Mother Nature is At It Again

Earlier in the summer, I wrote about the yukky tent worms and how they had destroyed the leaves on an entire aspen grove.  The caterpillars were crawling on the road, falling on our head, and climbing on the car.  It was disgusting, and the aspen trees were not much liking it, either.

Well, six weeks later, and look what has happened.  As predicted, the leaves have come back, and the grove is as beautiful as ever!  Some of the trees still look a little peaked, but in general, they have recovered nicely.  Another sample of Mother Nature taking care of her creation.

Baptism

August 16, 2015, is a special day.  Our little Caleb was welcomed into God's hands.  It was even more special because both sets of grandparents were there, as well as Kenneth's godparents, Kristen and Greg Hart and Kathy Gunter Davis.

Caleb was especially thoughtful throughout the entire church service.  He was enthralled by the music and the lights, and when Pastor Adam was baptzing him, he wore his "serious look."  He just sat in the pastor's arms, letting the water come off his head and back into the baptismal font.

The pastor took note of Caleb's shoes, and he made sure to mention that we were using a baptismal bowl from my side of the family.  My mom gave it to Diana in 1995, and she said that it had been used for six baptisms before her mother was born.  She didn't know if Brooks had been baptized with it, and she didn't know if she had, but Katie and I were, Kenneth and Diana were, and now Caleb is the 11th generation to be baptized with the bowl.  I think that, in and of itself, is pretty cool!

Let's Go On an Owl Hunt

We had heard there was an owl in our area at the cabin.  The Macphersons had seen it, and we were hoping to see it, too.

This morning, Don came inside about 6:45 a.m. to awaken me.  He knew I would want to hear what he was hearing.  Sure enough, as soon as I stepped outside, I heard the four hoots.  About 30 seconds later, we heard it again.  And again.  And then its mate.

We decided to see if we could find it.  As we climbed the mountain, we heard a loud screech.  At first we thought it was an owl, but it turned out to be a red-tailed hawk.  Big.  Loud.  Scary.

After traipsing around the hill for awhile, we heard the owl again.  We were getting closer, but we didnt know how close.  We had stopped to see if we could see it, but no, we couldn't.  Don began to go ahead, and suddenly, from just above us, the little guy flew away.  Well, he wasn't so little - raven-sized, I guess.

I know seeing an owl is not the most exciting thing to some, but to us, it is a big deal!  We had not had the opportunity to see one in the daylight, up close.  Fun times!