Blackfoot village

Last week, we got to play "host home" to two favorite friends from Memphis, Mason and Griffin. Their mom and dad were in Dallas for some training with Pioneer Bible Translators (their family is going to Tanzania in January) so we got to keep Mason and Griffin to keep them from horrible boredom while mom and dad were sitting in lots of meetings! :-)



We had loads of fun while they were here. They went with us to Classical Conversations, we went to Incredible Pizza, and they played outside LOTS! Josiah and Jeffrey just loved having friends their age to hang around with.



One day (and it was most of the day) we took off school so work could progress on what was termed "Blackfoot village", mostly because the dirt turns you feet very black I think. It was made up of teepees and lean-tos. The boys did a great job of building!! Here are some photos...



Jonathan and Mason.

Mason sitting on the "vice president's chair".

Here's a shot of a tee-pee and a couple of the lean-tos.

Even a cool fire pit...with tee pee shaped starter pieces.


Jeffrey and Mason decided "Blackfoot village" should also be a "hen refuge", so they put up this sign. Think the chicks could read it????

Well, Pigeon made herself at home quite nicely, thank you.

And Comet is coming in as well.

And Squanto was keeping his distance. Maybe they CAN read the signs!! I should put one up on the deck that says "NO POOPING!"

The Blackfoot Village building crew (Jeremy was actually just there posing for the picture. He didn't help w/ the building. Mom said no!)

Oh, we killed the old red rooster, now it's done!

"And we won't have chicken and dumplings when you come."

Well, it had to happen. He was bringing it on himself. And truthfully, if he wasn't so downright pretty, it would have happened sooner. Hawkeye (as Michael put it) found the wrong end of a shotgun last weekend. He's been way too aggressive not only with the hens, but also with US! He would fly up or come at you if you were doing something near one of HIS hens. Something like, feeding them! or checking for eggs! or opening the coop to let everyone out for the morning! It was a little crazy and made me nervous to be around him. I usually just sent one of the boys out to do whatever needed to be done (they didn't mind and Jeffrey even liked to "dare" Hawkeye to try something!) but we didn't want to wait until something happened to one of the hens or one of the boys until we took some proactive action. So, while I was gone to Dallas (thanks, honey, for waiting until I wasn't around!!) Michael "eliminated" Hawkeye. I think I heard Goldie singing all the way up in Dallas! It sounded something like "Ding, Dong the witch is dead!" or maybe it was "The Hallelujah Chorus"! Either way, I know it certainly has been more peaceful since he's been gone. All the girls (new ones included) now hang out together with Squanto as their benevolent leader!

Rest in Peace, Hawkeye! (And NO we didn't eat him.)

Random summer snippets

As fall is coming rapidly upon us, I realized there were a few summer moments that went unblogged. So, before the barrage of fall happenings gets documented in blog-style, here are two fun happenings from the summer.
First, I got a grain mill! It was my birthday present from Michael and the boys. (Well, that and a fabulous trip to Dallas with Julie). The great thing about this grain mill is that it is an attachment to my stand mixer, so I didn't have to get another huge kitchen appliance. Another great thing is that there's also a "hand cranker" so I can grind wheat even w/ out electricity. Of course I say "I" can grind it; what I really mean is "the boys" can grind it w/out electricity!!! :-) They actually think it's really fun and cool to hand crank it, so voila, the job is theirs!



So, I get this great flour.....

Starting w/ some wheat berries...

Adding the berries to the hopper on the attachment....I don't know if you can tell, but the mixer sits on its side to grind the berries.

Then stand the mixer up, and make some chocolate chip cookies! :-)

In garden news, we got a watermelon. Just one for the season. Well, there was another one, but it got dropped on the way in (it wasn't very big anyway) and the chickens REALLY enjoyed it!

Here's our prize.

Isn't that beautiful???!!! And it tasted wonderful as well. I've learned next time to train the melons up a stake or something. Between the watermelon vines and the cucumber vines, those babies took over the garden. Live and learn!!

We're putting our summer garden to rest tomorrow. We're opening up the fence around the garden and letting nature take its course (i.e. letting the goats, chickens and deer eat to their heart's content!). We're planning on planting a fall garden, so I'll keep you posted with updates. Hopefully the rain situation will be a little more favorable and temps cooler to help our little garden along. The summer garden seemed like more work than reward this summer. Aside from a handful of cucumbers, the melon, some basil and about 3 jalapenos, it was pretty barren. But I think I've gleaned some wisdom on things to do differently. Like, watering. That'll help! :-)

Jeffrey's joyful "noises"

After MUCH anticipation and hunting on Craigslist and ebay, we finally purchased a trombone for Jeffrey. He couldn't wait (and must have asked 100 times....is it here yet?) for it to come in the mail. It finally came!!! It was like Christmas morning, lemme tell ya! He gently and tenderly opened the box and put together his new beauty.....

He was able to get some good tones out of it. And then yesterday, IT started...beginner band!!!!! Again this semseter, the wonderful homeschool mom is teaching band. And it now includes a beginner band. Well, it's actually a beginner "duet" since there ended up only being two boys who were able to be in the "band". And this week, the other boy was sick, soooooo, it turned out to be PRIVATE LESSONS! Not bad for FREE!!!! She doesn't charge for band, she just asks that the moms take turns watching her children during band. Hmmm... play with a cute little toddler girl, and preschool boy and totally adorable 8yo daughter for 45 mintues in exchange for excellent musical instruction....no brainer!!!

Yesterday (Tuesday) and today he had his lesson and loved every mintue of it. I had Jonathan sneak upstairs to take some pictures.

Let the jazz band commence!! :-) For Classical conversations, each family has to give a "family presentation" about their family. The boys are wanting to play a song on their instruments. So I think we'll be working up something fun that Jeffrey can pick up quickly and be ready for in a couple of months. Jonathan and Jeremy are really excited about Jeffrey learning an instrument they can play along with!

Jeremy and Jonathan also started band this week, but I didn't get any photos. They love it as well. We found out that the mom teaching is moving in January (military husband) to Colorado Springs. We're SOOOOO sad! So, we'll enjoy this semester for all it's worth!

Moms on retreat....part 1

This is it....the big weekend away for Julie and I! For our birthday in June, we both asked for and were graciously given a weekend away. So, here we are in Dallas for a weekend full of laughs, fun restaurants (with no chicken nuggets or corn dogs allowed!), movies and LONG conversations. We landed in D/FW this afternoon, got to the hotel, worked out....

See we really worked out....we didn't just pose for the camera!!!

And since we worked out....it was off to The Cheesecake Factory! Oh, yeah!

I even broke from the standard and tried something very new....ahi tuna tartar. NEVER have had this. I know people who really like ahi tuna so I thought I'd give it a try. I mean I figured it wouldn't get much better than at Cheesecake Factory.

Know what, it was good! It didn't taste too fishy at all. So there, I did it. Raw fish.

I also have never had these....avacado egg rolls. They were also very yummy.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel for some more talking and hanging in jammies!

I "heart" Josiah!...a short but sweet!

Josiah and I were working on school his afternoon. We'd been working ALL DAY LONG because he's having to do two days of work because tomorrow I'm headed off to Dallas to spend the weekend with Julie. We'll be leaving the house in the late morning, so I don't want to leave much, if any, schoolwork undone until tomorrow. Anyway, we were doing some math and he looked over at me and smiled and said "Do you see hearts in my eyes when I look at you since I love you so much?"

Melted heart...I love that boy!!

A day of feasting...

Jeffrey's been studying medieval times the last couple of weeks in history. This week, one of the activites he was suppsed to do was to plan and give a medieval feast. We did it on a pretty small scale, but it was still lots of fun! Welcome to our feast....



First, step over the guard dog! :-)

Receive salt as a gift to those attending the feast.

Let the host wash your hands. (The boys really liked this part!)

The first part of the meal was apples covered with cinnamon and sugar served on "trenchers". Trenchers were essentially very stale biscuits that served as plates. Jeffrey made the trenchers three days before the feast, so yep they were really stale. Mission accomplished! :-)

Between courses the guests were supposed to entertain the crowd. Here's Jeremy playing a medieval tune on his saxophone.

And Jackson singing along, like he always does when Jeremy plays his saxophone. Too bad this one's not a video. It's hilarious to hear him "sing" along!

Next was turkey and cheese, again served on the trencher.

Before the next course, Jonathan read a poem out of "Lord of the Rings".

Ok, vanilla pudding for the last course. I didn't make them eat this one on the trencher. Actually, I certainly would have, I just didn't think of it in time!

And then at the end of the meal, the guests are supposed to eat the trencher. YUCK! I made everyone take a bite, but didn't make anyone eat the whole thing. Disgusting!

Well, these guys like the trenchers!

That's pretty medieval, right! Except I guess back then, these guys would have been living in the house with us. Oh, well, times change!