The Beaver Dam

We went down to the creek the other day to check out the logging and see the creek again with the littler ones... when we finally made our way down the hill and crawled (I'm serious) through an animal's tunnel (the grass and weeds have grown so tall!) we made it to a Beaver's Dam in our creek!

It is absolutely amazing to see all the sticks, mud, and leaves piled up to keep the water in a pond of sorts.

I was greatly surprised to be able to capture a photo of two of the beavers!!  Busy as beavers, these two fellows enjoyed throwing rocks into the creek and then coming back home both for a band-aid or two because of blackberry scratches~ ouch!

Here's a better view of all the branches...

Of course, once we got back home we had to find out why beavers build dams, how many beavers live in a lodge, and what do beavers eat?  This movie was a great find for the homeschooling moment! :)


If the above does not work~ click the following link and scroll down for the movie: http://animals.howstuffworks.com/mammals/beaver-dam.htm

~Shiloh

Random Pictures

Incredibly random, but fun pictures. :)

With the Dickson ladies~ Bethany, Corine, Sophia, Eden, Havilah, and I (Shiloh).

 At a play-set...

With the H. Family:

Elanee, Yvonne, and Shiloh after a concert...

  
Giggling in Paradise~ watch out, not as innocent as they seem. =)  Eden and Mahala!!

Boys in the Hay a.k.a. Farm Boys!!
 

Watching my wonderful harp teacher and her sister play a concert...

And the cutest guy ever!

I figured out how to transfer pictures from my G+ prolife over to here.  So, since that is waaaaaay easier!  I might start doing that for future posts. :)

Texas Trip 2

Here we are for Part 2 of our trip to Texas!

(If you want to revisit Part 1, click here.)

As I mentioned before, we were there for the Vision Forum Food Conference.  We enjoyed traveling with the S. family (traveling with another family is the way to go!), hearing the wonderful speakers, meeting up with old friends, meeting new friends, and overall... being blessed with such special memories!

Thanks to Evan, Yvonne, and Elanee S. for some of the pictures.

 Youngsters on the streets of San Antonio.

 This was right before we marched down the street singing "Scotland the Brave" because we saw a man playing the bagpipes and we thought he might play that song for us... unfortunately, he had ear plugs in and his pipes were just too loud for our voices!

 A panorama of the conference.

 Elanee S. lets us all know the latest update...

 Evan S. looking for his house on the map!

 Me up in the balcony.  This conference center is quite a place!

 Meeting Colin Gunn was a special treat!  Unfortunately, not all of "The One Big Happy Family" got to get a picture with him, but we all got to meet him.  He is quite a character!

 Lunch break! 

 Yvonne S. sporting a new look!  

 While heading back to the hotel room, the little guys got a lift!

 We made a quick stop at the historic Menger hotel to take a peek around.

Evan with Judah and Benjamin.

Here comes the troops!

 Back at the hotel room... we had about eight other families join us in the S's room for a sweet time of fellowship, prayer, singing, food, and fun.

 It was so packed that I was sure that someone would tell us that we were being too loud... but no one came and we had a delightful time!

 Some of the P. family and a friend having a good conversation.

 Judah with Brad P. trying to be look-a-likes!

 Shiloh with the adorable W. baby!

 This picture makes me smile!  It is a great angle.

 The Catch-Phrase (our favorite game!) games were so much fun!

The lovely P. family... For some reason, Megan didn't make it into this picture.

 I promise I learned a lot at the Food Conference... I really did!

Really though, to protect my innocence, there was just a tiny bit of chocolate milk left and everyone told me "not to dirty up another cup, so just drink it from the container."  I did... and they took a picture.

The Infamous "Prank Grass".  Believe me, this has only just started growing!

 The last day of our trip, we visited the Alamo.

 Walking the grounds.

 Shocked faces at the Alamo!!!

Sisters.

 What a great way to end a great trip!

 A very happy bunch.

 Aw!  You can't get much cuter than this guy!

Dying to go into the Alamo!

We were not able to take a tour of the indoors due to lack of time.  I guess that just means we have to come back some day!

 We were put in jail!

...But glad to be kept company!

After that, we picked up our luggage at the hotel and wished each other a very sad goodbye.  It was such a special time that we were able to spend together!

Going home sweet home.

This was a blessed week that we were so thankful to be a part of. 

"Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name."

~Psalm 103:1

Posted By:

~Bethany

Recent Project: Logging

We've had some logging done recently on top of the hill in the back of our property.  Recently our family took a trip way back there are through the Poison Oak (Thankfully, we did not get any of it!  The Lord protected us as we did not know that we were surrounded by it!) to take a look at the logging done.

Judah and I stand by some tall Pines:

Walking along the logs:

Looking over the cliff~ is our home and it really doesn't take that long to fall down...  just ask a few of us~ we know.  ;-)

Posted By:
~Shiloh

Recent Project: Deck Winter Prep

Daddy and I have been working on our deck to get it ready for winter.  Nearly every year we have to either stain or paint our deck.  Previous years we have put a stain on it, but since the weather is so hard on it~ we decided to to it a bit differently this year and paint it with a very thick, sandy paint.  We put a couple coats on the deck and *several* coats on the stairs.  Daddy also painted the railings which we've never done before.  They look great!

Here is the hot tub (never used it!) that I painted with just a normal paint: 

Here is the front door entrance to our house.  Daddy took out the flower area and put a bench in instead.  The other bench is just cut out of the picture, but matches this one as well.

This is a self-portrait I tried to take of myself before I started painting again:

This is another area we have been working on (everyone worked on this).  This is where our hose bib is.  We got lots of great, large rocks left over from the loggers!!

Here are the stairs leading to the front door~ just before I did the second coat:

Here is a view of the stairs leading to the mudroom and a view of the deck~ all ready for winter!!

Hope you enjoyed our Winter Prep Project!
~Shiloh