Farm-to-Table: The Grapes are In!

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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.

Great-uncle Jack's Christmas Dinner

Today we found out about the traditional Christmas Dinner that happened at my great-uncle Jack's house.

He and Aunt Catherine had six children (which I'm sure chaffed my grandmother's zero-population growth sensibilities).  They would enjoy tacos for their holiday dinner.  It required so much prep work (browning, dicing, grating...) that they wouldn't have tacos very often, so it was a special meal for a special occasion in their household.

At least that's how the family lore tells it.

Advent, Maybe

We're behind.

Things have been a bit hectic with Cub Scouts, Grandma's move, and life in general.  We managed to get the tree up this weekend...and mostly decorated.  We found suitable white candles for our advent wreath we started assembling in 2006 (and have yet to use)--we're still in search of an adequate purple pillar to use with it.  The Jesse Tree ornaments I cross-stitched before Wee-one was born are MIA--hopefully we'll find them in time to use this spring.

We have not managed to integrate any of the Danish traditions we were wanting to explore this season.

We found our stack of Advent cards and finally utilized them today.  No credit or copyright is designated on them and I don't recall where we got them from.  They've been puttering about in our collection of holiday paraphernalia but we kept forgetting to do them.  We're starting where we are, instead of trying to catch up on the ones we missed.  We intend to do them at bedtime--read the blurb, read the scripture, play the hymn from our hymnbook discs, and go to bed with visions of our Savior dancing through our head.

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).

Water Bottle Rockets

When we were shopping around for a Pack to join, the Tiger den of one of the Packs we visited launched water bottles.  I chatted with the den leader and received some verbal instructions, and supplies were picked up within the next week.  We didn't actually build it until a month or so later.  And we got one of the fittings wrong so now we're tinkering with it until we get it so it's as easy to utilize as the one we witnessed.

Meanwhile, we found a Pack that is very close by and has a great vibe to it.  The Cubmaster had built a different water bottle launcher than ours, and he had the Pack out to his house to build rocket bottles and roast marshmallows.

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.