Zebras, fish, spiders and donkeys

We were very inspired by the speaker at the Westcave Preserve gala this week: Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods, a book outlining the increasing problem of Nature Deficit Disorder among our nation's youth. Well, I don't think Reese is at risk of acquiring this disorder. But just for good measure, we were outside basically every waking moment this weekend. We went out to the ranch on Friday in preparation for our Saturday morning outing.
Think someone was excited?

As we were driving over to the River Valley Ranch for a breakfast picnic and some hiking and fishing, we saw 5 zebras on a fenced exotic ranch. I've seen them before when I've been out on my bike rides, but never 5 at once!

Here are two, backside to backside. Their markings are truly beautiful.

The Pedernales River at RVR is usually a large, deep lake in this particular area; however, the drought has really drained the river. While it's upsetting to see how low and dry it is right now, we were able to set up our stuff on a sandy beach. When we were hiking down to our spot, we hit the sand and R exclaimed, "Oh, we're at the beach!" Here's the little adventurer getting her feet wet, immediately upon arrival.

Speaking of the drought, you can see how high the water usually is by looking at the cypress tree roots. Yikes!

Another example.

Our set up for a "breakfast picnic" included a portable grill, chairs, cooler and blanket. We ate fresh fruit and cooked pancakes and bacon. We were not fooling around. Ma Pam and Papa had this meal planned really well--it was so delicious!

Next on the docket was some fishing. Reese thought this was fantastic, especially since they caught a few Guadalupe bass right at the beginning.

As proof that she truly is Ma Pam's granddaughter, R promptly announced she was "ready to catch a big fish" after pulling this one in. Ahem.

And she was quite serious about that. No more of those tiny bass for her. After fishing, we hiked up the river a bit and saw several crawfish in the water.

When we returned to the RRR, the gals went down to the gate to make sure it was Halloween ready. We spread the spider web behind the giant spiders.

And posed for some pics, natch.

Reese had a lot of fun "helping" us secure it all over the gates.

Almost every time we go to the ranch, we make the trek across the Pedernales River in the mules to go feed our neighbor's donkeys, whom we've oh-so-cleverly named Barack and Hillary. They are quite friendly and also not a bit picky about what they eat. In this picture, they are eyeing R's food. Coincidentally, R always wants to eat whatever we're feeding the donkeys.

Which was bread and apples today.

And as we're leaving them, R often hollers, "See you next time, donkeys!" Indeed.