Sunday, September 25, 2011

Cleaning or cliffs?

So I wrote down ‘Clean House?’ on the to-do list for the weekend. Anytime there is a question mark at the end, I have a pretty good idea that it will not happen. Generally I give myself permission to procrastinate and move that back a few days. And that is just what we did. The sky was too blue and the weather too clear to be inside with stir-crazy boys. With Fall upon us, outside activities trump indoor ones, especially when it is cleaning.

Instead, we headed over to Dover, Kansas to visit Echo Cliff Park for the first time.



While it seemed small at first, we spent plenty of time examining the cliff, lifting rocks, and chasing and catching wee little frogs, plus a few big ones. Oliver observed Mike hunting for salamanders by lifting rocks and believed the only way he could find a frog was to lift rocks. Oliver did need a bit of help to catch one, but handled him so well once he had it.


Elliott got so good at catching things; he caught them before he assessed what he was going after. Luckily, Elliott let this little ‘sweet’ thing go quickly because this thing was not so thrilled to meet Elliott. Anyone know what it is???


The boys delighted in dirty hands, the tossing of rocks, and the hunt for little creatures. We found wolf spiders, water skeeters, and even a tadpole.


After plenty of water and dirt exploration, we found little trails. We did not travel far when we discovered paw paw trees. We knew they were here in Kansas as we saw some earlier at a more local park. But these trees must not be recognized by as many people visiting the park as an edible fruit since there was plenty for us to take. We took home at least a dozen fruits, some ready and ripe, some to wait for later. What a treasure to find!


This morning, I got myself to the grocery store for limes to squeeze over the paw paws for a tasty addition to lunch. I even found a few minutes to clean up the seeds to list on Etsy.  

And for house cleaning? Not on great Fall weekends like this.

2 comments:

  1. Paw paws and lime! Oh, I can taste it now. Those are amazingly big paw paws, you really hit the jackpot!

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  2. This was the biggest set, by far. And because we felt quilty hoarding pawpaws from another group coming through the woods, we shared some of the other big ones. The kids seemed doubtful they could eat them.

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