June 26, 2014 the firepit

Saturday, at the farmer's market, we made a find!

And not a cheap one.  See that big black cauldron with the fire in it.  It is an old sand casted iron pot.

It stands on 3 legs, one of which is broken, and has some holes drilled in the bottom because someone used it for potted plants..  It came with a handle that you can use to hang it from a tripod over a fire, or is you have a big old fashioned fireplace that used to be used for cooking, it may have hooks that you can use to hang this pot.

 

Notice what they are using to roast the marshmallows.

I couldn't find the old roasting sticks that we used to have for camping, so I had to improvise.  I duct taped shish kebob sticks to wooden spatulas.  That problem has been fixed.  Found metal ones at Wal Mart today.

This cauldron is about 2 feet in diamete, if not more.  And it's deep enough for a fire to be contained.

I had extra large marshmallows on hand and we used those last night.  Today I bought hershey bars, graham crackers, blue and pink and white marshmallows and we made s'mores.  Yum!

June 24, 2014 Flowers before the hail

My blooming flowers.

My flowers finally recovered from Rosie's grazing.  And yes, she's a dog, but whatever.  Now it's hailing.  Guess I'm not destined to have pretty flowers for long this year.

June 4, 2014 Zoo Day

Today, grandpa took a vacation day and we went to the zoo.

Took the three oldest grandkids with us.  This will be Gabe's last trip for a while as he is spending the next year with his dad in Alabama.

Grandpa is pulling the folding red wagon that I found at Sam's.  The first time we brought this to the zoo with us, he thought it was kinda hokey.  But after seeing several other red wagons, and even a blue one, he decided that maybe I wasn't totally crazy.  It is light weight, and sure comes in handy to hold all the drink bottles and stuff that we have to take with us.

We didn't wait for the giraffe stampede that they do every morning, but we did visit them in their house before and even fed them some lettuce.

We stopped to check out the elephants, but they weren't out yet.

The Wallabys were out and they are very friendly.  This one wanted to be petted.  The Wallabys run free in their pen, and people come in thru double gates.  The first one is supposed to be closed, before the second one is opened, but I watched several groups come in and hold both gates open at the same time.
They were lucky they didn't have to catch a wallaby.  We found out that the ropes were there to keep people on the path, not to keep the wallabys in.  People actually were coming in and chasing the wallabys!

This Wallaby was very curious and checked out the wagon.

We stopped at the budgie birds and tried to feed them.

One of the peacocks was really trying to impress a couple of pea hens.

The Amur tiger was out walking around,  I learned that tigers aren't like normal cats.  These guys like the water.

Grandpa and the girls.

And this one is for Rachel.  We even got Cordelia to pet a snake!

And lastly, at the gorillas, there is this scale that you can weigh yourself and see how you compare to the various primates.  I'm not sure what the faces were for, but I couldn't resist!