Angry Bird Plushies

These are cute, except for the pig, the pig has some issues.  I made one out of felt, don't recommend that, they are much easier to make using polar fleece.

I made these in the first place because some kids from 4-H wanted to learn how to sew and they chose this as their project.  Out of the three kids, two of them had never sewn before and they were very successful in making the birds.
 
The patterns and detail instructions can be found at Obsessively Stitching.   I made the patterns bigger on my copier so they would be easier to sew.

Hay.......HEY!!!!

So the Spark and the Dad went out to do chores this morning.  We lifted up the tarp covering the hay.  The Dad reached in to grab some hay but got this instead!  A garter snake.  Medium sized, about two feet long.  You can't tell in the picture but it had an attractive, blue, horizontal stripe running just above it's white belly.  Garter snakes usually all seem to have some individual, unique coloration.

Spark and Dad don't have a snake fear but the Mom really does.  We showed Mom and Dancer and then escorted the little fella to the corn field.  I mentioned that Dad dosn't have a fear of snakes, however;  when grabbing at the snake the Dad did let out a squeal.  A squeal not unlike on Napoleon Dynamite when the tomato hits Uncle Rico's Van.  Check it out at:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEf-anURagA

How To Save Money On Cat Food

We go through a lot of cat food, a lot like 18 pounds every couple weeks for just two cats that also have their fill of goat milk and eat a couple rodents every day.  Once in a while we will see a stray cat helping themselves to the cat food but it was getting ridiculous how much food was getting eaten every night.  We were starting to think that perhaps they were throwing cat parties at night and supplying the refreshments was their job.

Two nights ago the kids and I were sitting watching t.v. and we heard a clunk out on the porch so Dancer went to check it out.  She turned on the light, opened the door and there wasn't anything out there but she thought saw a long striped tail waddling around the corner of the arborvitae.   Well, thinking you saw a striped tail is good enough for me. 

I ran out and got the live trap while Dancer mixed up a dish of raw egg and dog food, we were out of cat food so we had resorted to feeding dog food until we could get into town to buy more.  Then we waited.   

It wasn't too long before Ricky, who's dinner had been interrupted by Dancer opening the door, was back for his second course.  There was food spilled in the rocks and he combed through them and while he was eating those pieces he would look right at us.  Dancer even knocked on the window once and he just kept munching away.

Then he was back up on the porch snooping around.  We use to keep the food up on the railing so that the chickens couldn't get at it and he tried climbing up on the rail which makes me think we have been feeding him a long time as the chickens have been in their coop for a few weeks.  He didn't make it up on the rail though,  he grabbed onto the spindles, got about 10 inches off the ground and slid back down.  I think his two cup a day cat food habit has made him too fat to get up there.  As for the live trap, he never even glanced at it.  

With a little planning we were poised and ready for him last night.  This time we put in the trap a can of sardines in Louisiana hot sauce, hope he likes Cajun cuisine, and cat food sprinkled around the entrance.  I even set up the camera on the tripod so I could get steady pictures of him.  We locked the cats up in the garage so they wouldn't be in the way and we waited.  And waited.  And waited.  Midnight, no raccoon, 1:00 a.m., no raccoon, 1:30 a.m., still no raccoon.  Did he change his route that he is so late?  The cat dish is empty every morning so we know he always comes.  We trudged off to bed feeling defeated.

This morning first thing we looked out and saw that he had been here for dinner.

"I've been bamboozled!"  he is telling Kacheekers, who was highly interested in him.  He is big, our live trap is a good three feet long and he is taking up half of it huddled in the back, but then he is well fed. 

What to do with him now as he tore the handle off the trap?  We'll make that Dad's department.

I suspect our cat food bill is going to go waaaay down.

Happy 5th Birthday Nikki

The official birthday portrait.



On her birthday she gets a whole hot dog without having to do any tricks for it. 

After we sang and blew out the candles, Spark cut the hot dog up in about 12 pieces and scattered them around the plate.  It took her eight seconds to devour it and lick the plate clean.

Great Bobber Rescue

Spark has been begging to take the canoe out for the first time this year so we made a trip into town, that's where the lakes are, this afternoon.  He was so excited about going today that he was up at 5:30 a.m. and had the canoe loaded in the truck before I was even out of bed.

He and Dancer went out and tried their hand at fishing but didn't get anything. 

Dancer came back with wet pants.  Spark explained it by saying that he was vigorously paddling.  Vigorously paddling or splashing, depends on which kid you ask, but I don't want to get involved in that so I will let them work out the definition.

After getting back to the shore, Spark wanted to try a few casts off the dock where he got the bobber tangled in the reeds.

Back in the canoe he went to rescue the bobber.

As he was getting his bobber, he declared that it was a "bobber graveyard" out in the reeds.

In a couple of minutes he had himself this nice little collection.

A Year Of Art

This last year one of our homeschool co-op classes was art with the Atelier DVD curriculum.  I was glad we got to be a part of this curriculum in a co-op setting because even if we had had the program at home I don't think we would have gotten around to doing it every week.  We may have started off with good intentions but it would have gotten pushed onto a back burner.  Also, I think that Spark was much more focused in the co-op classroom setting than he is at home where he has Lego's and getting outside on his mind most of the time and he rushes things like this.  Dancer's pictures are on the left, Spark's on the right.

This lesson was about how before the days of photography, painters would paint portraits and then roll into town where consumers could pick out a portrait and the painter would just have to add their faces to the paintings.   Does Spark's look like a familiar shape of someone on t.v.?  Yes, Sponge Bob.  He started out painting Sponge Bob until I quietly reminded him that he was at class to learn a certain lesson, not make his friends laugh, and he could feel free to draw all the Sponge Bob's at home that he wished.  Boys, I love them but sometimes..................

Indian totem pole art with markers.

Statue of Liberty in chalk.

Put a little of their own flare on these, Dancer's is the S.S. Bieber and Spark's has a kraken in the water. 

Clue People - from the game Clue, they painted their person with only one color.

Learning how to paint sky and water.  We had watched a documentary just a few days before about the Loch Ness monster and they both added her to their pictures.  I thought it was interesting that they both did because they don't sit by each other.

Buildings in chalk with onion shaped tops. 

The chalk portrait of the person sitting across from them.

Fredrick Remington - attempting his style

Still life in pencil.

Cards in markers.  This one looked so fun I wished the parents could have joined in.

A tree in Sharpie marker.  They took index cards and cut a little hole in the middle and drew what they could see though the hole.

A close up using tempera paints.  Dancer's is ants on a log and Spark's is a side view of a sandwich.

Layering, except Spark's isn't layered?

Layers of the earth drawn with a Sharpie.  I was amazed that they got all this done in one class time.

First week they painted fish with tempera paints and second week made the back ground.  This was my favorite project they did all year.

Victorian house with a holiday theme in the windows.  Dancer chose Valentine's Day and Spark chose Halloween.

Jungle scene in tempera paints.  This is Dancer's, Spark is not sure what happened to his.

Traditional Logic Happy Dance

Dancer finished her traditional logic book and now it is sporting this HURRAY sticker, and not because she loved the book.  She further made this point by the groan she let out after I told her now she can start on the second book.

Rhubarb Sauce

Just chop the rhubarb up, put it in a pot with a titch of water so it doesn't burn when it starts to cook, add sugar until it is as sweet as you like it, and cook it down until it is the consistency of a thick sauce.

Excellent hot with a dribble of cream, or on ice cream, or oatmeal, or as dip for graham crackers, or even smeared pork roast.   Or, or, or, the list where you can use this sauce is endless.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Don't even try to resist eating this all in one sitting, it is futile.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

1/4 C. butter softened
1 C. sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
2 C. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 C. buttermilk (or 1 cup milk & 1 Tbsp. vinegar.  Let sit for 5 minutes)

Swirl topping
1/2 C. brown sugar
1/4 C. sugar
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 Tbsp. cinnamon

Mix well butter, sugar, egg and vanilla.  Mix dry ingredients in separate bowl.  Add to mixture alternately with buttermilk.  Mix swirl topping in small bowl.

Spread 1/3 batter in greased loaf pan, sprinkle on 1/3 of the topping.  Use a butter knife and drag it through the topping to create a swirling effect.  Repeat two more times ending with swirl topping on top of bread. 

Bake at 350 degrees 45 - 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out almost clean.  Cool in pan for 15 minutes, remove and continue to cool on rack.

Half Our Lives

Dad and I have been married half our lives, 23 years.  We celebrated by exchanging cards and going out to lunch with the kids at this place that serves pizza in a cone.    Dad went to bed for the rest of the afternoon because he worked tonight and that was the extent of our celebration.  Even if he hadn't worked that probably would have been the extent of our celebration, we are exciting like that. 

Murphy's Law - Lawn Mower Gas

Q:  Where does your lawn mower run out of gas? 

A:  As far away from the garage as possible.

That is Spark there at the end of the arrow way behind the apple trees.  I guess he could have been behind the pine trees, that would have been farther from the garage.  There were but a few drops of gas in the gas can so Dad had to run into town to get some more.  He wanted me to go with but I had Desdemona out grazing and the kids were mowing so I didn't want to leave them alone.  This was a good thing. 

While in town Dad tested out another Murphy's Law:  Your truck will break down on the holiday weekend, not conveniently on a week day morning.

Then he tested out:  Your family will be outside when your truck breaks down and won't hear the phone ring until you have called a minimum of eight times.  He was able to limp the truck to the repair place, walk to the grocery store, shop, walk back to his truck and still had time left over before we learned he was stranded and got there.  I had a great joke for him, well I found it funny anyway.  Right before we got there to pick him up he called again wondering where we were.  "What do you mean?" I asked him.  He went on, quite nicely I must admit, to explain that his truck broke down and we needed to come get him and how did I miss that in our previous conversation and where were we.  By now I couldn't hold it together any longer without laughing and had to tell him we were just rounding the corner.  Here he is getting out with all his groceries and he is actually smiling to see us. 

Okay, enough Murphy's Law today, let's not have anything else happen.   

Basic Cracker Recipe

A simple cracker that you can personalize to your favorite taste.  We made two batches, basil/sea salt and Parmesan cheese, both equally tasty.  The flavors and flavor combinations these could be made it are endless.  When adding a spice use a teaspoon or two and if you add a cheese use about a 1/4 of a cup.  Anything sprinkled on top, like the sea salt, lightly press into the dough before cutting.   

Basic Cracker Recipe

2 cups of plain flour - or mix an match whatever flour combinations you like
¼ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons softened butter
approximately 1 cup of milk - I used goat milk because tis' the season and I have more than I know what to do with so I am adding it in everywhere.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  In the food processor mix the flour, salt and butter until well blended.   Mix in any flavor you want here.  Add the milk until the dough is soft but not sticky.  I never got a full cup in either batch we made before it was getting sticky.   

Divide the dough into a couple parts and roll very, very thin ungreased cookie sheets.  Press in the topping here ~ sea salt, cracked pepper, poppy seeds, etc.

Use a pizza cutter to cut into crackers and prick each cracker with a fork two or three times.

Bake for 15 - 25 minutes depending on how thin they are.  These look undone one minute and too brown the next so watch them closely near the end.

Art Show

Usually the dads don't join us at co-op because they work days so we held an art show so they could see all the art work the kids did all year and to have on more time to get together before the summer.

We started out with a dinner.  I just noticed that the boys are at one table and the girls at another.  The moms and dads did the same thing.  That is sort of funny that we do that without even talking about it.

Dancer and her friend showing off their art work. They were the only two teens this spring but they still had a good time together.  They did art and phy. ed. with the younger kids and then went off to work on 4-H projects or play cards. 

The guys were huddled all night and I found out it was something about making a Star Wars movie.  One kid even came with contracts for them to sign if they want to be in the film.  One of the points of the contract was that they wouldn't get paid.  No million dollar movie deals here yet.

The nice picture of the kids.

A more accurate picture of the group.