Summer!

The kids are home, the weather is hot and humid ... we just need some fireflies to appear and I think we can declare that summer is here in Indiana!  We took off to McCloud Nature Park today, took a hike and had a picnic lunch.  That picture of Miss Lilly kind of scares me, it gives me that feeling of 'I know you from somewhere', or 'you look so much like someone I know, but I can't put a name to it'.  I suspect it is because it looks like a picture of me or my mom or my sister ... yeah, like I said, I can't put my finger on it.

Some large black dogs, not on leashes, with no owner in sight, but very friendly, interrupted our hike ... I had one child in my arms (Big D), one freaking out running around screaming and skinning her knee (Miss Lilly) and one calmly trying to be the brave big brother putting his hands out and backing up a little (ok, so a lot) as the dogs got closer, but who had enough sense to tell them to stay ... and they listened!  So grateful for a level headed son -- I was trying to tell Miss Lilly and Big D to calm down, say hi and stop yelling - should have realized that dogs usually listen much better than freaking out children!  When we came back through the same spot on the way back, he very bravely and with a protective attitude walked in front of all of us to make sure he was the first should the dogs appear again.

I discovered that all three kids love to watch for and listen to the birds today.  I think a summer surprise is in the works.  At the nature center they had a bird watching room with these fun little hand held gadgets with bird cards that when put into the gadgets and you pressed the buttons gave the appropriate bird sound.  They also had some kid size bird watching binoculars and bird books.  We saw a hairy woodpecker, a black capped chickadee, a few cardinals, and even an indigo bunting.  see a picture here:  http://www.roysephotos.com/IndigoBunting.html

 One of the things I LOVE about Indiana is all the back roads and the fact that civilization doesn't cease when you get 10 miles away from the city.  There were farms and homesteads all the way to the nature park, which is a good 20 to 30 minutes west of us ... and of course I took back roads to get there!  It is planting time here and the corn is starting to sprout - always so amazing to see field after field after field ... I just had to snap a picture, and there is no irrigation here, it just grows!

Taking back roads also means I get stuck behind this kind of thing often.  This happens to be a tractor pulling a sprayer/tiller (I have no idea what the real name is, I just assume that is what it is, from what learn talking to people who seem to know more about farming than I do ...) with a tank of what it will be spraying ... ammonia.  It must be the time of year to apply this, because there were lots of farm trucks moving very slowly pulling these tanks. 

I think the ammonia is a bug killer - kills the bugs that eat corn.  You can tell when they are applying it around here, because you can smell it in the air.  Makes for a great humid afternoon outside ... ammonia floating in the already stagnant, heavy intolerable air.  Yeah, not my favorite thing about Indiana!