Alan's projects

Alan's been doing a bit of wood-working lately, and I thought I'd share some of his creations.

He built this Stagecoach Box for his mom last Christmas.  The boards he used were from the old wash house that stood on Carol's family farm out in Wakeeny.

This trestle table is now in our kitchen bay window area.  Perfect computer-typing height!

A close-up of the legs and cross bar.

Coop ran from his bath to help Alan screw a caster on his industrial cart coffee table.

Demonstrating how sturdy it is!

Random photos in the "blog this" folder

Red Hen and No Eyes seem to be getting along well.  I think Red Hen is happy for some company, and No Eyes appreciates the tour guide.

Pretty cute, eh?

But now for the sad update:  We're afraid No Eyes is no more.  We haven't seen him for over a week now.  Doesn't bode well...

Speaking of cute, this is Pirate Cooper.   What's the blue newspaper bag on his leg, you ask?

Duh.  It's his wooden leg.

And the daily schedule for this semester at Raintree.

Looks great to me.  Think the law school would go for it?

Shameless Self-Promotion

So remember a zillion years ago when we went to Palau and one of us had a job but the other one of us spent his time on the beach? Turns out, he was actually working. Alan spent that year writing a mystery novel and at long last, it's published! YAY!!

It's available in paperback here on Amazon and will shortly be available for Kindle readers too.

The State Fair, part 2

This was the year -- Coop is big enough and brave enough to try some rides at the fair!

We started easy, with the carousel.  So easy, in fact, that Coop decided he wanted to ride in the sleigh instead of on a horse.

This is me trying to talk him into sitting on a horse.


No dice.


Coop decided he wanted to drive some cars.


He loved every minute of it!  He hardly ever stopped turning the little steering wheel, except to wave or honk the horn.

Afterward, he told me that "I drove faster than the other kids.  I think I won."

Of course you did, sweetie.

He and Grandma Joan next went to ride the flying elephants.

Huge success!  Even the up-in-the-air parts!

Coop then decided he wanted to try the motorcyles.

This was all business.  No smiling.  No waving.  Just total concentration (and maybe a smidge of fear to keep him alert).

After that, he opted to drive more cars until Grandpa Cecil ran out of tickets.

The State Fair, part 1

We joined Grandma Joan and Grandpa Cecil for a trip to the State Fair last weekend.

We started the day (seriously, like at 10am) with a Pronto Pup.

Coop was ready to go:

He and Daddy "drove" a combine:

And he got to sit in a road grader:

 And then he and Grandma Joan toured the grounds on a train:

Herding sheep in the ag building:

The Zoo, through the lens of Cooper's camera

We headed to the Topeka Zoo on Labor Day.  Coop took along his camera to document the trip.

Flamingos.

A hippo who was swimming in a nice pool of clean water.  And then he pooped.  Giant hippo-sized poop.  Coop was impressed.

Some kind of lizard thing.

An elephant

The other elephant (or at least its bottom half):

The gorilla

Daddy by the gorilla statute

Cooper by the same statute

A close-up of the big concrete boat in the park across the street.  It quickly became a pirate ship for Capt Cooper.

I'm guessing some of the other kids were a bit confused when Coop kept yelling at them to "drop the anchor" and "give me your loot."

The start of the semester

A back-to-school party with Wowzer!  Coop took his pirate sword to show him:

A new bag of clothes from some friends -- Coop went straight for the ball cap, the hot wheels socks, and the car slippers.

And then right after I took this picture, he had an accident and peed all over the socks and slippers.  At least the hat lasted longer than 10 minutes!

Coop's preschool took a two-day break before the fall semester officially started (on Sept. 1), so Coop got to go back to Miss Brenda's and play with his old friends.

This is Coop and Mr. William running circles around the living, which is how they likely spent the entire 16 hours they were together.

On weekends, Alan's trying to get some time in the shop, and Coop loves helping:

It's really quite sweet. 

(And since I'm usually not invited---or explicitly asked to leave---I can get some quiet time by myself in the air conditioning!)

Agribusiness Report

Red Hen is laying eggs!!

These were the first three we found, and she's laying one a day now!

And she's got some company:

This is Rooster No Eyes.  (Coop named him.  He does in fact have eyes, but they're hard to see under his face feathers!)

A friend of Carol's has chickens in Lindsborg, and one turned out to be a rooster.  He couldn't stay in town, so she donated him to our outside-city-limits "farm." 

This same friend donated two other critters (a rooster and his best chicken buddy) back in July, but they met an untimely end at the hand of a raccoon family.  So here's hoping No Eyes fares better.

And the bees are looking good too.  Coop wanted to help check on them:

Three generations of bee enthusiasts!