Elmer Has A Family!

I just got back from the cabin with Dad, we went out for a quick measurement of the wall in the bathroom. While he got hte measurement I said hi to Elmer. I noticed he seemed to be a bit smaller and really green. Then I heard something from inside the pipe and out came Elmer! We think he might have a family in there. =]

-Elizabeth

Bathroom Construction!

The latest room to be improved at the cabin is our tiny dark bathroom. Our plan is to make the bathroom larger, brighter and look a bit cooler. =]

This is what has been done so far.

Dad took the bath tub out temporarily.

Dad took out the wall going out to the garden and the wall to the bedroom next door.

The new bathroom wall being put in is now two feet farther out. Dad put the bath tub back in, realined the plumbing, and set in the basic framing fo the new wall.

More will be done this next weekend so keep a look out for updates!

-Elizabeth

Meow

"Dad was that mom screaming?"
We were all walking up the road from the river and I heard a weird noise and couldn't tell what it was. We all stopped and listened but everything was silent. Once we kept walking and talking again I heard that noise agian. We stopped and listened once again.
This time it sounded like a mixture of sounds, like a house cat, a calf, and a bird put all together. It seemed far off.
Then all of the sudden the noise came from the bushes right in front of us. This time it sounded like a little boy saying "owie."
"Find a stick" Dad said urgently. "It might be a baby mountain lion."
I found Dad a stick and handed it to him. Then to make myself appear bigger I placed my folded up moon chair and perched it ontop of my head.
"Look its right there" my Dad pointed to the turn in the road and there on the hill behind a tree I saw a baby mountain lion about the size of two house cats.
We then hurried to the trail in the opposite direction.
We made it to the cabin and told Mom all about it.
We think that something happened to the cat's mother because he kept meowing all day and Dad said he heard it the night before too.
As much as we were scared of it we felt really bad for the poor thing too.
I hope it either finds its mother or is at least able to survive on its own.

-Elizabeth

Elmer

Elmer is the cabin tree frog. He lives right outside the cabin in some abandoned piping. Every weekend he is right there to welcome us and even pokes his head out to say hi. I got to hold him a couple times. =] Also, our title picture is of Elmer climbing up the cabin wall.

-Elizabeth

Charley

Charley is the baby turtle I found at the edge of the water. He (or maybe she) was about 2 or 3 inches long from head to the tip of his tail. When I found him I called Sharon and Melanie over and we all held him for a bit and I snapped some pictures. He was really cute and pretty fast too. After about 5 minutes of holding him we put him back in the water where he hid himself under a piece of moss. Hopefully he will live a good long life at the river.

-Elizabeth

Chasing Butterflies

While the girls practiced their dance in the water I waided across the river to the beach. Soon I noticed a beautiful tiger swallowtail butterfly. It was flying close to the ground and landing every few seconds, so i grabbed the camera and tried to steal a couple pictures. In the end I got my couple pictures but I had to chase the butterfly back and forth across the beach and near the end even across the river. But it was all worth it, I got my pictures and just as the butterfly flew out of view a great blue heron flew from the river beach up towards the trees in front of me. Our river wildlife is amazingly beautiful and I enjoy every minute of it.

- Elizabeth

Dude

Melanie, Elizabeth, and I were walking down to the river when I suddently realized that we had forgotten the diving sticks. So I ran back up to the cabin to get them. When I got to the stairs leading p to the cabin I spotted movement on the second step. I realized that it was a baby lizard! It was so adorable! I then went back up to the cabin to get the sticks hoping the lizard would stay where it was. When I got back the lizard was still there. I called over my dad to come see it. When my dad arrived we decided to name it. We kept coming up with different possibilities but then never seemed to fit him. so in the end we decided to name him Dude. I then ran back down to the river to tell Elizabeth and Melanie about Dude the lizard.

-Sharon

Diving Sticks

The first thing we did after we got used to the water was start chasing after diving sticks. These were plastic pink, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple sticks that can be thrown out in the water and sink to the bottom. First we threw the sticks by ourselves but then we asked Elizabeth to throw them out to us. She agreed so for another half hour we chased after different colored diving sticks. One time when Elizabeth was throwing the sticks Melanie almost got hit! She was coming up from underneath the water when a stick came hurdling towards her! She ducked and it barely missed her. Lucky for her!

-Sharon

Ship to Shore

Ship to Shore is a very tiring game but very fun (and funny). When Melanie, Elizabeth, and I were down at the river we played Ship to Shore. Elizabeth called out and Melanie and I did all the work. When Elizabeth called out "Babes on the beach" we had to lay down on the beach and pose. When she called out "Captain's coming" we had to salute and put our hand on our knee. When she called out "Hit the deck" we had to jump down on the ground and lay still. When she yelled out "Sweep the poop deck" we would have to sit on the ground and pretend to sweep the floor with our hands. When she yelled out "Shore" we would have to run to the other side of the beach and if she yelled out "Ship" we would have to run back to the other side again.
After we finished playing Ship to Shore Elizabeth took pictures of us because we were so sandy and muddy! She got a few very good pictures. Once we got in a few good pictures we got some mud and put different designs all over our faces. Elizabeth then took some more
amazing pictures of us including each one of us in the mid-jump doing cool poses! Once we were done Melanie and I jumped into the river and started washing our faces clean of all the dirt.

-Sharon

It's summer time and it's time to enjoy the great outdoors and the wonders that it contains.