Pileated Woodpeckers and Roosters

The day after I posted the last update we saw a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers come to the tree nearest the kitchen window, then fly to the back of the yard. They hung around that tree for about ten minutes, during which time we all three stayed glued to the window and kept passing the binoculars back and forth. How wonderful! The night before we sat outside and observed the beautiful lunar eclipse. :)

Since then we've had a quiet two weeks of school, fishing, and enjoying the outdoors. Today it turned cold, however! We woke to snow flurries and wind, and the temperature never got above 43. For this Alabama gal that is quite cold!



Our neighbors have two very colorful roosters, and they wander into our yard occasionally. They rarely come close enough or stand still long enough for me to do more than brief sketches, but I love seeing all the color on them! I'm going to continue to try to capture them in my sketchbook and enjoy the process. What beautiful birds!



Last night I roughly sketched my grandmother's very pretty bread board. The sketch doesn't do it justice, but it's got a ring of carving around the edge. I keep it because it was hers, but I don't use it. :)

I haven't done any actual painting lately, but I sure have been enjoying sketching!

Adventurous Home Schooling in the Country

Well!! I have to say that we've been in the new home less than 10 days and we are already having adventures! David has fished almost every day, and earlier this week he went with our neighbor (and landlord) to put out a beaver trap. Apparently beavers are building a dam and messing with Mr. W's lakes. My thought was "cool! David will get to see a bit about being an outdoorsman."

Yesterday Mom and I left David and my dad fishing while we went to look for curtains. After a while we called Dad's cell to let him know we were on our way, and I asked him if they had caught any fish. He said yes, and that David had an otter!!! Now, lest you think I'm hardhearted and not an animal lover, I truly thought he was joking. I told Mom what he said; we laughed and came on home. As we drove into the driveway we saw Dad and David with a river otter hanging from wire in a tree!!!! ACK! I said to Mom- "oh, my gosh!! He DOES have an otter!!" and Mom said "oh, NO!!!"...



They had gone with Mr. W to check his trap, and the trap contained an otter rather than a beaver. So, Mr. W told David to take it home and skin it. He told Dad how (he probably already knew) and told him that he was not to do it- David was, with Dad's supervision. So, they began the process, and then Jon took over when he got home from work after Mom and Dad left for their home. They finished about dusk and put the skin in the freezer until they can begin the tanning process.

This morning David went with Mr. W again- this time they had a beaver!!! So,... today he and Jon skinned a beaver, and tonight we (or maybe THEY) are having beaver stew!!! Can you imagine?? I'm thinking of all sorts of ways to use this in school. I'm also very thankful that these animals are already dead by the time David sees them and that he's not responsible for their termination.



Please don't anybody get mad at me for posting about this completely unexpected adventure! I just felt it was too interesting not to share.

Stuff everywhere!

These last few weeks have been pretty (!!) hectic and stressful, but with the very generous help of an amazing number of friends, we moved into our new home this past week! We spent the first night here Saturday. Whew! Now we are surrounded by boxes and trying to figure out where to put everything. We've determined that we are going to release a lot of these things that we haven't used in years to bless others, and we're going to start using things we've "saved for a special occasion."

One example is the nice china that we got as wedding presents- we've hardly ever used it! Why is this?? I've decided that it's silly. Of course, now it's all in boxes and I need to find a place to put it where I can get TO it in order to use it, but that's all in good time.

Meanwhile, why did I save that beautiful tea dress from our wedding tea 21 years ago when I've not been able to fit my left elbow into it for, oh, 15 or 16 years?? I've got the husband! I don't need the dress to remind me of the special occasion. But it is so beautiful...

This home is at least 32 years old, just a few miles out of town, surrounded by pecan trees and a couple of ponds we're welcome to fish in, daffodils are already blooming in the front and there are crepe myrtles at the corners (I can't wait to see what colors they are!) and azaleas near the house. The house itself has more space than we had, and a wonderful place to homeschool! We've been assured by many friends that our neighbors are wonderful, and we've already seen evidence of that. How God has taken a very stressful situation and used it to bless us mightily!

The back yard:



And here's the combo den, school room, tv room, family room. Take a look at the shelves! Of course we've already filled them and have boxes of books leftover to figure out what to do with... :



More good news is that our email address stays the same and so do our cell numbers. The land line had to change, but that's okay! We're blessed. David caught 6 fish yesterday, and we had them for supper last night after church!

Come visit in a few weeks after we've had time to sort out everything!

Fun on the water

This past weekend we had a wonderful time visiting my family several hours away. My dad took us out fishing in his boat, and began teaching David to drive the boat on the way to the fishing spot. His expressions may not show it, but he was excited!

After going on the river for a while, we went to the Botanical Gardens to see the scarecrows.

Then we went to a local nursery to enjoy their pansy festival! What a beautiful and enjoyable day. The whole weekend was wonderful!