Bryant Happenings...

I know we have a couple people out there who keep up with us by reading our blog so I am going to try to give a quick rundown of what has been going on here...Lets see. Jeff has been busy as ever both at work and at home. He has a great job and is home most everyday for lunch which the kids and I really appreciate. His company is growing which is exciting as he is learning new things and for the most part enjoying the fast pace (makes the days go by quicker and he can get home where is heart truly is). At home he helped me put in most of the garden, we have a few things to plant yet, he is reading a book on self suffiency, ordered a book about how to make a WhizBang Chicken Plucker see thedeliberateagrarian.blogspot.com and just finished building a chicken tractor.
I have been trying to keep the kids inside long enough in the mornings to get their school work and chores done. We have several year end activities in the next couple of weeks which we are very much looking forward to. When that is done it will be full swing garden and raising broiler chickens and turkeys. I am also anxiously awaiting the arrival of one of our milk does kids. It is looking as if she will kid the week Jeff will be out of town go figure! I am making plans to make soap again this summer and am hoping to learn to make cheese as well..
I am reading The Excellent Wife and am being greatly challenged along with bits and pieces from books on goats, chickens, gardening, homeschooling, cooking healthy....
The kids each want to post their own happenings...so I will let them as time allows over the next couple of days.

another trapping picture

This is one of the two minks that wandered down the wrong path and ended in one of my sons traps...they sure have a nice odor!!! Well, it is the middle of April and trapping has been done for quite some time and now if I need my son I am sure to find him at a local fishing spot, were the fishing has been good!

Spelling Bee

I am so far behind, somehow I just need to make this a regular part of my day!!! Oh well, someday!!! Probably one of our most exciting homeschool moments this year was when our oldest daughter won the county spelling bee! For something like 19 rounds it was just Hannah and one other boy---torture to this mom!! Can't imagine what it must have been like for Hannah!! So a couple weeks later we went to state...and she made it through the first round! Boy, those words at state were something else, I didn't even know what most of them meant...alot of ethnic words, most being foods we have never even heard of!! It was fun though and a wonderful experience for all of us! Congrats Hannah!

Trapping

Nicholas loves the outdoors. He says when he "grows up" that he would like to be a fisherman/ trapper/ hunter/ mountain man?!? With the busyness of today, that "occupation" sounds quite relaxing, I guess when I grow up, that is what I would like to be also!! Nicholas had a very productive year this year compared to last years trapping. He trapped 56 muskrats, 18 beaver, 5 coons, and 2 mink. Dad really learned how to skin this year, it seems like I had something to skin almost every night. Maybe next year Nicholas will skin some also, he seems very willing and I am sure he could do it. We sold his furs this past weekend, and I told him it would be a good idea to save his money and maybe we could buy a four-wheeler to check traps with. He said he wanted to buy a pair of coon dogs instead. He read "Where the Red Fern Grows" this past fall and wants to try coon hunting. We have a great neighbor Tom that has helped out with our outdoor activities. Thanks Tom! Papa has been a great help too! The pictures show Macy and Nicholas with this years catch and the other shows one of the beavers Nicholas trapped.

San Francisco

Here is Jeff and I on our BIG trip to San Francisco. Jeff had to go on a business trip and I thought I would tag along. It worked out well that it was our anniversary--13 years! We had never left the children for that long and we hadn't flown anywhere together since 1993!! (We don't get out much). We had a wonderful time. We stayed in Alameda, CA which is just straight across the bay from San Francisco. We were able to go to Oakland as well and we enjoyed dinner there one night and also ended up in downtown Oakland another night after missing the ferry and having to get across the bay by the BART. That was scary! But then we got in a taxi and I must say, it is just like the movies! Those guys drive like they are nuts! Jeff's favorite thing to do was ride the ferry across the bay and so we did that 3 or 4 nights. It was fun! So the pictures above show Jeff in San Francisco the "hill" behind him is Alcatraz and I am riding on the ferry!

Indian Cave State Park, NE

As always, pictures just don't give the views justice. For those of you who have never been there, the first picture is of the actual caves. You can ascend some stairs but not actually climb in the caves. After doing a little research we discovered there has been a lot of controversy about the caves. However, they were very neat to look at.
The second picture is a scenic lookout over looking the Missouri River. We are hoping to return in the fall when the leaves are changing colors.
Overall, we would go back and reccommend it to others as long as you have REALLY GOOD tic repellent. (I think ours was old)

Homeschooling

For those of you who don't know us we are a homeschool family. We have been homeschooling since Hannah was in the first grade, she is now in the 7th! We have gone through many different curriculum choices doing everything from traditional school at home to using unit studies and everything in between. Last year we found a unit study type curriculum called My Father's World. For the first time I (and the children) were able to say this is what we want! So, this year is our second year with that program and we are in the Exploring Countries and Cultures year. We started this year in North America and so far we have reviewed the US, learned alot about Central America and Mexico and for the next 2 weeks we will be learing about Canada. We will "travel" to all 7 continents studying cultures and people groups, biomes, and geography. So far we have learned to make Navajo fry bread (so yummy) and we have had a Mexican Fiesta, complete with homemade tortillas and a Pinata.
For math all of the kids study Saxon math, which for anyone considering a math program and looking for an opinion, that is the way to go. English, Grammar, Spelling and Vocabulary, Literature, and Reading are all studied independently using mostly Classic Curriculum, the McGuffey Readers and some BJU. We go to the library about once a month and bring home around 75 books and videos to supplement all of our different projects. Jeff has begun a more in depth science study in the evenings and the children really enjoy that. So far they have been studying electronics.
We also belong to a couple of coops in the area. This year we are singing in the family choir together, the children are also singing in 2 youth choirs. They will also be able to take a PE class, a speech and drama class, a sewing or shop class, an art class and various others. All 4 take piano and violin lessons. I am beginning to think we may be a bit busy this year, but I think it sounds like more than it actually is. We will see.

Here we go a hiking, a hiking, a hiking........NOT!!!!!!!

September 8th we thought we would go to Indian Cave State Park and take the children hiking!! We loaded up, grabbed a picnic lunch and headed out. The park was beautiful!!! As soon as we pulled in a red fox ran in front of our car--surely a good sign of the fun we were going to have! We pulled off at a picnic area ate our lunch and got ready to hike. Well, about 20 minutes in to the hike our youngest Peyton began screaming that her leg was itching. Jeff looked at it and said she had a bunch of chigars on her ankle. Well, she continued to complain and whine so I decided to take a closer look. If she had 1 she had 200 deer tics on her ankle. Well, that was enough for me, the hike was cancelled and we headed home to soak in some tea tree oil bath water!
We did drive on down and see the caves, I will post that next.

Canoeing With Friends

August 28 we enjoyed a wonderful day on the Kansas River canoeing with our friends. We were blessed with beautiful weather, a cooperative river, generous friends who loaned us their canoes and, of course, wonderful fellowship with the Hansen family. I will add more pictures to the blog if I can get the eldest Hansen child to share some photos with me.

Turkeys

We let our turkeys out for the first time this Tuesday. They are alot of fun. They have big strong wings but they can't really fly. We named all 7 of them. I (Macy) am holding Stacy, she is heavy. They follow us kids around every where we go, daddy thinks the turkeys think we are there parents! Daddy holds grass and leaves in his hand and they eat out of it. They lay on the porch when we go inside and wait for us to come back out.