Frost

It was freezing out this morning.

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold,

Her early leaf's a flower,

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf,

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day,

Nothing gold can stay.

-Robert Frost

Greeting 2018 in the dark

We didn't have big plans for New Year's Eve.  I thought we might stay up a little late with a movie.  Instead the power went out at 6:30 p.m.

I was on the last step of making a pizza; I had pre-cooked the crust and heated the sauce.  I had just popped the pizza in a 400°F oven to melt the cheese when the lights went out.  (Ironically, it ended up being one of the most perfectly cooked home-made pizzas I've ever made.)

Flashlights!
Candles!
Battery powered Christmas candles from the windows.
Battery powered night lights in the childrens' rooms.
Propane fireplace.

New Year's Eve Dinner Table

We ate dinner by candle light, and lit candles in sconces on the door jamb. We put a candle on a pedestal in the bathtub so the bathroom had light and we didn't have to worry about children knocking it over.  We asked the kids not to flush the toilet because no power = no water pump.  We bundled up because no power = no central heat. 

We read stories instead of watching movies.  The kids all went to bed on time, if not a little early.

The power came on briefly before midnight, and then came on for good around 1:30 a.m. .  Steve and I listened to our neighbors shoot off fireworks in the distance.

Julia and Petra were both a little scared of the blackout.  They were worried (not even about pipes freezing).  I asked why, and Petra said she didn't like all the dark.

Nathan told me later that he liked the black out.  I asked why, and he said he liked the all the dark.  It was exciting.

Late June update

Today I got to have our house locks re-keyed and called poison control.  Good times.

The lock thing was because grandma's travel bag was lifted out of her car in my driveway yesterday.  It had her phone, tablet, keys and a book in it, but fortunately not her wallet.  We all had real trouble coming round to believing that it hadn't been moved by the kids.  But no, it appears to have been stolen.  So today we had a locksmith come over and change out the locks (we got a 2 house discount).  It's really a shame about her phone and nice new tablet.  And it's going to be a while before I'm comfortable working in the back yard while the house is unlocked.

The poison control call was because Nathan put soft soap on his toothbrush instead of tooth paste.  Paul was supervising, so I don't know if Nathan was just distracted or if he thought he was being funny.  Paul was more shaken up about it than I was, but we called poison control to be on the safe side.  The woman we spoke to was very kind and understanding.  Fortunately no harm was done and, hopefully, it was a learning moment.

Otherwise we're doing pretty well.  PJ survived Boy Scout camp and seems to have had much less homesickness than in past years.  Petra just got moved to the loft bed, because it is her turn to use it for 6 months.  She is SO pleased with it.  

We were stuck in slow traffic in the rain Friday evening when Nathan asked, "Daddy, are cars magnetic?"

"Yes."

"He-he-he-he.  All we need is a big stick with a chain and a hook and a magnet on the hook, and we can move the cars."  He had it all planned out, and he totally sounded like a comic villain.  

Warm Christmas Eve

It has been a very warm winter so far.  This had been predicted by people who understand El Nino.  I’m not even going to bother buying the kids new snow boots until I see some evidence that they will need them before their feet jump up 2 shoe sizes.

The day before Christmas the temperature got up into the 60s.  It was odd, but a blessing, in that I could send the children outside to play.  We spent some time playing on the swing set.  Maggie got to snuffle all around.  I put away a few more flowerpots from around the house.  And Paul was able to continue his coop cleanout work without freezing his fingers.

While Nathan and I were in the barn, I heard one of the chickens bawking.  This hen keeps jumping the fence and wandering around in the barn.  We just keep tossing it back into the chicken yard.  After I had thrown it over the fence I thought, “I wonder if this bird is laying e.  He rolled in sideggs somewhere in the barn?”  I had looked in and around our bales of straw before with no luck.  This time I happened to glance in a corner behind some garden equipment and found a pile – 21 eggs – over 3 weeks of laying.  We float tested them and decided that 17 of them were still good.

Later Nathan and I walked around our “trail” and along the stream.  Nathan wanted to cross, but I asked him not to.  He only had one pair of shoes that fit, and I couldn’t afford for them to get drenched before our Christmas Eve service.  Instead he bent down to touch the water, tipped over and rolled into the water.  He landed on his side with his feet in the air, so at least his feet stayed dry.  I helped him up and hurried him into the house for a warm bath.

We got to have a candle light Christmas Eve service in our school building.  I don’t think we bothered to wear coats. 

Butterflies & buzzards

Our sky has been full of monarch butterflies and vultures.

I don't know if we are on a migration path, but we have seen more than our fair share of monarch butterflies in the last week.  Monday evening there were half a dozen fluttering around the old silver maple trees by our house.  It has been delightful.

Less delightful was that last Saturday Steve and his dad started filling in some holes in the concrete floor in the barn.  One hole revealed extensive burrowing behind it, and an extra trip to Home Depot was required to get enough concrete for the job.  Consequently, Steve set up a varmint trap in the barn Sunday night.

Monday morning he found a 'possum in the trap.
Monday evening he disposed of the 'possum.
Tuesday afternoon I told him that the next time he dispensed with a varmint, he had to make sure I knew where he dumped the carcass BEFORE I took the little children & small dog on a walk around the trail in the back acre.

Yuck.

Shortly after doing an about-face on the trail, the little guys and I were by the chicken yard.  Petra & Nathan were hand feeding clover to the chickens.  We looked up and saw 6 to 8 turkey vultures circling low.  They were not exactly right over the dead 'possum, but they were close enough to find it soon.  Tuesday night Steve went looking for our little gray dog, and startled two vultures from their meal.

Thursday I walked around the trail for curiosity.  I found a tail, some mostly clean ribs, and what I took to be jaw bone off to the side.  While vultures do give me the heebie-jeebies, I am grateful to God for the job that they do.

April Flowers

Sometimes flowers are God's way of saying, "Smile!"

The rug is down

Our laundry room is unheated, so I was pleased when we put a rug on the tile floor a few years ago.  Then the washing machine started leaking.  So we bunched the rug up and stuffed it to the side.

After a while we pinpointed the "leak" to the drain hose which fed into a stack.  The hose was going too fast and overflowing the drain stack.

After a while more, Steve fixed the problem by installing a wash sink.  The washing machine drains into the sink, which gives the water more time to go down the drain.  It is more forgiving.  Steve put a mesh filter on the end of the washing machine's drain hose so that lint would not clog the sink.

Yay.  No more leaks.  We put the rug back down.

A month or so later, I noticed that the rug was wet after the washing machine had run a load.

I handled it gracefullly.  "NO, No, no,no, noooo..."  I lifted the rug up and threw it over a rack to dry.

I watched the washing machine during the next load of laundry.  The problem was that the lint trap quickly became mostly clogged with lint, and the water had to squeeze out of a handful of small openings in the mesh.  It came through those holes with such force that it sprayed over the top of the wash sink like a fountain.  

I told Steve about the problem, but he didn't have any solutions to the problem handy.

The next laundry day, I cut a clear plastic orange juice jug to fit around the drain hose and filter.  I tied my water shield in place with plastic grocery bags.  The whole time I worked on this jury rigged thing, I was thinking, "Steve is going to look at this and roll his eyes and shake his head.  They he will say, 'Oh, I have this much better way of fixing the problem.  Let me just get it out for you.'"

Plastic orange juice bottle spray protector

Instead, Steve saw my contraption and said, "Hey that really works well.  Good job."

Nuts.

Oh, well.  The rug is down.

Kuhlman Almanac - Mid June 2014

Phototropic Children
I think the kids must be solar powered.  These long days near the summer solstice are just killing us on bedtimes.  They get to bed late, can't sleep, and then wake up early.  I'm sure the heat isn't helping matters.

The other night I went up stairs after having tucked in the girls to tell them to be quiet or else they were going to lose their screen privileges the next day.  Julia started to try to explain the thumping I heard.  With a slightly wounded tone, "Mommy!  I was THINKING about something.  And I wouldn't tell Petra what it was.  So she started throwing her stuffed animals at me."
"Stop, stop stop!  Just go to sleep."

-----

Steve's knee
I came in from closing up the chickens last night and told Steve that the chickens miss him.  I had been careless when I opened them in the morning and their little chicken door swung closed during the day, stranding them outside.  We still haven't found a suspected 3 missing eggs.  All this the day after I plum forgot to open them.

Maggie also misses having Steve mobile.  When I try to walk her in the evening, she lingers by the house and only reluctantly comes down to the barn at my insistence.  I think she is trying to stay close to where Steve is.  He is her alpha.

Last night Paul put a tooth under his pillow.  I went to check on him during the night, and the tooth was not under the pillow, but curled up in his hand.  I woke Paul up in the process of figuring that out.  I explained that I was in his room to open the windows up to let in the cool night air.
"But what were you doing under me?"
"Um.. I was checking to make sure your tooth was in place."
"I've got it here in my hand."
"Oh good.  Well.  Good night."
The tooth fairy misses Steve too.

Steve is getting on much better, but his knee is still pretty sore at the and of the day.  Even so, he saw that our tae kwon do school is offering a weapons class (nunchuks, sword, fan, cane).  He asked the teacher if he needed to be able to use his legs to take the class.  He and Julia are now signed up to start classes in July.

-------

Farm
We're taking it easy on the gardening this year. The grass and wild flowers are growing well, and we have some potted poseys making the house look cheerful.  After the cold winter, the butterfly bush and roses died back to the ground, but they are making a comeback.  The rose, in fact, looks splendid.

The weather has just turned really hot.  A week or two ago it was quite rainy, and our lawn broke out in mushrooms.  I have never seen so many at once.  The whole way between the driveway and the swing set the yard was sprinkled with little brown mushrooms no taller than the grass.

Our chicken flock this year is made up of Rhode Island Reds, Buff Orpingtons, and Silver Laced Wyandottes.  We have 5 bronze turkeys this year.  We'll have to see how the new breeds do as layers.

Projects around the farm

Steve and his dad have been undertaking a bunch of projects around our place.

The new tarp roof is now up on the tree house

A new summer coop has been framed into the barn for the young hens and turkeys

We got the lawn furniture out of winter storage

Here is one of the young turkeys

These are the old hens.  We're leaving the garden fallow this year, so the hens have the run of the fenced in garden plot.

Steve and his dad have framed in a massive overhead grape arbor behind the garage

Today they put a wash sink in the utility room.  Nathan approves.

Pictures around the house

Petra helping with laundry, and Nathan about to pull the step stool on his head

It rained like crazy over 4th of July.  This shows the humidity reader pegged at 100%

Our house getting new siding.  It looks so nice, but it is taking FOREVER.

I'm so pleased - our attic windows are getting their arched tops back.

Common grace

Lord, thank you for the common grace of beauty in nature.  

Spring on the Farm

Here are some pictures from the last month or so.

Last year the daffodils were blooming on Saint Patrick's day. This year is was a full month later.

Camouflage Paul

A real fire place

Nine years ago, Steve and I were hunting for a bigger house.  One of Steve’s nonnegotiable criteria for the new home was that it must have a fireplace.

The house we bought had two beautiful fireplaces that were clearly long in disuse.  We found out later that they were coal burning fireplaces, completely unsuitable for wood fires.

Nuts.

Last week we asked a contractor to come and give us an estimate for installing a gas burning fireplace in the hearth space.  Steve went home from work early on Monday to meet the contractor at 3:00p.m.

When I got home from work at five, the contractor’s van was still there.  Grandma’s truck was still there.  There was no sign of life from outside. What was going on?

As I parked the car I saw a man coming out of the house carrying a long sinister looking piece of hooked steel rod.  Oh no!  He’s murdered my family, is robbing the house, and when I step inside, he’s going to kill me too!

No, wait.  If I were going to lead a life of murder and robbery, I probably wouldn’t put my name in big gold letters on the side of my red utility van. 

I went inside to find the man and my Steve bent over the hearth wearing dust masks and working with a shop vac and several reaching tools.  The vacuum was whirring and dust was flying.

I tried to gesture to Steve with the universal sign for, “If you want to go to Tae Kwon Do tonight, you need to start eating supper soon.” 

I found Grandma and the kids and the very concerned dog holed up in Julia’s room upstairs.  We let Grandma go home, canceled Tae Kwon Do practice for the night, and had a picnic supper upstairs out of the dust.

Steve later explained that the contractor wanted to make sure the chimney could be cleared out before he gave us a quotation for the work.  They found newspaper from 1958, straw, bird skeletons, and a few, inch long, fat, happy meal worms.  Charming.

We plan to have a gas fueled fireplace installed in the next few weeks.

Blessings in the realm of time

 I saw a rainbow yesterday.  It was bright enough that I could point it out to Petra and she saw it too. 

Rainbows are special because they don't last for long.  You have to look when they are ready or else you lose them.  We had 15 or maybe 20 minutes to see and enjoy this rainbow before a gentle misting rain passed over us and the rainbow faded.  It wasn't ours to keep.

I tried to take a picture, but my camera is on the fritz. 

The rainbow isn't mine to keep.  Nor can I claim to keep the trees or barn.  They are older than me.  With any luck they will outlast me.  I just get to take care of them and enjoy them for a season.

Even the little imp in the foreground isn't mine to keep.  She was given to me by God.  I must answer to Him for her care and raising, and then I must render her back to Him. 

Every day I am holding these things with open hands.  They are mine to enjoy and love for a season - rainbow, farm and precious girl.  They are not mine to keep.

Kitchen Progress

This humble picture is evidence that for the first time in over 8 years we have a kitchen with all fronts on all of the doors and drawers.  The story behind why we have had drawers and cabinets without fronts for so long is a little involved.  I'll share it another day.    

This picture shows our freshly painted ceiling and new fan and light fixture.  The old fan had broken over the summer such that it was permanently turned on high.  With the hope of cooler weather coming, we wanted to be able to turn on the light and not the fan.

I think we have homed in on what paint color combination we will use. You can see it in the background of the second picture.  We're getting closer!

Saturday

7ish 
Everybody starts waking up.  Petra wants orange juice.  Sarah decides that the only way to use up the bagels that Paul and Julia have mysteriously stopped eating is to make them into french toast.

8:00 Wrap up breakfast.  Maggie gets the leftover egg and milk mixture.  Her dish get licked cleaner than the good china and she is a happy doggy.  Everybody gets dressed

9:00 Steve starts clearing out the kitchen, disassembling the fan and light fixture, and vacuuming the ceiling.  Petra and Maggie don't like the vacuum cleaner.  Petra, Maggie, Paul, Julia and Sarah go outside.  Paul, Julia and Sarah clear the wealth of elder saplings, mulberry saplings and honeysuckle vine out of the juniper bushes.  Sarah tells Julia that she wouldn't hurt her feet if she would wear real shoes and not flipflops for yard work.

10:00  The sun starts hitting the juniper bushes.  Sarah, Paul, and Julia give up.  Sarah pushes wheelbarrow loads of switches and children to the brush pile.  Steve tarps the kitchen.  Steve searches for the paint rolling pan.  Where on earth did we put the paint rolling pan?

11:00  Steve finds a really massive green caterpillar.  It becomes a guest at Hotel Bug Box.  After a snack Sarah, Paul, Julia and Petra leave to run some errands.  Steve starts painting the kitchen ceiling.  By himself.  Which takes longer than it seems necessary.

Sarah, Paul, Julia, and Petra go to the hardware store.  Sarah buys paint rolling pans and impulse shops, picking up a laminated large brochure on human anatomy.  Paul is entranced by the pictures of bones, the circulatory system, and various organ groups.  Julia is a little grossed out.

On the way out of the hardware store Paul starts hopping on one foot and crying out.  He finds a tiny metal splinter in his foot.  He removes it with some tweezers from Sarah's purse.  Sarah makes another speech about appropriate footwear.

Sarah, Paul, Julia and Petra go to the drugstore and use the kiosk to order some photographs.  Trying to use the kiosk with three young children in tow is crazy. 

12:30  Sarah, Paul, Julia and Petra get home just as Steve is finishing the painting job.  They have lunch.

1:30  Steve and his dad start butchering a turkey and a rooster.

3:00 Steve and his dad clean up the butchering tools while Sarah and Steve's mom finish gutting the poultry.  Grandma takes a break to turn the sprinkler on for Julia. Grandma asks Julia to leave the water off until she has time to walk away from the sprinkler next time.

3:30  Sarah cleans the kitchen and starts some laundry.  Petra gets up from her nap. Steve announces that she smells worse than he does.  Steve takes a shower. Petra gets a diaper change.  Paul joins Julia in the sprinkler.

4:30  Paul starts a program of photographing the caterpillar at regular intervals to see if it is becoming a chrysalis.  Steve is moving a little slower now. 

5:30  Supper.

6:15 Start baths.

6:45 Wii time.

7:30 Paul, Julia and Petra brush teeth and have their stories.

8:00 Julia and Petra are tucked in bed.  Paul takes his bath.  Sarah prepares for teaching preschool Sunday School.

8:30 Paul is tucked in bed.  Sarah and Steve finish doing dishes and get the turkey and rooster into the fridge.

9:00 Steve decides that the new kitchen fan and light fixture are going to have to wait for tomorrow to be installed.  Steve and Sarah eat some ice cream and head for bed.

Sarah decides she needs some coaching in the fine art of enjoying a lazy Saturday.

Cool cicadas

Paul wants to be an entomologist (one who studies insects) when he grows up.   He has already been equipped with bug boxes, butterfly nets, and a couple of insect field guides.

In late summer, he and Julia enjoy looking for cicada shells.  The cicada grubs like to climb our wooden swing set.  They climb out of their exoskeletons and emerge as adults with wings.  Last night we were looking for the exoskeletons when we spotted a cicada most of the way out of its shell.

It looked odd.  Okay, cicadas look odd by nature.  Something about it looked wrong.

Paul teased it with a bit of weed for a while, and then Steve suggested that Paul hold a black walnut near it.  The cicada grabbed the black walnut and Paul gently pulled the insect out of its shell.

Instead of wings, this thing had nubby little flaps on its back.  I said, "Oh, Paul.  I think this one is deformed.  Its wings didn't form properly.  I don't think it's going to live."

Paul ran to get his bug book (Insect Field Guide).  We looked to see what kind of cicada it was.  We looked to see if maybe one sex of the species had wings and the other didn't.  Steve came across a picture of a cicada emerging from the exoskeleton to adulthood.  It had nubby little flaps where the wings should be.

So it turns out that the wings are supposed to look that way when they emerge.  I always wondered how the cicada's wings fit under the grub's exoskeleton.  Now I know - it is because the wings look like they've been freeze dried and vacuum packed when they first come out.  As we watched, these little flaps slowly spread out.  It seemed impossible.  These deformed looking things transformed into transparent, beautiful instruments of flight.

Paul kept watch over it, periodically placing his hand near it lest it should fall.  He was very attentive.  We left the cicada still drying its new wings in the evening breeze.

Now that was cool.

In the last week or so...

In the last week or so we have -

• had our last swimming lesson of the summer
• Petra started "I can do it myself" climbing into and out of her car seat. Yay!
• fired up a couple of window air conditioning units and moved Paul into the office to sleep
• topped 100°F and had sandwiches and banana splits for supper
• disposed of 3 racoons
• seen a coyote running along the road
• weathered a storm that knocked out our power for 5 to 6 hours (We're lucky, some people are going to be out of power for over a week)
• cleaned out and closed down the "beer and egg fridge" for the summer
• turned the "beer and egg fridge" back on because
• our freezer died
• attended a Rock & Roll birthday party (Julia now knows who Justin Bieber is)
• held our last team meeting before going to the Czech Republic
• started collecting stuff to pack for our trip

Close to bees

Walking in from the garage, Petra dawdles.  She studies an ant.  She picks juniper berries from the bushes.
"Petra, it's time to come in.  Do you want to see cartoon?  Or would you like to look at the honeybee?"  Our yard is full of white clover, and our clover is rich with honeybees.  It is a sight that makes me glad.
She answers, "Honeybee?"  She comes close to me and we squat down to see the bee.
We've talked about bees before.  "You remember not to touch them, right? Because they can sting."
She remembers.
It flies from flower to flower.  It sticks its head in and pauses.  Moves, sticks its head in, and pauses.  Oops, that was a dry flower.  No pause.
First one and then two honeybees fly quite close to us, working, and we are still.
Petra says, "It's drinking nectar."
"That's right.  And what does it make with the nectar?"  I wonder if she will answer, "Yogurt," like Paul did at that age.
She pauses and pulls up the word, "Honey."
They are so close we can hear their wings buzz.  We can see their graceful, black, jointed legs, the fuzz on the thorax and their faceted eyes.  I am in wonder that Petra can be so still and attentive.  She is not afraid, nor is she trying to harass them.

Then the moment passes.  Petra makes a quick move.  The bees move off, and so do we.

Fun pictures that I have been too busy to get off my camera until now

Julia with some Easter prizes

The new chicks came a few weeks ago.  Steve and the kids acquainted the chicks with their new home.

We had some impressively large mushrooms growing in the mulch.  Wet spring.

For mysterious reasons all their own, the children have decided that the  nook under the counter is the best place for brushing their teeth.