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Leadership Retreat

I’ve not posted any pictures on the family website for quite some time now – I haven’t been taking as many pictures either – probably getting stuck in a COVID rut.    Still, my camera hasn’t been entirely unused in 2021 so it is time to start working back through a backlog dating back to the start of 2021.   Enjoy the pictures.

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Rock Hunting

A few weeks ago we had some rain (very late in the season for that) so we headed out to the wadis in the desert at the edge of camp.  The rain runoff had exposed some new rocks and we found some really interesting ones.   It was hot but still bearable.   At this point just a few weeks later we are already climbing well into the 100’s every day so our desert trips are probably done for the season.

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A Desert Trip

When Crystal was in the US for a wedding recently the kids and I packed up some water and headed out to the desert perimeter.  We parked at the end of the soccer field across from the Hills fire station ((though it was cricket, not soccer that was being played that day)) and hiked a ways down a wadi.  Small hills became mountains and Kai slipped into mountain climbing mode.  Nora did her best to keep up.

About half way through the hike I realized I forgot to bring wipes but figured that we would be OK.  However, during a rest under the palm tree I was trying to explain cricket to Kai (we had a view of the game about 500 meters away) and Nora came up with a double scooped handful of horse manure ((the hobby farm is not too far away and I think people sometimes ride horses in the area)).  “Dad, what is this stuff?”   Sure did miss those wipes.   Once Nora realized it was “icky” she was eager to clean them off.  We used grape halves and old receipts from Dad’s wallet to get the bigger pieces off and Nora walked back to the car with her hands stuck out straight from her sides so she wouldn’t touch anything.

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Science!

A little while ago, on a nice spring day, Crystal took Kai and Nora out to the desert outside the perimeter road to go a scientific expedition.  We purchased a digital microscope and finally got it working on Dad’s 64bit system so it was time to collect samples.  In addition to the raw thrill of science there was looking at bugs in the desert, running on the perimeter soccer field, and hopping brick to brick as they passed the mosque on the way home.

Looking at the specimens under the microscope was fun but it was surprisingly difficult to illuminate and focus on irregularly shaped objects.   I can see why people prepare slides for microscopes.