Burning Hay

After the slush and snow on Saturday, Sunday was a very nice day. It was in the upper 50's with no wind. David and the boys got one corner post set for the barn, and then came in to watch some of the second half of the Oklahoma basketball game. Unfortunately, they were getting whipped by NC, so we decided our time would be better spent outside. David decided to burn some leftover hay in the field that the calves had not ate. The boys had fun helping to turn the hay over, and finding sticks to light on fire.

























Clay decided to get a wagon load of sticks and Levi and Caleb bundled a bunch of small sticks together hoping to make a torch. Clay managed to set his stick on fire, but the torch thing didn't work out for the other two.



















The calves even got a little extra attention from Caleb. They were a little freaked out about the smoke from the fire. In the past we've had a couple of instances where burning things has not gone particularly well, but this one was very calm and under control. Since it was going so well, and no one had called the fire department, I suggested we burn off the garden as well, but David didn't want to push our luck. So, we all had a nice time sitting on the tailgate of the truck and watching the fire die down.

Kindergarten Screening part II - Success !

Today was the big day. Clay woke up very excited about kindergarten screening. When we got there, several of the people came to greet him and asked him how he was. He didn't say a word to them, so I was afraid things weren't going to go too well. But, when I met with them afterward, they said he was very cooperative and did very well. The only things that were difficult for him were hopping on his right foot and a timed color naming test. I expected him to have trouble with those things anyway. When he came out he said "Mom, I was big and I didn't even cry !" I was very proud of him, so we went to town and met Nana for lunch at Burger King (always Clay's 1st choice) and we went to Academy sports and got a new baseball glove. We also happened upon a rodeo bull while we were at Academy so we got that too. Later in anticipation of the snow, we went to the library and got a couple of movies and a bunch of books. Clay said this has been a "really fun day".

Kindergarten Screening part I

Tomorrow is the big day. Clay goes for his kindergarten screening in the morning at 8:30am. He's been asking ever since Monday if the next day is kindergarten screening and now it is finally here. He is very excited. We've been practicing for the last couple of weeks on counting to 30 (he does very well), saying the alphabet ("n" is often missing in action, but getting better), naming opposites (pretty good on this one), and rhyming. Rhyming was a struggle for a while, but has improved significantly with all our practice. Clay's favorite beginning sound to substitute in rhyming is /f/ , so for the word cake, he would say "fake". He uses /f/ without fail in every word he rhymes, even if it doesn't make a real word. I decided to tell the screeners tomorrow to please not ask him to rhyme the word "truck" or "luck" or "duck", etc., I'm afraid it would be embarrassing for everyone. I think Clay will do pretty well as long as he actually cooperates and answers the questions. Sometimes he completely shuts down and won't say a word to the person asking questions, but he assures me that won't happen tomorrow. I'll post how it went sometime in the next day or two !



In other news....




I went to the Dr. Monday for my ankle, and he said I could quit using the crutches (which I had done about a week ago) and I could also quit wearing the boot aircast and replace it with a lace-up ankle brace. I was excited to get home and put on two tennis shoes again. I found two old ankle braces from high school. They were a size XS, and apparently my feet have put on weight just like the rest of me because I had some difficulty getting them on. I've worn them for the past couple of days, but I think I'll probably go buy a bigger one before too long. Two nights ago Levi and Clay both tripped over my foot (I guess they can't see it without the big boot on) and it has swelled up and looks pretty grotesque. I'm hoping theres not any serious damage, but its a little frustrating to have to keep taking it easy to let it heal.


Everyone else is doing great. The boys weren't too excited to go back to school after spring break, but they haven't complained too much. Levi had an all day party on Tuesday for scoring high on the MAP test, and Caleb is leading his class in learning subtraction facts. David was wanting to start working on the barn this weekend, but it looks like it will be cold and rainy with a chance for snow. He doesn't seem too disheartened, but of course its not Saturday yet ! I substituted at the high school for about 3 hours this morning and got to see several of my former students. I'm hoping something will open up and I can go back to teaching next year.


I guess that about sums up our life for the past week. Stay tuned for Kindergarten Screening Part II - the results !

Safety Tip

I generally like to think of myself as a somewhat intelligent individual - I do have a degree in mathematics after all. But sometimes things happen that make me question that supposition. Like last night for instance.....
I decided to grill chicken for supper, so I went out and dumped the instant light charcoal in the grill. As I was lighting the charcoal it started to rain, so I decided to close the lid on the grill and open the vents so it would still have plenty of air. I went out about 10 minutes later to see how it was doing. Now, I know that oxygen fuels fire, but there's nothing like lifting the lid on the grill and having a huge fireball come out at you, to remind you how true that is. Fortunately, I had my hair up in a ponytail, so only my bangs and the hair that had fallen out got singed along with half of my eyelashes on my left eye. I stood there a minute and marveled that I wasn't on fire and made a mental note not to let the charcoal heat up with the lid down EVER again. So, just thought I'd pass along that little safety tip to everyone else.

Milestone

Yesterday, Clay came in and told me he tied his tennis shoes all by himself. Now, tying shoes is something we've worked on a little, but since Clay wears boots every day we don't have a whole lot of opportunity to work on it consistently. After his big announcement, I looked down at his shoes and they were sure enough tied perfectly. I asked him if Caleb helped him just a little, but he insisted that it was a solo act. So we sat down on the couch and I had him give a repeat performance, and he did - perfect ! We're all very excited and Clay is so excited that he has given his boots a rest for the past two days and worn only tennis shoes.

Day at the Funny Farm

Yesterday we went to visit Great-Grandma Veva and her husband of a little less than a year, George. They live on a farm about 45 minutes south of us. The boys have been anxious to go see them ever since Grandma Veva told them about the zebras, monkey, ostriches, turkeys, peacocks, goats, sheep, ducks, geese, horses and probably some animals I've missed, that live there.

When we got there, George took the boys around and showed them all the animals. The monkey and the ostriches both really wanted to get Levi's KC Chiefs hat. Clay really loved the zebras and the Shetland pony and Caleb's favorites were the monkey, Charlie and the Shetland pony.

Grandma Veva and George also had a lot of neat outside toys to play on. There was a wooden fort with a slide and a swingset. George had also built a small ferris wheel with about 5 cabs to ride in. Clay really enjoyed the ferris wheel, but Levi who was a little too big, fell out of the ride while it was going. There was also an old horse walkaround that the boys loved to push really fast and then hit the ground while it spun above them. (They figured out the hitting the ground part after Levi got hit with the big metal arm.)

But, the highlight of the afternoon occurred when George fired up the golf carts. He had two golf carts that he let the boys drive all over the farm. He even let Clay drive one by himself until he ran it into the garden fence. After that, George rode with Clay and operated the gas while Clay steered. That seemed to work out a little better ! Levi said he fell out of the cart once while Caleb was driving, but I saw it happen and told him it looked to me like he jumped out. He conceded that it was a "forced jump" so that he wouldn't fall out and get hurt. Later when Levi was driving, Clay fell out and I thought he had broken his arm, but he was alright. Levi tried to duck any responsibility for the incident by assuring me he had told Clay to hold on tight and Clay simply didn't listen. Eventually, the golf cart's batteries gave out and George had to go out and tow the boys back up with the tractor. They came in for a few chocolate chip cookies, and then we headed out. The boys were sad to leave and are very much looking forward to going back again.

What's Been Going On

Since I last posted on Tuesday morning, not too much exciting has happened. Tuesday night Clay had a "kindergarten roundup" at the school. Clay went and played in the kindergarten room while I stayed in the cafeteria filling out paperwork. When I went to pick him up he was sitting on a chair and I could tell he'd been crying. Several HS kids came over and told me that he'd been running in the hall and slipped and whacked his head on the cement wall. I thought he would have a big bruise, but it ended up looking pretty good by the next day. Despite his injury, he said he "loved kindergarten" and is very excited about starting. He could start as early as June for summer school. I'm actually considering letting the boys go to summer school for the first time ever this year because I think it might be good for Clay to ease into it. When we got home from kindergarten round up, David left for a men's night forum with the guys from church, so that was a busy night.

Wednesday I helped a boy from church who is homeschooled with his math. We went after lunch and Clay played with the boy's little brother who is about the same age as Clay. They had a great time. Wednesday after school I put the hammer down on Levi to finish his Columbia city project which was due on Friday. I helped him find some pictures on the internet to print off for his visual display board and told him to just lay them out like he wanted and let me look at it. Meanwhile, a girl from the high school came over to get help with her math. By the time she left 2 hours later, I was a little dismayed to see that Levi had glued all the pictures on without my approval ! I had grand visions of how wonderful his display board was going to look, but now we were stuck with a display board that looked like it was done by a 4th grade boy. Oh well, at least we were getting closer to getting it done.

Thursday after school we worked frantically to finish Levi's display board. (Okay, I was frantic and Levi was maddeningly unfazed which created a great amount of tension.) We had to finish it before 4-H that evening which added to the stress. We did finally get it done and David and Levi both thought it looked great. I was a little less optimistic, but eventually decided it wasn't too bad for 4th grade.

Friday morning we were going down the driveway headed for school when I looked back and saw that Levi had forgotten his visual display board ! Lucky for him we had time to go back and get it since we're usually running late. Friday night I told David I needed to get out of the house, so we went and ate supper at Logan's Roadhouse. We had a good time together.

Saturday, David dug a trench (by hand with a mattock) from the field to the house. It was about 25 - 30 yards and he was pretty tired when it was done. He is running an electric line from the house to the field where he plans on building a small barn. The older boys helped him dig some while Clay and I were at a birthday party for one of Clay's preschool friends. Papa (my Dad) showed up Saturday evening with pizza and helped David finish up the digging. We watched MU defeat Baylor to win the Big 12 championship. It was pretty exciting ! (Sorry Uncle Pete).

Sunday we went to church then came home and finished laying the electric line and covering up the trench. Actually, David did all of that and the boys contribution was to walk along the ditch after David covered it up and stomp all the dirt down on it. (See picture at top of post.) David hopes to start building his barn next weekend.

So, thats whats been going on since I last posted. This week is Spring Break and since I'm still on crutches, there's not a whole lot of exciting things we can do. But, we'll try and make the most of it !

The Fair Starts Early

This weekend we began preparations for the County Fair. The Fair doesn't happen until around the second week of July, but a lot has to happen between now and then. On Saturday we took one of our 3 calves (Ribeye) that we've had for the last year and sold him. Poor Ribeye - no one seemed to be sad that he was gone. That left us 2 calves - Sir Loin, who is Levi's calf that he will show as a market steer this year, and Kelsey who is Caleb's calf that he will show as a spring yearling heifer this year.

Sunday was the market steer weigh-in for the fair, so we had to take Sir Loin to get weighed in. We waited for about an hour in a long line of cattle trailers for our turn. Fortunately it was a pretty nice day and the boys played around in the back of the truck. We were pretty pleased that Sir Loin weighed in at 652 pounds. However, he has to weigh around 1000 pounds the day that the fair starts. So, he has to gain about 3 pounds a day from now until the fair. Levi and Daddy shortened the calves' pen so they won't have to walk very far and can keep the weight on better. If Sir Loin places high enough in the fair, Levi can "sell" him at an auction at the end of the fair. The catch is - Levi gets the money from the auction and he still gets to keep Sir Loin. Its a pretty good deal for him, and its good advertising for the winning bidder.

We will probably get Clay a bottle calf to show for the fair, but we're trying to wait until I can walk again. Bottle feeding is a major time investment and is also associated with a lot of big messes in the utility room and the kitchen when mixing the milk. This summer is going to be pretty exciting for Clay because it will be the first one where he actually gets to participate in things instead of being an unwilling bystander. He'll have his calf to take care of and he will get to play teeball this year. He'll be pretty busy, but I'm sure he'll love every minute!

Fox Hole Full of Leaves

Friday the boys got out of school at 12:30. I had planned an exciting expedition to WalMart for a few groceries and supplies that Levi needed to finish his Columbia city project. I announced the surprise trip to the boys shortly after they got home and they looked at me like I had just imposed some horrible unjust punishment on them. Levi said "Mom, I've been looking forward to just playing outside all day !" It was a beautiful day - about 78 degrees outside and sunny and I kind of hated to waste it on a trip to town anyway. Caleb threw in a few groans and tears and I cancelled the WalMart trip. Clay contributed several tears too, but on the other side of the argument. He really wanted to go to WalMart to get a new fishing pole. His disappointment faded pretty quick when Levi asked him and Caleb to help him go make a big pile of leaves to jump into.

As it turned out, Levi had a big plan in mind (He always does !) Several months ago, we had rented an excavator (like a backhoe only a little smaller) to do some work on our water line to the cows. When we finished with the water line, Dave took the excavator and dug a "fox hole" for the boys out in the woods a little ways. (I think he really just liked digging up stuff with the big machinery !) The boys have had a lot of fun playing army in the hole which is a little less than 3 feet deep with a diameter of about 5 feet or so. Levi decided they should fill the fox hole with leaves and jump into it. They worked pretty hard for awhile carrying leaves to the fox hole and Levi even built a diving board for jumping in. I stressed to them the importance of not diving head first into the leaves - because I could see an ER visit in the near future.

They were outside the whole rest of the day and were filthy by the time it was all over. To add onto all the leaf grime, our friends Reed and LeeAnn came over with their 3 litle girls and the boys caught about 15 tiny frogs for the girls to play with out of the pond. You know its been a fun day when the only white you can see on their face is in their eyes !

John Deere Green

Clay has been bugging us to get him a John Deere hat for about 3-4 months. (He's also been bugging us to get a combine, a horse and a big barn, but we're holding off a little while on those.) We've been casually looking for one for awhile, but Sunday after church we stopped at every farm store we could find until we finally found the John Deere hat. Daddy couldn't resist buying him the shirt to go with it. They're both a little big and I'd like to say that he'll grow into it, but I know that he will have worn them both out before he gets big enough for them to fit ! On the way home, Clay said "I wish we had a John Deere house!" I told him maybe when he gets big he can have his own John Deere house.

Basketball

This past weekend was Levi's last regular season basketball game. We still have a tournament to play March 14, but then we'll be finished. It's been fun, but I'll be glad for it to be over with. The lady that was helping me coach walked out of practice and quit last week, so I've been doing it on my own since then. (That is a pretty interesting story in itself for another time !) It wouldn't be such a big deal if I didn't have these darn crutches to contend with. Anyway, I asked David to take some pictures of Levi playing basketball for you all to see. Apparently David and I don't share the same idea of what close up action shots are, so the pictures were all pretty far away, but I zoomed in on them some with the computer. Here they are:

Levi playing defense in the middle

Levi at point guard

Levi is one of our best ball-handlers (actually we only have 2) and he usually leads the team in rebounding. He is also a great defensive player and makes a lot of steals. I wish I could get him to shoot the ball more, but overall he has done a great job this year.

At practice last night, I let Caleb and a 3rd grade boy scrimmage with our 4th grade team. Since we didn't have jerseys, I split them up by shirt color and it happened that Levi and one of the other 4th graders were on a team with Caleb (who is in 2nd grade) and the 3rd grade boy. Surprisingly (and sadly) the team made up of all 4th graders were losing to Levi and Caleb's team. Caleb also beat all of the fourth graders in a game of shootout. You should have seen his smile !

Unfortunately, Levi also broke his tooth at practice last night. It was the same one he broke back in January and I think the part that broke off was just the stuff the dentist had put on. I called the dentist this morning and they can't get him in until Thursday, so we were both pretty disappointed. I tried to put some perspective on the situation for Levi by telling him we were fortunate to be living somewhere where he could at least get it fixed. I told him that not everyone around the world has that opportunity and they have to walk around snaggle-toothed for the rest of their life. He didn't say too much more after that, but we both still felt pretty frustrated. I'd like to think that after we get it fixed this time we won't have to worry about it again for awhile, but that never seems to be the way things work around here !