Pumpkin contest

Alena and Nora each entered a pumpkin in the annual Erskine Elementry Pumpkin Decorating Contest.  Nora designed a "patriotic" pumpkin and Alena entered hers into the "most natural" category.  The stars aligned and both Nora and Alena won their respective categories by popular vote!

Daddy Builds a Kiln

It took something like a decade (plus), but Daddy and his friend Jeff finally got around to building a wood kiln of their own.  They worked on and off from May until October and had a lot of help from Cousin Alan, some girls, and Paul (very minor).  We'll have to see how it fires!?!

Alan digs a hole to fill with 3' of packed gravel as under-structure for the chimney and a more shallow are under the body of the klin.

Nora hard-packs the gravel.

Alena packs block sand on top of the gravel to fine-tune the surface for brick-work.

Yes....this small section of the kiln was actually level.  The rest of the kiln, who knows.

Hey Paul, now we can get to the hard work!

Last few layers of the chimney.

DONE! 

Wet at Wapsie

Fall camp at Wapsie was a bit on the wet side, but it did not stop our fun!  We still did creature catch and ate tons of sugar - the two most important activities for these girls.

NINE!

Alena Mae turned nine years old this year, oh my!  She got to have a big birthday party with friends, including Maya, Harper, and Alliyah, with a Harry Potter theme and they made clay "goblets of fire"!  From Mom and Dad, Alena got a pair of cowgirl boots!