Dime Box Again

After Summer classes finally ended, we went back up to Dime Box for about two and a half weeks to work a bit more before starting school for real.  It definitely gets old with just the two of us and Yahtzee so it was really nice to have visitors throughout our stay.  When we arrived Tanya, Wilson, Mia, Ally, Emi, Bill, Toni, Marvin and Kale were there for the weekend, so we were able to begin out stay with friends and family.  

  I think everyone had been in need of some time away from the real world and it was nice for me to have a day or two of fun in between summer classes and starting our work.

One of the best things so far about spending so much time there this Summer has been getting to see everyone in Texas a lot more than normal.  We've gotten to play and spend quality time with the girls during a cute and exciting stage of their life.  It has been so neat to see them get excited about the "special things" in life like a sudden rain storm or a rainbow prism on the wall.  Seeing life through the eyes of a child is a humbling thing and usually a much needed reminder to take life a little less seriously and have a little more fun.

 This is Emi enjoying some Mama attention while Mia and Ally are occupied with Kale

 All ages seemed to enjoy a few good episodes of Wallace and Gromit, I think every one at one point or another could be caught trailing off in mid sentence, captured by a funny scene or the giggling coming from the couch.

Simon got a game for our wedding: Abalone, and Emi was very interested in seeing what it was all about.  She was too cute peering up over the table as far as she could.  Mia at one point came over and was disconcerted to find that there weren't any other colors than white and black in this game.

 As usual, it was awesome to just live among the horses.  However, we did spend a good bit of our time keeping them out of the yard while the gate was being fixed.  Here is one of those times we were unsuccessful and they could have cared less as they munched on forbidden grass.

On the third weekend of our stay, Grant and Jessica, and later their friend Rob, came to visit.  Grant and Simon decided to revisit childhood activities like making rockets out of empty coke bottles, bleach, hydrogen peroxide- and of course fire.

 They successfully, and surprisingly, launched the thing after a lot of tries and a lot of matches.

The take-off scared us all to death because none of us expected it to work by that point.

There were also some less enjoyable moments during our Dime Box time and I learned a thing or two about something called necessary evils: An event or thing that is beneficial, if not necessary to the good of a cause yet is, at its core, characterized by imputed bad conduct or outright immoral disposition.  This said necessary evil is more commonly known as a Guinea Hen.  Many a early mornings we awoke to complete darkness and the unmistakable squawk of the beast.

For your enjoyment or disdain I have included a taste of the little mess that has taken it upon itself to be the trigger happy Dime Box rooster.

I didn't get a chance, sadly, to take a first hand video wile we were there but this makes the point just fine.  Simon thinks they sound like a squeaky wheel, i think they sound like they are being bounced.


Well, between card games, family time, delicious meals by both Tanya and Jessica, stroller races, bean bag tosses, water-hosing unruly horses, giving angry stares at guinea hens and a whole lot of heat, our memories of Dime Box thus far are good ones and I look forward to more opportunities in such a place where God's beauty can be seen in the sound of the rain, the laughter of loved ones, the slow blending of the sky in a sunset and maybe even in the squawk of a guinea hen.