Fort Richardson State Park

 First, Neal finally decided to cut his Covid hair!

Before

After

We took off to Fort Richardson State Park. Nice little campground with not too many sites, dear, hiking, a VERY windy lake, good times with friends. Could hear coyotes at night.

Camp towels make great capes! Anders, Rhys, Elena, Brendan, Sophie, Coralie

Old train bridge moved to this location

Flour Mill ruins in background

Checking out the kites people brought to take advantage of the wind.

Our First Egg

 Willadean got things figured out and was our first hen to lay. She generally is giving us medium green to putty colored eggs. 

In other news, we've adopted a wild hive that was saved from a homeowner's eaves. Neal's friend from CERT, Chris Smith, who is also fairly new to beekeeping had his hands full and was kind to give us these bees.  We will see if they are strong enough to get through the winter with our care.

Also, I can play Boil That Cabbage Down REALLY slow now.

Halloween

 The kids dressed up for a Halloween youth activity--Sophie as a Dia de los Muertos woman and Rhys as Ranboo, a YouTuber popular with this age group.

This year Halloween is on a Sunday and the kids are getting older so we are handing out candy and enjoying a neighbors.

Let's Camp with Alligators!

 Huntsville State Park. Fun with Hancocks. Checking out alligators. Worse camping sit ever, for us anyway. The flat area was down by the lake but there was no way to get our extension cord down there to fill the mattresses which must be done in the tent. Then there was the busted pipe issue in which they had a large area taped off and resulting mud. The rest of the available land was on a fairly steep slant. First night we clung to our beds but with sore bodies in the morning we unstaked the tent and moved closer to our friends site which was a little less slanted.  

We enjoyed hiking a portion of the Lone Star Trail, spotting a couple alligators, and just being in different surroundings. 

Brendan in hammock

About 10ft alligator in background, we are at a safe distance

Alligator making his way to the dock

Kids looking through the boards at the alligator below

We were very relaxed on Monday evening, just chatting around the camp when just before 8:30, we decided we didn't want to deal with the coming weather despite a 4 hour drive home. So the camp went from peaceful to organized commotion and both families were packed up by 9. We watched the weather on radar and certainly got hit by hard rains and thunderstorms but did really well and slept in our own beds that night.