Firewood

This past week we didn’t do hardly any school but we did get a lot of beautiful, well seasoned firewood for the winter. We went up to Sore Acres with the McNews on both Wednesday and Thursday.

 Inara found a playhouse in the huge stump

how did that get up there? (it’s a car door)

Andy

Ian

Zack

me

now that was a big tree

1…2…3…

JUMP!

our junior lumberjacks

This time we borrowed my dad’s truck and his cable and pulled up quite a few big logs. Some we carried quite a ways, too!

they look small but they were HEAVY!

  

the truck seems extra high when you’re lifting those logs up

now that is a big log to move…

the logs made quite a nice trail when dragging them back to the road

but pulling the truck back up the hill was so easy task either LOL

They were two very long days and we slept very well at night. But God blessed us with terrific company and gorgeous weather!

enjoying our lunch break

 

Inara enjoys the sunshine 

Now we just have to borrow a splitter and tackle the pile of rounds and logs piled in the driveway before the weather gets too horrible…

and this is the smallest of the four loads we brought home…

Youth Night

October 2nd was our first ever Friday School Youth Night. Jim and Sharon Gray hosted the event at their house on the river in Rose Valley.

The view was gorgeous and we could hardly hear the kids at all down the spiral staircase in the dungeon, I mean basement. :o)

The kids had a blast and so did the parents. The kids did whatever it was they were doing and the grown ups had fun playing cards and talking!

some of the young’ns eventually came up and joined us for a bit, but I think they got bored because they didn’t stay long

We also enjoyed yummy snacks, including warm chocolate-p.b. waffles!

So, I wonder what we’ll do next time???

Bicycle Safety With Melvin

Actually it should be “Bicycle Safety With Steve”… Our friend Steve came up from Portland to teach bicycle safety to my Dangerous Class for Boys at co-op on Friday.

He rides his bike to work and was in a bicycle accident with a car when he was a kid, so he was totally qualified to teach about what you should and should not do while riding your bike.

The best part was his helmet demonstration. While a helmet is a must for riding, it can’t totally protect you from being “stupid”. He put a helmet on a pumpkin whom he named Melvin and stuck him under the wheel of his SUV.

I can’t believe I didn’t remember about my camera until it was too late and Melvin had gone on to a better place.

 the accident scene

But here’s what was left of him when I got back…

Thanks so much Steve! You did a wonderful job and now we will be much safer on our bikes.

Bible Smugglers

Friday night our friends the McNews hosted a family overnight Bible Smugglers party. There were about 70 people there to play and visit.

Chris visiting with Brian and Monty

everyone’s cars and the view

We set up our tents, had a hot dog roast and played Bible Smugglers! Most everyone was involved in some way or another. About 35 kids from ages 8 to 18 played and the grown-ups were the “churches”, “jailers” and “Bible hander-outers?”.

setting up the “grown up” section of camp (very far away from the kids section of camp)

heading up the hill to HQ

getting ready (because you always need a big machete to be ready)

at the top

 

having supper

Sheri helps with the camo

so did Dana

Tony (my favorite 8-year-old smuggler) looks for his cup in the cup box

 

rallying the troops

getting last minute instructions

They played 3 rounds until 11:00pm! It was so fun to watch them come back all out of breath and excited, get more Bibles and head back out to avoid capture and deliver God’s Word. The best part was watching all the kids play together!

When we headed to bed, the clouds were just beginning to roll in and cover up the starlit sky. And at about 3:30am, we awoke to the sound of rain hitting the tent. By morning everything was soaking wet, but we enjoyed a cozy breakfast of steel cut oats, banana muffins and hard boiled eggs.

  Inara and the boys eating breakfast

the boys built a fire in the rain

packing up the wet tent 

It was a great time and we are looking forward to our next Bible Smuggling adventure!

well, maybe not this part of it…

Youth Group Garage Sale

Despite my decision to “not bring anything new home”, I did come home from this year’s garage sale with a few goodies. But some of them I actually needed and everything is put away in it’s home, so that makes it ok, right?

Here are a couple of shots of the sale…

Lily being cute

Zack and Lily both being cute

We actually got rid of quite a bit of stuff despite the rain on Saturday morning. The last hour of the sale, we put up the “FREE” sign!