4-H Banner

Our banner for the fair is done! This is all the kids that were on the committee for the banner. The best part was we met at our house and for once we didn't have to drive anywhere! We met one time last week to get the background on the banner, make the bees and get the hive sewn and glued on. A good majority of the weekend was spent making the flowers. This morning we met again and cut out the letters and put the whole thing together.

Gutter cleaning or tree removal?

The gutter on the side of the garage is just sprouting with life. It had just hundreds, upon hundreds, of little maple trees growing out of it as if it were a planter. Dancer, bless her heart, climbed up there, plucked the trees out and then dug out the smelly, rotting leaves they were finding such a good medium to grow in. There are maple trees coming up everywhere this year. It is probably because there has been rain every few days and every thing is moist. Funny thing is, a couple of years ago we had a maple tree grow in the rocks around the house. We were so excited about having a tree come up that we carefully dug it out of the rocks and planted it in the yard. For the last couple of years, we have been babying this tree along with extra waterings and put a fence around it to protect it. Our hard work has paid off as the tree is about 5 1/2 feet tall this year. We are planning on putting a few of our plethora of trees in pots to see if we can get some growing well so that if we want to plant a tree anywhere else we will have some at the ready.

Indoor garden

This is a garden Dancer made in a flower pot for a 4-H project. It has to be in the pot at least one month before judging. She arranged five different house plants in it. To keep it looking like this she will have to keep turning it in the sun everyday so it doesn't grow in just one direction and nip off any new growth.

Fish tales

We went fishing tonight at a pier in town. This is Dad, Dancer and Spark at the end of pier. There a couple of these and few docks around town for fishing at.

The wind was really whipping, even Sparks short hair was blowing back.

This is what the kids call their secret fishing spot. Two other kids were over there so I don't know how "secret" it really is.

Spark always wants to go fishing. He asks to go fishing. Then when we get to the lake he looses most of his interest before the lines even have leeches on. He mostly runs around creating havoc. This includes, but is not limited to, him falling in, the bait getting knocked over, a pole falling in, yelling, running on the dock and just being an annoying little brother.

There was a beautiful sunset.

The fish weren't biting at the pier so we moved to another lake that has a dock. Here is the kids sitting at the end of the dock.

Dancer was excited she caught a big one!

Dancer out on the dock. She loves to fish and would every morning and evening if someone would take her. She expects them to be biting though and she has the knack to get them. Even when the rest of us are standing with our lines dangling in the water without any nibbles, she is pulling them in.

It kept getting darker and darker, to where it was hard to even see the bobber in the water, but Dancer and Dad just wanted to try "one more time".

The mosquitoes starting coming in so Spark and I walked back and waited in the car for Dancer and Dad to decide they were done. It is hard to imagine that in just eight years Spark will be sitting over there and actually driving.

Dancer's big large mouth bass. She caught 3 and Dad caught 1 that were worth keeping. This was very exciting because we always catch a lot of fish but rarely, very rarely, do get any that are "keepers". Last year, for the whole summer, we caught a meager three that we kept. The fish go in the freezer and then when we have a couple saved up, we thaw them out and fry them.

Somebodies knocking, should I let him in?

The Dad, for years, has worked nights. I sleep well when he is at work but I have to admit that I do sleep much more deeply when he is home knowing that if something comes up he will take care of it. Last night he was working so subconsciously I was on alert. At 1:45 a.m. a jolting BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG has me flying out of bed with my heart racing so hard that I can feel it outside my chest. The kids and I have been reading the Sisters Grimm series and in those books every time there is a knock at the door during the night, Sabrina, one of the sisters, gets up and stupidly opens the door and it always turns out to be a bad idea. So crazily, my mind goes to these stories and I worry about who, or what, could be out there. Not that I was expecting a Jabberwocky or anything but it did cross my mind. Remember I have only been awake for about 4 seconds when that thought went through my head. As I am going down the hall, I can hear that Dancer is up and I don't want her to go to the door. At the same time, I need to be quiet because I don't want whoever is out there to know that we are awake since they haven't knocked again since the initial BANG, BANG, BANG. I also start wondering how I am going to look out and see who it is because we have a window in our door so they could see me before I can get a good look at them. We live among corn fields, so I am assuming it is a crazy ax murderer out cruising country roads and decided to stop and kill someone. Dancer starts mumbling something about not being able to find knob. Knob? Just stay in your room I whisper, and don't answer the door. Then she says something about not being able to get out of my room and because she can't get the dresser out of the way. She thought the bedroom door was shut and that she was sleeping in my room and while getting up to go to the bathroom she couldn't figure out where she was. In her defense, I am the only one who sleeps in the same spot every night, the rest of the family is like a bunch of gypsies sleeping where ever they find comfortable that night. When I finally sorted all this out she was trying to get into her closet. As she woke up a little more she said she was pounding on the wall trying to find the knob to get out of the room. My heart is still pumping like I had just ran a 5K so I have to decide, is this really what the knocking was or is someone still out there. I feel my way in complete darkness to the door, quick flip on the porch light so I will startle the wanna-be intruder, look out the window and see no one. Oh, thank heavens! It did take a few minutes to get myself back together and then even longer to fall back asleep. The Dad is home tonight and I couldn't be happier.

Dancer's knitted dishcloth

Dancer finished up her dishcloth and it turned out really nice. By the time she was getting to the last 15 or so rows she was moving along quite quickly on it with only a couple mistakes to fix. She will put it in the fair now for a needle arts project. I don't know if she will make anything else as it turned into a chore instead of a pleasurable activity for her, timelines will do that to you. Maybe this winter when the snow starts to fly and it is dark by 4:30 pm she will try another project.

The pattern for the dishcloth was simple. Cast on 30 stitches, knit every row until it is square and bind off.

25 year highschool class reunion

The postcard came in the mail announcing that yes, it has been 25 years since we thought we knew it all and were ready to conquer the world. The Dad and I graduated from the same high school the same year (yes, we were high school sweethearts). Will we go? At this point we are thinking not. Our class was small by some standards, about a 100 people, and I helped organize the 20 year and so really caught up with what people were doing. I am sure there will be some changes, a few deaths, perhaps a midlife baby or two and by this time there should be grandchildren's pictures to show off. But we are busy and for the most part, our fellow classmates are strangers to us now. Sure, I send Christmas cards to a few of those who were good friends at that time in our lives, but otherwise they are people I have seen twice in the last 25 years.

This got me thinking about our kids who won't have class reunions. No pressure about am I done with college at the five year, do I have an impressive enough job at the 10 year, am I married with kids and a beautiful home at the 15, can I loose some weight before the 20 year and how old will I look compared to my classmates at the 25? It could be another benefit to homeschooling!

June is dairy month

To celebrate dairy month the 4-H club gave free root beer floats to everyone who came into the grocery store. The store donated the ice cream and we just had to buy the root beer and the cups. The kids set up right inside the front door. You can see by the picture that the store is very crowded with merchandise. It is about 1000 square feet but they have just about anything you would ever need to buy and even have a meat counter. Every aisle is so full of displays that only one cart, the small narrow ones, can get down a aisle at a time so if someone else is already in the aisle you have to wait your turn. I think it is more jam packed than a flea market. They also don't have the equipment to scan the UPC codes so everything has a price tag on it. It is a fun place to go and we appreciate it when we need to pick up a few thing. We don't do our big shopping there but if you do, they bag it and carry it out to your car. I hadn't seen that kind of service since I was a kid.

She won!!!!

Dancer filled out a Go Green question sheet where she had to go around to all these displays and find the answers at city hall this last weekend. For filling out the paper your name got put into a drawing to win a video recorder or a night at a casino. Tonight there was a message on the phone that she won a prize and come into town to pick it up. Her prize is what every 12 year hopes to win. Not only did they give a her toilet bowl cleaner but she got a little speech about how important it is to be green. I guess there were two grand prizes and then they drew for some items such as this. Well, it was nice to be a winner anyway.

PG - 13

The Dad and I watched a movie tonight that was rated PG-13. My, oh, my, there were a few scenes that seemed a little raw to us. The watcher would be ready for their wedding night after that show. Is this what 13 year olds out there are watching as entertainment? And I know that many, many, kids younger than 13 are allowed to watch that rating. Call me a prude, but as the mother of a 12 1/2 year old I really don't think she will tuning in any time soon.

Town festival = fun, fun, fun

Our town had it's summer festival and it was packed with activities from sun up to sun down. The kids and Dad went to the the fishing contest at the beach early in the morning. Each caught a fish but not big enough to win one of the big prizes. They each came home with a bag full of tackle which they thought was a wonderful prize on it's own. Next, they were off to the minnow races were Dancer's minnow came in first place twice and she won a bottle of water. Very nice prize when the temp is well above 80 degrees and the sun is beating down.



Our church had free games for kids under 10 years old. We were part of the planning for this so we spent most of the afternoon setting up and then running the games. We decided to go with an old fashion theme so there were sack races, here is Spark racing in his sack, egg on the spoon race, jump ropes, hula hoops, three legged race, train ride pulled with a 4 wheeler, balloons, and freezies for the whole family. Then we zoomed home to put our wagon together for the parade. The overall theme for the festival was "Go Green" so we used that on our 4-H sign as a hint to join 4-H. To make things as simple for everyone each family designed their own wagon and we pulled them down the route to not use any gas and be 'green' while the kids threw candy to the parade watchers.

The night ended with a street dance and fabulous fireworks display. One of the great thing about living in a small town in that when you are in town there is always someone you know so we got a lot of good visiting in as well.

The love between a girl and her goat

Hard work makes you tired

Spark finished up basketball camp today. He had a lot of fun all week and made a new friend. He was also slept really well, didn't have to tell him to go to bed twice, ate a lot and drank a lot (the drinking was because that is what the coach told them to do so he followed orders). We went to watch the last half hour today and oh boy can 30 hot little boys stink up a gym. To celebrate his week we went for ice cream afterwards.

She's back!

Last year we had a toad that lived in the rocks around our house. You can read all about it here: http://minabema.blogspot.com/2008/10/natural-bug-control.html Spark found this girl, he thinks it is a girl, behind the house and was so excited that Toddia was back!!!! The Toddia from last year and the Toddia from this year look vastly different from each other but that must be because she changed over the winter. If that is what he thinks who am I to argue, Spark was excited and that's the main thing. Now we will have to wait and see if Todd shows up again this year.

Finally a Peony

Four years ago the family bought a Peony and planted it in a small flower bed by the goats pasture. Peonies are the very colorful plants that are often seen next to home foundations. The plants have round, ping pong sized flower buds that are covered with ants just before they open. The Peony won't bloom the first year it is planted and the plant grows new from the ground up each year. Our Peony was in tough shape because the dad kept forgetting where it was an tilled it up every fall. Last year the Mom put a pile of rocks around it and saved it from starting over this year. Here is a picture of our first bloom.

Stuck

We had hay delivered today and it almost didn't get up to the barn. As the trailer was coming around the patio it sunk into the grass and stopped. We figured it to weight about 18,000 pounds so it was no match for the rain soaked ground. Using our truck we loaded the back with bales, drove it up to the barn, unloaded it, backed back down to the trailer to start the cycle all over again. It was slow going. Every time we took a few loads off the guy would try to pull the trailer out and it was to no avail. Actually, it look uncertain if he would get it out after the trailer was empty. We called the neighbor to come over and pull it with his tractor and he had the trailer out in no time. Once he got the trailer up to the barn we just threw them from the trailer unto the stack. I never thought I would call unloading hay easy but now I know it all a matter of perception! Spark went to step in the hollow the tires made to show how far down it sunk. It is about 18 inches deep at it's deepest, so about an inch for every 1000 pounds. Now what to do with the huge hole. I thought the easiest might be to put a couple tomatoes in there and fill it in with dirt from the garden.

Stray Bears

Stray cats have shown up in our yard now and again, but never bears. The road in front of our house is a county road and along one side of it is a minimum maintenance road. Where the two roads meet at the corner, these two bears were carefully propped up together in the ditch. It was a sad sight as we have been having rain for the last day and half and they were quite wet before we spotted them out there. We brought them in and gave them a tumble in the dryer. Both are about three feet tall so we wonder if they just weren't too big for their home. Our other theory is since the white bear has "heart" Day 2006 on his foot that a love has gone dreadfully wrong and the owner just couldn't 'bear' look at it any more with out being overwhelmed with deep heart break. Leaving them out in the rain was a testimony to the despair they were feeling over the relationship. The bears aren't talking so we will never know the truth about how they landed themselves in the ditch of a rural country road. Perhaps I will get the kids to write an adventure story about them.

Exciting day for Spark

Spark had two exciting things happen to him today. First, he started basketball camp. He will go every day this week for 2 1/2 hours and run around a gym with 25 other boys to learn how to be basketball stars. He thought it was the greatest thing and can't wait to go back again tomorrow.

Second, he sold two of his rabbits. A couple of weeks ago he put a Bunnies for Sale sign out by the road and waited patiently for some one to stop and buy them. There were 16 he could sell and I think he was surprised that the first 16 cars that went speeding by didn't stop to buy one. Today was their last day before we were going to cull them and tonight about 6:00 a mom and little girl came to get two of them. He brought them out back to see all the rabbits he had for sale, gave them a water bottle and a hanger, and said that if they had any questions that they should just stop back and he would be happy answer any questions them might have. He was the perfect little salesman. He gets half the price that he sells them for, the other half is to pay for their food. Actually, their purchase price wasn't even close to the amount of food they have eaten but he gets a little change in his pocket and at the same time learns about business expenses.

Knitting lessons spill into life

Dancer is under taking the task of knitting a dishcloth for a needle arts project for 4-H. While she has knit before, she has never actually made it through a whole project because of frustrating snags along the way. Dancer, since she was a toddler, is the kind of person who wants to do everything perfect the first time or she really isn't interested in it. Practice is not a popular word in her vocabulary. This time, however, she is determined to make it to the end of this project.

Thus far we have restarted this project no less than four times. The stitches are all cast on and the first row has 32 stitches, the second 28, the third is back up to 30, the fourth is 33 and so on. I am not sure how she accomplishes this but it is teaching her that without a good basic start things don't turn out how you planned and there is no shame is trying again.

To combat this problem of the ever changing stitch count, we decided that she would bring her work to me after every row and we would look it over to ensure she had it right and was ready to move on to the next row. I hope she will learn that some mistakes, even though they seem small at the time, are impossible to hide as thing go on longer. I also want her to learn to bring her problems to me while they are still small enough for me to fix. One row with a mistake is easy to rectify, six rows isn't. One little mistake in life is usually easy to fix, doing it over and over until it is a big mess isn't.

As the rows have begun to add up and the dish cloth is growing in length, she is starting to check her own work. She is learning that looking back at what you are doing once in a while keeps you on the right road to success.

Once she came to me and said that she knew she made a mistake but didn't know how to fix it. Knowing you have made a mistake is more than half the battle of setting things right again I told her. It is those who are making mistakes and don't realize it that are getting deeper and deeper into trouble. I also hope she remembers that she can always come to me with a problem and I will do my best to help her sort it out and get her back to where she can go on successfully.

She is also starting to have more and more rows without any mistakes. I am delighted to watch her finish a row, look it over, smile, flip her work over and continue on. Success is sweet even if it is only a row of perfect knitting stitches.

The last thing she is learning from this project is that if you don't do anything there is no progress. While this seems to be a long project for her, leaving it lay on the end table for a few days doesn't accomplish anything. I want her to do at least a row a day so she can see that even little amounts of effort add up quickly and brings you closer to your goal.

I also hope that this project will encourage her to take on other, more difficult knitting project and she can grow her skill level even though she was frustrated at first. I am restraining myself not to throw in a 'I told you so' moment and say "see, practice makes perfect and your hard work is paying off." Even I am learning a few parenting lessons from this dish cloth!

Potato salad recipe

We had company for lunch yesterday and I made potato salad. Last night before going to bed Dancer was coveting the last serving and she said "this is so good, why don't you make it more often?" Good point, why don't I make it more often? It shouldn't take company for me to make some of our favorite foods. From now on I will make potato salad because it is just like any other day and I want my family to enjoy something good. This recipe isn't very much work so I don't even have that as an excuse for not making it.

Potato Salad - no picture because it is already all gone!

About 6 medium potatoes
1 1/2 C. mayonnaise
1 Tbsp. vinegar
1 Tbsp. mustard
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 stalks of celery
1 medium onion
4 radishes
4 hard boiled eggs, chopped

Prepare and boil potatoes. Hard boil the eggs. I do this the night before and have them in the fridge so that it is all ready to go and cold the next day when I am ready to put it together. Dice potatoes to make about 6 cups. Chop eggs, celery, radishes and onion. Mix together the rest of the ingredients and toss with the chopped veggies and eggs. Chill before serving.