Hurrah for Ryan!

The Centre hosted a Chess Tournament on Saturday and Ryan was able to compete in it, along with his cousin, David. Ryan was pretty sure he wouldn't do very well since he hasn't played recently.

To Ryan's surprise, he ended up winning the 1-4th Grade catagory. Now, to David's credit, he probably should have won, but there was a mix up and David ended up competing in the next higher age group.
Good Job!

Posted by his proud mom, Pam

Pick Axes & Pictures.

During the winter, one of our (our = Jenny, Cordell, & Ryan) daily chores is to break a hole in the ice on the pond for the cows. While this is normally not a very fun job, it can occasionally become, if you have a friend with you, a grand adventure.


-Such was the case in the following pictures. =)

My bff, Desi, looking simply overjoyed to be doing chores. ...?

Me holding the weapons of choice.

Here, Desi is demonstrating the practical method of "drop, roll, & stand up" to get past the electric fence.

Once at the pond, you stand near the edge, lift the sledge hammer over your shoulder, and swing!

It's that simple.

Note* Wide stances help achieve the maximum amount of force.

Desi - 1 / ice - 0

And then I take a swing at it...

Sometimes, bits of snow, ice, and water, will fly up at you, so you have to make sure that you keep your mouth closed.

Unfortunately, sometimes you forget.

Once a large enough hole is broken, you then use the pick axe to shovel out the large ice chunks floating around in the water.

Me holding an afore mentioned ice chunk.

Lastly, we return the tools back to the barn, and on our way up to the house, make snow angels.

It was a lovely outing. =)

Seussical!

Rehearsals are in full swing now for Seussical - a wonderful, fun collection of Dr. Seuss characters ranging from Horton and Maizie, General Ghengis Von Schmitz, the Cat in the Hat, to the Sour Kangeroo all singing and dancing (and tapping!) to amazingly fun music. Fine Linen Drama is once again the incredible genius power behind this production.

You will want to mark your calendars now so as not to miss this. Show dates are April 7,8,9 and April 14, 15, 16.

Jenny is having a lot of fun learning how to tap dance and is in various numbers as a Hunch dancer and Beach Boy Singer and I forget what else. Cordell is a Cadet in the "Who Military" and sings songs like Green Eggs & Ham...

Check out this link to watch a video clip of their first rehearsal:

http://www.finelinen.viviti.com/UpcomingEvents

Hope you can make it!

Posted by Pam

Bald Eagles....

One of the benefits to living next to a lake is being able to see wildlife you don't normally get to see. We have really enjoyed spotting a pair of Bald Eagles who like to perch in a tree just beyond our front yard. They also have a young bird, probably not quite a year old yet, who is all brown and doesn't have the white head and tail yet. They are quite beautiful to watch. When the lake thaws out (which doesn't seem to be any time soon), we are hoping to be able to spot them swooping down and catching a fish out of the lake. Picture taken byJenny.

Posted by Pam

We're Back!

Well, we weren't actually gone, just unconnected! I am pleased to report that we have not only unpacked our computers, but also have our internet connection up and running again. Sorry for leaving you dangling with our progress on getting settled out here. Just to bring you up to speed....

Walter fell during the ice we had the weekend before Christmas while working a house fire at work. X-Rays and an MRI led the doctors to suspect a torn meniscus (cartilage) for the reason why Walter had a swollen knee and pain. The workmans' comp doctor recommended 2 weeks of physical therapy, and Walter was placed on light duty work (M-F, 8-4:00 pm). This really squelched our construction project at home. We had barely finished the tin roof before the injury, and had to get help to get the washer and dryer up and running, and the piano and roll top desk moved, etc.

Work on getting settled creeped along as Walter was only home on weekends, but we are mostly settled now. We abandoned the idea of enclosing the rest of the middle room, but at least it is under roof and keeps most of the snow off.

This morning, Friday, January 21, Walter had arthroscopic surgery to smooth out the tear in the cartilage. We are hoping that in another 4-6 weeks he can return to regular duty again.

In the meantime we are starting to look at house plans again. The kids are back to doing school work and activities again and trying to make up for time lost while moving. I am trying to catch up on everything I let get behind, and we are sure enjoying our new home, despite challenges with frozen water pipes, frozen doors, and a camper sized refridgerator and stove!

Christmas morning in the camper.

Our family at a Christmas gathering.

Posted by Pam

Progress report...

Hi There! Sorry we have done a miserable job of keeping up to date with this. I will try to catch you up quickly though.

We found a camper we liked about mid-November and pulled it onto the farm. We parked it next to the mobile office and are constructing a room to connect them both.

This is a 37 foot Wildwood by BlackForest camper. It has a 16 ft slide out in the living room/kitchen. For a camper, it is quite roomy, at least before we put any of our things in it!

This is the kitchen, and you can see the shower through the open door.This is the corner of the kitchen table and the living room. Through the open door you can see the bedroom at the front of the camper.


This is Cordell & Ryan's space. To say bedroom seems a little too generous, but they do actually have a room with a door. On the other side of the room is a little booth table that also makes into a bed.

This is the front view of the mobile office that faces the lake. If all goes well, Jennifer will have a bedroom of sorts in here. It also has a half bathroom.

Here is how it looked next to the mobile office. Walter took off the ramp, tore down the railings, and got started on the connecting room. The kids and I went to Fort Wayne to visit my family over the Thanksgiving holiday, and left Walter at home working diligently on the construction project, along with a good friend of our family, Scott.

End of Progress Report (part 1 of ???)

Posted by Pam

Time for "Plan B" & in the meantime...

We have been enjoying our respite from the stresses of moving out of our house. Liz & Lewis have been most generous with sharing their guesthouse with us. We were waiting to hear if our Plan A was going to work out or not. We have heard now, and looks like we will be going with Plan B, which is to live in some type of temporary housing at our farm. We are exploring some options we may have with the structures that are already there, or with possibly bringing in something like a mobile home. Hopefully, we will get it figured out fairly quickly so we can ease the stresses of transitional living!

In the meantime, the kids have been rather busy recently. Cordell & Ryan are participating in a First Lego Robotics Challenge and so have been busy with their teams preparing for it. Cordell's team is researching the lungs and respiration, and Ryan's team has narrowed their research down to the use of biomedical engineering helps for macular degeneration. Rather interesting!

Cordell & Jenny are both playing basketball with the homeschool teams through RHAA, and have had practices twice a week.

We had to put up some new fencing for our cows at our new farm. Tomorrow is the big day for turning them out of their temporary round pen.

Well, all for now.
Posted by Pam