Friday bullets, September 28, 2018

My hot spot is back! It does make life a bit easier.

• It's been an expensive week around here. Earlier this week we had a whole house iron filter installed. We have well water, and it is very heavy in iron. It tastes... not great, and stains everything orange. I was afraid that it would start to rust out the appliances. So, we decided to bite the bullet, and have one put in. I know we will appreciate it, but it was a hard bill to pay. The result is that our children will now drink the water. It tastes completely normal now. P. will no longer have to carry water bottles with her whenever she was going to be near a drinking fountain, so she could fill them up with non-iron heavy water. 
• Along with the iron filter, I also bought an upright deep freezer. Our current freezer situation is just not workable, and since I ordered a side of pork, I really needed somewhere to put it. It will be much easier to see what I have, but once again... the money!
• Of course, because we thought we were coming to the end of replacing appliances (the total so far: well pump, range, refrigerator, water filter, freezer), it seems that our dishwasher is now on its last leg. In order to get it to wash dishes, you have to open it every so often and pour in a pitcher of water. I'm desperately looking at the garage sale lists, hoping that someone is updating their kitchen and has a dishwasher to off-load. I never loved this dishwasher, but it was at least functioning. 
• Oh, and the vacuum has decided that the carpet brush part is going to stop working. I can vacuum bare floors, but it won't touch the carpet. We have three dogs and three cats... I really need to figure out what to do about the vacuum.
• I discovered yet two more squash on our giant serpent squash plant. The thing is unstoppable.
• Earlier this week, we talked about triangular numbers for school, and one of the activities was to use dot stamping markers to create the triangles using dots. This inspired K., who wanted to do giant triangles using much larger paper, so I told him to give it a shot. The next thing I know, he is happily telling me that he decided to do his own version of "The Night Watch" by Rembrandt. We are looking at some of Rembrandt's paintings this fall, and K. was thrilled when he discovered a book in the studio that I had on Rembrandt. It had been living in his bed as his night time reading for several days. (No, I have no idea why Rembrandt has suddenly struck his fancy.) So, I go to look at what he has created. He has propped a copy of the painting up, and then was diligently recreating it. I will say that dot stamp markers are a particularly difficult medium for recreating a Rembrandt painting. (Click on the link above if you need a refresher as to what the actual painting looks like.)

You have to look closely at the pencil drawn outlines to see what exactly is going on.

• We think the ducks are plotting to take over the world. In the afternoon, when they are let out of their pen, they take their ducky selves off. Of course they walk in a line, and they are very purposeful about where they are going. We cannot always locate them, so imagine they have some sort of secret hide out where they plot. There is a lot of plotting, since they are constantly talking to one another. We need to figure out how to speak duck.
• We went to the library yesterday. G., L., K., and Y. have decided to have a reading contest to see who can read the most books. It did require us to check out a pretty significant number. The staff must be getting to know us since two people started manning the computers when they saw us coming to check out.
• The other day the older people set up some of the round pen. Their thinking was that it would be a fun place for the dogs to run around. They do a bit, though Aster just walks out from underneath the lowest bar, and Kenzie has no trouble scooting under, either. It's not a perfect solution. But, the good news is that the pen went together well, and looks great. It's a pretty decent size even with six of the panels still not attached.
• I got to ride very briefly on Sunday. Oh my goodness! Riding muscles that have sat for 2 1/2 years are not terribly effective.
• Please buy eggs from me if you are local.
• J. is enjoying his new job.
• I have stocked up on protein bars since they seem to be the key to a peaceful... okay, how about marginally productive and relatively quiet... school morning.
• TM had a bizarre reading problem in his algebra book this morning. It went along the lines of: George was born with 1/7 of his faults, if he began life with 237 [or some high number] faults, how many faults did he have total? Isn't this just a weird work problem? The math was straight-forward enough, but this is all the textbook writers could come up with?
• The younger children are developing a new appreciate of money. They have all joined together in order to earn money to buy a turtle (because of the turtle that was found during the canoe fiasco trip). One of the jobs I'm willing to pay them for is mucking out the chicken coop. I'll pay $2 for the job. I've now learned that when I tell them how much something costs in terms of how many chicken coop muckings they would have to do, it makes a much bigger impact.
• Am I the only one who goes through a lot of fresh ginger? Why does this have to be deemed a specialty item? Why can't Aldi carry it? Why does our local major chain grocery store insist of spraying their fresh ginger with water as if it were lettuce? Why can this particular item not be easier to find? I miss my grocery store... still.

And now I must go and help P. with something, so I'll stop here. Have a great weekend!