We got a little snow yesterday.







































Many thanks to our pals at Copenhagen for the winter fun.

Chicken (my daughter, not the hen in the last entry) took these just now and wanted to share:

Here's a wreath I made with baling wire, bread ties, leftover Christmas tree, and ends of ribbon.  It's a bit scraggly, but better than paying $20 at the grocery store.



And here's lookin' at you!

We are toasty warm tonight, thanks to a "new" woodstove.  Hubby purchased it locally through a Craigslist ad and spent the last couple of weeks working through the installment and inspection process.

I took a few (emphasis on few) photos of the installation.  I wish I'd gotten more "before and after" pics, because he really  made it look like new.  Oh, I should add that he also removed the light fixture that hung over this area (you can see a bit of it in the second picture) and installed a new one further away from the stove.

Here's the dura-rock stuff that went under the hearth:



And here's the heat shield going up:



Here's a really dark shot of the heat shields installed (along with the installation mess).  He did all the ceiling/roof chimney work himself:



Neatened up a bit:



A "Before" shot of the back of the stove:



I thought using the portable hydraulic jack (that orange and white thing) to move the (very heavy!) stove into place was a brilliant idea on his part.



Rust removal...



The finished product!




Isn't he handsome?

We got snow this week, which was a nice surprise so early in the season.   I like living in a place where the snow melts not too terribly long after it lands.  With warmer temperatures today, the snow melted into rivulets and rushing streams between the three ponds, and when my daughters ventured out to feed the poultry this morning, they were surprised and delighted to find the third pond full to the brim for the first time!

Hubby's runoff system is working excellently, as you can see.

Here is the third pond:



Compare to a picture of the pond before the snowstorm:



That's a lot of runoff!

It carved rivulets into the soft ground around the pond:



Here is the water rushing toward the third pond (that's our neighbor's horse shed in the distance):

Here's the water rushing around the third pond's dam.



And we flow "gently down the stream" through the low-lying area between Pond 3 and Pond 2...



...at the end of which the water rushes into Pond 2...



...which, as you can see, is also brimful.

The water rushes out of Pond 2 here...



...where it joins with the runoff that streams from the neighbor's property to ours.





It flows behind the dam...



...and through the pipes under the driveway...



...into Pond 1.





Pond 1's runoff system is also working beautifully.  The overflow runs in channels around either side of the dam.



Here it comes!



It joins with the overflow from the pipe hubby installed in the dam here...







...and flows into the neighbor's woods as it always has from time immemorial.  Well, as it did before hubby built the ponds, anyway.





Works like a charm!

I'll try to put all the "new news" in one post, for convenience' sake. 

In recent weeks, we'd battled a chicken thief--a red, furry chicken thief.  He made off with one, and we caught him in the act with a second, but he sagaciously dropped the hen and made his getaway.  (Hubby had to doctor the poor chicken by stitching up a huge gash in her back.  He had a surprisingly able assistant in Anna Kate.)  

So, in addition to reinstalling and improving the electric fencing around the chicken yard, hubby's taken up yet another side hobby:  trapping.  To make a long story short, he's downstairs tanning the thief's (or his relative's) hide as I type.





We do have pictures of the skinning process, but I'll spare my sensitive readers.  :) The older children were fascinated, and Anna Kate even got a little biology lesson (identifying organs, checking stomach contents, and other gruesome "extras").

We caught the fox on Halloween, and that same day added a new friend to our chicken yard.



He's a handsome Rhode Island Red, same type that fathered our Golden Comets.  Once we find an incubator, we will be able to add to our flock!

We had a fun holiday. We went to a little dress-up activity with some homeschooling friends, planned brilliantly, as usual, by the super-amazing local homeschool mom, R.

Indoor marshmallow toasting:









Cowgirls, soldiers, fairy princesses and froggies, oh my!









Ian went as "Guy in a Flannel Shirt":




Anna Kate, as usual, went as Mom's right hand.



Don't know what I'd do without her, and neither does Aidan. Both my big girls are hugely helpful.

Making mask cookies...











We went to the pumpkin patch right down the road a couple of days later and bought carving punkins.  Here is Dad's barfing pumpkin:





Lights on...



Lights off...



Once again, I tried roasting the seeds, but even though I boiled them first, the shells were quite crunchy.  I liked the spicy recipe better than the sweet.

Last Friday marked week 10 of Classical Conversations.  Hard to believe we are almost done with the first semester!   We have memorized a large body of material.  I say "we," but the children easily out-memorize me.  Here is the timeline they have mastered so far:





(FYI:  Those last few are not in order, I discovered later.  :) ) 

Eight cards per week!  And that's in addition to history sentences, science facts, Latin declensions, math facts, and more.   The history timeline is repeated yearly in CC, and I do hope my younger students will be able to stay with the program through the three years' cycles to benefit from repetition (we are in Cycle 1 this year).  It's an expensive program (for a family our size) but so very worth the investment!

Of course, my three older students are also mastering grammar and writing in the afternoons.  I am thoroughly enjoying sentence diagramming, something I missed out on in school.  Anna Kate and Olivia are taking ownership of their writing now, and really blossoming.  

We are learning the tin whistle, along with basic music theory, as part of the CC fine arts segment.  I was inspired by this gentleman's lessons to take up the tin whistle myself.  So far this week, I've gotten in daily practice.  I've mastered "Dawning of the Day," but still stumble through "Peg Ryan's Polka." It's fun and motivating, starting right out with traditional tunes.  My limited experience with the recorder has helped a bit.  Unfortunately, our only remaining computer speakers are on the fritz, so I'm not sure when I'll get to the next lesson. 

In other news, we snagged a used woodstove last week, and hubby is preparing to install it to specs, and have it inspected (for insurance purposes).  It's a cast-iron stove.  We want a soapstone, eventually, but this one will keep us toasty warm and prevent nasty electric bills this winter.  Pictures of installation to come...

Yesterday, I thoroughly cleaned and de-cluttered the master bedroom in a desperate search for missing tractor keys.  We later found the keys outdoors, but I sure was glad to get a clean bedroom out of it.  I can actually relax in there now that the clutter's gone.  Naturally, anything I couldn't get rid of went straight to the junk room, but at least it's out of sight.  The "decider" can deal with it whenever he sees fit.  :)  I'd love to tackle the schoolroom next.

The big girls are still involved in riding lessons.  We'll take a break when the weather turns truly cold, but we've had nice weather here, for the most part.  Mondays ordinarily are riding days, but this week's lesson (Olivia's turn) is on Wednesday.  I'm so pleased to see them gaining confidence with the horses.  Like our CC work, proper horsemanship takes much practice and repetition.  It's starting to pay off!  I'm even learning a bit, since I typically catch the tail end of the lesson (literally, as the girls lead the horse back to corral or pasture).

We're eagerly expecting a visit from Mama Cox and Uncle Barry tomorrow.  That probably means I should tackle the guest room before the schoolroom.  Heh!  It's a tangle of clothing containers right now.   Our CC family presentation is this Friday, and I hope all our family members will be able to come and see it, as well as introduce themselves to our CC friends.  :)  We're hoping Daddy can steal a bit of time from his work schedule to be there as well.

Until the next update...God bless you friends!

One of the glories of homeschooling:  you can start whenever you start, and finish when you wanna.  Another:  Convenient excuse for moms who are a little nuts about office supplies.

Pre-schooling at the Cox homestead:  Three-year-old snips up bits of leftover card stock (scissors skills), while 22-month-old sucks them up with the vacuum hose (chore training).

One corner of my life is officially organized.  See below.



Making their own flashcards counts as math, in my book.  I never had to memorize the15's table, and might do well to quiz myself with the cards.

Ah, the noble chicken:



(Chicken photo by Chicken, a.k.a. Anna Kate.)

Our apple tree needs some doctorin', but hubby's got it on the winter Honey-Do list.  It bears spotty apples...



...but they don't taste half-bad stewed with the requisite sugar & spices.  Apples after peeling away the spots...





Buds.





Buds who are, on occasion, moved to thwack each other with toy tractors...but buds nonetheless.  Compatriots in grime.

Ah, the noble turkey...



Discreet enough to skedaddle at the slightest noise or movement. (Probably best we settled on the bald eagle for our national emblem.)

Ah, the noble stinkbug.  

Not.



I gather the stinkbug is to Virginia as the mosquito is to Louisiana. (Unofficial State Bird.)

Isn't this what Daddy does during his time off?



Boy, do these guys love our barn.


"Please, sir, I want some more..."



A future in broadcasting...



Future general...or pirate...we're not yet sure...



Goodbye!

Here's a man who poured his life out in service to homeschooling families.  May God comfort his family in their loss, which is simultaneously his great gain.  He will be greatly missed.

I'd planned to give you our day in pictures, but the "insert image" function on homeschoolblogger is "brokened."  Suffice it to say that we wore ourselves out in Harpers Ferry National Park today, hit the grocery store on the way home for donuts and milk (as compensation for my "no-tourist-prices" hard-nosed frugality at the Park), and let the hens out when we got home. 

Oh, and did I mention that one of our hens is no more?  We noticed we were down to five the other day and discovered a trail of feathers leading from our property line into the pine trees behind our property.  The work of a crafty fox!  Though hubby declares with the kind of stupid hens are, foxes don't really have to be all that crafty; old Reddy probably just said "Psst, c'mere old gal, I wanna show yous somethin'," or dangled a bug or somesuch.

So we got home.  After lying down for 4.5 seconds, I decided I'd better get up and put some pants on my 3yo, who'd wandered outside.  I'd had to remove his clothing on the way home due to a diaper "incident."  (May I just state here that I am mortally tired of foul diapers?  Mortally.  I'd like to know the mothering record for longest time spent in the diaper-changing years.)  Thus  was he running around outside with 1) no shirt, just a pullover jacket; 2) clean diaper; and 3) socks and shoes.  Interesting look.  (Especially given the fall-like weather we are enjoying.)  One that motivated me to get off the bed and rectify the situation, at any rate.

Once I was up, I figured I'd better tackle the schoolroom, which was covered stem to stern with bits of dried playdoh and what-not.  Not to mention the nests of stink bugs that I KNEW, in my soul of souls, were infesting our bookshelves and supplies.  (We have holes in our screens.)  I went about removing books and things with great trepidation, and uncovering hair-raising numbers of the disgusting things.  The "thwup" they make going through the vacuum hose is certainly shudder-inducing.  Must have sucked up a hundred of 'em.  Now I'm rather reluctant to empty the bag.  I think I'll make hubby do it.

When the insert picture function gets fixed (oh, homeschoolblogger handyman?), I'll add a photo of my nicely organized "teacher supply" drawer.  Still have to clean out the Dreaded Crates (full of school papers--my most hated task, I do believe, because of the decision making involved), clean windows and doors, clean out the kids' in-boxes & what-all, but it felt good to get the bookshelves debugged and the drawer organized, and the playdoh vacuumed.  My kids can do away with a brand-new set of playdoh faster than anyone I know.  Will also try to post birthday pictures when able.  Thanks for patience.  Sincerely, the Erstwhile Blogger.

The children and I braved chilly temps and brisk winds off the river today, as we toured Harpers Ferry National Park.  I've been wanting to visit there for ever so long. 

Overall, I'm glad we went.  There wasn't a whole lot of interest for the younger crew, and I kept wishing I could spend more time with the older ones delving into the points of interest, since the place is positively dripping with history.  I also kept wishing we'd dressed in more layers!  The younger ones were well insulated, but a couple of my olders failed to bring extra jackets.  It warmed up a bit after lunch, thank goodness.

Anyway, here are a few pictures from our day:

History presenters describing John Brown's insurrection to a mostly interested audience (my toddlers not being among that number, so we split before the climax of the tale)...







The recording is saying that John Douglass (extra "s") was a freedman who managed to purchase freedom for his wife and child so their family would not be separated.  There were several museums like this one detailing aspects of the town's history:  Civil War, Industry, etc.

Enthralled by the voice...



Field trips are made of non-educational moments like these... Leaf fight!











Very nice park. I hope I can go back someday and hike that section of the Appalachian Trail before I get too old and creaky.