1st Day of Homeschool

Well, we finally started school! It was a great first day. Sandy and I started with taking pics, weighing and measuring each of the kids--Hannah, Mackenzie and Caleb. We filled out a page with their likes and dislikes and their stats on it. We will affix their photograph to it and keep it in our folder until the end of the year. Then, we will measure, weigh and take pics on the last day of school. This way we can see the changes in them from the beginning of the year until the end of the year. We also wrote in the goals we'd like to see accomplished this year.











This week the 2nd graders will be studying:
The significance of a name (Bible), the Pledge of Allegiance, the United States Flag, an overview of the United States Map, beginning a timeline of US History, Leif Ericson, what Scientists do, Spelling, Book Basket (looking through/reading various history and science books) Intro. to Art (they are drawing straight lines from dot to dot), reading aloud, and listening to classical music. We will start Math and English in the 3rd week.

This week the preschooler will be:
Grinding modeling clay and cheese into the kitchen floor, coloring himself with washable (thank the Lord!) markers, cutting his new shirt with scissors, throwing fits, walking on our timeline, coloring 65 sheets of paper (an average of 10-15 sheets per day), tearing pages out of his Bible, and maybe if we are consistent he might learn his abc's and some numbers!

Overall it was a great first day! Lord, please let the rest of the year go just as well!!

Nanny Boo Boo & Poppie--Happy Anniversary!!

Orval & Esther Gray
September 3, 1959


Celebrating 50 years together--today! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!



Sunday, they renewed their vows at our church. Pastor Greg Lemley conducted the service and it was very nice. They had a salt ceremony to signify that the promise they made to each other and God, 50 years ago, is irrevocable.

Congratulations, Mom & Dad! We love you!

Finished Knitting Project--We'll Call It A Washcloth

Well, I finished my first project. Since I did not use any kind of pattern, I'm just going to call it a washcloth. It's not perfect and shows lots of mistakes, but I'm proud of it nonetheless!!

I learned how to cast on, knit stitch, bind off and weave in the loose ends when done. So, it's been fun and interesting and I'm loving all the things that I can do with knitting. Be prepared, I'll begin to bore you now with my projects. :0)

Too Cute....

My little guy, Caleb, said a funny thing last night. We were coming home from church and turned onto our driveway. He said "We're Hooooooooome!" Then he said, "it's gonna get bumpy. Hannah hold on. It will be bumpy when we go over the 'kittle katter.'" (He's talking about our cattle guards or stop-gaps). We passed over the "kittle katter" and started up to the back of our house and because of all the rain this summer there are quite a few ruts and the van has "bottomed out" a few times going over the ruts. He said, "Hannah hold on tight; it will be bumpy again. Hannah, hold ooooooonnnnnnn!" "Yay, you did it!" to Daddy who was driving.

(Guess it's time for Daddy to do some work on the driveway :0) ????)

Tree Farm Update

We have had quite a big loss this year on our trees. The Fir trees are evidently taking a beating because of the PH level of our soil. Before planting each year we had a soil sample taken and were told to increase our PH level, however, we are now finding out that the fir tree roots cannot absorb any nutrients from the soil at that high a PH. So,we've dug up over 200 fir trees (Fraser & Concolor). We planted them in pots to see if we could save them. We think the Fraser Firs will be a total loss. We might be able to save some of the Concolor.

David has decided to do some Fall planting this year. We're going to replace the trees we've lost with some other type of tree. So, he's working on some field prep today. We've decided that the mowing is too big a job! Oh yeah! He's going out today with his new backpack sprayer to kill all the grass and weeds in the area of the fields where we dug up all the trees. Then we will sow clover seed in the field when we do our planting this fall. The clover is a double benefit to the field because it will keep the weeds and grass from growing and it will add nitrogen back into the soil, which is something the trees really need. Also, we won't have to mow--Yay!! We're hoping that we've come across a good thing with the clover. We want to get some beehives this Spring and the clover will be a great source of pollen for the bees.

These are the Fraser Fir that we've potted. They were planted around the pond in the lower field.

These are the Concolor Fir. We had some of these in the lower field and some of these replaced the ones we lost from last year in the upper field.

We're trying to figure out how much Sulfur we need to put on the fields to bring the PH levels back down.

This is Ridah. He's a friend of ours who came to play with Caleb for the day. Hannah, Caleb and Ridah are helping Daddy mix the Round-Up to put down in the tree field. Actually, they are only helping him fill the bucket to mix it in with the water. He's keeping them far away from the actual poison, Loretta!!!

David with his new backpack sprayer--full of Round-Up. Wow, it's heavier than he thought it would be.

Ain't he proud--tools and equipment--all he needs to be happy! :0)

The bulge at his chest is the walkie that he wears down in the field, so that we can talk to each other. He's been playing with the sprayer all morning with it full of water; just trying to get a feel for the spray radius, etc.

Thursday Night at Nanny Boo Boo and Poppie's

Hannah used Caleb's train track pieces to spell out his name.

See the video below. It's Daddy and Caleb having fun. Well....I think Caleb is the one having the fun! :0)

Knitting!

Well, over this summer I spent a little bit of time and taught myself how to cast-on (Long tail cast-on or double cast-on) and how to do the knit stitch.

Click here for knitting help

I'm taking a beginner's class at our co-op this semester. I've had some minor questions and Bethany has been great to help me. Since I am a lefty, I think it's a little more awkward for me at first. But, I really am getting the hang of it. Hopefully, we'll decide on a project soon. But for now, I'm just knitting away! Here's what I have done since class yesterday.