Field Trip: Ft. Dobbs

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Farm-to-Table: Sheep Shearing Day

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Farm-to-Table: Flock Swap

We attended a flock swap as part of our farm-to-table studies for this season.  It was pretty nifty.  There was an easily walkable variety of critters and folks, and we believe we have determined which chicken varieties we want to attempt.

We're planning to pursue Brahmas, Delawares, and Orpingtons. Tis a real pity we don't have our coop set up yet because I would have come home with these beauties!

Dark Brahma Standard pairs

The boys were enamored with the baby rabbits that were available as well, but I hold the same philosophy as a friend of mine who stated: Our animals need to provide a functional service, we all have to work for our food.  I don't have the mental constitution for skinning and eating rabbits at this time.  Too much of a city girl.

Last Race of the Year

We really enjoy getting together with our HotWheels club.  Every few months we'll overrun a fellowship hall or community center for the better part of a Saturday to buy-sell-trade little $1 car-cars and to race on a 50-foot downhill track.


A club is only as good as you make it, and it takes more than one person to make it.  DH stepped up to assist with the racing and now manages the racing and the points for those participating in the year-long points race.  I assist with the front door, collecting entry frees and table fees, distributing entry raffle tickets, assisting with race sign-ups and accepting the fees for racing.  Another couple manages the lunch that is included in the entry fee.  A father and (grown) son team manage the assembly and dis-assembly of the track. And another gentleman keeps it all running and handles the funds.  Somebody else handles the customs competitions.

Anyway, back to the racing...it's our favorite part of the gathering.  At the beginning of the year we received permission to have a "car number" for El Torro to participate in the points race while he was still in utero. and a car was run for him during the shows he was still baking in the oven.  He "participated" in his first show just before he was a month old and won the mainline race.  We all got something of a chuckle out of that.

The chuckle became an all-out guffaw this afternoon when it was realized that this one-toothed babe was the points champion for the mainline class.  We suspect the rules will be changed next year--it will be put up to a vote by the general membership (because another member was winning races without being present as well).

I don't have any pictures from today, but when I find which photographic devise the race winner pics are located on I'll post those.  *lol*

A good family time, every time!  We can't wait for the "season" to begin again in February (or March).

Ultimate Frisbee

For some reason I thought Ultimate Frisbee and Disc Golf were synonymous--kind of like Best Foods and Hellman's.  But they're not.  Which we found out when we showed up for an introductory clinic for Ultimate Frisbee with an area league that is looking to possibly start an elementary/middle school team.

I like the idea of Ultimate--lots of action, but designated as non-contact.  The boys seemed to like it overall, but got their knickers in a wee-bit of a twist because some other kids were "hogging" during the game play.  A few observations resulted from that: a) there is no "I" in "team" and trying to put it in there results in no scores; b) having a fuller grasp of the game play prior to actually playing would be helpful; c) putting three puny-like geek-esque homeschooled boys on one team can potentially stunt any hope for scoring--especially if #b has been neglected.

We had a good time though, and it's unfortunate that I have not figured out how to orchestrate a means for these three boys to practice what they started to learn in a functional and helpful manner.  However, they did earn their Ultimate Beltloops and that finished off Eldest's Sportsman pin.  And they ran about so much that Wee-one practically crawled over to sit on the floor at my feet when there was still 30minutes left to the event.  *two thumbs up*  And it was exceptionally kind of the facilitators to include Wee-one at all since he did not meet the minimum age requirement.

Practicing tossing a frisbee.

Running laps to start warm-up.

They made warm-ups silly fun with high-step runs...

...zombie walks...

...and a move to free up the ball-and-socket of the hip,
but it looked like The Monkees met Jazzercise or something.

I don't think he quite understood that he was supposed
to be defending, or blocking, the pass during this drill.

Taking a break from cheering the game by checking out the flooring material.

Group pic at the end of the 90-min clinic. 
I've notated the young coach that engaged Wee-one when he was getting
mopey during warm-ups, a homeschooling friend from our Pack
that joined us at the clinic, and Eldest. 
Where's Wee-one you ask?

He decided he'd had enough and sat near me.

Grandma's Visit

A month later I've realized that we never blogged about Grandma's visit.

We took her to Lego. 

We like to avoid rush hour heading to Lego by heading to a museum earlier in the afternoon.

Wee-one was stoked to finally be able to do the monthly build!

We took her to a park date. 

We spent a few hours at Barnes&Noble (and fetched some Take It to Your Seat centers books for this fall). 

Not this particular workbook, but this brand.

We survived a day without A/C during 90* temps.

A non-functioning blower does iced lines make.

Trying to cool down the baby.  While some would leave a hot baby nekkid, we kept a onesie on him to prevent sticking.

We went to a neighbor's Independence Day cook-out.  

We went blackberry picking and she made us freezer jam. 

We took her to the last two swim lessons (and she enjoyed conversation with Ms. Vanessa) of the first summer session. 

She started reading The Hardy Boys to the boys.

I feel like I'm forgetting some events/activities...

We're eager for another visit! (From either grandmother!!) 

Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

Five Counties, One Day

I'll spare myself a bit of the ridicule as to why we were in Winston-Salem two days in a row, but we opted to take the opportunity to check out Pilot Mountain State Park just up the road since we were so close.

An outcropping of rock viewable from a scenic outlook
 off the upper parking area.

The gal in the office was very helpful and lovely to chat with.  We knew we wouldn't be able to hit any of the trails due to complete lack of preparation, but we figured we could get information so an actual outing to Pilot Mountain could be planned properly.  We left with flyers about the geology, the various trails, and even a Junior Ranger booklet (that applies to all of the State Parks). 

She also stated that Hanging Rock was only another 30min up the road....so away we went.  The roads got pretty wendy-windy and Eldest was getting queasy, but we made it just fine.  Hanging Rock State Park has a little museum in its Visitors Center, and some cute little family cabins across the way.  FWIW, there's no cell coverage up there.  *grin*

A collage of images from the Civilian Conservation Corps' (CCC)
 work at Hanging Rock State Park.  This is found in the museum
 in the Visitor Center where you can learn more about the CCC,
 Hanging Rock, and the biodiversity of the area.

Both hold great promise as camping locations, hiking locations, and photography locations for our family.

Battleship North Carolina

After we finished at the Historic Burgaw Depot, we decided to continue the approximately 20mi to the USS North Carolina to check it out---y'know, since we were there anyway.  Now, this had not been part of our original plan for the day.  We noted the billboard on our way to Burgaw, and since Burgaw took no time at all (compared to House in the Horseshoe last year), we decided to check it out in anticipation of our upcoming studies of World War II.

The Visitor Center had a short movie (on loop) about the USS North Carolina that was narrated by a gentleman who served on another ship and witnessed some of work of the North Carolina.  During one battle it was thought the North Carolina was on fire because they were firing off so much artillery the resultant smoke was hanging thick about the ship.  Also in the Visitor Center is a model of each of the USS North Carolinas commissioned throughout the history of the United States Navy.

A model of the original USS North Carolina, a ship of the line
 authorized by Congress in 1816.



Eldest said that if he had served on the USS North Carolina
he would have liked to be assigned to Turret 1.   Wee-one
said he would have liked to work one of the deck-mounted
machine guns.



Tight sleeping quarters.  This isn't even a "room," it's an area that is
passed through to get from one section of the ship to another.

A sign on the patio of the Visitor Center where lunches can be enjoyed
looking out over the Battleship and its mooring slip off the Cape Fear River.

Another USS North Carolina has been commissioned. 

(Each USS North Carolina hyperlink in this blogpost takes you somewhere different...check them out!)

Burgaw Depot

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A Non-Traditional Tradition?

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Holocaust Survivor: Hank Brodt

Hank "the Tank" speaking at Temple Emmanuel about some of his
experiences as a Polish Jew during the Holocaust.

From an email received regarding the event:

Hank Brodt, a member of Temple Emanuel, is a Holocaust survivor of five camps.  It took him a long time to open up and address children and other groups about his past life. For years he did not tell anybody the story, refusing even to speak to his own children about his experiences, but when he opened up and spoke to his congregation here in Greensboro, it made him feel at home and he is now willing to share his experiences. Hank is a spokesman for those who cannot tell their story. He will be speaking about his experiences, in memory of those who perished and for those who cannot say Kaddish.


Hank immigrated to the United States in March of 1949 and was drafted into the American Army in 1950 during the Korean War. He has two daughters and two grandchildren. He and his wife Aida have lived in High Point for the last five years. He has been on four March of The Living trips with Temple Emanuel. When he was on the 2007 March of the Living, Rabbi Guttman asked him to light one of six candles at Birkenau. When he lit that candle, he pledged to himself that he would never turn down a request to speak about his experiences.


We are so lucky to have Hank in our congregation. We invite everyone to come and hear him speak; all ages are welcome.

It was quite remarkable to listen to Mr. Brodt speak.  We had attended because of the kids' interest in World War II and our intentions to start studying it after the holidays.  Unfortunately, the kids didn't gain as much from it as I would have liked--he has a lingering accent which was difficult for Eldest to understand--and he spoke conversationally rather than as a presenter of information (like a seminar or workshop).  It was similar to a conversation with me, tangenting off occasionally and not always chronological--it was enjoyable and IMO the best way to learn from another's experience, but my kids couldn't keep it straight, especially with not having prior knowledge of the main events.  So the kids felt a little lost.  If nothing else, it was great practice for sitting and listening respectively, and being respectful in a house of worship they were unfamiliar with.

He has added his story, or testimony, to the audio repositories of WWII stories.  He survived five concentration camps, the first of which he had been sorted into the line of those to be disposed of, but when asked his age he lied and said he was 16 which moved him to the line of those to be put to work.  If I recall correctly, he was 13yo when Germany invaded Poland.  The first camp he was in was Plaszow.  I didn't catch the name of the second one well enough to guess at the spelling in order to look it up online later.  His third camp was Mauthausen.  The fourth one sounded like "Melk" and he said it was 80km from Vienna, but I haven't found it yet.  The fifth one I have not yet located either, despite a list of Nazi Concentration Camps.  It sounded like he said Edenhausen, he said it had three crematoriums and he was liberated 6 May 1945.

Some articles about Mr. Brodt (or quoting him):
http://www2.journalnow.com/news/2008/jul/30/realities-of-holocaust-must-be-told-survivor-says-ar-110309/

http://charlotte.news14.com/content/top_stories/597870/survivor-remembers-the-holocaust/

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20070417/ai_n19012853/

His interview with Wake Forest University for their Holocaust repository:
http://wakespace.lib.wfu.edu/jspui/bitstream/10339/1386/4/HankBrodtTranscript.pdf

Marbles Museum

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Water Wheel Build

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Rocky Mountain National Park

After a weekend of short fuses, and a Monday morning starting to look the same way, we took off for the incomparable Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park, Colorado.  For those of you who are fans of The Shining, the Stanley Hotel where the movie was filmed is in Estes Park.  I was told years ago that they charge non-guests who wish to enter--I've never looked into it as parts of that movie still disturb me.

Once again we left later in the day than I wanted, so we only had a couple hours available once we arrived; and once again, we were tardy in picking up Grandma from the office.  The good news?  The kids finished earned their Junior Ranger Badges for RMNP this afternoon!  Our $20 entry fee is good for the week, so if life (and gas money) cooperates we might go back Wednesday to see more of the park--and take more pictures since we've been a bit slim on the shutterbugging.

Due to time constraints we only made it to the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center on Hwy36 out of Estes Park and the Moraine Park Visitor Center around the corner.  Today was the first day this fall that the Trail Ridge Road has been closed, they were hoping to have it reopened tomorrow.  Maybe we'll be lucky and it'll be open Wednesday if we can make it back.  Regardless, it's pretty much unheard of for it to have remained without closure for so long!

An information plaque outside the restrooms of the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center.

It faces the part of the visitor center building that has the detail in the bottom right frame.

At Beaver Meadows we collected our passport stamp, the kids' Junior Ranger booklets (different booklets for different age groups at this park), and purchased Junior Ranger pencils and 12 postcards.  Two maps of the park were acquired at the entrance gate when we paid our fee.

We arrived at Moraine Park just in time for the last Portraits of the Past tour of the season.  Today was closing day for the Moraine Park Visitor Center.  (If Trail Ridge had been open it would have been the last day for the Alpine Visitor Center as well--the highest visitor center in the National Parks system).  The tour had to do with Abner Sprague and his family settling the Moraine Park area, the resort they started, the improvements the various family members did on their respective 160acre lots from the Homestead Act.  It also talked about Imogene who stayed with Abner and his wife Alberta for 6-weeks from Wisconsin and felt the breathtaking views of the mountains healed her heart after a painful divorce from her first husband (a Civil War veteran whom she started a soldiers' home with in WI).  She ultimately started her own lodge on the 160acres she purchased for $200.  The dance/reception hall was the last building she had built on the property, and it is the only one the government kept when they bought the property from her grandkids for $40,000.  It is now the Moraine Park Visitor Center.

View of a hilltop across Moraine Park from the parking area of the visitor center.

FYI--we're on a hillside, you can't actually see the meadow in between,

(or Bear Lake Road) just the Ponderosas in the immediate foreground

of a gentler part of the slope.

During the tour we stopped on the front porch of the William Allen White cabin, a newspaper editor from Kansas (Emporia, I believe).  He, his wife, and their two children (Bill and Mary) would spend the entire summer at their cabin in Moraine Park (until Mary's death due to a horse-riding accident back in Kansas).  William had built a studio--we should have taken a picture of the steep steps up the hillside to it--where he'd spend his days writing.  He wrote over 20 books (24 or 28, can't recall now) from that little studio cabin and his wife would carry his meals up to him three times a day when he was on a good writing streak.  There was even a bed in there!

The White's cabin is used by the Park for their Artist in Residence program during the summer.  A different artist lives there for 2weeks all throughout summer.  They are selected via juried application and are required to provide two free programs to the public, and one piece of art to the Park.  This summer they had two painters, a composer...and I suddenly don't recall the other two or three.  Previously they've had dancers, quilters, all kinds of art genres!  The studio is not available for the artists' use, nor for public gawking.

When the tour finished, the kids and I tromped up to the studio and sat on the porch to finish up their Junior Ranger booklets so we could dash off to fetch Grandma from the office.  The view from that little porch was absolutely superb--if I had a means of ensuring we could eat regular meals I'd live somewhere like that!!  The pictures just don't do it justice!

Looking up the studio steps.  There's a quantity of stone steps going

down the hillside between here and the cabin.

Longs Peak from the studio porch looking across Moraine Park

(with the fuzzy edge of my red sweater creeping in)

Possibly Hallett Peak...Or Taylor Peak, or Otis Peak, or Flattop Mountain...

didn't have a Ranger with us to help identify.  As viewed from the porch of the studio.

An attempt at a better pic of the recently snow-capped mountains,

on the 'upper road' heading from the White cabin to the visitor center--

believe it's Deer Mountain.

Bear Lake Road is barely peeking through the Ponderosa

in the left foreground.

Once the booklets were completed we made our way back down to the main trail to return to the visitor center and the now-needed restroom.  I mention this because of the humor/disaster that followed.  I had not zipped up all the pockets on my little backpack and when I got momentarily caught between the door and the uber-high-mounted toilet paper holder trying to get into the stall, my calendar popped out of the pocket and landed squarely in the unused toilet.  Gratitude is expressed that there's only 2.5months left in it so I don't feel absolutely wretched that I've wasted an ENTIRE calendar.  The Rangers were kind enough to fetch a trash bag for me so I could safely carry it home....

A picture of a magpie SecondBorn took in the parking lot. 

There were two of them muttering along, and we made other sightings

of magpies while we were on the tour.

A picture I took of a magpie while we were waiting for the tour to start.

Immediately after snapping the pic it started eating stuff off the plant.

We stopped in Estes Park for a drive-thru bite to eat, opting for Taco Bell since both locations in Cheyenne should be completely shut down for wretched service and horrifying food.  Placed our order, paid for our order, received our change....and sat waiting for at least five-minutes.  I was actually taking the opportunity to do some facebooking so didn't note the specific time passed.  There was nobody waiting behind us.  Finally, a gentleman poked his head out the window and asked what I needed, "I haven't received my food yet."  He turned around, and a moment later our bag was passed out.  At least it was edible, and it wasn't a mess in a wrapper like in Cheyenne.


A brief history of RMNP can be found at http://estes.on-line.com/rmnp/articles/briefhis.html.

SecondBorn's Book Club & First Born's Chess Club

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Ft. Laramie--Part 2

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Guernsey State Park, Register Cliffs, Oregon Trail ruts

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Adventures in Nebraska

We headed out to Cabela's in Sidney, Nebraska.  There aren't any within easy distance of our home (though we do enjoy Bass Pro Shop) so we decided to go adventuring there.

DH, Grandma, and the kids found sunglasses that worked for them, I found some little travel binoculars with a compass for the boys (since I left their binoculars, compasses, and leaf presses at home unintentionally), and I picked up a hip pack that has removeable shoulder straps to replace my purse while we're here--to better enable my functionality on our adventures.

The top of a massive taxidermy display in the store.

After grabbing some lunch on the go we headed back towards the Wyoming border--only to be stopped towards the end of a construction zone by a dark blue pick-up truck parked sideways across the only lane of traffic.  As we came to a stop behind the traffic ahead of us we noticed some similar pick-ups with flashing blue lights coming up the on-ramp, escorting a massive truck with a long string of fully-armed humvees behind it....and two very low-flying helicopters flying back and forth across the interstate surveying the surroundings.  Once the convoy was on the interstate our line of traffic was allowed to continue forward.  They all stayed in the right lane, and even waved us around when we got to the transporter.

Our deductions?  Once they got that truck moving they weren't stopping or slowing down for anything.  The blue pick-ups blocked subsequent on-ramps until the convoy passed so there wasn't any merging concerns--same reason for the interstate traffic being stopped when the convoy was merging on.  It was really interesting to observe it all, and I'm really grateful that they didn't block the interstate until they arrived at their destination---that would have been a really inconvenient pain.

DH, ever the comedian, joked that it must be Obama's teleprompter.  He also suggested I take pics of the entourage, etc.  I explained that if they had that much firepower escorting it, I didn't need to be getting anybody's goat up by snapping pictures for the kids' scrapbook.  They'll just have to engrave it on their brain instead.

Things to do in Cheyenne

We only had the afternoon and evening with Grandma.  The original plan was to head to the State Museum, but there were a couple of errands to run first.  After errands, we swung past the Tree House that Urban Forestry runs to find out the hours.  We also found out that they have an exploratory room in their office that we are welcome to venture into and observe at our own pace and interest.

Next, we headed to the Children's Garden to get their hours and their calendar of events.  What an AWESOME facility!!

We finished off our afternoon out with a stop at the library.  They moved to a new location since we were last here and it is FABULOUS!  The entire second floor is the kids and teens section, with the teen nook quarantined from the younger crowd.  A homeschooling open house was just finishing up when we arrived so we snuck in and signed the kids up for a couple of book club events that are happening during our visit.  The library also has a weekly chess club for Eldest's age range, and an oversized chess game with hollow plastic pieces that are about knee-high on me.  Oh, and their selection of pioneer related materials is fantastic (as one would hope given that some four trails pass through Wyoming).

Ft. Laramie--Part 1

The plan was to head out to Ft. Laramie, Register Cliffs, and the Oregon Trail ruts in Guernsey, WY.  As always, life is what happens while making plans...

We traveled from Cheyenne to Torrington, where we spied the Cold Springs marker.

We also stopped at a Rock Shop on the outskirts of Torrington, WY where we picked up some petrified Wyoming Palm Wood (if I heard him correctly it was found around Rock Springs, WY), and a small chunk of fossilized snails and shellfish.

Our error was in not also stopping for an early lunch....

As we approached Ft. Laramie we also spied markers for Ft. Platte:

and "The Greatest Ride in History" during the Red Cloud War:

Can you imagine trying to pack your prized earthly possessions AND several months worth of supplies in this cramped little space??





Ft. Laramie played a major role in diplomatic and military operations, as well as resupplying pioneers heading west.  The building behind the prairie schooner could house two regiments of cavalry.  And in the field to the right (and slightly behind) this display of mobility is what is left of the canon:

There's a stream or two that meander near the site of the storeowner's home and the cavalry barracks; it also meanders along the path the picture of the canon was taken from.  While strolling, DH spied a fish swimming in the too-shallow water (at least one third of its back was exposed and that branch of the creek ended in a mushy bit of grass), so he caught it to transport it to the deeper section of the creek.



We poked about the Visitor Center a bit, asked about the Junior Rangers program, and watched their overview movie about the fort and its many incarnations.  Then we realized it was 2pm, we were all famished and what was left of their Junior Ranger booklets was going to take awhile.  We decided we would come back to Ft. Laramie at another time, and instead continue on to Guernsey for lunch and the sites we were going to visit there.  To our dismay, we didn't locate anything viable to eat so we cut our field trip short and hightailed it back to Cheyenne for an early dinner.

So, at some point in the next few weeks the boys and I will be heading back--better prepared.  In the meantime, I leave you with a picture of the map of Ft. Laramie.