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This photo was taken this morning. It may be hard to tell, but it is currently raining outside (no surprise there). What is a surprise is that about 2 weeks ago, the winds at work were unfavorable (out of the east) which blows the exhaust from the pulp mill over the parking lot. What this does is make the interior of all of the cars smell like black liquor. This is a by-product from the cooking process of the wood chips to separate the cellulose from the wood fibers - to make pulp. The winds don't usually blow from this direction, but when it does, Terra can certainly tell by sitting in my car. We have used an air freshener on an occasion and it seems to work, but I had a brilliant idea, and I thought that if I would leave all of the windows down overnight, I might be able to blow out the smell of the vehicle. I chose a day that the weather man thought would be |
| good meaning that there was no chance of rain that night and left all four of the windows down. Now what you must understand is that I park behind Terra's vehicle, and out of the carport. What this does is gives my car a nice layer of water (dew) every morning. When I came out to get in my car Monday morning the weather man was correct - it didn't rain that night. I turned on the windshield wipers and scraped off the layer of water - throwing it by the side of the car. After I did that, then I did it again and again and then I reached up and touched the inside of the windshield. Both sides of the windshield and back window were covered with large droplets of water (dew) inside and out. I had to go and get a towel and dry the inside of the windshield prior to being able to drive to work. I think this is the last time that I will attempt trying to leave all of the windows down overnight. |  |
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I have to change the oil on the car quite often since I moved here. Driving 42 miles to work and back 5-days a week leads to this behavior. Ever since I purchased this vehicle, I have been keeping a tab on all of the maintenance performed including milage and date. As I was looking over this information I found the following data: Vehicle purchased 6-16-08 @ 116,400 miles now it is 10-4-09 @ 146,875 miles. That means that in a little over 1 year I have put 30,500 miles on this car or an average of 64 miles per day. If I continue to put miles on the car at this rate (84 miles per day, 5 days a week = 60 miles per day averaged if I don't use the car for any other purpose) means that this car is going to age at a much faster rate than I had anticipated when I purchased it. Luckily, I have had no problems with this auto since I have owned it. Maybe that will continue. |
| Now on to another story, in this photo (you may have to look close) you will see a spider web. This web stretches from the eve of our house to the neighbors trees just inside his fence (a distance of about 15 feet). I managed not to walk into this web as I was wrestling the lawn mower, only because it was early on a Saturday morning and the sun was at the correct angle to avoid the web. I still have not managed to get used to the fact that there is so much life here. Every time you turn around there are more critters to deal with, from the creepy crawlies to the bugs, and so on down the food chain. This particular spider impressed me by not only the size of its web, but its size as well. We managed to take some photos of it. |  |
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While Terra and I were building Rachel's dresser the boys pointed out a smaller spider web that was in the car port. Since I was a curious as to exactly what a spider would do if an insect entered its web, and since the boys were similarly curious, we caught an ant crawling on the concrete and threw it into the spider's web. Unfortunately we missed and it went through the web, hit the wall and then fell down. Luckily for us, it got caught in another web about halfway down the wall. We watched as the spider came from its hiding place and wrapped up the ant. I have see this in cartoons, and guessed what it would look like, but it was neat to witness it in real life. I can't help but wonder what Mia's life would be like if she lived here with her little Abby, knowing Abbeys fondness for creepy crawlies. |
| I don't know exactly why, but the kids (all of them) like to be intimately involved with any cooking that takes place in our house. Every meal that is made is a fight for who can stir, whose turn it is to stir, who gets to add ingredients, and in what turn, etc. I think that Kyle likes it the most, but Rachel screams the loudest when she doesn't get her way. Kyle has taken to going and getting cake mixes and bringing them into the kitchen for preparation to cook them. He has learned that we don't always give into making his choice of meal or dessert, so lately Terra will be in the other room, and instead of asking to make a cake mix, he will retrieve one from the other room, bring it out to the kitchen, open it up and pour it into a bowl, and then he will go and get Terra and ask for help making it. It is amazing how clever they can be to get their way. |  |
| I don't know if you had noticed or not, but a few pictures ago is what our banana tree looks like. Now this is a dwarf banana tree, and it is only supposed to get 5-7 feet tall. It is supposed to yield bananas, and I am excited to see how it works out. It was advertised as an indoor plant (they will die in freezing temperatures) and we have so far kept it out side. The interesting thing is that we have only watered it twice in the six months since we have owned it. I put the pot outside positioned strategically under the edge of the eve, such that it gets plenty of water from every rain. I also imagine that it may get a drop or two every morning from the eve because of the dew, but haven't ever seen that take place. I don't know much about plants, but Terra thinks the yellow leaves mean that it is getting to much water, any other ideas? |
| Rachel has figured out how to climb. As you can tell from this picture, she does have some spots that she likes more than others. It is not uncommon to find her sitting in the bathroom sink, or even sitting on the top of the piano. I remember that Ethen liked to climb, but I don't remember Kyle exhibiting this behavior. It seems like every child goes through a time in their life when all they want to do is get into everything they can find and destroy it. Rachel has reached this time. |  |
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As for other news, there is not much to tell. We are toying with the idea of selling the Expedition and purchasing another vehicle that will carry the same amount of persons, but get twice the gas milage. We have been looking around and haven't found anything that we can't live with out, but every time I visit the local gas station, I re-new my efforts to look and see what is out there. Any recommendations? |