Axe Wednesday {Dam Construction}

 Peter VS the fallen tree

If there's one thing the boys won't be giving up for Lent this year, it's their new axes.  Given by a variety of givers at Christmas, these hand held tools of destruction construction would be sorely missed.  The latest favorite home school science project, dam building, just wouldn't be the same without these axes.  After years of attempting to successfully inhibit the creek's flow, Joseph and Peter have finally met with a quantifiable measure of success.  The new lake across the street is proof; the new resident Mallards are witnesses.  It's been a long time coming, and this new success story is worth sharing.

{No living trees were injured in the making of this project.}

Our new (feathered) neighbors take a leisurely paddle.

Unfortunately for our downstream neighbor who taps into the creek for home made hydropower (and who has been spotted busting up the boys' past dam projects under the cover of darkness), this new dam might actually be having some minutely measurable effect on the flow power of the current.  We shall focus on the positive side of this story: boys with free time playing (and working) for hours in the woods, celebrating a small victory over nature.

the creek with natural and boy-made blockages from years gone by

the new dam home school science project

Like an axe, Lent offers us another opportunity for small victories over nature.  Simple sacrifices offer us a chance to chop off some of our natural inclinations to prefer the comforts of a soft life to the type of disciplined life the Gospel calls us to live.  When we tell you we are entering into a holy season of profound preparation for the celebration of Christ's Resurrection (Easter) we are most certainly NOT talking about plotting out an egg hunt or blowing up inflatable bunnies (nothing against bunnies or eggs).  This is the real deal: the special time we set aside each year to purposefully choose ways to grow closer to God and to one another.  Happy Axe (Ash) Wednesday; may your Lent, too, be blessed!

 Newly created habitat for our feathered friends and probably others yet to be discovered