Wild Things

Today we trekked down to Zanesville and visited The Wilds. This is land that AEP used for mining coal back in the day. A neat piece of history, Big Muskie was the machine that did the mining at this location. It was the biggest earth moving machine ever made. It's a machine that is near and dear to most AEP employees. There are pictures in our corporate office of the bucket holding a whole marching band, with plenty of room to spare. Anyway, when the mine was closed the property was reclaimed with 6 inches of top soil and a lot of envasive plants. It was then donated and became The Wilds.

You can take safari-like tours and get close to rhinos, giraffes, bison, etc. I wasn't horribly impressed, but Max and Wilson liked it a lot. Max announced that he wants to go back. Mia, of course, was not happy that the animals could get so close. She was very annoyed that the rhino was near us and kept yelling no at it and then decided that she wouldn't look at the animals any more and would just take a nap. AEP fed us lunch, which Mia was very excited about. So, all the kids were happy in the end.

When we got back home, I decided to do some yard work. Mainly, taking the lower branches off of three pine trees. These trees take up a huge part of our yard and attack me when I mow. Not to mention they create a cave that draws kids and dogs into it and grows poison ivy. I now have a huge amount of branches to dispose of some way, but have discovered that two of the trees are perfectly spaced to hang a hammock! I'm totally excited about creating an adult space in the yard.