Sunday's Blast from the Past

This week's blast from the past is in honor of Veteran's Day, which is this Wednesday, November 11. The sixth graders in our school have created a wall of honor in the hallway. They ask anyone in our school who had a relative that had served in the military to bring some information about them and they have posted it. For the wall of honor, I found this picture of my dad who was a Captain in the 2nd Armor Division of the Army in the early 50's. That means he drove tanks! He was stationed in Germany. In 1954 my mom flew to Germany and they were married. They lived in Germany for 9 months. He also served in the National Guard for many years.

The forecast says:

As we were putting away the porch furniture today and vacuuming some of the 80,000 spider webs around the windows, I saw this wooly worm. It looks like he/she had been in one of those webs!
I remembered that wooly worms aka woolly bears are used to make weather predictions! So I googled this idea and here's what I found:
Wooly worm forecasters say that the size of the brown band of color will tell you what kind of winter is coming. Legend says that the thinner the brownish red bands, the harsher the winter will be. If the wooly worm is mostly brownish red in the middle, winter will be mild.
So, there you go, looks like it will be a mild winter. Not good for those of us who enjoy a good snow day. We'll see if there is anything to this wooly worm forecast!

Conjugation

Fall
Fell
Will Fall
Have Fallen

Frosty morning

It was a little cool on the Ponderosa this morning, so Peanut started a few fires to warm the place up!

Give Me Candy!

This little Dracula didn't like to pose for pictures!

But he had a great time going around his neighborhood and getting candy. He said, "trick or treat" at all the houses and thanked everyone politely. He even told one nice lady who offered him crayons, "No, thank you." She gave him candy instead!

He loves the candy!

Sunday's Blast from the Past Photo

This week's Blast from the Past is all about me! Every time I give my students a writing assignment, I try to model it for them. Right now in eighth grade we are working on writing Where I'm From poems based on a poem by George Ella Lyon. I actually met George Ella at the KY book fair last November. We had a nice chat and I told her about my students using her poem for a pattern. She also autographed a copy of her children's book Trucks Roll for Parker. Her grandparents once lived in an area of Fentress County which is now part of the Big South Fork, so she was familiar with Byrdstown, TN . Here's my version of her poem and and a picture of my little five or six year old self!

Where I’m From

I’m from patent leather shoes with white socks trimmed in lace,
I’m from sitting on the front steps eating ice cream sandwiches,
I’m from hopscotch boards and bikes and baseball games with the neighborhood bunch,
I’m from lightning bugs in a jar.

I’m from an independent , stubborn bunch
The first granddaughter of a farmer and a trader
I’m from “Don’t dispute my word” and “You, young’uns get out of that creek.”
I’m from great grandparents who taught in one room schools
Their school bells sit on the shelf in my home.

I’m from Vacation Bible School and kool-aid and cookies
From macaroni glued on cigar boxes and painted gold to hold all our treasures.
I’m from waffles every Sunday morning,
From the cabin on the lake where family and friends gathered.
I’m from parents who gave us the most important gift--their time.

On the pages of family Bibles my name joins all those carefully written
by mothers and grandmothers
Forever in ink on the pages of my family's history.

Wordless Wednesday

Sunday's Blast from the Past Photo

I chose this photo, because Peanut recently had a birthday. On the back of this photo the date is October 1978. It was his 27th birthday and he had lots of hair and was skinny! And it looks like he was about to eat chocolate cake.

Herding Horses

If you saw my post yesterday, you know we had a herd of horses run through our yard about middle of the day. Peanut herded them out of the yard with the golf cart, but we looked out the window a short time later and saw they were in the road and somehow crossed the fence into another neighbor's field. This was causing great distress to the donkey and horse who live in the field! It was also making the herd of horses nervous.
Since part of them were in the road, we were afraid they would cause an accident, so we took the truck and tried to herd them.

They just didn't know what to do. The free horses would run down the road,

then turn around and run back the same way they came.

They talked it over with their trapped friends, but no one had good horse sense.

So, Peanut opened the gate for them.

Then we followed them back to their own pasture and shut that gate.
But about dark we saw them in our yard again. We called their owner and tried to herd them away from the yard. They again went back toward their home, but at one o'clock this morning I was awakened by some people herding them again!
We haven't seen them today, so we hope they have decided that the grass is not greener on the Ponderosa.

You Never Know

Just when you think you are having a nice quiet afternoon on the Ponderosa, you look outside only to see a herd of horses in your yard! Peanut herded them away with his golf cart.

All is Well on the Ponderosa

It was another rainy soggy day on the Ponderosa, so when the sun broke through this afternoon, we decided to go out and take a little stroll around the Ponderosa. We do this from time to time just to survey the situation.
Here's what we saw today. . . .

A little bit of red. . .


A whole bunch of yellow

Some pretty purple berries which we can't identify (we'll have to look them up)

Some fluffy and fast moving clouds

And this ginormas tulip popular leaf.

How to Lose a Golf Ball

Find golf ball in the field and head to the pond. Run, don't walk--there is no time to waste.

Place it in the edge of the water.

If you can still see it, it is too close--get it out and find a better spot.

It might be a good idea to put your foot in the water, too.
This is just for testing purposes to see how deep it is!

Go ahead and throw it out toward the mud. This will get rid of it for sure.

When you can't get it back put in a call for P-Pa and a pole.

When he is no help take matters into your own hands and push the pole yourself.

If pushing doesn't work, try a little pulling!

Well, that takes care of that, what else to you need me to do?