odin was quite proud of the pile of leaves he raked in the yard.
of course, there’s no chance they are going to stay in a neat pile.
piles of leaves are meant for playin! 🙂
Tag Archives: ericiv
day 2651: A Maker in the making.
when i was a young lad i was fortunate enough to grow up with a grandfather who was a tinkerer and i have many fond memories of strolling past his workbench with various things mechanical and electronic in various states of repair. he taught me the simple lesson that it was possible to take things apart and fix them and occasionally make them better, faster and stronger. this led to my notorious tendency to Take Things Apart and, later, wandering the aisles of radioshack contemplating what i could use to mod my “101 electronics” kit and what i could do if i got my hands on a heathkit HERO.
nowadays there’s a whole maker subculture and make magazine for the young and young at heart who enjoy Making Things which, i imagine, would make my grandfather smile and i’ve been slowly introducing odin to the idea that he can Do. Make. Create.
in that spirit we gave odin a few syma s107 rc helicopters which can be had for cheap on amazon. their cheapness combined with the availability of replacement parts and the ability to easily take them apart has created the conditions necessary for a variety of s107 helicopter mods which i thought would be fun to explore.
but before we could get to modding them, sure enough, we broke the rotors and balance bars on two of them after heavy use and many crashes while learning fly them around the house.
so i ordered some parts and we set about figuring how take them apart and put them together again.
i have to say, it was great fun working together with odin to figure out how to take them apart and hear him say, “dude, no, i think we just need to take out these these screws to fix it.”
of course, he was right, and in short order we were back to flying.
day 2645: on conquering fear and doubt and casting dragons out.
odin went to sleep repeating the refrain sung by the entire school in the michaelmas assembly:
When within I conquer fear and doubt / michael in heaven casts the dragon out!
he said he wasn’t afraid in the slightest bit about standing up and singing in front of the whole school and all the parents.
he said simply, “i love that song.” before falling fast asleep.
i love that he was standing next to freya when he was singing the song and came home and probably saw his magnificently metaphorical birthday box with the dragon slaying motif.
talk about myths to live by!
day 2625: wherein odin attempts to teach me advanced finger knitting.
having learned the skill in his waldorf kindergarten, odin has been finger knitting for some time, making nice little bracelets for mother’s day and whatnot. those were single-strand crafts, but now that he’s in first grade, he has apparently graduated to advanced finger knitting which involves wrapping yarn through around all the fingers to make multiple rows simultaneously.
he was kind enough to try and teach me, but we has some troubles with left handed/right handed conversion and my general inability to keep track of The Correct Order of Steps.
a bit exasperated, he eventually gave up and said that it would probably be easier to teach mama how do it first and then maybe she could teach me ( although he was clearly skeptical that even she would be able to get it through my thick skull ).
sigh. the facade of infallibility cracked by finger knitting.
day 2621: fit as a fiddle for his first day of first grade.
i can’t believe it, but odin is set to start his first day of first grade TOMORROW ( to pre-emptively answer the question that always gets asked, he goes to a waldorf school and they don’t start first grade and “formal” education until a child turns 7. )!
so, we had to go to his doctor for a “wellness check” to make sure he was healthy enough for educamatin’! sure enough, he passed his exams with flying colors and while he didn’t get to talk about dead cats living in the freezer this year, when asked about pets, he did launch into several stories about The Girls 🙂
his height and weight measurements show he’s at about the 90th percentile in height ( 4 foot 2 inches ) and the 95th percentile for weight ( 62 pounds ) when compared to other 7 year olds which is amazing because – my oh my – he’s been eating us out of house and home lately which means he’s probably heading for another growth spurt ( some folks who have seen him since getting back from vacation claim he’s already grown an inch just over the last couple of weeks )!
astounding stats for a boy born 16 weeks too soon, weighing 1 pound 7 ounces and just a bit taller than a ballpoint pen.
day 2612: The Dragonfly Whisperers.
while they were mucking around catching ( and releasing ) frogs, odin and ella rescued a dragonfly that got its wings wet in the pond at camp.
it happily hung out with them for about 30 mintues while it dried its wings before flying away.
a little magical moment that i doubt they’ll soon forget.
day 2608: The Great Peach Harvest.
i think it’s safe to call kris and odin’s crazy balloon peach decoy idea an unqualified success. last year i got to enjoy one peach and this year we have lots and lots of not decoy peaches!
as best as i can tell, the only difference is the balloons. seriously considering some small design changes for next near to make them a little more peach-like – smaller and peachier and a little firmer of a balloon so you can increase the air pressure so they really POP!
we’ve pulled about 70 or 80 peaches off the tree which is really incredible considering the fact that we pruned the tree so far back in the spring that i thought we wouldn’t get any fruit at all this year ( the typical recommendation is to not prune more than 30% of the tree and after not pruning for a few years we decided to take off more than 60% ).
i’ve had some people ask what type of peach tree we planted. looking back, i see it was a reliance peach tree, which is supposedly the most cold hardy peach available and definitely suitable for wisconsin and minnesota. it’s primarily considered a “canning” peach but i think it tastes Just Grand right off the tree. red havens are also cold hardy and i hear some folks claim they are better tasting off the tree ( hard to imagine how that is possible ).
to get the best of both worlds, i think we might try grafting a red haven on to our tree, although it looks like it might take some skill to get it to take.
any and all grafting advice would be mightily appreciated.
you see that smile? that’s odin’s “okay, really, poppi knock off taking pictures and lend a hand” smile 🙂