a boys dream...(day 1)

...is being at tadmor. we're here with our good friends, polly and justin. they came up from southern california to visit. justin is 4...and we figured, what better place to let two boys visit than at tadmor. we're finding out that God and the men that live at tadmor love to make little boys dreams come true.

our only expectations were to get to fish at the lake and to possibly drive the backhoe with uncle jake. the forecast is rain, rain and more rain. but yesterday turned out to be no rain, and our experiences more than we expected. today is shaping up to be the same.

we started the day yesterday with an exploration. the boys were layered and you really couldn't see much of their skin. as we set off the only rule for the exploration was --if you see a mud puddle you MUST stomp in it. you should have seen their faces. looking at polly and i to see if we were serious. we were.

it took us 20 minutes to go 100 feet. it had rained all night and there were puddles galore. the rain boots worked for awhile, but soon they were splashing higher and in deeper than their little boots. soaking wet they continued to run and re-run through the puddles.

our exploration took us through the forest on a hike, to volleyball basketball courts, to the lake with sticks and rocks, to a huge T.P. set up for outdoor school that's here this week. by the end of the exploration both boys were asking to be carried, exhausted from adventure.

we came back to a warm house, warmed our bodies, rested our bodies and played with trains. uncle jake came to pick us up mid afternoon for the second half of our day. he had the flatbed dump truck. the boys had to help load the wood onto the truck. then, they got to ride between the cab of the truck and the flatbed. apparently it's made for people to ride there. when you're only experience of being in a moving vehicle is being in a five point harness car seat....well, you can imagine.

our destination was the burn pile. on our way there we saw a man who lives and works at tadmor. he asked what we were doing and i thought we might get in trouble for "playing" with tadmor's equipment. instead he stopped us to ask us if we wanted the chainsaw.....i'm serious. 'the boys would love to watch the chainsaw.' i sat amazed that he was so eager to give the boys a great experience. he then went on to say that he was going to have the backhoe fixed for us in the morning. he wanted to make sure that the boys got to drive it. a stranger, wanting isaiah and justin's little boy dreams to come true.

we drove to the burn pile and the boys got to operate the dump truck and dump our load of wood. we then headed up to the wood pile where uncle jake and matt cut wood for the boys. they learned how to tell how old trees are and each got a round sliver of wood to take home.

at the edge of tadmor's property they are clear cutting the forest. regardless of how you feel about that, it was an AMAZING thing to behold. the mud was 3 inches deep as we all trekked up the road. as we got there a huge semi came in behind us. they were unloading a dangle head. what's a dangle head? good question. we had to ask the logger what it was and what it did. but i tell you it was the gnarliest thing i've ever seen. it shaves, measures length, diameter and then cuts the logs. it can then record it into the computer. only a $500K machine. we watched it get unloaded from the semi, watched a bulldozer pull the semi out of the mud and in the distance could see an excavator stacking logs. i'm not sure who was more impressed, the boys or the adults.

a fantastic day. today has hopes of driving the backhoe, a huge train collection with remote control trains and fishing... i'll let you know. (and when i get home i can upload some of the pictures of our time)