End of September

Tom, Karin, David, Marley, Sam and I (along with Cocoa) went out to the lake for a few hours this afternoon. We decided to walk out to the point that has the old rock foundation wall.

We had a great view of Mom and Dad's place:

Karin and Marley found some old iron nails.

David climbed a rock and struck a pose:

And later, back at Mom and Dad's, Tom removed a dead limb that was hanging in a sweetgum tree above Karin like the sword of Damocles. ( I asked him to get it down and he said, "How?" I told him to ask his grandfather for a grappling hook. To give him major credit, he didn't howl with derisive laughter, but very quietly and courteously asked me where I thought his grandfather might keep his "grappling hooks." Okay. So we don't have grappling hooks. Tom cleverly took an umbrella handle Sam found on his last beach-combing walk, tied it to some rope we'd brought to use in training Cocoa, and tossed it up in the tree around the limb. Then he carefully pulled the limb down, and manfully carried it to Dad's burn-pile.)