Fishing for fun

The other day I was researching things to do with a preschooler, like Nyle, and I found some pretty neat stuff. One was a fishing game that you could build together and then play together. Basically you take a couple sticks and tie strings to them 3-5 feet long. Then attach some magnets to the end of the string and tie the other end to the "poles". The you can cut out some paper fish together draw some fins and a mouth and eyes, and ears if you  make them like Nyles' fish, and put 4-7 staples in their "mouths" so that they can "bite" the hook. It takes about 15 min to make one of these and its loads of fun for every one. I put my fish in a big cardboard box so that it is somewhat of a challenge to hook one.
It's better than watching TV all day. And it is interactive fun.
Give it a try! I am thinking about making more poles and fish for a kids party this year. This could be one of the events.
Have fun!

It's A "NEW" TRUCK!!!

We bought a new truck today. I think it is the nicest vehicle I have ever owned. I hope it lasts untill armagedon, or longer if needed.
 The guy we bought it off of was a J.W.
I guess we are everywhere!

Skating on thin ice

We took Nyle to his ice skating lesson today. He is doing a lot better. This is his second time getting on the ice. I though he did real well. Probably better than I could! It has snowed alot lately, and been the coldest it has been all year. I looked at the temp this morning, and it was 5. Too cold! So we stayed in most of the day. I did feed the goat and the dog. And a little water in their buckets. I am sure it is frozen solid by now. Well I will add more to this post later.

Spider man-Baby

Today I got to baby sit while Jen went and cleaned a house. Owen gets  really cranky when mom goes off to work. Today was one of his crankier days. It was a challenge to even get lunch fixed for the boys without Owen going in to hyper-crying.  I got a picture of him trying to break out of the upstairs "jail". He looks like "spiderbaby" trying to climb the gate at the top of the stairs.

This evening we had Jake and Ashley over for dinner. We had one of my favorite dishes, spaghetti. And we had salad too with all the side stuff like tomatoes and and stuff. We also had thousand year old dressing. We had to dig out and old bottle of Ranch that was a bit old. It expired in 2005! It was only 6 years past that.

So we did not eat that, but the rest was nice. We also had brownies and ice cream for desert. Nyle really liked that part. Here is a photo of him enjoying a little bite.

 All and all, it was a nice evening. It warmed up some today, but the sap did not run. Maybe tomorrow we will get some going and we can start making our syrup for the year. I hope. That's all folks!

Fix it again

This morning I am JB Welding the "dog ear" on the float of a carburetor. Ths carb is off my Gravely 2 wheel tractor. The one I use to plow snow. It is not working at the moment. I tried JB Weld o it yesterday, but this morning it felt a little weak, so I put another batch on it. You can see where I have gummed up a bunch of the JB weld around the base of this "ear". This little piece holds the float rod in the carb. Which is the needle valve to turn the gas on and off in the carb. Without this, my Gravely will not run. And I nee it to run because we have a lot of snow on the ground at the moment.

In the mean time we are keeping a warm fire, knowing that this snow will be gone soon and we can get back to making maple syrup again. That's the best part of February.

You all stay warm!

Maple Syrup is DONE!

Hey folks, we just cooked off our first batch of maple syrup for 2010-2011 year. It sure is sweeeeetttt!
I found a realy great maple syrup page that is very informative. If you want to make syrup, check out this page first.
http://indyparks.blogspot.com/2009/02/makin-maple-syrup.html
 I think it's one of the best I have found.

Logical logic

This evening I was playing a game with Nyle, my 4 year old son. It was a game of, let's say, stupid logic. I like to teach him how to think in new and expanded ways. I do this with questions, games, and instruction.
This is somewhat the way the conversation went:
Me: What color was George Washington's white horse?
Nyle: White of course
Me: What color is a yellow light?
Nyle: Yellow!
Me: How heavy is 5 pounds?
Nyle: 5 pounds! ( This let me know that he understands weight as a measurement."
Me: What is a tree made of?
Nyle: Bark! (Now I was looking for 'wood' as the answer, but then I thought... what is bark made of??? wood. ) (This let me know Nyle is smarter than me.)
 But mom saved me from more embarrassment. She asked: You get toast from a toaster after it's toasted, what do you put in a toaster?
Nyle: Toast!
 I was avenged!
But I did ask one more question that I could not answer myself...
Is a 10 inch hole 2 times lighter, or 2 times heavier than a 5 inch hole?

Hmmmmmmm............