The farmer's field, picnic in a tree

I spent two summers with Tim and my sister, Kay Lynn, in Iowa. One of those two summers Tim, a friend of theirs little brother, and I took a lunch out to a local farmer's field. The field had a pond, some cows, and some big trees. We found a tree with a branch wide enough for us to climb up to and eat our lunch on. It took all of 10 minutes for us to eat and leave. But I've always remembered eating my lunch in a tree. It was just another really cool day with Tim.

There was another summer that my best friend and Tim's nephew Lee was out there with us. We also took a trip out to the field. We mocked Star Trek a little and pretended to be Spock, Kirk and Bones trying to figure out the strange life forms were with big black spots and eating grass. On the way home Tim put us to the test. What if he had gone blind? Could we get ourselves home since he was the one who we followed out there not really paying attention to landmarks on the way there? I was able to remember that the sun set behind their house and so began to head toward the setting sun. We had to separate the barbed wire fence to lead him through with his eyes closed and managed to find our way home. How easy it is to entertain 12 year old boys.

That same summer we had found a vine hanging from a tree at the top of a long sloping hill. We found we could swing out and be about 10 feet in the air and swing back safely to level ground. As we used it through out the summer it gave more creaks as if it was going to give out. Tim decided to test it deciding if it could still hold him it would continue to hold us. Of course at about the highest point of the swing it could indeed no longer held him. He gracefully dropped to the ground and walked back up the and hill and proclaimed, yep it's not going to hold anymore.