The Blind Leading the Blind Up A Hill

The red line at the top of the photo is part of the slacker line.
Michael is seen pulling a tree 3 x's his height.
This is the tree that stopped him on his first run 
to the precipice of the hill.
I don't understand why he had to remove it.

Betty does not want any help when she is close to the top.

All have grabbed a stick for stability.

Alice is beginning to slide backwards ... again.

"Please don't think that rotten stump is going to be a good anchor
for you," I am thinking as Micheal grabs the side of it.

Michael has the rhythm of the climb now.
This is his third time up and down the hill.

Betty has taken Michaels idea about getting stability with a stick.

I did a bit of everything today: weed whipped the parking lot, dead-headed the Bubble Gum Petunias, picked the ripe raspberries, weeded the raspberry canes, watered the tomatoes, passed out ice-cream bars at Alice’s Fix It Shop and took a late afternoon nap.

The place I had the most fun was a the slack line, clipping out the False Soloman Seal and the Oregan Grape that was growing under the place where pairs of bare feet are running back and forth on the exercise equipment.

Miranda joined me.

She was doing a more thorough job.

No root was left buried when she was through weeding.

I am just happy to get the new growth off of old trunks that are still active.

The children joined us.

I asked Michael how close he thought he could gt to the edge of that space where there is a drop off to the road many yards below us.

Pretty close he said, running for the cliff and then sliding to a stop, his arms over the trunk of a tree and his feet dangling below.

“Boy, that was close,” he said.

“Yes. Who wants to spend the rest of the summer with their arm or leg in a cast?”

Nothing positive about me in this instance.

“Don’t worry, Grandmother. I can go down and up easily", and he proceeded down the bank and then tried to climb back up.

When Alice saw what he was doing she joined him.

If Michael and Alice are trying something,

Betty cannot be far behind.

I didn’t know what else to do than take off my gardening gloves and document the climb back up the hill.

The work was harder for Alice.

She was in a dress and was sometimes stepping on the hem of it as she was climbing up.

Michael was on loose gravel.

One step forward, two steps backward.

Betty was operational, only by sheer force of will.

I reached out to help her as she reached the top. I felt a bit of distain in her voice.

“I can do it myself grandmother.”

She would rather slip back down the hill than get help.

Fine.

They finally discovered a way to climb over by Ceilidh Johnson’s tent – maybe not a pleasant surprise to Ceilidh, but surely a pleasant surprise to the three little hill climbers, figuring out new way to get around their lot.

“Isn’t that the whole point of having them out here,” Richard asked me later. "To discover the world outside?"

Arta