Family Time & The Family Economy

With our new school schedule we have added an evening "family time".  Our first family time together last week was met with mixed reviews.  Farmer John wanted to get everyone involved with his future business, Bamboo On The Fly (tentative name), and so we all tumbled out to the garage to work on his current Bamboo Fly Fishing Rod.  I must admit only John and our two littlest (Reagan and Taylor) were overly excited to do this.  Later I realized that I had to confess sin because I was less than championing my husband's vision at the time. (Which is really silly because I very much want him to leave his "corporate" job for a home-based, family biz.)

Yes, we put a blowtorch in the hands of our 13 year-old son!

 

 And our 15 year-old daughter

 Not our 4 year-old- she was content to make up her own games with balls and badmitton birdies!

 

Here I am with the torch.  The pieces of bamboo for the rod are slid into the copper pipe and then the pipe is heated with the torch.  This dries the bamboo.  You could see the steam being released at the tube ends.

 

 

As you can see the garage is highly unkempt.  Farmer John is on vacation this week and so one of our projects (practical arts for school) will be cleaning the garage.  By mid-October we'll be getting heavy frosts/freezes and the cars will need to be parked inside overnight. (Farmer John does not want to scrape ice at 3:30 in the morning!)

 

Leave me a comment if you are interested in a Handcrafted Bamboo Fly Rod!

 

If you are wondering about family economies check out Kevin Swanson's Generations Radio show (search the archived shows for "family economies) and Herrick Kimball over at The Deliberate Agrarian writes frequently on this topic too!

 

Pictures and videos for the grandmas

Taylor in Birthday outfit from Grandma Schuh!

Moving pictures of our Spring endevours

Alas, I don't think I'll be able to do chickens in the greenhouse. The plastic is too thin. I think they'd rip right through it. Rabbits would work though. We are thinking of raising them for meat and then using the pelts to start our own line of fly tieing materials for fly fishermen. (My DH is an avid fly fisher. He also ties his own flies. When we get acreage he wants to raise pheasants for their meat and feathers.)

Father's Day!

Posing on dock

Posing on dock 2

Fisherman with poser

Seven tolerating fishing

Andi trying her luck

Rem waiting patiently for a bite

I was fairly sure at some point we'd be fishing Reagan out of the water. She liked the ducks.

We had a great Father's Day. The rain held off and we were able to take John fishing. It wasn't his ideal spot, but he wanted to go somewhere where the kids were safe (not standing in a river) and where they might actually have a better chance of catching something. We went to Grandville, a couple of towns over from us. They have a lovely little city park with a pond/lake. (It's really too big to be a pond and not really big enough to be a lake.) It has a nice board walk and fishing dock plus a playground, bathrooms, drinking fountains and the Grandville one room school house. The kids fished for a while and then we left dad on the dock and went to the playground as well as toured the school house which was open for a short while. (They had it set up complete with a dunce cap corner! The kids loved the look into the past.) I love family days.

Needleworkin' weekend

This weekend the girls and I spent our time outside on our deck in the warm spring sun, working on our stitching skills. We were inspired by Crystal's post on redworking a few days ago at http://www.biblicalwomanhood.com/ (Crystal's blog). We aren't officially doing redwork yet. I started the girls (and myself) with the more simple, basic embroidery stitch. It was quite fun to sit and chat while working. The girl's will save their work for their future hope chests.

While we girls were stitching, the DH was working on his fly fishing. (In the front yard.) The neighbors found this intriguing.

And the boy... he spent his time in the back field in the dirt and sand. Need I say more?

Today, while the DH is off fishing (it is steelhead time) I'm going to work to accomplish the following...

1. Basic clean up of house

2. Change bedding

3. Start the week's laundry

4. Take kids to park

5. Reorganize pantry (again)

6. Bake/decorate cupcakes

7. Go to bookstore and investigate books on candy making

8. Stitch work

9. Prepare DH's lunch/coffee for Tues. work

I'll be doing good to get through the top 5, the rest would be icing on the day. Well, number 9 is a must do. The DH needs his coffee at 3 am and I like to feed him healthy instead of having him eat Costco food. (Which is good for a treat, but not every day.)

I have surrendered!

Yesterday I finally sent the DH to the store for saltine crackers. I couldn't stand the constant "sick" feeling any longer. I think today I should buy stock in Nabisco. The crackers have helped a lot. I also find that if I'm craving something and eat it, it doesn't make me sick. However, if I'm not craving something and eat it- sick. Fair enough... I should eat what I crave. Unfortunately that has been seafood. Salmon, crab, lobster, shrimp etc. Not exactly frugal items. My husband treated me to Red Lobster last night but that can't happen too often.

The DH is fishing today but it is a catch and release only river. Sigh... I would love fresh pan-fried trout for dinner. Why can't I be craving pickles? So much easier and cheaper! I know several of my readers out in blog land are pregnant too. Do/did you all have cravings? What are/were they?

Also, I have read that cravings usually mean your body is deficient in something. If I'm craving fish and seafood what do you all think my body is needing?

My husband is a fish groupie!

Men can be so funny. My DH loves fly fishing. He goes often and has all the equipment needed. He has a group of fishing buddies too. Last night he and his buddies all went to a special showing of some independent fishing movie. Yes, that's right... a fishing movie.

The DH wore his fly fishing shirt (It's a special breathable fabric design to allow the fisherman to not get hot and sweaty.) and his fly fishing hat. I don't mean any ol' baseball cap. It's the Ross Reels USA cap. (It means something to fly fishermen- I just am not sure what. Maybe its a status thing?) I laughed when he came out of the bedroom ready to go. I asked him if he didn't want to wear his waders and bring his fishing rod along. He laughed with me in good humor.

When he got home he was all stoked about the movie (of guys fishing in different places). He chattered on about the size of the fish and how cool the movie was and how crowded the theater was. I guess people came from a couple of hours away to see the film. When I asked him if other people had worn their fishing shirts and hats, he puffed up and said, "They sure did."

LOL! These are grown men! And FISH! My DH was like a teenage girl who had just come home from her first boy band concert.

I love my husband, fishing quirks and all.

Skunked Husband and Project Pictures

Top of TV: Carvings, Chickens, candles, humidor, oil lamp

Side of love seat: Books, Bibles, candle, chicken on a wooden box

Other side of love seat: Stool with jar of dried pomogranets, chicken boxes

Love seat and lamp moved and angled in front of window.

Well, my DH didn't need the camera yesterday. He and his buddies didn't catch one single fish. However, my day was made when I was talking to him on the phone, while he was on his way home. He told me he got "skunked" and I said, "Oh, Honey, I'm sorry you got skunked." The look on all three of my older kids faces was priceless. "Dad, got skunked!" They all said with mouths dropped open. Suddenly I realized that they thought that meant Dad had gotten sprayed by a skunk. I quickly had to explain, while still on the phone with the DH, that "skunked" meant he didn't catch any fish or really even get any bites- not Dad meeting up with a skunk. Relief washed over my children's faces and my DH broke into hysterical laughter at the other end of the phone. His buddies had a good laugh too. Gotta love the way a kid's mind works.



As promised, here are my pictures of my rearranging/redecorating project. It was hard to get the same angle because the furniture is moved around. The laundry on the love seat is waiting to be folded by my oldest when she finishes her school and there is still no snow outside. I'm hoping to get a couple of inches on the ground Thursday night/Friday morning. At least the weather is back into the 30's.

Project Completed But Husband Fishing!

I'm pleased to say that I did complete yesterday's redecorating project (last evening). Unfortunately, I have no pictures yet as the DH took the camera with him today on a fishing trip. Here in Western Michigan is has been in the 60's (yesterday) and the 50's (today). All our snow has melted and it has been pouring down rain. I didn't know I transported myself back to the Pacific Northwest, LOL! Anyway it makes for good fishing, so the DH and his buddies headed up to try and catch the "big" fish. It is a catch and release river, hence the need for the camera. I hope to take some pictures of my project tomorrow morning and post them. I'm trying to take both sets (before and after) at the same time of day so the lighting is the same. ( BTW the picture of my DH is from last year. He's hoping for even bigger fish today.)