Shot Heard 'Round the Pasture

I have lots of things I'd like to say today that have no relation to one another, no thread that I can discern to tie them all together. All right, you've been warned.

Last night one of our good friends came out to the farm and brought his... GUN! Yes, a real firearm, a Sigsauer P250 with interchangeable grip or whatever they call that part of the gun. Now, I have fired a BB (or beebee, not sure how I should spell this) gun since childhood and am a relatively decent shot. I can take down a pop can with the best of 'em. In fact, it's really funny of late, since the boys and I have been shooting the BB gun and Evan fills the cans with water before he sets up the pyramid. That way, when we hit a can, water flows from the side and it becomes really obvious where the shot landed. But I digress. What I was trying to say was that I have never shot a real firearm before in my life.

So my friend set up his target, went through all the safety, and we began to shoot. We included the friend, myself, Evan, and later Tara. So yes, if my 7-year-old tells you that he's shot a real gun, he's not lying. He really has, probably 10 or so shots. I think about three of those he actually put into the target. Again, not bad for a little guy shooting a 9mm firearm.

I was surprised by the strength of the kickback from such a small weapon. I was also surprised by the amount of dirt that Tara kicked up from her first few shots. Of course, she was closing her eyes when she pulled the trigger...

Our friend also brought a tea kettle with him, and we filled that with holes as appropriate. The bullet flies so fast that it enters one side of the kettle, exits the other, and leaves the kettle still sitting on top of the stump. Amazing.

Business has slowed down considerably, which is not a big deal to me. I am just happy to have more time to spend with my family.

I would like to share a brief anecdote about each of the boys in context. The whole family was at Shopko Optical this afternoon to help Tara pick out her new glasses. I think she was dreading this, but it actually turned out to be not-to-crazy. However, they advised her that there would be a good sale about three weeks from now, so she decided to wait and order them during the sale.

As we finished our Adventures in Eyewear, Evan and I headed out front to choose some annuals because Shopko has several types of annuals available for TWELVE CENTS A PACK. Yes, sports fans, you read correctly. We loaded a cart full of fairly healthy but undernourished begonias, vincas, and impatiens for a total cost of $4.37. Now, we do not actually need 125 annuals, but remember, Evan has been dealing at farmer's market in [insert local small town here] and this looked like a great opportunity for mark-up. So all three of the boys and I spent about an hour this evening repotting the annuals into bigger containers which will give them room to grown and look healthy by Tuesday. Evan and I are thinking three for a dollar.

Aidan asked to have three pieces of candy from his 4th of July stash instead of cake after supper. I agreed to this and Aidan went into the phone booth to choose his three pieces of candy. Since it took him some time to do this, Evan suggested that perhaps Tater was actually consuming more candy while in the phone booth. Evan wanted to launch a full-scale investigation, but I found this unnecessary and taught Evan that unless we have a reason to mistrust someone, it's our job to take them at their word. Love your neighbor and all that. Aidan also took me to see one of our apple trees which fell over in the windstorm this afternoon.

Toby worked very hard at the flower effort as well. He poked the hole in the bottom of the cups before Evan and I installed the extra dirt and additional flowers. As usual, Toby started crying when it was time for bed because he wants to stay up and his little spirit gets overwhelmed with sorrow at the thought of being in bed while Daddy is still working on stuff. Toby would work with Daddy 24-7 if you let him. He continues to prefer a tool to a toy. I continue to enjoy this.

Blessings, y'all.