Our Grandson

I've watched the page views go up quickly this week. I'm guessing it's because many of you have seen Krissy's facebook profile picture and are looking for an explanation. I will just briefly say that Krissy has made some decisions we don't agree with. God has been teaching us the meaning of unconditional love. Krissy is expecting a boy on March 4th. She is living in apartment of her own now. She spends a lot of time here...cooking, doing laundry, eating, or watching a movie with us. We are all trying to figure out what we're going to do with a BOY!!

Homeschooling in Action

Cecropia caterpillar on a small maple tree.

The cecropia caterpillar in his new home.

Erin turning the aquarium into a habitat for the cecropia caterpillar.

The tree frogs after Erin turned them loose.

Early this summer, we found a cecropia moth outside one night. Its wings were battered, and it looked pretty bedraggled. The girls named her Stacy. They put her on the maple tree and kept a close watch on her for the next couple of days. Erin got on the computer and researched cecropia moths. They found out that she was dying, but she would lay her eggs first....kind of like Charlotte, the spider, in Charlotte's Web. Over the next couple of days, she laid over 100 eggs on the maple tree. Erin says they lay 1,000 eggs, so she had probably been laying eggs all over our yard. A couple of weeks later, the eggs hatched into tiny black caterpillars.

This week, Erin found this big, fat caterpillar on the maple tree. It is one of Stacy's "children". Erin had several tree frogs in our aquarium she had been feeding most of the summer. She set the frogs free & built a habitat for the caterpillar in the aquarium, planting small maple trees that were growing in the yard. He has eaten the leaves off of several trees already. We are anxious to see if he will make a cocoon and turn into a moth next spring. What a great science project!!

Shades State Park

Our third annual photo in the same spot in The Shades

Skipping rocks in Sugar Creek
Erin, Heather, Laura, Kara, Leah, & Nanna

Autumn & Nathan

We seized the opportunity today to make a trip to Shades State Park. We haven't been able to get a day this summer when everyone could go. Once we figured out Friday night that everybody was going to be off work on Saturday, we quickly made plans and packed our picnic lunch. It was a beautiful, clear, 70 degree day. We had a great time hiking and playing in Sugar Creek. Autumn was concerned that Nanna wouldn't be able to make the last trail because it was "very rugged." Nanna started out at the back of the line. By the time we were almost to the end, she was at the front of the line. She just zipped right on past all of us, splashing through the water, climbing rocks, and skirting around fallen trees. We all had a great time, and I think we'll sleep well tonight.

Back to School

THE LITTLE RED SCHOOLHOUSE
Yesterday was spent dusting, sweeping, and wiping down cobwebs in the schoolhouse. We sorted out our books and sharpened up our pencils. We spent a while getting familiar with our new books. Today we actually got down to serious business and started into our new school schedule. Nanna is only 4 1/2, but she thinks she has to do everything everyone else does. That means I have 6 in school this year. We have a literal understanding of "blab school" like they had in Abraham Lincoln's time. It sure does get loud in there!! I think I need a nap! My head feels about ready to explode at the end of our first full day of school.

Update on the Latest Project

We're sad to report the bunnies didn't make it. I think they were just too young to survive without their mother, even with Erin's best efforts.

A Day with the Mark Trammell Quartet

Mark Trammell tuning Leah's guitar
Dustin Sweatman goofing off with the girls

Pat Barker napping with his teddy

Joel Wood playing "Garbage" with Laura & Kara

On Sunday, the Mark Trammell Quartet ate dinner with us. We spent the afternoon relaxing and fellowshipping. They went to the evening service with us. Then we came back here for snacks before they headed for Plymouth where they were scheduled to sing on Monday. We loaded up and went to the Blueberry Festival in Plymouth on Monday to hear the Quartet sing. We met up with our dear friends, Robert, Rhoda, Buddy, & Becca Smith, missionaries to Barbados, at the festival. We had a nice visit with them at Pizza Hut after the MTQ concert. I think this is the first time in years we've actually done something besides labor on Labor Day!

Our Latest Project

I've spent this week cleaning up from the hurricane that struck here last week. I spent the whole week canning, so the house and laundry were sadly neglected. I converted all the half gallon, pint, and pint-and-a-half jars into quarts making a total of 86 quarts of salsa, green beans, tomato juice, & peaches we canned last week.

On Saturday, we cleaned up some trees that were in the pasture and made firewood out of them for our firepit. On Monday, we brought all the wood home from the pasture and stacked it into the old corn crib. Since it was such a nice evening and we'd been outside all day anyway, I decided to have supper outside.

While we were cooking our supper over the fire, the dogs were after something. It was a nest of baby bunnies. Erin rescued 4 of them. She has been feeding them goat's milk from a baby bottle with a preemie nipple and they are all doing well. Their eyes are just starting to open and their ears are just starting to stand up. They are wobbly and tiny. If that girl doesn't become an animal rehabilitator or a vet or something, I'll be surprised!! She's constantly nursing hurt or orphaned animals.