Sad to see him go

I will always fondly remember the time there with Julie, Andy, and other friends learning things to protect ourselves and those around us.  Great memories of times together❤️

Zoe and a sunbeam❤️

Starting to load up for weekend fun

I was packing up for a weekend of ATVs and Jeeping with Josh and Cody. I finally mounted my door hangers on the utility trailer too.  

Andy found a cart…

It was left outside his apartment for days.  Percy found it tempting right away.  Andy threw in a blanket and Percy moved in right away and made it his own❣️

Hot dogs from their walk.

I think they're asking me to pull the fire alarm! Hahaha.

How it feels driving a Jeep sometimes…

You need some spare cans to make it home without running out of gas!  

In reality, I was filling up cans for our mowers and generator for the season.  It's about a year's worth.  I had a $25 gift card and was getting gas $2.41 a gallon so I decided I better fill up!

It was fun to catch up with Melody and Mike

We chatted over dinner and shared interesting country living experiences.  They had this rock to show me!  It landed in their driveway one day!  They can see the imprint it left in the blacktop!  It's magnetic, and you can see where one side had been burnt and hardened during reentry! Pretty cool specimen of a meteorite. 

A Jeep dog takin’ a break in the woods.

My door armor coming in clutch…

What looks like mud smears along the read door at the height of the bottom hinge are actually scratches and dents in the armor.  But it kept my door from getting more caved in like the last time.  Julie had a good idea and it was worth the effort to add these…

Logan seemed to enjoy hanging out with me for a day

We enjoyed some crazy trails up near Wooster the weekend before last.  He's already excited about the next one :)

Looked easy, but quite the challenge

All but one of us struggled up this rocky trail with a hard left turn at the top.  It was my winch spot for the day.  It's good to find spots where you can learn how to better climb smoothly.  

Logan made me this cool, 3D printed fidget!

An early morning ride a week ago

I headed up to Lima to pick up Logan and then to the Wooster are for some rock crawling.  It made for a long day, but was lots of fun!

Climbing a tree with my Jeep…

I couldn't take a picture and drive it at the same time, but you can see the evidence left behind.  Three tire marks in the grass.  If you look closely at the tree you can see a lighter patch in the bark all the way up to the first Y where my front driver wheel rubbed the bark as it climbed.  Crazy!

Catalpa worm season again!

Our catalpa trees sometimes get overrun by these dudes.  Julie goes out there and bats them out of the red and feeds them to the chickens and other critters… They're pretty, soft and velvety, but eat a lot of the leaves!

Love the nighttime view after finishing my yard work for the day

Coconut oil in coffee!

Try it, super yummy!  It’s good for your brain too.  Bonus, it makes a really cool shimmery photo effect too, hahah.

Good memories with the boys and Jeff

It was fun to coach all these kids to the state (that we won one year) and national competitions all those years ago.  They're all grown adults now and we still run into many of them around town and catch up on the good ole days.

Some assembly required

What it takes for Isaac and Torie to do maintenance on her bike… Just speak plugs and an air filter!  She may be just as crazy as Isaac, or more…?!

I think the Subaru finally met its end…

Zoe's stuffed Subaru has been a favorite yard toy for a long time.  Every time we brought it back in, she would take it back out within a day or two.  It's been breached, and gutted a couple different times since it had multiple compartments inside.  On top of that, it's even been mowed over a couple times.  It had been buried in the tall grass at the corner for a while, and I didn't see it the last time I mowed, until the mower caught it, finally removed ALL the guts, and threw it into the fence.  RIP…

Working on Tempurature management

Currently trying to lower the under hood temps on my Jeep.  They're fine except when crawling slowly over rock in the sun.  I changed the way my vents were setup, changed the filters, trimmed some insulation, and those things seemed to help by about 10-15 degrees.  That might be just enough.  Trying to stay away from new air boxes, hood scoops, and snorkels. Most folks tell me they don't do much and look dumb too. 🤪

Just a cool bench that my neighbor made in his yard

 

Those ears though!

Happiness is a warm dog in your lap. Zoe gives me lots of happiness ;)

Smoked steak at lunch with Julie

 I decided to try something different at our favorite lunch spot.

Enjoying the wild on my walks

Lately I have been able to easily collect a day's serving of berries on my walks and rides through our paths.  They make for a pretty picture too.

Enjoying the fruits of my labor

I enjoy the paths pretty much every day during the week. This particular instance, I was taking a nice walk with the pups.

Chloe has now also realized what it means when I stand up to take a break for lunch and grab the leash. She comes running with almost as much enthusiasm as Zoe. More each day ;)

I finally decided to clean up the bush at the end of the driveway

You can see I had a good helper. Zoe is always excited to join in.

When I got most of the work done, I realized why I haven’t cried it before, it was a bush that had grown over top of a big poison ivy vine.  A quick wash up and disaster was averted 🤪 I have one little spot on my arm, that’s all.

If you look closely, you will also notice a fence post that the tree has grown around over the years. 

Bear sighting in Waynesville

Not my photo, but I thought you would enjoy it regardless. Always be prepared.

Imagine you’re so lucky to have a wife that takes you to a race car movie❣️

This is more the style of driving Julie prefers compared to jeeps and off-roading.  SHE wanted us to go see it:) 

F1 was an adrenaline packed film for sure. Well done. I can't imagine driving that fast, that close to other vehicles.

Winners - Lego diorama of the church

We held a contest to build a replica of our church for its 75th anniversary.  This was the winning entry. They chose to do it in Lego. So cute and awesome.

I don’t get into the badge of honor trails much…

But this one would have been cool to get.  They ran out before I knew about it.

“Are we done yet?!”

Does Julie coordinate her pop-socket and phone to her water bottles?

Or vice versa? 🤪 They kinda match…

I love my family!

Between the two weddings, on back to back weekends, we got to see everybody all fancied up and it was fun to hang out for the weddings and receptions.  

You never know what you’ll get when these two are together…

…especially if dressing up in involved.  It was fun to have them both at Ivan's wedding. They clean up pretty nice though! Andy was on call during Ivan's wedding so he had his truck with him.  He had the idea for a pose and Johnny delivered with the photography in the van pic! Hahahaha.

It was fun to see Andy enjoying the dancing at Ivan’s Wedding.

 We got to catch up with the Pyles and Godwins too. We even relived our wedding from over thirty years ago in the same spot ❤️

Ivan and his mom made the dance fun!

They even started it off with a blind cube solve, of course! 🤪

Favorite movie themed tables

Ivan and Madison had fun centerpieces highlighting some of their favorite movies.  We chose to sit at one of ours.  It's about time to watch that one again, haha.

It’s done, lets’ roll! 🤪

John looked nice doing his best man duties!

What a cute idea for the ring bearers!

Another wedding!

Friends of John's got married a weekend ago.  I liked the table lighting on the program.

Funny, the boys both asked me about this

Within a couple days of each other, they were asking me what cologne I wear?

Just a cute dog…

…patiently waiting for the next big adventure ❤️

Happy with the cleaned up look?

It is a nicer view, but I miss the shad.

Getting some scraggly bushes cleaned up.

Zoe "helped" me while I cut down the four clumps of brush that have always been growing on our place since I was a kid.  They've morphed into just a collection of weeds and invasive bush/trees.  We wanted to clean up the view around the place and I finally had the time, strength, and energy to tackle it.  Usually, by the time I finish cutting limbs, clearing paths, trimming weeds, and mowing, it's time to start over again. Haha.  I got ahead of it ever so slightly this year, thankfully.

Best picture of Zoe?

I was running across the street to grab my yard cart.  Savannah was having breakfast on the front porch and snapped this pic from afar.  Zoe living her best life.  It's a fun pic from afar.  With all the zoom, it's all pixelated, but you can still see the happy on Zoe.  And before you ask, we now stay in first gear (slow jogging speed) to avoid Andy further incidents.  Zoe doesn't ride ON the ATV any more either.  She does seem to LOVE hanging with me while I work in the yard.

Zoe’s cute…

…and she knows how to milk it for all it's worth!

Knives and knuckle bones

Spheres and blades, just playing around wiht my camera.

Julie’s chicken wings chillin’

She's trying a baked version.  No breading, just seasoning.  They turned out AWESOME!

Kind of starting over with our locust grove…

We had to take down three of the big locust trees after the recent storms.  Half of two had already fallen, and the third was split and leaning closer to the power lines each day.  We had them trim a few of the big silver maple trees near the house too.  It was too big and high of a job for me to try safely, but man - $$$!