Industrious

It seems that when we are busy, there is no time to write about it all. And then there are times when I get a chance to jot it all down. So what you see in this blog is a brief glimpse into our immediate past and the "almost now".

Valerie really enjoys playing piano. She completed The Entertainer and moved on to The Maple Leaf Rag. It makes me want to belly up to the bar and order a sarsaparilla!




In other news, Valerie went to a sheep shearing event for 4-H at Chaffin Farms.


It was like a salon for sheep where they got their nails done (hooves clipped) and a hair cut (shearing).

But first you had to round those critters up and put a halter and lead on them.




Valerie also had to pick the junk out of their wool and blow them out with a high powered blower.




These are a breed known as Shetland. They are known for their fine wool and petite size. Super fun day!

In other 4-H news, Valerie had her first Fiber Arts meeting. She decided to embark upon a skirt and purse to make for the upcoming Fashion Review event. This was her first time picking out a pattern, measuring, cutting, ironing and sewing without much help. Well, there was that time making the prairie hat with Aunt Mary Lou in South Carolina. (We won't forget that!)










A picture of the finished project will be on a future post. This all took place in the garage of the leader. She lives in an incredible house out surrounded by fields of her own sheep and cattle. They are also putting in a vineyard.

Here us the view from the sewing area:




I believe there was some country music playing in the background. I swear I am living in a world the opposite of where I thought I would be. So beautiful and full!

Valerie is not the only Wilhelm involved in too many activities. Rex recently took to designing and building his own skate board.







The following day he improved upon his design.







I was so proud of him. I told him I was going to e-mail the photos to his dad and uncles. To this he responded, "Great. Then I'll get in trouble for messing up the garage." I responded that I'm sure he won't because he'll have the whole thing cleaned up by the time Michael gets home. Right, Rex?

Speaking of Michael, poor guy is not pictured because he is too busy to photograph. He's on his way home from New York today. He's back off to some other destination next week. We sure appreciate him. It's because of his hard work that we can do all these fun things.

Amira just started a theater class this week. The play will be in May. No photos yet!

Lastly, I have got to start preparing plant starts and bee boxes as Spring is just around the corner! Fortunately I live with some very handy elves.

Sunday Excitement

A phone call comes in while I'm on the other line. I always feel so rude interrupting a conversation, so I don't. Miraculously I remember to check messages before leaving to pick Amira up from her sleep over. Turns out it's her friend's mother. Apparently she managed to give herself a pretty deep cut somehow. She's holding the wound closed and is wondering if I can bring over some butterfly bandages.

Clearly she does not know to whom she is speaking as a broken fingernail can send me into shivering convulsions of discomfort. Blood can cause me to slip rapidly from nausea to unconsciousness -- really misdirecting the medical attention to myself.

I tried calling her, to no avail. I wondered how bad it was? I couldn't find the butterfly bandages here. So I drove to the pharmacy. I couldn't find those things anywhere. So the pharmacist came running out hearing my panicked plea and rang me up right away.

Upon arriving at the destination I was met by my friend with a cloth diaper clinched around her hand. I drove her back to the pharmacy to get gauze, tape and iodine. I dreaded seeing the diaper come off the hand as we set up our home surgery in the kitchen. Sadly, she had to instruct me through most of the taping and do the disinfecting herself.

Turns out she was washing dishes when a glass broke and sliced a deep, juicy curve into her hand. Blech!

So, while I played Nurse Squeemish, the girls went down to the creek to play in the coolest fort ever.




Then I came home to focus on the beauty of the surviving citrus and bees in the yard.



I have to fill my mind with pleasant images to get the bloody ones out. For instance, Valerie's friend brought a baby bunny over the other day.







Is there anything cuter?

Okay, off to a 4-H meeting I go!

Freeze Meiser Comes to Tifftown

It was exceptionally cold at night this week. I kept thinking that maybe I picked the wrong year to put the citrus in the ground.

Thanks to a warning from a friend last night, I was able to put flannel sheets over the cover I was using on my babies. And it's a good thing I did! It got down to 15*F (-9*C).




This was about 8AM. It was up to 18*F at that time. The trees have non-LED lights that come on from 8PM to 8AM each night plus their ag fabric that is supposed to offer 4 to 6* frost protection.

Meanwhile, our water feature turned into an ice rink.




We decided to test how thick the ice was.







Sadly, the ice wasn't THAT thick and the chicken broke the ice. But Rex has quick hands. So she was returned to the frozen orchard with her friends.




We determined that a bat was a better ice tester.




Nope. No skating today.

We're also testing the strength of the plants in our winter garden.




Everything is much hardier than I am. I'll be hanging out by the fire. Fingers too cold to type.

Hard Days Night

It was forty degrees and raining when I went to bed last night so I didn't bother to cover the citrus.
Instead, I played "good mom" and spent time putting soft curlers in Valerie's hair (at her request).

I woke this morning surprised that it was 26*F! I ran out to cover my poor babies that, if they survive, it will be in spite of me, not because of me.




Valerie, on the other hand, was also surprised that she got some curl in her hair. Well, some waves anyway.

Pix from last entry

New Year's Eve with neighbors.




It was crablicious!




Beatlemania with Amira & Eily.




Valerie & her fish, Chet & Larry.




Close up of Larry.




Uh oh. The aquarium is infested with rats!




Christmas bunny. Ate everything under the tree ... Then he ate the tree!

What I did On My Winter Vacation

It's Sunday night. After two long weeks (yes, some weeks are shorter than others) the kids are headed back to school and Michael is about to be off to Detroit for a job. (I hear Detroit in January is lovely). While Michael and the kids are dragging around a bit with a sense of dread that the overwhelming world of responsibilities and commitments are about to descend upon them, I am feeling a sense of giddyness. It's not that I want to get rid of my family. I love them madly. And we had some fun this break. But, I'll be getting my kitchen back to myself. (Seriously, you're frying bacon just after I've cleaned the stove top? You really dropped pancake batter between the cupboards and oven AGAIN? Thanks for loading the dishwasher. The dishes were clean). And I can steal my guilty pleasures during the day when no one is looking (watching new episodes of Downton Abbey while folding laundry!)

But, I get ahead of myself. Let's re-cap some of the fun we had on this wonderful winter vacation. First of all, we all got to sleep in each day. No alarms going off at 5:45am. Well, there was the one rogue alarm going off at 5am each day. No one was able to find it. I assume the batteries finally died. I suspect it was in Amira's room.

There was the romping and playing in the street with the other kids who were also on their two week break. Lots of bike riding, scootering and shanty town, I mean, fort building. There was the visit from Uncle Dave. How cool is that guy? We had our annual Christmas Eve Day roller skating at CalSkate. And since there was hardly anyone there skating, we got all our requests in (Billy Jean by Michael Jackson, Gangnam Style, The Beatles and All The Single Ladies by Beyoncee).

Christmas Eve we didn't manage to take photos. This is too bad because it was Bollywood-Style. As Susan and John were leaving for Borneo the next day, they decided to order out Indian food instead of cooking something traditional. Michael decided that he would download a Bollywood Christmas Album and furtively drop it into the speakers upon entering. And I spent some time watching a Youtube Video on how to wrap a sari. (Susan and John brought one home from one of their other trips. This was my big opportunit to wear it! Seriously, it's like 14 yards of fabric and a whole lot of folding/wrapping/pleating). It was somewhat wrapped. But it was a good thing I brought a change of clothes.

There were endless Beatles movies (as Amira is in her Beatlemania phase). In fact, I have fan mail for Paul and Ringo on my desk waiting for the international reply coupons to arrive so we can get those signed photos in the mail in approximately three months.


I finally entered the 21st Century with an iPod Touch, given to me by my most beloved husband. Although not a phone (at my request), I can put my shopping lists, contact lists, calendars, budgets, photos, etc. on the tool. I always swore I was a Luddite with all my paper notes and books. But now the kids cannot believe how this thing comes with me everywhere. Michael asked me if I've named it. Of course, that would be: Precious. Thanks, Michael!!!

Valerie spent some time setting up a new aquarium. It's in her menegerie of rats/sea monkeys/plants. There may be other things living in there. But I'm going to have to turn a blind eye at this point.

We had king crab, wild rice risotto with pinenuts, salad and chocolate with ghost peppers to ring in the New Year with the neighbors. We adults called it at 9pm (we phoned in East Coast time and went to bed). The kids had a sleep over here with the neighbors. I think they actually slept. But the people across the street had fireworks at midnight. I heard them but was too lazy to get out and see what was going on. I figured that unless there were sirens, I was staying in bed.

We got out to see the new Hobbit movie as a family. With friends Valerie and Rex saw it twice and three times respectively. We also got up to the delightful Mineral Lodge to do some family sledding one day.

So, the kids may say we didn't do anything great. But  say we did. And now I'm looking forward to getting back on a schedule, doing a little yoga, zumba and laundry folding in front of my "stories".

When Michael comes home de-stressed from his next job I will run into his arms looking for a little break from the day-to-day grind I will have gotten into with the kids. And we will celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary later this month, between jobs.