Yay for Ellie!

Well, I’m actually impressed. Ellie was determined to finish her math book Thursday, so she did 13 lessons in one day. She would get a little tired and I’d ask her if she’d like to stop, but No! She was going to do it! She’s done with kindergarten math now and on to Book 1! And of course it was all worth it to get her reward: a sparkly new dress. Which she has not taken off since then. (Well, I mean, for bed and swimming, but that’s all.)

Tidbits

1. Our friend Leslie let us catch some polliwogs from her pond, and then helped the kids find some water plants to feed them. They’re all doing well in a jar in the kitchen windowsill, and we’re looking forward to watching them grow arms and legs.

2. Our deck chairs and living room are waiting to be filled with guests! Looking forward to a visit with Grandma and Grandpa Bob and Karen (and Mel and Judy) later this summer. And…?

3. See how good the chairs look filled with friends? We really enjoyed having our new neighbors, Dan and Amber and their girls, next door for the last month-and-a-half. Many good conversations, shared dreams, and games played.

4. We’ve done a little fishing this summer and the boys are hooked. Don’t tell them, but Kerry got them fishing poles and tackle for their birthdays. Now I need to learn how to fry fish really well.
 

5. Our meter-reader, Jean, is the best.

6. It’s really neat to watch storms from our place. One night recently there was a big one going on east of us and another one going on north of us at the same time. While we watched under blue skies, we could see lightning coming out of the clouds in these pictures, and the people in those areas were getting hail the size of quarters. We got a storm at our place a few days later and I captured one of the lightning flashes, which lit up the yard almost like daytime.

7. Josh got the worst of it in this dirt fight. Ethan and Sam are sympathetic?

8. I really enjoyed the end-of-year dinner hosted by the leaders of the homeschool moms group that meets out here every month. It’s a lovely group of ladies!

9. The kids had a great time swimming in the river at the bottom of Mingo Mountain.

10. Amber and Dan, you won’t believe how much water has come into that area since we were there last week! Check out last week vs. today. These are taken from the same spot up above.

Beginning to look like food …

I really didn’t enjoy the garden last year. We’d just moved in and the house was still in some chaos, and it felt like one thing too many to add on top. We also threw everything in pretty quickly, so we never managed to get on top of the weeds. And I just really don’t enjoy digging through piles of weeds to try to find the edible stuff. But this year we got an earlier start and took the time to prepare each section as we went. We also started a bunch of stuff in the greenhouse, so we had time to get the outside plots ready while the food was already growing. There are plenty of weeds, but it doesn’t feel like they have the upper hand this year, which makes working out there much more fun.

Raspberries are about to explode!

We just ate our first strawberry today (split six ways), but mostly we’ve been pinching off the buds this year to encourage the plants to get bigger so they can produce bigger fruit the next several years. We bought 125 plants from Johnny’s Seed Company back east and every single one of them is thriving!

We also have blueberries and blackberries, though the blackberries are still getting established.

We planted a bunch of mammoth sunflowers again this year to give shade and snacks to the chickens, and we’ll also dry some of the seeds.

The chickens are great weed-eaters.

Also sweet peas, green beans, basil, dill, cilantro, oregano, lemon mint, green onions, rainbow bell peppers, pickling and regular cucumbers, yellow squash, watermelon, cantelope, pumpkins, lettuce, onions, carrots (orange, purple and white), asparagus, radishes, and corn.

Kerry’s special project this year is grafted tomatoes. He took several kinds of tomatoes (beefsteak, roma, cherry) and grafted them onto a different kind of tomato with a very hardy rootstock. Supposedly the hardy root combined with the tasty tomato types will produce a lot more fruit on one plant. We’ll find out. He planted both grafted and non-grafted to compare, and they’re all doing very well.

By the way, remember the greenhouse we put together using the frame of the old garden shed? It’s working out great. Here’s the “before” shot.

Not sure if everything we’ve planted will thrive and make it to harvest, but so far so good!

Working Hard

The boys have been doing some good yard work this summer, and of course I just can’t get enough photos. I don’t mind mowing the lawn, but there’s something kind of wonderful about watching your kids do it. And it’s a big yard! They’ve also done a lot of the rototilling in the garden this year. Hard work!!

The Kids

Josh finished his math book!

Josh worked really hard a couple weeks ago and finished the last 17 math lessons in record time to complete his book. Here the kids are watching with baited breath as he finishes the very last problem:

And then … an explosion of excitement and celebration!

He loved his prize — an amphibious remote-control car.

Schemes

Ethan made a check-off calendar to count the years until he turns 18. Only ten more years to go, Buddy!

Yard sale! Something for everyone!

Things Ethan wants.

Only a penny for a cool idea!

Here’s a permission slip Ethan wants us to sign.

Sam’s plan and check-off calendar.

Newest member of the farm

Ethan bought himself a kitten and named him Tiger. These were taken right after we got Tiger home, so he looks a little traumatized, but he’s becoming quite a cute and friendly little guy.

Since Ethan paid $5 for the kitten, he is threatening fines if anyone gets Tiger out of his kennel and loses him.

Other critters we’ve found lately:

Art Show

The kids took some “suncatcher” paint outside in the grass and made these pieces of art, which they named.

“The Volcano” (Ethan)

“Candyland” (Ethan)

“The Explosion” (Josh)

“Fairy Sleeping in Her House as Thunder Comes” (Ellie)

“Outer Space” (Sam)

The Circus came to town!

The Culpepper and Merriweather Circus came to Colville this week! Small-town circuses are really fun! They were in town for two days, and the morning they arrive they give a Circus Tour. Great opportunity to find out if you really do want to run away with the circus, so a bunch of us went.

Our tour guide was Leo, who is also the circus clown. He was funny and genuine, and also very frank about life in the circus. He loves it, of course, and tours with his wife, who is a costume-designer for Disney On Ice. The Culpepper Circus has two tigers and a lion (Francis). Francis weighs over 500 pounds and was making guttural roars while we were there. Pretty awesome sound; you can feel it in the ground you’re standing on.

You know the term “three-ring circus”? It’s referring to the size of the tent, and how many rings there are holding it up. I didn’t know that. I think this was a two-ring circus. There are about thirty people who travel with this circus and they do everything: put up and take down the tent; design the props and shows; take turns cooking for the crew; perform all the acts; train the big cats and other animals; fix the vehicles and lights; etc. They’re on the road for 32 weeks out of the year and Leo says they get about two days “off” during that time. These guys are driving one of the 170 stakes that hold the tent up:

This circus used to have an elephant, but apparently he had to retire suddenly one year, and the shows they came up with to substitute that year were so popular they decided not to get another one. Elephants eat 250 pounds of food A DAY. And they do a lot of damage to property. So it turned out to be a good thing. Of course, elephants are also super cool, so that’s a bummer. This horse wasn’t as big as an elephant, but he was still gigantic. You can see his partner behind him. She literally fits right under his legs. Clydesdale and miniature horse. He’s apparently quite sweet, but she bites everyone except her trainer, Paulina.

This guy was getting ready for his daredevil act. He and his brother designed this thing, which is called the Wheel of Destiny for the show, but which the tour guide referred to as the Giant Bad Idea.

It was a fun tour! Leo says people have weird ideas about circus folks, but “We’re transient performers, not barbarians. We keep up with the news, and all the kids are homeschooled on the road.” Later that night we came back for the show…

Big cats!

Unicycling family!

Leo the Clown!

Tightrope walker!

Trapeze performer! Ellie especially loved her outfit, and though I didn’t capture them on camera, some of her tricks were pretty crazy.

Trained dogs!

Contortionist! (She’s twelve.)

And finally, the Giant Bad Idea! The kids were all fascinated by the set up, and we collected more friends.

Of course you can’t tell by these pictures, but their act was pretty breath-taking. Ethan had to squeeze Daddy’s neck to get through it.

Later, the kids put on their own circus show for us. Ethan was Phony the Clown, Ellie was The Superstar, Josh was the announcer, and Sam was the soundtrack. It was quite funny. At one point during his routine, Phony the Clown requested a new background track from the sound guy, who then burst into something with a catchy beat: “No! Not something awesome! Something silly!”