Filling the Time before Dad leaves...

Mr. Pilot is getting ready for a long deployment, which means lots of time away for work-ups.  He has been gone for about half the month for the last few months and will be for half of the next 2 also and then completely gone for 7 or 8 months. Right now I guess it is like little practice runs so we can be better prepared for the long one.  We are staying busy and filling the time with good things.

Salmon Fishing

Go-Karting

Drive-in with Friends 

Building Storage Shelves

and playing on storage shelves

repairing bird feeders in a very dangerous manner

(hard to tell from the picture but Boy is dangling from the second story secured only by a belt attached around Belle's waist.  not.my.idea.)

Getting our black-berry brambles removed

so we can plant a BIG garden (I need to offset the costs of all our healthy eating, and I thought something like weeds would be a good idea to keep us busy while dad is gone next spring/summer)

Lots of first aid has been going on, too.

  

I will never every forget Sis's face as she came into the house and calmly announced she had Boy's finger in her hand.

The change in her face when she realized what she actually said, and how that face turned to horror as she said the same words again, only this time SCREAMING in shock was completely priceless.  And awful at the same time.  Thankfully dad was home for this little adventure and was able to do the initial triage and keep us all calm at the same time.

I am sparing you the gorey-fresh wound pictures, but here it is a few weeks later.  Thankfully it was only the tip, and it will hopefully grow back nicely.

Pop's had a 5 year old Birthday and a very first piano recital on the same day.

Boy wasn't able to play with his wounded finger, but everyone else played their songs.

and we planted onions, fruit trees and raspberry bushes.

and gave WWI presentations

and added a new "outside only" kitty, Pumpkin to our farm.

(can't you see how outside he is?)

We also added a few new chickens and a couple new roosters, too. I can't find pictures of them at the moment.  And if that wasn't enough:

 

our little Pup was born in September

and we got to bring him home in November

Savory Meriwether, our newest addition, is a Blue Dane.

His name comes from the book Of Courage Undaunted about Lewis and Clark which we read last year for school.  At some point in their journey across America, there was some starvation going on and some dogs around, and well, you get the idea. Then a song something like "Dog, dog, savory dog, delicious, delicious dog, wonderful treat, savory meat, Oh that wonderful dog!" was sung.  For some reason my family thought this was absolutely hysterical and thus, the name Savory was born.  We decided then, we would name our next dog Savory, and now we have the sweet lil pup to go with the name. 

There has been a ton more going on here, but that is all I have time to share now.  We hope you all are having a blessed year, remembering this season of Thankfulness!