The Ranch

What a great ranch trip we had! Amirah said, "It felt more like home than home does." We could hardly drag her away the one afternoon we went out to a (kosher!!) restaurant in Myrtle Beach, and trudged along the beach in our one afternoon of Portland-style drizzle. They were all so very content at the ranch. All we did was hang out there, read stories, and eat and the kids couldn't have been happier.

Highlights included...

The beautiful setting. This was our front yard. The owner lived across the street and down a little. His son-in-law's cows were directly across the street, and his bulls were right next to us. The pond there is (reportedly!) full of bass.

And here's Amirah trying to catch some of those bass!
No luck, but she had a great time trying...

Climbing trees was another favorite pastime. They could climb quite high with the branches so plentiful and close together. I was taking a picture of Eli up a tree (I was on the front porch), when he (slowly and safely!) fell. Afterwards he said, "I thought the branch was longer, but instead there was empty space!"

Amirah and the horses - the real reason she didn't want to take one step off that ranch.
She woke up extra early every morning, hair flying, to deliver a carrot to the horses. True love.

The barn where the chickens, roosters, turkeys, goat, horses, and our children hung out.

The bully goat. Just an over-enthusiastic nanny goat. Loved to play, but was too good with those horns! She also liked to dance up on her two legs and leap at you like a big friendly dog (with hooves and horns!). We had to keep her locked up in the barn, as much as we enjoyed having her running around. She even stood up at the front door and knocked!

Our farm kids, and the fence they spent a lot of time hanging on.

Sweetie Pie!

How we enjoyed our Thanksgiving turkey!
(Yes, he was still there the day after Thanksgiving... we did wonder!)

Another Sweetie Pie!

Re-entry was a bit rough. On the way out of our driveway at the ranch, the transmission died. D and the farmer poked around for a few minutes, then closed the hood. Left hoping we'd make it home! (Though the kids were rooting for a down transmission!) For some reason, it started working after that and all the way home it ran very smoothly. We stuck to the main highway instead of detouring to Charleston/Patriots Point. Too bad! We did have a nice picnic stop at Santee State Park, by a beautiful manmade lake where the (crazy) kids dipped their toes.

Got home at about 7:00, unloaded the car, got a quick dinner, then noticed that - ACK - our back sliding glass door had been jimmied open while we were gone. We were able to whack the lock back into place and close the door again. Nothing seems to be missing. We figure it was one VERY disappointed thief. Or maybe he thought another thief had beat him to the punch because of the obviously missing computer! B"H we had taken it down the street to be babysat while we were gone. Nothing else we have is worth anything to a thief. Printer? Dishes? Books? More books? Art supplies? Aquarium? Aspirin?

The children were excited to meet our friendly neighborhood policewoman when she came to inspect the scene of the crime. They had begged for a picture with her before she even arrived. Forensics is supposed to come later this week. Oh, the excitement. And technically it was called an "attempted burglary." I guess they don't really have a category for successful breakins to homes that just don't have STUFF! OTOH, there was nothing to show that the thief was actually IN the house. Maybe he just opened the door, took one look and ran.


Here they are, standing on location. The broken lock is by the policewoman's elbow.

Now, I just have to say, that normally something like this would FREAK ME OUT, and I cannot logically explain why I'm (mostly) not freaked out about it. Oh, at 12:30/1:00 a.m. I start to get a little jumpy and wonder if someone's looking in the windows. I don't know... We felt like something like this was a real possibility while we were gone. We prepared as best we could, and let Hashem take care of the rest, which is all we can do every day anyway. Whatever Hashem has in store for us is what's in store for us. We've added more security, and will still add a few more things, so that's our part. Life goes on!

And

HAPPY CHANNUKAH!