A Moment in my Day, Making Fire

I thought I would do a little series of videos that show a moment in my day of different things I do.  My goal is to do more than this one day but I'm not going to be down on myself about how often I get to it.

We use our wood stove for heat.  In North Dakota where we live we need heat almost nine months of the year.  If it is cold at night but going to be warm during the day I probably wouldn't make a fire and just let the furnace run.  But wood heat is so nice and we miss it when we don't have it so we usually use it exclusively and only use the furnace if we will be gone for more than two days.

Our wood stove is a Blaze King which I think I have written about in previous blog posts on my other blog.  It is a super efficient stove that doesn't burn much wood or put out much smoke yet it heats our two story home very well.

This past winter we noticed that it was putting out a lot of smoke and we had to load wood more often than we had in previous years.  This winter was super cold for almost the whole winter but still there was the problem of all that smoke going out the chimney.  Stoves now come with a catalytic converter which takes the smoke, recycles it for more heat, and emits less pollution than older stoves did.  After talking with the owner of the store where we purchased our stove seven years ago we determined that our catalytic converter needed to be replaced.  Since replacing it the stove has been more efficient again.

I did some little videos this morning showing how I clean the ashes out of the stove, load it, and get it going.

The videos aren't very long but I don't know how to put them into one and don't want to take the time to do that.  Here is the next video.

I couldn't upload the last little video.  In it I showed the stove fully loaded, the active/inactive gauge, the damper closure, and the temperature control dial.  If I can get it to load I will insert it here later.  It only took about fifteen minutes for the wood stove to get up to active.  Then I shut the door, closed the damper, and turned down the temperature dial.  The house is a nice 80 degrees, just how we like it.

I want to link an article I read this morning about the health benefits of ginger.  With my Hashimoto's Disease I have inflammation that flares up occasionally.  The last couple of weeks I have been drinking my GGMS (Good Girl Moonshine for you non-Trim Healthy Mamas out there) almost everyday.  I love it.  It is mostly water with some ginger (I use fresh), raw apple cider vinegar, and a little stevia over ice. I was happy to read that ginger helps with inflammation.  Ginger Beats Drugs

We started our second semester of school this past week.  Everything has been going well.  Since the children are getting older it is getting easier to teach them.  Daniel is doing 7th grade work.  Leah is doing 3rd.  Again we are using My Father's World curriculum, 1850 to Modern Times this year.  

Leah started Singapore Math 3A this week.  Daniel has been using Saxon Math 76 which is what his Saxon placement test indicated he start after completing Singapore 6B last year.  At the end of this year I will give him another Saxon placement test to see if he should use Saxon 87 or Algebra 1/2.  I am hoping he will be able to use the Algebra 1/2 as I already have it.

The history has been so interesting using the chronological approach with the children studying the same time period using different books and supplementing with living books that make everything more interesting.  At this point in our history studies we are getting up to the time of the first World War.

We have read many good read-a-louds in Daniel's packet as well as Leah's.  The books help us better understand the time period we are studying.  

Leah has been using the science that came with the packet.  Daniel is using Apologia's General Science this year.  It was a big step up for him with a lot of reading, note-booking, and experiments but he is handling it well.  Here is a short video of one of Leah's experiments from earlier this past school year.

For grammar we aren't using all MFW's recommendations this year but it is working well for the children.  

Leah learned cursive writing and is practicing it along with Daniel each day.  I heard from a public school teacher's mother that they might not be teaching cursive writing anymore as so much of their school work is done on computers.  I want my students to learn it as it could be impossible for some people to read cursive if they had not learned to write it.

We have been using the art/music curriculum from MFW.  

Our school days are full and longer than when the children were younger.  But that is to be expected.

Catching Up

This last summer our beloved cat, Ace, disappeared.  I had never been an inside cat type of person.  Growing up we had our farm cats.  But we weren't allowed to have them inside.  Ace was different.  I was really attached to him and felt he was special.  He got into my heart and my house.  I grew to love him being there.  He would still go outside when he wanted but would always come when we called him.  He would never go far, I don't think, and would answer with his funny little, "Purrrt."

It was just a few days after coming home from a four day camping trip that he disappeared.  He was so happy to see us return.  His tail just quivered as he purred around my feet.  I was so happy to see him and would have taken him with us had I not feared he would get out of the camper and get lost.  One evening shortly after getting home I called him.  There was no answer and no Ace came running.  I instantly feared something happened to him but hoped not.

The next morning no Ace again.  We searched and searched.  We couldn't find him.  After calling several neighbors asking if they had seen a black cat on the road I even called the rural water company to see if they would check the little rural water station across the road to see if he got in there while they were checking it and got locked inside.  They came out and checked but he wasn't in there.  

After about a month we did find him.  Dead!  It was so awful.  I still cry.  I still want my Ace.  

Officially he was Leah's cat.  But we all loved him.  She has been asking for another cat but I can't bring myself to get one.  I am afraid there won't be one as good as Ace.  I feel like I would always be comparing any cat to Ace.  Another cat wouldn't have Ace's black shining fur and bright eyes.  Another cat wouldn't sleep with me and purr most of the night.  Another cat wouldn't have any of his funny little quirks and make any of his funny little sounds.  Another cat wouldn't love me like Ace.  And I wouldn't love another cat like I did Ace.  So for now we won't get another cat.  I hope my opinion changes in the future.

Here are some pictures of Ace being Ace.  He was curious about the sink in this one:

This was taken last winter.  He loved sitting on the bay window.  I think he was happy to not have to be out in the snow.

Many times we couldn't find him in the house.  He liked to be up high in hidden places.

Before we found Ace's body we had the idea that we should get a new puppy to help ease our sorrow.  I thought a small dog that Leah and I could hold would be good.  I wanted a non-shedding breed and knew that I liked Shih Tzus.  I checked online classifieds but they didn't have any.  I looked on the pet shop in Fargo's website.  They had three shih tzu puppies, one a female.  I couldn't believe it.  Usually they only have the mixes that are popular now.  I called them right away and got information about the little female.  They told me they would hold her until 4:00 as I was over a hundred miles away.  We got there at 3:30.  There were people there who were interested in buying her.  But we had first dibs.

She was so tiny and cute.  Of course we fell instantly in love with her and bought her.  Leah named her Bailee.  But she has many nicknames.  She has helped ease our sorrow though it is still there.  Nothing can replace someone we love even if that someone is an animal.

Here is a picture of Bailee taken a few weeks after we got her.  We did a lot of camping this past summer.  She got so used to people exclaiming and gooing over her that she expects it from every person she comes in contact with.  As she has grown people don't gush over anymore.  But she is still friendly to everyone she meets.

I am almost certain that Ace would have loved Bailee as he and Elly got along so well and would play together frequently.

Elly instantly accepted Bailee.  They are best friends and play all the time.  Here is a picture of me with my "girls" on a trip we took to South Dakota last September.

Bailee was all tuckered out on the drive down to the Black Hills.

I love most animals.  Elly had never tried to sit on my lap.  One night she crawled up onto my lap.  Then Daniel's bird, Rico, flew to me.  Of course Bailee couldn't be left out and she joined us though she isn't in this picture.

After trimming the hair around Bailee's eyes and trying to find a good groomer I started to be informed about letting the hair on shih tzus grow long, just trimming the feet and around sanitary area.  I felt I would like to try it.  So we are letting Bailee's hair grow and it is getting quite long.  I do have to groom her every day.  But I find it a relaxing thing to do.  In order to keep the hair out of their dog's eyes people will pull it up into pony tails.  I have been doing this.  Some of the hair is still too short to go into the bands.  Bailee used to scratch it out right away but now leaves it alone.  By the end of the day it is pretty disheveled.  I bought some ribbon and am going to try to learn how to make bows for her hair.

I hope to write a school post soon.  We finished our first semester and I haven't even written about what we are studying this year.  Here is a recent picture of my students busy at their desks.

We are taking a week break from school so I might write more later.