Cross Country

Chandler is on our area homeschool Jr. High cross-country team. His first practice was yesterday in LR. Yes, to those of you who are wondering how a homeschooler can be on the track team. We do have those things. Socialization is definitely not an issue. In fact we have baseball, basketball, volleyball, yearbook clubs, drama, and lots of other "stuff". We have 3 scheduled meets this fall one in LR and the other two possibly in Conway. One he will miss due to Grandpawpaw's 100th birthday, but he'll make the other 2. He's excited, ran well, & had lots of fun. Chandler likes to stay busy...not sure which parent he got that from! ;o) As usual, Chandler gives 100%. He was raring to go and made sure he had all of his equipment with him. He wore his Garmin which lets him know how fast he runs and exactly how far. One of the kids said, "hey, cool" Then he wanted to know if Chandler was afraid he was going to get lost in the church parking lot thus needing the Garmin. We laughed & laughed. Of course he wasn't serious, but it was cute.

Clay could run on the elementary team, but not sure he's that in to it at this point. I'm sure once he sees Chandler and the other kids out there, he'll want to run. Of course Clay is Clay, he does his own thing and really doesn't care about competition the way Chandler does. We encourage both of the boys to try new things & see exactly what they are interested in.

We've started a new 4H club with other homeschoolers, and the boys are going to be involved in that. Chandler has also joined the Shooting Club which has competitions in rifle, pistol, shotgun, muzzle loader, and archery. He and a friend from church are going to do that together. Another of Chandler's friends, who is 13 & lives behind us, just won the state competition in the long bow competition over-all. He beat out even the adults. What an accomplishment! Clay wants to join the shooting club, but isn't old enough yet. He can still practice though so he'll be ready when he's old enough.

So...this week we're running, shooting, and homeschooling!

Holiday Weekend!

As soon as I got off work Friday we hitched up the tractor and headed up to the cabin. It seemed like it took forever to get there but we finally made it. As soon as we arrived I did my final inspection of the "indoor" plumbing and then turned on the water!!!!! That's right, we now have water. I have contracted a local man to dig our water lines and put the septic tank in place. Well, we now have water and the septic tank will be put in it's place this week. (hopefully the rain from Gustav will hold off for him!) I can not tell you how great it feels to have hot water to take a shower in!!!! Oh yeah!!!!

I mowed the property again and burned off some of the debris that was left around. I must say it is slowly but surely getting there. During my cleaning and mowing, I came across two "yellowjacket" nest and I got a little too close!!! I was running around the property like a mad man. Stephanie and the boys were looking at me like I was crazy and later she told me that she and Chandler were saying..." he better not run toward us bringing those things with him"!!!! It wasn't funny at the time, but I wish they would have had a video on me... we might be ten thousand dollars richer!!!!

My next trip will be to complete the plumbing under the cabin as it drains into the septic. Indoor plumbing is a glorious thing.

These pictures are a progression of the land as we have been working on it!!