Lonely is the Hunter!

Caleb wants to hunt. He's been interested in it for quite a while now and we initially got him started with Hunting Simulator on the PS4. That is no longer good enough and he want's to do the real thing! 

What to do, what to do!?  I do not hunt...  I'm certainly not opposed to it and frankly, killing my own dinner is somewhat of a romantic thought but it's just never been "my thing".  

I was hoping that playing guitar would make me rich enough that I would never have to kill anything to eat, and while I do play guitar, I haven't really made a dime from it but, even so,  I am clearly OVERFED!

Never the less, Caleb wanted to go hunting.

Lesley got the boy signed up for a hunter education class online where he had to do multiple lessons and test at the end of each of those and then attend a 5 - 6 hour class at a location dependent on which day you sign up for.

Well, he's been taking classes online all summer long with the help of mom and dear ol' dad got to take him to the Saturday class up in Ames, IA. last weekend.

I must say,  part of me was hoping that they wouldn't let me stay and part of me was hoping that they would MAKE me stay...  No good.  It was my choice if I wanted to stay or leave since I wasn't registered.

Caleb said he was ok if I left and just came back to pick him up but he wanted his water bottle out of the truck.  So I went out to grab that as he went to find a seat, and when I came back in to give it to him, he quietly (and very cutely!!!)  said, "Daddy, will you please stay?".

I melt and I say, "yes.". 

So that's what I did and I was SOOOOOOO happy that I did!

The first thing we did was get a lecture from a Conservation Officer (Caleb's future line of work!) which included a slide show of the do's and do nots of hunting along with various and sundry photos of acts that have cost various people large amounts in fines.

After that, we went downstairs to the basement of the building where the kids got to shoot targets with a .22.  
 

This is what our front yard looked like when we went out the front door that morning.  Beautiful, but had me worried we'd run into fog on the interstate...  the only place it got heavy was just South of Ames in that low-lying area.

On the left is Caleb's first attempt and on the right is his second after he made his sight adjustment!

After the rifles, it was a 1/4 mile walk down to the skeet range where they got three shots with a shotgun at the clay pigeons.  He missed on 1 & 2, but his the third one!

Then we "undid" the 1/4 mile walk back to the outside of the first building where they went over all kinds of safety techniques.  Here they're practicing safely crossing a fence line with a hunting partner.

After these three practical sessions were complete, it was back inside for one last video, Shoot?  Or don't shoot?  Then a 50 question test that they let me help him understand the questions being asked, but not provide answers, obviously. 

He got 38 out of the 50 which is passing and a couple of those were because I TOTALLY did not understand the full depth of the question.

He's is licensed to hunt and he is EXCITED ABOUT IT!!!

Missing Hound? Dial: 1-Mis-Sing-Dogg

Should the ghastly beast ever go "missing", check the dirty laundry baskets around the house!

5th Grade Band Kick-off!

At the close of the 4th grade year, the students who wish to try out for 5th grade band have the opportunity to do so. Caleb has an interest in drums and as such, he tried out. 

He got placed in the percussion section and was bouncing off of the walls with excitement when he got home from school that day.

So lets fast forward to the start of his 5th grade year and what was called the 5th Grade Band Super Lesson.  It's the first night of band where they gather in the high school auditorium by instrument, and after hearing from two different band teachers, they break off into lessons for their own personal instruments.

This is the lad getting pieces of his "kit" out to learn how to set it up.  He knew how to do this already as he and his daddy did it!

Same here, but with FIERCE determination!

Here they were learning how to set the height of their instrument so they're in the most relaxed playing posture possible.

Finally getting some drumming in after learning the proper hand/wrist/shoulder and foot placement techniques.

Tomato/Toemaato

We had an opportunity to teach the varmints to can tomatoes. So we took it!  

Taught them how to cut the bad stuff out of tomatoes and keeping the bulk of the fruit.

How to sanitize the jars, lids, and rings.

And best of all, how to have fun while doing it!

Prepping for Vaca, 2018!

Hmmm... what could this be?

It's the boys putting the tent up to make sure we have all of the pieces prior to getting to a campground in Maine and realizing that it's not going to work!

This also serves as a small, quick reminder that new vacation posts from 2018 will be coming soon even though I have yet to finish last summer's vacation from Hawaii...

After some hard work, he rewarded himself with a cold drink and a little youtube.

1st Day Of School, 2018 Edition

These two make me happy!  They are beautiful and have beautiful souls!  They also both had good first days!

Hawaii Vaca, Post 27 - Day 10 Part 1 - Sunny Beach & Morning Drive

Our penultimate day on the islands is here and we're all feeling it. Usually around day 8 on any vacation, I'm starting to want to be home but here we are grabbing a bite to eat before we head out for the day and I think we're all trying to figure out ways to stay now, not just Robby...

It's not to be and we know it.

Our plan for the day:
1.)  Morning swim
2.)  Mountain drive (right by the cottages)
3.)  Lunch
4.)  Additional swimming
5.)  Luau

This beach was just a short drive from our cottage and we figured since it's near the end of the road, quite literally on the island, it wouldn't be very busy. It wasn't...  as you can tell.  It was us and one white 4x4 vehicle (whose tracks we're walking thru) and that was it!  As we got closer to the water, the waves got bigger and more violent, not too mention LOUD!  No dice, I ain't going in that and I'm not comfortable with family in those types of waves either.  What you can't tell from this picture is that the sand goes down a fairly good sized hill and quite a bit more distance to the water, and it was still very loud!

We left the building and decided to do the mountain drive (hwy 550) and hit a beach after that.  Here is one of the first spots we got out to take a couple of quick pics. Robby is pretty hot at this point that he didn't get to swim in the ocean again.

From that same spot looking mostly West.

Further on up the road...

I believe that smallish island on the horizon is Lehua, which is about a mile North of Ni'Hua which I mentioned in the previous post.

What really sucks about taking photographs of what you're doing at that place and time is that the pictures are always such a HUGE let down.  You cannot tell that if I fell from here, I probably wouldn't die, but I would tumble for 30 - 40 seconds before reaching the bottom.  The depth of what we were seeing is just simply lost.

I love a good shot of the road that you're following, especially when you're somewhere that is breath-taking beautiful!

If I didn't know that this was taken on Kauai, I would have just assumed that it was somewhere out in the Southwest.

Love the contrast of colors in this shot.

Wow!

That's Waimea down there.  Our cottage are well off to the right side of this photo.  To scale, probably a mile.  That water outlet is Poowaiomahaihai Ditch, or where the water drains off the mountians to the sea.

It's not a Nene sighting... it was just right there!

And back down to see level at Historic Waimea Driftwood beach.

We didn't do anything there, just took the picture because we liked it.

That took most of our morning so we went back to the cottage and the boys went swimming while mom and dad went back into town to get four entrees from 3 different restaurants to split.

Hawaii Vaca, Post 26 - Day 9 Part 3 - Plantation Cottages

Feels like months since I've done a blog post on the Hawaii trip... because it has been!! 

The last post I did was about our drive up the North Coast of Kauai which was published on May 12, 2018!

I have a thing about having all of the blogging that I plan to do, done from the previous vacation before we head out on the next journey.  I've got about 3 days left at this point and I'm feeling the heat!

For this post, it's our 3rd to last day on the islands and that reality is sinking in as the sun starts falling in the West.  By this point, I'm pretty comfortable driving anywhere on this island and have really come to love it... like wanting-to-move-here, love it! 

So after a fairly long day as seen in the previous post about the North Shore,  we went back to the cottage and I would make dinner in an attempt to use up some more of our remaining groceries and have a walk on the beach (the South Shore where we are).

I mentioned in a past post, that we stayed at a place called Waimea Plantation Cottages. 

It's a bit hard to see, but Kekaha, a hwy 50 marker and then Waimea in the lower left of the map.  The cottages are between the 50 and the W of Waimea, for a point of reference.

Our current home away from home.  The door with the window in it is the main living quarters with the living room, kitchen and "master suite"  while the door without the window was the boys bedroom for our stay.  They really liked the idea of a separate quarters except that there was no tree to shade that window until later in the evening so that room got HOT!  We handled that by opening the door and the windows to get a cross wind blowing after the sun was low and it cooled down fairly quickly.

The windows on the right side of the pic are the windows in the boys bathroom.  The little ramp/walkway leads to a small deck on the backside with a patio set on it.

This is a pic of the living room with me standing in the front door frame.

Robby chillin' enjoying the air conditioning before he's marched off to his 80 degree room for the night.  The door was open because we were knocking sand off of shoes and folding up drying beach towels out on the front porch.

The "master suite" that I mentioned above. 

Master bath, quite obviously...

The dining room/kitchen area.  The door that you can barely see on the far left of the photo leads to the little deck out back.  That dining room table was important for me, for this reason...

It was where I would sit and enjoy a couple of Hawaiian beers while I wrote in my "journal" about our fun trip. 

This is looking into the boys bedroom from the door frame.

Their bathroom.  That door on the left opens up to the little deck off of the back of the cottage.

Speaking of that little deck...

I would also journal from this location on one of the deck chairs on the front porch watching the difference in the clouds that would form in the Western sky later in the day.

Down at the beach.  Occasionally, there would be hammocks around the cottages like the one you can see back betwixt two palm trees.   Never had time to use those.

The posture of a boy who DOESN'T WANT TO GO HOME!!  Robby could live on a beach if you would let him.  His ideal day of vacation, we found out, was 24 hours straight on a beach.  Any beach.

I have nothing to add to God's picture.

This is a little walkway to the beach, so it's obviously out of the correct order.  I didn't take this way but Lesley and the boys did.  I cut thru somebody's yard...

My fams!  That's Mom and Caleb just above the center of the pic.

I believe that's a picture looking back at the swimming pool that showed up in a previous post somewhere.

A thing...

Mama and Calebber again.  Can you spot the other island out there on the horizon?  That's Ni'ihau.

Rob drawing in the sand, likely dreaming up a plot to stay.

Man...  I wish you could hear it too!

Caleb wondering about something while staring at the ocean.  Dad and Rob in the background.

Happy boy!

Happier boy!!  My favorite picture of the bunch, even if it's a bit blurry.

And just like that, it's getting to be bedtime... waking up tomorrow knowing it's the final FULL day here in Hawaii.

We have a few things planned for tomorrow, pack up some of our stuff and attend a luau.