Wood!

Monday Dad took us to see a man take a maple tree that had fallen down and turn it into boards. First we stoped at Dad’s friend Mr. Swenson’s, house, (the man who owns the logs). The girl behind Mr. Swenson and Dad in this picture is his daughter.

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Then we continued on to the house of the man-who-turns-logs-into-boards. He had several stacks of logs. This is a picture of the smallest one.

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This is the top tip of a seventy feet long tree. It  is not often you get this view of a tree.

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One can barely see the end!

The wood-man lifted the heavy logs out of the trailer with a machine.

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He had some very interesting stuff in his workshop, such as this:

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 Finally the man began to cut the wood. first he cut of a smooth horizontal sliverof bark off, then little hand-like grips came up and turned the log over. He repeated this procedure untill all bark was removed. then he cut longer boards off.

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The logs were square and bare atfer they were done having the bark removed. then the man cut bigger boards off the log.

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Pieces with only a little bark were sent through another machine to remove it.

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After we left we went back to Mr. Swenson’s house to see his goslings and ducklings.

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 When we finally returned home, we were very tired and happy to go to bed.

“There Goes Baby”

J+M+J

 

Mom and I  were  planting the flowers we got for the front yard.  Josephwas sitting in the stroller eating graham crackers and drinking water out of a bottle. Suddenly he began to roll forwards down the driveway.  I casually thought to myself: I wonder if anything is in that stroller.  Then I remembered.  I yelled “There goes baby!” and ran after the stroller which had just reached the street by that time.  Fortunately there were no cars coming and I brought a giggling, smiling baby back to the previous positon of the stroller.  This time I put on the brakes.

 

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The Battle of the Gardener!

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Today I take up my garden tools and join the fight for my plants! I have waged war on the cabbage worms who have tresspassed into my vegetable garden! Beware, garden pests, this offence will not be tolerated!

 

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Redoing the Front Flowers

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Saturday Mom found some strawflowers (Oh! I l0ve those!) that were just her colors (red and yellow-orange) from the farmers market. She was currently looking for new flowers to make our front yard pretty. So she bought them. She let me pick out a white daisy-like thing, and a orange daisy-like thing, as well as a couple of dill plants (I am hoping for catterpillars.) We saw a Black Swallowtail, the same type of butterfly whose caterpillars eat dill.

 

Sunday after Mass, Mom, Maria, Joseph and I went to the nusery. We bought some orange coneflower and someIndian blanket

 

 After an unsuccsesful attempt to grow carnivorous plants, I spent my birthday money from Mom and Dad on a venus fly trap and two pitcher plants. I will keep you updated on how they do.

 

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John Paul Tries to Decipher his Heritage

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One day, John Paul decided he wanted to know more about his ancestors.  Here is the rather interesting conversation he had with Mom.

JP: Mom, who borned Dad?

M: Grandma.

JP: Who borned Grandma?

>M: Great-Grandma

JP: Who borned Great-Grandma?

M: Great-Great-Grandma.

JP: Who borned Great-Great-Grandma?

M: Great-Great-Great-Grandma.

This type of thing went on until John Paul couldn’t remember how many greats Mom had used. (To tell the truth, I think she was loosing track as well.)

JP: Mom, who borned you?

M: Groan

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Let Nature Take it’s Course

 J+M+J

 

Yesterday I went to my friend Isabel’s farm for her birthday party.  She has chickens and roosters and lots of stinging, burning nettles.  She also has several cats, one of which (Cocoa) has had kittens a month ago. Cocoa has also adopted a littler of four very tiny kittens whose mother abandoned them. I got to hold the older kittens.

 

Later on, there was a cat (Sunny) that had caught a baby rabbit. It was tossing it up in the air and catching it when it came down again. Then another cat (Patches) came and she and sunny began to fight over the bunny. And through it all the baby rabbit was schreecing loud and pitiful. One could hear it over the whole yard!  Soon they became more intent on fightingthan on their prey, and the bunny, seizing it’s chance, bounded away into some tall grass.  Isabel and I were cheering for the rabbit; but Isabels two older brothers and their friends kept saying “Let Nature take it’s course.” “It’s natural.” “That is the cat’s job.” Meanwhile the cats had found the rabbit and where again playing with it. Again the rabbit got loose, again we cheered for it, and again the boys lectured.  Finally I said ” Everyone knows what will happen in the end. Because we know what will happen, it is a little bit fun to cheer for the rabbit when he seemingly gets away.” The boys went to go play soccer.

 

Then the bonfir was lit. It was HUGE! we ate s’mores and and little bettys (cheese wrapped in dough) roasted over the fire.

 

When we left the Rabbit was still alive and screaming

 

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‘Hot Noke’ and ‘Cold Noke’

 J+M+J

‘Noke’ is how Alexander says milk. In our house we have a capuchino machine. Mom and I like to have capuchino and whenever Alexander sees us having one, he demands ‘hot noke’.  He likes it just as strong and with almost as little sugar as Mom and I.

Often when I set down my capuchino, the next time I try to take a drink there is nothing in my glass! Looking around the scene of the theft I usually see Alexander, who looks at me with no guilt at all and says: “Hot noke nummy (yummy) Ya! (Sarah)

When Alex wants a drink of milk he says “You (get) me cold noke. No hot noke. Cold noke.”

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My First Sleepover

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On the way home from ballet, my close friend Rebecca and I were discussing the sleepover she was going to have. She was telling me the the names of the guests, and among them I reconised the name of my old next door neighbor, Theresa, who I had not seen for four years.

Two days later I recieved an invitation to the party. Dad gave me permission to go, and so on Thursday the 3rd I was packing my bag for the sleepover the next day. This sleepover was the first one I had ever had with a friend for a reason that was not an emergency.

I arrived just after my close homeschooled friend Isabel. Next arrived another close homeschooled friend, Grace. Rebecca’s friend Lizzie from ballet came next. After a little while Theresa came. Her mom, seeing me, showed that Rebecca had not told them I was coming by saying “Gosh! It’s Sarah!”

On with the party! First we made pizzas, and after we had eaten Rebecca opened her gifts. I gave her a travel journal set. (Her family is going to Beliz this summer, often goes to visit her grandma in Arizona, and in two years they are going to Japan and Australia.)

Next we decorated aprons.

Here are some finished aprons:

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More aprons:

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My apron close-up.

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Then we had cake. we all pitched in doing the dishes and the cleaning, and I have never seen a kitchen get clean so fast!

Then we got our pajamas on and watched a movie. At exactly four minutes to midnight, we were all in our sleeping bags and the light was out. After some adjusting to the creaking of Mrs. Siemans pacing upstairs almost directly above us with her new baby, Marin, I fell asleep quite fast.

I awoke the next morning at six fifteen because of a thunderstorm and hail. At seven thirty I sat up in bed, pondering whether I should take the other girls at their word to wake them up at seven thirty. I thought that if I sat up long enough, one of the girls would see me and get up.My predictions were right, for not five minutes passed and from the other end of the row of sleeping bags I saw Grace sit up and she said “Hi.” I asked her whether we should wake the other girls up, or let them sleep. For answer, she ran across the row of bean bags directly above the heads of the sleepers. One by one they all woke up, Lizzie being the last asleep.

Craziness revived, Grace, Rebecca, and Isabel began jumping on the bean bags, and on each other, while Theresa, Lizzie, and I looked on.

Then it was time for breakfast. We had pancakes with whipped cream, strawberries, blueberries, and apple pie filling that Mr. Siemans made for us. Then one by one the party guests had to leave, and at last Grace’s dad came to take Grace and I home. (We live a few blockes from each other.)

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Dad’s Birthday

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It is Dad’s Birthday today. I picked out a frozen cake from Coldstone Creamery. Landon put thirty-three candles on the cake, and Dad had a little trouble Lighting them all, and blowing them all out.

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We had a hard time keeping Alexander from blowing out Dad’s candles!

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Dedication of May

The month of May is dedicated to the Blessed Mother.

Prayers to Mary

Hail Mary,
Full of Grace,
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit
of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary,
Mother of God,
pray for us sinners now,
and at the hour of death.
Amen.


Make Way for Her Majesty the Queen of the Night!

Purple prince and little red riding hood have made way for the Queen. Her Majesty is a tulip, and her court of Elegant Lady tulips are near at hand.

These tulips are actually almost as near black as any flower can be. Though not as black as in the picture in the magazine, I am impressed with them.

Last year we recieved a magazine with a coupon for 25$ off, an if your order was under 25$ you would have your order free. I ordered Queen of the Night and her Elegant Ladies, and purposely my order was under 25$.