Dad – Page 2 – All That is Gold

Wild Bird Sightings for March

Wednesday, March 25, 2009 by Sarah Leave a Comment

J+M+J

Early this March, I saw a bird of prey I had never seen before. It was smaller than a red tailed hawk, and had a redder breast than any other hawk I had seen. Later, I identified it as a peregrine falcon. I was exited to have another bird to add to my bird life list. (A list of all the birds I have ever seen.)

Mid March brought a HUGE bird to our backyard. It was a turkey vulture, which I have seen before, very far off. They circle a TV tower in Sioux Falls, and I can see them from my ballet studio, but I never realized just how big they are. (A wingspan of up to six feet!)

This doesn’t quite count as a sighting, but throughout March Mom, Dad, and I have been hearing a Great Horned Owl that has been living in a group of trees behind our house. The great horned owl has the famous ‘who, who’ call, and is the only owl living in South Dakota that does. I am fortunate to have heard it.

A+M+D+G

Adventures in Cooking: Crock Pot Yogurt

Monday, March 9, 2009 by Sarah 2 Comments

J+M+J

When I heard recently that you could make yogurt in a crock pot, I just had to do it. It was simple, just cook a half gallon milk on low for 2 1/2 to get it hot and kill any bad bacteria that would interfere with the growth of good bacteria (otherwise known as enzymes,) then turn the pot off and let it cool for three hours so good bacteria can grow. When the three hours are up, spoon out cup of the warm milk and add a half cup of plain, live active yogurt as your starter culture and mix it up. Next, add the yogurt-milk to the crock pot, wrap it in thick, heavy towels for insulation and leave it alone over night. In the morning, it will be yogurt! It won’t be as thick as yogurt from the store, and I am going to try out different ways to make it thicker,for example, adding gelatin, dry milk, etc. etc., and I will let you know if I am successful.

I like to add a little honey to my yogurt to sweeten it. Dad likes it with vanilla extract and sugar. I am going to try out different ways to make it thicker, i.e., adding gelatin, dry milk, etc. etc., and I will let you know if I am successful.

My Yogurt

A+M+D+G

Dull, Drab Winter

Friday, February 20, 2009 by Sarah 2 Comments

J+M+J

Nothing has happened in the last few weeks that was important enough to devote a whole post about it, so I am going to collect the small events of the past week into one post.

Friday the thirteenth:

I went to the physical therapist and got a bunch of new exercises. I originally went to the physical therapist for a pain in my arch when I walked a little over a year ago. We found a muscle that was very weak and strengthened it, and the foot pain quit except when I have walked long distances or stood a long time. (It is getting better all the time because I am still doing harder exercises.) Now I am going to her for the beginning of tendonitis in my shins, which is caused by the same muscle being weaker than the others and not doing its job when I jump or run. The physical therapist, whose daughter is training to be a professional ballerina in Pennsylvania/New York City, also likes to help me strengthen muscles to improve my ballet skills with exercises, so I got a bunch of exercises for my gluteus maximus to help lift my leg higher in the back. Ooh, my rear end is sore right now.

Friday the 13th-Sunday the 15th:

I counted birds for the annual Great Backyard Bird Count. I counted: 23 pigeons, 1 red tailed hawk, about 30 geese, a mallard duck, and a great horned owl, which has been around our house for a while. Well, actually Dad saw the owl. I heard it a couple weeks ago, but I haven’t seen it.

Today, Monday the 20th:

I went shopping with Mom and Maria at the mall. I needed long sleeved shirts since I only had a couple of shirts that were long enough for me to move my arms around freely. We went into three stores and found absolutely nothing that fit me, because all the stores were stocking spring clothes. Phew! I can’t believe how long it takes to find nothing. Finally, we found something, but not long sleeved shirts. We found my Easter dress, which is really amazing, because it is extremely hard to find nice dresses for my age that aren’t to little girly. Then it was back to the tiresome chore of finding shirts. Just when we had about given up, we went into a store and found five shirts, just like that!

Then we went to Claire’s, a girly store in the mall, and Maria picked out earrings for herself. (She just got them pierced six weeks ago.) I will have pictures of her with them on later.

Well, those are the only things really worth mentioning. I am getting really tired of winter, it’s so uneventful. If it was summer or spring and I didn’t know what to write about, I could go outside and take pictures of my garden. Sigh. Oh, well, at least the first day of spring is only 29 days away.

A+M+D+G

Epiphany

Tuesday, January 6, 2009 by Sarah Leave a Comment

J+M+J

My nativity scene set-up is completed today, Epiphany, which commemorates the arrival of the magi in Bethlehem. This nativity was a Christmas gift from Grandma and Grandpa on Mom’s side.

This was also the day we opened up presents from Mom and Dad. We didn’t do it on Christmas because with our trip to Florida and the sickness that struck immediately when we got back, Mom had no time for shopping. We have thought about opening gifts on Epiphany for a couple years, since that was the day Jesus received his gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, but we had never done it.

Dad handed out the first presents to the four boys. They were small, identical square boxes about two and a half inches on every side. Dad built suspense by making the boys count to seventeen in a painfully slow manner before they could open them. After the number ten, Alexander tried to say seventeen at the beginning of each number. “Sev- eleven, sev-twelve, sev-thirteen,” etc. etc.

Finally, the boys reached seventeen, but not before sixteen and a half, sixteen and three quarters, and sixteen and seven eights. When seventeen was reached, the boys tore into the wrapping paper and opened the box inside. Alexander declared, “Springies!”
“Slinkies,” I corrected him.
“Oh, I knew that,” he mumbled.

Dad has a fondness for slinkies. I remember him showing me how they worked when he found one at his friend’s house a long time ago.

It wasn’t long before Dad and the boys had the slinkies lined up on the stairs for a race. Unfortunately, our stairs are too wide for slinkies, so the race was abandoned and attention was turned to the other gifts.

The first present I opened was a calendar. Dad made me guess what was inside the wrapping paper, but the size and fact I get one every year gave it away. I got it right on the first guess.

This calendar has some beautiful pictures inside.

Maria and I each got one of these sun catcher kits. She got butterflies and I got a parrot.

This is a cross stitch pattern. I can’t wait to get started.

This is a pair of sun conures. They are not pets, they are two year old breeder birds. I got one for Christmas and I bought the other bird. Aren’t they the most beautiful thing in the world?

Well, that’s all for now. I will post more later as I get going on the cross stitch and sun catchers.

A+M+D+G

Hello

Friday, December 19, 2008 by Sarah Leave a Comment

J+M+J

Hello, it has been a while! I am going to start posting some pictures from the trip we took with Grandma and Grandpa Frederes. There are so many pictures I won’t possibly be able to post them all, so I will begin a series of post with those pictures I think the most worth looking at. I shall start with some pictures of our family in the airport and arriving in Florida.

When we arrived at the resort, Grandma and Grandpa met us and helped us take our luggage to our rooms.

A+M+D+G

Pictures from John’s Birthday

Thursday, September 4, 2008 by Sarah 2 Comments

J+M+J

John Paul turned seven August 30th. This is the cake I made for him.

One of John’s gifts was a stuffed monkey. He made a jungle gym for it outside out of scraps of wood from things that Dad has built.

A+M+D+G

Flight School

Friday, August 8, 2008 by Sarah 2 Comments

J+M+J

Penelope’s flight feathers are in, and she likes to use them. She will fly to places that are up high for a good view, or she will fly to Clover’s cage to play with Clover’s toys and eat Clover’s food. Dad and I thought it would be fun to teach my bird to use her wings on command and fly to me. I am working on this with her, and Penelope is cooperating nicely. She will fly back and forth from Landon or Dad to me and back again. It is fun to train her to do tricks, and I am sure she benefits from the exercise. This picture is the closest Mom could get to Penelope in the air.

A+M+D+G

Stinky Sight

Thursday, August 7, 2008 by Sarah 2 Comments

J+M+J

It was dark outside because it was late at night. The little kids had left their bikes outside, so Landon and I went to put them away. When we were almost finished, I noticed something moving in the neighbors yard a few houses down the street.. I thought at first it was a cat, then I noticed the black and white stripes, bushy tail, and unmistakable waddling walk. I knew it was a skunk. I ran inside to get Mom and Dad to come see, on my way in telling Landon that I saw a skunk. Landon was scared out of his skin, and he ran in faster than me to get away from the skunk. When we got back with Mom and Dad, the skunk was nowhere to be seen. It probably wanted to get out of the open and headed for some bushes. Having seen one skunk in the neighborhood, I wonder how many other skunks patrol the streets at night.

A+M+D+G

Model Airplane Update

Saturday, July 26, 2008 by Sarah 1 Comment

J+M+J

DONE!

A+M+D+G

Happy Fourth of July

Saturday, July 5, 2008 by Sarah 1 Comment

J+M+J

Happy Birthday America!

This Fourth of July, our family went to Dad’s parent’s farm to shoot off fire works. It was a good show, and though I can never capture the brilliance of fireworks, I did get a few good pictures.

Bad picture, cute subject.

We had water balloons to play with. I got completely drenched. Everybody was aiming for our grandpa. Landon eventually got him, but every time I threw a balloon at him, they rolled off his back. I needed to throw harder.

A+M+D+G

The Zoo

Saturday, June 28, 2008 by Sarah Leave a Comment

J+M+J

We went to the zoo last Saturday. It was extremely fun and interesting, for the zoo had added many new animals including peacocks, meerkats, and bats.

These peacocks are lovely, aren’t they?

This snow leopard decided to check Dad out.

This tiger doesn’t look very fearsome.

Joseph found some bird poop on the fence.

He accused this bird of doing it:

Now we were in the African Savannah.

These meerkats are the foraging team.

This meerkat has been assigned the job of keeping watch for predators.

This is the regal trumpeter swan.

The camel was chewing his cud.

King vultures are grotesque looking.

The mother gibbon is nursing her baby. Can you see it?

What good posture they have!

The mother gibbon is baring her teeth at the other gibbon for getting too close to her baby.

This swan does the same things Clover and Penelope do.

They have a really nice merry-go-round at the zoo. I helped Joseph

I can remember a few years ago, this baby rhino was nursing.

This is a huge stuffed walrus in the museum.

These are stuffed wolves. They did have live wolves in the zoo, but all the pictures turned out blurry. There were even pups.

A+M+D+G

The Keebler Two

Monday, June 23, 2008 by Sarah 1 Comment

J+M+J

It was the afternoon Monday, June 16. One moment I was planting tomatoes, and the next moment I was running around the house like crazy, getting ready to go chase Mr. Wilson’s balloon. A little while later, we were in the car driving to the park in Brandon where we would soon launch the balloon. For a detailed description of the launching process see http://sarah.frederes.com/2007/11/09/the-keebler/. This post will be mostly pictures. Mr. Wilson’s children, Jacob, Adam, and Anna joined us for this launching adventure.

It’s amazing to think that the huge balloon fits into this tiny bag. Well, at least the bag is tiny for the size of the balloon.

I caught Joseph in a cute yawn.

Setting up the basket.

Landon and Adam were assigned the job of getting the balloon out of the bag.

This is the fan.

Joseph observes the goings on.

Dad and another lady are holding open the balloon for the fan to blow into.

We aren’t the only ones setting up balloons.

Jacob and I are velcro-ing the top to the rest of the balloon.

Maria is going to try to hold the balloon steady until Jacob and I are done. I am not sure how much the balloon was pulling her, but it looks like the balloon is dragging her. Anna is behind Maria

The balloon is more rowdy this time than last time. It was swinging from side to side, and Jacob and I, who were now holding the rope Maria held earlier, did our best to steady it. Easier said then done.

Dad and Adam took a ride this time. He got into the basket, and it began to lift off the ground.

If you look closely, You can make out Dad’s hand waving at us in the car.

Night is falling, and it is time to land.

Maria and Anna climbed over the fence you can see in the picture to join Mr. Wilson and Dad. Unfortunately, they had a dilemma. Anna was caught on barbed wire by the seat of her pants. Landon climbed through waist-high grass to the girls, and he freed Anna.
Afterwards, we went back to the park. Mr. Wilson had cookies, carbonated juice, and champagne for the adults. The cookies were from the Keebler brand. Mr. Wilson explained the history of the hot air balloon.
A few hundred years ago, people noticed smoke rising upwards when fire burned. They also noticed that little bits of grass and sparks would be carried upward with the smoke. They wondered if they could harness the smoke and use it to carry people. They believed that the blacker the smoke, the more weight it could carry. So they would pour dirt, tar, and other black filth into the fire, and then they caught some of the smoke in a bag attached to a basket. Because of the hot air, the basket went up. Eventually, they sent up some farm animals inside the basket. They also put a bottle of champagne in the balloon to prove that the ballon wasn’t a dangerous animal from the sky, but was actually made by men from earth. Each bottle of champagne from France included the name of the town it was made in. To this day, people still take up a bottle of champagne with them to give to farmers as a gift for using their land to land the balloon.
Just before we left the park, I am pretty sure I heard a coyote howl. We ate Taco John’s for supper. and then it was time for bed.

A+M+D+G

Dress Rehearsal

Thursday, May 29, 2008 by Sarah 3 Comments

J+M+J

Today I had dress rehearsal. I feel pretty proud of myself for putting on all of my own makeup. To contrast the paling stage lights, I need foundation, blush, eye shadow, eye liner, mascara and lipstick. In previous years I have been so afraid I would mess up I have had Mom put on my makeup.

I brought along my camera, and Dad took these pictures of me. Note my shoes.

Goodnight!

A+M+D+G

Baltimore Oriole Pictures

Wednesday, May 28, 2008 by Sarah Leave a Comment

J+M+J

Here are the pictures Dad took of the Baltimore Orioles that stopped by a while ago. We haven’t seen them since, but I did see a few more when I was at a friends house for a birthday party. (She lives out in the country.) Aren’t they lovely little birds?

A+M+D+G