"Going on a Bear hunt"

Last night our neighbors called and asked if we wanted to drive out on the ranch with them to look for bears. Heck Yes! We met them at their house about 5:45 and loaded up in their big 'ol truck. All the kids (William, Zachary, Abby & Asa) plus Billy sat in chairs in the bed of the truck and Jameson & I sat inside the king cab with Felicia and Scott. We drove out about 5 or 6 miles and spotted a bear! As soon as he saw the truck he started running away, so it was a quick siting. He was big, black and fat :) The kids were pretty excited. Of coarse Jameson was passed out in my arms at this point so I couldn't snap the picture (that is if I would have gotten one anyway).
We kept driving a couple miles further and stopped at this lookout point, it was breathtaking! I tried to snap a couple pictures here while everyone stretched their legs before the drive home. Pictures don't do this place justice. 360 view was so beautiful :)

On the way back everyone piled into the truck cab and it was still a comfy ride home with 2 families in there! Scott, Asa, William, Billy & Jameson rode up front and Abby, Felicia, Zachary & I were in the back. I wasn't even touching shoulders with Felicia and I could stretch my legs out in front of me! Scott has one big 'ol truck! :) On the drive home we spotted a group of huge wild pigs, lots of deer and bucks and an owl.  Super fun. We are planning on going again when it gets a little deeper into fall.

Honda Pilot!

We have a new family ride as of this afternoon! A 2012 Honda Pilot EX. I found it on craigslist and I think we got a great deal and it is almost exactly what we were looking for. A 3rd row, with under 30K miles, a year or two old and within our budget of 25K. The only thing that would have been better is 4X4 (according to Billy at least).We drove down to Simi valley and bought it from a young family who is part of the LA county Fire Department. :) It's a nice ride and we are very excited to have a new reliable & comfortable car.  Here it is

CAVA K12 Online Kindergarten

Yesterday I came home to 4 huge boxes on my doorstep. It was all of William's curriculum for Kindergarten from CAVA (California Virtual Academy). Then today another 4 boxes came, a desktop computer and printer just for William to use!
It's official, I am schooling William at home, online and off. He even has a virtual teacher, Mrs. Duffy. It's going to take me/us a while to figure this all out and get a routine down. William is excited about all his new stuff though. There are 6 subjects that we will be working through, Phonics/ Writing/ Literature, Math, Science, History, Art & Music.  Pretty amazing that they sent all this stuff to our home totally free. Art Supplies, Writing paper, science kits, Music CD's and a ton of reading books. As well as all the text books and work books for each subject, this is going to be an adventure!
Kindergarten here we come.

Late night sewing

When Billy is gone on fires I tend to stay up a lot later than I probably should. Last night was one of those nights. I have been wanting to sew myself a purse for a couple years now and I could never quite decide on style, fabric, size, etc. Well, my purse that I've been carrying around for the past several years is really tattered, worn and dirty and I decided that whatever I made was going to be better than what I was using. So, I made a small messenger bag that I have made a couple times before for gifts. I tried to write down all the things I wanted to design in to fit my needs before I started and I was able to make it with most of my wants. It doesn't zip closed... which I kinda wanted to help keep Jameson out of it... oh well. But it has three internal pockets, one zipper pocket, one pleated pocket and one sectioned pocket for pens. I also sewed a small tab where I can clip my keys inside. The front of the bag also has a small pocket, perfect for a phone and chap stick and I made a Velcro closure for that one.
All in all I am excited to run errands tomorrow with my new purse and give it a trial run.
Here it is- I didn't take a picture of the inside, but I lined it with the flower fabric. It's very fun inside!

Tiled

I successfully completed my first tile project all by myself! I started with measurements and then used the skill saw to cut a piece of hardie backer. Got a pile of tile that had been laying around and some thin set (ready mix). Pulled the tile saw out of the shed for the ends that needed cutting and pieced it all down. I finally got some grout today (ready mix again!) and grouted the tile.
Not bad for my first attempt solo :)  Nice that it was just under the kitchen sink so it really doesn't matter how it looks. Now it smells way better down there and will be so easy to clean.

Calf sitting take two

We spent the last 3 days with the baby calves again. This time we had the AM & the PM shifts :) The boys enjoyed helping me scoop the grain and checking for chicken eggs in the hen house. Zachary was not shy around the calves and even helped brush their fur today. The newest addition to the animal line up was Sheba the Llama! She is the protector of the baby calves and she is doing a great job. They no longer have to be loaded into a trailer at night because Sheba is on guard.
I remembered my camera this time :) Hooray.

Arts and Crafts

Yesterday I got some materials out for the boys to do some crafts. They enjoyed doing crafts so much at Dinkey Creek and they talk about it all the time. I thought I could try and start up Friday craft day. William and Zachary cut up colored construction paper and glued it onto a paper... they LOVE using their scissors! Then, I had seen a cute popcorn tree online that we did together as well. I drew the outline of the tree and they water colored it and then glued popcorn on once it dried.
I thought they did a great job and we will have these art pieces hanging up at least until Dad gets home from his fire (whenever that will be)