Attempt at an old fashioned ramble

Hello, all! I don't know how in depth this entry is going to be, so just be prepared to throw your hands in the air and close the browser window or delete the email it's in. As I said in my previous post, not a helluvah lot going on 'round here. Today the weather is sunny, but the wind is blowing enough to make it feel colder. Just a little bit ago I was outside hanging clothes on the line, and after only a few minutes it was like, "Man, my hands are freezing, I wonder if I can do this with gloves on?" Then it occurred to me that my gloves are dirty from trimming back that Wisteria tree and later cutting wood with the chainsaw yesterday, plus carrying wood in. So, I couldn't really do it with gloves lest I get the clean clothes dirty, and that just wouldn't be good.

I haven't been blogging or gathering much lately because I am in a severe phase of an inferiority complex. I just don't think what I have to say is important in the grand scheme of things. Sure, my wife, daughter, and other people say that they like whatever I write. But all I can think when I hear that is, "WHY?!" Here I am anyway, making an attempt at creating a meaningful 'ramble'. Don't really want to get into politics because, well, when it comes right down to it, opinions just don't change most of the time, so why argue over them?

I've been fairly busy the last few days. Mostly because my interest level in the on-line world is waining. Basically I'm in the midst of a private pity party, yet getting things that need to be done, done. Like the trimming of the Wisteria tree, cutting-up of wood, getting clear plastic up over the breeziest windows. And wow, that (plastic) really made a big difference in the house's ambient temperature. Meaning that it's more even from one end of the house to the other. Well, 'cept that the room with the wood stove in it is warmer than all the others most of the time. But that's cool, we transfer heat from that room to the living room and beyond using two double-fans pointed in this direction. We also had the kids working yesterday, they cleaned-up the branches I pruned off of the Wisteria and took them to the brush pile. Plus they threw the excess twigs from the log cutting we were doing into the brush pile too. Speaking of wood to burn, I've recently (last couple of months) realized how well log-length tree branches burn (just as hot as a full size log sometimes). Plus, if for some unforeseen reason our chainsaw died, we would be able to heat quite nicely with just branches. Cool, huh?

Also, we have taken a bit of a turn with the kids' home education. We're still pretty much unschooling, but we've decided to give them a bit of direction, now that they're older. We told them that each month they have to pick a country in the world, research all about it for a month, and at the end of each month they have to write a report about what they've learned. Won't have to be a long one, just a couple hundred words or so. Now that our DD is 15, she may want to take the GED test next year, and being able to write an essay is one of the requirements in passing the test. As for our DS (12), he just needs to get into something other than video games and on-line videos. Needs to expand his horizons, so to speak.

Well, that's all I've got. See ya next time, unless you see me first. *grin*

Tags: homesteading, homeschooling, education, Wisteria, window fans, wood stove, branches, logs