The county fair started last Wednesday and ended yesterday. For the fifth year in a row, our church staffed a booth at the fair. I always look forward to the fair starting, praying that we won't have the VeggieTales nearby. By Sunday, I'm glad it is almost over! So, that's where I've been the past week. As in the past few years, Grandma came to stay with kids while The Man and I were busy with the fair.
Yesterday morning after breakfast it was discovered the kitchen sink was clogged. Despite using drain opener, many tools, and a plumber's snake, it is still clogged. This morning The Man crawled under the house and discovered the clean-out pipe. He said he should be able to clean that out tonight.
While The Man was under the house I was in the bathroom with some improvised dishpans in the bathtub washing up all the dishes from yesterday. Those were put away right after breakfast and another load was washed (yes, we're using paper plates, but we still generate lots of dishes!). Then I tackled the stove top, kitchen counters, and sink. When those were clean (no easy feat without running water in the kitchen), I boxed up all the stuff from under the sink that was scattered on the floor and put that on the counter. Then, I mopped the floor in front of the sink so the kitchen looks a lot less scary and actually resembles a kitchen!
A sign is on the bathroom door reminding the children to use one of the other toilets in the house since I have a slight issue with them using a toilet with dishes drying a few feet away. Hopefully the kitchen will be put back together within the next day or so. I AM thankful that this happened on the last day of the fair instead of the first!
For school, M is finishing up a few things from last year. What needs to be ordered for this next school year has been decided and the orders will actually be placed in the next week or so. I'm tentatively planning on starting after Labor Day weekend.
J almost has the entryway back in order, Sacagawea is cleaning out the toy box in the living room, and I'm ready to go rescue some laundry from the dryer. The schoolroom was in the midst of a major overhaul when the fair started and it really needs to be finished this week. I have some green beans and peaches begging to be frozen, but I think I'll wait until tomorrow in hopes of having running water in the kitchen. Ahhh...don't be shocked if you don't see another update soon!
Monday, August 16, 2010
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Poison of a serpent...Psalm 58:4
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: 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.
Friday, August 06, 2010
What is it? Exodus 16:15
It's a...
baby. That's about all I could tell from the photos. My doctor and The Man pointed out a few things to me. I could tell the heart was beating. I have no idea what the picture above shows.
This picture is of the baby's face and hand. I think it will be a lot cuter in person.
I'm told the next 2 pics show the gender with a 99% probability. The legs stayed firmly together so we couldn't see for sure if there was something extra. (Just to clarify, we think that is it, but there may be a 1% chance there is something we can't see).
Sacagawea says she would rather wait to find out the gender than to be told one thing now and find out the doctor was wrong. So, we haven't officially told the boys anything, although M knows. J thinks it looks like a girl and S thinks it looks like a boy. We'll probably tell them soon. So, you may post your comments regarding gender here, but try not to say anything to Sacagawea in person!
baby. That's about all I could tell from the photos. My doctor and The Man pointed out a few things to me. I could tell the heart was beating. I have no idea what the picture above shows.
This picture is of the baby's face and hand. I think it will be a lot cuter in person.
I'm told the next 2 pics show the gender with a 99% probability. The legs stayed firmly together so we couldn't see for sure if there was something extra. (Just to clarify, we think that is it, but there may be a 1% chance there is something we can't see).
Sacagawea says she would rather wait to find out the gender than to be told one thing now and find out the doctor was wrong. So, we haven't officially told the boys anything, although M knows. J thinks it looks like a girl and S thinks it looks like a boy. We'll probably tell them soon. So, you may post your comments regarding gender here, but try not to say anything to Sacagawea in person!
Saturday, July 31, 2010
He is a new creature...2 Corinthians 5:17
Yesterday afternoon we went down to river with Grandma and Grandpa. While some went off in search of some nature, I let it come to me.
If you look carefully, there is an itty-bitty fish swimming there in my hands (brown, horizontal line above my palm on the left side of the photo). I scooped it up while sitting on the bank of the river. This was actually the second one I caught. The Man didn't grab my phone to take a picture before the first got away.
While sitting in the same spot, I turned over a rock and found this...
We haven't identified it yet, but it is some sort of chrysalis. It was wiggling a bit, so we know it is alive. It is here at home in a jar with us now so we can see its final transformation. This reminds me of the text from this post title:
I was sitting in the shade of this bridge, thankful that these swallow nests were unoccupied.
Bird nests above the head can make a big mess!
G enjoyed getting his feet wet again. Two times in one week! He spent most of the afternoon throwing rocks into the water.
The younger kids enjoyed swimming in the river, pretending to be beavers.
Although we have seen beaver in this river before, the only beaver sighting today happened to be a stump in the water.
If you look carefully, there is an itty-bitty fish swimming there in my hands (brown, horizontal line above my palm on the left side of the photo). I scooped it up while sitting on the bank of the river. This was actually the second one I caught. The Man didn't grab my phone to take a picture before the first got away.While sitting in the same spot, I turned over a rock and found this...
We haven't identified it yet, but it is some sort of chrysalis. It was wiggling a bit, so we know it is alive. It is here at home in a jar with us now so we can see its final transformation. This reminds me of the text from this post title:Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.If I had a better camera than my phone, you might be able to tell that The Man is holding a magnifying glass. I smelled smoke!
I was sitting in the shade of this bridge, thankful that these swallow nests were unoccupied.
Bird nests above the head can make a big mess!G enjoyed getting his feet wet again. Two times in one week! He spent most of the afternoon throwing rocks into the water.
The younger kids enjoyed swimming in the river, pretending to be beavers.
Although we have seen beaver in this river before, the only beaver sighting today happened to be a stump in the water.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Two are better than one...Ecclesiastes 4:9
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!
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! Thursday, July 29, 2010
Eat of the fruit...Joshua 5:12
Grandma and Grandpa arrived today and I was able to catch up on my blogging for the week while they played a rousing game of Monopoly with the kids. Here are some pics that I promised of my cupboards.
These are the apricots. J cut the cardboard for me so the jars are more stable in this shelf-less cupboard.
Here are some more. (Sorry, I'm still using my cell phone for pics...no flash).
Here are the jars of apricot and blueberry jam.
The tofu boxes have been moved from those shelves to make room for the blackberry jam I made this morning.
Note: Just because a jar seems to have the same diameter as other jars, don't assume the rings will fit. The "Skippy" jar on the right doesn't work with canning rings!
I had to hold the lid in place during the inversion process! It seems to have sealed just fine, but I won't be using that particular jar again for any preserving in the future!
These are the apricots. J cut the cardboard for me so the jars are more stable in this shelf-less cupboard.
Here are some more. (Sorry, I'm still using my cell phone for pics...no flash).
Here are the jars of apricot and blueberry jam.
The tofu boxes have been moved from those shelves to make room for the blackberry jam I made this morning.
Note: Just because a jar seems to have the same diameter as other jars, don't assume the rings will fit. The "Skippy" jar on the right doesn't work with canning rings!
I had to hold the lid in place during the inversion process! It seems to have sealed just fine, but I won't be using that particular jar again for any preserving in the future!
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Hail...Exodus 9:18
Our very first harvest of the summer crop of zucchini! If blossoms are any indication, we'll have plenty to share!
We are very thankful for this little squash since Monday night we had a hail storm. Other than a few tomato cages that got knocked over, our garden fared pretty well. Just a few miles from us, some gardens were destroyed by golf ball-sized hail.
We are very thankful for this little squash since Monday night we had a hail storm. Other than a few tomato cages that got knocked over, our garden fared pretty well. Just a few miles from us, some gardens were destroyed by golf ball-sized hail.
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