September sunshine

Yesterday the weather was just about perfect.  Temps in the low 70's brilliant sunshine lots of happy kids and staff running around the place.

I had noticed that there were a lot of cherry tomatoes ripe on the vine and to told Josh to get the after schoolers out to pick them before they end up rotting on the ground.  It just so happened to be gardening day and a lot of cherry tomato eating with some picking was the outcome, and the parents were allowed to take those sweet red beauties home for free.  We also had some of the kids scrape sun flower seeds off the pods this afternoon.  Josh promised to soak the seeds in salt water tonight so they would be ready for next weeks snack.

I cannot think of a better place for a child to be after school than at Mountainside in the fall.  There was a mom touring the facility with her first grader

to decide if he wanted to become part of the fun.  She could not get her little boy to leave.

We had 220 eighth graders out on Monday and Tuesday from a nearby middle school for high ropes and team building.  With the exception of a few kids who thought they were about to plunge to their imminent death as they prepared to jump off the zip platform, we had nothing but smiles.  Even the young man who was shaking and wiping away some tears as I helped him dismount from the zip was going to go home with a huge sense of accomplishment.  Two other private schools are visiting this week for outdoor education which is keeping us from getting the greenhouse up and running.  Speaking of which...The framing us mostly up and secured, and I fully expect the greenhouse to be completed by the end of next week.

I ended the day driving my grandson Frankie back to the house on the four wheeler bathed in the amber light of the setting sun.  A big dinner awaited with Nancy, three of my kids, their spouses or significant others and and all 4 grandkids.  It is not possible for life to be better than that.