horse feed could go a fair ways towards buying land with grass on it! With prices on feed going up as fast as they have, and with the projections for the future, there is no reason on earth to stay on the sand and raise them! They could be grazing off of land and the feed price be stabilized as a mortgage on that land!
The most profound thing this summer for me has been of a very personal nature. It marks a decade since I have last seen my dear son, Colvin. This is a subject that stirs up way too much pain in me, so I will say no more about it.
Winter will bring us many new experiences. We have four turkeys to slaughter for the holidays and whatever else we chose to use them for. We have a chicken palace to finish up. We have a tack barn that needs building so we can store feed and tack and saddles more sensibly. We need to sort out more income, which will be a challenge, but is possible! There is landscaping to be done here, and there are more animals to collect, such as a goat, and JJ wants a cow!
So, here’s to a new school year, wishing the boy luck along the way, and in hopes that the whole family will find success in the changes that are to come!