Paray Summer Visit

It's that most wonderful time of the year again.  The Parays come to visit!

Things were a little busy getting ready for their visit this year.  Their flight was coming in the afternoon and before they landed we had to fumigate the house for fleas (our first out-break ever) and buy a new car, hereby known as "The Beast".

As a sign of the blessing on their arrival, we finally got some much needed rain.  As we circled the airport waiting for them to unload, I got some pics of a double rainbow.  According to my kids a few too many stops for pictures (I was bit hyper and excited about my friends arrival).

With our precious cargo loaded, we headed home to renew our friendships and correspondingly our hearts.  That's really what these trips are all about.

Wednesday, the kids talked and played, Mae and I talked and we finished off the day at the pool.

Thursday was much of the same; with the addition of Sargent Mae getting me out for a long walk and the traditional dinner at Corbett's.

Friday came too soon.   I did my best to keep them here (I mis-booked their flights to leave in September UGH) but alas all things must come to an end and we managed to get them on the right flight.  I was so busy soaking it all in I forgot to take a group picture but we'll do that next time.  We all can't wait till their next trip!

Breakfast and Cannons

I've been wanting to reclaim the Sabbath for a very long time.  Today we finally started a new tradition to do just that.  Sundays are now all about family, no chores, no work.  I make a french toast bake the night before, so I don't even have to cook.  It was a yummy way to start our day.

For the family fun part of the day we decided to go to a revolutionary war reenactment at "House on the Horseshoe".  We'd ALL been wanting to go to a reenactment for a long time and we weren't disappointed.  

They had a fashion show.

Reenactors in both camps to discuss matter and materials of the times.

A cannon firing.

And of course the reenactment of the skirmish that occurred (really a personal vendetta) on the property in 1781. 

As a bonus, we picked up some neat history books, muslin bags for a loose leaf tea, and the best tasting goat cheese we've ever had.  As a double bonus we found essential oil product that actually cured Lance of a vertigo attack he had on the way.  That makes for one extremely productive Sabbath (Is that a contradiction?).

Dance = Cats

The deal was. when Amber was potty trained she could take dance lessons. I figured the cost of diapers equaled the cost of lessons, so it was a push. Unfortunately, she chose end of May when the dance studios were breaking for the summer (and her brothers had three baseball games) to be potty trained.

This week, I was finally able to honor my end of the bargain, Amber took a dance camp (one hour a day for a week). The first day of camp she actual beamed she was so happy. 

Tuesday, she was so happy to be the line leader and sit next to her teacher.

Each day she came home telling her "boys" in a very articulate manner all the fun she'd had at class that day.  She really liked the parachute day.

On Thursday, we brought home more than tales, in fact we brought home two tails.

When I arrived at class the talk among the moms and teachers was two black kittens that had been dumped at the studio. One lady was adamant that she was going to take them to SPCA after class but she knew they had little chance of adoption because they were solid black and people are superstitious of solid black cats. This had me thinking. Chris and I had talked about getting a feral cat to eat our voles but it had always been tongue in cheek since we're both allergic.  So I decided I'd let Chris be the bad guy, I texted him asking if I could bring home the cats. He was suppose to say "no" then I would have tried and he was the bad guy.  However, instead of "no" I got "sure".  I responded "seriously" and he said "the more the merrier, they can kill the copperheads".  So I told the lady we'd take them. I still figured they would disappear before the end of class.

When class was over they seemed to be gone. I was off the hook, that was until the other mom found them. She helped me put them in back of car (where they stayed for about two seconds), then Amber gathered one in her arms and he stayed in her lap the whole ride home.  That's pretty much where he's been ever since.  Amber named him "Chomper" and has claimed him as hers.  Titus claimed the other cat and named him "Hunter".  Chris and I marvel at how friendly and tolerant these two cats are. With the way Amber throws them around like rag dolls, we've even wondered if they're Angels with how well they tolerate her "loving".
   

We told the kids that they were just "visitors" and they may not be here in the morning.  In fact early the first morning we were afraid they were gone.  Then Chris came in with a big smile.  He'd found them.  They'd spent the night in the maple tree out front. We've had no problems finding them ever since.  They have definitely adopted our family.

Back to Amber's dance class.  On the last day of camp they had an informal show.  Amber who had not hesitated going into class all week, was not interested in entering on Friday.  No convincing on her parents or brothers parts was going to get her to dance.  Then a little girl from her class came up to her and asked her to come dance.  The switch was triggered, the smile appeared and she danced the rest of the class.  In fact, she then became the encourager when another girl refused to join she went over and encouraged her to dance saying in a booming voice "Come On!".  Oh, the power of a kind word.

She was graceful, athletic and surprisingly listened very well the whole week.  We will definitely be continuing dance lessons in the fall and she can't wait!

Other People's Farms

Saturday, we joined the Homeschool Master Gardening Club on a field trip to a local urban farm.  The family specialized in peppers and tomatoes - lots of peppers and tomatoes!  They also had quite the advanced set up for watering them all with rain barrels.  Chris had a long discussion with the owner about his set-up; Chris really wants to expand our current collection system.  Kids liked the chickens and the swings the most.  I appreciated how they used the chickens to turn their compost pile, and how they used an old plastic playhouse in their run (wish we hadn't donated ours last year).  After, we went to check out a Food Co-op run by a homeschool family.  As I am getting more and more into making bread I really need to buy in bulk to make the most out of the cost savings.

Saturday, was a very informative day but we were constantly reminded that it had one major flaw, there had been no goats.  Amber was determined that all farms have goats and therefore we should have seen them yesterday.  As of Sunday morning she still wasn't over the disappointment so we decided we'd best go find some goats to see and pet.

Thankfully, I knew just the place "Historic Oak View Park".  They have the cutest Nubian goats there and a great interactive play area.  The boys had been wanting to fish and as they had a fishing pond I figured we could incorporate the wishes of everyone.

The park turned out to be a huge success.  Sarge came to life (first time in a long time), the goats really got him going, it was hysterical.  Amber, who loves goats to begin with, quite enjoyed her dogs positive reaction to them as well.  The boys all got some bites but Jared ended up the with only catch.  In fact, it was his first time catching a fish!  Mission Accomplished!

Farm Weekend

We started the weekend with a tour arranged by the Homeschool Gardening Club of a local urban farm.  They had chickens an abundance of peppers and tomatoes they can and most impressively a serious rain water collection system.  Chris took notes on the later to replicate at our farm.

Amber was a little disappointed there weren't any goats at the farm on Saturday, so we decided to fulfill her need for goats by going to Oak View farm on Sunday.  We brought the dog and the boys brought their fishing gear, creating a recipe of fun.

As it turned out, Jared caught his first fish, and Titus had a couple good bites.  Amber tried for a bit but her focus was on seeing the goats, so off she and I went.

We were much amused at how excited Sarge was at seeing the goats.

The girl got to pet the goats and then buzz around a bit in the education center while the boys finished fishing.  Then back home to OFF for some pullet cuddle time.

Art Camp Downtown

I had signed Jared and Titus up for two different classes week long art classes, but as it worked out they ended up combining them into one class.  Today was the final day and show.  The boys had a great time painting and working with clay.

Worms - The lastest addition to OFF

OFF is the "Otto Family Farm", though some prefer to call it "Ottoville Gardens", we'll leave that debate for another day.

Ever since going to a Vermicompost lecture early in the summer I've been wanting to start my own.  We had the notes, Grandpa Harv had gotten the containers a while ago, the problem was getting the worms.  The two people who were suppose to sell them locally, were no longer doing so.  Eventually, I just decided to buy them online from "Uncle Jim".

They arrived today.  We decided to start with two bins; 1000 worms each.  Kids and I put them together after dinner.  Here's hoping for lots of "black gold" for our garden (and no run-away worms).

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Lots of Bulls

The Durham Bulls that is....

Lance's baseball team had one more activity together on July 11th, Team Night with the Durham Bulls.  The team assembled on the field and each member was assigned to a different player.  Lance was to the pitcher and got to stand center field next to the pitcher mound for the national anthem.  The boys came home very excited, Chris in particular.  Chris came home with a bruise and a ball after successfully diving for a fly ball in the stands.

Then on July 19th Chris and the boys attended another game because Jared really wanted to see the PawSox play.  (They had found out about them going at their last game during the fireworks.)  They must be a good luck charm for the Bulls as they have yet to loose a game they've attended.  It is a beautiful stadium and an easy drive.  For my baseball loving crew its a temptation impossible to turn down.

More is Better. Right?

Since we had been done building Castle Coop for a whole two weeks, we apparently felt we needed more to do with our lives because the weekend we went and bought seven more chickens.  Well, were not actually that crazy, the state is.  The state is banning the sale of chickens starting August 15th so we decided we'd better get some more before that takes effect.

This time we our criteria wasn't pets to learn with but more practical.  We wanted the best egg layers we could find, that weren't aggressive or broody.  The kids and I went on a recon mission Friday, July 10th to see what chicks were available from Urban Chicken.  I sent Chris pics and we almost left with all of the them, they were so cute.  However, reason won the day and Chris told me to come home and we would go back this weekend after doing our research.

Part of the research involved deciding if we had enough room.  The conclusion was that the castle/house inside Castle Coop would need to be expanded but the coop would suffice for up to 14 chickens.

So back we went on Sunday to pick up 4 more chickens.  We chose the Sexlink/Golden Comets for their temperament, and industrial egg production (They basically lay one extra large egg a day for three years and die.)  We explained to the boys these are our working chickens and not our pets.

We left with seven chicks, why not right and they were quickly named Monday - Sunday.  We never got into "Chicken TV" with the Brahmas but these chicks have had everyone out on the porch throughout the day watching them ever since they arrived.

UPDATE:  The guinea pig cage we bought to house them in for the first four weeks till they were old enough to join the flock, was outgrown in two weeks.  So to avoid the $60 egg we decided to re-purpose Sarge's cage.

I've started calling them our velociraptors.  The other day I caught a robber fly in a clay pot while they were free ranging.  I had Lance bring one over, we lifted the pot so she could see and she quickly stabbed in once in the pot, it flew a few feet and she finished it off in the grass.  Then began the game of "chicken football".  It's so much fun to give them a choice treat and watch them run around trying to keep it to themselves/away from their flock mates.

To expand the house we've decided to add two wings, turn the perches 90 degrees allowing room for two more perches and a side door into the house.  We have just enough left over lumber and paint to complete the job, now we just need time to do it before they out grow Sarge's cage.

Catchy Field Trip Day

I'd been meaning to take the kids to the NC Museum of Natural Science to do some drawing, been meaning to check out the NC History Museum across the way and I'd been meaning to stop by the chocolate factory downtown to pick up their free cocoa bean shells to use in the garden for a very long time. 

Always an over achiever I decided to catch up on all that... today.   Amazingly, not only did we do it all we all had an absolutely marvelous time. 

I told the boys in the morning that if they finished all their school work before 1pm we'd go to museum to draw.   Motivation is a great thing, we were out the door at 12:45pm.

My plan was to spend an hour at the natural science museum drawing and then an hour at the history museum drawing. 

The first part of my plan worked out.  We went to the second floor, where I felt the greatest variety of subjects for drawing existed, got out our tools and began to draw. Amber stayed with me and the boys spread out and we all drew, even me.

After a while everyone gathered together ready to move on when Titus spotted the special exhibit sign. I didn't want to pay money to see the special exhibit (the museum is free) and I said so, but Titus pointed out "This one is free!".  Apparently a generous patron had covered the cost. With my objection nullified into the "Dig It" exhibit we went.

It turned out to be a really neat exhibit. They had core samples from every state, neat hands on exhibit illustrating how water moved through the three main soil types, a cute entertaining detective show and best of all the Kinetic sand table with an interactive topography laser mapping.

The boys shared the table for a bit with other kids.  Once they had it all to themselves I sat down because who wouldn't want to play with that for a long time (I even took a turn for a bit). 

However, that did take a large chunk of our allotted time so I suggested doing the History Museum another day but the kids still wanted to check it out.

As the trend continued, I was glad we did.  The museum was much more impressive than I expected. We planned to just run through and see the Wright Brothers plane (full scale model) but ends up lingering a bit.  I was taken in by the signs that said "Please Touch".  Wow! A museum actually made for kids to visit!  The boys even sat down to watch the video about he NC involvement in the Revolutionary War.  The Museum is laid out as a twisting timeline of history so the Revolutionary War seemed a good place to stop.  We ran ahead through time to see the plane but we'll be back again soon!

That was more than enough activity for one day but we still had one more stop downtown.  This too went well.  We managed to get four free bags of Cocoa Bean shells for the garden.  Well, not really free as we ended up buying some samples of their chocolate but everyone had been so good I couldn't resist.  That was the end to our "Catchy Field Trip Day".

Bayer Bee Care Center - Field Trip

We started off with a good laugh today.  We could have been frustrated but we try to laugh when negative emotions come to surface.  You see we were actually going to be a little better than on-time to our field trip today when Siri tells us "Turn left and arrived at your destination".  Problem was all there was for miles on the left was forest.  Ooops.  So we pulled into a business on the right and opened up a different Direction program on my phone, yelling silly at the phone, we found out we were 7 miles down the road from our destination but the kids liked the silly yelling and the road was 55mph so we still arrived on-time.

 
First, we had to check in at the security station at the Bayer Corporate offices, all those drug patents are closely guarded.  Once checked in we drove in circles looking for a parking space only to end up all the back at the security center to park.  It was one of those mornings, but we had plenty of company both getting lost and touring the parking lot.

The center was located in a beautiful modern style building.  Our guide was great with our large group of kids, keeping them engaged and interested.  We began with a short saftey video and then a tour of facility where we learned about native bees vs. imported European Bees.

Then about what was being done to combat the virus infesting hives across North America.  On a good note she dispelled the myth that bee populations are declining across the country, on a bad note they have yet to find a hive not infected with the virus.

Lastly, we went out on a screen porch where she showed us a working hive up close and personal.  I asked if the Top Bar Hives had a lesser incident of the virus since they were suppose to be more natural and therefore less stressful.  She caught herself before speaking too negatively about the Top Bar Hives (sort of funny) and just said they produce less honey.  I guess we'll just have to try things out of ourselves, adding bees to our farm is our project this summer.  I like the rhetoric on the Top Bar Hives as being healthier for the bees, since our main concern is pollination, production takes a back seat to me.  I need to find a way to keep the hive healthy without the well meaning Bayer products.  I do so if for no other reason than buying them would make the project cost prohibitive and not meet our goal of self-sustaining, but more on our gardening philosophy in another post.