School Performances & Rheinfels - 7 June 2009

Took Mallory to the Obsthof (fruit and veg market) and the owner put cherries on her ears and gave her a strawberry. He spoke German to her and she was quite confused, but sure she wasn't supposed to take the cherries off so she kept them on until she got in her car seat and I took them off. I wasn't about to haul her through the grocery store with cherries on her ears although, she thought is was quite normal.

Nash did a drama performance this week. He played the part of the nerd in the show. He put his costume together and never consulted any of us so when he walked out on stage in shorts that are probably a size 8, I couldn't control my laughter. Creed and I looked at each other baffled at where he got those shorts!

Mallory's dance performance this week.

Mallory doing a Polish folk dance, under the watchful eye of the dance teacher.

The month of May was beautiful -- weather in the 80's & sunny, even on weekends. June has been lousy -- cold and rainy. Despite the forecast for rain, we got up Saturday morning and drove about an hour south to a castle called Rheinfels, one of many castles along the Rhein river.

It is mostly ruins today.

One of the unique things about this castle is all of the tunnels under the hills around the perimeter. Apparently they put gunpowder in the tunnels, and then blew up the gunpowder as enemies approached. Above, the boys are standing at the entrance to the tunnels.

The tunnels are only about 3 feet high, so you have to crouch to walk through them, and there are several turns and side tunnels that are dead ends. They are also completely dark -- we had to take flashlights in order to find our way through them.

Above are Nash and Luke coming back from having gone down a dead-end.

The boys watched 'The Gods must be Crazy' last night and wanted to show us a game the kids that lived in Africa played. I laughed and said, "See, that's what happens when you don't have TVs."

After several attempts and much laughter from inside the house when they failed and fell on their backs, the boys finally perfected this amazing feat. They first sit on chairs and then lay on each other's laps. Then the chairs are removed one by one. When the last one is removed they should be able to still support each other.

Letter & Photos: May 2009

The strawberry fields are looking good - most of the berries are still green, though.

Cooking out in the backyard -- marshmallows and pudgie pies.

Grant and Luke snooping around the farm equipment outside the barn at the end of our lane.

Luke running through the wheat fields. Or maybe its barley. Heidi said I should know, because I'm from Kansas. Unfortunately, I don't.

We cleared out a few of the flowerbeds around our yard that had become weedbeds, and we planted some new flowers and some vegetables -- a few peas, tomatoes, carrots, and radish. We'll see if we are diligent enough in watering them...

The weather this month has been great. We've enjoyed the chance to get outside a lot more. The boys and Mallory have been riding their bikes around quite a bit. Nash and Grant have been exploring the paths in and around the fields and villages just behind our house. One Saturday afternoon, the two of them left for what we thought was another 30 or 45 minute bike ride. We kept watching the clock, expecting them to come back, but they didn't. Heidi and I had to leave at 6:30 to go to dinner with some friends, and because Nash and Grant weren't back at 6:15, I got in my car to go try to find them. I drove around for 10 minutes in the areas where I expected they might be, when Heidi called me. She said a woman had just called, telling her that Nash and Grant were at their house, lost, and needing a ride home. I got the address, and drove to go get them. When I picked them up, they were so happy to see me. They had been following the signs for a bike path around our area that goes by several castles, including the one by our house. They ended up going over the hill by our house and down the hill to the Rhein in an area they had never been before. They started heading back up a different hill to come home, but they were so thirsty and hot, and they didn't know where they were, so they went up to a house, knocked on a door, and asked for some water and asked to call home. I think they learned their lesson.

Mother's Day

The boys' Mother's Day card to Heidi this year needed to be....performed. Not surprising.

Luke made Heidi a Mother's Day voodoo doll out of straws and toilet paper. Isn't that every mother's dream?

Sunday afternoon reading

Hiking

Nash has continued to do some hiking/backpacking in preparation for his 50 mile hike this summer. We've been twice to the top of Loewenburg, which, at 450 meters, is the 2nd highest of the "mountains" on the other side of the Rhein from us in an area called the "Siebengebirge," which means 7 mountains. Just Nash and I went one Saturday, and when we got to the top we were surprised at the size of the castle ruins up there.

On the way back down -- Nash sitting on a bench that faces a big pile of logs. Why???

The next Saturday we took the whole family, but went on a slightly shorter route.

Grant's School Exhibition

Grant finished his big school project for the year -- researching an issue, then preparing a presentation and a display about it. His curent career aspiration is to be a lung surgeon, so he chose to research the impact of smoking. One morning they all made their presentations to the parents and to a couple of other classes.

Animal update

Hedgehogs

We put our recyclable stuff in yellow bags from the city, put them in the garage when they are full, and then once a month we put them at the curb where they are picked up. We put them at the curb by about 6:45, because they usually come by to collect them at 7:00 or 7:15. Twice now we have put the bags out at 6:45, and then when we look outside 15 minutes later, animals have torn into them and scattered the trash around. One afternoon the boys had left the garage door open, and an animal had been into the garage and done the same thing. We have been told that it is probably hedgehogs. We often hear a small animal rustling around in the trees that separate our house from the empty house next door.

Mouse

One morning we woke up and found a dead mouse on our doorstep. The boys gave the mouse a proper burial and a short funeral service. We hope the mouse is in a better place now.

Bird

Our bird encounters continue. Every couple of days, the big black crows (or whatever they are) will peck at the metal flashing around the chimney on our roof. Other days, usually at 5:45 or 6:00 AM, there is one crazy black crow that flies directly at the glass door to our patio, making a loud, banging sound that wakes up Heidi and me.

Bird in the office

My office building doesn't have AC. Luckily, it doesn't get too hot here. I have windows, though, which I can open when it gets hot. One day a couple of weeks ago I opened the window, and this is a window that only tilts, the bottom goes out about a foot and the top comes in about a foot. When I came back from a meeting on that day, I opened my office door, and immediately heard a bird frantically flapping. I was absolutely stunned -- didn't know what I should do. Should I keep my door open and try to get the bird to go in the hallway? Do I cry for help? Or should I try to coax the bird back out the small opening in the window? After a few minutes of deliberating and some serious discussions with the bird, it finally made its way over to the window sill, after smashing its beak into the glass on the window several times -- all the while flapping its wings and sending papers from my desk scattering around the room. Once it got to the window sill, it still had to figure out how to duck its head under the window in order to get out (apparently not an innate reflex for a bird). After a few attempts, the bird figured it out. I think the bird was more scared than I was, but I definitely close my window every time I leave my office now.

Survival of the fittest - Bird versus Bird

On a bike ride the other day, I came around a corner and saw one of those big black crows on the ground, pecking another, smaller robin-type bird. Those things are vicious.

Frog vs Worm

We must have a "Friends of the Frogs" group in our neighborhood, because there are 3 or 4 signs telling people to watch out for frogs. A couple of weeks ago as Grant and I were coming home late at night. It was just after dark and it had rained that day, and there were several frogs hopping over the road. I then turned onto the small road that leads up the hill to our house, and we saw several earthworms on the road, like you do after it has rained. We went up a bit further and we saw another frog, but its back was to us. As we got nearer and nearer, we realized the frog wasn't moving. It wouldn't hop out of the way. We stopped the car right in front of it, and Grant and I got out to see why this frog was so slow. In the light of the headlights, we saw that the frog had a worm in its mouth. The worm was probably 6 inches long, and 3 inches of it were in the frogs stomach, and the other 3 inches was wriggling around outside its mouth. The frog kept swiping at it with its right hand to get it under control and to continue to get it inside its mouth. It was one of the strangest things we had ever seen.

Fox

Last week some time the boys and I rode our bikes over to a forest area that the boys call "the gorge," because it has a deep ravine with a small stream running through it. They like taking ropes over there and climbing down and up the gorge. As Grant was walking up to the ravine, he saw a fox, which was certainly startled when the boys walked up, so it poked its head back into its hole. We ended up finding about 4 or 5 different entrances to its den, with lots of fox tracks around the area, as well as several bones from a recent meal. Heidi was thrilled (sarcasm) when the boys brought the bones home. They thought the bones were from a rabbit, so they looked up rabbit skeleton on the internet, and they think they confirmed they were rabbit bones.