Wrestling Class

Our Home School PE class has been learning the sport of wrestling. Doing warm-ups before battle.

Oh yea, have to learn some moves and tactics first.

Our coach is 84 years old! He is incredible! 

K8 battled his big brother and was saved from a "pin" as time ran out.

Random shots from last week

First indoor shot with my new camera, a Canon PowerShot SX150IS.

First outdoor shot with camera.

K7 at trumpet practice - which has helped him improve greatly over the last six months

K7 feeding K4's baby boy. She came up with her three youngest children to help during KT's child birth. All three boys were a big help taking care of their  two nephews and niece - playing out side, playing inside, and feeding. Not sure they did any diaper changing. 

K7 slept on couch in my room while we had so many guests in the house.

We took Sandie for a check-up at the veterinary clinic where K7 works as an intern once a week.

I'm not sure he will end up becoming a vet if he can't handle yellow water coming out the tail end of a cow. She wasn't even close. I keep reminding him that he needs to wear long pants and boots when working with animals. But he does have quick reflexives.

New bees, and beekeeper

K8 has decided to join me in raising bees. We bought a "Nuc" last week - an already started mini-hive with a queen and her bees with 4 frames of wax, brood, and honey. He has his own gloves, veil, and smoker.

Wish we had thought to take pictures sooner, but we had already moved the frames and bees out of the little Nuc box and into their new home. K8 was fascinated with the bees, and worried about all the bees left in the Nuc box. Not to worry, they will smell their queen, and fly into their new home.

I told him to keep the Nuc box in case he catches a swarm of bees next spring. We can keep them temporarily in this little box.

We'll add another box on top of the first one in a few weeks.

We also needed to open up the big hive...

...so I could remove the queen excluder (the wire grill covered with worker bees). I have decided to let the queen have total run of her hive in which to lay brood (eggs for replacement bees - bees only live for 21 days and then die, so the queen spends her 3 to 4 year life span laying eggs to replace her workers).

This is what was under the excluder. Happy bees roaming all over frames that hold brood and honey.

At this moment, K8 was stung by a bee that got inside his shirt and under his veil. He took this last shot before retreating. No, he is not giving up on bee keeping. He was laughing about it when I caught up with him soon afterward. All the bees on the excluder will return back to the hive.

New farm hand arrives

I took KT to her midwife's appointment a week ago Monday.

Not sure what she was measuring, but she had fun.

Just to prove how high tech and scientific everything was, here is KT checking the results from one of her tests.

The perfect belly according to her midwife. We'll see you next Monday.

Or maybe sooner. KT went into labor late Friday night, and after two days of labor with the wee baby not rotating into the proper position (and a lot of prayers from a lot of good folks), opted to head for the hospital where Mom works.

Fortunately, all those prayers were answered with the safe arrival of this handsome little guy about 2:45 A.M. Monday morning.

New Mom and Dad brought baby home Monday night for a late supper of lasagna. Everyone now resting and doing quite well. So, the big question - are we going to do it again this time next year? (The baby that is...we already know we want Mom's homemade lasagna more often).

Final curtain call for the play, "Auditioning a Ghost"

This was the final weekend performance of this great show! K8 performed as the "Furious Child" ghost in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's odd-ball ghost story. Mom was the lead actress and had to speak with an English accent. 

K6 was the "Decaying Corpse" ghost, and got tons of laughs. Mom's rich snobbish character was in a drug induced trance while she received a parade of various ghosts, at the end of which she picks one to haunt her castle.

Mom and her "daughter" are happy with the female ghost she selected while her "husband" (on couch) and "butler" (behind the couch), who previously did not believe in ghosts, are terrified. 

Final show. Great cast and crew.

NRA National Convention

K7 and I took a little road trip last Friday to St Louis. Oh my goodness! The proverbial "kids in a candy shop". It was gun heaven.

Every manufacturer brought every gun they make, and K7 picked up most of them.

I prefer pistols made by Sig, Colt, and Heckler & Koch, but we spent hours looking at a wide variety of other "stuff". Next year's show is in Houston, TX. K7 and I are already saving our pennies and planning our trip.

WWF Homeschool

Our homeschool PE class recently started teaching wrestling. K8 is in blue striped shirt.

Our girls also wrestled.

Our wrestling coach is 84 year olds - definitely "old school". He leads the kids in calisthenics, and demonstrates how to properly roll and tumble on the mat. He can't jump over tall buildings and bullets won't bounce off him, but I think he is the real Superman.

Each pair grappled for 70 seconds. There were very few "pins", but lots of adrenaline, cheers and laughs. No injuries. Can't wait until we add boxing next year...

Hair of the Dog

Dandy with her winter coat, headed to the barbershop for dogs.

The new Dandy. I should have made one big pile of her shorn coat - it was a lot of hair.

Into the tub.

Her first bath since last May or June. 

She was so clean and smelled so good, I let her in the house for a while.

Pics from last 2 weeks

My camera was lost for almost 2 weeks, but it was found in a certain boy's dresser drawer in the basement. 

One of my favorite stores.

Another frequent place to shop - the Feed Store.