Smithcore: June 2005

Camping in Freeport

Eat it Ezra!!!

Camping in Freeport with Friends

Four Fenway Franks Please

PLAY BALL

Fenway Park. My first official work related connection landed is in the 18th row behind home plate. Pittsburgh was visiting Fenway for the first time in a lot of years for inter-league play. Sox win 8-0.

Jack's Dream

Jack's dream come true. A real live Thomas. We drove 3 1/2 hours and stayed over the night before in a hotel to get Jack on the train. We didn't tell him and when he saw Thomas for the first time it might be the equivalent of a true trekkie getting to hang out with William Shatner for the day. Hopefully the attendants to "Day Out with Thomas" won't be at the Star Wars or Trekkie convention in the next 14 years

Tire-Ball or Tireball. We haven't decided on the official name yet but in a nutshell this is Tireball. The necessary components are 2 to 4 participants, a tire and a ball. THe ball we have found works the best is an exact replica of Tom Hank's friend in the movie Castaway, Wilson. Complete with blood red handprint. My brother used it three years ago (yes he still dresses for halloween) for his costume. I could post pictures of the rest of it but just watch the movie. Anyway most of you don't know which brother I refer to. The other element is of course a tire. The first match was played on my birthday in September of 2004. It was played with bare feet. The object is to kick the ball through the tire (2 points) or to hit the tire (1 point). Participants take turns playing the ball from wherever it was last. Games are played to 11 or 15 depending on the whim of the participants. You can move the ball a reasonable distanceif it's in a vush or the garden but you can't wait all day for the tire to spin around. Other potential scoring optons that we are considering are a 3 point shot for a one touch ball or header and a 2 points with a free kick if you get the ball stuck in the tire. Good gamesmanship is appreciatted and so is thicker skin.

A boy and his Tonka. This is the largest truck Tonka makes. It came in handy tonight as we made a game out of using it to fill all the holes the kids had dug in the yard. you can fill three small holes with one load from this truck but only one hole from the other truck (not pictured)

The pigs are about to go on their grower ration.This means they have completed the first phase of their 3 phase existence. Weaner, grower, and finisher. They'll eat about 10 pounds of grain for the next 50 days and then go on to finisher for another 50 days and then be loaded on a truck and taken down Varney Mill Road to the butcher.
The old hymn comes to mind from my childhood "Life at best is very brief, like the falling of the leaf, like the binding of the scheafe, be in time". Imagine life categorized by 3 types of food. Baby food, real food and then I guess we're back to baby food again. It seems longer though, since we have real food for quite a while. There was a lady I knew at a nursing home who ate a hot dog in rice crispy's three times a day. That's a transition phase, but I digress. The pigs are doing fine and I don't quite know how quickly it takes a person to bind a scheafe.

North Gorham Pond at the end of the road. Home of enormous small mouth. We have yet to catch one. Jack is patient.

It's the French Canadian in him.

Updates and Fodder

Two weeks go by very quickly. It seems as if not much has happened. The pigs haven't taken any fingers from Jack or Ezra although they will bite my boots when I go in the pen.
Things of note an topics of discussion here have been: At four years old Jack must wear something in the pool, Ezra has two more years of complete freedom. This is fine unless like often happens other families just stop on over and Ezra wants to hug them and Jack, with soaking wet Thomas the Tank Engine briefs, is running through the yard wanting to play tag or wrestle, or knight and dragon.
We have made up some more rules to Tire Ball. I'll write more on tire ball later but keep your eyes on the local playground. Tire Ball will be the next Jai-Alai.
I got a call from two people from two completey different areas of life. They were in the same car in Vermont. Dreamlike.

Sunset on Sebago. White Mountains in the background

to quote Jack as we were heading out into the lake "This must be my LUCKY DAY"

Ezra tearing up Sebago Lake. Our neighbors just bought a sweet new boat and we went out on Saturday night for a sunset trip on the Lake. People come from all over the country to vacation on Sebago lake and we live less than 2 miles from it and have only been on it twice.

The peas are up and the rest of the garden is finally in. We are expecting tomatoes, corn, beans, squash, zucchini, basil, beats, carrots and maybe some potatoes. The garden is not my department so I'm not sure.