Good-Bye Jerry Reed

Yeah here comes Amos
Now Amos Moses was a Cajun
He lived by himself in the swamp
He hunted alligator for a living
He'd just knock them in the head with a stump
The Louisiana law gonna get you Amos
It ain't legal hunting alligator down in the swamp boy

Now everyone blamed his old man
For making him mean as a snake
When Amos Moses was a boy
His daddy would use him for alligator bait
Tie a rope around his neck and throw him in the swamp
Alligator man in the Louisiana bayou
About forty-five minutes south of Tippitoe Louisiana
Lived a man called Dr. Mills South and his pretty wife Hannah
They raised up a son who could eat his weight in groceries
Named him after a man of the cloth
Called him Amos Moses

Now the folks around south Louisiana
Said Amos was a hell of a man
He could trap the biggest meanest alligator
And he'd just use one hand
That's all he got left cause an alligator bit it
Left arm gone clear up to the elbow

Well the sheriff caught wind that Amos was up in the swamp
Trading alligator skins
So he snuck in the swamp gonna get the boy
But he never came out
Well I wonder where the Louisiana sheriff went to
Well you can sure get lost in the Louisiana bayou
About forty-five minutes south of Tippitoe Louisiana
Lived a cat named Dr. Mills South and his pretty wife Hannah
They raised up a son who could eat his weight in groceries
Named him after a man of the cloth
Called him Amos Moses

I know son
Make it count son
About forty-five minutes south of Tippitoe Louisiana...

What's Up

Time has flown! Cole and I celebrated our 10th anniversary, Gillian has lost 2 teeth, I've got my milking doe and our herd of dairy goats is almost complete, and the new set of school books is somewhere on the way between Oregon and our home.

The air is getting quite crisp in the mornings, instead of milking Magil in shorts and a tee shirt I had to wear a sweatshirt and jeans this morning. We could see our breath!

Charles and Gillian (and I) were excited to learn that there is another family of homeschoolers quite nearby! When gas went over 3 dollars a gallon we started getting nervous about the long trips to park day. Hopefully we'll be able to make some nice friends closer to home.

Cinquain

This is the cinquain poem Charles wrote this morning. A cinquain has 5 lines each with a set number of syllables: 2,4,6,8,2.

Bella
Curious goat
Chair jumping little girl
Playful hopping friend to Clara
Short ears.

Kids

Thought I'd take a moment at lunch to post what the kids are doing... Human & caprine.

Charles is reading under the walnut tree while Bella & Clara graze nearby.

Gillian is in the goat house talking to Gypsy and Traveller.

What a beautiful Monday! Here's a poem...

Little Girl, Be Careful What You Say
by Carl Sandburg

Little girl, be careful what you say
when you make talk with words, words--
for words are made of syllables
and syllables, child, are made of air--
and air is so thin-- air is the breath of God--
air is finer than fire or mist,
finer than moonlight,
finer than spider-webs in the moon,
finer than water-flowers in the morning:
and words are strong, too,
stronger than rocks or steel
stronger than potatoes, corn, fish, cattle,
and soft, too, soft as little pigeon-eggs,
soft as the music of hummingbird wings.
So, little girl, when you speak greetings,
when you tell jokes, make wishes or prayers,
be careful, be careless, be careful,
be what you wish to be.

A haiku by Charles-

Ankylosaurus
Spiky, armored dinosaur
grazed on grassy plains.

Poetry month is turning out to be pretty fun for the kids. Gillian especially likes clapping out syllables. The kids and I enjoyed talking about the following poem - as summer approaches I vividly remember enduring the same frustration.

Bed in Summer
by Robert Lewis Stevenson
In winter I get up at night And dress by yellow candle-light. In summer, quite the other way, I have to go to bed by day. I have to go to bed and see The birds still hopping on the tree, Or hear the grown-up people’s feet Still going past me in the street. And does it not seem hard to you, When all the sky is clear and blue, And I should like so much to play, To have to go to bed by day?

April Continues...

THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH US

by: William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

HE world is too much with us: late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:

Little we see in Nature that is ours;

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;

The winds that will be howling at all hours,

And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;

For this, for everything, we are out of tune;

It moves us not. -- Great God! I'd rather be

A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;

So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;

Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;

Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

9 Years Old!

Happy Birthday to Charles!
He turned nine on Monday. The Transformers cake was devoured, the Neoshifters were built in record time and the summer clothes are impatiently awaiting pleasant weather!

National Poetry Month

We're learning about poetry. Writing it, reading it, trying to understand the rhythms and meanings.

SPRING

by: Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950)

O what purpose, April, do you return again?

Beauty is not enough.

You can no longer quiet me with the redness

Of little leaves opening stickily.

I know what I know.

The sun is hot on my neck as I observe

The spikes of the crocus.

The smell of the earth is good.

It is apparent that there is no death.

But what does that signify?

Not only under ground are the brains of men

Eaten by maggots.

Life in itself

Is nothing,

An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs.

It is not enough that yearly, down this hill,

April

Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.

Yes yes yes...

This morning Cole took Sawyer for a ride & he planned to go to the little gas station in Alexis. He asked me the name of the station because he would be writing a check & I told him it's CCC.

Later Charles asked me where Daddy had gone and Gillian piped up "He went to Yes Yes Yes. That's the name of the store isn't it Mommy?"

Can you tell we've been working on our Spanish?

Happy Birthdays!!

Happy Birthday to Cole, who turned 32 yesterday, and to Gillian who is 5 years old today!! Here's a picture of the birthday girl...I can not believe she is 5 already!

Sunday was a beautiful day here, lots of sun & the temperature rose to about 70. The snow geese were flying over our yard all day, so you can guess what Cole was doing...
Teaching the next generation.

LOST & The Age of Unreason

Last night's LOST was very interesting. The kids enjoyed the conversation we had about the bizarre paradoxes that would crop up if one could travel back into time. Charles said it made his brain hurt a little. This Wikipedia article discusses a great deal more than we covered last night, I think it'll be fun for us to delve into over the coming days.

I keep thinking about Cole turning on the television every morning to watch the weather on the local news. He gets so irritated with the other stories we have to endure in the meantime. For example: the Governor wanting to spend millions of dollars to tear down Cole Hall on the NIU campus and put up a new building to replace it, Iowa saying they will continue to allow folks who smoke to light up while they are out on their tractors, the fairly recent mutterings of passing a law against spanking.

I usually leave the news on, a sort of background noise to our morning routine. But more and more often I find the stories so ridiculous or inappropriate for the kids to hear, that I switch it off. Seriously, is the morning news the best place to discuss why Victoria's Secret's ads are too sexy? Or the possible "positive side" of affairs? Or "Is my girlfriend gay?" Or "look what Brit did today & isn't it terrible that the paparazzi won't leave her alone? Here we'll show you the footage!"

This is simply trash. It's verbal and visual spackle, used to fill the cracks between the perpetual replay of video from the latest bombing, shooting or 20 car pile-up. It's broadcast Vicodin, leaving viewers numb and bleary. It doesn't teach anything. It's only worth is in the immense appreciation I've gained for PBS, the History Channel & the Discovery Channel.

awww crap. i think i just broke my soapbox.

In other news (and I promise by news I am not referring to the latest edible facial scrub), I came across the blog for Bill Moyers Journal. A brief selection from his interview with Susan Jacoby caught my attention & I found the other reader's comments very interesting.

I've gotten a bit into the complete transcript, but the children are almost done with breakfast so the rest will have to wait. I think I'll be reading her book, The Age of American Unreason, when I get the chance.

Rainy Sunday

We've been reading The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare. Now that we are just 3 chapters from the end we've started some projects to make a lapbook covering some of the things we've learned. I'll be posting photos of our lapbook as it progresses.

In chapter 19 we read about a game of bone dice and sticks played by the boys in Attean's village. I'd been reading up on the native people in the area of Maine described in the book and discovered a similar game played by the Penobscot, Micmac, Passamaquoddy, and Maliseet. The version of Waltes we've made is played by rules modified for young children.

To brighten an otherwise dreary & miserable day, yesterday Charles and Gillian molded & decorated the clay dice and counting sticks. We've enjoyed playing - they both get an especially big kick out of it when I drop a die and lose my turn.

Below you'll find photos of the kids making the game. To learn how to make your own game of Waltes, visit the Hudson Museum website!

I also wanted to mention that Dad is home and feeling better. He is on increased blood thinner and visiting the hospital every week to have blood work done.

...

I just received a call from my brother, he had taken my dad to the VA in Iowa City yesterday because he had been having trouble breathing at night (this is not a new complaint - previously they had put him on "water pills" and more recently increased the dose).

They said his heart was a bit enlarged, but sent him home. Apparently they did take some x-rays but didn't review them before sending him home. Today he was called back to the hospital in the snow storm. They gave him a MRI and verified he has a blood clot in his lung.

They have not decided on how to proceed. He is on blood thinners and a number of other meds, which complicate any immediate invasive action.

I just wanted to let you all know & ask you to keep him in your thoughts.

Joyceb

Baby Photos

This morning we treated Promise to a slice of apple and brought out her babies for pets and pics.
They are so teeny and sweet! 2 Black 1 Sable (maybe seal). The Sable is much more talkative than the other two - lots of little squeaks and grunts when I pick him/her up. At this point Gillian is very eager to name them, but it'll be weeks before we can tell boys from girls. I hate calling them "it."

Happy Birthday!

Promise, our little tort Jersey Wooly doe, gave birth to a nice little litter of 3 kits this morning. Mother and babies are all looking great. I had been a little worried because her first litter was so difficult, but she came through this delivery like a pro.

Charles & Gillian (and I) are very excited and ready to hold the babies. I think that we'll let Promise settle into motherhood undisturbed for this first day. She deserves the rest.

Little Fisherman

Charles and Cole took an ice fishing trip on Saturday.
They had a terrific time. Charles caught 3 bass and many bluegill. Cole was so proud of how focused Charles was on the fishing.

Sunday they both spent the day on a goose hunt, but were not as successful. Now there's a little break before the spring turkey season. Cole is looking forward to taking Charles along for that, too!

A Brief Flashback

New Years 2008!

Here's Cole out in our road on that terribly old & windy Tuesday morning. Without seeing it even I wouldn't have believed it.

Pheasant

You can see why Cole & I were so excited about this bird! Cole went out last night to pick him up from the taxidermist. We had a hard time finding just the right spot for him because he's so big. He's hanging between the Southern windows in our dining room. It makes me feel like I'm walking into a museum when I see him up on the wall.

Photographs really do no justice to the amazing colors and iridescence of the feathers. Beautiful bird.

Sorry

This poor blog is as neglected as our garden come September! I really have let it go. But I promise to try harder to post here more often.

I've been kinda avoiding blogger since I put aside painting during our increasingly busy "school" days. It takes me a long time to "do" a painting - from the sketching to the application of color to the varnishing - weeks. Plus it's a rather solitary activity & I haven't had the opportunity to spend even relatively small chunks of time alone with my thoughts. So I've felt like a little less than myself - being not able to create much for myself.

But recently I came across some information about antique and vintage cloth dolls. SO Gillian and I rummaged around in my cloth stash and she selected the fabric she wanted for the doll and the embroidery floss colors for the hair and eyes. It took a couple of afternoons and I had the doll all together. The hair is not the best, but it was my first try, and her first outfit is still in the making. But Gillian is pleased and has dubbed her doll "Jupiter."

Last Saturday we bundled Charles up and Cole donned his hunting gear and they headed out just after 4Am for Charles' first goose hunt. Since he's only 8, he has not yet had his required hunter's ed course. So he didn't have a gun, but he still had a great time. Cole said he was very excited at all the flocks of geese & surprised at how loud they were.

Charles said his favorite part was the "doofus goose." Apparently there was a solo bird flying back and forth between their blind and another fellow's about a quarter mile over. The bird seemed to be looking down at them & flying rather slowly, but none of the shots from either blind hit him, and he repeatedly passed from one to the other. He was high enough to be out of range, perhaps he knew it.... But Charles is pretty sure he had a smaller than average "Bird Brain." The Doofus Goose eventually flew slowly off, leaving the boys both frustrated and amused. Charles is very eager to get out and hunt with his daddy again as soon as possible.

Tuesday the kids and I accompanied a group of local homeschoolers on a visit to the Putnam Museum for a Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit. A number of the displayed inventions were made especially for the children to handle. We later joined a few families who stayed to wander through the rest of the museum and see the permanent exhibits. It was a wonderful day.

Cole is spending the weekend taking advantage of the final deer season. We really want to get one more to restock the freezer. It's hard to describe exactly how much his overall health has improved since we've started eating primarily game. He had been having a lot of pain in the joints of his feet and his stomach was always painful. Now he rarely complains of either!

He's repeatedly said he doesn't want to go back to the pork and beef from the store. He thinks it is the lower fat content of the venison, goose, pheasant, rabbit, fresh eggs, etc... I think it's that and a bit more... I can't help wondering about all the medications that are given to livestock to keep them healthy - not so with wild game, nor our rabbits & chickens. But that's my little paranoid thing.

So. I think that's good enough for today.