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It isn't very often that we get to go anywhere, but this weekend we are going to Tucson to visit some friend's of ours. Their son is Mordecai in a play of Esther. I really wanted to go to see his play because guess what I'm doing with my Sunday School children? Same thing. And MY son is also Mordecai! Purty neat, huh? I'll have to blog about it when i get back... sometime. My life has been so crazy lately. Besides my normal stuff; teaching homeschool, Sunday School, house work in my own home, cleaning other houses, helping my hubby run his business... I've also added some other blessings: putting together a play (Esther) being in charge of putting together our yearly homeschool project that we do with other homeschoolers from our church, trying to figure out what to do for my youngest girl's 7th birthday at the end of this month, getting ready for my oldest to have her 9th grade graduation. (she's past the 9th, but i want her to be able to go to the really nice ceremony they have at the homeschool convention this year). You know, I have lots to blog about. But when in the world am I going to find time??? Happy Mother's Day y'all!!!!!!!!!!! |
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Sh'ma Yis'ra'eil Adonai Eloheinu Adonai echad. Barukh sheim k'vod malkhuto l'olam va'ed. V'ahav'ta eit Adonai Elohekha b'khol l'vav'kha uv'khol naf'sh'kha uv'khol m'odekha. V'hayu had'varim ha'eileh asher anokhi m'tzav'kha hayom al l'vavekha. V'shinan'tam l'vanekha v'dibar'ta bam b'shiv't'kha b'veitekha uv'lekh't'kha vaderekh uv'shakh'b'kha uv'kumekha Uk'shar'tam l'ot al yadekha v'hayu l'totafot bein einekha. Ukh'tav'tam al m'zuzot beitekha uvish'arekha. |
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I love cleaning Mr Bill's house. He's always got something interesting to either say or do or show or give. The other day I caught a tarantula in a jar. Didn't think of getting any pictures of it. The kids did, but it was too blurry. Well, I called Mr. Bill to see if he wanted it and he did. He said he would trade me some morning glory seeds for the tarantula. Yesterday was my cleaning day and he told me to bring the kids because he could do a lesson with them using the hairy creature. So while and my oldest daughter cleaned, Mr. Bill taught them about the tarantula. Here's my youngest daughter's account in her own words, uncensored and in its entirety: "Melody, what did you learn about the tarantula from Mr. Bill?" " its fangs, the two back legs that aren't really legs, he showed us a dot... kind of like a hole in the middle but I don't know what it is... I forgot. Oh he put oh now another thing about a scorpion well he said they're poisonous some are and some aren't and geko and never mind. Gekos are always having a heart on their back and they always go in cities. but he was kidding.... " All this was said to me while she was looking at the Gecko picture that's on an advertisement for Geico. Let's see if Grace can fill us in: Grace? "that their poisonous. They always tuck their fangs in and their fangs are very very sharp and the little tarantulas fangs are this big. They eat crickets and grasshoppers. They can live without eating for a month. And he said the babies are really really tiny. And he showed us his black widows and he said he got bit by one. I think he said he had to go to the doctor or hospital or something. I think he said his nervousness ... when you go like that (extending your arm) you touch the wrong thing. And his other one he has now killed the other one. Mr Bill ripped open the egg sack thing and there was tons of eggs in it. He said they are really dangerous. Tarantulas have these little claw things on their ends and he let me touch them - they get stuck on my finger. He said that was so that if there's a storm they can climb into a bush. If you put two tarantulas in together, they'll eat each other." After the tarantula experience, Mr Bill took the children on a little "hike" up the road to harvest some greens for dinner. They included tumbleweed and something else but i only know what it is in Spanish... quelites. We chopped up the tumbleweed and put it into our salad. The kids weren't too impressed After the hike, my son wanted to try out kayaking in Mr. Bill's pond. So he did. And he didn't want to stop when it was time to go home.
My brave Josiah, taking on the rapids
The rapids meaning, the rapidly blowing wind on the water making rapid little ripples
Like I said... rapid wind
Melody rowing her own boat (the dock)
We have to right NOW????? Yes, son. Till next time....... |
. The quelites are a lot like spinach only the leaves are smaller. I've used them before. I fried some chopped onion and tomato and added the quelites. My hubby introduced them to me. 
In case any of you didn't know I have a new blog site over at The Homeschool Lounge. I entered into the contest for the Mother's Day gift and today I found out that I WON!  WOW!!! Here's a picture of what I won:  |
Posted in Science and Nature
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Today we went with Mr. Bill down Fossil Creek road, just up a couple miles from where we live.
Phlox
Lichen on the rocks (pronounced Lie-kin)
Strange formations
Hiking with Mr. Bill
Josiah going up the winding staircase
A Praying Mantis Cocoon. Lots of tiny Praying Mantis's will crawl out of this cocoon
Framed
Eating Red Dock. Mr. Bill says its like rhubarb. Well, I've never had rhubarb, so my oppinion is that its like celery because its stringy, only a bit sour.
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Posted in Science and Nature
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Several weeks ago we did our first “official” Nature Study. We’ve done nature studies before but never called them that. For our first “official” Nature Study I had everyone, including myself, draw a picture of our sprouting Broccoli that I started indoors. Here’s the results (notice that some have mushrooms in them as well):
Melody's
Grace's
Josiah's
Lydia's
And mine! |
Posted in Science and Nature
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My son is thoroughly enjoying doing Science experiments from his book. For some reason, I never thought of just letting him do the experiments on his own. I always had this idea that we had to do science experiments together as a “class”. As you can guess, we rarely got around to it. Josiah was delighted the minute he started doing his first experiment on his own. I had no trouble getting narrations… oral ones, anyway. The book we are currently using is called My Big Science Book by Simon Mugford.
He made a little Diver man out of aluminum foil, put a glob of sticky tacky for a weight, and a paper clip to hold his bent straw air tank. Then the little diver dude was put into the water and the lid closed to the bottle. When Josiah squeezed the bottle, the diver would go to the bottom of the bottle. When he let go, the diver soared up to the surface. The reason for this, in Josiah's own words, "is when you stick him in his tank, the straw is full of air and so he floats. When you squeeze it , it forces water into the straw and the air pushed out and he goes down to the bottom. When you let go air goes back in and water forces back out and it floats to the top."
In the next experiment, Josiah tied a spoon to the middle of a 3 foot string. He inserted each end of the string into his ears, one in each ear. Then he banged the spoon onto different hard things such as a table or the metal file cabinet. BONG! It sounded like a bell. Again, according to Josiah, "The reason is because when you hit it the sound travels up the string and you hear the sound like a bell instead of the tapping of a spoon." "Can I do another one now, Mom?" nope... gotta wait till next time. How's that written narration comin along, Josiah? |
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A beloved friend of ours went home leaving precious footprints in our hearts. On Monday, our family went along with the young people in our church as well as several others to see him... one last time. We all took our turn shaking his hand as he poured out his blessings to us. I will never forget his barely audible last words to me … “I’ll be waiting for you”. “I’ll be waiting for you too, Bro Herb.” was and is my reply. He gave me the sweetest smile. Each word heaved from his heart - one breath, one word - at a time. He commented on
The funeral was beautiful. The young people sang, and one of the young men recited the Psalm of Life by heart. And then our precious brother’s body was laid to rest many others that have gone on before.
A PSALM OF LIFE WHAT THE HEART OF THE YOUNG MAN TELL me not, in mournful numbers, Life is real ! Life is earnest! Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, Art is long, and Time is fleeting, In the world's broad field of battle, Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant ! Lives of great men all remind us Footprints, that perhaps another, Let us, then, be up and doing,
Till we meet, my precious friend and brother! Till we meet |
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Getting ready to take a trip to visit his family, my husband was looking for the luggage bags. He found them – freshly loaded with…lots of STUFF! There’s always a logical explanation for strange happenings around here, so the interrogation began: Ok… who did it? Melody. Why? To make a trap to catch a javelina. And WHAT is everything for???
"The goggles just in case blood gets on my eyes"
a metal bar that came off of her brother’s bb gun, to smack and smack the javelina to make its head split open,
the magnifier glass to see if there’s any bugs in it. Other items include: - a book on how to tie knots - some rope - binoculars - springs that came off our no longer existing trampoline to shut the trap - scissors - net - knife - flashlight - rags - nature book and field guide - fire starter - whistle - blade - compass - screw driver - tube - journal book to write what she did - a home made knife dart - measuring tape - Vaseline for lips and hands (of Melody, not the javelina) - Pen and construction pencil - Walkie talkies
Needless to say, the trapping event never happened, and my husband got his luggage back. Now time to put away all the gear! |
Posted in Science and Nature
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Betyr ys a byrd in the hond than tweye in the wode. [c 1470 Harley MS 3362 f.4] My bad kitty caught a bird, and I saved it just in time. I’ve been trying to identify it… but to no avail. A towhee is the closest I’ve gotten so far.
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Posted in Science and Nature
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Mr. Bill’s wife Martha was admitted into a nursing home recently leaving Bill very much alone. I continue to clean his house, though. On occasion, I take the kids and Bill to go see her. On our last visit my son took his harmonica and we sang for her – which turned out to be a blessing for the workers and other elderly people there. Unfortunately, Martha herself doesn’t recall us being there. One day, when I went to clean the house, I brought with me some photos that I had been wanting to show Bill, and some to give to him from last year when he taught the children to make quail callers. We both laughed when we came to one picture. He looks like a combination of an old Irish sailor and an old wrinkly cowboy.
One picture in particular started quite a story. It just happens to be the picture that is my profile picture which was taken going toward Strawberry,
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Posted in Science and Nature
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One of my favorite things to study is nature. I thought I would recommend an awesome book a friend recommended me. It’s called Sharing Nature with Children by Joseph Bharat Cornell. In it there are lots of wonderful activities. One idea is a Micro Hike. A Micro-hike is a very short expedition guided by a string three to five feet long. The “hikers” cover the trail inch by inch on their bellies, viewing such natural wonders as grass blades bent by rainbow dewdrops, colorful beetles sprinkled with flower pollen, and powerful-jawed eight-eyed spiders. Because young children are particularly fond of tiny objects, their intense absorption in the world of the forest-in-miniature will amaze you. Begin by asking the children to span their strings over the most interesting ground they can find. Give each child a magical magnifying glass, to shrink himself down to the size of an ant. You may want to ask them questions to stimulate their imaginations: “What kind of world are you traveling through right now? Who are your nearest neighbors? Are they friendly? Do they work hard? What is that spider going to do – eat you, or take you for a ride? What would it be like to be that metallic green beetle? How does he spend his day? At the start, tell the children that they must keep their eyes no higher than one foot above the ground. I clean houses on the side to supplement our income. There is one house in particular I really enjoy cleaning. The people are an elderly couple who love to talk about their experiences teaching. Bill Walls was an outdoor science teacher. He was telling me a story the other day of when he worked at a very strict school whose principal was the kind who felt children should be learning at their desks with their books before them which is very contrary to Bill’s way of teaching. There wasn’t much of a school yard, but right on the other side of the school property line was a corn field. Bill asked the farmer there if he could use the corn field for his class to which the farmer gladly agreed. So out to the field they went. According to the directions above, each student got down on the ground to start studying their little plots. The principal, who needed to speak with Bill, came into the empty class room. Bill described the principal wearing long sleeves, a tie, and a twitch usually in one eye. Bill said that when he saw that the students weren’t in the class, BOTH eyes started twitching. Out the open back door went the principal and found Bill standing at the edge of the corn field. “Mr. Walls, WHERE are your students!?” Bill, looked around wonderingly and replied, “Well, they WERE here just a minute ago”. “Well, where are they now? These are your students, your responsibility!!! Where are they?” his voice now beginning to crescendo. Bill was quite enjoying himself. “Hmm. Maybe the wind blew them away.” “MR. WALLS! This is not funny….” Just then, the bell rang for the students clean up and head to their next class and from the seemingly empty corn field popped all the students heads all at once! The principal grumbled, “I should have known!” and walked away. |
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Although I absolutely LOVE snow, the coming of Spring makes my heart sing for joy! Yesterday, I put out my bird feeder. This will be popular since we will be studying birds. Birds always remind me of my Grandma Eddy Joy. She loved birds and had many cages in her house filled with the little chirping critters. Some of my favorite paintings she used to paint were birds. Unfortunately I only have one bird painting which I cherish.
I've been preparing my garden once again. I use old planters I saved from plants I bought last year and vegetable cans for planters and plant seeds indoors several weeks before transplanting them outside. Right now I have broccoli, collard greens, parsley and cilantro planted… oh yes, and some lavender. As soon as I have more cans I will plant some more spring vegetables.
I plan to expand my garden this year adding an area for planting my watermelon and cantaloupe. I can hardly wait to see my garden in full fruited-bloom once again. Last fall I planted some old bulbs I bought on sale the year before but never got around to planting. Some of them are coming up.
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Inspired by a very dear friend of mine as well as my own hearts desire for a more away-from-the-desk-and-get-outside approach, I’m discovering the treasure of the Charlotte Mason method. I had never even heard of her before. But, slowly and surely we are easin' in. For a while, my mind was boggled with so much preparation and I bombarded my friend with a million questions, (just a little exaggeration) and spent many hours searching other bloggers sites as well as Ambleside Online and Simply Charlotte Mason for answers. Studying Nature was my first love. I love being outside, although I don’t do it enough. I haven’t a clue how to get started, I’m just jumpin in. However, as I look back I realize that I’ve already started. I had the children sit in the garden last fall and observe as many living creatures as possible and draw them and then try to find out what they are. They had so much fun and everyone’s turned out WONDERFULLY!
Each of my children as well as my self, have their own 3 ring colored binder. They each personalized their covers by drawing a picture and inserting into the plastic. For mine, I just inserted a cut out cover from an old planner I had. I put notebooks together with tab dividers. I found plastic insert tab dividers to be handy. Because I use a lot of plastic sheet protectors, regular dividers are too short, so they don’t stick out enough. I have a separate 3 ring binder where I printed out all the pages for the Ambleside Online Yearly booklists and schedules. This helps me to decide what material I plan to use and purchase. In my binder, I have my Weekly Schedule, 12 week checklist, a calendar printed out from www.incompetech.com, dividers for each subject I need to plan for, each child’s progress report, and a back section of School Supplies Needed list. I also purchased 5 Nature journals. I can’t wait to start!
Currently, I am working on the children’s 36 week schedule and 12 week checklists. Things have been a bit slow, but by God’s grace and help, I’m pressing on. |
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I love the snow. I was raised most of my life in the beautiful mountains of I remember one day it started snowing while I was alone in the car waiting for what seemed an eternity for my mom to come out of the store. To my surprise, as I looked closely at my coat sleeve, I saw the most beautiful shapes, the kind that you cut out of paper. They were so perfectly formed; an artist herself could not have depicted their beauty! And each one really IS different from the other - just like they say! One of my greatest anticipated Christmas wishes each year is.... can you guess? Of course! Snow! Well, it snowed up there in
There's no taste quite like it. Have you ever drizzled maple syrup and eat it with a spoon?
They were freezing, but there was no way they were going back inside
It was a little too powdery for snowmen, but the top crust made great snowballs!
Meanwhile, just inside where it's nice and toasty warm, Lydia was playing Canon in D on the beautiful Baby Grand piano in the community diningroom.
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This is why one should never put dish soap in the dishwasher. My darling Joy, bless her bubbly heart, was helping me clean up as fast as possible.... I can't remember why we were in such a hurry, but anyway.... After she was finished she left the kitchen. After a little while I came in and this is what I saw...
It took some time to flush out all the bubbles. But now we have a squeaky clean dishwasher. As if it wasn't anyway. Coincidentally, (I THINK) a couple days later we kept smelling something..... dead. Our sweet little kitty told me what it was. A mouse. So, right before I left to visit my mom for Christmas, my husband unscrewed the bolts to the dishwasher, unhooked the pipes and hoses, pulled it out, and scraped up said foul-smelling mouse. YUK! Then we scrubbed and disinfected the floor and surrounding area and replaced all the parts. AH! Feels great to know it's clean under there. |
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This month's blog tip challenge is to write about something I received (or gave) that was special and why. As soon as I opened my gift, I knew I HAD to blog about it. That was even before I knew about the challenge. I took the little squishy package home that my friend had snuck into my car when I wasn't looking - along with some other much bigger packages for my children. I'm usually pretty good about not shaking, feeling.... trying to figure out what treasure lies beyond the paper. But... not this time. I read the little note written on a folded scrap of wrapping paper, "Joanie (she spelled my name wrong), This was a reminder of when we were little and you always had this. We'll I'm not jealous anymore. I love you. Jen. " I knew immediately that it had something to do with Hello Kitty. At that point, I waited "patiently" a couple more days. Jen called. She's just as much of a kid as I am - much to my child hearted relief! "You have to open it NOW! I gotta "see" your reaction!" So... I did. And sure enough, it was a little stuffed Hello Kitty doll. A cheap gift one might think. Not to me. My growing up years were pretty rough. I had very little in my life: little family little money and little love. But.... when I was a teen, the little kids loved me for some reason. I loved them, too, and they knew it. Jenny was a little kid back then. Until Jenny moved to another town, she used to come over to my place once in a while and go through and admire my things. I had no idea she coveted the little Hello Kitty set I had. I don't even remember what all was included in the set. Had I known, I would have given it to her. That's just how I was. I would give anything I had to someone if they would just be my friend. During those years that Jenny would come over and even beyond, I had some very stormy times in my life that I didn't understand. There was a lot of memories I had swept under the rug or simply walked away from never intending to remember them again. Until now. As I hold this... Hello Kitty in my hand, I remember. It's been an emotional battle the past few weeks. I don't want to remember. But somehow I feel that my Lord WANTS me to remember. He wants me to see where He's brought me from and where I am today. He gave me something that neither money nor family nor anything earthly can buy. He gave me His grace to love even the hardest crusted hearts that cover and hide the broken, torn and loneliness inside. He gave me the ability to forgive even the mean girl at school named... would you believe? ....Kitty..... who picked on me mercilessly daily. And although I don't fully understand some of the things I went through, I can see what the Lord has done in my life and oh, how I thank Him for it! Could I have possibly been able to appreciate the love and friendship of those that are in my life today, had I not gone through those... Hello Kitty days? I don't think so. So... as I fold the little handwritten note Jenny wrote on a scrap peice of wrapping paper and tuck it under the Hello Kitty dress, I thank my Lord and Savior for all the battles and by faith believe that as the memories continue to come, I find peace and joy in the love of Jesus.
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Our Thanksgiving this year was filled to the brim with people and I loved every minute! I grew up in a VERY small family; A family of two. I always wanted a big family. Well, I married a man who is the youngest of 11 children. Unfortunately, none of them live close to us. But… the Lord blessed us with His family! First we had a little Mexican family from our church over, plus my buddy down the road and one of her daughters and also my Mom came down. Then, after we had our Turkey Dinner, we headed up to a near-by town (about a 45 minute drive) to some more close friend’s of ours house for dessert, fellowship, and singing. My oldest daughter, my son and I played our instruments. Then, we brought home with us another BIG family from farther south of us (about a 3-4 hour drive) a family of 8. It was very interesting figuring out sleeping arrangements as our little house is… well…. little. But we managed pretty well. The next day, Friday, we all (15 of us) squished into their 12 passenger van (shh… don’t tell anyone) and went to Montezuma's Well and then on to Sedona to window shop and eat and be "tourists" for a couple hours. Then we went to Saturday, all the guys, including my hubby and son, all the guys that were at our house, as well as the birthday girl’s dad and brothers, uncles, cousins… they all left early to meet up together to escape the girly birthday party…. I mean, to go wood cutting. J They had quite a loggers party! Us ladies beautified ourselves and decked out in green and pink for for the party since it was a green and pink party and headed over. I had so much fun being a kid again. I didn't get to be a kid long enough you know. J After the party was over and we were waiting for the guys to come back, I made dinner. I had brought everything that I had intended to make for our company the night before: rice, beans, green mole, and tortillas. But since we went out to eat and stuffed ourselves, no one was hungry by the time we got home. My friend’s sisters helped make Albondiga soup (since we all knew that what I made wasn't going to be enough) and another friend made homemade flour tortillas, which I hope to duplicate... they are sooo good! Mom stayed at our house while we were at the party. I guess she needed a break, plus she wasn't feeling that great. After we fed all the hungry lumberjacks (and I mean HUNGRY!!!! - there wasn't a drop of food left by the time we got done! In fact, we started raiding the fridge for more to feed them!) Then, our friends from the south headed back to their house and we headed home. Sunday school next day... we finished up a craft project we'd been working on; a yarn rainbow with the scripture, "I do set my bow in the cloud and it shall be for a token of the covenant between me and the earth". The service that day was tremendously WONDERFUL!!! I am still reflecting on it. After church, we went home and ate turkey leftovers. Mom went home and we watched a dvd mom had left for us to watch from the Hold yer hat’s, ‘cause we’re still goin. Then… later I had gotten my son to bed… then Grace …and just as I was heading youngest into the bathroom (all droopy like a noodle) so she could go potty before going to bed, my husband hollered at me that Grace was throwing up! So, I practically threw said poor droopy noodle back on my bed and ... oh well, you don't want to know the details. But let's just say… I was up ALL night with her. I camped out in the living room - which is where she generally sleeps (on the couch) because she refuses to sleep with her younger sister 'cause she grinds her teeth at night and the room stinks and ... and... she's very sensitive! So anyway... that was our holiday. Now I caught what Grace had, but reflecting on the wonderful time we had, I don't remember a bigger Thanksgiving in my entire life!!! It was great! Sorry I didn’t get any pics this time. My photo card is full – I guess I’m kinda trigger happy J hahaha. You can see a few pics if you go to timbuck2mom’s blog. |
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First, we picked out fifteen different colors of construction paper, put them together and punched holes in them. Then, Grace laced yarn through the holes. I made a small booklet for each letter of the alphabet with some notebook paper stapled inside. Grace would tell me everything she could think of that began with that letter sound. I was the scribe. Then, she glued the booklet into her book. Next, using a book called ABC’s for Preschoolers from the Me too school! Series, Grace colored and cut out the letter we were working on and glued that in her book. Now, the fun part! We would go on a treasure hunt through magazines, pictures or things around the house that began with that letter. Some of my favorites were: a Sunflower Seed, a Band-aid, a feather, Toothpicks made in the shape of a Triangle. Also for the letter “G” she used a picture of herself. We used pictures of pets and other family members. Sometimes she would draw a picture of something or color one. It was a lot of fun.
The "L" page is Grace's favorite page. She said that it's her favorite because she liked what she picked out for that letter... especially the lion and the lamb (the lamb is squished between the lighthouse and the lamp. The following two pictures are my favorite pages. Notice the eggshell elephant. I especially like her creativity drawing dirt, "planting" her sunflower seed, and drawing a picture of the sunflower.
feather, felt fish, foil-framed fox...
seven stars, stamp, squiggle, school, scripture from Song of Solomon... train on a train-track trim, tissue tipi, two trees inside a toothpick triangle, torah, Great job Grace!!! |
My Grace just finally finished her scrapbook of sounds.
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We’ve waited a whole year! It hardly seems possible that our yearly camping trip came and went. But what an eventful time we had. Ok, even though three in our family put in for a cow elk tag and none of us got drawn, I still think this was the best camping year for fellowship we ever had! My mom even came… first time! YEAH!!! It was such a blessing for her as well. It was a VERY eventful time. Did I already say that? On opening day, five hunters tagged out! We were surrounded by “controlled” burns so at night I was smothered to death with smoke. We played lots of games (even though I never DID get to play Dutch Blitz), some of "us" got lock jaw from blabbing too much. One of my friends had a great idea for the girls to make a nature sign using leaves, twigs, and etc. Although the whole camp was a great experience, I especially treasure the time from Sunday on. Sunday service was TREMENDOUSLY WOUNDERFUL! Our speaker talked about “Taking the Punch” – when someone says something to you that is offensive, can you take the punch? Or do you stick your nose in the air and say, “I’m taking the punch. I kept my mouth shut…. In fact…. It’s been two weeks and I’m STILL keeping my mouth shut (the silent treatment)”. The kids are still punching each other. Some of the girls dressed in pioneer dresses for fun Sunday night, I was getting ready for bed and heard some strange "music". I opened the door... cautiously... and we hear.... The boys were "sleeping" in the big white outfitters tent and the girls including two of my girls were "sleeping" in a little tent next to the big one. They were all having what my eldest daughter calls a ‘singing battle’. The boys were singing one song as loud as they could and the girls were singing another song as loud as THEY could. My favorite part was when all of them were singing "I Shall Not Be Moved" at the same time and after each phrase, “I shall not be moved”, the girls echoed, "Just try and move me". Well, the girls were getting’ a little weak and I just couldn't stand it. So... into the girl’s tent I went to help out. (The boys are still talking about how unfair that was) I'm still such a kid! I'm not sure, but I think the battle helped the so-called "controlled" burns get out of hand. After I had gone back to my headquarters, (our trailer) I heard one of the boys announce that a tree was on fire! Sure enough, it was quite a sight! I wish I had gotten a picture of the whole thing. I got Army, my hubby, out of bed and away we went on our trepid mission to save the forest! Army (the trigger-happy hero) had to cut down the tree with his trusty chain saw so it wouldn't catch the other trees on fire – a selfless act that the firefighters probably wouldn’t have let him do. |
The barefooted boys ran back to find shovels to shovel dirt on the said fallen pine... my job was to shine the light.... hey! I like that one! and to help drag the branches out of the road. Actually, I thought we were doing that so the branches wouldn't burn. After a very restless night, waking up every time a huge gust of wind blew, shaking our trailer sideways, (well, it felt like it anyway) and looking out the window to make sure the fires were all under “control” it was finally the next day.