More farming fun.

Skyler wanted to see Ken plowing yesterday so I took him over around noon.  We were there for at least 2 hours!  He even got to ride and steer the JD 2640.  Such a lucky little boy...

"We're going to plow!"

The vintage Caterpillar collection next to the farm.  These belonged to a former CAT engineer.  This is just a small sample.

We had to visit and sit on the vintage D9.

Pretending to steer.

Pretty big blade.

Time to drive the tractor!

All done plowing and driving back.

Thank you Ken.  Skyler sure loves to come visit.

Caterpillar power!

Wednesday,  I got to go over to Ken's farm and play with the vintage D6 pulling a 5 shank ripper.  I've never been around CAT's much, they're quite impressive and extremely powerful!  For something that's 60+ years old, it can still hold its own against modern machinery.

Working the heavy river bottom ground.  This was all fill material and leftover from the reverse osmosis water plant directly to the North.

No smoke!

Notice the water temp, for pulling well over 100% of rated load, the engine isn't even hot!

The view from on board.  Blue roof building is the water plant.

I had to get off (because my knees were killing me) and to go pick up Skyler from Grandma & Grandpa's.  Bye Ken!

Post Thanksgiving...

Thanksgiving was pretty great at our house this year.  Lots of good food, great people, an animated movie to entertain, and good times all around were had.  Thank you to my family for helping and attending.  I'm thankful that I've had another 13 years of Thanksgivings since my near death car accident in 2001.  Skyler was "on" the entire day and even after running all over the dog park, he was still going late last night.

We got in a pretty good "turkey ride" before dinner yesterday.

Altair made the cute place setting pumpkin turkeys.

Waiting for everyone to arrive.

Right in the middle of dinner, he had to go outside.

Post indulgence.

The view from the dog park.

Even Grandma & Grandpa came along to the dog park.  Yesterday was probably the warmest Thanksgiving I can remember.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Listen to the entire audio track here.

Almost there...

Meaning almost time for Thanksgiving!  Skyler helped Mommy mix up the pumpkin pies last night.  He mostly "helped" by tasting everything.  Here he is finishing off the cream in the measuring cup.

"Mmm, mm, good!"

Groovy!!!

I turned on my Lava Lamp last night so Skyler could see it.  He waited the 2 hours for the wax to melt and then was mesmerized by the magic.

Oooh!

Ahh!

Boiling away.

So happy!

More art.

Skyler wanted to watercolor sometime last week.  And wear a "slop".  He meant a "smock".  :)

Ready...

Got to dip first...

Ta da!

At the carwash.

Skyler saw the "Curious George goes to the carwash" episode earlier last week.  He had been asking to go see a carwash ever since.  Friday was his day!  A quick trip to fill up Mommy's car, and one purchased carwash later, Skyler got to witness a carwash!

"What the...?!"

It was a little alarming at first.

Watching the big brush come down onto the windshield.

"Whee!"

"Skyler bike to the rescue!"

Skyler wanted to ride his "green bike" on Thursday.  We ended up on the Jordan River Parkway so he wouldn't have to worry about getting run over by a car.  He rode 2 miles pedaling all by himself!  We saw some deer (he called them reindeer), some ducks, a hawk, and 2 roadies that told him "great job & glad you're wearing a helmet!" We also got to play the signal game again waiting for the TRAX train signal to change from yellow, to red, to green.   The last 1/4 mile or so I had to use Maizey dog's leash to tow him back to the parking lot.  When we were home he asked "can we do that again?"  Guess he had a good time.  :)

We're off!

Maizey and I had to run most of the time to keep up.

Deer!  (There's also a Deere loader parked just behind the building in the background.)  :)

Crossing the sewer plant access road.

I think there was the buck and 3 or 4 does.

Headed for cover.

Almost looks like it's not in the middle of the city.

They all hung out in the little shelter area.

They weren't too worried about us.  Maizey dog was going bananas and jumping and whimpering.  She still hasn't forgotten the time at Flaming Gorge when she chased the 15 deer over 3 miles.  Thought we lost her that time...

Skyler Merckx!  (Eddy Merckx is quite possibly the greatest cyclist of all time)

So serious!

Grandpa's shop.

Grandpa had a special treat on Wednesday this week, sawdust!  Skyler was so excited he spent the  entire time playing in Grandpa's shop.

This scene happened 35 years ago, when it was me on the floor!

Going deep!

He's got an excavator toy in there.

No fear of getting dirty.

Notice the Santa socks?  Thanks Grandma!

The sawdust was from the jointer planer that was down for some maintenance.  Time for some new knives.