Breaking Ground on our Dream Home

It's been a long summer, but we have finally broken ground on our Dream Home.

We chose the Peekskill plan by Don Gardner.

We're making a couple of modifications, but this is the plan we fell in love with and now our house is going to be taking shape soon.

It's so exciting to watch them dig in the dirt! Clint and Kyle showed up around 11 and took a preliminary look around the site, marking their lines clearly and talking about what needed to be done. Of course, Tommy instantly joined in, trying to see how he could help.

Finally they were ready to start moving the machines, so Clint offered to take Tommy on the first ride around. Nikki was just a little bit jealous and walked away pouting. 

However, she quickly got over her disappointment about not getting to ride in the dozer once she discovered a rock to play with. Silly girl. 

Tommy went with Clint to scrape the top soil off the house site so it could be saved and re-used once we are done building. 

Becky also entertained herself by finding her favorite "Puzzle" - a rock that I found earlier this summer that was split into pieces that I put back together. She loves coming to take it apart and put it back together. 

Finally it was time to start the actual breaking of ground, so Tommy hopped off the dozer and we all moved out of the way to watch them dig the first hole. 

On your mark...

Get set...

 Dig!

Kyle skirted the chalk lines so they could back-fill behind our poured cement walls, so didn't stay exactly within the lines! A few minutes later, he had a nice sized hole dug for us. 

As he kept digging, he eventually hit a large rock. Tommy was sure they wouldn't be able to get it dug out because it was so big. 

He kept watching and suddenly, the rock popped out of it's hole!

Kyle used the "thumb" part of the machine to hold the rock and lift it out of the ground and toss it out of the way. 

Once the hole was deep enough to get our basement walls to a poured height of 10 feet (I believe that's 2 feet above ground too), Clint hopped back into the dozer to push dirt towards the front end loader. 

We went inside for lunch at this point and came back out a few hours later to see what had been accomplished. The hole in the ground was much larger, and Clint had begun laying out the road that will take us to our house. 

View of the road from the other side. 

Becky's legs had started hurting again (growing pains), so she stayed inside. Tommy and Nikki had fun climbing on the dirt pile, trying to see a better view of the hole that had been dug. 

We were impressed with how large that hole had become! The red dirt below is clay and great for digging footers into because it's so hard. 

The soil closest to the white chalk line here is pretty wet and spongy, so Clint told us the footers will have to be deeper here. We may also need to put a french drain on the inside of the footers as well to keep the foundation from sweating. I'm hoping it's not that bad, but we'll see!

Buddy even ran over to check things out, and keep everyone in line. Good puppy!

When Clint and Kyle were almost finished for the day, Clint finally took Nikki on the dozer for a ride. 

She hung on tight and loved every minute of it. 

 In fact, she loved it so much, she pretended to fall asleep so she could stay longer in the dozer. 

Apparently, that's not the first time Clint's had a kid pretend to fall asleep, because she was soon "awake" and giggling again. 

It was finally time for the boys to head home for the day, so Tommy helped Kyle pack up for the day. 

Next week is supposed to have some good weather, so we should see them again Monday. 

Finally Camping Again

We just got back from a wonderful camping trip at the Look Rock campground in the Smokey Mountains. We went with some new friends and our kids had a wonderful time playing together.

We got to our campsites slightly after supper, so it was starting to get dark. We quickly set up our tent and got supper started for the kids - then realized we had forgotten to bring roasting sticks to roast hot dogs! Oh well, on camping trips you get to be creative, so the boys searched through the woods for some sticks and sharpened an end to get the hot dogs cooked. Since it was so late, we tried to hurry and get the beds made up so the kids could go to bed. While I was making the beds, Tom went looking for wood to make a nice fire.

He came back really excited and told me that while he was getting wood, he saw something watching him from behind a tree, but whenever he looked at it, it would move. He was about 30 feet from whatever it was, so he tried making a noise to scare the raccoon or squirrel. Whatever the animal was growled back and scurried up the tree. Then he realized it wasn't a raccoon, and it wasn't a squirrel - it was a BEAR! We have been camping in the Smokies for more than 10 years, and despite hearing there are active bears there, we have never seen one. The friends we camped with said they saw 7 bears the weekend before. So we were excited to finally see one, even if it was closer than we wanted it to be. The bear gathered nuts from the top of the tree for several hours. It was a little nerve wracking knowing that the branches falling outside the tent were from a bear so we made certain to lock up all our food safely in the car.  Thankfully, it didn't appear to bother anything in our campsite, although my girlfriend Jamie says she heard lots of car doors slamming all night long as people realized something was enjoying their food.

 

Saturday morning we had a nice pancake breakfast. I made the kids pancakes into pancake rolls to keep them less sticky for my girls who LOVE getting stuff in their hair and crying when I brush it later. Then we had a quick worship and decided to hike to Abrams Falls - a 2.5 mile hike one way. We weren't sure how far we would get with 5 kids 6 and under, but we decided to see how far we could go. We ate lunch by our cars and started on our hike.

The girls were quite talkative on the trail. Nikki got a little grumpy, but as soon as we got her started talking about cookies and what kind of cookie she would make, she was happy as a clam. Her cookies would be strawberry cookies, in case you were wondering. 

  

Becky also walked along the trail with me for a period of time, chatting away about whatever crossed her mind. We passed some people, and one of the kids had a coonskin cap on his head. Becky watched him pass, then commented to me, "Mommy, that boy had a raccoon butt on his head!"

We stopped to play in the water along the way to the falls and the kids found some minnows in the water. Another family hiking on the trail offered a net they had brought along just for that purpose. They had two boys, so it made sense. We are SO going to be bringing a net the next time we go hiking. What a great idea!

At the falls we stopped to catch our breath and enjoy the view. I warned Tommy not to get wet since we still had a long 2.5 mile trek back to the cars - but he's a boy. Think he listened to me? Nope. He went wading. Oh well. At least we got a couple great family shots while we watched the waterfall.

I was very impressed with our kids on the trail. We didn't have to carry either girl very often - so they walked almost the entire 2.5 miles to the falls and the 2.5 miles back to the cars - 5 miles total! Tommy didn't complain once about having to walk the entire trip, so on the way back, I offered to carry him a short distance piggy back. He loved it.

By the time we made it back to the cars, it was almost suppertime. We decided that we'd stop at the Cades Cove visitor center so we could let the kids look at the mill there before we headed back to camp.

However, traffic was horrific. We discovered that there was a baby bear in one of the trees, so Tom grabbed his camera and ran off to take pictures. We crept along and finally got to take a peek at the bear way up in the tree - bear #2 of the weekend. A ranger was shouting at everyone to keep moving, so I didn't stop to let the kids get a good look - plus Tom was taking pictures that they'd be able to see later. Tom hopped back in and we continued on to the visitor's center.

At the visitor's center, I decided to make the kids take a potty break, since the trails really don't offer much. When we got back out, Tom had again heard that people had seen some bears across the field, so we started walking towards the field. When we finally made it to the side of the field where the bears were, we saw that it was a mama bear and her 2 cubs (bringing the number of bears seen to a grand total of 5!). We only saw one of the cubs when we first arrived because the second one was either hanging out close to the tree, or wasn't moving much. The bear cub at the top of the tree tried moving around from branch to branch and at one point almost missed a branch. Thankfully it made it, because it would NOT have been fun to have a mother bear on the ground!

We decided not to look around the mill, and just headed back to the campsite. The kids were exhausted, so we made chili and cornbread, then sent them off to bed, where within minutes of climbing into their beds, I think they were asleep!

We headed home on Sunday, and now I get to begin the fun of catching up on housework and laundry! Whoo-to-the-HOO! Wait, I'm not excited about all that housework, but I did have a great weekend! Any tips on how to get my house whipped back into shape quickly? :)

Field Trip: Homeschool Day at TN Aquarium

This year we are going to be taking some field trips for school. I didn't really do any last year for Tommy, and since I am teaching all three kids this year, I thought it would be fun to plan some field trips. The Tennessee Aquarium holds a Homeschool Day every September for area Homeschoolers, so that is our first field trip.

We met up with some of our friends and began touring the Aquarium at 10 am - when the doors opened. They gave the kids a quiz to fill out and return at the end of the day so we headed down to begin our tour with the Sea Horses. We didn't make it that far though, because when we got to the bottom of the escalator, there were lots of animals on display in the new Ranger Rick showcase - so we had to stop there first.

The first animal we saw was the Eastern Box Turtle.Box Turtles have a high, dome-shaped carapace (top part of shell) and a hinged plastron (bottom part). The hinged bottom allows the turtle to completely close off its body to the outside - making it hard for another animal to eat it for supper. :)

The kids learned that turtles are vertebrates - and that anything you find in the wild with a spine, you should not take home as a pet. Bugs are ok to catch, but not turtles, frogs or lizards. Apparently, Tennessee has a law forbidding any wildlife from becoming a pet. So if you want to get a box turtle as a pet - you have to buy it from a breeder - not pick it up from your back yard.

This turtle was fascinated with Nikki and kept walking over to say hi. His keeper was very nervous about Nikki getting bit on the nose or something, so I backed her farther away from the table - even though she really wasn't that close.

The next animal encounter was the corn snake. She had milky colored eyes because she was getting ready to shed her skin. We learned that the snake starts to swell up with water just before she gets ready to shed her skin. When it's time to shed, she reabsorbs the water, and starts looking for something to scratch her nose on. The snake rubs her nose until the skin catches on something, then she slowly slides out of her skin, turning it inside out and she slithers out of it. It's kind of like when you pull off a tube sock from the top instead of from your toes.

The kids had fun touching her skin to see what she felt like. We learned that this corn snake wasn't as brightly colored because it was a wild corn snake - instead of a captive-bred snake that was bred for brighter colors.

After meeting the corn snake, we found a Leopard Gecko. This species of gecko stores fat in its tail in case of food shortages.

We also discovered that unlike most other geckos, leopard gecko's have little claws instead of sticky pads and eyelids that they can blink.

Our next encounter looked very snake-like. However, it wasn't a snake. It was a Legless Lizard. Legless Lizards are also known as Glass Lizards, because they can easily loose their tails when grabbed. When the tail breaks, it can break into several squirming parts. The animal’s predator will focus attention on the wiggling tail while the lizard escapes. The tail will grow back, but just not as long as the original! The tail makes up almost 2/3 of the lizards body.

You can tell the difference between the Glass Lizard and a snake because the lizard has eyelids over its eyes (a snake has scales) and it also has ear pits to hear with (a snake "hears" through vibrations on the ground).

We quickly toured the Sea Horse exhibit, then the Ranger Rick Bird show began. The first bird is the Worlds Smallest Toucan- the green aracari. His name is Squirt. His beak is considered a soft beak that’s used to grab fruit in the tropical rainforests of the aracari’s home. Apparently people used to think this bird was diving for fish in the water - but instead of fish, it was really fishing for the fruit that had dropped off the trees.

The second bird they brought out was the Rose Breasted Cockatoo. These birds can live a very long time - 20 to 40 years! They are also very smart birds and can quickly learn how to do certain behaviors. This bird was trained to pick up money from someone's hand and fly it back to the trainer. Then the bird took the money and a sticker back to the original person and flew back to the trainer. Very impressive since it didn't matter how far away the person was or where the person was in the room (we saw three different shows with this bird at various times throughout the day).

The last bird we encountered was the Easter Screech Owl. This is North America's smallest Owl. It is roughly the size of an extended Adult hand. Owls are able to fly very quietly through the forest to catch their prey. The Eastern Screech-Owl is known to eat a variety of songbirds, including the European Starling. Despite this fact, the starling regularly displaces the owl from nesting sites and takes over the hole to raise its own brood.

After the bird show, we headed up the escalator to continue our tour at the top of the Aquarium. However, because of the sheer number of people crowding to go up, I didn't pay attention to the fact that Nikki was standing backwards on the escalator and that her shoelace was untied. We got to the top, but she wasn't able to move because her shoe had gotten stuck. I tried to pull her, but she started crying - and I realized she was stuck in the escalator. People started piling up behind me and falling on top of me. I tried to push the off button on the escalator but I guess I didn't push hard enough. Someone tried to help me up but I quickly explained I was protecting my daughter from getting trampled and just needed the escalator to get turned off. I guess because of all the confusion, they didn't hear me, so the escalator kept going. Finally I was able to push the off button hard enough and the escalator stopped. I quickly took off Nikki's shoe and moved off the escalator so others could move off, then an employee grabbed her shoe for me. They checked to make sure she and I were both ok, which we both were - just a little shaken up - and then we continued on our way up to the third floor to continue our tour to see the Otters.

We made it to the Otter exhibit and then I noticed Tommy was missing! So I ran back towards the top of the escalator and he walked through the doors. He had seen Tom walking outside the Aquarium, so he had stayed behind to watch. I called Tom to let him know where we were and that I had already gotten a ticket for him. I guess I wasn't clear in which aquarium we were in, so when I got to the bottom of the River aquarium, he had left to go to the Ocean aquarium to meet us. We finally figured out how to find each other and Tom got to join us for the rest of our tour.

The girls had fun playing in the Sturgeon fish tank, but weren't able to touch any of them. Sturgeons are on the endangered species list, so the aquarium has a release program to help increase the numbers of sturgeon in the wild. We walked through the Delta Swamp and then through the Rivers of the World Gallery. We saw a Dwarf American Crocodile that grows to be 6 feet in length. Doesn't he look happy?

It was almost time for lunch, so we quickly finished up the River Aquarium and went outside for lunch. After lunch, we split up so Tom could take Tommy on a behind the scenes tour of the Aquariums with his friends. I took the girls through the Ocean Aquarium where we got to try to pet stingrays (none came close), catch butterflies (they all flew away) and watch the penguins. One of the penguins was having a great time "flying" through the water. I wish I had the camera, but I sent it with Tom and Tommy on the behind the scenes tour.

See that rock in the corner beside Tommy? He told me that's where they send the food out for all the fish in the shark tank.

Here is the tour guide explaining how volunteers put the food into the tubes and it gets flushed out into the big tank for all the fish. The fish know when its time to eat, so they gather at the end where the food gets washed out of tubes.

While the kids were learning all about how the food gets delivered to the fish, Mr. Oscar, the Green Sea Turtle, came to pay them a visit and check them out.

See that bowl shaped thing in the water?

It's to make ripples on the water to break the surface tension so people beneath won't have to see the ugly ceiling above the tank.

This a smaller tank next to the large tank where they put the new fish in to get acclimated in. When the fish gets used to the water, they open the gate between this small tank and the large tank so the fish can swim back and forth. When the fish spends more time outside in the large tank, they close the door between the tanks. The fish prefer the larger tank, so acclimation usually doesn't take too long.

These white barrels are the filters for each tank in the aquarium. Every tank (large and small) in the aquarium gets filtered here. The numbers on the green pipes indicate which tank the filter is filtering for.

The tour passed by the quarantine room where they keep the sick fish and animals until they are well again.

The final stop on the behind-the-scene tour was the kitchen where they learned about how the food was prepared and what food to give each fish or animal.

 And that is the end of our tour of the Aquarium. Have you taken your kids anywhere fun this year for school? Do you plan field trips or just spontaneously decide on a trip?