October 3-9

Cross Country Feast

Monday night, Jacob came home from Cross Country practice to announce that he'd told the team it was ok to come to our house the following evening for a spaghetti feed.  (They have a carb loading fest every Tuesday to prepare for their meets on Thursdays.)  I asked what it would require.  Nothing much.  Just providing spaghetti, plates, forks and seating for 40 of his team mates.  Tuesdays nights are pretty busy around here because that's when we pick up and stuff 1,200 Arlington Times newspapers.  Tuesdays are also youth night at church, and while the children are attending their activities, Dode and I usually deliver 500 papers.  Jacob had told his team that we would host the spaghetti feed on a Tuesday night and had given us 24hrs notice!  But, this is our child who has spent years keeping his friends away from his embarrassing family.  If Jacob is willing to bring his friends around, we're willing to make adjustments to our schedule.

We have quite a bit of food storage so I knew it wouldn't be a problem to whip up the spaghetti but when I went to cook, I found that we only had 4 pounds left of our 20 pounds of spaghetti noodles.  (Time to go to Cash and Carry!)  We have noodles stored in #10 cans, but I hate to use them.  So, to supplement the spaghetti, I made a way too large pasta salad and cooked a frozen lasagna.  Practice is over at 5:30, the high school is a five minute drive from us,  and when no one had shown up by 6:00, I was starting to think it wasn't happening.  Food for 50+ people was out on the counter, ready to go, but there was only our family to eat it.  To make matters worse, we'd had spaghetti for dinner Monday night.  The thought of eating all that new spaghetti was not appealing to anyone but William.  Jacob had neglected to tell us that practice that night was at River Meadows park, a 20 minute drive from here.  When the youth started arriving, I heard lots of exclamations of how cool our house is.  Jacob, who thinks our house is boring, outdated, and filled with too many small children, got to see it in another light.  Elizabeth complained that everywhere she went, there were teenagers. 

The kitchen, living room, tv room, hall, tree house, zip line, basketball hoop, porch swing, fire pole, trampoline, deck and tetherball were all overtaken by youth.  The youth enjoyed themselves and say they want to have another party here.  I told Jacob they are very welcome.  I brought 75% of the pasta salad I'd made to school the next day with a sign to "please help me out and eat some" and most of it was consumed.  It only contained about $5.00 worth of ingredients but I HATE to throw food away. 

Crows

There aren't many more irritating sounds when you're camping than a flock of crows greeting the morning.  I also don't appreciate it when they pick through our garbage cans waiting for pick up at the end of the driveway and scatter trash everywhere.  But, I have really been enjoying some crows I pass on the way to school.  There is something ripening in the trees along the street that the crows like to eat.  I can't tell if it's a fruit or a nut, but whatever it is, it has a thick outside the crows can't penetrate.  Working in teams, they drop their food on the road and stand on the sidewalk waiting for a car to run it over and squish it.  Then, they swoop in and pick up their prize.  I smile each time I see them.  They're using me as a tool to get at the tasty food.  Amazing! I've been tempted to pull over and steal their treat, just to see their reaction.  If I did it enough times, I could probably get them to consider every little white van the enemy.  Crows are one of the most intellegent species of birds.  Birdology by Sy Montgomery has an interesting chapter on crows.

Halloween Decorating
We used to do "Trunk-or-Treat" at the church.  Everyone would park at the church parking lot and hand out candy to the children.  We liked to decorate our van and had lights we could run off our inverter.  We aren't doing a trunk-or-treat anymore but still have the lights.  I decided to use them to do a little decorating at the house. Miriam and William are thrilled by it.

                         I pushed nails into a crack along the top of the cabinets and lay the wires on the nails.

These candy corn lights make the bathroom seem to be lit by candlelight.

                                                       Miriam chose to do this decorative element.

Produce Co-Op

Changes are coming to the produce co-op, instigated by me.  I've been frustrated from the beginning with the lack of communication at the co-op leaders.  When I have a problem, I have been unable to get anyone to call me back.  Then, for weeks on end, they shorted us hundreds of dollars each week.  That made me mad!  Then, it seemed that every week we were getting the same stuff.  The big reason I do the co-op is to get a variety of produce.

So, I decided to break away and form my own co-op.  Which means, it's time for Dode and I to learn all about e-commerce (buying and selling things over the internet).  Making a web site is easy, adding a shopping cart is a piece of cake.  Figuring out how to automatically control the ordering and inventory is taking a bit more study.  One of my concerns was how to keep too many people from ordering each time.  With forming my own co-op, I've dropped down to every other week.  There are over 200 people currently participating in the co-op, which has been operating weekly.  Some people participate every week, some every other, and some once a month.   I only have room for 100 each time.  (100 people is pushing it!  Everyone shows up right at 8:00 and there is often gridlock.  We've got lots of room for parking, the bottleneck is 100 feet of one way driveway.  Dode has found it quite entertaining to watch the jockeying and directing people do as they try to get in and out.)    I thought I was going to have to keep going in to my google account and web site  counting up my orders and somehow  disable my shopping cart once I'd reached driveway capacity.  Google just came out with a new shopping cart gadget which is a huge help.  I was able to create a spreadsheet at Google docs with my inventory (basket limit).  Each time an order comes in through Google checkout, it updates my spreadsheet.  Once the limit is reached, it won't let any more orders through.  I'm really excited about that.   

Now we need to figure out how to use the order information received by google checkout to automatically make a spreadsheet of who ordered and what they ordered.  Currently, I need to view each order and transfer the information to a spreadsheet manually.  So far, we're still looking for a solution.   I'd sure accept help from anyone who has experience with this!  Anyone? 

This will take only some of the work out of running the co-op.    I will receive an order sheet from the produce company each co-op cycle with current prices and availability.  I need to match up how many people ordered with produce to equal that amount.  Lots of people say that receiving produce from the co-op is exciting as opening a gift Christmas morning.  I have just transitioned over from a person receiving the gifts to getting to be Santa Claus!

Trail 90

We currently have three Trail 90 motor bikes at our house.  One runs great, one not so great, and one has been in pieces for almost the entire 14 years of our marriage and is now being used as a parts bike.  It's a big dream of Isaac's for Dode and he to be able to take them out to Walker Valley and ride the trails.  Saturday Dode and Isaac spent time in the garage removing the motor from the bike that doesn't run well.  When they got it on the work bench, they learned that it sucks air in through the carburetor (like it is suppose to) and then immediately pushes some of it back out through the carburetor (not the way is is suppose to).  Read that last sentence as, it has major internal problems that will require a great deal of work.  Dode and Isaac took the engine off the parts bike and put it on the other bike.  It appears to this engine itself is functioning correctly short of a problem of not having a spark.  They ran out of time and will have to fix that on a different day.  Dode wishes he had the time to really tear into the bad engine to show Isaac how an engine works and how to repair one but it's not on the "must do" list.

Misc.

Jacob had a cross country meet out at River Meadows park this week.  I wrote the wrong time down for when he was running so by the time I got there, he was already done!  Do I get points for trying?  Friday was teacher in service so we got a three day weekend.  It felt great!  An extra day to relax and enjoy,  too bad Dode had to work. Then, on Saturday I missed another of Jacob's meets.  One Saturday had a race time of 1:20 and another 11:20.  I was looking at the wrong Saturday when I mapped out my day.  Dode and I were stuck at the bank opening a business account for the co-op while Jacob was running his race.  We realized it when we got home.  Do I still get points if I mess up twice in one week?