What we did last night has caused me to reflect on how small town and country kids learn to entertain themselves.
City kids have malls, skate parks, clubs, all that stuff.
Country kids have fire pits, tractors, wide open spaces, canyons, empty pop bottles and dry ice.
Thats right, I said empty pop bottles and dry ice. Makes a nice loud noise when thrown into water.
We also have Snipe Hunts. I don't care if you city folks have snipe hunts, nothing beats a snipe hunt in the middle of a full section of corn.
For those of you who don't know what a snipe hunt is... well. First of all you pick some young gullible kid, and start talking about what great fun snipe hunting is. Also talk up what tasty eating snipe is.
Then, when they practically beg you to take them with you, you give them a flash light, and a pillow case or burlap sack. You find the biggest corn field out in the middle of nowhere, and you trek to the middle of the field. Bonus points if its irrigated and muddy.
Then you tell them to hunker down somewhere in between the rows, hold the sack open in the next row over, and shine the flash light through the back of the sack. Snipe are attracted to light, you see. Kind of like bugs.
Then you tell them to wait, and you're going to go stake out your own row. Warn them that as soon as they get a snipe they have to twist the sack closed, and beat it against the ground several times. Don't let the snipe sit for long in there or it'll tear its way out, they've got sharp little beaks and they'll tear you up.
Then you wander off and leave them for several hours. Either they'll be hiking their way back to town when you come back for them (the smarter ones, the ones who will recruit new people to go snipe hunting next month) or they'll still be hunkered down in the mud, shivering and patiently waiting for snipe to wander by. Or, if you've taught them some ridiculous "snipe call" they'll be repeating it, over and over again.
Its a rite of passage, sort of like buying your first box of condoms at the drug store. And then listening to your parents lecture you when they find out about it.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Yay! I'm back!
Sorry for the dearth of posts lately, its been busy and I haven't had anything interesting to talk about.
I still don't, but in the name of keeping from being entirely labeled a bad, bad blogger, I thought I'd post something anyway.
Got a friend in to help with some saddle time on the horses, we went riding this afternoon. Not as energetic a ride as it could have been, but fun, as we worked a few kinks out of the more stubborn of my four legged children.
V is an excellent horsewoman. Wish I could be more like her (that would be why I'm going to school, though, right?) Thanks V!
The reason we weren't as energetic as we might have been might have had something to do with last night. See, since V is a mutual friend of me and T, we decided to have a shindig last night just for fun. So, we gathered up some wood, made a fire, made roasting sticks out of heavy wire, and had hotdogs and s'mores.
Oh, and alcohol.
I'm amazed everyone still has their eyebrows this morning. I'm kind of amazed that I still have all bones in one piece, considering two beers into the thing I decided that the way to gather firewood was to climb a dead tree, grab onto a limb, and jump down.
It worked, I tell you!
A good time was had by all and I got some nifty pictures of T over the fire pit in the glow of the flames, and one that I had to use the flash on because the fire had died too much to give good light of V on T's shoulders. Another reason I couldn't get it without the flash is the long shutter time made it impossible to hold completely still long enough. I was laughing too hard.
T dared us to go into the abandoned house, we got two rooms in when we heard something moving behind us. By the light of T's cell phone we discovered... a snake. Now, I'm not scared of snakes but I'm not fond of them. I leave them alone as long as they're not rattlers and they leave me alone. But in the middle of the night, in an enclosed space, with a snake on the COUNTER.... No. I chose the better part of valor and told the snake he could have the house, and V and I went back to the fire. Only to hear the snake start hissing, loudly, when we were twenty feet away, because T was trying to pick it up.
Points to the snake, he wrapped himself around something and refused to let go, thus winning the battle.
After the fire died, we went back to T's and watched Lone Star State of Mind, which is hilarious in that dumb movie kind of way. We all piled on the couch to watch it, because T is such a pimp, he he had two women flaked out on him at once. Course, V kept biting him when he jumped the gun on reciting parts of the movie because I hadn't seen it yet, and I'd pull his leg hairs when he did it, so he kind of got the short end of the stick.
A good time was had by all, no one got injured and we had lots of laughs. Who says you need a crowd to have fun?
I still don't, but in the name of keeping from being entirely labeled a bad, bad blogger, I thought I'd post something anyway.
Got a friend in to help with some saddle time on the horses, we went riding this afternoon. Not as energetic a ride as it could have been, but fun, as we worked a few kinks out of the more stubborn of my four legged children.
V is an excellent horsewoman. Wish I could be more like her (that would be why I'm going to school, though, right?) Thanks V!
The reason we weren't as energetic as we might have been might have had something to do with last night. See, since V is a mutual friend of me and T, we decided to have a shindig last night just for fun. So, we gathered up some wood, made a fire, made roasting sticks out of heavy wire, and had hotdogs and s'mores.
Oh, and alcohol.
I'm amazed everyone still has their eyebrows this morning. I'm kind of amazed that I still have all bones in one piece, considering two beers into the thing I decided that the way to gather firewood was to climb a dead tree, grab onto a limb, and jump down.
It worked, I tell you!
A good time was had by all and I got some nifty pictures of T over the fire pit in the glow of the flames, and one that I had to use the flash on because the fire had died too much to give good light of V on T's shoulders. Another reason I couldn't get it without the flash is the long shutter time made it impossible to hold completely still long enough. I was laughing too hard.
T dared us to go into the abandoned house, we got two rooms in when we heard something moving behind us. By the light of T's cell phone we discovered... a snake. Now, I'm not scared of snakes but I'm not fond of them. I leave them alone as long as they're not rattlers and they leave me alone. But in the middle of the night, in an enclosed space, with a snake on the COUNTER.... No. I chose the better part of valor and told the snake he could have the house, and V and I went back to the fire. Only to hear the snake start hissing, loudly, when we were twenty feet away, because T was trying to pick it up.
Points to the snake, he wrapped himself around something and refused to let go, thus winning the battle.
After the fire died, we went back to T's and watched Lone Star State of Mind, which is hilarious in that dumb movie kind of way. We all piled on the couch to watch it, because T is such a pimp, he he had two women flaked out on him at once. Course, V kept biting him when he jumped the gun on reciting parts of the movie because I hadn't seen it yet, and I'd pull his leg hairs when he did it, so he kind of got the short end of the stick.
A good time was had by all, no one got injured and we had lots of laughs. Who says you need a crowd to have fun?
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