Eric's invention

by Eric

After the soap bottle was empty I tried washing it out but it didn't really work so I kept the water in and I shook it up a bit. It worked as water soap so I didn't need to add water.

This is how you make it. You need an empty soap container that still has some soap in it and you need water and that's about it. Then shake. And voila!

Ariel prophesied that it doesn't work. And she's wrong.

Is it dead yet?

After Lana had sprayed it white - as this photo shows - the spider was still alive. I asked James (9) what happened.

Narrated by James:
Mum wanted to get it in a bucket because she was too scared to kill it. Then she asked me to take it outside and I asked if I could kill it. Mummy said not yet. When she was inside, I asked, "Now?" and she said "yes" through the closed door. It kept running away but I cornered it and killed it by stepping on it.
I took the egg sac upstairs to the table on the balcony and opened it up with some wire. And all these little spiders came out. It gave me the creeps! There was about a thousand. I pulled the sac off the table with the wire and stepped on it. No spiders got away!

If you want to see the spider in more detail click the photo - if you dare!

Update by Lana: I wasn't scared. I didn't want squished spider all up the wall with baby spiders scurrying everywhere. I initially thought killing wouldn't be very nice, but with that much bug spray a mercy killing seemed more appropriate. So once it was outside I told James he could do whatever he wanted to do.

Mere Christianity

I have just finished listening to "Mere Christianity" by C.S.Lewis. This is an excellent discussion of the basic concepts of Christianity explained in a fascinating simple way.

He carefully avoids most of the differences between the various Christian flavours and concentrates on the central hub. In brief, there is a God, he made us as body and soul of which the soul lives forever, we need help to live forever with God, so Jesus came to Earth to pay our debts and help us reconcile with God.

It is worth going back to basics on a regular basis. We should ask ourselves questions like, "Why am I here?", "Why was I made?", "What am I to do with my life?" and so on. That is why this type of book is so useful. C.S. Lewis has explained in a simple way the Chrsitian answer to thiese questions.

When only a hug can help

Sleep - I remember sleep.

There are times when a baby is unwell. Nothing serious, just a slight temperature, but you know she is unwell. It's all in the eyes - and the restless sleep and desire for contact with mum.
Dad and other siblings are only a distant second.
Rose is better now, but this photo is from Monday just before I had to go away for a few days for work. Note the eyes of Rose (dull and uninterested) and Lana (not enough sleep or freedom of movement)
Typical - every time I go away something happens.

Spider Attack!

Little things come in big packages

(by the not so elusive Lana)

David is away, so I get to handle spiders.

The boys were happily playing down stairs with their Lego. Eric ran up and announced, "We have a big problem! There is a very big spider with an egg sac." I wasn't too concerned because they have previously called smallish spiders "big" before. I sort of hurried down stairs armed with bug spray (and the camera).
Wow! They were right this time. It was BIG. Holding a very large, very full egg sac. It was approximately 15cm/6in from toe to toe. After taking the required picture for David we sprayed it white. We didn't really want it to fall and hide somewhere, with all those little spiders to hatch - after all, they too will grow that big one day.
I wanted to get it outside. I needed a flat-ish container, something it wouldn't get caught in and have trouble getting out again. Some of the small containers the children pointed out wouldn't have held it - and I certainly didn't want my fingers that close to it. Finally, I flicked it into a Lego bucket and James took it outside.
The boys inpected it. It was a bit sick from the spray - but it was still moving! James wanted to squish it and rip the sac open to see inside. This he did and he was a little shocked to see hundreds of baby spiders inside. Naturally he then used his boot to commune with nature.
Now, every little tickle makes us feel creepy.

Large families are funny things

(by the elusive Lana)

I was told recently by a reader that they enjoyed our blog because it provided a glimpse of family life she had never experienced as an only child.

Large families are a funny thing. Often to feel comfortable with them (depending on your personality) you need to grow up in one, or grow up with one. When I met David's family he is one of five. I had lived at home as an only child for three years. My brother left three years before and my sister three years before that.

At his place there were people moving around ALL the time. Where ever you were someone was trying to get past you. I took to sitting in the corner where I could see what was happening but was out of the flow of traffic. Now that I have grow up with a large family that doesn't worry me. The easiest thing to do is jump in and go with the flow. And join in what ever is happening.

Much like Pascal's wager, act like you know what is happening and after a while you will. You get used to it and before you know it you are part of the family life and find it quiet when the house goes from ten people back to eight when my parents left.

Whither the weather

When I left home yesterday, we were experiencing the relatively mild edges of Hurricane Dennis. The temperature on leaving was about 70F (21C) and raining intermittently.
By the time I was just North of Atlanta I was in the midst of bucketloads of rain and then the skies were clear. As I approached closer to Southern Georgia, I gradually increased the air conditioning and I noticed a temperature sign saying it was 97F (36C). It was in the low 100s by the time I reached the hotel and VERY humid.
Quite a change in such a short distance. Lana and the children were pretty happy that it was me, rather than them. I think they are still enjoying being in one spot.

1776 and all that

I am helping a client in Southern Georgia at the moment who are about a six hour drive from home. To make the trip easier I always listen to a book (or two) on our iPod. I have just finished 1776 by David McCullough covering the crucial time of the War of Independence. It is read by the author and is a riveting account of how the whole American Revolution was close to abject and absolute failure in late 1776.
The audio book lasts for almost 12 hours, which should have been enough for the return trip, but it was so compelling and fascinating that I listened to it back in my hotel room!
Did you know that after forcing the British to retreat from Boston in early 1776, Washington almost lost everything in New York in Mid 1776? From a force of almost 20,000 men at July 4, 1776, he ended up on the very cold banks of the Delaware in December 1776 with only 3,500 wet, miserable, underfed and underwhelmed troops.
I found it especially interesting picturing New York, Long Island and the retreat to Pennsylvania as we had driven over that very area in our recent trip. Many of the names were familiar - although the population is much higher than it was then!
Be warned - some of the narrations are not for younger ones, detailing some of the terrible things armies do to civilian populations - especially the women and defenceless. As a read aloud, dutifully skipping those bits which only total a few pages - at most - out of the 750 page book, 1776 makes an excellent history lesson. The greatest risk the Continental Army faced wasn't the British and German troops, but lack of resolve of the Congress and the people.
Even then, as exhibited in the volumous letters written by all ranks in the army, everyone knew the reason they were fighting - for Independence and freedom.

Little Britches

I have just finished reading Little Britches by Ralph Moody. It is a story of Ralph's childhood growing up near Denver in the early 1900's. The children eagerly listened each night as we heard how Ralph and his family moved from Eastern US to Colorado, how they survived their poorly serviced farm, how their Father was very resourceful and how Ralph either overcome various temptations, or succumbed and paid the price.

Most chapters ended in discussions of what the children would do in similar situations, or what they should do! This is the first book in the series by Ralph Moody and we have now started Man of the Family which begins immediately after Little Britches finished.

I highly recommend this as a book for all the family.

Chiggers attack!

Chiggers are microscopic larvae of a type of mite that lurk in unkempt areas of park or garden. They are related to ticks and are about 1/150th of an inch in size. They basically jump on when you walk nearby and then crawl up until they can't go further and then dig in.
Only problem is they can't handle human blood and skin so they die and drop off, leaving their drinking tube in the skin and causing itching worse than mosquito bites.

A popular method for getting rid of chiggers is to put nail polish on the bites. The only problem with this is that the chiggers are already gone.

The successful defences are:
1. Make sure all lawn areas are mowed and garden areas constantly maintained. Then it is too busy for chiggers to stay.
2. Put your pants in your socks so they can't get on.
3. Once home after a walk in the woods or unkempt areas throw all your clothes into the wash and have a shower.
4. Buy a supply of anti itching cream when this all fails.
This is a good site for more information on Chiggers. That's where the lovely photo has been obtained - it is of a friendly chigger enlarged about 1500 times. The larval form is barely visible to the human eye.
This information has been shared because some chiggers got me at Cooper's Creek. Bother!

James MacGyver

What would Macgyver do?

Posted by Eric

Since we watched the first ''MacGyver'', James wanted a Swiss Army knife so he could be like MacGyver. Dad looked on the Internet for a Swiss Army knife and found one for about $10. James bought it with his pocket money and he was so excited he was going to get a Swiss Army knife and he could be MacGyver.
A few days after he got his knife he looked around the house for stuff that MacGyver would have with him. Here is James experimenting on a big blackberry bush. He is looking in his special backpack for something he can use to do something to the blackberry bush. His knife is attached to a key ring on his belt.

This might look easy ..

The photogenic Rose

Now that Rose is Australian (as well as American), she needs an Australian passport. The hardest part of this is just getting a passport photo.
So Lana and I visited to our local CVS pharmacy who can assist in this kind of thing. We could have done it ourselves, but figured it would be easier to get done with the right tools and sizes and lighting.
The extremely busy lady behind the photo counter came out with her low cost digital camera in hand and looked at us inquiringly. We lifted Rose and said "Rose needs a passport." "Oh." she replied with a worried expression, "I haven't done one this small before." So the comedy began.
First we tried Lana holding her up with me making funny gestures behind the girl's head. Then we tried Rose on my shoulders with Lana gesticuating wildly behind the girls' head and sides. The key was to have Rose close enough to the pull down screen to avoid a shadow without her being distracted by it and have her look at the camera. It was a game of hide and seek, trying to get the camera to click when Rose wasn't looking elsewhere.
Finally, with a smiling crowd of onlookers grateful for some free entertainment, we snapped this shot.
Phew! A communal photo if ever there was one.

Update: Aargh! US passport photos are 2" square. Australian ones are 1.5" x 2". So we had to scan and crop the photo anyway!
Update 2: Nope. That won't work. The Passport photo requirements are pretty strict and we are going to have to do this again!
Update 3: We went to try again today. First we had to take a photo to see if it could be made the size we required. The girl was very helpful and the closest we could get was 1.6" x 2" close enough. After printing the photos we measured to check that Rose's head was within the size allowed. Australian pasport rules require the head be between 32mm and 36mm high. The girl asked if I could help as she had never read a mm scale ruler before. Fortunately the length from the very top fluff of hair to the bottom of her double chin just made the smaller size allowed. Phew! We got it! (And a fine roar of approval for public education!) (Update 3 posted by Lana with editing by David)

To blog or not to blog

(by the elusive Lana)

Well, David is trying to get the rest of us to contribute to our blog. (Of course he is right.)
He tries this even though he writes better than us, writes about things that we suggest and is more often using the computer.
He has tried a number of ways such as -

Guilt. "Other than me, Eric is the only other person to contribute. Don't you feel bad?" Well, No, not really.

Productivity. "You should learn to use the computer for something useful." Yes we should but we still haven't done it.

Role model. "Lana you should post something. It's a good example for the kids." I am being an example on how to avoid this.

He foolishly believes that we have something to add from a different point of view to him. He doesn't realise that we think differently. David looks at the everyday kind of things with a upbeat attitude and makes it interesting.
To sum up this is the first post from me (that example thing) and there may be more one day. Who knows?

Lego Star Wars game

A review by Eric

While we were on our recent trip we visited a family that had the Lego Star Wars Game. They had purchased it a while ago, and at first it wouldn't work properly. Then I thought about going to "Start" instead and to me and William's (the boy I was playing with) surprise it worked! Of course we then played it and it was really, really fun and sometimes hard.
A few days later Dad bought the game, but we had to wait until we got home. Then we played it for a while until Dad told us to stop and go to bed. We can only play it on some weekends if we have finished our school work, but we get some good ideas on building Lego creations.
The game doesn't work on all computers as it requires some advanced graphic features. This meant Dad had to do a bit of experimenting to get it to work. He says to download the demo before paying for the game.

Update: There is going to be a Lego Star Wars game for the Mac, it will be the same as the one for Window's but it work's on the Mac.

Chocolate Truffles

Chocolate Truffles

Lana's treat for the happy campers today was Chocolate Truffles. We made a double batch so there would be plenty to go around and there were none left after a short while.

Ingredients
250 gm (8 oz) Biscuit/Cookies (In Aust. Nice biscuits, US Animal Crackers)
Tin Sweetened Condensed Milk
2 Dessertspoons Cocoa
0.5 cup desiccated coconut

Method
The trick is the coconut. Desiccated coconut is simple in Australia. In the US you need to get unsweetened shredded coconut and then whizz it in the shredder making the coconut into little bits. (*see update below*)

Whizz the biscuits/cookies until they are small crumbs.
Throw all the ingredients together and mix up until it is a gooey mess. Wash your hands and roll the mixture into small balls, rolling into the coconut until they look like the photo. Then refrigerate.

(We originally obtained this recipe as this is my sister's speciality at family gatherings.)

Update: Americans shouldn't "whizz" anything. Use the food processor to chop it into little bits. I have heard from one of our US readers that "whizz" means something else entirely! She had a similar reaction to us when we heard people "piddled" around at home.

It takes an expert fisherman

It was a great battle...

We celebrated Independence Day with our friends at Cooper's Creek. As usual the children played in the water and generally mucked around and the adults chatted. At 3 pm or so, our friend David announced that they knew a GREAT fishing spot only a short distance away and asked if I would go. I didn't have any shoes appropriate for wading so I passed.
David, his father and their friend were dropped off by car near the spot so they would only have to walk back.
Almost two hours later, David came into camp tired and wet dragging something on his fish line. Between exhausted expressions that it was further away than they thought we asked what was in his hand. It was the fish David is "proudly" showing in this photo. He would have thrown it back but it was killed by the hook so they had to take it.
'Twas a lot of work for little gain.

Coopers Creek Water Fun

Swinging Clare

On Friday evening, we decided not to visit as heavy rains had started. We later discovered that the "happy" campers had sat up until 2am, watching the rising creek and wondering if they would have to evacuate. Luckily it abated.
As the campgrounds are used often and by many people, there are all sorts of bits and pieces left behind by and for other campers. This includes ropes for swinging across the creek, and handy logs for climbing across the creek.
Clare felt pretty brave and decided to try one of the ropes. Standing on a rock she grabbed the end of the rope and jumped in.
When we were here last year with Lana's Dad and Mum, her Dad had great fun assisting the children in re-aligning the rocks to form better rapids in front of the campsite for better rafting. Many of his improvements are still there.

Cook out at Coopers Creek

Corn on the grill

Local friends of ours and their parents regularly camp out at a local nature reserve known as Coopers Creek. It is a beautiful place where we can just relax whilst the children play in and out of the water, and all can sit around by the fire (but hopefully out of the smoke) and others can fish. Eric went with his friend, Jonathan, and caught two fish.
This photo is of the lovely lunch we had yesterday. The corn is just placed on the wire grill above the fire until the green bits go brown (or burn and the fire is quickly blown out!). Then the brave men all peel the corn and - very quickly - grab the HOT yellow corn cob, break it in two and place it in the waiting bowl. Just add butter which quickly melts.
The cast iron pot contains Sloppy Joes. This is like a bolognaise sauce - a tomato paste and ground meat (beef or turkey). It is spooned onto bread rolls. In Australia, a Sloppy Joe is a name for a sweater/jumper/pullover. Considering the nature of the food, Sloppy Joes can be worn in both countries!

Reading is a family affair

Young Harris Library

The children are really enjoying the Summer reading program at the local library. Other than the reading of a book or two, they have some authors visit and discuss how books get published, where their ideas come from and read and discuss their stories. There are crafty activities to do and either before or afterwards the children get to look for some more books to take home. Everyone gets to take part, even Rose is sitting down waiting for a book to be brought to her.

Be more specific!

Two days ago we mentioned the plight of much of Australia with drought.
I have just heard news that Lismore in Northern NSW is flooded and Sydney had bucketloads of rain, too.
This is typical of Australia - always too much or too little.
So, keep up the prayers and ask for a good soaking rain for the areas that need it.