Geocache Event

Went to our first geocache event and these are all the new friends we made.  We are all giving a thumbs up because we found nine new caches and had a good time caching together.  The event was an hour away from our house and we decided about an hour and 20 minutes before it started that we were going to go.  Quick called a friend who lived on the way, made plans to pick her up on our way and flew down the highway to make it to the event just a few minutes late.  Fun night!

Overwintering Geraniums

One of my favorite annuals is the geranium. Most annuals just get thrown in the compost pile in the fall.  Geraniums can be easily stored over the winter with a minimum of effort and no mess.  I know they cost less than a dollar at the garden center by mid June but I think it's cool to store them over the winter. 

Here is gernaium pulled from it's pot in late October.  You can see how plump the stems are, full of water like a succulent.  If you are having a really dry fall water the geraniums a few days before you are going to store them.  

 Trim off the leaves and leave 3-4 inches of stem above the roots.  It seems odd cutting off the leaves but the plant would lose water through them.  Shake off as much dirt as possible from the roots.

The trimmed plant.  Store in a closed paper sack or in a cardboard box in a cool dark spot like the basement.  Check the plants every month or so to see if the stems are becoming wrinkled and dry. If they are, soak the roots in room temperature water for a day and replace into the bag or box.

In the spring replant them like you would any bedding plant.  This pot is about 2 months after replanting.  Store your geraniums in the fall and the cycle goes on.  Dancer made this into a 4 H project and won a state fair trip with it.

Crochet Coffee Cup

The day after the fair Dancer must have been feeling the let down of being busy for so many days and then all of a sudden nothing is on the calendar.  She whipped out a couple of these coffee cups starting almost first thing in the morning.   

She found the pattern here at the Lion Brand web site.  The original pattern was for a tea cup pin cushion so she tweaked it a little bit.  The top is suppose to be swirled cream in the coffee like you get at those fancy coffee places.  She, and I tried too, with no, luck to get a different design where the white wouldn't be all clumped together on one side.  No matter where we started for the middle, it always came out the same.  Since she made so many tops trying to get the "cream" more mixed up in the coffee she made a couple more cups.
 

Instead of a pin cushion she stuffed them with a bit of fiberfill and the rest with coffee beans.  Mmmmm, do they smell good!

Tree Frogs

Our back slider door has been the popular hang out for tree frogs the last couple of weeks.  They are so fun to watch catching bugs and moths.  We call it "Country T.V."  Dancer took all of these pictures.

We have had a couple of icky things happen.  I went out at about 2:00 on morning to take the dog out and stepped on one.  That will wake you up real quick.  Another time Dancer opened the door and one went in between the two doors and came to it's demise.  To make it worse, it's leg got caught when she shut the door and I had to tug it out and throw it off the deck. 

Our lawn mower is broken again but we can't wait for it to get fixed so I  have been spending the last couple of night mowing with the little push mower so it at least looks from the road like we are keeping our yard under control.  As I push a long I am so surprised at how many little toads there are.  With the wet spring and summer we have a bumper crop mosquitoes so they have plenty to eat.

Ribbons, Ribbons, Ribbons!

The kids did great on their projects this year.  Dancer had all blue ribbons and Spark had all blue except for one red.  A lot of what ribbon they get is based on the judging interview with the judges, not just the physical project.  We go over all the projects before hand and talk about what questions they might be asked and make sure that the kids know more about the project than just what can be seen by looking at the project.  They are asked process they went through to choose the project, how they made it, why they chose the lay out etc., costs and more in depth information that just what is shown on the project.  This last year we spent a lot of time with Dancer learning how to read information, highlight the most important facts and then summarize the information.  She wasn't thrilled to learn that study skill this past school year at first but she did comment that being able to that sure made it much easier to do her 4-H projects.

Bubble Battle - Sparks consumer education project - Reserve Champion.  Comparing five different bubble gums on taste, how long the flavor lasted, bubble size, etc. 

Geospacial - Reserve Champion.  He made a book about the first 20 some geocaches we found.

Aerospace - Blue ribbon.  Spark made a little tiny rocket this year because they fly higher when they launch them.  On the day of the rocket launch his did go the highest.

The club planter - Premium ribbon.  Every year the county gives a theme for the planter, this year was Ornamental Edibles.  Dad was the leader for this project so it has been at our house all summer where we moved it in and out of the garage every time one of the many storms that rattle through our area so I was glad that all our efforts paid off.  The planter is an old grill of ours filled with tomatoes, peppers and lots of herbs.  It peaked about two weeks before the fair and now all the plants are getting pretty big but the kids were able to effectively explain that and talk in depth about all the plants.

Spark won a state fair trip on his tiny cactus' he planted from seed over four years ago.  They are only about a half an inch tall but since they are so slow growing he decided to bring them this year since he could be a senior in high school before they have any height to them.  He won several state fair trip but sadly isn't old enough to take any for another two years.  It is still an honor to win them.  We tell him at least he has the bragging rights.

Reserve Champion on Global Connections.  He did a report on the Lockwood family minestry in Mexico.  We sent a Christmas box for their minestry last fall and he wrote them a letter for an Awana requirement, both of these he told about in the report.

Youth Leadership - Champion.  A report about the Cloverbud day camp she did with the little kids in our club. This is the project that Dancer chose to take to the state fair.  She won eight state fair trips and had a hard time deciding which one to take.  The deadline to chose was Saturday at noon and she hemmed and hawed over it almost until the last minute. 

Quilting - blue ribbon!  I think she may have been the proudest of this project since so much blood, sweat and tears went into it. 

Pet Education - Champion.  Dancer made toys for Bert and did a report about how to do it, how to pick safe materials and had sample toys with the project.  She didn't know how well this would go because her judging interview was so short but she must have made a good impression in a short amount of time.

Consumer Education - Champion.  Dancer made cake and brownies out of cocoa and a store bought mix.  She brought each to a meeting and had a taste test and then graphed the results and compared price etc.

These are just some the highlights of the kids projects, other events and being with friends seemed to take priority over mom with the camera. 

Camper Sweet Camper

Our neighborhood, right outside the horse arena.

A huge storm made the road more than a little muddy.

The food trailer that was at the campers end of the fair.  This actually was the reason we had a camper there, the high price of fair food.

We never stayed over night but wanted a comfortable place to sit during the day with a fan and a refrigerator.  We paid for the camping spot for less than the price of what we would have paid for just drinks.  Also, if we had camped, we would have had to drive back and forth to come home to do chores and little Nikki couldn't be in the kennel all week.  If we were going to drive 35 miles home for those two reasons we might as well sleep in air conditioning in our comfy beds, with bathroom and showers near by.  The only thing we did buy during the week was the kids each had a malt from the Dairy Princess' and Spark had a donut the morning we worked in the food stand.  Total fair food bill for the week - $5.50.  Camping spot - $30.

Arts-In Who Done It??

This is the play that the 4-H Jr. Leaders put on all week.  This was Dancer's favorite thing at the fair this year.  The play was called Who Done It?? and it was about bad guys who try to ruin the fun at the fair for 4-Hers by stealing their projects and finally the sun.  It was a spoof on Despicable Me.  In the end the bad guys realize that they can't ruin the fun and 4-H isn't an elite group, everyone is welcome to belong.  We saw it six times and it got better every time!

On stage before the start of the play.

Dancing to "Help" by the Beetles.

The Cool Hat Detectives are trying to break the case.

Dancing to "Blue" by Eiffel 65.

Doing "The Robot" in the Blue song dance. 

Dancer is not buying the idea her fellow detective has proposed.

Part of the cast.

"I'm Airing"  -  They hold their arms up and air out their pits.  In their defense it was over 90 degrees with high humidity every day, we were really hot just watching the show.  4-Her's can be crazy!

Fair Hair

Fair hair is a county 4-H fund raiser.  Dancer helped with this and had a great time.  She came home with pink, purple and red hands but it has since worn off.

Every time I looked at Spark during the day I wondered why he was wearing a cap when it was 90+ degrees out and then would realize he wasn't.

Judging Day

Last Tuesday was judging day at the fair.  It is always a busy, stressful day.  Dancer had 18 projects and Spark had 13.   The judging is from 2:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. with a half hour dinner break for the judges so we really have to be focused to get them all done in that time frame.   For each project they meet individually with a judge and talk about how they made the it, what they learned, etc.  With some judges the kids can sit with them for 10 plus minutes and then there is the standing in line time.   Beside their regular projects are the club projects they were involved with that need to be judged - scrapbook, banner, and planter.  Spark was done with plenty of time to spare.  Dancer finished at 6:45 so we said that she could have done one more project!

Seeing friends is a huge highlight of the fair!  This is one of Dancer's good homeschool friends who belongs to a different 4-H club, they don't see much of each other in the summer.  I had to keep telling Dancer to stop talking and go get in a line with a project.  They just had so much to tell each other :)

Lots of time standing in line waiting for your turn with the judge.  Spark with a friend from our 4-H club.

Dancer talking with the judge about her messenger bag she made at Clothing camp this spring.  She uses this bag a lot and missed having it during the week of the fair.  Even this morning she comment how happy she was to have her bag back.

Our club took their turn sweeping the 4-H building the first night.  It's all about team work.

After sweeping there was a banana split party.  It was cut short by the insane amout of mosquitoes but yummy none the less.

Funniest Drinking Fountian Ever

RIP Millie

Yesterday was entry day at the fair.  The kids did well and I will post about it another day.  About half way home last night Spark started to cry that one of the goats had died.  He even came in and lay on his bed crying saying that he couldn't do chores.  The kids never complain about doing chores so we knew that he wasn't just trying to get out of them.  We always worry that something is going to happen when we are gone so as soon as we got home Dad ran out to check on them and everyone was fine.  He did all the chores and came in.  About half an hour later he saw that he left the light on in the barn.  He went out to turn it off and when he opened the barn door he heard this moaning sound coming from one of the pens.  He saw that Millie was laying upside down by the door.  When he opened the door she fell out and died, at least he thought she was alive before he opened the door.  She was extremely bloated so we have no idea what happened to her and how she would have gotten in that position as goats don't lay on their backs and she was just eating the same hay we always give them when he left them. 

We have had her over five years, we bought her as a young kid, and we are all so sad about this.  We had plans with friends today and Dancer had a rehearsal at the fair for her Art-In show so we went on with them because we thought it would be good for the kids.  Every time I would think about her I would have to fight back the tears a little bit.  Her son, Niko, has been crying for her.  Every time I thought of him crying for her I would have to fight back the tears.  This is the part I hate about having animals.

How Spark felt that his was going to happen we don't know.  He doesn't know.   

The picture above is Millie with her little goat Phillip that only lived three days, we thought he had a heart problem.  This is my favorite picture of her.  Now he has his mother back.   

American Chinese American

Today we saw a tour group of Chinese students taking pictures of Americans while we were waiting at a stop light.  So we turned it into Americans taking pictures of Chinese taking pictures of Americans.  We had hoped for a quick snap but Dad had trouble getting the camera to work and by the time he did they had spotted us and were waving.  We all waved too like this was the most normal thing in the world for us to take pictures of people we don't know.

I Think We Irritate Our Neighbor

Our human neighbors pasture goes right up along side the road where we walk.  When their cows are out they always stop grazing and look at us.  Not just a normal look but a glare.  A glare that says,  who are you trespassing in my pasture?  A glare that sometimes makes me wonder, is there something on my face, is my shirt on backwards, do I have a trail of toilet paper stuck on my shoe, bad breath, some other offending oddity?  You may think "One cow that's not so creepy".   But this is just the tip of the iceberg, there are dozens more like her.  Watching, waiting, plotting some nefarious scheme.

They complain noisily as we continue our walk, often walking along side of us to make sure we are really leaving.  Maybe they are like that "Far Side" cartoon; standing on hind legs, leaning on trees, smoking cigarettes, only to act like cows when humans are near?  When they feel we have moved a desirable distance from them they get their graze back on.  Is it jealousy?  We can hear these cows so I'm sure they can hear our goats.  Perhaps our goats mournful wailing is actually gloating about their treat filled life.  Sometimes I wonder if they are trying to follow us home.

When we turn around to return home we get the stink eye again.  Last year there was a really pretty brown cow that Dancer dubbed "Lilly" but this year we haven't seen her, just these annoyed bovines.  We walk there pretty often so I'm sure they will warm up to us like Lilly did.

Jungle Jacket

I made Spark this jacket.  He picked the fabric from the basement stash and loved the green jungle, that is what he calls it, fabric on the top.  There wasn't enough for the whole jacket so he got part green sleeves and bottom front.  The back is the jungle fabric.  This was very frugal.  The fabric and thread I already had and the zipper I ripped out of an old coat of Dad's that he throwing away.   All I had to buy was one yard of interfacing.

The pattern was McCall's M5538.  The jacket went together neatly but the directions as written were a disaster.  I don't know if they were written in another language and translated to English or if there was a intern writing them or what.  I sewed my own wedding dress that wasn't as confusing as these directions.  I finally ended up just looking at all the pieces and figured out the best way to put them together.