Over the summer, one of the rewards for working was I would build a “secret cable”. The kids had no idea what the secret was, it ended up being a cable-swing/zip line.
First we stretch out the cable and get it laying flat. The grown slopes down where we will be ‘zipping’, for a total of 180 feet of fun!
Anchor the cable to one tree by wrapping a chain around it. On the chain put a turnbuckle or come-a-long. Anchor the other end of the cable to another tree.
I used two large pulleys I got from Lowes and bolted them together in series (the pulleys have actually flipped here in this picture).
Here we go! First to ride is Emily (the lightest).
And away we go! 
The seat doesn’t stay facing forward, you kinda turn a lot during the ride.
Even so, Emily likes it!
Next up: Ian! I had to tighten up the cable a little so Ian wouldn’t hit the ground on one part.
Bring it on!
At the bottom, only one word was said: “Again!”
Keighly’s turn. I had to tighten the cable even more for Keighly.
Wahoo! Fun with gravity!
All the kids really seem to love the zipline, and I’m glad. I recall having one that my father constructed for me and my brothers and it was always fun.
Here is a movie of Keighly riding the zipline after her birthday party. Yes, that is a plush skunk she has (she got it for her birthday)! Janet gives her a big push and I follow her as she rides. Whew!
One day while getting ready to swing, Ian found a baby squirrel that had fell out of the big pecan tree in the middle of the middle-house’s back yard.
Although fascinating, I was careful to make sure no one touched it. Amazingly, neither of our dogs found it. The next morning it wasn’t there, we hope the mommy squirrel came and got it.
Wal-mart sells these ‘sizzler’ magnets that are SUPER strong. The kids found out just how strong they are! Here, Keighly shows that the magnets can still attract through her cheeks!
Ian takes a more extreme approach with lip magnets!
Emily (now learning that taking pictures means a flash of light) also tries cheek magnets!
Keighly’s first day at her new school finally arrived. This year, we are sending her to PCS.
Janet adjusts the school uniform accessories.
Keighly approves!
We apply our PCS window decal proudly!
We park across Lincoln Ave at the Baptist Church and walk Keighly over to PCS.
The sign welcomes students as they assemble. Keighly has her dragon for comfort.
We walk down the hallway to Keighly’s classroom and meet her teacher, Mrs Yawn.
The roster for the class.
Keighly in her desk (everyone else was waiting outside for the bell to ring).
Keighly’s ‘spot’ on the door with all her classmates.
Keighly had a great first day, and all subsequent days! She really likes PCS and we are glad she’s having fun and doing well in her classes.
Our last summer reward before Keighly started school was a trip to Red Bluff.
Red Bluff is located in Morgantown, next to Columbia, MS. It is a large bluff that is constantly eroding revealing it’s heavy mineral deposits. Mostly, it’s just several shades of red clay.
Wow! What a view! A lot has changed since I came here as a teenager. The road used to go right by the bluff. In fact, they kept having to move the road back because of erosion. The main road is now bypassed, so the road to Red Bluff dead-ends on either side. When we arrived, there was a fellow under an EZ-Up giving out water. VERY nice of him to do that.
A view down in the bluff. According to this site, at the top you can see for about 30 miles and it is about 400 feet down.
The view from the opposite ledge in the above pictures. Our plan is to climb out along the ledge along the left to end up back where we started from in the first picture.
One last picture while we are still fresh and clean!
The descent is easy. You go down a trail on the north side all the way to the bottom.
Once at the bottom you reach a stream. It gets larger and larger as it’s fed by other streams seeping out of the ground.
Eventually you reach some railroad tracks where the stream goes under the tracks through a culvert to a waterfall on the other side.
If you keep going, the stream gets bigger and bigger and it eventually empties into the Pearl River. Everywhere you look there are huge chunks of clay that washed down all the way from the bluff, most of them about the size of softballs.
On our way back up, we walked down the railroad tracks. I had heard there were some wrecked boxcars not far down the tracks. Sure enough, we found them! But everything was over-grown so much that we didn’t explore them and headed back.
A huge chunk of clay beside the tracks!
Speaking of huge, this brighly colored grasshopper was HUGE!
The way back up the stream to the bottom of the bluff is very pretty and scenic. It is cool because of the tree canopy and the stream, and miraculously we did not see any snakes.
After a quick break for some water, the kids were anxious to start climbing. They hit it hard and quickly learned about climbing in sand: three extreme steps equals one actual step. The sand moves so much it is a LOT of work to actually get anywhere. While we started climbing out using this more direct route, we only got so far before a large rock kept us from climbing any higher. Having the kids there, I didn’t want to take chances, so we went back down to the bottom and took a less dangerous route up the treeline. The climb was much easier, but now that we were out from under the tree canopy of the stream, the sun was killing us. Ian was getting tired and rode on my back several times (which was killing me).
Eventually we make it to the last little edge we need to cross before reaching the top. Scary! It is just wide enough to get your foot on, then drops off on both sides!
I got Ian to sit still long enough for me to help Keighly up onto the ledge, then grabbed Ian and put him up. I followed.
Whew! We made it!
As always, a big positive thumbs up! I clearly remember my feelings at that exact moment when we reached the top: exhaustion. While I did bring water, I just wasn’t prepared to really tackle it the way we did.
We were all very tired by the time we reached the top.
The man who was giving out water was still there. We all tanked up and refreshed and thanked him profusely.
Keighly and Ian slept on the way home.
Other Red Bluff links:
I got a call while on the coast about a worm Janet found in one of my shirts while doing the laundry. She squeezed it while grabbing my shirt to throw it in the washer, and it made a squeel!
Keighly, ever the adventurer, captured the offender and fed it some leaves.
The worm had a huge “horn” on it’s tail end. A quick search on the internet led us to believe it is a hornworm, possibly a tomato hornworm.
Our new welcome-mat. Ha!
One of our last summer rewards was a trip to the Jackson Zoo. We also needed to order some school uniforms for Keighly while we were up there. One of her friends, Leah, went with us.
We got there just before they were closing, which ended up being a good time since most of the crowd had already left.
Too true!
Spider-Emily!
Spider-Keighly!
Spider-Ian!
The rhino exhibit. It is amazing such large creatures can move as fast as they can.
Everyone agreed that although large, powerful, yet graceful behemoths, the one thought we came away with was “stinky”.
The elephant exhibit. Peacocks and peahens roam wild throughout the zoo. You can see an albino peacock in the grass.
This elephant was very focused on arranging these limbs.
The kids herded the albino peacock and tried to catch it.
Before it got away, we snapped a pic.
Inside the waterways exhibit, Ian and Emily look at the underwater habitats.
A turtle swimming against the glass.
Back outside, the zoo has a play area set up like an alligator habitat. Here, the kids act like baby gators hatching from eggs.
Ian on a statue of an alligator (the one that laid the statue eggs).
Keighly doing her best Crocodile Hunter impersonation!
One of the last exhibits we visited was this leopard.
Beautiful!
When we entered the zoo, we were right by the giraffe exhibit. By the time we made our way back to the entrance/exit, the giraffe’s were in their pen for the night.
After the zoo, we enjoyed a very nice old-time diner style meal at the Mayflower Cafe in downtown Jackson. Wow, real Coke bottles!
While clearing some fence-row, Keighly found this black widow. It was rather large. We decided to step on it to make sure it didn’t bite anyone, but unfortunatly missed and never really knew whether we killed it or not. Later that day, Keighly found ANOTHER black widow in a bucket.
Back in July, we had a combo-birthday gathering at my Mom and Dad’s house in Picayune.
Keighly had already been down there for a week of fun with Chandler riding his four-wheeler and swimming.
Here we stress-test the little machine by pulling six people! Emily, Ian, myself, Chandler, Keighly, and Andrew.
Once inside, the birthday parties commence.
Back in the day?? Man, do I feel old!
The traditional Andrew-sitting-in-Moma-Flo’s-lap birthday picture.
After the birthday parties, time to hit the pool! Emily wasn’t in to it at first.
She eventually came around! We all had a great time!
The Incredibealls! 