Arms and the Man (title borrowed from George B. Shaw's play)

During Scout camp, K7 challenged some of the older guys to arm wrestling.  I'm only including pics of the matches against K8. K7 is two years older, so who do you think will win?

It was hard fought, but K8 didn't look worried...

...and he finally won. K7 must have forgot about all the PT K8 has been doing the past year in Marine JROTC. What to do now?

Why, switch arms, and see who has a stronger left arm of course! 

K7 won this match, and immediately wanted a re-match with the right arm...

Oops! Should have been happy with a draw. Not only did he lose, but he got a muscle strain that was quite painful. Had to take him home to doctor him - bag of ice and lots of luna rich capsules.

A week later, he is healed and back to training for his next match by loading 50 pound bags of grain. He is determined. Oh, yea, he is also signing up for Marine JROTC this school year. Next year's final match at the end of school should be epic!

Boy Scout Summer Camp

Because regular BSA camp is too pricey for most of the boys in our Troop, and because some of our parents won't allow their boys to attend Council camps, combined with we are not allowed to do fund raisers, our Troop committee set up our own summer camp on a local farm. Instead of the traditional $225 per boy at a Council camp, our Scouts paid $50 each. We offered many of the traditional merit badges along with several Eagle required ones. 

Shotgun MB was popular among the older boys. We had two shooting stations with one adult and an Eagle Scout behind each station to ensure safety and to coach the boy shooting.

K7 was the acknowledged top shooter. He earned his Shotgun MB years ago in Texas, but he hasn't forgotten how to do it well. He busted all of his clay pigeons.

He also personally coached the other boys so they could earn the MB. Everyone passed the class and earned the MB.

K8 had not previously taken Shotgun class, but he was the 2nd best shooter right behind his brother. The boys all took turns rotating from throwing clay pigeons, to shooting, to watching, then switch stations and repeat using a different type of shotgun.

Our camp also offered some unusual merit badges that our boys loved, and which will prove practical since most live on farms - Welding and Farm Mechanics. K8 earned both...and I donated our tractor for them to work on, so we got some maintenance on it.

Three boys were welding at a time under the supervision of our Scout Master, using different type rigs.

The boys had fun in a large pond every afternoon on kayaks. K8 is 2nd from left, standing on his boat. It got even more fun when they learned how to play kayak rugby. Weak swimmers were not allowed on the water without a life vest. The younger boys also earned their Fishing merit badge around this pond earlier in the day.

K8 and some of the older boys finished the Wilderness Survival MB by building and spending the night in home made shelters. This was K8's. I was really hoping it would have rained that night, but no luck. He was still in bed when K7 and I arrived early next morning with the pellet rifles for Rifle Shooting MB class. Camp was very successful - nobody got hurt, everyone had fun, and everyone earned lots of merit badges. K8 earned a total of 5 merit badges last week, which brings him up to about 30 total...just a few behind K7. K8 is scheduled to do his Eagle Project in September.

Hollywood in review

I don't go to the theater or rent many movies, but here are a few that I watched this year:

Wife rented "Frozen" and made me watch it. Glad I did.

I hadn't intended to watch "Winter Soldier" since I never saw the first movie, but the wife insisted I take her to the theater to watch it. I asked her why she wanted to see it, and said she heard good things about it. Okay, never say no to the wife when she wants to go on a date. I loved the action, good guys vs bad guys, the political message, and the bad guys get their just desserts in the end. The wife pretty much covered her eyes and garbed my arm most of the movie as she doesn't like action flicks with lots of punching, shooting, and aircraft carriers falling out of the sky and crashing into buildings. Who knew it would have all those things? I loved it.

Again, I had no intention of watching "Walter Mitty" since I had read that they totally changed the story line from the book. The wife didn't just rent it, she bought it after seeing it with our boys at the theater. Then she made me watch it. Very glad that she did, because this was an incredibly well made and entertaining movie. Great acting, script writing, music, humor, beautiful scenery, good message, etc. Makes you think and laugh out loud. It ties as the best movie I have seen this year. Has a few bad words, and takes the Lord's name in vain, so I bought an edited DVD version. I can watch this one over and over.

Awesome science fiction movie with lots of action, little romance, lots of humor, scary bad guys, great script, and Tom Cruise as the leading man. Say what you want about him, but as long as he keeps his political beliefs to himself (which he does), I have always liked Tom Cruise as an actor, and this is one of his best roles. Coward to hero. Everybody gets killed, nobody dies. What does that mean? Go watch the movie, and find out. A combination of "Groundhog Day" and "Starship Troopers" and "The Longest Day". "Edge of Tomorrow" is tied with "Walter Mitty" as my absolute two favorite movies of the year. I hated the book, but love the way Christopher McQuarrie (my distant cousin) re-wrote it into a perfect movie. Wish my sister Tina were alive to see it and discuss it, because I know she would have loved it as well. Oh, I guess she has already watched it from the balcony seats. I will own this when it comes out edited on DVD.

Again, had no intention of seeing this flick, but I read a review that shined a positive light on it...and Dwayne Johnson is one of my favorite actors. Took K6 and K7 to the theater last night and watched it in 3D. Good cast of actors and actresses. Adequate script. Plenty of action. Very little Greek mythology. Good guys vs bad guys. High body count. Lots of humor. Interesting plot twist. Bad guys get what they deserve in the end. Unfortunately, some bad words, especially the uncalled for use of the "F" word which ruined it for me.

It's still summer, so forget the Magic School Bus - time to get a Magic Bulldozer!

This little dozer did a lot of work two weeks ago. Brian opened up a section of our hillside so we can increase our grazing area for cattle and sheep. With a small 40 acre farm, we need all the grass we can get, while still keeping most of the big shade trees.

In 30 minutes, he and his dozer cleared the last wall of brush on the north side of our stream - an area that would have taken us two winters to do by hand with chainsaws, machetes and shovels (and we would have been left with lots of little stumps, but not now). Before, there wasn't enough space between the fence and brush for me to drive the truck. Now I can drive my truck or tractor the entire length of our fence line. Yea, I'm loving this. And in a few months the cows and sheep will be loving the extra acres of new grass and clover to munch on.

This hillside used to be dense, thorny brush and small saplings, infested with poison ivy, billions of ticks and lots of snakes.

Not any more. And the dozed trees won't go to waste, because the boys and I, along with our friends, will have plenty of firewood to cut and burn for the next few years.

Right after Brian finished dozing, we had to get grass (fescue, rye, orchard) and red clover seed on the bare dirt to protect against erosion, and to create new grazing areas for our cash crop - the cows and sheep. Oh, I also added some turnip seed and other favorite deer food as well. I was fortunate to have some unexpected guests arrive, who willingly volunteered to go to work. 

K2 and K4 were the last ones done. They did a very thorough job. Five of our dogs were running around the hill with us, chasing rabbits and hopefully pressing the seeds into the ground.

Happy crew: from left to right K4, Joseph, Peter (batman), Laura (holding Chloe), K5 (holding seed bucket), Evelyn, and K2. It was great to have them home for a short while, and to get extra farm hands.
Hey, speaking of farm hands, where are K7 and K8 while this was happening?

I took them to Church at O-dark-hundred on that Thursday to join all of our youth 14 and up who were going on a pioneer hand cart trek in Arkansas. They gathered in the foyer with our Bishop for a word of prayer before driving 2 1/2 hours south.

Spent three days and two nights re-enacting what 19th century Mormon pioneers experienced crossing the plains and Rocky mountains (Arkansas has some rugged terrain). Hundreds of youth from our entire Stake in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas were divided into "families" of 10 kids each with a Ma & Pa. The kids had to pull and push their family cart with all their personal gear for several miles a day. I don't have a pic of K7 and his "family", but K8, wearing a tie, must have been the best dressed young man on the trail. And of course, he's always willing to flex his muscles for the ladies. (photo from Tia's facebook)

A midsummer's pond

Such a pretty little pond. But it takes work to keep it looking this good.

                                   

We have had a lot of scum build up on the pond this summer. The fish probably like the cover, but the ducks do not. I looked into using Auqacide which claims to be safe for the fish, but can't believe that it would be wise to eat the fish after filling them with chemicals. What to do?

Call the Scum Busters! They're not afraid of a little scum. K7 and K8 use a piece of chicken wire fence to drag it off the surface and onto the bank, while K6 uses a pitch fork to scrape it off the bottom.

K7 and friend get another work-out by doing more heavy lifting from the bottom.

Just in time for a visit from their cousins, who were brave enough to follow the boys up into the big oak and jump off the end of branches.

The girl's Mom wasn't too happy about the risk factor, but they all jumped several times without mishap and swam until sunset. As Shakespeare said, "All's well that ends well".

Belated Happy 17th B-Day to K7

He got up at 0430 on his birthday to ride along with me when I took K8 and two other  Boy Scouts to summer camp. We had to arrive by 0630 so boys could take their swim tests before breakfast. We detoured to the Big city on our way home so we could buy his birthday presents at Academy Sports store.

We celebrated with a healthy veggie chocolate cake at lunchtime, then he took his dear friend, classmate and neighbor, Ben, out shooting. It was Ben's last free day home before departing... 

...for his two year Church mission to the Philippines.

K7 also had another opportunity to shoot a pesky groundhog.

Before going to work at Subway, he helped K6 load our 4-year old ram, Mutt, for delivery to his new owners. We replaced Mutt as  our flock sire with a new registered ram, so I sold him to a friend from Church - he is going to a good home with a new harem. 

Ben's brother Anson departed a week later for his two year mission to Atlanta, GA.
K7 will be leaving for his own mission next summer after he graduates high school and turns 18.

He ended his day hanging out with his sister, K5.

At long last, back to blogging.

This summer's weather in the Ozark's has been so mild that we have spent some part of every day out on the deck. After slaving in her garden, Mom likes to nap and read on her couch. 

And the view from our deck just got better. Remember that giant tree stump that used to be in the backyard?

It's gone. Courtesy of our friend Brian. He was doing a backhoe job at a neighbor's farm, and stopped by to dig it out.  

Still the most demanded meal by our family - black beans and rice covered by fresh veggies, cheese, cilantro, sour cream...

Speaking of food, have you ever eaten at a food joint that was highly recommended by a  TV food show? We checked out Tom's BBQ in Memphis, TN, and it was very good. We also agree with his recommendation for The Rock Cafe in Stroud, OK.