Thursday, June 30, 2011

"Like a Jungle Paradise"

My Mom wrote this today and I find it is perfect for this blog. I am going to sign her on as another author so she can post directly to my page. I will start signing my name to the posts I write and she can do the same for her posts. Due to my new job I miss many of these moments and Mom is wonderful at catching those wonderful little magical pieces of life. She grabs them and squeezes them for all the beauties we were really meant to be witnessing. Life really is simple. We just make it so stinking complicated. ~Jo

The other day I was babysitting my 2 grandsons, Grant 6 and Jake almost 4, at their new home in the country. My daughter and son-in-law have been working on getting this home built for almost 2 years. This location is their dream location....on the farm where her grandfather was raised. This is the location where she remembers visiting her Great Grandma ( a very sweet and special lady) and going to the timber. The timber has always been  a place of relaxation and fun for us. Whether it was hiking the trails that her Grandpa (my father-in-law) kept groomed or cooking out at the camp site, we would always enjoy the rest from our busy lifestyle. Just as important as all these memories she had was the opportunity to give her boys the joys and experiences of living in the country. If you have been raised on a farm like all of our family, you understand what this means. It is impossible to explain to anyone that does not feel this passion for such things. Living in town is a form of torment for those with the "country spirit". Luckily, even though her husband was born and raised in town, he has an appreciation for the timber and outdoors, so falling in love with the location which is outside his home town didn't take long. Not only is this property bordered by farm land and Grandpa's timber, but also by a few memories from Grandpa's childhood, such as the concrete slab from the homestead back porch, the barn, the old garage, and some pine trees that Grandpa planted as his high school FFA project as a windbreak more than 65 years ago. (These trees are an important part of this story.) Unfortunately this has been an extremely wet year and 3" or more rains have become all too frequent....not to mention lightning and wind. Recently, I was staying there one night when one of those storms hit. First the power was knocked out during the bad storm, but then the winds grew so strong that we decided to take the children to the basement. As we headed down, my daughter mentioned noticing that it looked like a tree went down in the yard as the lightning lit the sky. Sure enough, the next morning when I went to go to town to run some errands with the boys, Grant noticed a tree fallen at the corner of the driveway. I asked if he was sure and he indicated, "Yes Grandma, I can see the roots sticking up in the air." While it was a large blue spruce, at least it wasn't one of Grandpa's trees. But when returning from town, I noticed that where Grandpa's pines had stood behind the house, 2 now lay down with the roots out of the ground. All lying horizontal on what was now a marsh like area. The trees had seemed fine and solid enough earlier this spring when my son had removed one that had died. But now the ground was so saturated that the shallower roots of these evergreen trees could not stand the winds. You could only go near the trees with boots there had been so much rain. Finally after a few more rains followed by a few sunny days, we could venture out to see the trees. So that is where Grant, Jake and I ventured to the other day. Being a farm girl myself, I couldn't wait to put my boots on and tromp through there to see what wonders were hidden as much as the boys. I wondered around the trees to make sure it looked solid enough for climbing on...and by then the boys had found a way to climb onto the trunk and start adventuring through the tree branches. The conversation goes something like this: "Wow, this is like a jungle" exclaims Grant with excitement in his voice. "Yeah, a jungle," Jake agrees. A multitude of happy squeals and laughter continues as they slowly progress up the length of the tree. "This is like paradise," proclaims Grant. "Yeah, like a jungle paradise," mimics Jake. Earlier that same day, Grant had begged me to take them out to the timber on the ATV that their "Dad's Dad" had in the barn. I explained that I would need permission to use this vehicle, so maybe another day. But Grant, relentless in his sense of adventure, begged for me to let him walk to the timber...he assured me he knew the path. (I am sure this is foreshadowing of stories still to come). I knew in my heart that this is what my daughter had anticipated for her boys to share in the wonder of the adventures we had experienced in all of our childhoods. What fun they will have...what memories they will build. This surely would make all the headaches of building this house seem worthwhile. At the moment that Grant declared this "paradise" I knew it was true....this was his paradise. - Written By (Grandma) Kathy

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