Hiking High-jinks!

 We have been hiking lately for fun and exercise and learning. Sam has also taken an interest in learning about the flowers and rocks and other things we might see along the way, so it is also becoming a learning experience as well.

Our very first hike as a family took place about 14 miles south of our house. We had heard that there were petroglyphs along the river on Fountain Bluff.

A petroglyph (rock engraving) is a picture made in the rocks by native people using tools to carve into the rock.

So with our new knowledge, we headed out.   The trail as it turned out, wasn't really a trail. Oh my goodness, I am surprised I lived to tell the tale about it. There was a weedy, muddy 4-wheeler trail that was maybe 200 feet long from the road that leads up to the petroglyphs. However, after we saw them, we decided to keep walking up this game trail.

Petrogylph

Behind the boys, you can see the good trail, that trail became awful as we traveled along it. We ended up going over and under fallen trees, through mud, around rocks, and dodging animal poo. In the end, it felt like we had hiked over 10 miles. But when we made it to the road, we had walked about 1000 feet from our van.

The view was spectacular. Above is the Mississippi River bottoms. 

All in all, it was an awesome day. Even if it wore all of us out. We have since done a few more hikes, and our vacation centered on caves and wildlife. Vacation posts are coming soon. 

Want to learn more??? Go check out Petroglyphs at Fountain Bluff on Facebook. Or check out The Fountain Bluff's site on Natural Almanac.

                                     

Back At It

Hello all,

In case you haven't noticed, I have been on a bit of a hiatus. Mainly, I got a little bored with my blog. And then there was the problem of my pictures being stolen. Plus I've been busy.

A whole lot has been happening on the homestead. We got the garden planted, the chickens grew up and one may be laying an egg every once in a while. We also lost a chicken, and we have no idea what happened, we went to the coop and she was bitten and was missing part of its bottom. No one else was hurt, and no one has been hurt since. Our family went on a little vacation, which I will share in upcoming posts.

We also had a bit of flooding, which was almost catastrophic, but the levee held, and our home was saved.

And the big news is, we have decided to homeschool the kids. This fall, Landon will be starting second grade and Parker will be starting pre-K at home. We are turning the guest room into a school room. So be looking for a post about that.

And a post about expanding our chicken coop, our vacation, our garden, and a thorough update on Alta. She just had her birthday and we have some exciting news about her health.