Playing Catch-up

Caution--Potentially boring post to follow!

Oh, the life of a mom! It becomes especially interesting when the whole house gets ill with the flu. We've had a decent week now that we're all recuperating and nearly recovered. Lots of laundry and housework. There have been trips to the store for groceries, the bank, post office, and library. We don't live real close to any kind of shopping, so it's a couple hour trip when we go. I had put this off while we were sick. We even got quite a lot of school work done this week. Now I'll have to try and get caught up (again!) with blogging. The last few posts were only posted because luckily, I had several posts saved in drafts, just waiting for pictures to be attached.

And now it's nearly Friday already! We'd like to go to the park tomorrow, but we still have chores to do, and may not make it. We're going to the race track tomorrow with our own race car driver in the afternoon. Unless, of course, it rains all day and the race is cancelled. If that's the case, Ch will be quite upset. He's been working on setting up his car for the past 2 weeks after sunset. (It's time for farming if the sun is still up.) His last race, a special feature before the new season started, was cancelled due to rain as well! Tomorrow's race is the very first of the season.

I'm sitting here on the couch, typing away on my laptop, but I can't seem to wrap my head around writing. My favorite show is on though: Dirty Jobs. You've gotta love Mike Rowe. He's funny and truly educational at the same time. I love it! Maybe that's why I'm distracted. Oh, no!! The new segment of Dirty Jobs that just came on is of Mike being visited by the doctor in his hotel room because he's sick!! He's cracking jokes even while he's ill.

All Work and no Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy

Okay, so our family works together, but we also play together. We went to the race track with our own celebrity race car driver, my husband! Well, he's still working on the celebrity bit. Ch did some racing on the dirt tracks when he was in high school. He started it up again last year. The boys always go with their dad to the race track, but B and I usually skip it. They get home very late, and it can be dirty and noisy. It's not B's thing so I usually keep her home. (I'm kind of a homebody sometimes and may not need much encouragement to hang out at home!) But the other night, B and I went with the guys. The meet at the track was not for a race, but open practice. It's gearing up for the new racing season.

Ch is very lucky to have a couple boys old enough to help him out. He's got a built-in pit crew! There are lots of other drivers near us in the pits, and they all comment on how they could use our boys for their pit crew. They're not kidding; they really are quite helpful! It's so neat to see them running around with their many duties. They know just what to do and when! This time, B got in on the action too. She had fun doing it, but we weren't there late in the night. She's more of an early bird and doesn't last late into the evening!

In these pictures, C is checking the air pressures in all the tires. If there's too much, he can take some out; if there isn't enough, he puts some in all by himself. Ch will change the pressures throughout the night as the track conditions change over time. H is taking care of the tires, only I had to take the picture off. It had a close-up of hubby's name on the trailer. All 3 kids kept very busy scraping mud off the car. Every time Ch took the car out, the car gets caked with a heavy cement-like clay mud. It covers the entire underside of the car. The kids scrape everything off they can, before it's time for Ch to take the car out again. I kept myself busy with the stop watch, taking still pictures, and also video camera taping of Ch's laps around the track. He uses the video footage to critique his performance. He's always trying to improve his technique next time out!

I have to say something else about this whole racing business. It is not always inexpensive. I am glad that my husband has learned how to be very frugal. Because of his line of work, he has built up quite a network for himself. He's always got his ear to the ground, and paying attention to deals and barter opportunities that may become available. He got this whole car for a steal. He traded the decals on the car and trailer for some dirt work he did for the decal guy. He's always at the auctions (looking for trucks for the water trucks) and you wouldn't believe the deals that you can get on all kinds of stuff. Lots of times, he'll buy something at an auction and turn around and resell it for what it's worth. Oh, and I can't forget to mention that it certainly helps that Ch is very much a handy-man. Self-generated labor is free, and easy on the pocket-book! He's even got sponsors for his racing. Businesses pay for advertisement. So, for that I am truly grateful. And for anybody that's interested, here's a shot of the engine. This is an "open-wheel modified" race car. Whatever that means.

Mulch Bucket in Use

Here is the mulch bucket that H welded up nearly entirely by himself. It was just tacked together by his dad prior to H doing his work on it one day at the shop. (See a recent post--Family Business)

Ch is spreading the mulch out evenly over the tilled-up dirt. The boys took turns bringing tractor-loader buckets full of mulch from the mulch piles we had trucked in, (We had to get 6 large truck loads of the stuff!) clear over to where Ch was spreading it out. They worked on it one full day, and we're only half done with our mulch and field spreading. They also went over to a couple neighbor's houses and did the same for them. Now Ch has to till it into the ground, to get the proper mix of dirt (FL sand) and mulch.

On Our Way to Disney

Tuesday morning, the kids and I headed out to Disney World bright and early. We no sooner got to the top of the hill by the main road and there sat a Bald Eagle on the road fetching a road kill rabbit for his breakfast! He was no farther than 8 feet from the car!! I was so shocked to see him sitting there, I gawked for a few seconds, and then the photographer in me kicked into overdrive. I had my camera right next to me in my purse, but I was too late. He flew off down the road and landed on top of the telephone pole. There he sat, eating away. This is the best picture I could muster. Oh, how I wish I had a picture of him sitting on the road. He looked right at me and I will never forget that picture; it's forever ingrained in my memory.

This experience reminded me though of something I have known before. Whenever we are studying something, or interested in something, God seems to throw instances of enhanced learning our way. He surprises us with unexpected reinforcements! He is, after all, the Principal of our Homeschool. I have seen this time and time again. There was the time we saw a raccoon under our tree in broad daylight (they're nocturnal!) the very day we came home from the library with all our raccoon books. Or how about the time I was reading to the kids and a skunk entered the story? You guessed it!! We smelled a funny smell, and when I opened the front door, a skunk had sprayed outside somewhere! But the kids were then able to smell it for the first time (hopefully the last!), which did reinforce the story we were reading! To some, these things might be considered just coincidental occurrences, but I choose to see them for what they are. Our Heavenly Father is looking out for our homeschool journey in a very personal way. I really believe this.

We just had our Eagles class a couple months ago at Tibet Butler Nature Preserve, which we visit once a month during school months. They told us about an eagle's nest not far from the Preserve, so we stopped to see it on our way home that day. (bfarmmom--Joe was with us that day, so he saw this too.) Here's a picture of it, though it is pretty far away. (Click on the picture and it will enlarge.) One point brought out in the class was that eagles are opportunistic. If an eagle has a choice between a freshly killed meal (road kill or by another animal), he will take that over having to kill a meal for his own. He is a bird of prey, but would rather take the easier route. It was neat to see the kids recall this information, seeing the eagle with the fresh road kill in his talons.

A Little Reminder: They Need Me

My boys both have the flu now. I certainly did not wish this on them, but since they got it, it's serving a purpose. I'm looking for the silver lining to the clouds, and I am reminded that my boys need me after all. It's nice to feel needed once in a while. They're getting so big that they're more self-sufficient lately. I miss their little boy hugs and snuggles. C, especially, was always my snuggle-bug, and he's feeling too big to hug his mother more than once every few days! Now I've got 2 boys taking turns with their head on my lap. I'm soaking up all the hugs and snuggles I can, while it lasts! And I'm very thankful that if only one person can help soothe their misery, even in a small way, that it's me. It's great to be a mom.

The Auction Itself

This auction is so large it goes for about 10 days. Here are a couple pictures. It is just a smidgen of everything that is there to see.

Here are my guys, observing the auction in action. This little pickup truck with a camper top drives up and down the aisles and aisles of equipment up for auction. They have spotters on the ground, milling with bidders. If somebody wants to bid, the spotter calls the bid in to the auction team inside the camper truck. This is only one "team" in the auction, and they have several going on at the same time. You really have to be on your toes, checking the auction guide (book!) to see when things are supposed to be auctioned off, but you also have to keep checking on the progress of the team you are following, or you will miss out on what you were wanting to bid on.

This whole production is kind of neat to watch. There are food and drink vendors that follow along either behind or in front of the auction team. Auction team workers climb in and out of the camper throughout the bidding process that does not stop. People are sitting all around on their 4-wheelers and golf carts waiting for bidding on the item of their interest. Everybody is looking for a spot of shade, as it can get quite hot in the sun all day. And you'll see lots of people climbing all around the equipment, turning the motors on and off, checking buttons and tires. You have to know the shape of the equipment before you buy it, because once it's yours, you're stuck with it. A business associate of ours bid on a truck one time on accident. I guess it was a bad deal, and there was some kind of misunderstanding, but it didn't matter. He ended up selling the truck later, but it was not a good deal!

Like I said, this is the largest auction in the country that Ch knows of. It used to be the largest in the world, but he's not so sure about that now with China's economy exploding (while our country's economy struggles). There are several other heavy equipment auctions around here locally that follow this one. February is a busy month for heavy equipment dealers.

Ughhhh.

The kids and I went to a play yesterday. I knew I didn't feel well when I got up that morning, but thought it was just aches and pains after walking so much at Disney 2 days prior. Apparently that was not the whole reason. I have the flu! Hope nobody else gets it. Take care of yourself. I'll be back blogging in a little while.