well my youngest daughter brought to the lake their wake boat, incase u dont know what one is, it has big compartments, that have bladder bags, big ones that the boat pumps water into and also pumps out, , on each side and one in the middle so it rides deep in the water and has a huge wake, , and a great sound system with a 700 watt amp . and subwolfers, anyway, my 14 year oldest grandaughter really impressed me and even my son in law whos boat it is, she has never did this before, first they did the wake board where ur feet are in boots attached to the wake board on a long rope.. , after about the 3rd time got up and stayed up and was good, but she is strong, then today, my son in law put more water in one side and had everyone sit on one side, so the wake was like almost 4 ft high on one side, , and did the surfboard, its a short board compared to a surfboard, , ur feet are not in anything, u have like a 12 ft rope, and just lay ur heals on the board then when the boat starts the board turns up onto ur feet, and u stand up, and ur right behind the boat, and u surf the wave, when ur settled u throw the rope to the boat, and just surf, the wake wave, she got up and got good quick, u can be close because its an inboard, so the prop is under the boat, i did not even expect her to get up but she impressed everyone,, pretty weekend, only they missed all the work friday..lol,, have a nice memorial day.take care im tired,

Sounds like fun, glad y'all had a good time. Welcome back. :)

So fun! I remember good times when we spent most of the summer at the lake in Tennessee, I was surf boarding, round board, and skiing at nine years old~~
it takes strength and stamina. our kids also grew up there in summer learning to ski and different water activities.of course they have so many new water toys now :)

Good Memories

Remember the slip n slide? Then there was the wiggle worm that hooked up to the water hose.

I had both of those as a little boy. WE had a 12' pool that was 3 feet deep. It seemed huge from memory as a little boy. Every summer my Dad would set it up. I use to turn a sprinkler on and run thru it.. lol

Great summer memories. We of course had no computers back then, the only thing to do was go outside and play with the other kids. But eventually when I was about 11 or 12 my Mom and Dad bought me a horse that I kept at a stable here in town. A real nice top of the line stable built with steel and concrete. Had automatic water system for the horses, etc. So I spent the rest of my days at the stables while other kids were still riding bikes in the neighborhood. I was on a ranch. I felt very lucky. I took my dog (Koko) with we everyday to the ranch, she loved it. She ran free all day on the ranch. There were plenty of other people that boarded there horses there too that was my same age. We all went riding, or fishing, or I would disk the arena with a tractor. They taught me to do I that. I enjoyed it alot. I cleaned stalls, fed the horses all for free. There were approximately about 50 to 60 horses there. I was just a little boy and liked to do all of that. About noon time someone would go to McDonald's and get everyone lunch, Management paid for mine becuase I did so much work they wanted to do something for me for being so helpful. We had a barn jeep to that they allowed me to drive on the ranch. So I basically learned to drive at about age 12. lol I would take it out and clear trails in it with a big blade. My whole growing up life was spend on a ranch, I herded cattle, mended fences, all ranch work for free, because I liked to do it and felt part of something. I miss that time of my life.

Yes Tyler good hard work, but wonderful memories.
Mom would have to threaten us to come in at night, in the summer. I remember playing hide and seek, kick the can, red rover, lots of games.would be hiding and the hunter for the hide and seek would be so close I could hear my heart beat, was thinking,they will find me LOL
horses were a big part of my life also,growing up. rode horses at a very young age, and raised them when we moved to Kentucky, miss getting to ride~ this time of day especially along the creek and through the field/meadows~

i know i told yall, my uncle lived in our neigbhbor hood, most my moms brothers and sisters lived in and had a what was back then a supper market., food center, was the name, and an appliance store, all in the neighbor hood, but say 25 miles away had a 75 acre farm he raised cattle on, so my cousin was a year older than me, and he had a horse, we would get the tractor and go hunting him,on that farm and spend some weekend in the farm house, my cousin had the bridle and had the bit, hid under grain in a bucket, when we found him, the pastures were separated by
woods, the cattle knew my uncles truck and when we went out where ever the cattle were, they would come, we threw out hay and some kind of grain large pellets, the size of say a shotgun shells. and fed them,we rode the horse .and i bush hoged some of the pastures, . now only a half a mile from me my grandkids have horses 4, and son in law, the oldest one, he told me in the late afternoon they ride by my house,,, he teaches them alot about nature, and he takes them hunting, as he is in a club, and both my grandson and grandaughter the older one has both killed a deer, i think more than one, anyway, they learn alot about nature, they have a nice setup where the horses stay, as my son in law and his dad have about 45 acres or more there, i think 9 of it is my son in laws,, i wish he would sell his house which is 2 miles from me and build my daughter a colonial style house, that was the plan, he could do it , his house is paid for when they married, and he looked at different types of houses, but maybe one day, but the kids are in private school and that cost, , but he could build a house for what he sold his house now for, it has a really nice inground pool, with rounded steps the shallow end and a diving board on the deep end, anyway maybe one day, its a great place to build a house, a great view that looks like ur in the smokie mountains, , im rambling , take care

Well I can honestly say I have never killed a deer or been hunting. It is something I never wanted to do. I wasn't and still am not interested in doing that. I'm not really against it but its not for me. Fishing is about the extent of my hunting..lol I love animals and nature too much to pull the trigger. If I was starving and lived in the woods I might have to, but I never been in a position to need to hunt. I don't like hunting as a sport I'll say that. If its for food that's different.

Anyway, to elaborate on my ranch experience, the ranch had a campground for campers. There was a major campground where camping trailers stayed at. People came down from Canada and other places and lived there for awhile in the winter. There was a dirt road that led to the stables where I was at all the time. Our stables gave trail rides to people that wanted to ride a horse. I was one of the trail guides. I would help people on there horses and take them for a 1 hour trail ride in the woods and pastures. Sometimes I'd have as many as 20 people on horseback guiding them on the trail ride. The ages of the riders on the trail ride ranged anywhere from little kids to mature old adults. All ages were welcome. I would have to choose the right horse for each rider. I didn't want the kids on spirited horses, I put them on the slow laid back horses. It was safer that way. Depending on the riders experience is how I judged what horse would be best for them. The ranch was on I think about 1500 acres. Some Parts was wooded and other parts was pasture grazing land.

I also used to give pony cart rides in the camp ground to earn money. We had about 5 pony's that pulled carts. I decided one day to put a sign on the cart saying something like "Pony Cart Rides 50 Cents" So I would hitch up the pony and cart and go to the campground and ride through it. People would come out of the camping trailers and want a ride. So I made a little money doing that as a little boy. There was a country store and pool in the campground and I would stop there sometimes to get a coke or sandwich. The Campground was within walking distance from the stables, in fact you could see it from the stables. The Stables was part of the Campground. Same owner and property.

On hot days we would go to the campground pool and take a swim to cool off. It was a BIG in-ground pool with a diving board and everything. They even had a game room next to the country store. The pool was behind the store and game room. So on days it got really hot we would walk to the pool from the stables and hangout there for awhile, then go back to the stables. The campground and property and stable are still there today, but the stable part of it is shutdown. No horses there anymore. The stable building is still there but it was turned into something else, like a beauty salon or something. They remodeled the building obviously. But it was once a working stable at one time.

that sounds like fun, being a guide, and a nice place, i only went deer hunting once with son in law but did not see anything, i have not hunt in a long time, i when a teenager did rabbit hunting and squirrel hunting, that was because my uncle took me, my dad worked to much to take me, but i have not hunt in many years, i dont even fish much since my dad died, take care