Through the Eyes of a Child

The grandkids, a.k.a the varmints, are to spend some more time afield with me this year. I plan to share some of that in following posts. I took a walk alone a few weeks ago consciously reminiscing my own childhood, my children's, and trying to tune myself for the interaction with the next generation.

A drizzly day, some shots of our playground.

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Maybe I am not alone.

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The next two are foreigners, planted by my Fathers hands.

An Asian Pear

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And the Burning Bush

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The pear draws the deer and coons, the burning bush draws the bearded birds.

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Past the brambles

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And the Kool-Aid stand

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Another foreigner planted by my Fathers hands

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I stray for a moment and think of vino

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The remnants of a fort built by my children, their parents. I forget how to pick who's a cowboy and who's an Indian, I'm sure they will show me.

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We do share the playground

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I head for the Ol' Timers. Just think of all the children's laughter these guys have heard.

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I can see them tasting the sweet droplets

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The Beech done well this year

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I make my way to the pond, where I, their parents, and they caught the first fish. I'm alone and calm, but anxious for their company.

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Beautiful picks. Thanks for taking us along on your walk.

That's outstanding. Thank you.

Good stuff right there. I wish my dad/grandpa taught me more. They are fortunate enough to have your guideance.

Thanks you, very cool, i think you have struck a cord with a lot of people........

Very poetic. :)

Thanks for the journey.

I consciously make note of the flora youngsters

The beech

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The Pine

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And of the Ol' Timers

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I walk to the headwaters of the pond. This is where the mother of all lizards lives, the father of all crawdads.

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I head back to the house

A wild prune?

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I'm sure that it will be years before they will allow themselves to enjoy this

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But they do enjoy MaMaws flowers, to her somewhat disdain I might add.

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We'll meet the varmints in a few.

"Beech" is the name of that tree?

I found out its leaves are perfect to start a fire in the winter: they stay dry, and if there's ice on them, you can easily peal it off without breaking the leaf (and the part under the ice will be dry).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by payne

"Beech" is the name of that tree?

I found out its leaves are perfect to start a fire in the winter: they stay dry, and if there's ice on them, you can easily peal it off without breaking the leaf (and the part under the ice will be dry).

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Well, that one is an American Beech. They hold their leaves well into the winter. That is especially true on young sheltered ones.

Well, two of them, Junior Miss Amerca (JMA) and ButtaBean (BB) daughter and son of who else but Miss America. It's the new year and we had the cold snap, we needed to do some preparatory work inside anyway.

MaMaw agreed to instruct a sewing class. She chose felt and embroidery thread for their first exercise, a stick bag.

JMA chooses red

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BB will be the man in black

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Their hands got tired after about an hour of that, we let them stop and moved on. We'll show you some finished bags in a few weeks.



Next was "build-your-own-tinder". I wish you could hear the giggles.

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I melted the vasoline down and let them dip their own cotton. They took well to fluffing.

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We gathered some kindling from the wood stove stash, annnnnnnnnd

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Success.

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And for reward, what else but hot chocolate. I let them use a fuel tab on that.

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Mmmmmmmmm

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Journal entries and cleanup, what a wonderful evening.

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BearDog (BD), varmint number three, plays catch up in the next post. Then it's "little boots in the field".

May you always be able to see the world with the eyes on a child.....and an open mind.......I wonder........?

rep here for the trip.......

What a great time. Something they will always remember.

BD, son of Belly-Up. He gets to spend the night last Saturday. The other two vermin are to arrive Sunday morning, we've got a little catching up to do. I didn't take pics of the vaso giggle session, but I assure you it happened.

The strike

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The reach

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The warmth

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Bad pic, but the fuel tab cocoa

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Journal and clean up. I think I've got three survivors here.

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Great day ,, always fun to share with the young ones

looks like you had a blast thanks for taking us along

Rep sent, glad you had a good time with your grand kids. And leave it to an engineer to have his grand kids logging their adventures in a journal LOL

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Originally Posted by Sparky93

............And leave it to an engineer............

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The journals actually evolved after some deliberation.

I considered paper and pencil to be rather useful items in this adventure, I'll spare the laundry list of why. If I was to turn things over completely to the engineer, he would have insisted on an RPN calculator and log book. With that, they would learn logic and be able to do their own cipherin' for BDC and windage at the range. LOL

If you'll notice in the pic of JMA doing the journal thing, there is a calculator and note pad next to her. That is a piece of schwag from work, put into their kits as somewhat of a convenient afterthought. But it did take care of a couple of key points; The paper was somewhat protected, it held a pen, and it all could be conveniently stored in a plastic bag.


The presentation:

Christmas Eve is always spent at my Mother's house, the whole hee-haw gang. That includes infants to the geriatric. We all live close, but I am next door. I was cautioned by the safety department not to present their kits in front of the other children, I think bomb making class was mentioned. After obtaining permission from ALL the mothers involved, the varmints and I snuck out the back door and made our way to HQ. I could write for days describing the emotions and intellect from that hour, but I'll just say it was epic.

Debrief:

On the short walk back to Mothers, the discussions revolved mainly around what if I'm here and he's not or vice versa. They were all three concerned with the other, a humbling moment. My answer was that I would keep notes and make sure that each was aware of all tasks. "We need a calendar PeePaw".

Purchasing:

So, engineering approaches purchasing for three diaries, and was immediately denied. "Resubmit and call it a journal dummy, the boys won't use it if there is any connotation of a diary".





Engineering, Human Resources, Purchasing, Safety, and the End Users were all involved.

A gret read for a tired Quality Mngr. and really hit home to me a Father. -Rep Sent!

That was obviously a civilian purchasing dept. A military one would have required the form in triplicate. Then after two weeks you would have received a denial because, "said diary not a stocked item". You would then have to resubmit the proper form, in triplicate, requesting "journals" and after three weeks your would receive your shipment of socks.