Halloween Weekend

Friday morning Warren and Nick went out bowhunting.  It was a frosty morning with good deer movement.  Warren ended up connecting with a spike buck.  We were down to our last two packs of deer burger so it was quite a blessing.  We also had a homeschool Halloween party, hence the Tigger costume.

Nick's been trapping hard since harvest.  He caught this nice raccoon Friday.

Emily and Nick opted out of of trick-or-treating and watched a Harry Potter movie while waiting for the trick-or-treaters that never came.  Sam and Amber, however were eager to get out and score some candy.



Another First Time Trapper

Amber and dad set traps yesterday and were eagerly awaiting their morning trap check. The wait paid off. Look what she caught. Her first and was she ever excited. She came running into the house holding the muskrat by the tail screaming for me to come see.

Just as soccer season is a given for some families, trapping season is a given for our family. Trapping season starts just before cranberry harvest when Emily and Nick set the bulkheads to clear out the muskrats looking to drain away the harvest flood. See they don't like it when the water is raised because it can flood out their dens. When the water gets too high they start digging and keep digging until the water has a way out. For our business that spells trouble. The water is being held high to either protect the fruit from frost or prepare the cranberry bed for harvesting, so draining the water away is detrimental to the success of cranberry harvest. The days catch is skinned, stretched, dried and then sold. Before you have any thoughts about cruelty to animals or wildlife preservation or enjoying nature just as it is I'd like to share a few thoughts.

**Many people don't think twice about getting rid of a problem mouse in the house, gopher tunneling through the yard or rabbit in the garden, not to mention ticks, house flies, mosquitoes - we get rid of those without any thought. All of those animals can be deemed pests to some people. Muskrats, although larger and pretty cute, are pests to a cranberry marsh. We find it necessary to control their population as best we can.

**Living in rural central Wisconsin, we love nature and find plenty of time to soak in all we can. Because of trapping our children are near expert animal track identifiers. They can spot and identify animal signs such as scat, feed beds, feathers, scrapes, and wing drags. Trapping allows the kids time in the outdoors which many educators, including Charlotte Mason, claim to be beneficial to their overall development. Emily and Nick are usually the first to spot sandhill cranes, red winged blackbirds, mourning doves, the gold in the goldfinch coming back, swans, whooping cranes, turtles and frogs in the spring. I dare say trapping gives them a purpose to their outside explorations and keeps their observation skills alive.

**The Catechism of the Catholic Church states in sections 2415-2418 how we should treat animals. In 226

358

373

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")'>2415....Animals, like plants and inanimate beings, are by nature destined for the common good of past, present, and future humanity. In 2232

")'>2417....God entrusted animals to the stewardship of those whom he created in his own image. In 2446

")'>2418....One can love animals; one should not direct to them the affection due only to persons. These statements taken from the CCC show the delicate balance between man and animal. Animals can and should be used in a moral way and for moral purposes.

Trapping continues through the fall and winter months. Snow, ice, freezing rain, bone chilling cold nothing stops the trappers in this house. Then comes early spring trapping. Still ice on the pond, but it's open around the edges. It's pretty muddy out there, but they forge on with hip boots at 6:30am.

I'm interested. Is anyone out their a trapper or know a trapper? Share if you will.

A Few Words About Sleep

For quite some time I had basically no words to say about sleep because I wasn't getting any. Little J was a nighttime snacker. He was looking to eat every 45 minutes to an hour. But now we purchased a regular mattress for the futon frame and started laying him down to sleep in the middle of the big bed. The first night he loved it and only woke once at 2:30 and then again at 6:30 for the day. I felt like a new woman. Then he had a couple of rough nights, up 2-3 times before waking for the day. I was disheartened so I brought him back to bed with us for a night and then tried him in the futon again. Last night he slept by himself from 9:15pm until 6:15am. Hooray!! Booyah!! I'm wondering if the Pediasure is helping him sleep better. He's been drinking a small amount for the last couple days since his GI doctor appt. We're trying to bump up his calories to encourage weight gain.

Ray insists on wearing shorts to bed and then wakes up cold in the middle of the night which isn't the worst because he usually crawls in bed with Lee to warm up, but last night he must of sensed that Dh and I were alone so he snuck in with us and literally squeezed Dh right out of bed.

And that's not all I have to say about sleep. I was happily sleeping away when all of a sudden I heard a 4-wheeler going by outside. I jumped out of bed as Dh was looking out the window to see Grace and Lee driving away to check their traps out on the marsh. What time was it? 5:19am When they got back in and we told them it was just 6:00am their jaws dropped and they yelled out, "No wonder it never lightened up while we were checking traps." Somehow when setting the alarm for 6:00am they set the clock an hour ahead, which meant they woke up an hour earlier than desired. We all got a laugh out of it and I had plenty of time to shower, blow dry my hair, wash leftover dishes from last night, start laundry and make pancakes for breakfast. Always searching for the silver lining. Have a wonderful fall day. It's raining pretty good by me today. Hopefully things clear up so the ferrier can come to trim horse hooves.

Our Life in Pictures

Since it's been about 2 weeks from my last post, I will just share a bunch of pictures which reflect what we've been up to. I really wish I had time to comment on Obama's appearance on Leno and Hilary Clinton's juxtaposition, visiting Our Lady of Guadalupe and receiving the Margaret Sanger award. However, I am short on time and it's much easier to just upload some pictures and focus on the fun we've been having. In no particular order here's what's been happening.

My little St. Patrick's Day Leprechaun

Little J enjoying his first taste of rice cereal.

Our Lenten decorations Lee baked cookies for the Lent mission night bake sale.
We studied the state of Hawaii last week so Lou made a salt dough volcano which we erupted the next day.
Our trapper - his coonskin cap made from one of his catches
Another twirl skirt

We did more chemistry this week. First, we checked for oxygen amounts in different sized jars. To do this we placed 1/2 inch of water in a pie plate. Then placed a lit candle in the middle. Once the jar was placed over the candle we began timing until the flame went out. We used pint, quart, and gallon sized jars. It was way fun and if you watched close enough you could see the water level rise just a tad as the oxygen was used up.

Then we checked to see if the bubbling action of hydrogen peroxide is giving off oxygen. We lit a toothpick on fire and blew it out until the tip was red hot. Then when lowered into a test tube filled with hydrogen peroxide (and manganese dioxide as a catalyst)the toothpick flamed up again. So we deduced that oxygen was the gas.

It was a full week here at Camp Homeschool and this week will be the same. We plan on taking a break from regularly scheduled classes to enjoy Holy Week fully.

Fall is Approaching

Many things signal the beginning of fall. Warm days and chilly nights. Fewer hummingbirds. Geese formations in the sky. Ripening pumpkins and yellowing cornstalks. Here at our home so many other things signal the beginning of fall. The faint scent of skunk essence in my basement. Rubber hip boots lining up in the porch. Cranberry leaves on the rug. The gentle sound of thwop, thwop, thwop as three family members practice shooting their bows off the patio. We are cranberry farmers, fur trappers and deer hunters. Fall is an exciting time of year. It means early morning trapline checks and middle of the night frost watch (for DH). Drawing straws for the bowhunting order and then waiting and wondering if dad and child saw any deer.

At the homefront, it's time to warm up the home. A few garlands of fall colored leaves, steaming hot soup and chili for lunch, spicy cinnamon bread and pumpkin pie, homemade cranberry sauce. Good lighting for the long evenings ahead and cozy blankets for staying warm. And of course, lots of hot chocolate.