We spent Thanksgiving weekend on the Farm in Columbia at my wife's parents house. This farmhouse has been in the family for nearly a century. My wife's great grandfather built this house out of red oak from the trees on the property. In the spring, lightning struck the last remaining red oak tree on the property. This was a huge tree that had limbs the size of small trees. There were piles and piles of wood that was just begging to be burned. The stump to this oak tree was enormous. It was doused with kerosene in the hopes that it would the stump away. After an entire night of burning it still stood the next morning. In total, we had bonfires for 3 straight nights during Thanksgiving break.
The boys loved the fires. Their uncle Burton would throw large pieces of wood into the fire to make embers fly up in the air. The boys thought they were fireflies. They also ate way too many hotdogs and marshmallows over the 3 nights.
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| Fireflies |
Not to be outdone, I made preparations for a bonfire at our house for the Stewart family Christmas dinner. I had two cedar trees already on the ground that needed to be cut up. I cut them into logs and then split them with my axe. Caleb was the helper of the day and stacked all of the wood. Unfortunately rain rolled in 30 minutes prior to the party and there was no bonfire. The boys were bummed, but that wood will be burned at a future date!
This was our first trip out to Chickasaw Trace in Columbia, TN. We were already in town for the thanksgiving holiday at my wife's parents house. The weather was sunny and 55-60 degrees depending on the wind, so I decided to get out with the boys to enjoy the day. Chickasaw has 8.5 miles of single track and covers 300 acres. The park is located on the banks of the Duck River and a tributary, Knob Creek. It is a popular place for mountain bikers and is maintained by the Columbia Cycling Club. Chickasaw is also the location of the popular Jail Break Triathlon which consists of 3.5 miles in a canoe, 8 miles on a mountain bike, and 2.5 miles of trail running.
We ended up doing the River Trail. It was labeled easy, and I would completely agree. My boys are 5 and 3, and they had no trouble with the terrain. The trail follows the Duck River. It is not the prettiest river in the world, but some of these sections provided nice scenery. I have canoed several sections of the Duck...starting in Normandy and Shelbyville, through Chapel Hill, and in Columbia. So I have a history with this river, and walking it banks was a good reminder of the past adventures I have had on this river. Today was not about me though, it was about introducing a new place to Baker and Caleb. The River Trail was a good short hike. Caleb and Baker love bridges. I guess they think it is really cool to run across them and jump up and down on them because they will do it for awhile before getting bored. Anyways there was a cool bridge on this trail pictured below.
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| The boys overlooking the Duck River |
At the end of the hike, we walked down to the river for Caleb's favorite past time...throwing rocks in the water. I think he could do till his arm falls off. He is so much like me because I cannot be near a river bed and not throw rocks either. We probably spent 45 minutes just throwing at different targets in the water. Then there is Baker, who just wanted to throw large rocks up and make a huge splash. When he was not doing that, he was mischievously trying to jump in the water.
All in all, it was a good trip. I look forward to going back and exploring more sections of the trail with my boys!
