Castle Mischief: The Uber Late Catch-Up Post

I've got some catching up to do...

4/25/2014

Earlier in the year we lost Uncle Jim and in April we drove to Kentucky for his service. Jim was an Army Ranger, an author, and a role-model for progressive thinking. Jim married into the family by the time I was an adult but it really feels like he's always been there. Esther did a really great job with her blog post on the same day and got some pictures that missed. Here are a few that I took:

The small family grave site next to the military cemetery

On the way back home we stopped at Dunbar Cave State Park. The cave itself was closed due to white nose syndrome, but we did a short hike on the trail and around the lake.

Green snake; always willing to pose for a picture

Jack-in-the-pulpit

We also paused to find a geocache near the Alabama/Tennessee state line at the site of an old mill. Ruins of the structure are all that's left.

All the pictures here.

4/27/2014

Thanks to my talented and wonderful baby sister, for the second year in a row, we helped provide models for the Aveda Institute Catwalk for Water held in Birmingham. All three of ours participated and an additional thirteen other kids from our pool of homeschooling families joined in.

That's my baby sister on the left.

All these pictures here.

5/2/2014

In May we hiked around Hurricane Creek with some friends.

Although we've been coming to the park for years now I had somehow missed that John McCrary, the manager, manufactures his own line of climbing gear, Pangea. Check out his Facebook page for more information.

John has recently expanded his gear selection with these dog harnesses.

More pictures from that day here.

5/3/2014

National Free Comic Book Day! (With bonus geocaching.)

Few more pictures here.

5/4/2014

This was an adventure. Pisgah Gorge is often called "one of Alabama's best-kept secrets." It's definite proof that as long as I've lived in Alabama there are still new things to find and see. Here's a somewhat wonky map of the trail we took along the rim of the gorge and then down to one of three consecutive waterfalls.

The upper falls

At the rim of the gorge

Just below the top of waterfall #2

Looking down to the pool below the middle falls

While Esther and the boys stayed at the top of the middle falls and lounged in hammocks and explored upstream, Chandler lead the way down to the pool below the second falls and on to the third falls.