The Christmas Tree Installation

Our Christmas Tree went up shortly after Thanksgiving.

We all went to Menards and picked out a cheap tree.

Lucky for us,the Boy had a good nap that day.

No, Boy, the tree stand is not a potty!

Too much Christmas excitement.

It can take a toll on those not used to it.

The Escape Artist

Our Boy has been escaping out of his crib for perhaps 4 weeks by now. We have always been curious just how he gets his little body down from such a height. One afternoon, I placed the Boy in his crib and asked nicely for him to come on out. I shot a video of him climbing on out - not the smoothest moves, but it seems to work for him. My video camera only shoots bursts of 30 second videos, so this is a 2 part video.....

Christmas Singing (kind of)

Who is that singing in the background???? My goodness!!

The New Door

Downstairs in our basement, we have a full size door that leads to the outside. The door had problems: It wasn't an exterior grade door at all. It was a bi-fold closet door that is perhaps an inch thick with a hollow core. So, it goes without saying the basement got very cold during winter times. Last winter, the temperature in the basement probably got down to 42 to 45 degrees.


This had to be fixed.


After a little homework at the home improvement stores, I quickly found that a 48 inch wide door is difficult to locate. Whenever I did find this odd sized door, it cost upwards of $800. I think it's ridiculous to pay that amount of money on a door we rarely see and use.


In the spirit of attempting to save lots of money, I decided to make a new door myself. I bought $32 worth of lumbar and insulation, and got to work. I made a door which is essentially just a 2 x 4 wall with insulation between the panels. It all mounted on the 4 hinges from the old bi-fold. It works very nicely.

As a bonus, I was able to use an old barn latch from Dad's old barn. This is the door latch that was on the man door from the west galley into the hog lot. In the old barn, you had to reach your hand through a hole in the door above the latch, and fiddle with the latch without seeing it. I'm happy I'm able to make good use of the old barn latch on our house.

The Joy of the Boy

The Boy sure can be frustrating at times. Instead of drinking milk, he would rather dump it out, play in it, sit in it, splash it, dump it, or put it in his hair. It seems as if he likes milk anywhere but where it should be. Then he asks for more.

But it all balances out. At his bedtime, it's real nice to read him books during his routine. His routine consists of gathering up all his blankies and putting them on the rocking chair. We also gather up all the animals and books on the floor and put those on the chair, too. Many times, the chair is pretty overloaded.

Overall, there seems to be more of the good moments than the bad.

From the Archives

Let's go back in history just for fun.

Blue eyes from June 2006.

The monkey line-up from November 2007.

The wood pile October 2007.

The hospital IV machine February 2008.

Pictures of our Autumn Trees

It was a nice sunny afternoon, so I had to take some pictures around the house of our colorful trees. I'm sure I'll look back at these pictures in the middle of winter.

Here is the view from our front window looking east:

And our big oak tree in the center of the driveway:

The big oak at the entrance of the driveway:

The leaves are falling fast, and I'm sure 5 months of the leafless tree season is closing in. Enjoy the trees while you can!

Archived Hodgepodge

Old favorite pictures from 2005 and 2006:

Saturday Work Outside

We spent the morning this Saturday outside - picking up sticks, putting away outside toys, and cleaning up the garden. The kids took a wagon ride in the wagon full of sticks. The Boy sure looks sad here:

But the Girl can perk him up quickly.

We also made a round wooden cover for the sandbox.
Here they are showing it off along with the Boy's rock.

It was a nice day of getting things done.

Flufff Party

After church today, the kids and I pulled off all the couch cushions along with all our blankets, pillows, stuffed animals, slippers, and toys, and piled it all up into the hallway. It was our Fluff Party.

Yet Another Lawnmower

I always scan through Craigslist probably once a day looking for a great deal. Yesterday, I found an old lawnmower, and was fortunate enough to call early enough and buy it. I travelled to Greentown (10 minutes east of Kokomo) and picked up this old lawnmower today. It is a John Deere model 300. It is a 1975 vintage, and came with a bigger (and complete) snowplow, a 48" mower deck, tire chains, and rear wheel weights. It's powered by a single cylinder Kohler engine. The seller told me it was 14HP, but all the information coming from the web is telling me it is a 16hp engine.

I was in the market for tire chains and wheel weights for the little snowplow I already own, so I hope to pretty up this new lawnmower with some fresh paint and sell it (while keeping the snowplow and weights for myself). I think I can come out a little on the positive side.

Recycle Day

Today we broke down all the empty cereal boxes to prepare for our quarterly recycling run. The Boy and the Girl liked playing in the boxes.

The Boy's Newest Injury

The Boy scuffed up his head again yesterday. As I understand it, he was near the breezeway door (on the back of the house) when he tripped and slid his face across the concrete step. I think it looks like a good Halloween mask! He doesn't seem to care too much about it, and was fine in the evening. He really enjoyed sliding down his "cushion slide". I think he'll be OK.

The Lawnmower Ignition Upgrade

A week or 2 ago, I mail-ordered an upgrade to the John Deere 316 lawnmower. The upgrade is intended to make a hotter and more consistent spark to the spark plugs. I have had some trouble starting the machine if it sat for a few days. With some research on the internet, I found this fix:



The upgrade is a small box filled with electronic gizmos that connect to the coil and to the points. This box takes all the current from flowing through the points. By not flowing such a high current through the points, they should (theoretically) last forever, and engine performance won't decrease. There is also a small red LED light on top of the module to assist in timing. Everytime the LED blinks, a pulse is sent to the spark plugs. In the case of this engine (180 degrees opposed), the spark plugs fire on both the compression and the exhaust stroke.



First, I had to find a place to mount the new box. I chose a place under the instrument panel - far away from the heat of the engine.





I also bought a new "hot" coil in addition to the module above. I had a hard time finding a location to mount the new coil, for it is a different shape than the old coil. I chose to mount it on the firewall above the air cleaner. Here is a picture of a little mount a machined out of aluminum to hold the new coil.




And finally, the coil is attached to the new bracket.


I made up some new spark plug wires with copper cored wire. The old wires were too short, and they were the carbon fiber wires good for noise suppression which is not needed in this case. Here you can see the new coil and wires fit nicely right over the air cleaner cover.

With the upgrade, I have noticed the engine starts up easier. It used to take quite a few seconds of cranking over the engine if it had sat for a few days. Now, it just starts right up at the first touch of the key. I'm happy with it so far, and the Boy is happy to get his lawnmower back for wagon rides.

The Cat, the Dog, and the Vacuum Cleaner

The title says it all.

The Eyeball Incident

Yesterday during a church event, the girl got punched in the eye by her favorite buddy. I don't think it was intentional from what we can gather. We think the other girl was just swinging her arms around, and our girl's eyeball walked into the path of her fist. Her eye was fine for awhile, but towards evening it started getting poofy and tender and she said it hurt. We put a cold, wet rag on her eyes and that made her feel better.


We kept the cold rag on her eyes through suppertime, and I had to feed her. A funny story there - - -. We have been trying to have her eat cantaloupe for 2 years now. Well, this was my chance now that she couldn't see what she was eating. So in the midst of scooping chicken pot pie in her mouth, I put a piece of cantaloupe in, too. She chewed it up and yelled out, "Yummy - it's an apple!!" Well, I kept shoveling in the cantaloupe, and she kept saying funny things like, "Juicy apple - I have water dripping off my lips!!" She ate alot of it. We finally took off her rag, and she saw what she was eating, and she was fine with it.



I wonder if she will like cantaloupe the next time we offer it to her.

The Purdue Football Game

I managed to pick up some free football tickets from a friend at work. We have wanted to get the girl to a football game some time. We both thought it would be alot of fun for her. So a big thanks to my buddy who gave me the tickets. Unfortunately, he only gave me 2 tickets, so just the girl and Mom went. I believe this was the Purdue / Northern Illionois game from September 19.




We got to the campus in the early morning for all the pre-game festivites. There was a concert and then pictures in front of the big bass drum and the Boilermaker Special.

I took the boy home and we napped. The girls had fun at the football game (incidentally, the girl calls it a football "show"). Afterwards, the girl went running around the fountain and got all wet, of course. It was a good day for them.

The Last Zoo Visit for the Year

This past weekend, we went to the Columbian Park Zoo on a whim. We packed a picnic supper for the late afternoon. On the way there, the girl had a nose bleed that got all in her hair. And once we got to the Zoo, we discovered it had just closed for the day. At that time, the girl tripped and fell and skinned her knee all to shreds.

When she tripped and tore open her knee, she cried so hard her nose started to bleed again. Geesh!

The boy did real good. He enjoyed climbing on all the big jungle gyms. He didn't spill any blood this day like his older sister.
Here the kids are posing on the big cannon.

We finished the day with frozen custard across the street from the zoo.