Dates 3 and 4....
I only had a few clumsy/embarrassing moments aside from the profuse sweating. We climbed over a stone wall, and while trying to keep branches from slapping me in the face, my boot lace got tangled in some barbed wire on the top of the wall. After that, I got my shirt and my hair tangled in some brambles just before crossing a brook. Then I lost my balance and almost fell in while I was crossing the rocks. After that it was pretty smooth sailing.
We eventually ended up on state property, and we sat for a while on top of a dry dam while Dolly went swimming in the stream at the bottom. It was nice to just sit and enjoy the quiet without the sounds of traffic. It was so quiet could hear the cows mooing on his friend's farm down the road. We hiked some more, looped around, and came out on the street around the corner from his house. This is where we met a little white frou-frou dog named Sparky. Sparky was out loose and luckily Dolly was on her leash at that point, because my date had to scoop her up and carry her like a baby to keep her from snacking on Sparky. Dolly only growled a little and Sparky eventually went back to her yard. We stopped at the house he grew up in, which is vacant and for sale. I remember when I was kid that his sister would talk about helping their parents work on their new house on the weekends and after school, like put a new roof on. I didn't realize their old house was right down the road from where they live now (and right around the corner from my date's house). We walked around the yard, he showed me the stump of a tree he had planted as a kid, where they would go sledding, the rock they would play on, where the iris garden used to be. He even pointed out the stump of a cherry tree that his parents used to build the cabinets in the house they live in now.
While we walked around the yard I noticed his sleeve was covered in burrs. I checked myself and I said I was glad I didn't get any caught on me, so he made sure to change that for me and playfully stuck some on my sleeve. At first glance it didn't appear that Dolly had any, but as we got back to the road we noticed she had a few stuck in her long fur. She was pretty good while he picked them off and we continued our walk back to the house.
As we turned the corner onto his road, we saw his mom in the field across the street driving a tractor, hauling a load of wood up to the house. When we got back to the house we sat on a bench by the fire where he had cooked his lunch. He sat down first and the bench toppled over (he went along with it) because it was just a couple of boards on cinder blocks. He was alright, fixed the bench, but I waited for him to try it out first. It held both of us and we sat there for a while and watched Dolly chase the smoke and try to eat it. We saw his grandparents as they were snooping around the new barn, his grandmother commented how nice it looked even though he said the day before she complained about the color of the roof. She also expressed her concern over the lack of doors and the potential for assorted critters making a home in there.
We headed back to the driveway, he put Dolly in the house because he needed to do his weekly grocery shopping. We talked a bit there, hugged, and I walked around the car to leave. But then we continued to talk for another 15 minutes. He showed me where he plans to clear out the rest of the trees over the next few years and have a pasture for some beef cows. I can't get over how he knows exactly what he wants and he knows how he's going to do it. It's kind of amazing.
We didn't talk about getting together again so I hope that's not a bad sign. Hopefully we'll talk tomorrow night and figure something out then!
We eventually ended up on state property, and we sat for a while on top of a dry dam while Dolly went swimming in the stream at the bottom. It was nice to just sit and enjoy the quiet without the sounds of traffic. It was so quiet could hear the cows mooing on his friend's farm down the road. We hiked some more, looped around, and came out on the street around the corner from his house. This is where we met a little white frou-frou dog named Sparky. Sparky was out loose and luckily Dolly was on her leash at that point, because my date had to scoop her up and carry her like a baby to keep her from snacking on Sparky. Dolly only growled a little and Sparky eventually went back to her yard. We stopped at the house he grew up in, which is vacant and for sale. I remember when I was kid that his sister would talk about helping their parents work on their new house on the weekends and after school, like put a new roof on. I didn't realize their old house was right down the road from where they live now (and right around the corner from my date's house). We walked around the yard, he showed me the stump of a tree he had planted as a kid, where they would go sledding, the rock they would play on, where the iris garden used to be. He even pointed out the stump of a cherry tree that his parents used to build the cabinets in the house they live in now.
While we walked around the yard I noticed his sleeve was covered in burrs. I checked myself and I said I was glad I didn't get any caught on me, so he made sure to change that for me and playfully stuck some on my sleeve. At first glance it didn't appear that Dolly had any, but as we got back to the road we noticed she had a few stuck in her long fur. She was pretty good while he picked them off and we continued our walk back to the house.
As we turned the corner onto his road, we saw his mom in the field across the street driving a tractor, hauling a load of wood up to the house. When we got back to the house we sat on a bench by the fire where he had cooked his lunch. He sat down first and the bench toppled over (he went along with it) because it was just a couple of boards on cinder blocks. He was alright, fixed the bench, but I waited for him to try it out first. It held both of us and we sat there for a while and watched Dolly chase the smoke and try to eat it. We saw his grandparents as they were snooping around the new barn, his grandmother commented how nice it looked even though he said the day before she complained about the color of the roof. She also expressed her concern over the lack of doors and the potential for assorted critters making a home in there.
We headed back to the driveway, he put Dolly in the house because he needed to do his weekly grocery shopping. We talked a bit there, hugged, and I walked around the car to leave. But then we continued to talk for another 15 minutes. He showed me where he plans to clear out the rest of the trees over the next few years and have a pasture for some beef cows. I can't get over how he knows exactly what he wants and he knows how he's going to do it. It's kind of amazing.
We didn't talk about getting together again so I hope that's not a bad sign. Hopefully we'll talk tomorrow night and figure something out then!