We've had a few photographic opportunities here recently
First, Myles went out to photograph the burning off the flax on the field around us. The straw from the flax is good for building houses, but not much else. They can't till it back into the soil efficiently, so they burn it off. Fall skies are filled with smoke on windless days, and often the night is brightened by the lights of fires in the distance.
And then there was the deer. Jim, Trent's mentor, shot a deer and brought it to us. We hung it out in the Sukkah and skinned it, and in the morning, Myles went out and cut it into sections for me to butcher into meal sized pieces. Myles then took the hide and prepared it for tanning.
Snack time for the puppies, after I've taken all I can from the bones
So much meat..
There is an old method of tanning hides using the brain, and so this is why Myles is after the brain from this deer skull
I was trying to think of something for Myles to do as a research project, you know the kind of thing where he'd have to look things up, read something, and then put it into practice.
I suggested fire twirling. Silly me, little did I know that the boys already had some knowledge on the subject. The next night there was chain and rag and gasoline and FIRE... and away they went. My heart was in my throat as I watched that chain get tangled around him and the fireball come careening towards him.. but he got himself out of the snag and kept the fireball spinning...
That first one wasn't captured on video, but here is the second and subsequent efforts.
It's amazing how "play" changes as these kids grow up. Myles version of playing in the snow consists of Snowboarding and Photography. Thursday he went snowboarding. Today he took these.
In today's libraries they have what are known as "Graphic Novels". They are classic literature put in comic book form for young people to read, especially young boys who struggle with the attention it takes to read a book with few pictures.
Myles has been moping around here for the last few days. He's been banned from the computer for a few days. He found that making a certain phone call was exciting, but you can't talk on the phone all day. So I've been trying to get him to find something to do. Stupidly, I suggested he read a book. I might as well have been talking to the wall.
I did however suggest he go through Stuart's boxes of comic books and see if there was something to read. I don't know what's in those boxes, I don't know if the material is questionable or not - probably is.
Anyhow, I googled Christian Comic Pages and came up with this:
Myles says he's going to buy a camera... until then, he's using Trent's.
This is how Myles sees the world.
He went out for a good hour today snapping pictures. He hadn't finished his academics yet, but I told him if he showed me his photos, I'd count that as academic time, if he didn't, it would be counted as idle time and considering he hadn't finished his academics yet - BAD BEHAVIOUR.. lol
I got to see them, and these are my favourites from the bunch
Here's what Trent and Myles did at work yesterday...
Trent did this last year as a newbie.. now it's Myles turn..
Actually, see those stacks behind Myles, well in there is all the honey they have to collect.. Notice the two middle ones are blue.. they take the top blue one, and the two white ones above that.. those will be full of honey. They smoke the bees so they get sleepy, and then brush all the bees out of those top 3 boxes, and leave them in the bottom 3. Then they replace the stack with two or three new boxes which have frames on them. The bees will then move into the boxes and make more honey - to be collected in about 2 weeks.
The boxes they took will be full of honey, so the boxes weigh 50 to 80 pounds. The boys loaded them into trucks to haul back to the honey house. Today they'll be harvesting again at different locations. There are 300 different colonies.
Yes, Myles did get stung.. not when he got the honey glove, but later.. he got 8 stings.. 3 on the same finger - it's pretty swollen. Trent got stung 4 times. They really like their job though.
Remember last fall, Myles spent a few weeks hanging out with the farmers who farm around our acreage? Well, tonight he hung out with him again on the tractor while they harrowed the land. They're seeding too, so maybe tomorrow... or Monday.. he'll get an opportunity to go seeding.
My education however is a little slow. I'm not learning fast enough that HarKelev is a constant threat to my chicks. She got into the pen again tonight - I left the door open... sigh - and she filled her tummy with another two of my baby birds.. ARGH. Ever heard of easy pickings? It doesn't get any easier than to jump a bale of straw and snap up a little chicken snack!. This mama has to learn to be more careful! I went in to feed them but forgot to lock the door.
I am Sombra, and these are the stories from our house. We're a Messianic family where academics often take a back seat to the work and adventure of life.
