to hear news that I'm an Aunt again.....My SIL went in to labor late last eve, was still going around midnight and today is her birthday...so she just got the best gift! .  Please pray for her as she's a month early, and there may be issues with lung developement....pray that she has peace.  Well, I'll let her update on Baby Ezekiel Joseph's arrival.

*Update* Mom and I and the girls will be hot footing it to LA, probably late this evening to go help out for a bit. Please pray for a safe trip, traveling mercies, wakefulness and energy and all that. Please pray for mom as she has issues with weariness from coughing fits at night. Pray that the girls would be extra helpful. Pray that my SIL kids will be extra obedient and helpful to their parents and to us when we're there.

Also, please pray for my family who will be watching our dogs, that the task will not be onerous to them.

Thanks,

~Kate

Darth Hannah "forcing" me to give her a snack:

Darth Hannah wants chicken:

Darth Hannah in the squeaky throws of releasing herself from her helmet:

I'm off to get her a snack! ~Kate

 Here is a rundown, largely in picture form, of our Memorial weekend. First time I've done any sort of celebrating it in years. Frank was usually at work and all. I guess, my warning with this post is that it involves some of the processes involved with Poultry Executions, and therefore certain videos will have a warning with them. I did not post anything showing the actual butchering, but I do have pics of the dead chickens being plucked, etc. Read and View at your own risk...off we go.

First up, Fri. evening we had a girls sleep over with cousin Shayna, no pics, but it was a typical girls night...yes, I let them watch a movie and have chips and stuff...what are moms and aunt's for?! The girls all slept in the big room on the pull out couch...or I should say...they played in there a good part of the night.  After gun shots were heard around 9:30 which took mom and I a few minutes to decide whether we should call 911 or the police dept. directly, seeing as how we hadn't heard any screams, or even saw anything conclusive. It was determined we should call the police, who then routed us to another number. This operator informed us that a unit was already at the park behind our house in response to several other callers on the same thing.  Good to know. And before you think we're nuts....(uhh...too late) it was definitely not fire works, and it also sounded as though whoever was being shot at , kept coming...it was like this " Pow!.......pow!...pow!pow!pow!"  a bit unnerving. Nan spent the remainder of the evening laying on the other couch in the big room telling wildly made up stories to the girls before they settled down.

Sat. Am, we grabbed donuts on our way out the door for our 1 hour drive to our friends homestead. Mr. G is in the Navy and he plans to run his family farm when he retires. Today they were butchering meat poultry and we actually volunteered to help! So, the pics will explain a lot. Hannah actually butchered a chicken, with Mr. G holding her hand, holding the knife. Then she watched as it was boiled to loosen feathers,put in the homemade plucker, and she watched the initial part of the viscerating declaring that her chicken was "lovely". She then went off to sit on the defunct riding lawn mower while the G's teenage boy pushed her at full tilt down the drive. (I bet he slept well)  It took me a bit to get into the spirit of the thing, I had to talk my way through the viscerating...and eventually learned how to gut a chicken...a skill worth having should I ever be trapped in the wilderness, starving, and a wild chicken strolls across my path....

The basics are: a chicken is placed head first into a cone, then it sees light at the bottom and pops its head out. Mr. G grabs the head and cuts the jugular vein. The chicken then basically bleeds to death, but it kinda doesn't know, as it faints from blood loss, and then ...just doesn't wake up. After we're sure they're dead, the chicken is then put into a hot water bath with a little dish soap (since chickens have an oil gland for their feathers) for 1 minute to loosen up the feathers. Then the bird is cooled off with water as it's put into the Chicken Pluckin' Contraption which then bops the chicken around without hurting the skin, but gets nearly all feathers off. After that, the final plucking of the guys-I mean, of the chickens by the guys...then the chicken (which looks remarkably like a rubber chicken) is handed off to the ladies for final feather picken' and chicken cleaning.

The Chickens!                                                      The Executioners Cones

Mr. G & son running the Plucking Contraption              Pulling off stubborn feathers....

These are young laying hens...they have this cool chicken tractor for the older layers, they move it around the property, so they're kinda free range..

Here is a video of a chicken being washed and then put into the plucker:

And here is a film of a chicken in the plucker...it's not gruesome, or bloody, but it may not be pleasant if you're of a very sensitive nature...but for those who are interested in how the contraption works...:

Me learnin' chicken guttin'                          Hoppy and her "lovely" chicken

Amanda G. teaching my Lizzy & Shayna      Our "official" certificate

Across the fields from the G. homestead

Shayna bringing back eggs from the chicken tractor.

And a sweet video, Life on the Farm:

And on the drive home, mom randomly videoing scenery...:

Sunday was the church picnic at New Quarter Park in Williamsburg. It was very lovely, but poor Hoppy got a tick which I had to pull out...very dramatic for her.

Monday we did housework, it was bread baking day and laundry day.  We made a Covenant Patriarch Cake, that is a King cake with 5 babies as opposed to one. .  It was delicious!  We had it after a cookout provided by my sis and her family...steaks and hot dogs on the grill, baked potatoes, salad, corn. It was all delicious. We were especially glad to be able to celebrate with all of their family, their sons being off from work. Here's a pic of the Covenant Patriarch Cake:

All in all it was a very rewarding and memorable memorial weekend. I hope next years is as interesting and fun.

Thanks for bearing up under the bizarre recollections of our chicken experience, (several people had asked for details) and for more pics than I'm sure you needed. Hope you all had a blessed Memorial Day. May God save our troops physically and spiritually.

~Kate.

that's what I'm doing alright.  So, we've decided to attempt square foot gardening in the hopes that we will finally have a way of gardening that suits us.  I've done the row thing...admittedly it was also the year of the drought and everything burned to a crisp. And , I've done container gardening...which was passably successful but not permanent. But here, I get semipermanent. Crop rotation, the whole kit and caboodle in a manageable way. It also requires math...square roots included...someone shoot me before I continue down the Math Path!!! AAAAAaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh.....

So, I had to build a box. A box with 12 sq. foot sections in it, and you plant them with just enough seeds to get the amount of plants that would fit in that sq. foot according to pkg. spacing. So you don't have overkill...too much of a harvest, and  also for easier gardening. I didn't take pics of the box construction, I know you'll be sorry to hear. It was very funny. I do not have arm strength...and I don't have clamps or a work table.

So on the driveway, with a daughter leaning against the end of a board to lean into my drilling on the other side of the board. They're giggling..."it makes me feel "zzzzshhhhh"" ...and I'm yelling..."Push! I can't get the screw all the way down! Oh well! Good enough!"  So, my board has a few screws still sticking out and is a tad wonky. But I do have pictures of the completed box, with Mel's mix and some veggies and marigolds planted. It is covered by a handmade screen top which you can lift off to tend your plants, but is to help keep animals from getting at your plants. There is also a pipe frame which will have a plastic mesh stretched across it to vine up the tomatoes, cucumbers and yes, watermelon...awesome. So here's the pics:

That's mom's dog, Betsy, in the background, barking at the neighbor.

Here's a picture of the side of the house in front where we've cleaned out an old rose bed. Cleaned up an existing bush. added one plus a baby it sprouted that was on the front path garden, and a housewarming gift of roses for mom, and one more rose bush which Hannah bought for me for Mother's Day (well, we'll call it that way at any rate).:

On the left is a Wisteria Bush that I'm climbing up a synthetic grid to hide the waste containers.

Isn't it purty? We've been busy bees outside, and now have to catch up on inside, before we get back to working outside. I have to mow this week....things are starting to grow again... I can't wait to be Whackin' Weeds again!

~Kate

  I am about to post some excellent pictures and some exclusive-only to be seen here- videos, one of which will then be privated...

So, here's a smattering of pics. first up: Cinnamon Raisin bread, fresh from the oven and slathered in butter...awesome!

Next up is pics from our 2 mile Walk For Life to benefit our local Crisis Pregnancy Center. Mom walked with the girls and I as well. Actually, we all took part, but the girls ran back and forth along the line of people, for there were many we knew, and mom got in with a couple other people, and I kept pace with a lovely young woman, and her mom who is legally blind and has a seeing eye dog.  The good news is, I made it without collapsing. See? Mowing and edging is good for you. Speaking of Edging...the last pic, is my beautifully edged front walkway.

Liz, Lanie & Hoppy                                                  Hoppy and Carly

And we're off!                                           Liz and Hoppy with the lake we went round...

Nan and Liz after the walk                            My slightly pink face after the walk.

Lastly, we were invited to meet up with a family at church at the ice rink. I haven't skated for 14 years, the last time was with my husband when we were courting...and as mom recalled, that was one of the many outings she accompanied us on.  Poor Frank spent the entire time on the ice, the referee kept coming around and going "You again huh?" but we had a great time. This time, I actually did fairly well. Though I will admit, the session ended with a nasty fall for me, flat on my face, and a fat lip along with "ice burn" on my face and nose. If you've ever seen the movie the Cutting Edge, you will recall one phrase which sums it all up "Toe Pick!" I did skate a bit more afterwards to heal my wounded dignity, as well as to dry out a bit after sitting on the ice for a while. I had really good tight lacing and wrapped my bad ankle before putting on the skates for those of you who may have remembered and been concerned.

The girls did a great job! Their first time on the ice; from curb crawlers to rink rollers in no time. They are all desperate to go again. Elena informed me her body really needs to do that again. Ha! Mine on the other hand, is sure that it had its fill.

Well, tomorrow I'll post what we're doing in the garden...things to make my carpenter cringe! But by golly, I did it!!

God is good.

~Kate

I weed whacked today. First time. It was awesome. I took Dominion over those weeds baby.  I'm happy to tell you that they waist high patch of weeds that I couldn't mow down, has been whacked down...and no snakes jumped out to protest! Baxter kept trying to attack my weed whacker, so I had to put him inside.

I was off and running, ...I whacked the patch, the ditch, the fence line...then I figured out how to convert it to an edger...and I trenched! Awesome! I even figured out how to change the spool doohicky to get more line. Now the house is all nice and edgy...

I'm very proud of myself for doing new things gang. I mean, I've mowed before, after Frankie got hurt and then after his various surgeries, I did quite a bit of manual labor type stuff....but I never did a weed whacker or worked a grill. And now, I'm whackin' away...and making Mom's Homemade Burnt Chicken ...like there's no tomorrow.

Speaking of no tomorrow.... The girls and I, and my mom are doing a 2 mile "walk" for our local Crisis pregnancy center. I even got a sponsorship! Thanks Lory and Greg!  Now this is going to be a challenge, because, unlike Buyit who has a teeny chipotle belly and runs...I repeat..runs 10 miles on a regular basis... I have more of a Mexican restaurant buffet going, and I. do. not. run.  So this will be a challenge.

 It will also be challenging to see how many people will be afraid I'm having a heart attack, thanks to my general out of shapeness, but also my german-irish coloring...fair skinned with a normally rosey complextion which turns bright tomato red with any exertion. Even when I was in shape gang, I still turned bright red and pasty white all around that...and people start running over with "are you okay? Do you need to sit down?" written all over them. Seriously, when we first moved in and I was mowing my smallish front yard, the neighbor took one look at me and made me stop mowing...he finished for me. I finally have him convinced that I'm not going to die on the spot, that this bizarre coloring is normal for me...at least, I think I do.

So, I'm off to rest my arms after their strenuous, yet satisfyingly wonderful whacking workout and get some sleep for tomorrows wonderfully wheezing walk.

Have a great week-end...and don't forget to pray for my stamina...this may turn me into an excercise type person yet....maybe.

~Kate

Psalm 100 says "...for the Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting and His truth endures to all generations"

Life for us is summed up by this. Yes, we are widowed and orphaned in a worldly sense, but we are also beloved and children of our heavenly father.  Things for me have taken on such different nuances. Joy is found in unlikely places...like tax totting, that I am constantly brought back to God. It is He who has done this, not me. He has brought a perspective of, "well, in the long run, it's what matters to God, and what He wills that it boils down to. Will the world come to an end because I am weak? I am unable? I need ____? No. Time keeps moving forward." It's an odd thing when someone you love dies, especially on a nice day- a kind of picnicky day- and you're wondering why everything didn't just come to a screaching halt. Wasn't that earth shattering? but actually, no. It was a deep wound, but not mortal for us.

So, things that would have, and has in the past, brought me to absolute stressed out, impotent inaction have been toned down. Every time I even think, or begin to feel all het up about something...it's like a flashlight in my mind klicks on and a tape recorder starts and there I am in the lost corridor of the hospital facing a dyimg man and being the one who has to tell him...and there they are, my own personal mystery ministers of grace.  2 people (perhaps) who reached out to remind me that He is in control, that He cares, that I am not alone and not forsaken. Did that alter my feelings then? no. I felt totally alone, like I was in a desert. But God was there with living water, and Steve was there with stick flavored coffee- another minister of grace.

....and now for something completely different....

We school in the Charlotte Mason style, and we love it, and I especially love it, because my oldest child is one of the most unique thinkers I've ever known. She surprises me with insights and fun. We read Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield and we're reading it again so Nan can enjoy it too. In it, Uncle Henry asks his grandniece, Elizabeth Anne to read to him Sir Walter Scott's Poem: The Lady of the Lake. Although, he just hands her the book and says "The Staggit eve...." by which he was quoting from the beginning of the poem about a hunt for a stag...and part of it goes like this:

"I.

The stag at eve had drunk his fill,
Where danced the moon on Monan's rill,
And deep his midnight lair had made
In lone Glenartney's hazel shade;
But when the sun his beacon red
Had kindled on Benvoirlich's head,
The deep-mouthed bloodhound's heavy bay
Resounded up the rocky way,
And faint, from farther distance borne,
Were heard the clanging hoof and horn.

II.

As Chief, who hears his warder call,
'To arms! the foemen storm the wall,'
The antlered monarch of the waste
Sprung from his heathery couch in haste.
But ere his fleet career he took,
The dew-drops from his flanks he shook;
Like crested leader proud and high
Tossed his beamed frontlet to the sky;
A moment gazed adown the dale,
A moment snuffed the tainted gale,
A moment listened to the cry,
That thickened as the chase drew nigh;
Then, as the headmost foes appeared,
With one brave bound the copse he cleared,
And, stretching forward free and far,
Sought the wild heaths of Uam-Var."

So, I'm reading along, doing an excited Grandpa voice, actually a badly done New Englander Grandpa voice which sounds not unlike an inner city Southern Grandma..go figure... and Lizzy jumps up and says "I know what a copse is!"

And I'm like "Great! What is it?" and she says...

"A dead body!!!"

ahhh...no. We were absolutely tickled...and there may be some call to space out Old Testament laws on ceremonial uncleanness and Literature lessons.  The wonderful thing is that she was so into the story and so excited that she really knew something...all on her own!

Speaking of all on her own, I sat down to do my Va state taxes. First time. Fl didn't have state tax. So, I have to figure out how being here in a partial tax year, how much income based on the months I was here and so forth. The tricky bit is, I am not a math person.

Math and I are not really on speaking terms. Math is a jerk, really. I don't like Math. Math could die tomorrow and I wouldn't care....till I came to buy something I know...so, Math and I have a sorta Hate/despise/dependant anyway kind of relationship...and on those times when we are forced into close confinement, particularly when that closeness deals with biggish numbers, decimals, fractions, multiplications, and negative numbers (I think the tax form guys are on drugs)...I mean, we're talking major feud, Math and I. You might as well start adding in alphabets, which is ignorant but some people really like it and have given it a really fine sounding name: "algebra" which I think means "dude, lets throw in some letters too...te-he" in Latin.

So my mom, bless her heart she's helping her grown daughter do math, sat down to walk me through the more or less insane world of tax formulation.  You think I'm kidding? I mean, the signature line says: Sign here, date, check box if deceased. You just signed it, and your gonna then declare your dead. I'm tellin' ya, somebody needs to get all CSI on the IRS coffee cups.

We're plugging along...trying to translate the taxmans sanscrit...most of which is made up of pseudo words that I know are larely made up. really, look up the va state tax forms and take a gander at the directions and the directions to the directions aren't much more help either I'm afraid to say. So anyway, I'm adding, dividing, multiplying...I somehow got it into my head that .40 percent was half a percent in stead of 40 % and it took Mom a good bit to get that to go down...can I have a pepto chaser?  And after 3 distinct tries at doing this tax thing over the course of the day, and then covering scratch pads with figures...it suddenly dawns on me that all I had to do was divide by 3. Everything, to round up and divide by 3, cause I have only been here 1/3 of the year.  I had been guilty of Unnecessary Math! We had a good laugh over that. "Hi ...my name is Kathryn, and I'm guilty of unnecessary math". So, I figure it all up, and because of my odd situation and my taxable income being really tiny, but I have benefits from my husbands foresight, it looks like I gave charitable gifts at like 2 times my income...and my bottom line was in negative numbers...which I think are like Super Evil Villians in the math world, though the worst is definitely the "algebra" evil syndicate.  Mom said all of this proves that the poll which shows 80% of tax payers who do their own taxes are drunk when they do them is probably true...I mean, if it doesn't make you want a nice relaxing glass of red wine, I don't know what does. At any rate, I'll be glad to get my -$2,000.00 refund...do they use monopoly money for that?

Have a good evening, we're off to the art museum tomorrow, and I sure hope Lizzy has some great observations, I could use a laugh after doing my taxes sober.

Blessings,

~Kate

So, we've got a few days of light load school until I get Term 2 and 3 hashed out.  Part of it includes reading & listening to Pilgrims Progress by John Bunyan.

Today, Liz asked me who "BusyBob" is and why he wanted to kill Christian.  BusyBob? Uh....

"Yeah, BusyBob meets him on the road and says that he will get Chrisitan in the valley of the shadow of death. He's really creepy"

Wait...wait a minute....Busy Bob...Busy Bob...Bealzebub! Ha! ahahahahahahahahaha.

Man do I love this kid. Busy Bob is out to get you. And he is busy, as well as....a bob. ;0).

We're off to the park for a short while after the girls finish their chores.

~Kate

I wonder where the birdies is?  Actually, the birds and the squirrels are in my neighbors yards doing the congo near the fence in order to stir our voracious hounds into absolute frenzy...and I have to tell you, its' working. First thing in the morning is the "off". Both dogs scramble for prominence at the back door, and when it's flung wide...Charge!!!  Those few daredevil squirrels we have left, book it for the nearest tree...which isn't as near as they think, and they always barely make it....say it with me "Squirrel Nutkin!" . Poor Bets has missed the squirrels largely becuase she ends up entangled under Baxters huge lumbering limbs.  Then she gets down right mad and tries to eat Baxter which entails a wild chase throughout the backyard while she yaps curses at him. Baxter is just thrilled that she's chasing him and smiles widely with his huge tongue waving in the wind as he gallops away, which just makes Betsy more inflamed. 

So Spring is officially here for us. We've actually hit a day in the 70's and after a solid week of dreary skies and rain, we've had a couple days of sun.  Today I mowed the front and 1/3rd of the back yard.  I couldn't find my mulching doohicky for the lawn mower, so I used the bag option. It was way cool. I felt totally modern.  The girls were very excited and wanted me to fire up the grill to make "Mom's Homemade Burnt Chicken" I kid you not, that's what they call it, and oddly enough, they're looking forward to it.

My mom has finally decided to come home. She should be here in the next 3 or 4 hours.  The house is about as clean as we're able to with things still not in their permanent places, but I'm very happy with it and proud of my girls for keeping on top of their chores for the most part.

This weekend I have to cram in planning for Term 2 of our homeschool year...it reared its ugly head way too fast.

Lastly, please pray for us to get healthcare for Lizzy. She's been rejected because of her pre-existing condition and it's looking at costing me an arm and a leg and maybe a hip in order to get her some.

Have a blessed Sabbath tomorrow!

~Kate

So the girls and I went to Williamsburg this evening to drop off a meal for the G. family. Please pray for them as their daughter got a minor injury on Sunday, which got infected...and turned into a nasty infection that they've just now managed to get a handle on- so she's just been released from the hospital. On top of that, both of her parents have pneumonia.

Anyway, I decided to treat the girls to dinner out while we were that way and perhaps drop in on a shop or two.

So, we're looking for dinner, and Hannah says "There's BBQ" and I'm looking all over.  Where? I see vehicle dealerships, and maybe a McDonald's but I don't see BBQ. Then Lizzy says "over there, at the David Harleyson...remember?"

Uh-huh....then it dawns on me.  Harley Davidson! That's where the Sheriff's office held a Pig Run and BBQ fundraiser for me and the girls after Frankie died.  I had to explain that Harley Davidson is a motorcycle dealership and not a BBQ restaurant for Bikers....though , I may not be entirely accurate.

What fun to remeber and on the 2 year anniversary of his going home to Jesus. We sure do miss ya Mister

Blessings,

~Kate