Little Adventures

.

We've had commode repairs.





Nicely done, Michael!





Accidents, just waiting to happen... Yes, those are pockets full of eggs. About 4 in each one. How many of us as children experienced the thrill of running and tripping with pockets full of eggs?





Why did I never think of cutting watermelon this way before? I like it!





More neighborly cows.





And a hastily blockaded fence line until barbed wire can be found.





I baked shortbread cookies for my dad and Michael.





Oh, yes! I'm enjoying this watermelon IMMENSELY, thank you!





Some peas, Swiss chard, and Black Seeded Simpson lettuce to put into the garden.





Those went in this corner.





We attended a Republican meeting at which a gubernatorial candidate was coming to speak.




Does anyone else think that is just a very silly name for someone running for governor?

I attempted a different sort of sun tea.





Dropping a sprig of lemon mint and a sprig of stevia is going to influence this gallon of tea? Such was the premise of several online articles. I was willing to give it a try.





It didn't work. Do people get paid to write articles about things they've never done? Next time I'll do what should have been done in the first place; crush them and let the oils release into the tea as it soaks up that gorgeous sunlight!

About a dozen young adults all had another Airsoft war game. We enjoyed an afternoon and evening of conversation, eating, tours of the gardens, and later, us oldER folks sat around talking politics. Are your tables filled with this conversation more and more lately?

Here are some of our battle hardened troops below.





And here they are later with another creative game they came up with.





And when my head was about to fall on the table, we headed home. I'm looking forward to Michael getting his license so I can sleep while he drives!

~Faith

.

Government, Pommel Trainer, and Rototiller!

.

I don't know about you, but I've had to become much more politically active lately. I called about 15 congressmen yesterday, and wrote to the President this morning.

I also received our census form yesterday. See that little mark on the first page? That's all the information the government is legally allowed to ask of me. I gave that to them.

There are two people living at this address that I am confirming by sending the form back.





The rest of this is none of their business. Not this:





Nor this:





And now it's ready for mailing. Very easy.





Very good friends kindly brought over a rototiller for us to borrow for a few weeks. What a tremendous gift!





Here's Gary, showing Michael how to operate it.





And we finished up the pommel trainer yesterday. Here is the uncovered version.









I looked for padding at the fabric store and it was ridiculously expensive. So I bought a twin sized mattress topper instead.





And this fabric. It's not really fabric, is it? What is it, anyway? Is it vinyl? I don't know, but I like how it feels when you pick it up, soft and leather-like. I got a great deal on it, 2/3 off the yardage.





Getting ready to cut the padding.





I only tacked this one on because I was originally planning on adding a second layer over it. But Michael thought that would be too much, so we stayed with this.





And apparently I got so involved in stretching and stapling the upholstery over it that I didn't take any photos of the process. We still need to put a handle on the end for easy carrying.





Ready to practice pommel horse activities!





This one will take some getting used to. Michael has only used mushrooms...





and they are higher than this oblong type that we built. There was a discrepancy between the photos I saw of this lower pommel trainer (see previous post) and the measurements people were passing around on how to make your own. I decided to go with the measurements, hoping that those who had made them had found the best way to duplicate it. However, I wish now that I'd gone with an estimation based on the shape of the model in the photo. This is lower and wider than I was hoping. Regardless, it is fine for practice, and we can make another at a later date if we so choose.

I hope to take this into his Monday class and get some pointers from his coach on using it to the best advantage.





Last night a bunch of us ladies tried our feet at ballet, hip-hop, and swing dancing. If only we could all be on Dancing With the Stars!

Today! Sun! 67 degres! Bliss!

~Faith

.

Baseball!, Cruising for Dweebs, Town Hall Meetings, and Soap Class.

.

Yes, we went cruising. Sort of. Friends and family had no idea they were being stalked.

After a mad morning on Friday of mowing and weed spraying, we were unable to do our office cleaning due to yet another rebellion. "Mutiny On the Sciatic".

But that freed us up for the town hall meeting with our local congressman. We went, armed with digital camera AND a video camera, but I did not expect much ruckus. Our congressman is actually FOR the people.

Everyone I talk to is upset about what is going on in politics, but apathy is still a huge hurdle to overcome. Out of a county with a population of over 66,000 people, only about 100 were at this town hall meeting.

I understand. Really I do. But I think people still, by and large, do not understand that unless they rise up and make a lot of noise, they are going to lose everything they hold dear about this nation. I'd like to catch this thing before it gets so ugly some sort of physical revolution develops.

Our congressman, holding up what I think is the cap and trade bill, and standing next to the board in which he explained a bit about the health care bill.





Taking questions from concerned citizens. They wanted to know what can we do when government won't even listen to us? What can we do when government is becoming a tyranny?

The answers: 1) Vote. Get them all out of office in the next election. 2) That cannot happen when we have the 2nd amendment.

Everyone knows, the 2nd amendment is sadly being eroded faster than we can vote them out of office.





Michael and I stood in the back, due to the sciatic pain. But the other side of the room held several of our dear friends.





Here are the bills. They were given this one at 3:09 in the morning. They were told they had about 8 hours to vote. I believe you can thank Nancy Pelosi for that time frame. Most of them went home. Our congressman met with about 8 others and they stayed up and poured through as much as possible.





Another ginormous bill, no time to read it, demands by Pelosi for a vote.





Held in the hands of my son. The future of this country, who will have to deal with what is being done today. May God help him.





We left and needed to blow off steam.

Not too many were at our Friday Fellowship, due to so many things going on this weekend; Town Hall meeting, soap class, Civil War ball, Monster truck lessons, concert and baseball game. So with only four of us, a trip to get ice by one, turned into everyone piling into our minivan and grabbing a box of ice cream drumsticks and other goodies we had to eat before they melted.

Did I mention my van's A/C is broken and my window does not roll down either?

As we ate drippy ice cream, we took the long way back to the warehouse and pointed out houses to each other of people we know. Then we just hung out, goofing off and trying to learn how to make ice cream sticks whir through the air when you flick them.

Yes, we are an intellectual bunch. Just try to keep up.

Saturday morning was a slow one, taking a Shabbat rest, before we met friends and headed off to another of Cheri's soap making classes.





I never did see Michael, once we arrived. He zoomed like bee off to find the other boys.

Like Cheri's Herbal Medicine class, she also makes this book and help available on her web site.

Cheri also is looking into video versions of her classes that you can watch online. So keep up with her on that development!

Her modest kitchen was packed with soap-hungry wenches, as well as lots of laughter.





Some of her oils, soaps and instruction book.





How to spell fun with medicine droppers...





We all massaged a variety of oils into our skin to see how they felt. These are some choices available for soap bases.





One of her sons, Josiah, made these mini soap molds for sale. I am a long time customer of Josiah, having bought one of his nose warmers he offered for sale when he was about 5. I love to encourage entrepreneurism.





Heading out of doors for some work with lye.





I snapped a quick pick of the attendees.





Learning how to line a soap mold.





Chit chat.





Sampling superfatting oils.





Everybody helps.





A fun game. Mix your essential oils to find your own delightful fragrance you want in your soap! We were given access to the oils, droppers, and bits of paper to combine them on.









Pouring the lye mixture into the heated oils.





Bringing to light trace, to add the scents and herbs.





Bringing to heavy trace to pour into the mold.









Spreading it.





Covering it.





And setting it aside under towels to begin curing.





Some clays to mix in, if you like.





Going for just the right color orange, using paprika and turmeric.





Shaving a previously cured soap batch.





And cutting it from the cutting box.





Some of her wares....





At this point, I should end this post. But in the interest of continuing this blog of sharing Lemonade Adventures, I will continue. Life is very full, even when you lose what you centered your life around. :)

I made an executive decision to skip the Civil War ball dance of that night and went home to rest my aching body. My face was still hurting some and my sciatic nerve was complaining from hours of mowing, I guess.

So fun was had by the rest, and we went home and rested. Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh....

Sunday, however, I had to pay the piper for not doing office cleaning. Michael and I started it, then I had to take him to church and go back to finish it myself.

Michael had a wonderful day, leaving church with friends and going on an adventure of his own. One of the men in our church decided to by

One of THESE!





And Michael got to drive it, along with anyone else who wanted to. LOL

And that's why I cleaned the office alone til 4 pm. What boy would want to miss a chance like that!

I hope to get some really cool pics from a friend who went and share those with you soon.

However, I was not entirely alone...

You know you have good friends, when they stop by after a long drive from out of state, in their dresses and heels, and help you wash windows!





And, I kid you not. Ashlee pulled a Spiderman, and scaled the side of the building to catch the build up in the corners.

My kind of friends. LOL

Sadly, we had run out of tickets and we were so sad to not have them with us at the local worship concert and the farm team game. It was not the same without them.

I still had a horrific headache and the loud music was not doing it any good, so I went down to the far end of the park and sat to do Sudoku and wait for the game to start so we could go grab our seats.





I was soon joined by several others, so we could chat and catch up away from the decibels. I think I'm getting old-ER.

Here comes the first wave of them.





Take me out to the ball game, take me out to the crowd!





We lost, but they put out a good effort, and we had a lot of fun cheering our team.

OK, I'm done.

I've got apples to can. But help is on it's way, so that will make the load lighter and more fun.

Happy adventuring!

~Faith

.