Busy Thursday

I just looked back at some old posts and saw tomorrow will be one year that I've had my driver's license.  It has been nice to have! 
And now... Big J. is working on getting his permit.  Whoa!  Look out fellow drivers and people.  (I'm only half joking about that.)  But won't it be nice to have a total of four drivers in this house?  We can't forget Little J.!  She has a few years to go, but she'll get to watch her two older siblings and learn from our rights and wrongs.

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Today I made a list of things (other than the normal chores, etc.) I wanted to get done this Thursday.  I have gotten about half of the tasks done:  Water plants, check.  Plant garden seeds indoors, check.  Finish school for the week, check.  Bake a pie, check...which wasn't on my list. Give BingBong a bath, check.  Well really, I didn't bathe him.  I just showed him that water won't hurt him since he's a cat and seems to think water isn't nice.

I still lack:  Cleaning the fish aquarium (I really wish the filter would keep it clean).  And cleaning a computer desk so I can turn it into something worth keeping.

Honestly, hardly ever will you know what you'll see on my to do lists.  

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Another project I did (with Daddy) was a key chain.  I adore pigs.  They're very high on the chart of favorite animals.  When I was looking on Pinterest and saw that someone turned old plastic animals into key chains, I knew I had to make myself one.  Of course, I chose a pig.

You'll need:

Plastic animal of your choice
Eye screw
Key ring
Drill

Just drill a tiny hole in the animal's back.  Screw the eye screw in place and hook to the key ring.  It's as simple as that.  On Pinerest a bunch of people painted the animals either solid or multiple colors.  I left mine in the original condition, as it was super cute just plain. 

The end result, well, all I can say is, "It's adorable!".  (And now I need some kind of key to put on this perfect key chain.)
    

Can it be Spring? (And Goals Update)

See?  Do you see it?  Finally the green shoots of grass--err...cheat--are coming forth!  It has been BEAUTIFUL here this winter.  We've not gotten any snow to really speak of.  This month's temperatures have been anywhere from below freezing to, can you believe it, the 80's.  And now, we can truly say that we've seen not only cranes, but geese flying north.  Even the ants are out.

Daddy planted two new fruit trees and I'm saving egg shells for our garden seeds. 

But we can only wonder what tomorrow's weather will hold.  Who knows...we could have a blizzard. 

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Remember my "goals" post back in January?  Well, I'm very pleased to announce I entered not only one, but two writing contests before February.  One was a short story and the other was a poem-ish.  Winners will be announced March 17th and I will only have to wait and see what happens.  But however the outcome is, I can--did--check off goal number one.

How am I doing on the other goals?  Well, let's see.  I want to say I've written something everyday.  I mean how in the world could I go a day without writing something down?  So, yes.  I have a journal I keep up to date pretty much all the time.  This blog and even my stories are getting worked on.  I think it's safe to say this goal is going well.

No, I'm not even close to finishing my big book.  But I am learning quite a bit (like to be patient).  After all, whoever wrote, edited, rewrote, edited, and finished their book in a day?  Or month? 

Goal number 4.  I'm not really looking into publishing at the moment.  I figure it's better to have a book ready for publishing before finding a publisher.  That makes sense.

Well, you readers can answer this goal.  Am I creating better blog posts?  Personally, whether or not they're better, I am having so much fun writing them!

So far, I've read Gilding the Waters by Catherine Richmond, started an online book titled, Paramount, and am in another book containing stories six words long.  (By the way, six word stories are pretty amazing, especially if you are in a hurry.)  I've also been reading my Bible daily.

Did you make any resolutions this year?  If so, how are you doing with them?

Getting Some Culture

 

People emerged from the indoors like that of a rabbit from its hole.  The sun shown brilliantly and warmed the winter landscape to a comfortable 80*.  It was summer in winter.

Like so many people, it was time we had our own outing. 

Brenton Kirkhart is a photographer/artist and we've known him for a while, so when we heard his work was being exhibited only twenty miles away, we had to go!  Yesterday all five of us looked at his stuff and really got some culture.  He does sculptures, portraits, ceramics, paintings, anything really, and does really well to top it off.  It was great to see something we normally don't see, especially here in the Panhandle.

While we ate pizza afterwards, I personally did some people watching outside the window.  It occurred to me that multiple people were driving by with their windows down.  People are people, whether they come from the city or country, whatever their past looks like, on a beautiful day, they drive with the windows down.  The same wind that whips our hair, whips theirs.

The park across the street from the pizza place was filled with all ages.  Bikers peddled, families and singles walked, kids played on the playground or rode skateboards in the skate park.  People were really enjoying the fresh, warm air and reminded me of old times.

Having been so busy and kind of out of loop, sports wise, we finally had an opportunity to watch a basketball game.  The college girls went back and forth, one or two points ahead, then fell behind.  In the end, they bumped the score up and won.
The boys also went back and forth, but the game grew long.  Foul after foul was called on both teams.  Our team missed the free-throws one after another, and we lost in the final few seconds.  There were a couple times we wondered if we'd see overtime, it was so close.

During the time outs and halves, we practiced our ASL, joked around, and laughed.

After the game, we picked up a pail of ice cream and came home.

This morning as we came down the stairs at different times, each one of us said again how much we enjoyed yesterday. 

Post script:  I wanted to include this joke Little J. made up this morning.
"What do you do to a guy who needs money fast?"

Answer: Leave him "a loan".

Putting in the Guzzler

 

"What is a guzzler?" you may ask.  Well, in short, it's a water tank for quail (and other wildlife).

More professionally, it's a water collection tank that captures and stores rainwater.  Guzzlers have three main parts: an apron, a tank, and a roof.  When it rains, water runs through the holes in the roof and into the tank.  The tank can hold hundreds of gallons of water.  The apron also catches water and allows it to run into the tank.  When it's full enough, water flows back in the apron where birds and wildlife can drink from it. 

A guzzler is a nice way to provide water for wildlife, and an affordable way to satisfy the CRP (Conservation Reserve Program) water requirements.

Since my grandma has some CRP land, one of the things she needed to do was get a quail guzzler and stick it in the ground. 

She bought one, but for some reason, it wasn't burying itself.  Therefore, Dad, Mom, Big J., Little J., and I had the pleasure of helping.

Within two evenings of hand digging, setting, leveling, and finally lowering, the quail guzzler was set! 

Some pictures below show the progress.

 

In the picture directly below, Little J. is doing her part of the digging.  See that yellowish colored thing in the top left corner?  That, my friend, is the guzzler.

 

In this next (below) picture, you can see the holes in the lid.  Here I'm doing my part...standing on the guzzler to keep it level.  It was tough...  No, not really.

 

 

The part closest to you is the apron, or what we would call the spout.  It's like a ramp, sloping to the bottom of the tank.

Below here, Big J. puts dirt around the edges and Dad keeps it level.

When we were finished setting it, we went ahead and filled it plumb full of water--kind of give it a head start till the next rain.  Here's Big J. doing his part.

Now that all the hard work is done, the little quail and wildlife should be satisfied with their new source of drinking water.