Electric Company

Another school year has ended and we're all glad of it.  I got to go on the 5th grade TREK field trip, a "team building" adventure.  Ethan and I both took a go on the zip line.  The climb up was a bit hairy, but the zip is a blast!  It was fun and all but not my favorite field trip by any means.  The Art & History school day got cancelled due to rain unfortunately.

The boys and I did get out there for the reenactment on Saturday however and had a chance to look around then.  It was pretty quiet in the afternoon, the weather was perfect.  We all had fun wandering around looking for things that looked interesting to us.

Fox finished the year on an up note receiving Rookie of the Year again for Track (he also got it for CC) and this time got a Scholar Athlete certificate as well.  Haven't got his final grades yet but he assures me all will be fine.  This week he started driver's training which will go until the end of the month.  Then I'll have to get the guts to let him drive me around, not sure how I feel about that yet.  :)   He is also shocked and somewhat excited to have a new cross-country coach for next year but expecting the change to be a good one.  Nutrition and diet are a focus for him lately as he continues to run, lift weights, walk, and bike regularly.  Looking forward to seeing all his dedication and hard work pay off.

 

 Ben and Ethan did get their final report cards on the last day of school.  Ben got two As, four A-s, and a B.  Ethan brought in satisfactories in all electives, two Bs, three B+s, and an A-.  Excellent job, although I'm concered that I am seeing less and less of Ethan's completed work come home during the school year.  Ben is pretty good about showing me things regularly.  Ethan, not so much.  I realized how not-so-much when he brought home all his stuff after desk and locker clean-out.  Hmm.

The pigs are doing well.  I take them out for walks around the trail a few times a week now.  This is recommended to help them build up stamina for show day so they don't poop out on you and refuse to do anything.  They know their route now and with a little help from Sunny puppy they move right along.  You can see in the photo what good rototillers they are, the area between the barn and wood fence was all thick grass like in the foreground, now it is all turned over.  Currently they are working on the new field area, and occasionally making their escape to go plunk in the pond! 

New developments include a job change for Rob.  He went back to the company he was working for and is much happier for it.  There have been new business opportunities that have allowed his old boss to bring him back on doing what he used to do and also a few new tasks, some of which will entail commission which could be cool.  Unfortunately the academic enrichment classes I put together did not go due to lack of pre-enrollment.  I did get some but not enough to meet my minimums, sort of a bummer but I can definately use that time to work on other projects around the house.  A never ending work-in-progress.  The gramma garden extension is coming along nicely, need to get another batch of mulch to finish it off.  Enrichment classes will be part of my upcoming future for sure but things are coming together a little differently than I expected, but it will all be fine.  Plus, we got a call from Chatfield.....Ben got in for 7th grade.  Picked up the packet today and his summer reading assignment.  I also spoke with the Director about substitute teaching there and got the forms I need to fill out for that.  He was happy to have me on the "call list."  So, this will completely change the dynamic of our next academic year but I am truely looking forward to the adventure!

Growing Pains

Pig Weigh-In was this past Saturday.  Needless to say things didn't go exactly as I had planned.  The thought was that we would coax the swine with feed to walk up a ramp of a couple boards into the back of the pick-up truck.  One was willing enough to do so but halfway up it started to slip and we couldn't keep it on the board to continue the journey.  So, I ended up picking up all the hogs, one of them twice because the gatekeepers failed me, and lifted them onto the truck.  Got them down to the Fairgrounds, timed it at a lull so we were in and out being that we just had them tagged but did not put them on the scale.  Getting them back off the truck was another adventure with poop and puke added into the fun.  In hindsight we should have used the long trailer but it's all over now.  I estimate them to be in the 80-90 pound range.

Also on Saturday was the Wild Lapeer event on the Chatfield School/Willows campus and the Ponds and Prairies of Oakdale.  We had a respectable turnout overall considering there was much going on that weekend, with a festival at Mott College and a carnival at the American Legion Hall which were on either side of us.  The boys helped with the 4H Project Clover booth and got considerable donations althought we haven't gotten the final tally yet, it was enough that made it worth doing and helped get the word out about it.  The Flint Crepe Company had some wonderful selections on their cart, offering crepes made with organic and locally bought ingredients, there were many things about the Flint River, and I made a contact with some ladies from the Lapeer Conservation District to set up some workshops and classes with the Academic Enrichment Company.

The Funny Face Alpaca exhibit was a huge hit as people clamored around to get a good look at the animals and have a pet.  The Organization for Bat Conservation from the Cranbrook Science Center did a wonderful presentation although I only heard if from a far as I helped at the dock doing pond dipping but I did mange to come over at the end and get a quick pic.  I was excited to get a close up shot of an owl they brought for the falconry presentation before they got started.  What a gorgeous creature.  The surprise discovery was when I went to get a photo of the fly fishing demonstration.  By the time I got there he was packed up and gone but a beautiful blue heron was hanging out on the side of the river right in front of the pavillion.  Observed it for a bit until Ethan came running up behind me yelling which scared it up into a tree which we then stayed and watched it from there for a while.  I've seen herons many times around my ponds on our property but never got to see them high up.

I got shifted from disc golf duty to pond dipping last minute after someone bailed.  I've seen this activity at several ecology and nature centers so it was no touble for me to take it over.  My first "customers" were kids from North Branch, one of which was my friend Faith whom I had the pleasure of canoeing with at the Camp Lael field trip last year and also saw recently at the Willows outing.  She and her sisters spent quite a while with me looking at things under the field scope.  I had another young man come over later in the day that was a very determined "critter finder" and his efforts were rewarded greatly as he discovered many pond creatures others hadn't.  We pulled lots of frogs eggs, had a few sightings, but no one was successful in capturing one.

Chatfield School 5th and 6th graders ruled the workshop as they hosted Bluebird House building made possible by a Toyota Tapestry grant for Habitat Restoration.  All the materials were free and the students put together some great materials to explain which birds were 'good' and which needed to be discouraged from the area.

Other demonstrations included Barb Barton, an endangered species biologist with the Native Wild Rice Coalition who demonstrated the steps for processing native wild rice: parching it over an open fire, dancing or jigging to remove the hull, winnowing the chaff and cleaning.  Quite the process however I don't know if this was as big a draw as the organizers thought it would be.  There was also an interactive story put on by The Superhero Training Academy which was relatively engaging from the boys' report, and of course hand-churned ice cream!

The best part of my day however was getting out in the canoe with my boys.  I love canoeing and really need to start doing more of it, especially now that the boys are old enough to really help handle the boat.  There's something about just floating along the water, it's quiet, it's peaceful, and you never know what you'll discover along the way.  I am going to make it a point to explore the Oakdale property more this summer both on foot and with my bike to get to know it more.  What a wonderful natural resource right in the heart of Lapeer.

Friday and Sunday were also the Lapeer County Concert Choir performances.  My dad and his wife came out to the evening concert which I greatly appreciated seeing as no one else I invited made it.  Most never even acknowledged the invite which I find a bit rude and disconcerting but whatever.  I had a 'solo' in the gospel number "Be Thou Faithful", really liked how it went on Friday but the Sunday version not so much, that one oddly enough got a standing ovation, go figure.  Ethan, Ben and I also snuck in a showing of The Avengers, straight up version, which was very entertaining.  I don't think I could have handled that much action in 3D, seriously!  Love, love, love Robert Downey Jr., he is the man!  Mark Ruffalo's Bruce Banner was also notable, and although I'm not a previously professed ScarJo fan, she definately brought it!

What's up for the Partons?  Baseball games start this week for Ethan.  Finishing up soccer games and sponsorship sales.  I'll be subbing three days for the middle school special ed teacher as she makes the trip to Washington DC with the 8th graders.  Marketing is out for the AEC Summer Program and hopefully registrations will start streaming in.  Click HERE to see the schedule.  Also planning a day trip to Lansing with the boys, helping with the LVLC Open House, and TREK trip with Ethan's class.  Rock On!