Grandkid Summer Part I: Ian

Ten-year-old Ian came home with us from the Devonwood dressage show in late July and stayed for a week. He and his mom had bought all the fixings for three meals. Ian as chef and Johnny as sous-chef made huge amounts of chicken pesto one night, spaghetti another night, and chili a third night. We had enough for two meals of each delicious entrée plus we were able to freeze some to feed guests the following week. *And* Ian made a hot fudge sauce that was incredibly yummy for our home-made goat milk ice cream. Ian is, like his mom, a fabulous cook. I just wish he could have stayed all summer.

Besides cooking, Ian helped Johnny work on the new goat barn and with evening goat chores and with whatever else needed help. He climbed The Thumb with us to monitor Black Oystercatchers. It’s a steep hike and I was glad to hear him say the view on top was worth the climb. Ian and I both like snakes and we met this beauty on our way up.

Ian was good at spotting distant BLOY through the scope on top... and had a lot of fun coming back down the steep slope.

At the beach, we watched kite surfers, something I had never seen before. Pretty amazing. Some of them had a lot of air time when they hit a wave just right. Video here: http://youtu.be/4u-NZ02yc2M

Also one guy was out there with a very elegant sailboard. I suppose it has a special name but I don't know what that might be.

Perhaps the most fun for Ian was driving the EZ Go electric cart. He chauffered us everywhere including me around the arboretum to dig thistles and tansy and Johnny on a zillion trips between shop and new barn for tools/etc.

He hauled brush trimmings out to the goat field and enjoyed watching the goat stampede that ensued. Goats love brush trimmings. Ian loves goats.

Brand new baby goats arrived two days before Ian. I didn’t know the doe was bred. I had put her with the buck and later taken her out but forgotten doing either. Duh. As it happened, the timing was wonderful since the kids arrived shortly before the grandkid visits began. And just in time to give me fodder for my monthly humor column in United Caprine News.

Ian brought fireworks with him, as usual, and we had several nights of firework displays. He picked some out to leave for the next round of grandkid visits, some that “wouldn’t be too scary for Cedrus” (who was coming the following week and is three-years-old and doesn’t like loud noises) . Here's one of Ian's "grand finales".

On Friday, Johnny and Ian took the train north to Seattle to return Ian to his parents. The next day, Johnny came back by train with friends’ Hazel and John’s 12-year-old daughter Kinnera, who stayed with us for the next week. That story will be told in Grandkid Summer Part II: Kinnera.