I'm not kidding when I say days are full. This one is shown in reverse order because it turned out so much better than it started. Bruce has been diligent with his homeschool this year. He does not love it in fact he mostly tells me he hates it. I've tried off an on to offer rewards and incentives. That's hit and miss with all the other reponsibility here- read do dishes, laundry, and meals for the crew that is mostly gone.
That said we had a lesson that included beavers this past week. To entice Bruce to finish I told him we would watch some videos about beavers if he just finished. He did and we watched two videos on beavers building dams. It was fascinating. Did you know they use mud and rocks? They are just compelled to build. It was doubly interesting because the video showed scenery from where Anna and Aliza will spend the next six months. That is so long to even write, but it's going to be a grand adventure for them.
After all that learning and interest Mark and I went to look at some new property we rented. We are trying to deicde what to do with the land as it has been abandoned for a long time and the one clear field is very hard to access with equipment. After our tour the owner was walking on the road so we stopped to chat. Somehow we learned she had beavers in the river near her and in all this flooding the beavers had been working on her trees. I asked if we might come see their work. She agreed and Mark took me home to gather the younger kids. The youngest were a bit tired from the long day but the grade school crew was excited.
Beavers are impressive workers. They chewed on four trees standing in the same area but this soft bark will was their desire. They chewed it down and limbed many braches. They left a few which Bruce asked to keep. The lady said yes he could keep them. We saw paw tracks and observered where they had previously dammed the river before the huge surges that have been occuring with the large spring run off.
Bruce showing his beaver cut and cleaned stick collection. Learning is so important to appreciate the world around.
The kids rode bikes a lot in between jobs and activities. I love this!
Uncle Matt wanted to drive tractor. Merle thought that was a great idea as long as he was in the buddy seat.
Lia and Andrea were thrilled to just eat cookies. When I picked Andrea up to go take care of her needs she smelled strangely like mint. I discovered some tricky kid had eaten the creme filling and replaced it with toothpaste and that was the cookie unknowing Andrea got.
I had got a call earlier in the day from a dear friend asking for some yard help. When we all showed up I think she was overwhelmed so she only asked us to do three things. Unplanned was some rides around her yard. We are not a dull bunch. Andrea thinks fourwheelers are her special spot and grunts and groans till she is on the seat ready to ride.
The day started with Addie annoucing the room with the washing machine (and drain outlet) was full of water soaking into carpet. Those are terrible words. Thus Greg, Mark, and John started working to unplug the situation. Addie ran the vaccuum to get hte water cleaned up. I made breakfast. Reed did the animal chores.
The larger water truck helped flush the system. This was the kids longest time exploring the many new features on the truck.
I had kept Addie home from a track meet. I'm tired of the many hours she sits on a bus, then sits at a track meet to run one race. There is a lot that should be happening here. So cancel I did and she did so much here. The potatoes that have been sitting in the car for two weeks got planted. She dug up a power line to restore power to the outbuildings. She worked for the neighbor, she rested her sore legs, and other stuff I can't remember.
This was from the week before on facebook. She left at 7 am and got back at 1:30 a.m. She did well of course. But I miss my amazing and driven Addie. I think a mental break and some loving family time is important too. If you heard and endured all the frustration and just plain yuck of the water situation you would laugh at that too. But life is problem solving. I really get tired of all the problems but my kids are taught by their father to fix problems. We both work to instill in them ability to be problem solvers not stuck in problems.
Sunday we saw she missed out on potential gold medal awards. I felt a bit bad but truly the 15 hours for one gold medal is a small trade off. The water became functional again, we all still love each other, we worked through the troubles and found a lot of good. The friend we worked for paid the kids in cookies and dollars enough for ice cream for all. So on top of the delightful audio book we enjoyed for the hour car ride we stopped and got some soft serve ice cream cones. Days are long and divided between good and bad. I'm thankful for this enduring crew that is mine. Life is alright!
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