We were back at the cabin last weekend, this time we were joined by all the Old Man’s siblings and his dad (affectionately called El Viejo, which means “old man” in Spanish). It’s probably been almost three decades since they were all together at the cabin.
One of the things my father-in-law would do when they would spend time at the cabin was target shooting. This time promised to be no different. He brought out his air-pump pellet gun and my older boys set up target clays on a fence post.
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Almost everyone took a took a turn, including myself. Some of us were a little better at hitting the targets than others. I’ll admit to being in the less than successful category. The Old Man turns out to be a pretty decent shot. My two older boys didn’t do so bad, either. Even the littlest boy got his first chance to shoot. It turns out he’s got a good eye, too.
As the boys were doing their thing, my sister-in-law and I were looking around and realized that the local squirrels have been busy. The woodpeckers have drilled holes all over any tree they can, including wood that used to be trees. The plywood walls of the cabin are riddled with them. The squirrels have been stuffing those holes in the bark with acorns from the oak trees, and the walls are bulged out in some places with all the acorns that have fallen behind the outer layer. I’m not sure how they are going to get them back out!
We eventually wrapped things up and packed up to go. Before we left, I managed to get all three of my boys to pose for a picture, rather reluctantly. They took a similar one years ago when the littlest boy was just a baby. It was a lot easier then! Now they just get grumpy if I ask them to smile.
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