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This happened as our own Benton High School played Maryville, only a few miles from us:

I had tears in my eyes as I watched this video. What a terrific, heart-warming story!  I invite you to read the article by Ryan Young of The Kansas City Star newspaper. It starts:

ST. JOSEPH | Matt Ziesel doesn’t stray far from coach Dan McCamy on the sidelines during St. Joseph Benton High School’s freshman football games. He likes to stay within earshot….

“I’m ready, Coach. … Coach, I’m ready,” Ziesel says.McCamy says he hears it about 10 times a game, and also at practices, from Ziesel, his 5-foot-3, 110-pound running back.

I have strayed from woodworking on the blog only a few times. I hope you enjoy this story as much as I did; and I hope it will make your day!

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This will be off-topic from woodworking. However, I have created a Category called Sidetracking, for stuff just like this one. Almost anything that takes me away from woodworking may end up in this Category.

Today was Nature Sense Day for a local group of home-schoolers. The event was organized by the Missouri Department of Conservation/Northwest Region (MDC, for short – please click on this link if you would to visit their web page). The host was LuAnn Cadden, Conservation Education Supervisor / Northwest Region; she was a wonderful, vivacious host! Thank-you, LuAnn!

I had the opportunity to attend this event, while our daughter stayed with granddaughter #2 at the doctor’s office for a quick checkup – I took three granddaughters to this event. It was wonderful to see the faces of little ones, as they listened and watched in amazement and wonder at LuAnn’s descriptions of things they might see or hear in the nature trail they would travel today.

Before going any further, I want show you where we were today: In St Joseph, Missouri, about where the arrow is pointing – this is a map I got from the Commission’s web site:

I recorded the event briefly, first in the NW Region’s conference room, where LuAnn prepared everyone for the sounds and sights on the nature trail; in this photo she displays an owl that appeared, magically, out of her backpack. The group just might see an owl on the trail today:

First stop in the nature trail: A bird’s song stopped everyone in their tracks – what type of bird could it be? Only listening and close investigation would reveal it:

LuAnn highlights the huge poison ivy climbing the tree behind her – for many,it is NOT safe to even touch the vine climbing the tree, or its leaves:

Farther along the trail: Are those berries all the way up on that tree? Or is it a huge berry bush? Parents and children all wanted to know:

Sadly, this was the end of the outing for me, as our daughter joined the group with the last two granddaughters, after the visit to the doctor.

I had to leave right after taking this last shot, so I missed at least 3/4 of the trail. But it was fun to be with our granddaughters for part of today! Luckily, I was able to use the camera in my cell phone to shoot this event; I forgot to take the better camera along for this trip.

Thanks again, LuAnn, and thanks, MDC!

I hope you will enjoy reading about this outing, as much as I enjoyed being with so many little people and their parents today.

Now, back to woodworking, I hope…

Al