Sunrise in the Okanogan

Fire, fire everywhere. The sun peeked through the smoky cloud cover this morning. Other pictures show the various stages of the fire . . . until it crept up too close for comfort.

Watching the Chelan fires from the top of our mountains. Very far away!

The first hint that something's burning closer.

Burning alongside highway 97 on our way evacuating. Glad I'm not that house in the front.

Summer Fun

Wild strawberries! They're real pretty, but it takes too many to do anything with. Besides, I have a garden full of strawberries that produce berries 10 times as big.


More summer fun below. The weather has been a scorcher, so one day at the lake and then one day with a impromptu slip-n-slide. Looks refreshing but I just couldn't bring myself to try it.

How do you spell "Kevan"? C-R-E-A-T-I-V-E

Kevan loves to build things and create things. Here is a gun made out of construction paper, tape, glue, and rubber bands. It shoots rolled up paper bullets or--deadly--sharp pencils. The force is enough to shoot a hole through paper. You can make your own gun by going here:
PISTOL THAT SHOOTS PAPER BULLETS

Here is the gun disassembled:

Here is the gun assembled and ready to shoot:

Watch the video to see the gun in action:

Top 12 Things to Enjoy on the Homestead

What's so fun about visiting the homestead? Let me count the ways through pictures . . .

1. Getting as dirty as you like and nobody makes you take a bath!

 

2. Hiking to the "top of the world."

3.  Fishing!

4. Hanging out in the hammock.

5. Rafting on the lake.

6. Shooting BB guns.

7. Riding the 4-wheeler!

8. Sleeping in the pole barn (you don't have to keep your room clean).

9. Doing projects in the garage, like building and painting birdhouses.

10. Hanging out with Grandpa.

11. Catching butterflies and other critters.

12. Working hard . . . Oops. Maybe not a favorite . . .

Springtime on the Mountain

I went for a walk in the woods the other day. Here are some early spring arrivals, but I don't know their names.

This is a wild strawberry plant.

This is a close-up of the hillside covered with flowers like this.

Rhubarb, rhubarb everywhere!

I set aside this morning to harvest the rhubarb, make sauce, and pop it into the freezer . . . no sweat.
Things did not go as planned. It took me all day to put up the 50+ pounds of rhubarb I picked. At any rate, when I was lugging the white bag with 2/3 of the stalks, it felt like a big bag of chicken feed (the 40# size). Follow the photo journey of a rhubarb day, and may there not be another one like it anytime soon!

This is a LOT of rhubarb stalks! The plants grew like crazy while we were gone. Red, tender, and long, it was an overgrown rhubarb jungle. And honestly . . . it doesn't look like I even touched it! 

I lugged the 50+ pounds of water-rich, tender rhubarb stalks into the kitchen and set to putting it all in an assembly line:

1) whack off root part into bucket. 

2) toss into sink. 

3) hold stalk in the air by left hand, hold knife in right hand, and start whacking each stalk into smaller pieces. 

4) load into quart measuring cup in preparation for . . . (see next picture)

 

5) Cooking. Load pans on stove, add sugar and just a teensy amount of water, and let it cook. (Note: the previous picture and this picture were taken at the same time. Did I mention there was LOTS?

6) Cook for a LONG time.

7) Dump hot sauce into large bowls to cool (which took a long time too!)

 Final count: 15 quarts to put into the freezer, with 2 quarts in the refrigerator for fresh eating.

 And that was my entire day. *whoosh*

Archives: Mouse Hunt 2007

No toes touch the floor!

Homeschooling is a 24/7 experience. Don’t worry if you didn’t cover all the subjects today. Forgot science? That’s OK. You can always study nature close up by going on a  . . . mouse hunt.

Just when I thought it would be a quiet, relaxing evening, the phone rings . . .
It’s Kristel, my dear daughter (DD). “Mom! Is Andrew (DD’s younger brother) there? Can he help Sean move the piano? A mouse ran under it!” (panic-stricken voice)

Andrew and I quickly run across the street to the rescue (armed only with my digital camera. I’m not about to let this Kodak moment go by).

Upon our arrival, the first thing I see is Kristel standing on the couch, baby in arm, pointing to the piano. “It’s under there! I saw it! It hasn’t come out yet.” She has made all the kids find a “high spot.” No toes on the floor.

---

Sean, who has just walked in the door from a long day at work, says, “Can I eat dinner first?”
Uh…no.

So Sean and Andrew push the piano aside, while I stand armed with my camera to catch a shot of this loathsome creature. Kristel watches safely from her perch. I think she is throwing away a perfectly good opportunity for an up-close “nature” moment, but she couldn’t care less right now.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are!"

DGS (Nathan) is finally allowed to hold the broom–just in case the mouse sneaks out the front of the piano.

---

Armed with those new-fangled sticky traps, Sean and Andrew are ready to pounce as well.

Success! Well, sort of. I’m afraid the furry ball of trouble is too fast for my camera. It skitters across the carpet, over my foot, and slips and skids and flips into the kitchen and . . . under the oven.

“Hmmm . . . we’re going to have to think on this awhile.” While Sean and Andrew are thinking, the mouse is moving . . . up, up, up between the oven and the cabinet. Kristel sits on the bar stool and waits. The mouse must be caught tonight. I shiver to think what kind of night my poor DD will pass if Mickey Mouse is allowed to wander free in her house one more day.

Finally, I abandon my camera and help Andrew pull the oven out, while Sean waits topside with a bucket, in case the mouse decides to flee up instead of out. 

He goes up. Sean goes after him. Mickey Mouse goes down. Andrew jams a small broom under the oven. Mouse goes up. Sean goes after him. Mouse goes down . . . again. (This is good for a lesson on using group dynamics to solve a problem.) Now, thoroughly confused, Mickey Mouse darts for freedom.

---

WHACK! Andrew to the rescue . . . almost. He slaps the rectangular sticky trap at the mouse, catching  it by the tail. “I need another trap!” he yells. (This boy has leadership ability!)
Sean tosses him a trap.
 
WHACK! Andrew to the rescue again. He’s got the little fellow between 2 sticky traps.Ick.

I still think Mickey Mouse is good for a few minutes of observation. Look at those eyes! (He’s still alive at this point.) Maybe we can do a quick lesson on mouse measuring?
 
Sigh. Kristel’s homeschool curriculum does not include mice of any kind . .  .  dead or alive.

Garden of the Gods

We stopped to visit Andrew in Colorado Springs this week. It was a beautiful spring day in Colorado! So we went to the Garden of the Gods and hiked around.

Roger and I with Pikes Peak in the background.

The rock climbers were out in good numbers today!

Pikes Peak, third highest mountain in the continental U.S.: 1. Mt. Whitney, 2. Mt. Rainier, 3. Pikes Peak

I've been to Mt. Rainier and stood on top of Pikes Peak, but have not made it to Mt. Whitney (yet).

If you look closely above the summit, you can see a contrail from a jet. Andrew told us that Jane often goes on pilot-training flights from Texas and flies up here and goes around Pikes Peak!

Branson, Missouri

I really enjoyed Branson, Missouri. We arrived on Monday afternoon and just settled in. The next day we hung around downtown and at the Landing late morning. Here's some of the things we did:

We took in the Dixie Stampeded Dinner Show. That was awesome! All those horses and trick riders, and great food and lots of people.

It reminded me of what a Buffalo Bill Wild West Show must have been like (with Annie Oakley shooting and Indian fights and the like). This one was a North vs. South presentation, along with all the other acts. Here is the short YouTube video of highlights: DIXIE STAMPEDE

We are seated in the right-hand side that is circled in white. We were the South. We lost the competition.

The next day we visited the Titanic Museum. That was quite an experience, especially the exhibit where you could time how long you could keep your finger (or hand) in the 28 degree water that the passengers fell into after the accident. There was a young man playing the piano and explaining about how the "band played on" until the ship finally went down. This was a very moving museum. We must have spent over 2 hours there.

Next we went to a magic show. Well, an "illusionist." Rick Thomas. He was great! Awesome. Hey, I went up on stage and I watched that girl go into the box, lying down. And I saw and touched the blade and listen . . . I could not figure out how he managed to cut her in half! But he did! And then she vanished. And then she came back. I was six inches away, along with 3 other audience volunteers, and this guy was GOOD! And it was about a 2 hour show. Lots of fun and we were up close.

That night we went to see the Sight and Sound Museum's presentation of Jonah. Wow! I took this picture of the stage and screen. It was a stunning musical presentation. Roger liked the settings and staging. He's not much into musicals. There was no picture-taking after the theater darkened, so I could only take pictures before.

Now, we're in Kansas City for the MPE homeschool convention. Alas, I have to go back to work.