The Lundy 5

Lizzy finally recorded a whole song for us! All it took was a little prodding (and a lot of cash!) :) And Matt played the ukulele. Lizzy plays the keyboard too, but we were lucky to get anything on video, since she really hates the spotlight. :) They're both pretty incredible and self-taught. Josh is also amazing on guitar! Not bad for three nomadic kids who've grown up on the road. I guess music lessons aren't always a necessity after all. These unschooled kids are determined to learn things they care about, and they do it impressively! There's a great chapter about unschooling in Unlocating too! This is Ho Hey by The Lumineers. Lizzy and Matt Lundy recorded at a campground lodge in Las Vegas. :)  You can watch on the blog or also on YouTube .

The Igels also took us to a very cool rodeo! It was so much fun. Even Lizzy wore plaid this time, though maybe not pants and boots. :) Gorgeous setting with the surrounding mountains. Ouch! There's a video of this poor guy below. :) Lots of videos! Bull riding, and the guy above doing a flip: Bareback bronco and a cool rescue: Calf roping:  A really funny rodeo clown, who we didn't think would actually do this jump after all his jokes: Mutton bustin', this girl was tough! The rodeo of the future. This one made me cry, dangit: What a fun night in Estes Park!

While the kids were having too much fun with their friends, Allen and I couldn't wait any longer to see Rocky Mountain National Park. It was bigger and better than we'd imagined! These elk were amazing. And check out this video! They just don't look real. Listen to the little ones too. They almost sound like birds. Driving to the park. Hello there! So much snow, in July. Gorgeous vistas everywhere you looked. And really cold! After Allen took a few pictures, he noticed this sign on the ground. Um, oops! :) One of the many beautiful lakes. We had to return another day to see more!

After our fun on Padre Island, we headed up north to catch some friends, and some bats, in Austin. There were a few RVing families nearby and a local family in Austin, so we met up under Congress Street Bridge to watch the bats fly out at dusk. It was crazy! The bats, not the families. Well, maybe the families too. :) It was so nice to catch up with Emma Powell! And with the Weeds and Andersons too!  The bats started slowly, then the flood gates just opened - and stayed open for hours! And it's not even peak season for them yet!  Want to watch them yourself? Here's a video!  We also checked out some of the weirdness of Austin and had fun before dusk.  

We let Baby Goat pretty much go wherever he wanted. How could you refuse that face?! He always came back to Lucy who was usually tethered out in the yard.  This is one of my favorite pictures of the RVstead. Happy boy, goats, dog, chickens and all the usuals in the background: RV, truck, barn, ATV, laundry. That's pretty much the RVsteading life. :)  We moved Walker's kittens again (home #8) because it was just too hot in the greenhouse. We tried a big dog crate, blocked off from the chickens. That lasted a few more days. Awwww... Rusty Nail was getting bigger too! Baby Goat was a little surprised by a chicken: He got used to them pretty quickly though:

Lucy had her baby, Ace! Who we forever after simply called Baby Goat. Baby goats are so stinking cute! We've had many, many births on the RVstead, but this was our first goat and we were nervous. Lucy was a little young and it's common for goats to dislocate hips and things like that, yikes! And of course we didn't want to lose any babies. Rabbits are hard enough, but they're so tiny. We knew the goat would be different. Plus, these are borrowed goats, so we really didn't want anything to go wrong. It was quite the learning experience for all of us! Allen turned out to be a great goat midwife. :) Matt's face stayed a combination of curiosity and horror. I tried to document this birth with pictures and video, praying that it would be over quickly for poor Lucy (who was crying in a heartbreaking way) and that Matt  none of kids would say anything bad on video (he waited). Lucy was a great mom and took good care of him, although she made us go down into t...