The girls have been up to their ears in animal poop this past week.
L. helped me clean and lay new straw in our chicken coop the other day. It's amazing how much poop 30 chickens can create. And shoveling out the boxes is not so fun when the "glued" straw is half frozen. L.'s glad that we don't have to do this job every day.
And G. has been working at a local farm with a 6-month old heifer she's named Sparkles for her new 4-H project this year. She's been to the farm once a week since early November and really enjoying being around the larger animals and working hard to halter-train Sparkles.
And although G. didn't help clean the chicken coop this week, she did not escape poop patrol. It was just a different kind.
The snow-less weekend kept us from our cross country skiing adventures but 4-H kept us busy knitting, crocheting and sewing.
Saturday the girls learned more about spinning and fiber arts and did some crochet and knit squares through the annual 4-H Craft Day (a county-wide 4-H event).
Then on Sunday, the girls' club made aprons for the 4-H snack shack at the Cumberland fairgrounds. The booth is the largest 4-H fundraiser for the county program and although it's hardwork to serve as short order cooks and servers for the afternoon, my family thinks it's a lot of fun too.
The kids liked the idea of wearing matching aprons while working there this year.
And I thought Fino deserved special recognition for his group's apron, which required some creative handling with the little boys in his group. They had special code names to manage the sewing machine's peddles that included, "drive like grandma" and "speed racer."
The club made six aprons to donate to the snack shack and had plenty of fun doing it.
Then during our snow day on Monday, L. decided to put her sewing skills to use again by working on her Raggedy Ann doll for the annual 4-H Fashion Review.
The yarn hair was not an easy task but somehow L. managed to get it done (since I had never done this kind of thing before it was a learning experience for both of us) and she is pleased with the results (and I'm just glad it's over).
Now with all the new snow - and more on the way - we can get back to our skiing activities and 4-H ski club this coming weekend.
The kids had a lot of fun on our last outing before all the rain.
The girls' 4-H shooting sports club has started their postal league season and L. was quite pleased with her performance last night.
I knew nothing about shooting sports before the girls joined this 4-H club so I did a little research about the sport in general recently.
Every time I mentioned 'postal' used in tandem with 'shooting' my non-shooting friends gave me a weird look, which made me curious where the name came from. Here's the NRA's explanation of the Postal League the girls are participating in right now.
NRA's Competitive Shooting Division sanctions about 10,000 shooting matches a year. Among these is a type of match called a postal. A postal match is one in which competitors fire on their home ranges using targets marked for identification. Targets are mailed to NRA for scoring and compilation of results.
Postals allow shooters to compete on a national basis without ever leaving their home range.
The course of fire is NRA Indoor Three-Position Smallbore Rifle (three 10-shot strings of fire, one each from the prone, kneeling and standing positions, at a distance of 50 feet).
The girls are on an all-girl, prone team that will send in the top score targets - through the mail - to the national headquarters for rank and standing through the season.
L. is thinking target shooting is a whole lot of fun and makes it through each of her three rounds fairly quickly. G. takes her time loading and setting up her shot each and every time with a little less success on hitting her targets. But she's enjoying herself - and making her daddy happy - and the rest of the team seems to be OK with waiting the extra time for G. to finish her round.
The video Fino took last night (have I mentioned lately how thrilled Fino is to be on the range with the girls every week?) sort of demonstrates the action (or lack thereof) on the range.
After spending a week target shooting with her dad in the backyard with both a BB-gun and .22-rifle (no Barbies this time, the targets of choice were cardboard boxes with hand drawn bulls-eyes and cans), L. was ready with her own ear protectors and renewed enthusiasm to give the shooting range with the Bulls-eye 4-H club another try.
So last night L. stepped into the shooting range and got down to business. Her form in the prone position was not ideal (swinging ankles in the air isn't condusive to steady shooting) but she managed to hit her paper almost every time.
G. was prepared this time and wore a pair of pants under her fleece skirt. She's got her fashion statement to think about on the range after all.
Target Shooting - Take 2
I had mixed feelings about being proud of L.'s shooting ability. Fino - who likes to stir things up on occasion - enjoyed my reaction to his comment about her "killer instinct."
The girls have now been assigned to a prone competition team (beginners learn to shoot in that position first) in the 4-H club so they could not bring their targets home last night because they had to be sent in somewhere (I have no idea how any of this works) to be scored.
The girls came home happy and excited to go to the range next week.
Fino took G. and L. target shooting with the 4-H Bullseye Club earlier this week. This is something he's been wanting to do with the girls for a long time now, mostly because he enjoys target shooting and wanted an excuse to do it more often. And since L. had such a great time at L.L. Bean last weekend with the computer simulation shooting game, Fino thought this was a good time to try the shooting sports club with them.
Being the organizer of the family, I called the 4-H leader of the club to get more information about their meetings at West Cumberland Rod & Gun Club. But because I know absolutely nothing about target shooting, I did not think to tell G. not to wear a her usual skirt (she makes them herself and wears one everyday) when she went to the meeting.
The skirt was a problem since beginners learn to shoot in the prone position first. But Fino's coat thrown over the bottom half of G.'s legs made her feel better about that part of things.
I thought G., being my slow-to-warm-up-to-new-activities kid by nature, would not like shooting that night. She was already stressed about her skirt problem and her glasses for near-sightedness had not arrived yet so she couldn't see the target very well. She's also a south paw and there weren't any lefty-shooting rifles available. The combination would have been enough to send any kid over the edge, let alone G.
But it all worked out. Once she made a couple of shots right-handed, one of the instructors realized that although she was missing her own target, she had hit her sister's instead (which was to her left). G.'s instructor asked her to switch trigger arms (so she was shooting lefty even though her rifle wasn't designed that way) and she was able to hit her own target a couple of times, much to her delight.
L. on the other hand was a jumble of nerves. Sometimes with L., being the spunky, prone-to-random-whims-for-the drama-factor kid, I'm not always sure when she says she's scared if she really is or if it's a ply for attention. It took us a while to realize she really was scared, not necessarily of the rifle itself but for the noise it makes when it discharges. The club didn't have any air rifles, which are quieter I'm told than the .22-rifles they use at Bullseye Club, and L. never did pull the trigger on the .22 for fear of the noise that night.
And I didn't blame her for being concerned. Every time G. took a shot I jumped, even with ear plugs on (see video below). Maybe there's a genetic jump factor I passed on to L...
But then L. and Fino chatted the next day about things and she decided to give his BB-gun another try at home before the next Bullseye meeting. Apparently last year she did some target shooting she enjoyed with Fino that involved his BB-gun and some old Barbies. I had no idea such an activity had gone on and all I could think when that tidbit was shared was that it was such a daddy thing to do!
Questions on the shooting range G.'s questions and comments cracked me up
For the past couple of years the girls' 4-H club has collected donations to send Christmas stockings to soldiers serving in Iraq. My girls' contribution to the project has been to put their sewing skills to work. They make Christmas fabric bags that can be filled with items from the A Soldier's Wish List website.
The bags are 10" x 12" and the straight lines make them much easier to sew than a traditional stocking shape. They hold more too.
The kids sewed a ribbon into the seam that ties around the top to close the bag once it's filled.
The kids got a chance to see my friend Meg's serger in action with this project, which made the couple of bags sewn on it look professionally done.
The girls and their friends made a dozen gift bags in about an hour. It's an easy sewing project that everyone enjoys.
Of course, there's lots of chatter when you get a bunch of girls together to sew and you can see from the video that G. was quite impressed with the serger.
In the next couple of days the girls and I plan to get outside for some low-key exercise to help me get back in to shape -- and get back on topic about enjoying the outdoors with kids.
It doesn't matter how old the kids are, there's something about playing with a parachute that makes everyone laugh.
At the girls' 4-H meeting yesterday there were a lot of newbies and the age range was a little tricky to plan for, which was from 5 to 15 years old.
An icebreaker activity seemed important to get the kids acquainted and comfortable with one another before the business portion of the meeting - which was the first of the new 4-H year - so we broke out the parachute.
Everyone - including the teens - enjoyed the games.
If you're interested in buying a parachute, the prices aren't too bad. We've had ours since the girls were preschoolers and it's been well-used and has stood up well over time. And I really like the fact that the girls still remember playing games with it when they were younger.
It's one of those timeless toys that I'm glad I still have around the house.
We have a note on our refrigerator today that I can't say I ever expected to see there.
Now if you read it quickly you might have thought we are picking up a live pig.
Nope.
We were the winners of the 4-H Pig Raffle at the Cumberland County fair last week.
The pig was alive at the fairgrounds but he is not alive anymore.
That's the raffle -- a pig raised by a local 4-Her billed as "freezer-ready."
Meaning, the pig is sent to a butcher at the end of the fair and cut to order and frozen for pick up for the lucky winners.
We're still in shock we won this. It is a source of entertainment with our urban friends and family that the girls sell raffle tickets for this every year (it's a 4-H fund-raiser). This year we bought the remaining six tickets the girls didn't sell to support the program.
Never did we EVER think we'd win the pig!
So when we did, the first thing I asked was how the whole thing worked. Wendy Gallagher - the 4-H volunteer who coordinated the raffle this year - told me not to worry, just call West Gardiner Beef and they'll guide me through it.
Through what?
How I wanted the pig cut.
I started to say holy cow but just laughed instead. I didn't know what to say.
So I called West Gardiner Beef this week and told the friendly woman on the other end I had absolutely no idea what to do.
She walked me through the various parts of the pig (a view of the parts discussed) and what type of cut I wanted and what I wanted smoked versus fresh.
All those market pig farmers can call me names but boy, that was a strange and disturbing conversation for me. Yes I eat meat -- and appreciate the fact that this animal was grain-fed -- but no, I don't want to have met the animal prior to eating him/her. I'm a hypocrite who needs some distance from her meat supply.
The part of the conversation that really got to me was the head (offered whole), heart, feet and tongue parts. Did I want them?
Ahh, no thank you.
On Monday we pick up the fresh cuts, which I'm told will completely fill 2 small, empty freezers (the refrigerator/freezer combo type) so we have some phone calls to make to family and friends for help storing the meat.
And that doesn't count the smoked cuts (bacon and ham), which won't be ready for a few more weeks, that we need to also find freezer space for.
Of course the news of our win got around quickly in the 4-H circle. My favorite email about our winning from a 4-H friend was this one:
"I helped move the pig last night from his midway home to the trailer. I checked out those nice hams!"
One of our urban family members said:
"Congratulations!!! Winning a pig may be a once in a lifetime event."
Of course you can likely guess the girls' reaction to the raffle.
Can we save him?
That wasn't an option so they're pretending like they never met the pig at the fairgrounds. Nothing wrong with denial since I'm doing the same thing.
And we're making plans to share our bounty with the girls' 4-H club end of the fair season party.
The Cumberland Fair's parade around the racetrack was this morning. The wake-up call for the girls was 4:30 a.m. to get to the fairgrounds early to help put together the float their club had planned for the parade.
This is the second year the kids have been involved in the parade and they love having a float in the parade but not the early morning float work so much.
The girls took the camera to the fairgrounds while I was working so they could take some shots of the final float construction.
Fino took along the hot cocoa supplies for the crew
Apparently my kids were driving their daddy a little crazy because they were spending more time jumping around rather than helping put the float together.
Nice role-modeling the use of scissors daddy
L. told me she was distracted with the moon she could see in the daytime sky and had to take a picture of it instead of doing her float job. I downloaded more than a couple of moon shots from the camera so maybe daddy was justified with his horror movie scare tactic.
The kids chose three activities that they enjoyed this past year with their club to include as part of their float for the parade's "Family Fun" theme. I thought the apple headband was a nice touch on the archery section.
The girls enjoyed their volunteer work at the 4-H food booth at the Cumberland Fair yesterday but there were a couple of memorable moments -- as there always are when dealing with the general public.
Take for instance the man who put his dirty dog bowl (w/kibble still in it) through the order window and into one of the girl's hands and asked her to wash it. It was either take the bowl or let it drop. Fino intervened on G.'s behalf and sent it right back out with a suggestion to wash it in the bathroom. (I have a feeling he would have offered a more colorful suggestion if the kids weren't around.)
Or the guy who ordered several sodas and kept asking L. for refills. The first was because his son had spilled it. Then it was because he drank it all. He was demanding and L. wasn't sure what to do about his request until one of the adults stepped in and asked him to pay for the refills. He didn't come back.
Then there was the woman who was hovering over the counter where the grill guys were (i.e., half her body was over the counter and into Fino and Josh's work space) offering pointers on how they could manage the orders better. As you can imagine, the guys didn't care for that so much but they showed amazing self-control in refraining from making any comments back.
There was a guy who ordered 3 hot dogs, 2 burgers and a sausage, paid for them then took off and never came back to collect his order. After calling the order number out for 30 minutes, I finally gave up. Someone in the crowd thought maybe the person just didn't hear me. That produced a chuckle from Fino. Quiet is not usually a word used to describe me.
Then there was a guy who came up to the booth asking questions for several minutes about the donuts we were selling. He asked multiple times what flavors we had (there were 4), who made them and confirming twice they were not from Dunkin Donuts. He walked away without making a purchase.
But there were lots of wonderful people who purchased items at the booth yesterday that were patient with the kids and clearly supportive of their effort to learn how to manage everything.
Like the woman L. gave a soda cup filled mostly with foam. It took L. several minutes to fill up the cup with actual soda and learn the nuances of dispensing carbonated drinks.
Or the slow moving line because it took a while for G. to tally an order and give back change. She did get the hang of things with Sarah, her 4-H leader, helping her out.
So I write this entry with humble respect. My hat goes off to those brave - and very patient - people who work with the public every day.
The food booth team that took orders, managed the cash drawer and dispensed the drinks.
Fino and our leader's husband Josh manned the grill.
Yesterday after the 4-H exhibit judging my family, along with several others, set up the 4-H hall with all the projects done by Cumberland County 4-Hers this past year.
The goal of the hall set up is to feature all the projects to their best advantage. I was designated as one of the climbers to hang stuff above the display steps.
The girls' 4-H leader put up a couple of the girls' projects. Dulce was the subject of several projects the girls have in the exhibit hall this year (L.'s projection art pic is on the right). They love that little rascal.
Once all the projects were placed, the fencing needed to be put up to protect them from being touched and damaged during the fair. I wasn't involved with that but it didn't exactly look like the easiest of tasks.
G. helped string the rope to protect the club exhibits. That darn dairy club always takes home the big 1st place rosette. Of course those 4-Hers do *awesome* projects and displays every year. The horse club display (in background) got a big thumbs up from the girls because they really liked braiding the yarn manes on the wooden horse heads. According to the girls, it was really a "fun and cool display."
The girls also spent some time walking around the fairgrounds yesterday to see how everything was set up and to show their visiting Flat Stanley (Maria) from Brazil what a Maine county fair is like.
The girls also did some chitchatting with their 4-H friend C. who was grooming her sheep to get ready for the 4-H sheep events this week.
Apparently the discussion when I took this pic was about the sheep being relaxed and the fact that it didn't care about moving around during this grooming session.
Today we're off to flip burgers in the 4-H snack shack. It's the cheapest - and tastiest - grub on the fairgrounds this week. Plus, it's for a good cause. All the proceeds go to the county's 4-H programs throughout the year.
Being typical kids with sticks in their hands, they had a grand time waving them around and being silly in-between offering parking assistance (and they did actually do a good job directing traffic).
But much to G.'s chagrin, her more vigorous waving did make the orange tie fall off a few times and required quick adjustments.
After they were done directing traffic, the kids attended the annual meeting and enjoyed eating the results of the pie bake-off afterwards as well as the glow sticks they were given when the sun started setting (of course what kid doesn't like glow-in-the-dark stuff?).
As G. often does sitting for long periods of time (i.e., more than a half hour) she got antsy so I sent her off to take some photos of the area while I chatted for a few minutes.
The setting sun at the estuary...
Hopefully the Extension Association's fundraising plans work out so that Tidewater Farm can serve as the new location of their offices and education facilities. It really is a beautiful place.
The race was designed to encourage kids to learn more about technology through 4-H. Since my family has done some geocaching, we were put in charge of getting the supplies together to launch the club's travel bug.
Yesterday several members of the club hiked to our geocache at Kiwanis Beach to launch it. A few in the club had never geocached so we let them lead the way with the GPS unit and everyone exchanged trinkets.
L. was put in charge of tracking the Travel Bug online and reporting its progress to the club each month. Earning points for the race involves quite a bit of math (points for miles traveled as well as each cache, state and country it visits) so it will be a good practical math project for her.
We're hoping to get lucky with the 4-H Walker like some others the kids have launched in the past.
Hiking Doggie saw a lot of action in New Zealand for a couple of years but he hasn't moved since March. We're hoping with the southern hemisphere's start of spring that he'll be moving along again soon. But some of our other TBs have been MIA for a while so things don't always work out.
But Wee Scotty has been busy in Europe recently and the geocachers there have been great with sharing photos of his adventures. He's in the Wildkirchli caves in Switzerland right now.
But he started off in the US before he made the leap to Europe.
You can download a Google Earth file from geocaching.com that plots all the geocaches a Travel Bug has visited for you. It's pretty cool.
The kids understand anything can happen with this TB race. They're hoping the geocachers of the world take good care of the 4-H Walker and keep it moving -- at least until May 2008 (when the official part of the race ends).
My girls - like most kids of the 21st century - are not intimidated by new software. If it's something that captures their interest, they'll give it a whirl.
About a month ago my friend Lisa suggested I check out Photo Story. She said it was a fun way to make a slide show of photos with your own music (you can create your own or upload an existing track). Since the kids have made a few of slide shows this past year with MovieMaker, I thought we'd try something new out.
L. was sitting next to me at the computer when I was downloading the software and she kept looking over my shoulder. She asked if she could try to make a video of Dulce's photos so I let her take over.
After what seemed like only a few minutes, she had made a slide show (it actually took the 9-year-old about a half hour). Last week she revised the project with some new photos and decided to enter it as her 4-H "Technology" entry at the upcoming Cumberland Fair (the fair opens Sept. 23).
Dulce's 'Blue' video
I'm not trying to make it sound like L. is really smart to have figured this out. No, the reason I chose to blog about this is because parents of kids today deal with stuff like this all the time. Kids are simply not afraid of new technology.
You put some new computer program in front of most parents and you'll likely hear a groan or an excuse to try it later because it will take time and more brainpower than they have at that moment to figure it out.
You put a kid in front of new software and they say, "OK, I can do this," and they start immediately navigating through it and make it look easy.
Another recent example of this at our house was related to our mobile phones. We have an extra phone in our plan (a long story that involved a broken phone and a decision that Fino has to have insurance) so when the option came to upgrade, we ended up with new phones and a calling plan that included texting. G. (she's 11) had texting figured out in a split second and has been asking all her friends and family to text her. And if you ask my co-workers they can confirm that she's always texting me while I'm at the office (and I agree with the PSAs about staying in touch with your kid via the phone, it really is a good thing).
How things have changed since I was a middle-schooler taking a typing class on an electric typewriter. The real kicker is that I'm not even 40 yet ...
We had a busy weekend with the kids' 4-H club like I mentioned before with digging for gems then silk screening and an archery class.
The girls have done some backyard archery but the class helped them understand some important points of the sport that they just didn't seem to grasp when their dad was explaining it to them.
Like the comfort of an arm guard.
How nice higher-end bows are and how to position yourself when shooting. The bows were way nicer than our Goodwill finds.
G. got that position thing during the following round with her friend.
And the girls had a chance to see some other kids who know how to shoot.
But not only did the kids enjoy shooting, they also loved tracking down the stray arrows in the woods. Most in the group were novices so there was a fair amount of time during those first few rounds spent in the woods between shooters.
And even the adults had a turn to shoot and it was a toss up who was having more fun.
Basically, the site owners do the hard work by providing the mining work already. Visitors to the quarry area fill a bucket of dirt and rock mined from the area quarries to sift through to find the gems.
The kids didn't mind the digging work at all.
Afterwards the kids sifted small amounts of dirt and rocks from their bucket through a screen.
Then dipped the screen into a tub of water to rinse off the remaining dirt before dumping their booty on to the table to sift through and look for the gems.
All the kids found some kind of tourmaline (black, green, pink and watermelon) but most were very small pieces.
But it turned out that one of the older boys in our group found a large piece of green tourmaline and was told it was worth quite a bit of money (over $500 for sure, with the guess it was really worth much more than that).
The trick of digging for gems is knowing what you're looking at. For instance feldspar comes in a bunch of different colors so identifying it isn't always so easy. The kids found a lot of feldspar that they liked and thought they could make jewelery out of it along with the tourmaline they found.
My girls had fun peeling the mica apart - there was a ton of it in the area.
G. got tired of looking for gems (she had a full baggie of them) so she decided to make designs with the smaller rocks on her table.
And we found that once you start digging it's hard to stop. Fino was as enthusiastic about the activity as the kids.
There was a poster with some of the more common gems found at the site. The kids found an example of each of these displayed the day we visited.
We had a really fun 4-H weekend and haven't had a chance to sort out all the photos yet. One of the many activities we did with the club these past two days was silk screen t-shirts.
Earlier this summer I did some research on silk screening and found a really helpful video on how to do it inexpensively at home (See below). The kids made t-shirts with their friends for our camping trip in July, then again with their California cousins and now with their 4-H group.
They've enjoyed doing this so much I thought I'd share how we did it.
We used an embroidery hoop and 100% nylon material (a 'sheer' fabric - like the kind used for dance costumes - worked great for us) to make the screen.
Then the kids drew a simple design (nothing too intricate) on to a piece of paper and then traced it on to the material (securely fastened in the hoop).
We used Mod Podge and a small paint brush to 'paint' the glue on to all the areas of the screen that we did not want ink to go through. We applied two coats of Mod Podge to make sure the screen was well-covered (and it turns out after making several of them, the screen lasts longer with two coats).
We opted to use Lumiere fabric ink instead of the more typical fabric paint because it is not as sticky and less likely the clog-up the screen. The downside to the ink is that it requires heat-setting (laying an iron on the design for several seconds once the ink is dry). The kids also liked the metallic paint options with the ink and I liked that a little of it went a long way. I purchased 3 bottles of the ink at the beginning of the summer and still have 2 half full bottles after making nearly two dozen t-shirts.
We use a piece of folded, coated paper - a newspaper ad circular actually - to spread the ink on the screen. It works great.
An extra set of hands to hold the screen in place while spreading the ink is helpful.
When making letters with the homemade screen, they aren't perfect - designs are more 'forgiving' for inaccuracies with the screening. But after the paint dried on these particular t-shirts, the kids outlined the letters with glitter fabric pens and the effect was really nice. The shirts are still drying as we speak but I'm sure you'll see the final results in a future photo here ;-)
These t-shirts made by my nieces were screened with metallic ink and they liked the 'fancy shine' to them.
There is a lot of behind the scenes work done by the 4-H Leaders Association to spiffy up the 4-H-related areas for the Cumberland County Fair in September. The girls and I made time this year to lend a hand with the cleaning of the 4-H hall and spent an hour at the fairgrounds yesterday.
We only made a small contribution to the cleaning effort by washing windows ...
... and the display shelves.
Later in the car on the way home the kids were chatting about how much they were looking forward to the fair this year, especially working in the food booth.
It may be that summer is almost over and school stuff is starting but for my kids, September is a month to look forward to because it's all about having fun at the fair.
The kids put the finishing touches on their 4-H projects this weekend for the Ossipee Fair (we always have fun at this fair). It opens this Thursday but their stuff needs to be delivered to the 4-H exhibit hall tonight for judging before opening day.
Both girls are entering projects for sewing (L. is sad she has to live a week without her fairy quilt), knitting, crafts and art. L made a poster about being a member of the Trail Blazers and G. put together a YouTube poster about her videos on our channel. Since she couldn't enter an actual video (not a category option at this fair for 4-Hers), she opted to make the poster instead with screen snaps of the videos she personally took and/or edited (which would more than 1/2 of what's on our channel). She also tallied how many views her favorite videos received. It was a nice little practical math lesson that she enjoyed.
So yesterday Fino came home from the store with a special treat for the girls.
They thought they deserved a good rest after finishing up all their projects and fair paperwork.
What happens when you get a group of kids together that like to sew and knit? In the case of my kids' 4-H club, a new afghan for charity.
Yesterday the kids' 4-H Club put together an afghan for the Warm Up America! program. It's a non-profit that encourages community groups to knit or crochet afghans for people in need.
Basically this whole project started with my girls wanting to learn to knit. I taught them the basic knit stitch (all I know!) and they found they liked it and ran across the Warm Up America! website when looking for simple knit patterns. The only problem was that my girls' were beginner knitters and after knitting their first squares found that they weren't exactly, well, square.
That prompted me to consider making a completed afghan to donate to the program because I could work their not-so-square pieces into the strips needed for the afghan. I spoke with the girls' 4-H leader about making it a service learning project for the club and she thought it was a great idea.
It worked out that about 7 of the 49 squares were knit by the kids; the rest were crocheted by an adult (i.e., me - I crochet much better than I knit) over the course of a couple of months.
I wasn't sure how long it would take for the kids to actually put the whole thing together at the meeting so I did some hand-wringing (it's in my nature to over-think things) about the best way to organize the squares for the kids. Surprisingly though, it took less than 2 hours for them to hand-sew the squares together (which was thanks in large part to a couple of the older girls' focus and skill!).
The speedy, skillful sewers of the day!
Once the afghan was put together, some of the kids got silly wrapping themselves up in the afghan.
Even though not all of the squares of yarn were baby soft, it really was soft and "snugly" (as L. and her friend C. put it).
And there were a lot of proud faces after completing this service learning project.
I had ordered some 4-H tattoos for the meeting since they were working with their hands for the project and the kids had a lot of fun with them.
If you are interested in this type of project, you should check out the Warm Up America! website. They have directions and patterns to make single squares or strips (which you can make only a single one - of the specified measurements - and mail it to be included in a future afghan) or organize a group to make a full-size afghan.
The kids' 4-H club visited two farms this weekend to learn more about fiber arts. The club met at one of the member's houses and while waiting for the rest of the group, G. spent some time with her friend's goats. But she learned that goats are tricky.
While G. was petting one goat, another was making a grab for her camera bag.
And it seems that G. has a knack for taking interesting photos of animals. I think because she loves them so much, she can capture a look or action that makes the pictures more fun.
The club's official first stop was at the Long Plains Alpacas farm in Buxton. The kids were invited to walk around the paddock with the alplacas and try to pet them. They were not aggressive, but a bit skittish and seemed to prefer the kids over adults. So with some extra patience, L. was able to get a animals interested in getting close to her (and of course the bribe helped).
Alpaca wool is really soft.
And G. didn't have any trouble getting close enough for some photos.
The young alpacas are sheared in early spring so their wool will grow back thicker in time for fall.
The farm also had a friendly goose.
If you're interested in learning more about alpacas, you can visit the Long Plains Alpacas farm during their Open House and Education Day on Sunday, May 27 from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. For more information, visit their website: www.longplainsalpacas.com
The club went to Shearbrooke Farm in Standish next to learn about sheep and try their hand at carding wool.
Unwashed wool feels wet because it still has its lanolin.
Carding doesn't look hard until you start to do it. It's a labor-intensive - and time-consuming - process to get the wool to all go in the same direction on the carding brush.
And then G. was back to taking pictures of the animals.
My family spent the last two days at Wolfe's Neck Farm with the 4-H Trail Blazers mapping the trail system there.
The Trail Blazers were originally supposed to map the trails at the farm and mark the trail's features using GPS/GIS technology but with the serious Nor'Easter we just had, the group was also asked to mark the coordinates of the storm damage locations. And boy were there a lot of fallen trees there!
The kids were up for the challenge and by the end of the second day, they had walked the entire trail system multiple times and marked all the coordinates needed not only for the new trail map and a new addition to the trail system but also all the storm damage.
An adult trail crew will be at the farm this weekend and is planning to use the kids' data to actually do the storm damage removal work.
Of course the group took lots of pictures - and video - of our time at the farm.
Not all the 4-Hers knew each other so they played a quick icebreaker to learn everyone's names. When it was L.'s turn to say her name and share her favorite ice cream, she couldn't think of a flavor and decided that 'everything' would be her answer.
The kids played a couple of games to practice marking waypoints with the GPS units before the group set out onto the trail. That was key knowledge for the mapping project.
The group was also given a quick overview of the trails by Mitch, the Farm's manager, so they could ask questions about how to prioritize storm damage they found and the type of features the farm wanted them to mark for the final map.
L. was her usual self with needing to bring along some random items. At least she only brought one Webkinz to the farm, instead of three she took on our Georgetown hike).
Each set of partners was given a GPS unit to mark coordinates of either a feature (bridge, signs, outdoor classrooms, etc.) or storm damage (fallen trees mostly) and a clipboard to write down those coordinates along with a physical description of the feature/damage. Then the groups split up to work on different parts of the trail.
4-H Trail Blazers work
While clearing away branches and brush from the trail, L. collected supplies to make a fairy house. She simply can't resist any opportunity to make one.
In Falmouth, state conservation officials said the hiking trail on Mackworth Island has been closed indefinitely because of damage from heavy rain and winds that reached the speeds of a Category 1 hurricane. There also were washouts on the causeway that connects the island to the mainland. Access to the island, which is home to the Maine Educational Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, is being restricted.
But even with the job the kids had to do, they still found time to have some extra fun too.
L. taking a break with her dad and acting silly.
Lichen Lincoln
Balancing on logs
Acorn whistles
Work and Fun
AN EXCITING DISCOVERY
One of the kids spotted a musket bullet in a splintered fallen tree and after more investigating, we found several others. That was the talk of the day!
Finding musket bullets in tree
And of course L. was in her glory in the mud. There were a lot of washed out areas along the new long trail we were mapping the second day. And it was great that all the kids had a good sense of humor about being so muddy. We all were certainly wearing plenty by the time we returned to the trailhead.
Plenty of mud and snow
The 4-H Trail Blazers ranged in age from 10-16 years old.
The kids and I are working with a group of 4-Hers volunteering to do some trail work at Wolfe's Neck Farm this spring. We attended a meeting yesterday at the farm to walk the existing trail system to get a sense of the work needed to be done and what the kids could do.
Of course the meeting was planned a while back and we didn't anticipate at that time that yesterday would be one of the coldest days of the year.
But we were prepared wearing all our warmest cold weather gear to hike the trails and the temps didn't bother the kids a bit.
Laying down on the icy snow wouldn't have occured to me, even wearing my snowpants and warmest mittens. But hey, they're kids and they simply couldn't resist goofing around in the wooden structure.
They also did a lot of sliding - intentionally - down the hills when the adults stopped for a minute to talk about a particular area of the trail.
Who needs a sled when the snow is frozen solid?
This got the top score for sliding hills yesterday.
Sliding fun on the icy snow
And being 4-Hers, they couldn't resist spending some time in the barn. They used a pole to break up the ice in the goat's water trough. And after discovering that the cows had heaters to keep their water from freezing it didn't take G. long to wonder if we could get a heater for our coop. There's no question she has a tough job in the winter with our chickens and ducks' water.
The kids also enjoyed feeding the cows and sheep hay.
"Cow king of the hill!"
And the kids spent some time communicating with the sheep the Babe way. They did a pretty good impression of "BaaRamEwe."
Weird cow eyes, BaaRamEwe and flying hay
There's a variety of programs for kids of all ages at the farm throughout the year if you've got an animal-lover in your family. Education programs at Wolfe's Neck Farm
Yesterday was a beautiful day but we didn't spend any time outdoors. The girls have been working on sewing projects for the Cumberland County 4-H "Fashion Revue." It's a county-wide sewing contest and fashion show held every year for 4-Hers and my kids have entered projects for judging for the last couple of years. They've developed some great sewing skills through 4-H and have enjoyed the many sewing opportunities offered (from club activities to the county-wide sewing class).
But the girls have been a bit behind schedule with their projects this year (you know, we sit around all day doing nothing...). So yesterday we decided to make that the day to finish things up (the entry deadline is Friday and we've got a lot going on between now and then). They are both pretty excited about their entries this year now that they are done with them.
G. made a "fancy doll dress" (it has a collar and that was quite a challenge for her) for her American Girl doll. And L. had it in her head she was going to finish the quilt she started a couple of months ago. It was a huge project and I wasn't convinced she'd get it done in time. But when L. decides she wants to do something, she usually finds a way to make it happen.
G.'s doll, wearing the dress she made, was hanging out with L. as she was tacking her quilt, the final step to complete the project. Neither project is "perfect" but the not-so-straight lines and unintentional pattern variations makes them all the more interesting. I try hard to help the girls understand the Revue is more about feeling good about your project and the time and effort you put into it, not the ribbon you're awarded.
The problem now is that L. wants to actually use her quilt. The idea of turning it over to the Revue committee for a week isn't sitting well with her at the moment (i.e., she's whining about it and driving me a little crazy).
So we're headed outside this afternoon to play in the snow. Nothing like some fresh air on a beautiful day to expel some extra energy and help everyone be happy again.
Our 4-H ski club was well-attended yesterday and it got a little tricky on the Mountain Division Trail with the snowmobilers. There were a lot of machines on the trail and our large group of kids didn't really want to ski in a single file on the side of the trail the entire afternoon.
So we ventured over to the less-traveled paths around Otter Pond and the kids really enjoyed the hill leading to the pond.
It's all about the thrill of speeding down a hill for the kids, not to mention it takes a lot less effort.
But after skiing on the pond for a while we spotted a couple of ice fishing holes that were freshly drilled. And then we saw more ... and more of them; there were at least a couple of dozen scattered all over the place.
My concern wasn't that the kids would fall through the ice - it was clearly solid - but that one of them might catch a ski tip in one of the holes and lose a ski or take a hard fall (the holes were kind of hard to spot until you were right next to them). We moved off the pond and headed back to the main trail to play it safe.
Those kids who weren't grossed-out by the dead fish wanted to know why the fisherman didn't take them home. It seemed a mystery.
We also stopped by the boat launch on Sebago Lake to see what was happening over there. The kids and I love to check-in with the winter ice fishing village that pops up on the frozen lake every year.
We even got to see an ice drill in action yesterday. Boy those things are loud.
Fun and games ruled our 4-H Ski Club meeting yesterday with a decision that next week we'll be doing some skiing on the trail.
We did a review of basic skills for the newbies that included falling down and getting back up.
Then the kids played a push-the-ball game with badminton rackets. Those rackets get more use during the winter than they do any other time of year.
And of course we had to play a round of the well-loved Amoeba Tag game (the "it" person tags another and then that player has to hook arms and ski together to tag others). Players only wear one ski and by the end of the game everyone is out of breath not only from skiing, but from laughing.
Amoeba Tag
But the most requested game again this year is skiing through hoola hoops. Even the adults can do it (Fino missed getting a clip of me but he caught another dad's success with the activity).
The kids have been busy sewing with 4-H this month. Last week they attended a county-wide 4-H sewing workshop and made tote bags. I was at the office while they were at the class with their dad but when they came home they explained how they made the box-like bottom for their bags. They were quite pleased with their sewing skills after the class and really liked the idea that they could teach me something new.
Then yesterday the kids' 4-H club spent their meeting time sewing cat mats for the Animal Refuge League and this morning L. wrote a story about how she did it.
And did you know that ANYONE in Maine can submit stories and photos of things going on in your community too? Here's how you - and your kids - can do it:
My.MaineToday.com is a new initiative by MaineToday.com designed to allow anyone to report the news in their community.
Post a photo: You can create a photo gallery if you have a bunch of photos to share or a single photo. It is up to you. The site accepts standard JPEG images, just like those from nearly every digital camera or camera-equipped cell phone. You don't have to write a story to go with your photo(s) but a brief title and basic description helps others understand and appreciate them even more.
Post a story: Stories can be just about anything and you can add up to three photos to your stories - or upload a gallery of photos separately. It's an anything goes type of thing. And adults don't have to be the only contributors - kids can do this too.
To get started, go to My.MaineToday.com and look for the green-shaded box at the top of the page titled: "Get Started Now." The site will guide you through the upload process (it's only 1-3 steps depending on if you're uploading a story or photo; it's really quick). And the best part is that your stories and photos become "live" on the site as soon as you're done.
Share the great things going on in your community with others. It's easy!
Yesterday the kids' 4-H club made a float for the Cumberland County Fair's parade. It's a very, very small affair on the race track but it was the first one the girls had been in so they were pretty excited. They did a lot of laughing and waving with their 4-H friends.
Yesterday the kids and I spent the afternoon and evening at the Cumberland Fair. The kids' 4-H club sponsored a geocaching booth and we introduced a few new families to the game. I had several little-helpers at the fairgrounds and I have a few new "learnings/re-learnings" to report.
Make all the kids in your group wear matching bright orange shirts to keep track of everyone (thanks for the tip - and the shirts - Meg!)
Using someone else's GPS units doesn't always work as planned, especially when the unit's settings aren't the same as yours and it interprets your waypoints differently (i.e., end up a totally wrong location).
5-year-olds get tired a lot faster than 8-year-olds so snack breaks are all-important.
Do one thing at a time. Realize that you can't manage to take photos with 4 kids walking the fairgrounds while 2 of them, in addition to you, have GPS units and are trying to find geocaches (even though it's a bummer you don't have any pics of the fun you had).
Kids love glitter pens (thanks MaineToday) and pins (thanks County Extension Office).
Plan to visit the bunny barn at least twice - and plan to deflect the multiple requests for one because daddy said no.
No matter what you say about what you will - or will not - buy at the fairgrounds, Grandma will always get the kids what they want anyway. Thanks Grandma!
We were at the fairgrounds to volunteer in the 4-H Food Booth yesterday. The kids and Fino were wiped out by the end of the day (I arrived late from work and was a bit of a slacker) but we all agree it was for a good cause. The proceeds from the booth go to the county's 4-H programs and they offer some great stuff throughout the year. And here's an insider's tip: the booth has some of the cheapest grub on the fairgrounds.
The girls did work hard but in classic L. and G. style, they also had plenty of breaks.
Fino and Josh worked the grill and made some really tasty burgers according to L.
As a reward for a job well-done, we treated ourselves to a big bowl of fries.
The kids love the vinegar spray bottle. Good thing we like lots and lots of it on our fries.
And per usual, the kids took charge of the camera and I had the pleasure of sifting through the 100+ photos this morning. About 25 photos were from poultry house of various chickens. Apparently we don't have enough chicken photos at home. Another few dozen were taken inside the 4-H Hall. There were some really great entries this year -- the rat maze and living history costumes were a few of our favorites.
But these photos by G. cracked me up. Sometimes she really captures more than just an animal.
For the past couple of weeks the girls have been getting all their 4-H projects together for the Cumberland Fair (it opens Sunday). Taste-testing recipes for G.'s final baking entries and L.'s 10-recipe cookbook hasn't been a hardship for anyone in the family. Well, except for G.'s first version of gingerbread that had a 1/2 cup of salt instead of a 1/2 teaspoon. The chickens didn't complain though, they ate every last crumb.
Of course it would have been easy to gain a few extra pounds this week with all the baked goods around so we shared the goodies with friends and co-workers.
And putting the final touches on their project posters and notebooks was enjoyable as well. I especially like the Lucy the Chicken poster G. did. Her addition of the actual cast to be displayed with it was a nice touch I thought.
Completing the paperwork required to show their projects in the 4-H exhibit hall however has not been much fun for them. There are multiple pages to the forms that require a lot of writing and something they always procrastinate until the last minute because they don't like doing it.
But last night L. finished the last of the paperwork.
She leaped off the chair with a huge smile, did a little circle jig while waving her arms in the air and chanted, "I'm freeeeeee! I'm freeeeeee!"
And me, I let out a big sigh of relief. No more worrying about how hard on both girls have worked on their projects all year and not getting all the proper paperwork done to display them in the fair's exhibit hall.
This morning we're carefree and have a renewed excitement about the fair opening on Sunday.
Paddling a canoe with a spouse who doesn't spend much time on the water (he's not a boating or swimming enthusiast) requires nerves of steel and lots of patience.
I know this because after a paddling trip with my daughters' 4-H club late yesterday afternoon, I have a lot of bite marks on my tongue.
My day began at 5 a.m. at the office with an hour break later in the morning to run up to Topsham to pick up the girls' exhibits from the fairgrounds then return to the office to finish up there before rushing to meet up with the girls and their 4-H club in Windham for the family canoe trip.
Needless to say I was a bit frazzled when I arrived at the river and everyone was waiting for me. So I just got in our family's borrowed canoe and pushed off the shore.
Quickly I realized that I was sitting in a bad spot. My long legs did not fit into the bow of the boat so I had to swing them over the side. I felt ridiculous but the cool water felt great on my feet. This was one example in a series of moments that I chose to look on the sunny side of my situation.
The Presumpscot River in Windham is a great place to paddle with kids.
The group decided to explore a small finger of the river so we followed the other canoes through a narrow passage.
My arms got tired fast and I realized that Fino wasn't paddling. He and the girls were watching some ducks and a crane on a dock. Now that's not normally a problem, I wanted the kids to enjoy the scenary on the ride, but Fino needed to help so we could keep up with the group.
I suggested this to him and after a few strokes of his paddle, had us banging into the shore. Did I mention he was in the rear of the canoe and was supposed to be steering the boat?
We got back on track with the other 5 canoes but continued to have a few steering problems. But the kids were enjoying themselves so that was OK - another sunny side moment.
After about 45 minutes I turned over my paddle to L. because I needed a break. Fino gave his paddle to G. and the girls had fun paddling us around the river. We found some pretty flowers and lilypads and even spotted a turtle.
When we decided to head back - which meant we had to paddle against the current - Fino took G.'s paddle and started us on our way. L. still had my paddle and I happily let her keep it since she was doing well.
I had my back to the bow of the boat to stretch my legs and didn't see the big tree branches until they smacked me on the back of the head.
Thanks for the warning - let alone steering - darling husband. No sunny side moment then.
After some seat-swapping Fino and I paddled our way back to the boat launch without incident. I think we'd finally found our rhythm after a few hours on the water.
The girls did a much better job paddling than our trip last year and I was proud of them.
We went to opening day at the Ossipee Fair yesterday. The kids have a bunch of their 4-H projects in the exhibit hall so in addition taking in the sights around the fairgrounds, we also served as monitors for the hall for a few hours (an expectation for each 4-H club entering exhibits).
The highlight in the exhibit hall, besides the girls being pleased with their blue riboons for their photography projects, was the ant dragging string across the floor.
And I really enjoyed this photo by L. "It's tail action mom, just like (G.'s) chicken action!"
And no trip to the fair is complete without some of these.
Or this.
And then I noticed that the girls had some kind of animal leg theme going on with their photos yesterday.
The pig scramble was enjoyable to watch until the pigs were put into bags. "Those poor pigs. They put them in bags without air holes! I don't like that," huffed G. She had a similar reaction at the Oxen pull with the whips. The girls like the animals and don't like to see them being hit or distressed. I guess they're really not cut out for the farm life. They'll stick with their errant ducks and crazy chickens.
And speaking of ducks, we had another run in with someone else's pesky birds last night. We had to come to a very quick stop driving home on Route 25 in Cornish because several ducks decided to cross the road around 9:45 p.m. They took their own sweet time getting across that road too (and blowing the horn didn't even phase them, let alone get them moving faster).
"Geeze mom, ducks are a pain in the butt aren't they?"
The kids camped in tents in our backyard with a bunch of their 4-H friends two nights ago and had a great time (and their parents are still catching up on sleep).
One of the games we played was flashlight tag. When I was little I used to play the game around my grandmother's postage stamp yard with my cousins. And that small loop of space wrapping around her house actually had a lot of advantages. Running around a corner made it harder to get caught in the flashlight beam and kept the game going for a long time.
When I suggested flashlight tag to our visiting campers, they loved the idea. What kid doesn't love to run around hours after bedtime playing with flashlights?
So someone volunteered to be "it" and the others scattered in our yard's open field.
The game lasted about 5 seconds.
Since the kids' tent was set up close to the house and the ongoing shed construction tools and materials took up some space, the kids couldn't run completely around the house. And that made tagging everyone with the flashlight beam a piece of cake. There was nowhere to hide in the field.
We decided to move the game to a small forested area in our front yard. That made things a little more challenging but after a few rounds, the kids decided it was time for the next activity, making s'mores around the campfire.
What I found funny was that a group of urban kids growing up just north of Boston, could have more fun playing flashlight tag than my country-raised kids.
There must be a different way to play flashlight tag when you have more open space. If you have a suggestion, let me know. I'm all ears in anticipation of our next camping night later this summer when our city cousins come to visit.
Yesterday we were back in Augusta at the State House. G. was serving as a page in the House with some other 4-Hers. L. wasn't old enough so she and I decided to do some geocaching in the area while G. was busy.
As we were wondering around inside the State House with more time to spare, we found this really interesting brochure produced by the Secretary of the Senate about fossils. Apparently there are marine invertebrate fossils in the dark stones of the building and the brochure had a map and description of each fossil type.
L. and I couldn't resist looking and we found all of them. L. went a little camera-happy taking photos of the fossils.
Maclurite
We found a bunch of these all over the place.
Prasopora
Yeah, L. took this picture between some man's shoes as he was standing there. I wished she wouldn't have done that (I didn't realize what she was going to do until it was too late) but the guy didn't seem to notice her. Typical L.
Stromatocerium
L. had to show Flat Annie from Scotland the fossils too.
Crinoid Stalk
"Goddard" the Travel Bug we picked up in Brunswick also checked things out.
A friend of ours had a sister serving in Iraq. We asked if she might be willing to host our family's Flat Stanley and she agreed. She's a former 4-Her and was happy to help out some young 4-Hers.
We sent the soldier our Flat Stanley and a disposable camera several months ago. The soldier came back to the states recently and gave the camera to our friend. The camera just landed in our hands the other day and we had the photos developed yesterday.
WOW.
The kids loved the tire swing and thought it was "cool" that "big people" played on swings there.
Flat Stanley visited during Christmas.
The kids certainly have some perspective on our soldier's lives in Iraq now. And I hope that our goofy Flat Stanley was an enjoyable
