I made these beads to sell. I was thinking about creating an Etsy account and selling them on there, but in the meantime, if anyone is interested let me know. This strand is about 14 inches long, the bead diameter is 1/8", and the colors are browns, blues, greens, whites, and silvers; some are a little sparkly.
Your first question is probably, "What's with the big ear-phones?" and your second, "What's with the goofy outfit?" I posted a few months ago that I had been volunteered to take video of any structural fire incidents our all-volunteer dept. responds to. That was fine with me since our little community wouldn't keep me tied up doing that all the time. I haven't been to a call yet, but I did get to video a burn they did last Saturday. There is a field near the main station that had two old barns in it. One had fallen down, and the other was very rotten, but still managing to stay upright. Because we're rural and don't have fire-hydrants everywhere, they are going to build a large pond in the field for storing water. Of course, they can't have old barns floating around in their pond, so they had to burn them up. (Firefighter's solution to a problem... right?)
So I showed up at the main station with tripod and camera. After the briefing, during which my dad worked on his laptop in the next room, everyone scrambled into action. We had two other rural fire districts helping out, so it was a good sized crew. Dad said it was okay if I rode down in one of the apparatus since it was so nearby.
Do you know how tall a fire engine is? I thought I did until I stood there, supposed to get in. The first step was up past my knee! One of the firemen held my stuff while I crawled up in there. Once I got in, I couldn't find my seatbelt hiding beside all the straps on the SCBA pack (air-tank) in the back of the seat, finally found it, and strapped in. Then our Asst. Chief (aka- Mrs. B) got in the driver seat, and Joseph got in the other front seat. Mrs. B put on one of those big blue headsets that cut engine noise and make it so the firefighters can talk to one another. She said I should put one on too. I tried, but it didn't feel right; as it turns out, I had it on upside-down. Can you tell I've never ridden in one of those things before?
I thought our van was a roaring, bumpy ride! A fire truck feels like a beast. We lumbered down the road a very short way, pulled in behind the other engine, and hopped out. Okay, I didn't exactly hop. But anyway, I set up my tripod and started taking video clips of everything, to be edited together later. It was really fun to use my 60x optical zoom because, even though I was way out on the road and the burn was way down in the field, I could get up really close and look inside the barn or see the flames eating away at one particular board. Dad walked down once they had set fire to the structures and watched for awhile before going back to the station.
The goofy outfit was to keep me safe... the vest for visibility. (The rules are that anyone under 5'3" has to wear a brightly colored vest for visibility. Just kidding.) The hard hat was to protect me from exploding hoses or pumps or something. I just know that Captain D. stressed that anyone working on the scene had to wear their helmets.
When I got home and picked up
Summer Sunday
Yesterday we had a Summer Sunday that was supposed to happen two weeks ago but got rained out. It was lots of fun. Rob was in charge of the games; he organized softball and shot off a really cool rocket he and his older brother made. I guess they have a lot of time on their hands!? It didn't rain this time, and we roasted hot dogs (which was a new idea to me) and marshmallows over the campfire. Me and my friend had to keep moving around the fire because we were either too cold, or it was too smoky. We sang some praise choruses, and Dad did a homily. The softball game was riotous; the guys kept making 'mistakes' to let the girls and little kids make points. It was really fun... if you visit, you can come to a Summer Sunday. The only problem is, you might stay up too late and end up with a headache like mine. :)
Pictures:
-A bunch of kids roasting hot dogs, L to R: Paul, Timothy, Rob, Val, and myself.
-Val and I enjoying the smoke and heat.
Tada!!!!! The silence is over; the bloggers are back!
Okay, I have to write a sad, happy, sentimental blog post, bear with me.
Yesterday was our two year anniversary of living here!
I'm two years older, not much more mature, but learning new things. I think I love it here—the place—but sometimes it is sad because I want to share it with you AZ people. If someone would visit that would be so fun... to share our home and daytime temperatures with someone else! Right K's?????!!!! A comforting, fun, like-minded time was the B's graduation on Saturday. Three of their older kids were graduating, and being homeschoolers, they decided to have a nice laid-back home celebration. We sat on cement in metal chairs and roasted. It was only 77 degrees, but the direct sun made some people feel pretty sick. I got a pretty good sunburn from standing out in a field NOT playing soccer! At least I had my hair down; a couple of the boys got pretty good sunburns on their necks. Good time, had been longing for fellowship. (TK, the picnic we want ya'll to come out for is at their house, and it's really fun. It would be so, so, so COOL if you could play hammered dulcimer or fiddle or something at it. Maybe we could even do a song together.) Anyway, I can't believe that we have been here for two years... cool place.........
AZ people, come visit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Darling Deer
The animals around us are enjoying springtime (wet, though it be!). I took these pictures of deer browsing on the hill behind our house... from the kitchen window! Often times during a meal, these two deer walk past our dining room windows on their way down the hill. They then cross the road and go down to the creek for water. On the way, they nibble daintily at the clover and other wild greens and flowers growing along the driveway. They move so gracefully and swiftly, and their eyes are always wide open as if they are seeing wonderful things for the first time. They are awesome creations of God!
Crazy Crow
I never knew that a crow could feel the need for a sidewalk of his own, but this particular crow obviously does. In the mornings, often while we are eating breakfast, he flies from the trees across the street and lands on our deck railing. He marches importantly down the railing, passing the French doors in the dining room, rounding the corner, passing the windows, then hopping down and flying away. Why? I have no idea, but he apparently feels the need for a sidewalk!
Squirrelly Squirrels
Perhaps they've been drinking red Kool-Aid... I just don't know. I have never seen squirrels so silly before! Squirrelly Squirrel #1 was hilarious. Mom and I were outside the front door waiting for our ride to Ladies' Bible Study. In front of us was the driveway, and our big ol' van. Toward the nose of the van, up the hill, was a grey squirrel (called a grey-digger around here). He was jumping here and jumping there and scampering in circles and absolutely cutting the craziest capers! We were delighted and were thoroughly enjoying watching him. But then it got better. Running down the driveway, he sprang and climbed halfway up the porch post about 8 feet away from us! He then jumped off and ran even closer, getting onto the rough stone siding below the living room windows and peeking in. After he bounced off, he froze, looked up at us for the first time, and took off like a grey streak. He ran under the van and jumped up into the underside somewhere near the front axle! Mom and I simultaneously said, "Oh, no!" But he jumped back out and ran up the hill, disappearing into the foliage.
Squirrelly Squirrel #2 had obviously been watching a certain Crazy Crow. One morning during breakfast, Aimee said, "Hey everybody... look!!" There was a squirrel on the deck railing! It was sitting still, looking around alertly. (Probably wondering if the crow was about to show up.) We opened the curtains on the French doors and watched in delight as the squirrel raced down the railing. It's very difficult to jam 8 curious faces in a 10-inch-wide window. So it must have looked either perfectly comical or perfectly terrifying to the squirrel to see us all trying to watch as he rounded the corner and jumped onto the deck, disappearing underneath the wooden bench. And it was hard to say which was cuter (if that's a word!); the squirrel, or
St. Francis? Not really.
Once again, this animal happening begins during a mealtime. The day before yesterday while we were eating lunch, I saw this shape flick past the arched window over the kitchen door. Then a profound THUNK! The shape then flew past the other two side windows. I looked out the French doors behind me and saw and very small bird (perhaps a little smaller than a common sparrow?) sitting very still on the deck railing. Putting two and two together and coming up with 5x (as usual), I decided the bird must have flown into the window and now had a pretty good headache. This seemed to be a pretty logical explanation, because when I got up and opened the door the bird didn't fly away. I walked over to it. It just sat there blinking dully. I reached out one finger and began stroking its tiny back! The bird continued blinking, his mouth hanging open a little so I could see the orange tint inside. After stroking him for awhile, I remembered that our cockatiel used to love being scratched/rubbed behind the neck. This bird did too. He stretched his neck out and leaned into the scratching, closing his eyes. My family was still sitting at the table watching the whole thing, and I heard my Dad say, "Try telling him the gospel." He was obviously referring to St. Francis of
To me, that experience was even better than getting to revive a downed humming bird by feeding him sugar-water through a pipette!
