What about those headlines?

 I am here,finally after a very busy week ready to fill you in on all of the headlines I wrote about last posting.I am going to jump to the headline about Sol since someone was so sweet to leave a comment about it.

Sol belongs to an after school program called MESA that is funded by one of the local BIG computer companies. What MESA stands for is still a mystery to me but it is geared to get kids interested in careers in  science and technology.Sol is part of a team and this school year they have spent their time building a windmill that would, if built at a larger scale, create power.Sol's team took their windmill to a statewide science fair and can home with 3 medals for the team.They placed 1st over all for presentation,which means the judges did not have to ask the team any prompt type questions about the windmill,they knew their stuff.They also placed 1st over all for weight lift,I am still not to clear about this one.Something to do with the amount of lift the windmill created when running.Both of those earned the team 2 nd place over all.They only lost to the other team by .004 seconds, that's how serious this was. Sol loves to tinker so the club has been a great match for him and has given him a group of like minded kids to hang out with. 

Now for the new guest/hang out room for only $20.We have an extra room off the garage that used to be my studio space and the "big" pantry.We had a bunch of junk and the large freezer in there too.We have friends coming for a week in July.One of which is a Mama to be,asking her to sleep on the living room floor seemed awful so we cleaned out.We have had this project on our list of "to be done someday" projects so it was all good.We compacted my art things into the tidy shelves I have been wanting them to be, got a free futon and frame from friends and took a load to Goodwill. And,gulp, ummm got rid of our big freezer.We were not using it,it was too big and sucked a ton of power.it was a waste over all.We are going to look for a smaller freezer in the coming weeks that will go into the garage.I have yet to spend my whole $20 budget,so far by moving some things around we have furnished the space nicely.I did buy a set of sheets from Goodwill for the bed.The rest of the money will go for new paint rollers so we can paint the room with some left over paint.It took us three days to clean it out but it  is looking welcoming and like a nice spot to house a soon to be Mama for a week.

It was Issac's birthday weekend this weekend.He had a BBQ on Friday night with a bonfire.The rain rolled in and all 12 kids shoe horned themselves into the new room.They had a great time just hanging out and being social.It was a very low key party just what Issac wanted. Saturday Issac went to a BMX thing called a "Jam".Chance and I went to check it out,I forgot the camera so no pics,sorry.There were about 150 kids and adults on BMX bikes at one of the local parks,riding and hanging out.It was niffty to see Issac doing his thing and to say hello to some of his buddies.The event is a yearly event and this year the organizer hosted a raffle for one of the local riders who has cancer and no insurance.They manged to raise almost $500 for the rider and we personally know when it comes to medical bills every little bit helps.This is not the first time this community has raised money for one of its own who was in need.Just shows you,not everyone hanging out at a skate park is up to no good.

We have planted about half of the garden beds.The rest is waiting until this coming weekend to do.We need to pick up a couple of bags of compost type something to add to the soil in the back big garden,we have run out of our own compost here,bummer. The back garden has been a problem child the last few years.it has this nasty weed called pig weed that just won't go away.We keep adding to the soil hoping it will finally be replenished enough the weeds won't be able to come back.Every year we think it may be gone,plant and then once the plants are 3 inches high the weed grows twice as fast as the veggies,choking things out.If anyone knows how to get rid of pig weed without chemicals or renting a pig let me know.

I have a couple of projects in mind that I am hoping to find time to do soon.One is to smoke some hard boiled eggs.We have plenty of eggs right now so it would be fun to try a different way of eating them.I am also looking at making some fermented black beans which are used in many Asian dishes we love.They take a year and a half or up to two years to ferment but it's about the learning to do it verse time with this project.The beans could end up on my "not worth it" list but hey,you never know.

This has all been newsie bits and not much about homesteading but that's what has been going on here.It seems like so much of what we do here I have already written about and finding something new has just not come along.And honestly some of it seems mundane and very routine to me that I can't imagine all of you being interested.I mean really do you want to know that it has taken us 6 weeks to fill our very small garbage can? I could do a whole posting about how we are able to do that if someone is interested.

Rois