To me, fishing is simultaneously fun and disgusting. You have the anticipation, watching your little bobber float on the surface for what seems like forever. Then there is the thrill of the catch, reeling that fighting fish to the shore. At this point you have the gross. The fish has to get off the hook somehow, and to me there is not much grosser than a slimy slippery wiggling fish, frantic to whack you in the hands, arms and legs in an attempt to escape. After the fish is taken care of, you have the yucky business of re-baiting the hook, which is fine if the local fish enjoy kernels of corn, but if they like worms (or worse, maggots) then you have to impale the disgusting little critter on the hook, often getting critter innards on your fingers in the process.
This brings us back to our fishing excursion a few weeks ago. Lola loves fishing, but like her mama, she doesn't like the touch the fish. She does not have any qualms, however, about hacking an earthworm in half with her fingernails and bringing it to me to poke onto the hook under her watchful eye.
Lola caught her five fish right away with minimal help from us, and was done. Rowan caught his first fish, with slightly more assistance, and went on to catch the rest pretty easily. He was very proud of his fish and had no problems wanting to touch it. I think he would have taken it to bed with him that night if we had let him!
After fishing, we visited a local little town for their springtime celebration. The kids had a great time playing in the park, and getting little train rides from one of the locals!
We continued our outdoor May adventures the next weekend by going mushroom hunting. Not those kind of mushrooms, come on people....morels! A wonderful fungal delicacy that I remember hunting when I was a little kid. Wil and I have tried for years to find even a few of these morsels, but we are always shut out. Not this year! Armed with a friend's advice, a backpack for Rowan, and hiking boots for Lola, we set out to climb a mountainside in search of morels. Several hours and one backache later, we hit the mother load! We came back with enough morels to cook up, dehydrate and share. We went back the next weekend and found several more pounds, adding up to one great morel season. Where did we find all these shrooms? Ah, I'll never tell!
We also made it to Montana for our family get together. We had so much fun I forgot to take pictures. Here is the only picture I got this year, of the kiddos in their trailer beds!
We have been doing some crazy landscaping in the garden lately. We took out a huge unruly juniper bush (Latin name Spawnus Satanus) and replaced it with a lovely fountain that I built by myself. OK, so I had Wil pick up and move the two largest rocks for me, but seriously I built the rest by my self. True story. Anyway, after I built the fountain, it looked a little lonely in the devastation left by the juniper bush massacre. So we took a trip to the local nursery to buy a few trees and lovely flowering bushes to fill the emptiness left by our friend the juniper bush. The kids had a great time helping us pick out a lilac, a butterfly bush, and two white flowery bushes that I have since forgotten the names of.
Here is my fountain! Bask in its glory! If you want to know how to create this masterpiece for only $218, let me know, because it can be done easily!
Oh, and of course, here is the requisite picture of the chihuahuas, hopefully soon to become parents. I know, get your pets spayed and neutered, blah blah blah, I feel like a traitor to my profession. But chihuahua puppies are soooo cute. Aren't they Ian? I'll ship one to you free of charge when they are born!
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