I'm in the middle of overseeing an SAT practice session for M, so I have a few minutes and a few pictures to blog!
We've had beautiful weather the past few days. The boys and Sacagawea have enjoyed relaxing in their hammocks. Three hammocks. One hammock stand. Sometimes they have hung up all 3 at the same time, but usually it is just one or two at a time.
Yesterday I was outside soaking up some sunshine and talking to S when a huge gust of wind whipped through our yard. Someone's hammock, which wasn't connected to the stand, got caught up in the wind. I thought it was pretty cool. S didn't. He might have thought it was cool if it had been J's or Sacagawea's, but it wasn't.
Fortunately The Man was at home, otherwise S would have had to wait for another gust of wind to loosen his hammock from the tree.
That tree definitely isn't strong enough to climb.
This tree is strong enough, and S and J decided they wanted a tree house.
Originally, I heard that Sacagawea wouldn't be allowed, but since I saw her carrying boards up the hill yesterday while J & S nailed, I think she has struck a deal. I heard that even G and Baby S were up there yesterday with The Man, so I'm pretty sure it is safe.
We (not me) tilled the entire garden area (~150' x 150') a few weeks ago. So far we've planted potatoes, peas (actually planted a few weeks prior), onions, spinach, radishes, and turnips. Strawberry plants were put in yesterday.
We tried planting strawberries a few years ago, but something ate all the plants. The day The Man and boys tilled the garden, the Dog eradicated about a dozen moles from the garden area. We also just purchased one of these to try to get rid of more of the bigger rodents quickly. Hopefully it will be worth it and we'll get more than a dozen potatoes this year!
G and Sacagawea helped me plant some seeds and we have lots of baby seedlings soaking up sun during the day. We'll continue to have frosts through the beginning of next month so we'll be doing the daily seedling transport for a few more weeks.
Don't you just love his giraffe hat? It was made/given to him last winter by a friend and he adores it!
Here is a "just because" picture I took a few weeks ago. Have a great day!
4 month stats for Baby S: 11 lbs, 12 ozs. and 23 1/2" long. She rolls easily from front to back and occasionally from back to front. She sleeps all night (usually about 11 hours) in her crib at night. She is such a good little girl.
G went to his very first non-daddy doctor appointment a few weeks ago. His height and weight is consistent with his siblings at his age. I don't remember right now his stats (bad mommy moment), but they were in the 5th percentile. Actually, I think M was off the bottom of the charts at that age. The doctor said we were already doing everything that could be done for G's allergies and eczema, so we'll just keep doing what we're doing.
I was sick for most of January and I'm still dealing with a lingering case of conjunctivitis. Fortunately it didn't seem to be the contagious type. I'm very slowly starting to feel normal again.
Last weekend we made our very first road trip as a family of 8. Whew! The baby and all the rest did well on the 6 hour trip to visit Weimar College. That is one of many that M is interested in attending in a few years. It turned into a wonderful surprise reunion getting reacquainted with friends and family from all over the country.
S has taken up trench digging. Instead of digging random trenches all over the property, I gave him permission to dig trenches within the garden area. He and J started pulling apart old pallets today to construct a compost bin. After a bit of discussion they started researching worm compost bins. I've offered to donate the Rubbermaid containers if they'll do the rest.
This past week has been unpacking, enjoying the sunshine in our part of the country, and yet another trip to the big city for music lessons for M. The highlight of my week was finding FIVE 100% cotton shirts for The Man at the Goodwill. Not only were they in colors/styles that he will wear, but they all fit. It is the small things that make me happy!
No more apologies for not writing more here. When I'm at the computer I usually only have one free hand to type, which doesn't make for effective blogging. The Man has taken Baby S to be changed and put to bed. As soon as she's asleep, I'll put myself to bed, so hopefully this will be a short post!
I suppose it is trite to say that I don't know where this past year has gone...but I'm not even sure what happened to yesterday. Twenty-ten has been a very eventful year for our family. I hope that 2011 brings more time to enjoy the everyday pleasures.
I'll try to give an update since my last post. All of these items are very deserving of their own separate posts, but that's not going to happen...
M: Got the results for the PSAT he took in November.
> > BRAG ALERT < <
He scored in the 99th percentile of juniors who took the test. That was his very first standardized, non-mommy given test. I've always known he was a smart kid, but it is nice to get some valid confirmation of that. I was quite relieved that I haven't totally ruined him academically by homeschooling him.
J: Almost as tall as me now. He's been told he can no longer wear my garden shoes to make quick runs outside since he's been stretching them out.
S: Backyard Ballistics was finally available to be checked out from the library. There are PVC weapons in the entryway and I found two potatoes under his bed when I vacuumed today.
A: The Man made her a loom for Christmas so she's learning the fine art of weaving. She LOVES singing and rocking her baby sister to sleep.
G: Cute, cute, cute. And he knows it. Very smart kid, but he still isn't talking. He got a Candy Land game for Christmas so we could "teach" him his colors. He beat me yesterday. I guess he already knew his colors! He absolutely adores his baby sister. Unfortunately he hasn't learned the difference between sharing a doll with her and whacking her on the head with a doll. "Gentle!"
Baby S: Smiling, giggling, cooing, and sleeping well through the night. She is a very sweet and happy baby. I can't believe that she is quickly outgrowing clothes that were swallowing her up a few short weeks ago. She had her first bite of real food yesterday. She was sitting on my lap next to G's high chair. While my head was turned G stuck his spoon into her mouth. Wild rice soup seems to agree with her!
The Man: Over the course of a few weeks, he replaced some rotten boards on our bridge so we had to drive through our pasture to get to the road. He still has a bit more to do, but it is functional.
The creek started flowing again on Christmas. It has been rather wet the past month. A bit of snow is still on the ground outside and it has been getting down into the teens the past few nights. Brrrr.
I still hear Baby S, but I'm yawning and ready to go to bed anyway. May you have a blessed and happy new year!
Although I did complete July with 31 blog posts, I certainly didn't continue the momentum through August! There has been way too much going on to actually sit down and blog, but here are some pics that M took of our adventures over the past week.
Warning: Pictures of a dead snake below. If you don't care to see pictures of the snake OR the dissection, just click away now. :)
Last Tuesday M announced that there was a rattlesnake outside his bedroom. He had been looking out the window and saw it slithering in the dirt near the retaining wall just behind our house. Too close! This is the second one (that we know of!) we've had near the house. 
J ran to the garden to get the hoes and The Man got the gun. 
I was impressed that The Man only fired three shots and the snake had four holes in it. The Man was dismayed that he didn't kill it with the first shot. 
We think the first shot (while the snake was moving) just shot off the rattles. We (not including me!) had to look around a bit to find them. There were at least nine rattles on this snake! 
The third shot was in the head, and other than the residual movements...it was dead. After removing what little was left of the head/fangs, The Man found a large glass jar in which to put the body. He put that into a cooler with some jugs of ice until he could get around to skinning it.
That time finally came on Sunday morning. We (again, not me!) started the process in the front yard. 
Pretty snake! Too bad it had to get so close to the house and my babies! 
Even G helped out with the process. 
The children finally had enough of the flies and other creatures that wished to watch and bother, so they came inside and let The Man carry on with his project. 
After The Man separated the skin from the rest of the innards, he came inside also...with the skin. He did ask where he should finish cleaning the skin. I told him wherever he could easily clean and disinfect the mess! 
He chose the bathroom counter. Ick. 
Ick, ick, ick. 
When he was done, he said he finally figured out a good reason for the "his and her" sinks in the master bathroom. I didn't complain when he rinsed the skin in "his" sink. Other than my house smelling like my high school zoology class (minus the formaldehyde) for most of the day, it wasn't that bad of a process. The skin is now hanging on the back porch.
The Man has his glycerin solution ready to tan it. I'm not sure what his plans for it beyond that are, but at least that snake won't be biting my kids or dog!
I will try to check in and blog more regularly, there just hasn't been a lot of extra time. No time? Hmmm...killing a snake, storing a snake, skinning a snake, and tanning the skin were not in our plans for the past week, but it is hard to predict those teaching/learning moments and work them into the schedule ahead of time.
Warning: If you are of the camp that believes certain animals are more important than food for a family, just click away from this post. Thank you.
For those of you that have not had the pleasure of meeting a California ground squirrel, you haven't missed much! They are pests. Extreme pests! Just imagine that they are like their cousins, the rats, with bushier tails. They dig under the building foundations and try to destroy whatever else they can. We have to tread carefully out in the field to avoid the burrows.
The Dog usually takes care of the ground squirrels around our property, however he doesn't have ready access to our fenced garden area. The squirrels were "taking care" of our garden this spring until we started keeping a live trap on the compost pile within the fenced garden area. About 2-3 times a day the Dog alerts us to a squirrel in the trap. The trap is moved to an open area and opened, then the Dog does the rest.
This morning the Dog started barking so the boys went to move the trap. There was not one, but two squirrels in the trap. This has happened before, but it is a very rare occurrence. The Dog had to have some help dispatching of those two.
Later in the afternoon the Dog started barking again. This time I needed a picture!
Yes, the Dog is drooling. There were another two!
The second is hard to see in the shadow of the door, but there are two in that trap. It turned into an interesting object lesson for the kids. If you are going to do something that will get you into trouble, it doesn't necessarily help to do it with a friend...well, it may help the predator!
Many things have been added to our daily lives that weren't on the agenda. There haven't been enough hours in the day to do everything we have wanted to do...never mind all the stuff that we didn't want to do.
I've been reminded by more than one person that I need to get started on our Christmas letter. Is it December already? I suppose it is. I was contemplating what kind of photo we would include in our letter this year. Peaches the Wonder Horse has been an integral part of our Christmas photos since she joined our family over 3 years ago.
Christmas 2005
Unfortunately, Peaches won't join in on the picture this year. On Monday afternoon M found her on her side by the barn. She tried valiantly to get up, but her old stiff legs wouldn't cooperate. She was bleeding a bit from her mouth where she had broken some of her front teeth (probably in her fall). We already knew that she was close to 30 and probably wouldn't make it through the winter, but still, we weren't quite prepared to deal with situation.
I called The Man at work and asked him to make the call to the vet. Guess what? Our vet was out of town. The vet that was filling in for him was also out of town. Rather than having a vet come over from the city, the Man decided he would do the deed himself. So, after a day of trying to help people get better, The Man came home and spent another half-hour saying good-bye to Peaches while trying to see if there was any way we could help her to comfortably live longer. There wasn't.
We all shed some tears for the dear, faithful, patient horse. We feel privileged that we were able to own her the past few years. She will be missed!
Several weeks ago as we were coming home, we noticed two animals frolicking in the driveway. The Man identified them as weasels. Most of us had never seen weasels in real life before, so that was exciting. We think that our pair are long-tailed weasels.
A few weeks later when M's nightly egg collection dropped off to nearly nothing, we suspected the weasels. After some encouragement, he started making frequent trips to the hen house during the day. Sure enough, the first day of frequent trips produced 11 eggs.
Since M has more important things to do than make hourly trips to the hen house, the other children are often sent and come back with tales of weasels in the nesting boxes eating the eggs. Our field guide states that weasels are beneficial animals. If they really are as great at taking care of rodents as the experts say, we would love to have them on our property. We certainly don't mind sacrificing a few eggs now and then to help control the ground squirrel population.
M went home with some friends after church today, so S went to gather the eggs when we got home. We were all surprised when he came back with seven since we had been gone for nearly five hours (potluck today at church). After my nap :) I sent J out to check for some more eggs. He came back with the report of the hen/weasel fight in the hen house and a punctured egg in the nesting box. Both creatures were ruffled, but the weasel ran off when J entered the hen house.
Now what do we do? We do have a small live trap that we could set under the hen house tonight baited with eggs...but then what? So far, they haven't actually harmed any of chickens. Of course, it is a holiday weekend, so I can't get any advice from fish & game until Tuesday. By that time, I might as well wait for The Man to return on Wednesday.
I'm pretty sure that our hen house, which is up on blocks with a wood floor, is weasel-proof at night when the doors are closed. Those hens have shown that they can be mean when they need to be during the day. I guess we will try to wait it out unless the weasels prove they are after more than just our eggs!
While we were gone on vacation, the barn swallows got busy laying their eggs...
There were only four last year, but this summer they laid FIVE! How appropriate!
I wasn't holding my breath expecting them all to survive, especially considering how I rescued one of the babies from the porch last summer.
Mama and Papa faithfully watched over the eggs.
On Friday, June 27, the first babies hatched (that's a week earlier than last year).
By Friday evening four were hatched (notice the bit of egg on the left side under 2 of the babies' heads).
Saturday morning S found a bit of eggshell on the welcome mat.
Sure enough! Five babies in the nest!
By the next day, feathers were beginning to sprout.
After that, it was a bit hard to identify parts, so they were left alone for a few days.
It wasn't until we were able to count five beaks hanging over the edge of the nest that we knew they were all still alive and well.
A top view...
I didn't have to rescue any of the birds this year, although there were some risk-takers. Most of the birds stayed safe in the nest, but this one liked living on the edge...
I nicknamed him "J."
They grew so fast. Here are two of the "babies" in the nest...
Where are the others?
Trying out their wings, of course!
This is a picture to show what we have had to deal with by the swallows building on the other side of the door this year...
You'll notice what is directly under the nest...the door handle! That picture was taken right after M cleaned up the door handle, but let's just say we were rather creative about opening the door the past several weeks. We even tried just keeping the screen door propped open, but then the parent birds would perch on the top edge of the screen and make messes on the inside of the screen also. Ick.
The birds have all abandoned the nest now, but the last time we were able to see them all in the same vicinity, there were five babies flying around.
The Man came home in time for lunch today. I was glad. I will be the first to admit that I need a daily nap these days. Since everyone was still at the table eating I thought it would be a good idea to get a head start on my nap while no one had an excuse to be up walking around.
One of the flaws of our house is that the vibrations of the footsteps of a child not purposely walking softly can be felt by someone trying to sleep at the opposite end of the house. I shared this revelation with The Man. "Really? Maybe you should try sleeping after working overnight in the ER first." OK, so he was already aware of this flaw.
After trying in vain for 1/2 hour to get to sleep I got up, still groggy, cranky, and napless. After another hour or so The Man and children were going to go outside. I would try again for a nap. I was just starting to doze off again when I heard The Man instructing the children to stay back. I heard the word "snake" and "hoe." Hmmm...why would The Man need a hoe for a harmless garter or gopher snake? I got up again and went to investigate.
The Man was on our back porch taking this picture...
M had gone on the back porch to work on refinishing the dresser he had finally decided upon for his room. The Dog was out there with him and started sniffing around. That's when M noticed the snake over in the corner.
After taking the picture, The Man struck at the rattling and striking snake with a hoe. He got it (note the smooshed head and neck). Nine rattles on this Western Rattlesnake!
The kids still had to stay back. Even though it was no longer striking, it was writhing around. A few minutes later The Man used the sticks to stretch it out for some measurements.
Even in its mostly dead* state, it wouldn't lay still for measurements. Our best estimate is right at 3 feet long.
Although our neighbors have all had rattlesnakes, we've never seen one on our property until this summer. M told us yesterday that he thought he saw one up on the hill behind our house. I asked The Man last night what I should do if I encountered one when he wasn't home. He said I should kill it.
"With a hoe?"
"The shotgun would be more effective."
After some discussion, it was decided that it would be a lot quicker for me to use the hoe. I'm glad he decided on the hoe today, especially since it was on the back porch.
Sacagawea will need someone to scout the porch for her this summer before she heads out there with the Play-do. I don't even want to think about what would have happened if she had been the first to encounter it! We prefer just to leave the snakes alone since they help control the rodent population, but this poisonous one was just too close and dangerous.
*Extra credit if you can name that movie...the theme song for the movie was played at our wedding.
Sorry it's been so long since my last update. Let's see...the kids had their end-of-year music recital, we took our van back to the mechanic because it was making a rumbling noise, and we're trying to get ready to leave on a trip on Sunday.
What else could go wrong with the van? I am regretting asking that question. We picked up the van last Friday with a diagnosis of failing muffler. We were planning on getting that fixed after our vacation. About 15-20 miles later the van was towed back to the mechanic after it stalled while The Man was driving it. They have replaced the fuel pump and are checking out the "check engine" light that stays brightly lit. I have asked for a decent horse & buggy, but it has been pointed out to me that that would bring a whole new set of challenges.
The Man's truck was also giving me problems yesterday while I was trying to shift gears. Maybe the transmission needs some more work. At least the trash truck is still puttering along.
They're baaaack. I haven't taken as many pictures, because they're just about as exciting as last year's photos. Just click on the link and imagine they were taken this year. I didn't want them to stay, but since everyone else in the family wished them to, I didn't interrupt the nest building activities. I'm not so much opposed to the nest as I am to the mess that I was cleaning up under the nest. Due to my delicate condition, I refuse to do that job this summer. Maybe if the children clean up the mess they won't be quite so eager for them to build in the same place next year. I did show them the documentation from last year, but they still begged for me to leave the nest building activities alone.
The only difference is that this year they aren't building on the hinge side of the door, but the other side. That means that I open the front door and pause before exiting just to give the swallows a chance to fly away before I walk under the nest. I will be laughing at the first person who gets a surprise on his/her head while using the door. I certainly hope I won't be laughing at myself.
Have a good weekend...I'll be back after our vacation!
This tree is strong enough, and S and J decided they wanted a tree house.
Don't you just love his giraffe hat? It was made/given to him last winter by a friend and he adores it!
