Busy, Busy Sunday

Sometimes I am impressed with just how much we manage to fit into a day.  It helps when the kids are separated - the constant fighting wears me down.  But today was amazing - with Liam off for a day at the beach with Grandma, Ian and I were able to split our time between the other two boys and the sibling bickering was kept at an absolute minimum.  It was a dream!

With Mother Nature shirking her watering duties (we did not receive a single drop of the predicted rain for this weekend), Alistair and I spent much of the morning watering and harvesting.  Cucumbers, beans and kohlrabi are ripe and ready to go!

Ali is rocking those mismatched rain boots.

A prize winning kohlrabi for sure.

Beans, beans, the magical fruit!

Meanwhile, Seamus and Daddy worked on installing new lights in the back cab of the truck and visited Cabela's.

Seamus pretending to be Uncle Brian moose hunting.

During Alistair's afternoon nap, Liam frolicked on the beach with Grandma.

Ian pickled the cucumbers and beans from this morning's harvest and then worked on cleaning garlic.

I popped into the bee hives for an inspection and then grabbed Seamus for a pre-dinner hike around Beaver Pond.  We had hiked this trail in the winter and early spring but had not been back since.  We took the better south side trail first and ended up bushwhacking our way through much of it.  Apparently it is only "better" in the winter.  We did find an area with several apple trees.  The ground was absolutely littered with hundreds of fallen apples which crunched under our hiking boots as we waded through them.

The north side trail was much changed from the last time we were there.  They have added a parking lot (wow!) and the trail is now wide and well covered with gravel and mulch!

Except for the bushwhacking through wild raspberry canes (scratchy!), the hike was great.  It was hot here this afternoon so we enjoyed the shady protection of the forest while still being able to move our bodies.  6.67 km in 1 hr 45 min is not too shabby for Seamus, aka Mr. Short Legs.  He is getting strong!

Seamus found a forest fort.

Summertime marsh.

Seamus tried to befriend the pond ducks (that kid loves ducks) but 
once they realized that he didn't come bearing bread,
they were most uninterested.

This is the hockey rink in the winter.

As always, all five of us reconvened for Sunday night family supper.  All the boys were asleep not long after.  It was a busy, busy Sunday but also a really good one.