The First Piano Recital

Lillian and Morgan participated in their first piano recital recently... they did great! See for yourself!

This first video is of Lillian playing "Russian Sailor Dance"

This second video is of Morgan playing "All the Stars are Shining"

Bail-outs prevent learning from mistakes

If I steal and get caught doing so, the authorities (my parents, the government) help me learn that stealing is not okay in our society by imposing a penalty on me. Maybe the penalty is a fine, or perhaps even jail time. Whatever the method, there’s a consequence that discourages me from repeating the same socially unacceptable behavior. This consequence also discourages others from following my behavior. Our society is based upon this practice of enforcing standards of conduct. We typically call this practice the ‘rule of law’. It’s a good practice to live by. Most people in the world would agree.
We teach our children that the rule of law is what makes our society a nice, safe place to live. We teach them that negative consequences follow bad behavior so that we learn from mistakes. We would consider someone a bad parent if they allowed their teenager to act irresponsibly without imposing some negative consequence as a result. We would likewise consider someone a bad parent if they remove the natural negative consequences that follow bad or irresponsible behavior.
So I’m confused now. Because there are a number of people who’ve acted irresponsibly with their future and now the government is removing the natural negative consequences that should follow such irresponsible behavior. Individuals that borrowed too much money for a house they couldn’t afford are one example. They blame lenders just as my child might blame her sibling, “But she tricked me into doing it!” Banks, automakers, the list goes on. They all seem to have some valid excuse or someone to else to blame. The reality is, each is to blame. Each needs to be held responsible for their irresponsible practices & decisions by suffering the natural consequences. If we try to escape the consequences of our decisions or allow others to, the truth is, we’re doomed to repeat the same irresponsible practices & decisions. We’ll never learn.
But the consequences hurt too much! The consequences would affect too many others! Others will see and think poorly of us! Who cares! The consequences will most assuredly hurt more next time.
I urge everyone to exercise wisdom and reject proposed legislation or action that prevents us or others from learning from mistakes. Tell the government to not give my money away to people and/or businesses that need to learn from their poor choices. Allow the natural consequences to teach and we will learn.

The Scoop on the Coop

So in my last post, I promised to blog on the progress of the coop (like it's a house or anything super incredible). Alas, here's my treatise on the coop.

It started back in February, with the search for free lumber. My project on this project was to be unlike any other project I'd undertaken before... that is to come in under my cost bogey. I know, I know; Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, but expecting different results. So I was determined to break the mold. But how? Finally it struck me. Recycled building materials! The only problem was I didn't want the coop to look "ghetto". You know, like those redneck chicken coops you see online that people are so proud of because they made the coop themselves. I don't want that junk in my yard.

Well I set off in search of a source of free lumber. My backyard is full of trees, and some had fallen, so I thought, I'll just mill lumber out of my own yard! How cool would that be? So I went back in the woods to take a look at some of the fallen oaks (there were three of them) and see whether I could get enough lumber out of them for a coop. I spotted a perfect tree. It was straight, long, and looked promising. I started looking around to see if I could find a local sawmill that could mill the trees for me. There were several around, but then I realized that the 1 foot long peice I cut off this fallen oak was at least 100 pounds! Then the geek in me started calculating the estimated weight of the treee. Yeah, so there's no way my F-150 is going to be able to haul a 2 ton tree out of my yard. I was starting to get discouraged. I resigned myself to cut the oak up for firewood. So how am I going to build this "low-cost" coop? As I walked by my compost bin, I got another idea... pallets!

On the next trip into town, I stopped by Toys-R-Us and went in to ask the manager if I could have some of their old pallets. She made a quick call and responded, "Sure, take them all!" Awesome. I loaded up the truck. Recall that pallets are made to be beaten, thus they are made of oak... at least good ones are. And these were good ones. So over the next week, I made two or three trips and stocked up on about 25 pallets. See below:

Next, I whipped out the sawzall and had to cut the pallets apart. Pulling those spiral nails out of oak just seemed time consuming and like too much effort. So I burned up a couple blades cutting off the nails.

Again, see below:

After I got the pallets apart, I looked at what lumber I had and drafted up some plans to fit what I had, plus maybe a little. I'm thinking functional, not "Park Avenue". After the plans were done, it was time to start cutting and hammering.

Some time ago, I picked up a couple nail aprons from Home Depot, and I thought since I had the kiddos at home, they might want to use them, so Kate dawned a Home Depot apron and decided she'd like to help build the new house for the chicks. She did a great job. I have to say that her involvement was definitely the funnest part. She told me that she was going to work as Home Depot when she grew up. She said, just like Aunt Meg. I told her that was fine as long as she went to college first (parents have to say stuff like that). I probably should have said "Graduate from college first" as I'm sure she'll remember and remind me that I told her she only had to "go" to college. Home Depot is not bad. In fact I'd take Home Depot over Lowe's any day. I think the Depot is a better store, not just less expensive. Kate loves the free hot dogs that the various HVAC contractors give away outside HD on Saturday mornings. See Megan, you have a following... don't forget it. Some day Kate will be teaching the Saturday morning how-to sessions, and will eat free hot dogs for lunch. I'm sure she'll have her ballet slippers on, with hot dog in hand, thinking, "It doesn't get any better than this!"

Once the walls and floors were framed up, we put them together. Then, with the walls up, I framed up the rest, racked and leveled the walls and roof. See the pictures below... they'll save me a least a couple thousand words.

The Chickens

So I've been remiss at providing updates on the chickens. Here's the scoop:

We got them on March 14th when they were 1-2 days old. Here's what they looked like the day we got them:

We kept them in a box in the kitchen with a 250W red lamp shining on them to help them stay warm. They didn't cause any trouble, and seemed to be doing fine. After one week, one of them died suddenly. Not sure of the cause, but there were no visible signs of stress.

This is what they looked like a week later (3/21):

They were still cute and fluffy... but were getting braver and started being interested in what was going on around them. All of them (except the one that died) appeared to be healthy.

Then again, a week later (3/28):

We moved them out into the garage, though still in a cardboard box. Lucky birds; we let then free-range for a while in the afternoons. They loved it!

Then, here's a shot taken on April 5th:

Here's the girls, showing off their brood. The girls know each chicken by name, but I don't.

Then, here's what they looked like this week (4/22), when I was working like crazy to get their coop to an "inhabitable" state so we could get them out of the box they've outgrown:

Finally! I finished the installing the door to their coop at 11:00 PM last night, so the chickens got to move in to their new home this morning. They loved it. They were running around like crazy; jumping and flying around. It was too funny. The exterior still needs its wood shingles, and the roof needs to be completed, so that's my next task, but at least they're our of the box in the garage. And what's nice is, the coop was built mainly of recycled building materials. I asked the local Toys'R'Us for their old pallets and they told me I could have as many as i wanted. So that's where I got all the 2x4ish materials and what will be the siding. I had to buy a couple peices of plywood, but it's better than having to buy everything else too. I'll post on the coop construction later.

Catching Flies

I had a discussion today with Kate in which I tried to explain the concept behind the axiom, "you catch more flies with honey, than with vinegar." She seemed to really catch on because throughout the day, when small tiffs with her brother or sisters arose, I would remind her to "be honey" and she would do just that. In the afternoon, Morgan was being unreasonable about some inconsequential thing and Kate came to me and said, in a very exasperated tone, "Morgan is being peppermint!" "What? I don't understand what you mean?" "You know, the sour stuff." "Oh, you mean vinegar. Morgan is being vinegar." I love four year olds--honey and peppermint versions.

Spring Break: Melissa Rocks, Lil's Sick, and Camping?!?

We'd hoped for a spring break that was to die for... great plans of grandeur. We did have great plans. Work was really busy, so I couldn't take the whole week off, but I busted it like crazy to get my work done early so I could at least take one day off and we could go camping as a family. I talked to the local Scoutmasters to hit them up for their favorite nearby camping spots. The weather seemed like it was going to cooperate. Everything was lining up. Then work got really busy. To use Dan's expression, Grrrrrr!

I know what you're thinking... another dumb dad that ditched his wife and kids' desires for the office deadlines. But before I'm convicted, I have to say I'm really proud of our family. Here's why... on Wednesday afternoon when it didn't look like I was poised to finish in time to be able to go camping, I called Melissa and we discussed the evening's plans. I committed to myself to get my junk done early so we could go camping, so I told her that I'd work as long on Wednesday as it took to get my stuff done. Yes, I know... that's nothing to really be proud of. Anyone can pick up the phone and say, "I'm gonna be late." What I'm proud of is what took place on the other end of the telephone line. Melissa said, "Well I made a great dinner, and I'm not gonna let you miss this one, so we'll bring you dinner."
"Are you sure?" says I.
"Yes," came Melissa's reply. "I made barbecue pork sandwiches with home-made buns, coleslaw, and rice crispie treats for dessert. And I made it just for you, so after we eat, I'll pack up dinner and the kids; you can take a short break, see the kids and say goodnight to them and we'll deliver you some dinner. You're gonna need some energy if you have to work real late."
"Wow, that'd be great!", I responded.

So my fantastic wife brought me dinner AND I got to see the kids before they went to bed. It was great. True, I didn't get home until after midnight, but I got the work done I needed to get done and we were on schedule to go camping again!

Before I continue with the story, I have to praise Melissa again. The pulled-pork sandwiches with sweet BBQ sauce on home-made buns were great. I devoured both rapidly. Then, the coleslaw was awesome... thanks again to sweet Lady Lou. Then I could only cram one rice crispy treat down my already-packed stomach. So I saved the rest for breakfast. Breakfast of champions!

On Thursday Lillian came down with a fever. Dang-it! Unfortunately, she still has the fever... she's always had a hard time kickin' sicknesses off. Needless to say, we didn't go camping. So we decided to camp in the back yard. After all, it's basically the woods... So on Friday, I cleared an area, started a campfire, set up the small tent for Kate and Morgan in the treehouse, and we sat around the campfire. We sang some of my Papa's (my maternal-grandfather) old cowboy songs, and sent the girls off to their tent. I slept on the back deck on a cot under the starry sky (there are definitely more stars visible here on a clear night than in Tucson). As I lay looking up at the stars that night I couldn't help thinking of how wonderful the Creator's works are. The heavens are remarkable.

I don't know what the deal was during the night, but I was cold. It was terrible. I was cold all night, but I didn't want to go inside 'cause the girls were up in the treehouse in their tent and if one of them got up in the middle of the night for some reason (we all know what that reason is!), I was worried they'd fall off the treehouse edge. So I stayed outside on the cot in my sleeping bag. My muscles were all tense in the morning, so at 0500 (or thereabouts) I figured I might as well get working. So I got up, raked leaves, trimmed the hedges around the driveway, and re-started the campfire (to burn the leaves I raked up).

On Saturday, Lillian's fever persisted, but we had high hopes that her fever would break. But no luck there. So Morgan, Kate, Dan, and I went to the children's talent show at Church (Lil' was still sick). The kids all prepared their talents to share with the other children. Morgan and Kate prepared a special number. Morgan was to play "Old MacDonald" on the piano while Kate tap-danced. Many other children performed ahead of Kate and Morgan, so they knew what to expect. They got on stage & Morgan set up her music at the piano. Then she began to play. Kate stood there. Yep. She froze. She just stood there. See the video below. What you don't see in the video is Kate deciding that for the next number she would sing instead of dance, as planned. Then after singing the first two words of the song, she collapsed on the stage floor and began to cry. Poor girl! Morgan was un-phased and kept on playing. After she saw that Kate was off the stage (I went up and picked her off the floor and tried to console her), Morgan kept playing... and why not, she had a captive audience! In all it was quite comical, though I could see this kind of thing scarring a teenage girl.



Well, I could probably go on for a while... but I'll spare you. I will say that the chicks are growing rapidly. If you didn't know, we got baby chicks last week. They were two days old when we got them. We got 5 White Leghorns and 5 Rhode Island Reds. Here's a picture taken last Saturday (14 Mar):













And here's a picture taken this weekend:






Today they learned how to jump out of their box. So we had to move them to a bigger home. Now it's a race against the clock to see whether I get the coop done in time for them to move out there. Otherwise they're gonna be poopin' all over the garage! Yikes!

The Chicks Have Arrived!

We all know what it's like to wait for Christmas as it approaches... the yearning, the anticipation, the suspense of what may lie in those sparkly colored packages that sit beneath the evergreen. That feeling has made it's way into our home a second time in one year. We've been waiting for our chickens for some time now. At first it was the wait for the hatchery to announce the hatching of the spring chicks, then after discovering the huge cost of shipping live animals overnight, we realized we had to go local. Thus the waiting again for "C.T. Garvins" to place the spring chick order. "Garvins" is our favorite of the local feed & seed stores... and is almost on the list of historic places in Huntsville. At any rate, yesterday, Garvins called to tell me that the chicks were in.
We were in the midst of breakfast and I guess the girls overheard the conversation, so by the time I got back into the kitchen, Dan was sitting alone. What's going on? I thought. Then the girls popped out fully dressed, hair done, etc and said, we're ready to go Dad! I couldn't help but laugh. So we went off to Garvins to get our chicks. We ordered 5 White Leghorns (yes, like Foghorn Leghorn on Loony Tunes), and 5 Rhode Island Reds. Turned out, they had already been vaccinated and everything, so I paid $3/each, and we were off.

So without further delay, here's a pict: