Home School Field Trips

On October 15, the Johnstown-Milliken homeschool group had two field trips. The weather last week prevented us from having the field trips when they were originally scheduled. It was a gorgeous day and we had a great time.
First we went to the Watson Lake Fish Hatchery. After a talk, a video about stocking lakes using airplanes in the mountains, lots of questions and answers, the kids got to feed the fish. All of them seemed to enjoy this, the kids and the fish!

After about a half hour of this fun, we moved to the location of the AlpacaKing farm. Mrs. King gave us a tour of the alpacas' living space and introduced us to all of the alpacas by name and told us facts and stories about each one. It was all very interesting. This barn and fenced area is where the new babies and expectant mothers stay. There were two fairly new babies and more to come.

This is Mrs. King's granddaughter, Sydney, whose family is part of our homeschool group.

This is my friend, Kelly, and her one year old, LeAnn, who has recently started walking.

I liked this two-toned alpaca. He was in the pen with other show animals.

Mrs. King and the two-toned one that she knows the name of, and I have forgotten!

Here Mrs. King is showing us how wonderful the fiber is on this young alpaca, who I believe was only three months old.

This is a mother and her yearling. It was amazing to me that the young one did not have a blend of both parents' color of coats. Mrs. King said that the young ones tend to hang out with their mother, and that they sleep together at night.

I thought it was so cute how curiously this alpaca was stalking the cat.

Our young friend, Quinten, Kelly's son, and the guard dog-in-training. She is huge!

Alpacas are curious and like to approach on their own, rather than be rushed upon. The little boy in the striped shirt is Kelly's other son, Harrison.

Emily getting acquainted

We had a great time visiting the alpacas. Go to http://alpacaking.com/ to learn all about them!

Early Winter in Northern Colorado

Here in northern Colorado the past five days brought about a drastic change from the beautiful autumn that we had had for a few weeks. Last Wednesday it was 80'F and a perfect fall day. After I looked at this forecast, I quickly decided to shut-off and drain our backyard water feature and to make certain that the garden hoses were drained and disconnected. I brought firewood into the garage for ready use and uprooted the rest of the garden plants that were barely frosted. It was a beautiful evening, but something about the north wind made me believe the forecast.

Friday morning...


Friday Evening...


Saturday morning




Sunday afternoon

The really unusual thing was that many of the trees in town that still had fully green leaves, seemed to freeze and drop leaves suddenly with the weight of the icy-snow on them.

Though our political climate change has been more gradual, it seems that this weekend weather has been a type of what we see happening in our world. While the post World War II era has had localized battles, the whole world has been in a state that seemed to most of us lazy Americans as late-summer-into-fall serenity. But recently I am sensing a different realization among the humans that I am around; a shocked awareness that the icy cold grip of BIG government control is suddenly upon us, whether we like it or not. For us North Americans, the loss of jobs for real people whose names and faces we know, then the loss of homes, and the certainty of no jobs being available to step into, feels a lot like the coming cold, deadly winter. Can we still trust in God, for each moment and for the unseen future? Can we even think of having a heartfelt Thanksgiving holiday next month? And what about Christmas? Will those with paychecks feel guilty exchanging gifts, when many all around us can't afford a home, or warm clothes? I wonder about these things, but I have no doubt that God is in control, that whatever He allows us to experience will be for our ultimate good, and I trust that these times will draw many to a new or a fresh dependence upon Him. He is still the King of kings and Lord of lords, and He reigns in Heaven, preparing a place for His own...and I doubt it will be icy cold there...And for now, I'm thankful that His own presence can warm our hearts like that fire in the fireplace warmed our chilled bodies last Friday night.

Beth's 16th Birthday

Yesterday, Sept 26, 2009 was Beth's 16th Birthday. After our Saturday work was all done, we went to Rocky Mountain National Park for lunch and the afternoon. Jeffrey was not able to go with us, as he had to work all day, so we really missed him.

The changing aspen trees "quakies" were in their prime this weekend. We saw many beautiful vistas!

We ate our lunch by a picturesque brook (green circle on map below), which Beth, Jason and Emily enjoyed boulder-hopping in and around.











After enough of that kind of relaxing time, we drove on up the Bear Lake road to the trail head to Bierstadt Lake (red circle on map above), which we hiked in its entirety. You can see from this topographical map contour lines
that it was a steep climb for us flatlanders. We climbed from about 8,800' - 9,400 in 1.3 miles on the trail.

(More pictures later, as it won't let me upload them right now)

All of us were fatigued at some points, but we all made it to the top and back. The lake itself was a bit disappointing, as the natural grasses were quite grown up in and around the water, as it was very late in the season.

Here we are at the top of the trail, with Bierstadt Lake behind us.

Rowen's horrible childhood memories...revisited!

Tonight I found myself reminiscing about my childhood... I recalled terrible memories of when I was... oh maybe 8 -12 years old. One thing that I always hated to do was cover the tomatoes with old bedspreads on the first night that frost was threatening. The whole ordeal, of getting out the ragged bedspreads used only for this purpose, to enduring the bitter cold breeze with rain or snow in it, to tramping around in the now-muddy garden soil, to .... you get the idea. The next morning someone had to pull those nasty, wet, muddy bedspreads off of the tomato plants and figure out what to do with them. So often I would think, why don't we give it up already? All this for a few lousy tomatoes?

Now tonight, I found myself, (a 51-year old dad, grateful for every delicious vine-ripened tomato after we thought we'd have no tomato crop due to hail in July) covering our precious tomato plants.

It is the first day of Autumn, and the forecast is for 35'F and rain / snow tonight and tomorrow. It is too early to give up on our garden yet...

I know that autumn actually began on Tuesday September 22, but the first winter storm system moved into northern Colorado on Sunday afternoon, two days prior. The atmosphere turned from summer to winter in a matter of hours, and tonight an early frost, with possible snow is likely. I just love the changes of the seasons, that God set into motion so long ago.

Maxwell Family Home School Conference Sept. 11-12

On Friday evening and Saturday all day, Sept. 11-12, our family was privileged to be at the Maxwell Family Home School Conference. On Friday evening, the family gave an hour long Bluegrass Concert before speaking for an hour about "Having a Vision for Your Family." We got some pictures only during the concert, and then not of all the family members. But you can go to their website and see better pictures of all of them. The sessions on Saturday were for young men and young ladies, as well as for the dads and mothers. The older Maxwell children, Christopher and Sarah, taught the younger people, while Steve and Teri taught the dads and mothers. We enjoyed this conference immensely and are trying to put the things we learned and were reminded of into practice. If you will go to their website linked above, there is a schedule of conferences they are doing right now. If one is in your area, we think you would benefit from going, even if you do not homeschool. They are a beautiful, Godly family and a blessing to many people.

Sarah Maxwell, with her mother, Teri, on the left

Anna Maxwell, playing the fiddle

Steve Maxwell, father of eight

John and Jesse Maxwell, Mary hidden behind John.

Joseph Maxwell, brother Christopher hidden behind him.

Labor Day Yard Work

We worked together in our front yard today, Labor Day holiday in the United States.

In the photo series below you can see that when we moved to our house twenty years ago this year, in 1989, the front lawn was everywhere. We wanted some flowers, so we had 15-tons of top-soil delivered, and made an irregular-shaped mound, or berm, on which we planted flowers. We slowly gathered rocks when we saw them in the mountains, and created a rock garden berm. It was nice for several years, then several of the plants began to take over. First the Gold Dollar monopolized the area, so we ripped most of it out. Then the Vinca Vine expanded, and thickened, until it almost choked out all other vegetation. Where tulips, hyacinths, daffodils, crocuses, many irises, rose bushes, columbine, and several plants that we've forgotten had once thrived, Vinca Vine totally reigned.

We were quite disgusted by it, so today we attacked it!

This is the miserable condition of our rock garden / flower berm that existed this summer. There were almost no flowers growing, as most everything was choked out by the very prolific vinca vine. Here is the scene of Jason, Beth, Emily, and Janet as they began their attack on the mound.

We removed the rocks, the few Belladonna Lilies (aka Naked Ladies), Creeping Charlie, Gold Dollar, Lily of the Valley, Hen and Chicks that we want to replant. We used the loppers, the string trimmer, and lawn mower, and our hands to destroy our flower mound! I then sprayed it thoroughly with Poison Ivy / Kudzu Vine killer.

We plan to add several inches of good, fertile soil, and plant many fall bulbs. In the spring, if the federal government will allow it, we'll add perennials to make a beautiful corner in our yard once again!

Update: 15-SEP-2009

On Friday Sept. 11 (yes, 9/11) Rowen got off of work, and he and Jason went to get some special soil for our re-do flower garden. We got about 4 cubic yards, and Janet, Beth, and Emily helped us unload it.

Janet purchased 100 Red Tulip bulbs and 100 Yellow / White Daffodils that we need to plant this week...so our flower berm may be colorful next May!

Jeffrey's new job

When we went to the farmers market downtown last night, we stopped by the local ACE HARDWARE, where Jeffrey has been working part-time, for the last two weeks.

Here he is, working as the front cashier:

Jeff has permission to go to Ukraine with Mission Helps in October, and still keep his new job. We are excited about that!

One of Our Late Summer Traditions

Every year, for several years now, our family has had this tradition of going to our local 'Farmer's Market' on Friday evenings in August and September. We get various locally grown produce items, but almost always get the ingredients for fresh Pico de Gallo.

Rowen always makes it, as Janet can't tolerate the fumes! It always turns out a little different, depending on the ratios of the ingredients, but includes tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, anaheim peppers, onions, garlic, sometimes raw corn (cut off the cob), salt and lemon juice. We just started calling Rowen's concoction "Chicken Lips" loosely translated and Americanized from the Spanish "Rooster's Beak".

Peaches, Old Friends, Jason's 14th birthday

Beautiful, fresh Colorado western-slope peaches!



Twice in the past two weeks we have canned peaches. We were thankful for how old our children are, so that they are all good helpers!
Because of Facebook, I have been able to be back in touch with one of my nursing school classmates. We graduated together in 1981 from Missouri Southern State College (now University) in Joplin, MO and had not seen each other since then. In the picture below, Hermina has a white arrow pointing to her and I am under the black arrow.

Hermina and her husband, Craig, came out to Colorado on vacation last week, and we arranged to get together for a mountain picnic. It was such a delight to see Hermina again and to visit together.

We looked at our nursing graduation picture and identified each person. Hermina has kept in touch with some of our class through the years and my goal is to try to find more of our classmates if they are on Facebook.

Jason turned 14 on August 29. We had such a delightful day celebrating his birthday. Mike Durkee came up for the day and we played some Dutch Blitz. We threw some horseshoes. We did some go-cart rides; some of our group had a great time on water bumper boats and got very wet from the water guns. Everybody got dried out during a game of miniature golf. But, alas, after the pictures were removed from the camera and on the computer, they were not saved in the computer, and they are GONE! That is the only sad note about the day, because we had a very fun time and Jason said it was one of the most fun days that he remembers. He had a nice cake too, and blew out all the candles, but we cannot prove it without the pictures...