Let's catch up. . .

Ok so last time I posted we were in the middle of a forest fire that came with in 4 miles of our house. There was smoke and ash all over and as my brother in law stated "someone mistakenly housed us in the smoking zone when we clearly asked for non-smoking." Well, the fire is out, now we are on the look out for cougars. . .there have been several sightings in our area. Several neighbors have had goats mauled or taken. The fire destroyed their homes, where did you expect them to go? And while we are on the subject of goats (which my husband thinks we should get some pack goats--but that is another story for another time!). . . I was driving down one of the lovely scenic country back roads (which people drive at a comfortable 55+mph) when what should I happen upon, but a billy goat. Billy was trotting down the road minding his own business, but he was not going 55 and I needed to go faster than he was, so I pulled my van across the center line to go around him. Apparently billy goats can have a bit of a case of road rage and as I pulled past him, he lowered his head and looked like he was going to charge. . .my MINIVAN! Ok, so billy failed his physics 101 class where he would have learned the law of tonnage, or maybe it just took some time for common sense to kick in, but he decided against ramming my van. Thank goodness, because I could just see filing an insurance claim: "Damage caused by charging Billy goat". Would my insurance even cover that?!?!

So while we are here living the peaceful country life watching out sweet kitties pounce on each other and wrestle and then collapse in a heap and watching our chickens peck out in the back field, we are also putting out forest fires, watching for cougars, and dodging the local runaway billy goat. Ya know, I grew up in the country and I don't ever remember it being so "colorful". Ok, there was that time the neighbor caught a guy who broke out of jail and tied him to a telephone pole till the police got there. . .

Life goes on amidst the chaos, alright, truth be known, it creates a lot of the chaos. Katie turned 8 and Ryan turned 4. We are having fun and really getting into our homeschool routine. We joined a local on line charter school and it has offered some great opportunities for the kiddos with art and PE and other fun activities that they look forward to. Anne and Megan are both in ballet and so we spend a lot of time driving the 40 mile round trip to and from ballet 4 times per week as they are both in the Nutcracker this year. I have been sewing costumes for almost 2 months straight. Katie is loving gymnastics and has almost mastered the back handspring. And as in the previous post Ryan is still full on "Boynado!" He loves having all this property to run around on and no get into too much trouble.

So that's the lowdown of the past few months. . .

Wait a minute. . .if this happened a few months ago, that means that Katie turned 8!!!!

Yep, Katie turned 8 and if Katie turned 8, then. . .

That means that Ryan turned 4!!!

He makes a mean tomato sauce, that one!

Uncle Aaron went hunting in Sweden and brought home fun gifts like bracelets and coloring books!

Apple picking and eating with friends. . .

Ya know, family pictures are forever challenging. But I think this one is passable.

We were never good at the look lovingly into each other's eyes with out laughing thing.

Oh dear, heartbreaker alert!

We really do live in a beautiful area.

Here are our ferocious barn cats. Watch out mice, there is no safe place to hide from these killers.

Ryan and Megan painting clouds while we were studying weather, while we were studying Columbus and his voyages (look I used a vocab word!).

Anne and Katie painting clouds while studying weather. . . .

Peach, always on the look out to keep out house free of mice and moles and other critters.

Halloween 2014-Military man, Raggedy Anne, Velma (from Scooby Doo), Fireman Ryan, and Little Pink Riding Hood.

We were given the fireman costume, and Ryan did not want to wear it. That is until he was told he would get to have mustache painted on. I really don't get the whole mustache fad, but if it gets him to wear the costume with out argument, I will roll with it.

Megan, when did she grow into such a young lady. Again a marvelous example of our feisty kitties.

More kitty love. Like the teeter totters in the back ground, those where what Ryan asked for, for his birthday. Do you know how hard it is to cut through a steel belted radial tire. I had no idea--that is why I called our neighbor from the old house and said "Dennis can you cut a tire in half for me?" To which he said "of course" because Dennis has the tools to do anything.

We had and ice storm. . . In November. That doesn't happen around here at this time of year anyhow. The plants were not too happy.

Icy ground.

Icy Dahlia.

Icy Camellia. . .What is it doing blooming in November anyhow? It is supposed to bloom in the spring!

Icy rose hips.

This was neat. . .an ice cast of a Rhododendron Leaf.

Now this guy we did not find during our ice storm. We found the cats playing with him in September. We kept him in a jar and fed him aphids for a few days and then let him go. I hope the cats left him alone this time.

Bernadette started laying. Hers are the little ones. She is half banty, so she lays little eggs. Two of her eggs equal one normal large egg, so we say she lays half an egg a day.