Stamps

Way back when I was a young child, I started collecting stamps. My grandma Smith actually got me started right before my family moved to Germany. While I was living in Germany (dad was in the Army) I learned about soaking the stamps to get them off of the envelope.
When we came back from Germany and I was working on some stamps and put them in water, Grandma was (I think) a little shocked. She had never heard of doing this.
A couple of weeks ago, Magie and I were at a friend's house helping the friend get ready for a moving sale. This friend, Kathy, gave me some stamps for Andy's collection. He may not get them all.
What brings up the stamp story? My mom called this morning and said that Grandma had passed away early this morning. There will be a graveside service on Wednesday back in Kansas.

Shoes

We have a thief living in our house. His name is Maks (Maximum Force Against Coyotes). Maks is currently three months old and loves shoes. I can not find at least four shoes. I have half of a pair but the mate is missing. And I have looked. I'm wondering if Maks ate the shoes. I hope not because I really like my slippers. For a Great Pyrenees, Maks is a soft, sweet and so obnoxious dog. We had one when we first moved to the country. Bear was a GP crossed with a malamute. He would chase down a coyote and shake it. Right now, we are keeping a real close eye on Maks, not only is he too young and small to deal with a coyote, he's probably try to play with it. And while he may enjoy hiding my slippers, his favorite chew toy...either cat, Ming or Smokey. He's learned NOT to mess with Sheba.
In other news, with the snow we had last week, I am ready to move to town. So is Alex and Peter is almost there. Andy doesn't want to move. It snowed Thursday night, we had a snow day from school, Peter didn't go to work. With the drifts and no one to clear the HOA roads, it was Tuesday before Peter could go to work. I wasn't willing to risk getting stuck so the boys had an extra day. It was the first day they had missed all year, so much for perfect attendance. The HOA road grader cleared two roads and the battery failed after that. Before they did our road. So part of the two miles to county road, we are driving on pasture, it has less snow than the roads which have sunk below the pasture ground level and tend to fill with snow. Driving across the pasture definitely isn't good for Peter's car and I don't like taking my truck across. There are way to many bumps and we've gotten flat tires from the sagebrush.

Mad Scientist in the House

Our school participates in a regional science fair. The kids start out in the 4th grade getting ready for this. In the 6th grade they actually compete. Andy did his project with litmus and that's all I know. Something about how chemicals change the color of the water and back again.



Anyway, Andy took second place in the 4th grade and will be attending the BFL science fair next Friday. Pretty darn proud of the kid.

Meet Dirty Mike

My boys are big fans of the TV show "Dirty Jobs" so when Alex got a hamster, he had to name it after Dirty Mike. For Christmas Alex (or maybe it was DM) got an additional part for the hamster cage. Alex has been very good about taking care of DM. We've had a few other hamsters over the last year. The cat got one, and another died. But DM seems to be thriving.

It's January but these are Christmas pics

Andy was an elf in the school Christmas play.

Alex was a dog in the same play

Santa visited the school with gifts for all the kids after the play.

It's a family tradition. Many, many years ago when my dad (denim shirt) and his brother (white shirt) were little boys back in Moundridge, Kansas, the whole family would attend Christmas Eve services at the church. Each family would, at the end of the service, be given a bag of fruit, nuts and PEANUTS. The children would have to wait until the older men would eat All Of The PEANUTS before they were allowed to open any of their presents. Sadly, this tradition continues. Having been the victim of this insideous plot for more years than I care to think about, when it is just the four of us at home, Andy and Alex don't have to wait for peanut eating.

But after the peanuts are consumed, the boys get to hand out the gifts and open theirs. Usually we start with the youngest, which is fortunate for Alex because he's not the most patient creature in the world. That's my mom in the red and aunt in the blue.

Time Flies

It's been over a month since I last posted. Christmas came and went, New Years, Birthday and other stuff.
We had been giving some thought to moving to the city. Peter is driving 90 minutes one way for work. Work is slowed down right now and for someone who works on commission, not a good situation.
I had found several homes in the city that I thought we'd like. I insisted on three bedrooms (the boys don't need to share, really they don't), big enough fenced backyard, garage and some trees. One house which really measured up will soon be in a major construction zone, so...no.
Another house had just gone to auction...didn't work out but the 1899 house and really really big garage were really nice.
Found one in the suburbs but right next to the railroad tracks and after being in the peace of the country, that would take some getting used too.
And since the farm is paid for...and he's willing to keep making the drive, we will stay. Maybe until Alex graduates. And our school is either #1 or #2 on CSAP scores, statewide and we are a little country school. 125 students preschool through 12th grade.
Other news.
The coyote got our little dog DJ. The three remaining muscovy ducks and one of our cats. Mischka finally ran him off. The neighboring rancher may have gotten him. Brazen thing brought back one of the ducks and ate it in the barn and then had the audicity to make himself a bed in the straw.
We do have a new puppy. Max is a Great Pyrenees, he's about 3 months old now. Max is short for Maximum Force Against Coyotes. We will see.
Since we are staying farm people, this weekend I'm bringing Sasha home and two other goats. And on Monday, I'll maybe buy some chickens. I was going to wait until spring for the chickens but they've been selling really cheap at the auction. I do know that I do not want to raise chicks again. We shall see. Usually they are so cute I end up with chicks anyway.
I have pictures of Christmas, Max, Dirty Mike (the hamster) to post but Andy has the camera's disk with pictures of his science fair project at school. I'll post those as well.
Just a reminder to family and friends...my dad's 70th birthday is the 29th. Send him a card.

Early morning fright

This morning I let the dogs outside and checked to see if I need to defrost the windshiled on the truck.
Right away Mischka and DJ start barking and running after a coyote right by the fence. They chased him over onto the BLM land. The very scraggly coyote was about the size of M and could have made a snack out of DJ. Jack stayed on the front porch and barked.
Maks was in the house, having been outside earlier.
For a change, the truck didn't need defrosting which was good because after chasing down DJ, we would have been late for the bus if the truck did need defrosting.