Our Own Private Park

John has worked so hard on our hill. This area used to be impassible,  and impossible to see through.

Autumn

I am loving all the color this season brings!

Neighbor's goofy dog

Purple.  The leaves are actually purple!

Love that pop of orange on the hill behind our house.  John is working in the backyard today, improving our fire pit.  He's in the photo somewhere--bonus points if you find him!

And, these two squirrels having fun during lunch time in our "school house."

Science for a Second Grader

This month we are studying plants.  Today's subject was leaves.

John's job was to take Luci into the yard and find some leaves for us to study.  We have this nifty microscope thingy that hooks up to the computer.  You can capture a picture of what you see through the microscope.  Here are some shots of the backs of a few of the leaves:

I'm sorry I can't recall which leaf is which--they were not labeled as John took them.  The fuzziness of the center photo amazes me.  The leaf did not look fuzzy at all.  The leaf on the bottom reminds me of flying over cities, seeing the neighborhoods below.  The stems look like freeways!

We talked about what leaves do (make food for the plant) and what happens when they quit making food,  turn colors, and then fall off of the trees.  Luci knew exactly what that part is called...Retirement!

New Addition to the House...well, sort of

Plans were drawn up today for Luci's playhouse/tree house. John did the main work but Luci added what she sees as an important part. She says this is a No JT Zone "because he will play too rough and break it up."

Then they went scouting for a tree...
and marked it, Luci-style.

Thirty Days of Thanks...

I am thankful for traditions, this one in particular. Every day in November, each person here (even visitors) writes down something he is thankful for and dates and signs the leaf. Every day is something different--you can't say the same thing twice (and for the boys, they can only list one video game all month). Then it's added to our tree. The tree is on our pantry door, affixed with velcro on the inside of the door. We use sticky-tak stuff to stick the leaves on, so we can remove them, save our favorites, and use the tree again next year. This tree has about 40 leaves on it. Imagine how crowded with blessings it will be by Thanksgiving!

Warm Enough for Popsicles!

It's 73* as I write this--it was absolutely gorgeous today! I even found all natural Popsicles that are made by a national, mainstream company--Popsicles by Unilever. They are so good. It's nice being able to get a real Popsicle, instead of one of my home-made ones.

Luci the Giant. I was trying to take a photo of one of the blooming weeds (oops--I mean "wildflowers") in our yard.

At YMCA, waiting for the military support group meeting to end.

Red Maple seeds, on a tree in our backyard. This website, run by Vanderbilt University, calls the seeds "fruits"--two seeded-samaras. I didn't know the seeds were fruits. I learned something today. You can drive down the country lanes here and see trees with red somethings (turns out they are samaras). Just growing wild. Since I grew up out West, with little precipitation and few deciduous trees, the trees and the changes every season here are amazing for me to watch.

Tree Removal

We had 4 trees removed this week. Three were leaning, and a fourth was a little tree too close to the house. So now we get to choose the type and placement of some new trees. Right in time for a unit study on plants! Good timing. Weaver Curriculum, Volume IV, chapter 3.

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Luci was fascinated by all the work. She has on her headphones.

The tree stump here with the big dead spot was the tree that was the most dangerous. It was at least 50 feet tall (I'm sure it was bigger but I do not judge heights well), and very close to the power lines. It would have certainly hit the house if it managed to miss the power lines had it fallen on its own.

This is that dead tree. Taken from the front porch. It was much taller than what this photo shows. If you look closely, you can see the man leaning out of the bucket with his chainsaw. This is the same guy who took out trees at our old house when John was on his last trip to Af ghan istan. Fascinating for Luci!

What We Are Doing Today

Honoring our heroes. . .John's getting a pecan pie from me, the boys are playing Army in the backyard, and Luci's being Luci, playing dolls with Daddy. Luci's way of playing with her dollhouse depends upon with whom she is playing--Mommy or Daddy. With Mommy, she plays the whole Cinderella story, and we must try the slipper on every female doll within sight. When Luci plays with Daddy, the dolls climb onto the roof and try to catch the baby before she falls off. The differences in her playing styles had me laughing!Today we are adding to our Thankful Tree. It's a tradition every year. Luci is really enjoying doing this. She tells me every day something that makes her happy, and she signs her name. The boys were not signing their names at age 4, so that is another thing I am thankful for. We save the leaves every year.

And, we are enjoying our Christmas tree. The kids put it up last night. We were going to wait until after Thanksgiving, after John's trip started. John said the month was too busy already to have an early Christmas. But the kids really want Christmas with Daddy (or maybe they just want the presents), so the tree's up.

The rest of the decorations can wait until December. Diane (mom to Bradley and Rachel, and friend to me) has volunteered to babysit for John and me so we can go Christmas shopping the Saturday before Thanksgiving. We may make that a real date for us, too. It'll be a special day, certainly.

Trees, Trees, Trees

John ordered some trees recently. He was home Sunday afternoon, so that's when we put them in. After living in the woods for so many years, being out here on this nice lot seems so bare. There are trees here, but it is definitely not the woods. Here are some shots from Sunday. There was a nice, soft rain falling--not much, but enough to make you really damp. I tried to make this a family affair...that means I dragged the boys outside with us. Bryan was agreeable, JT spent the time showing us his karate staff skills and Luci looked so cute in her pink boots and pink dress, trying to help Daddy. My job was to take some pictures to show the grandparents and then scoot inside before everyone else and do the dishes from lunch. Hey, Woman! Why aren't you helping?
Daddy, my shub-el (shovel) works as well as yours!
Three trees? Are you sure there are three trees here? Looks like a bunch of sticks!JT helping by demonstrating how to clobber bad guys with his staff.
This little twig will someday be a red maple.
Helping again.
We don't have pretty grass--you couldn't practice putting here, but wow it really is green. And we like it just fine! What we have now is much better than we had in the woods at the old house. (We mostly had moss and mud there.) County Road 8 is in the background. Down that hill, beyond the closest trees, is the neighbor's meadow.
Hey! Wait for me! Momma was taking my picture! John and boys planting some poplars. We have missed the cooling effect that trees give the house, and we are hoping that the poplars grow well and produce some needed sun-screening for us. That's the west side of the house.


It was fun getting dirty!