Cruisin' Calvin

Calvin has learned how to pull up this month, and really works at cruising around the living room. He's also discovered the mystery of the stairs. Recently he got up to the half-way landing by himself. Clever, but dangerous. We're putting up fences where we can. Here is a video from Labor Day of him on the back deck. He had been chattering away while playing with the blocks but clammed up as soon as he saw the camera. Maybe next time.

Eli at FV

Eli spent a week with Bud and Gloria this summer. He scored an aces tour of the fire department. He and my dad also went fishing. Here are some pictures.

Gone camping

No sooner does he turn 11 than we pack him off for the wilderness. Eli has gone camping this weekend with Troop 50. Tomorrow they will be rock climbing near Brevard. His pack weighed almost as much as he does. And he still has to add in some equipment for the Troop! Here's a picture of the boys as they left and one of Eli at home. They are picking up one more dad and lad along the way. They'll be back late Sunday; Monday's a school holiday.

Eli's Eleven

Eli turned 11 today. We had a small scale party at home after supper. He opened some cards and gifts and we had cake. "Cash" seemed to be the gift of choice this year. He's excited, because he can spend it on Legos, or some "cool" shirts, or some die-cast fire trucks. Last weekend we rode over to Bryson City for RailFest. It was very nice. Plenty of vendors, but a nice fire and rescue vehicle parade at midday. The boys got to ride a vintage rig, and caught a ride on a little track car. Later on the GSMR excursion arrived. It was fun remembering our past rides (2 of them). We also ate some good BBQ from the Bryson City FD. Here pictures of all this and more from the past month or so.

Labor Day

Greg and Kristen came up from Greenville, and my mom also drove over from Raleigh. I had been working to finish re-building the deck stairs for about a month and finished Saturday morning. They are okay, but true to form around here, nothing is really straight. But they are a whol lot strudier than what we had! I also added a big-boy swing to the play set last month so everyone has a place to swing. It's been so hot and dry, I haven't felt like doing much else. We've got a threat of more rain from Hanna this weekend, so I've asked Kent P. to replace the vent turbines in the attic. More on that later.

August fruits

Despite dry weather we've had some nice surprises around the yard. The apple trees have finally revealed themselves for what they are. They had not been pruned to look like one expects apple trees to look, so we were not sure until recently. They are a shade of red delicious, not all that hot straight off the tree, but they'll cook up okay. The pear did also has some fruit on it, though it seems the most finisky of our plants. I'm not sure where the watermelon came from but there are four pretty good sized melons on the vine. We finally had rain over the weekend, with more in the offing, so maybe things can ripen up okay in the next few weeks.