Life on the PlaTTeau

September 14, 2008

"Done Gathering"---(White Corrals, Sept '07)

The Round Pen

left to right: JC, Trey, Spence and Daisy in the front (the dog)

It's the week of the fair. The weather has been beautiful. I meant to take my camera and get pictures of Hayes and I riding the Inverter, but forgot. Now all I have to remember the ride is a massive headache. Hayes, Chase and I also rode the ferris wheel. Not your average, slow-moving ferris wheel. It was little and fast and actually made your stomach drop when you came over the top. The kids were scared at first, but were soon laughing. I wasn't sure how Chase would react, but he did great. Where was Spence during all of this, you may ask. Standing with his feet planted firmly on the ground looking up! :)

Hayes got a blue ribbon for the wheat bread he made with Grandma Trish. He was very proud (somehow he got a blue and Parker got a red out of the same batch they did together :) and has been planning with Grandma for next year. They ran out of prize money, so he'll have to wait for his three dollars. He took it surprisingly well for a kid who LOVES money.

I think our favorite thing this year was the entertainment. The junior high kids sang "One Tin Soldier" and it reminded me of Marcie teaching me that song so I would know it before I reached the grade to sing it. She taught me all the music songs at night when we were lying in bed. Hayes loved the high-school singing group from RV until they did a song about kissing and hugging :) On Friday night we sat for about an hour enjoying the mariachi singers. Unfortunately they didn't play El Paso City which used to be Hayes's favorite to sing in his high, 3-year-old voice.

We ate curly fries and funnel cake. We got the turkey to gobble at us and Hayes got the champion rabbit to eat out of his hand. Chase's favorite was the pigs. He talks about them all year long. Every time we drive by the fairgrounds on the way to my mom's, he points and snorts and I have to tell him there aren't any pigs until the fair....it's a long wait when he's doing this in October :)

The only picture I got to remember it all is one that I hope we won't regret ten years down the road. My kids LOVE tattoos (temporary of course). So when there was a booth offering airbrushed tattoos for ONLY $10 (yikes), Hayes started making plans. He struck up a deal with me to pay part if he would pay part and got this lovely symbol across his scrawny chest (his favorite place to put tattoos which is fine by me since it's covered up when he wears a shirt....which is at least half of the time...OK, maybe a third of the time)

Random Happenings

Chase got a haircut....which if you know Chase and haircuts, is a major accomplishment. My mom and I started it one day and got a bunch of the length off, then Spence finished it up a few days later with the buzzers. A team effort and no one got hurt this time :)

I thought this was a cute pic of him reading a book and turning the pages by himself with two hands (bilateral movement is good for fine motor coordination)

Spence practicing the piano. (Usually right around the time I'm trying to put the kids to bed) I had to crop the photo since he was practicing in his underwear :) (Now I know where Hayes gets it from)

A couple of weeks ago, Trish helped Kris and I bottle pickled beets. Why does it look like Trish is doing all of the work? If you've never tried them; they're the best.

Here's the recipe from Farm Journal.

The boys (Britton, Chase and Charlie) cruised the CAT out on the lawn.

Hayes and Parker spun themselves sick on the "toddler" swing.

And they climbed on their favorite toy in the yard...the swamp cooler. Charlie had a run-in with the corner of a dresser earlier in the week.

The Chlarsons came for dinner last weekend. What a mess of kids and food :) That's the way we like it. (from front to back: Parker, Hayes, Brin, Elise, and Chase) (And Doug on the left) That reminds me, I saw Norma at the fair.

September 6, 2008

Environmentalism, Globalism, Climate Alarmism, Socialism, Communism & Fascism: "isms" might ought to be the next four-letter word :)

OK, so I'll try not to turn my blog into a political debate, but I was reading my favorite magazine of all time, RANGE, and thought these quotes were too good not to share. You can read a lot of the articles online at their web site.

"America's new mission in which it increasingly sees itself as the protector and provider of every citizen in the world is a self-destructive endeavor that, if continued, will not only complete the transformation of our great republic to a global empire but will lead to national bankruptcy and the loss of our cherished liberties"

--Michael E Telzrow, The New American, March 17, 2008 ***to read the rest of this article, click here.

"Here are my questions: In 1970, when environmentalists were making predictions of manmade global cooling and the threat of an ice age and millions of Americans starving to death, what kind of government policy should have been undertaken to prevent such a calamity? When Ehrlich predicted that England would not exist in the year 2000, what steps should the British Parliament have taken in 1970 to prevent such a dire outcome? In 1939, when the U.S. Department of the Interior warned that we only had oil supplies for another 13 years, what actions should President Roosevelt have taken? Finally, what makes us think that environmental alarmism is any more correct now that they have switched their tune to manmade global warming?"
--Walter Williams

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
--H. L. Mencken, American author and humorist 1880-1965

"Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it." -- Adolph Hitler 1889-1945

"I see the current danger in environmentalism and especially in its strongest version, climate alarmism. Feeling very strongly about it and trying to oppose it was the main reason for putting my book together, originally in Czech language, in the spring of 2007. It has also been the driving force behind my active involvement in the current Climate Change Debate and behind my being the only head of state who in September 2007 at the UN Climate Change Conference in New York City openly and explicitly challenged the undergoing global warming hysteria.
My central concern is – in a condensed form – captured in the subtitle of this book. I ask: “What is Endangered: Climate or Freedom?” My answer is: “it is our freedom.” I may also add “and our prosperity”

"My deep frustration has been exponentially growing in recent years by witnessing the fact that almost everything has already been said, that all rational arguments have been used and that global warming alarmism is still marching on. It could be even true that “We are now at the stage where mere facts, reason, and truth are powerless in the face of the global warming propaganda” (R. McKittrick, private correspondence)." (link to this article)

"In the past 150 years (at least since Marx), the socialists have been very effectively destroying human freedom under humane and compassionate slogans, such as caring for man, ensuring social equality, and fostering social welfare. The environmentalists are doing the same under equally noble-minded slogans, expressing concern about nature more than about people (recall their radical motto 'Earth first'). In both cases, the slogans have been (and still are) just a smokescreen. In both cases, the movements were (and are) completely about power, about the hegemony of the 'chosen ones' (as they see themselves) over the rest of us, about the imposition of the only correct worldview (their own), about the remodeling of the world." (link to this article)

--Vaclav Klaus: President of the Czech Republic

ABOUT VACLAV KLAUS:

"Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic, who survived the communist system and now leads a country that emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet empire, is warning of a new form of communism threatening human freedom and progress.

Like former President Ronald Reagan, who developed his under-standing of the communist menace by fighting the communists in Hollywood, Klaus suffered under them during the communist era in Czechoslovakia. Because of this experience, however, he came to understand how Soviet-style communism, which collapsed as an empire and created the circumstances for the emergence of the Czech Republic as a free and independent nation, never really died as an ideology and that it has imitators in the West.

His book, Blue Planet in Green Shackles, published by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, charges that the movement to "save" the environment has been taken over by ideologues who favor total government control over our lives. He says it can be considered a form of communism, socialism or even fascism. Whatever you call it, the result will be the extinction of human freedom." --Tuesday, June 10, 2008, "Environmentalism as the New Face of Communism", By Cliff Kincaid, Accuracy in Media

AND LASTLY,

"Once government gets its hands on new power, it is never relinquished."

--Henry Lamb, chairman of Sovereignty International

for more articles by Henry Lamb, click here.

(By the way...both presidential candidates promote the "isms"...wish I could vote for Klaus)

September 3, 2008

One Puppy Gone :(

Hayes helped me deliver Big Boy to Jeremy Platt's parents so they could take him down to Phoenix to his new owners. Hayes was hesitant to leave but finally got in the car and immediately started crying. We held hands for a little while and went and got a treat at Brides. Luckily he had five puppies waiting at home to cheer him up. Animals really do dig him.

Outdoor Cooking---We're really getting into this cub scout thing

Hayes's den leader asked us to pass off the outdoor cooking requirement at home. My parents have their back yard set up beautifully for just such a thing, so we asked them if we could do it over there. They usually do Dutch oven potatoes, which are the best, but we decided to do something a little different to involve Hayes as much as possible. I found a few fun recipes for foil dinners and we tried them out.

The Jackson Fire-pit....much snazzier than when I was a kid.

Hayes helped Papa Bruce get the fire going ( I just didn't get a picture of him)

The Recipe: It was much easier for me to just take a picture of it than type it. We added onions and salted and peppered the veggies.

The Result. It actually turned out pretty good. Chase even ate it and he had hardly eaten anything all week.

Hayes ate every bite. He had to get one of every color in each bite.

Eating off tinfoil makes for easy clean-up. I love that.

Then for dessert, Hayes prepared crescent cinnamon rolls.

It made me realize how few times I let my kids help with the actual cooking. I'm always in too big of a hurry or want it done "just so". One of my goals for homeschool this year is to teach Hayes how to cook a few meals (while practicing reading and fractions of course:).

The cinnamon rolls were taking so long and it was getting late. So I put them directly on the coals to speed things up. Which did speed things up, but only left us with a few edibles ones. Hayes devoured them. We'll have to work on how to cook those better. Probably in a Dutch oven.

During, and in between all of this cooking, the boys found time for the swing set.

Is there anything he won't climb?

Papa helping Chase. Watch out, Purdy will be up there next (their dog).

He's going up not down.

It was a good night for all.

The Monkey

My dad was timing Hayes to see how fast he could climb up the rope and slap the beam. His best time was 3 seconds. (He just told me his worst time was 5 seconds :)