Summer Culinary Institute

In an effort to spend at least part of the girls' summer vacation in a constructive manner, we have been doing a cooking project every Monday. This past Monday was their favorite by far. We made white cake and frosting and practiced using pastry bags and tips to decorate cakes. The girls had a lot of fun. They probably ate more frosting than they put on their cakes but that was part of the fun.

These pictures were taken later in the evening when we were having the cakes for Family Home Evening. That is why the table is actually clean. As you can imagine we made quite a mess.

Summer's in Full Swing!

Summer is in full swing. The heat has finally been here. Two weeks ago it was hot! Well at least it felt hot. Typically an air temperature of 97F shouldn't be much to write about. But when you couple 97F with the fact that people get happy here when the weatherman reports that the humidity should drop down to about 80%, it feels hot. Yes, one tends to sweat a bunch. Granted, we used to sweat in AZ, but it evaporated so quickly that it didn't feel like you were dripping with sweat. Amidst the heat and humidity, I can't really complain, because it really only started in mid June. We're used to summer starting in April. It seems funny to write about how it felt hot two weeks ago! It hasn't really been hot since then. And it was rediculously cool here on the 4th of July weekend! The kids were chilly in the early morning when we went on a hike!

As I reflect on the past year, much has transpired. It was this weekend one year ago that Melissa and I travelled to Huntsville to look for a home. One year later, we've racked up a boat load of experiences. Some good, some not so good. Here's a few (with some supporting pictures)that stand out in my mind:

1. We got to experience all four seasons this past year. It was the last weekend in July that we moved to Huntsville. We were immediately impressed with the "verdant beauty" of the area (quoting Melissa). Here's a photo we took of the backyard the weekend we arrived:

The following week, the children started school. Here's a snapshot of their first walk to the bus stop and the end of our little street:

In September of 2008, we went camping in middle Tennessee with Jeremy & Linda (Melissa's brother and sister-in-law) and their kids. It was a seriously fun campout. Everything was perfect!

Then came the glorious fall with its vibrant show of color and the huge piles of leaves!

Next, winter crept in and we got snow and ice several times, though never enough to last past the morning, it was still fun to taste and play in.

Next, we got to enjoy the fabulous spring, with it's new life and color. This is a shot taken from a trip that Kate, Dan, and I took to the local Botannical Garden.

Finally we again arrived at summer. Here's a shot of Dan playing in one of the fountains located in downtown Huntsville. He had a lot of fun... so did the other kids, but this was my favorite photo of the ones I took.

In all, it's been a fun year... more to write later...

Pictures from our Vacation

The Coop is Done... Finally!

I finally finished the chicken coop. I actually finished it back in mid-May, but I just haven't gotten around to posting the finished product. It's done. Well, for now. I will eventually add nest boxes towards the end of summer when the girls start laying, but I don't want them getting into the bad habit of sleeping in the nest boxes, so I'm not putting them in now.

There's the final product.

And here's a couple picts of the kids with the girls:

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.