Kid in the Country Part I or Preteen Driver's Ed

In the country, we teach kids how to drive young.

Give them a few years learning balance on a two wheeler and in trees. Once these skills are mastered....

Graduate to small engine operation, making it as rewarding as possible, maybe a small allowance.

Once the young person shows common sense and the desire to advance, a vehicle with a larger engine can be introduced. Once the trainee has mastered forward, reverse, turning both left and right and can avoid running over inappropriate objects.......

..... stick him on a small tractor. Teach him to operate a large, spinning auger and have him dig a bunch of huge post holes, under supervision of course.

Tease him a little by letting him ride along on the big tractor and assist with digging the neighbors out of the snow. (Snow we had, that we really weren't supposed to have, according to our realtor two years ago,.... ) moving on,

Let him ride along with my cowboy, in a back hoe, digging big holes in the dirt, ripping out tree stumps, creating much noise....

demonstrate the tremendous power of an engine.

get him excited and get that adrenalin pumping, make him crave driving!

Make him want to drive so desperately that he is willing and eager to operate the ranch tractor successfully weaving between many small trees.

All of this preparation and training, so that he eagerly starts up the tractor to pick up and dump loads of horse manure for his Nana (me).

Welcome a New Blogger

Drum roll please.......

There is a new blogger on the block with an excellent 10 year old boy sense of humor.

He was a guest blogger here last month and he loved getting comments.

Please welcome my very favorite Grandson at Sequoia Canyon.

Last Day in California

My Grandson wants to author this blog on his last day in California. He chose these pictures to share.



I'm at the American River on a granite rock island. I walked on a small rock bridge that was overflowing with water. The island is full of duck and goose poop.

I was trying to catch a baby lizard, it went under the rocks, and then I saw something......

Two ducks, a male and a female, kept coming up to us like they wanted us to feed them.

I found a small cave that was under a small bush that was hanging out the side of the river bank and there were rocks inside that were lined up like a chair and I carved rocks in there, um designs on rocks, no wait, um wait...never mind.

On our drives we see lots of deer. Oh dear

This is a lizard I found crawling in the rocks at my Nana's house. My Nana said I couldn't catch one, I kept trying and then I caught him. She was wrong. (OK so 1 time I was wrong, says Nana)

I looked it up and he is a Western Fence Lizard. He has beautiful blue patches on his belly. I had to let him go tonight because I am leaving tomorrow.

At home I have a Brown Anole in a terrarium, she is fast. She laid 2 eggs and had 2 babies. It was sad when they died.

I had fun here at California. But I'll be moving here sometime in the summer. If my Mom doesn't get a job, maybe I can be a cowboy. The 'Lone Ranger', again.