"Hello people,
Last night I came home from supper and was working away on my pictures and computers, never realizing that it had started to snow for real outside. It was such a shock to me when my kids came home, and they were tracking in snow. By this morning, we have gotten a approximately three inches of nice wet snow. And, it is 26°.
Also last night, Peter and Stacey invited the world down to Lisa Lake to skate and have s’mores around a bon fire. Everyone that was there said they had so much fun. Guess I should’ve gone out." Well my kids had fun...although May did not go since she is still feeling poorly with this flu thing and Annie had too much homework, but the boys went and came back rather wet but happy....
later...have a great Monday (ahummm...well, try to,anyhoo...not a Monday person, can u tell?? :)
Monday, October 26, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
HIYA folks...
Hi! We still don’t have snow – that seems so weird! It might snow this weekend. We’ll see. It’s about 32° right now at 9:30 pm. Today was sorta gray and dreary.
We had a family meeting tonight to discuss what we’d like to spend our money on. It was a short meeting. Everyone was in goofy moods so there was a lot of laughing and jokes. It was a pleasant family meeting esp for having to discuss money and budgets, etc.
I think that some of the PDF will be given for building and food supplies. A new Tabernacle building was discussed but location is not clear yet...that will be a major undertaking considering that the building houses our communal kitchen and mess hall plus church hall...I think we have 50 grand saved and need 3 times that amount...haha...we shall see...
Bill, Kathy, and Joey went to visit family in the states for a couple of weeks. Joe is missing a whole week of my Spanish class...oh well...
May still recup from nasty flu...she needs to get better before she leaves for Ireland, flying with an ear ache is murderous as I hv found out....she is getting better. Some of us gals hv ordered bulk silver colloid...and it seems to be working better than the stuff I make myself...stronger probably...funnily enough it is called Argentyn 123....course Argentina comes from the Conquistadors thinking that the River Plata ( silver) was a sea of silver and argentina comes from argentium....Iegend goes that the sun shone on the vast river and made it look like silver...for those who don't know I was born in Argentina, hence the cultural clip here...sorry to bore u...:)
anyhoo she is drinking the stuff often (actually just using droppers) and also in her ears...does not want to go the run of antibiotics...good girl...but slow in healing...letting the body heal itself...now that she is an EMT 3 she tells me all about medical stuff...hopes to get into paramedic/PA stuff via the Air force...we shall see..Pat has been in Tok brushing up on his EMT skills and his EMT 3 certs came in today, so proud of him! He is also leaving in 2 weeks for a month in the UK to visit his sweetheart...they met this summer in Macarthy/Cordova...etc. a very lovely girl....we shall see...(have a said that before? hummm...)
Pat and Rob and about a dozen other kids, went out to Lisa Lake tonight to skate ...I think they took some trucks and drove all the way to the lake which is quite bumpy but that way they can use the headlights to light up the frozen lake...I know Rob will hv a good time with his big bro...Pat is such a good big bro...I just don't hv the energy to do that sort of thing! All I managed today was a 30 ' bike ride with Rob down the taxiway and back...he beat me! At least we got outside in the lovely cool, crisp, rapidly freezing weather!! was good for us! ...Still not home as I write...tomorrow Monday...ugh...always hard start to the school week...need an extra week- end day...haha!! Rob was so excited at being asked to go, had his packs, snopants, headlamp, gloves, skates, warm hat and mask, all ready to go..never saw him move that fast....just goes to show that he can go fast when he wants to!
Big Pat is on night watch this week which means he has to stoke 4 big wood furnaces to our main buildings....schools, Tab, wash house, forge and wood-shop. It is job but keeps him fit...not too nice when it is -20...he just told me that it is actually SNOWING!wow finally....
Gotta run. Have a great start of the week...
gri
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Saturday, October 17, 2009
MORE TALL TALES FROM COWBOY ROB...
Rob continues to write short paragraphs...this one about a cowboy...we transfer his dry marker version into a shadow writing version and then finally onto paper. He practices his writing and spelling that way...seems to be enjoying it....
JonLeo from 5th. grade is reading Rob's work...
Friday, October 16, 2009
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
ROB IS WRITING HIS OWN SHORT ANIMAL STORIES...
Hello folks,
Another lovely fall day...we are so lucky...am having a wonderful time in school. My Spanish is really taking off, have a lively bunch of highschool kids and am enjoying my Social Studies and Life of Paul with my Grade 2 boys, Rob and Micah.
With the help from a wonderful special ed. teacher from the AGSD...I am finally getting Rob on the road to writing his own original paragraphs. We are sticking to things he enjoys and can relate to. Moose, horses, being a cowboy, his life on the farm, his friends etc. He comes up with funny things like, insisting the moose in his backyard is called "Bob". Sorry Brother Bob, I hope you don't think he is calling u a moose, I think Rob likes you so much he expresses it that way.
I am hoping that this project will launch him into writing or typing to express his ideas. It is very laborious and sometimes tedious but I think that it will help him reach the goal of being able to write. We write on a dry erase white board first, then transfer to lined paper covered in a sheet protector and write with dry erase markers. That way we can easily correct any mistakes and he can practice over and over again if he wants to. The dry erase idea came from one of his therapists too. For now we are doing only capitals...we will start with small later on.
I also have him "shadow write" which is a Zoo-phonics technique and which works very well for him. I write lightly and then he writes over my writing. I use the computer to write his stories from his dictation and then use a light gray ink so that he can "shadowrite" his story. We finish the project by illustrating or including real photos of his own life experience here on the farm. I am so glad I took so many photos of all he did/does, and I keep them all catalogued as much as possible so finding a photo that will fit his writing is not too hard.
Then we put the whole thing in a folder and hopefully he will want to read it out loud to family and friends.
We are using the Handwriting Without Tears method. It is easy and uncluttered. Don't know if he'll ever transition into cursive but am not too worried since I do not write cursive myself, much prefer a modified manuscript...
We are so enjoying having Pat back after almost 5 months of absence when he went hunting up on the Brookes and other places. Rob really enjoys his big brother. Pat seems to be happy here with the group of young people.
He is planning a trip to the UK to see his girlfriend for a month and after that plans to look for a job in the EMT area, maybe with the military. He also wants to get himself a vehicle, so we'll see how all that pans out.
May has her ticket for Dublin and is leaving first week in Nov. She will be spending 3 months over there and will surely have a great time. She will be travelling with her friend Rachel Trotter who is like a big sister to her. So glad for that, did not want May on the trip alone.
Annie is swamped with 11th. grade but enjoying it I think. Big Pat is busy with his piano tuning and repair business and has just returned from a trip to Valdez where he worked on a couple dozen pianos. So we are all keeping busy and enjoying our various activities.
The farm is buzzing with new projects, school, construction, etc. etc. The wave of summer visitors has finally come to a stop...except for a couple die hards who like to visit Alaska when it gets cool...
Well, no more for now. Have a great week!
Another lovely fall day...we are so lucky...am having a wonderful time in school. My Spanish is really taking off, have a lively bunch of highschool kids and am enjoying my Social Studies and Life of Paul with my Grade 2 boys, Rob and Micah.
I am hoping that this project will launch him into writing or typing to express his ideas. It is very laborious and sometimes tedious but I think that it will help him reach the goal of being able to write. We write on a dry erase white board first, then transfer to lined paper covered in a sheet protector and write with dry erase markers. That way we can easily correct any mistakes and he can practice over and over again if he wants to. The dry erase idea came from one of his therapists too. For now we are doing only capitals...we will start with small later on.
Then we put the whole thing in a folder and hopefully he will want to read it out loud to family and friends.
We are using the Handwriting Without Tears method. It is easy and uncluttered. Don't know if he'll ever transition into cursive but am not too worried since I do not write cursive myself, much prefer a modified manuscript...
We are so enjoying having Pat back after almost 5 months of absence when he went hunting up on the Brookes and other places. Rob really enjoys his big brother. Pat seems to be happy here with the group of young people.
May has her ticket for Dublin and is leaving first week in Nov. She will be spending 3 months over there and will surely have a great time. She will be travelling with her friend Rachel Trotter who is like a big sister to her. So glad for that, did not want May on the trip alone.
Annie is swamped with 11th. grade but enjoying it I think. Big Pat is busy with his piano tuning and repair business and has just returned from a trip to Valdez where he worked on a couple dozen pianos. So we are all keeping busy and enjoying our various activities.
The farm is buzzing with new projects, school, construction, etc. etc. The wave of summer visitors has finally come to a stop...except for a couple die hards who like to visit Alaska when it gets cool...
Well, no more for now. Have a great week!
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
SPANISH 1 HIGHSCHOOL
Folks,
Shame on me ! It is already Wednesday and I haven't sat down to share with you all about my Spanish 1 HS class. We started Tuesday 'cause the boys were still ATR doing the hay...but finally it got wet enough that MC said "go for it"....I had my class decked out in everything I own either Spanish or Latin. All my ponchos (precious to me, some of them given by my dear late Pa) and ruanas from Colombia given by friends long ago, some Peruvian llama wool ones, Ecuadorian belts and bags made by indigenous craftsmen, fans from Spain and all sorts of nick a nacks, stuff that I brought back with me from my Arg. trip in '94...when Dad died...from my trip to Spain with PatLu in 05, I brought back some genuine castanets, flamenco dancers statuette, gaucho mates and bombillas (the silver straws used to sip the green tea with) a few materos (gourds) all given to me by my youngest sis. Marina who married an Argentinean and has rather forsaken her Brit heritage but no matter, she comes in handy for the traditional stuff.
Had plenty of yerba mate on hand, sent by her. With a hot water thermos and the materos and bombillas, we had us a tea party! literally, forgot to tell the kids (8 kids in 9th, 10, 11th. grades boys and girls - a lively group!) that mate has a very high concentration of caffeine, higher than pop or coffee, so by the end of the pm. those kids were flying! haha..
Had some video clips of Sevillians playing the castanets and dancing flamenco, they loved it! I certainly enjoyed myself. We had other types of latin music playing, tango, folk Argentinean, bossa , Brazilian, Andean indigenous, the sikh or Andean panpipes and a quena which I've had since a young girl. All very diff. instruments to play, but quite intriguing, they all tried their luck, some got some sound out of them. When I played my cd's with professional musicians, they were very surprised that such a lovely sound can be produced with such a humble instrument. The quena is just a hollowed out piece of bamboo or cane, the siku is a group of graded hollow cane pieces banded together into two columns, no blow hole just the top has a slit and one blows into these instruments as if blowing into a bottle when trying to get a sound out of the bottle neck...same idea...by placing your lips on the side of the rim and blowing a jet of air,,,,try it...you'll see what I mean. I also had 2 ocarinas which are truly Andean and can produce a very mournful sound. They look like a plump Pita bread, with some holes in them. Usually made out of oven dried clay....very unusual sound.
The castanets are also simple but very hard to play well...
The kids all dressed up and I took a picture of them. I think they think that we are going to play and have fun the whole year long! haha...well...I'll try and make it as fun as possible but we are meant to learn pre college Spanish for the first year, and hopefully take a second and third year too...
Looking forward to a great year with these kids!
hv a great day!
PS: That's my Annie standing on the chair....Joe Casey is in back w/striped shirt and Mexican sombrero, Lizzie Jepsen, Liv Geyer. Cody Williams infront of Liz and Jesse Geyer infront of her sister Liv, Katherine Nerbonne on the left with tan poncho. Kelly Milliron in Peruvian Andean knit hat.
All the kids wanted spanish names so I obliged...now I'll hv to remember who's who...haha!!
Shame on me ! It is already Wednesday and I haven't sat down to share with you all about my Spanish 1 HS class. We started Tuesday 'cause the boys were still ATR doing the hay...but finally it got wet enough that MC said "go for it"....I had my class decked out in everything I own either Spanish or Latin. All my ponchos (precious to me, some of them given by my dear late Pa) and ruanas from Colombia given by friends long ago, some Peruvian llama wool ones, Ecuadorian belts and bags made by indigenous craftsmen, fans from Spain and all sorts of nick a nacks, stuff that I brought back with me from my Arg. trip in '94...when Dad died...from my trip to Spain with PatLu in 05, I brought back some genuine castanets, flamenco dancers statuette, gaucho mates and bombillas (the silver straws used to sip the green tea with) a few materos (gourds) all given to me by my youngest sis. Marina who married an Argentinean and has rather forsaken her Brit heritage but no matter, she comes in handy for the traditional stuff.Had plenty of yerba mate on hand, sent by her. With a hot water thermos and the materos and bombillas, we had us a tea party! literally, forgot to tell the kids (8 kids in 9th, 10, 11th. grades boys and girls - a lively group!) that mate has a very high concentration of caffeine, higher than pop or coffee, so by the end of the pm. those kids were flying! haha..
Had some video clips of Sevillians playing the castanets and dancing flamenco, they loved it! I certainly enjoyed myself. We had other types of latin music playing, tango, folk Argentinean, bossa , Brazilian, Andean indigenous, the sikh or Andean panpipes and a quena which I've had since a young girl. All very diff. instruments to play, but quite intriguing, they all tried their luck, some got some sound out of them. When I played my cd's with professional musicians, they were very surprised that such a lovely sound can be produced with such a humble instrument. The quena is just a hollowed out piece of bamboo or cane, the siku is a group of graded hollow cane pieces banded together into two columns, no blow hole just the top has a slit and one blows into these instruments as if blowing into a bottle when trying to get a sound out of the bottle neck...same idea...by placing your lips on the side of the rim and blowing a jet of air,,,,try it...you'll see what I mean. I also had 2 ocarinas which are truly Andean and can produce a very mournful sound. They look like a plump Pita bread, with some holes in them. Usually made out of oven dried clay....very unusual sound.
The castanets are also simple but very hard to play well...
The kids all dressed up and I took a picture of them. I think they think that we are going to play and have fun the whole year long! haha...well...I'll try and make it as fun as possible but we are meant to learn pre college Spanish for the first year, and hopefully take a second and third year too...
Looking forward to a great year with these kids!
PS: That's my Annie standing on the chair....Joe Casey is in back w/striped shirt and Mexican sombrero, Lizzie Jepsen, Liv Geyer. Cody Williams infront of Liz and Jesse Geyer infront of her sister Liv, Katherine Nerbonne on the left with tan poncho. Kelly Milliron in Peruvian Andean knit hat.
All the kids wanted spanish names so I obliged...now I'll hv to remember who's who...haha!!
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