Using the Front End Loader to Avoid Divorce

At the end of last week, the contractor finally came out to finish the dog run.

They built it last year and were supposed to come in July to put stucco on the CMU (concrete masonary units), change out the gate (cyclone fencing is verboten by our HOA), and level the concrete floor in the living area.

Due to the early record monsoon and then the rainy and windy fall and then the very snowy winter--plus illness in the contractor's family--they finally got out here Thursday. What is it Robbie Burns said about "the best laid plans"...?

Yesterday, once the stucco was dry, we went down to the East Mountain Transfer Station to get free wood chips. That will be more comfortable for the dogs and keep the weed problem down. Also, if we get a good monsoon it will mean less mud. We pulled up to the little window and Bruce told the guy that we wanted wood chips.

TS Guy: "They are free if you load them yourselves and five dollars if I load them with a front end loader."

Bruce: "Five dollars? Hmmm. Elie, N., are you ready to do loading?"

Me: Stunned silence.

N: "Huh?"

TS Guy: "Look, I'll put a whole truckload in your bed in less than 5 minutes."

Bruce: "Ah...how much did you say?" Looks at me.

Me: "Bruce...."

TS Guy: "Sir, five dollars for the front end loading..." I nodded at him. "That'll be five dollars, sir."

Bruce: "I think five dollars is a reasonable price to avoid divorce." And he paid up.

Of course, we had to unload ourselves back home. We got about a quarter of the way done when a thunderstorm that had been brewing for a while reached the threatening stage. So we still have the rest to unload today. It's dusty work--but you know how much this would have cost at a garden supply store? Or to have the contractor do it?

And it looks really good inside the dog run and against the stucco.

The dog run phase I will finally be finished once we spread the wood chips 4 inches thick across the whole area.

Phase II involves putting a green metal roof over the "living area" where the dog house stands.

I also got some more steps done on "the 300 million year stonescape" project.

It is going slowly but surely.

And Bruce got the chairs out on the porch in time for us to sit outside Saturday evening. I think they look really nice on the porch.

Sandia Mountain Bear Watch: Wildlife Stewardship

On Thursday mornings, East Mountian residents who subscribe to the Albuquerque Journal get the Mountain View Telegraph delivered with it.

Last Thursday, N. and I opened our copy and saw this picture in the paper.

It is a young female black bear in a tree near an elementary school in Edgewood. Black bear is her species, not her color.

Now bears usually come down from the mountains in drought years, when food is scarce, and usually in the late summer as they are feeding up for their winter sleep. Young two-year old males usually are seen in towns or in rural places migrating from one mountain range to another, when their mother's kick them out in order to prepare for new cubs. But this year, which is a wet spring, four bears so far have been seen in town. One young male in Rio Rancho actually entered a hospital clinic through the automatic door and got stuck in a bathroom. Fish and Wildlife had to remove him. I don't think he even paid his co-pay! :)



These stories, and the story of the city boy from Dallas who came across a bear while hiking in the Sandia Mountain Wilderness--in his panic he did all the wrong things--peaked N.'s interest in bears and the wildlife of the Sandia Mountains. So yesterday afternoon, we went to the Sandia Mountain Bearwatch annual meeting--pleasantly conducted outdoors at Doc Long picnic grounds on the Sandia Crest Road.

They had a talk about Bears from a Park Service biologist, and a talk about Cougars (North American Mountain Lions) from a representative of Animal Protection of New Mexico.
N. learned some interesting things about how to deal with bear encounters. Bears are not predators, of course, so the Dallas city boy had it wrong--he thought the bear was stalking him. Most likely, he crossed the bear's path and startled it. His response was to run, and the curious bear followed him, probably looking for food. Bears do not generally attack, but if you scare one, it can harm you. Like an irritable dog, it is best not to challenge a bear by staring it down, it is best to back away slowly and get out of its way. And like with a dog, if you run from a bear, it will chase you.

Cougars, on the other hand, are predators. They will stalk your chickens and goats and sheep and dogs, and small children. They generally do not go after adults, but if you encounter one, your response must be to stand your ground, protect little ones, make yourself look bigger, throw things, make noise and generally let it know that you are not dinner. Of course, since cougars are predators, you are not very likely to ever even see one. And it would be very rare to be attacked by one. They usually avoid groups of people.


As mountain dwellers, we live in bear and cougar habitat. I have not encountered a bear in the Sandia Mountains, but I have elsewhere. I was startled, but it was in a tree and so I just backed away at an angle and got out of its path. No problem, just a rapid heartbeat and extreme caution for the next half-hour or so!

We have seen cougar tracks on the wilderness trails above our house, so we know we have a cougar in the area. Since their range is large, and they avoid people, it is likely that we will not ever see it.

The Bear Watch meeting was informative and we learned about how the Sandia Mountain Bear Watch has finally gotten the Manzano hunt stopped. We learned about mapping and the uncertainty of numbers for bears and cougars in our area.

N. joined the Bear Watch and has volunteered to be a wildlife steward for our neighborhood. His job is to read two books that he was given, and then distribute literature to the people in our neighborhood. It is literature that tells them how to avoid bear incursions--'a fed bear is a dead bear'--as well as how to co-exist with other common wildlife in our mountains and deal with them without killing them.

He can get community service credit in Boy Scouts by doing this, and he will use what he is learning from his Kamana program, as well. This is another real life learning opportunity and community service opportunity that is in an area of great interest to him. He will need to do more reading and then communicate what he has learned to others in order to educate them on how to co-exist with the animals who share our mountains.

Think of the content and skills that he will practice with this project:

• detailed content about bears and other wildlife in our area
• an understanding of the ecological niches wildlife occupies and community ecology
• an understanding of species interactions in our mountain ecology (predation, commensalism, mutualism, and competition)
• Formal and informal writing skills (written communication with neighbors and with Bear Watch)
• Formal and informal speaking skills (direct communication with neighbors and a speaking engagement at the neighborhood watch meeting)

And this is a project of his own choosing, in an area of his passion, and one that matters to other people and one that benefits our community and the natural world.

Pretty cool!

Once in A Blue Moon & Summer Reading

Mystery solved!

I understand now why Bruce suddenly decided that we are ready to redo the flooring in the whole house.

It was sheer lunacy! That's right. Last night, May 31, 2007 was one of those relatively rare lunar events. It was a blue moon. N. tells me that a "blue moon" means the second full moon in a month.

Have you ever heard the phrase "once in a blue moon."

Getting a husband to actually suggest that "maybe now we ought to do the floors" is a "once in a blue moon occurence.

Today is one of Bruce's 9-80 days.

At Sandia, certain jobs, especially scientists and technical staff jobs, can choose to work 80 hours over 9 days--thus having every other Friday off.

Bruce is taking advantage of his 9-80 day today by touching up his paint jobs on the rocking Adirondack chairs that are destined--finally!--for the front porch. They look pretty good, don't they?

N. has also started to do something rare on the Blue Moon. When we made our weekly library trip yesterday, he signed up for the summer reading program they do every summer.

He has not done that before. Generally, although he reads, he has not been interested in the summer program at the library. I am not sure whether it is the weekly programs they have for teens--such as a class on fractals, a talk about wolves, etc.--or if he likes the prizes--or if he just feels that it was too school-like in the past, but he signed up! He did clarify that he could read what he wanted for the program, though. He remembers the forced fiction reading of his elementary years.

Whether he reads in the easy chair by the window, or in his reading spot in the "jack" pine out front, he has really taken to the idea of making a "life list" of worthy books and recording a certain number of reading hours a day.

At any rate here are the books for this week:

The Legend of Thunderfoot by Bill Wallace (fiction)

Marlfox by Brian Jacques (fiction)

Three Among the Wolves by Helen Thayer (non-fiction)

Talking to Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede (fiction)

The Complete Guide to Fly-Fishing Second Edition by Tom McNally (non-fiction)

Isn't it interesting that left to himself, N. has actually chosen three fiction books?

Throughout the year, my policy has been to recommend certain books but to leave N.'s reading choices to him. I don't want to be told what to read and when. Neither does N. However, our read alouds are mutually chosen, and often have something to do with what he is studying. Over the years, his free-reading has mostly been non-fiction. For our read-alouds, I have chosen a lot of fiction to balance it. Fiction, especially novels, can be difficult for kids with AS. They have to be taught to think about character development and motivation and the purpose of conflict in these books. I think that by allowing a liberal use of comic books and graphic novels, which have an iconic formula for emotions and motivation, plus reading aloud to him with expression and stops for discussion, N. has moved from needing the formulaic illustration of these elements to using the verbal descriptions written in novels.

So now he is choosing to read the novels independently because he has developed understandings that he didn't have before. And he has done it relatively effortlessly, whereas the worksheet and drill approach they used in school simply made him hate the idea of reading fiction at all.

Summer Projects

We first saw our house on a house hunting trip last year. Our realtor understood that this was the house we were going to buy. As we drove away, discussing the information that we needed to find out before making an offer (restrictive covenants, etc.), Bruce said: "Of course, we'll have to replace the carpet."

My observant engineer--I had not even noticed the color of the carpet, being enamored by two (count 'em) pantries and a second master suite. I certainly did not notice that the sculpted Berber was worn in the hallways and fraying at the seams. Only 4 years old, it was definitely well used.

And the color was realtor neutral--very blah. But last year, we had bigger fish to fry. We needed to paint before we moved in. We had work to do to sell the old house, and we bought furniture. My very first--and probably last--good, matched furniture. So the carpet had to wait.

Not that I let it go. I showed Bruce the regular updates I got from Lumber Liquidators. I dreamed over flooring options on our many trips to Lowes and Home Depot. I got samples of wood flooring to show my mom when she came out for the Bar Mitzvah.

But I expected we'd be waiting another year or so.

When I was cleaning for Pesach, I accidently caught some unraveling carpet in the vacuum, making the hall look more rag-tag than before.

But last week I showed Bruce the latest sales flyers about flooring. And he said, "I suppose we ought to take care of this before the hallway carpet completely unravels." My astute husband! He noticed. "And before the prices go up due to cost of gas." My financial wizard! "Anyway, it will bring up the value of the house." My fine investor--as long as he doesn't want to sell this house!

So last Friday we went to Lumber Liquidators. There we saw some Brazilian Cherry that we really liked. And we shopped at FloorMart. Just to compare. There we also found a great sale on carpet and I brought home some samples. But we also learned that the cost of installation on the hardwood flooring would cost more than the materials cost per square foot. Ouch! I could see my dream of hardwood fading before my eyes.

When we woke up on Saturday morning, my intrepid mate said, "Last night I dreamed that we installed the flooring ourselves." And I said, "Funny, so did I." It was basheart*! Obviously, we are meant to do this. So on Sunday, we got out the house plans and did some calculating. We decided that we will have the master bedroom suite and the guest suite recarpeted. And we will put in the hardwood flooring--Brazilian Cherry--in the rest of the house. We are DIY people anyway. We painted our house ourselves, we put in the faux hardwood flooring in my son's room and the office of the old house, we have done landscaping and we have put in a bathtub.

Today, the carpet man came to measure the two rooms that will get carpet.

It is funny how that worked out. At FloorMart, I picked up a sample of carpet and said to Bruce, "This will not look as dark in our house." It was a sample of Stainmaster Manic series called Desert Pebble. I brought it home with two other samples, both lighter. On Monday, when we scheduled the measure, I took the other two back and came home with three that were darker. But it was Desert Pebble all along! It is a frieze, that has a very light pinkish-tan base with yarns of green and brown mixed in to give it texture.

Tomorrow, we pick up the wood. Putting that in is going to be a job! It is Bella wood, which is not engineered. That means we put it in plank by plank. But in this house we do not have any curved walls to deal with, as we did in the old house. (Picture from Lumber Liquidators page).

This weekend, I must finish my stonescaped steps out on the hill. Because the wood has to sit here for a week before we can begin. I expect we'll be very busy throughout the month of June!

Hurrah for sweat equity! I will have beautiful floors at less than half the cost. The sale price on the wood was incredible. And by installing it ourselves, we'll have lots of "togetherness."

It's gonna be fun!

Hanging Out in Bed

One of our errands yesterday was to pick up a Site-to-Store order for N. at Walmart.

N.'s bedroom, though cozy, was a little too dark with the blue curtains and valences we had gotten last year. Also, his comforter was a little small for the bed and was getting rather raggedy because during the cold weather, N. liked to show up to breakfast draped in it, with Lily pulling on the corner like a page!

We couldn't find a comforter set we liked locally, but we found one on line and had it shipped for free to a local store. So we picked it up yesterday and found curtains that complimented it at the store.

The curtains are khaki material--called Navy/Vanilla--with smaller red, gold and khaki stripes. They are brighter than the plain light blue curtains, and they are tab top, so there is no need for valences. This brightens up the room considerably. N. says that they look more "rugged" and "masculine," than the gathered curtains and valences did. Maybe he has career in interior design ahead of him, should he ever get tired of naturalist and tracking vocations.



The comforter is the same material, and I ordered a Full/Queen, which is bigger than a Full size, so that it can be tucked in under the mattress. This keeps it on at night and also N. likes the tight wrapped feeling. It has the red, blue and khaki colors that are in the curtains.

N. and Lily are still hanging out in bed this morning, enjoying the new comforter.

N. says: "It's very comfortable! I guess that's why it's called a comforter.

He also learned that our friend Megan in Australia and her Boy call it a "Doona."

I think we're in for a laid-back day.

Progress Not Perfection! Carnival of Homeschooling and Our Stonescape Project

The work goes slowly but surely!

On Sunday, I got myself a little dehydrated while I was working on the steps in the afternoon. I didn't realize it until I almost fainted getting out of the shower.

NOTE TO SELF: Always take a large container of water outside to the worksite!

I tend to get absorbed in what I am doing and do not think to go in to get a drink. It has been somewhat humid--relative to the usual climate here--and so I did not feel very thirsty. It was obvious, though, after drinking several glasses of water after my shower that I was very thirsty!

Even so, I got three steps done on Sunday afternoon.

Yesterday, I was trying to figure out what is going on with e-mail--certain messages are not coming through. We had some errands to do, also, so I did not end up working on the steps. Today, an appointment and more errands, so I am guessing I will not get back to the work until tomorrow.

When I get back from the appointment, I have some inside work to do. And then some pleasure!

The Carnival of Homeschooling Alaska edition is up over at About Homeschooling. There are a number of good articles there, so I will be spending some time over there in the next few days. The pictures of a trip to Alaska alone is worth the trip--how very different from our New Mexico surroundings! But I always enjoy finding new blogs to visit at the Carnival.

I know there was a problem with COH in that some posts were not accepted and one was delted due to an overzealous host/editor. However, that problem has been resolved and a certain blog hosting site is no longer hosting COH, so the content will continue to be more diverse. So I have no problem recommending the COH again--although I refrained for a few weeks. This edition of COH is very balanced and diverse. Sometimes progress is made in fits and starts, just like my Three Hundred Million Year Stonescape project!

Being impatient by nature, I have to remind myself frequently that patience is sometimes rewarded! My motton for a long time has been:

"It is not up to us to complete the task but neither are we free to desist from it."
R. Tarphon in Pirke Avot 2:21.

The 300 Million Year Stonescape Garden: The Beginning

Today we began an important project. It is actually my project in that I will be doing most of the work for it. But this morning I needed some help getting started.

This is the hillside on the southwest side of our house--beyond the side garden.

It is pretty barren and has a steep slope. After watching arroyo downcutting happen on it last summer during the record monsoon rains, I decided that there ought to be no more delay in taking care of this problem. So last week I checked out five different books from the library about stonescaping. the idea is to build steps across the hillside and make a terraced garden on the slope in order to stop erosion. I am using rocks taken from our land. The Sandia Mountains are topped by Pennsylvanian limestone and there is plenty of this float on our hillsides. When I explained to N. that the stone we are going to use for our project is about 300 million years old, he thought that was pretty cool.

So we are now calling this the 300 Million Year Stonescape Garden. Pretty catchy, eh?

N. was eager to get right out there and begin moving big rocks around, proving his strength and manliness.

But before we could do that, we had some measuring to do. In order to determine the rise on the steps, we needed to know the slope of the hillside. To do that, we used a laser level laid on the ground on the top of the slope. I leveled it and pointed the laser at a plank that Bruce and N. were holding at the bottom of the slope.

The "rise" on the slope was 5 feet and three inches.
N. told us this was the same as 63". He divided 12 into sixty and then just added the three. All that mental math in Saxon is paying off!

Then it was time to measure the "run." N., being quite literal was ready to run up the hill. Bruce explained the run is actually the distance from the bottom of the slope to the top of the slope in a straight line. So N. did run up the slope, with the end of the tape measure in his hand. He held it straight above the laser while Bruce held it at the height of the laser mark on the plank at the bottom.

Here is N. just before lowering the tape measure so that it was even with the laser level.

The run turned out to measure in at 18 feet. N. told us that it was the same as 216". He said: "I even checked it on the calculator, Mom!" He was right.

So then I said: "Hey, N., we need to calculate the slope or percent grade of the hill. You do that by taking the rise over the run. He punched that out on the calculator:
"Let's see. 5.25 feet divided by 18 feet. That would be 0.291666 feet over...feet?"
So we showed how the problem looks by writing it out on the board.

"If you divide something by itself, what does it equal?" I asked him.
"One." N. answered.
"So if you divide feet by feet, then that equals one, too." Bruce said. "They cancel out. We can round off the 0.29 and change to O.3."
"Change?" N. asked in true Aspergian fashion. "Are we talking about money?"
"Figure of speech!" I said. "Bruce means all the numbers after the nine in your answer."
So N. rounded and we showed him how to multiply the slope of 0.3 in order to get a 30% grade for our slope. Pretty steep.

N. decided he was done with math for a while. He took the wheelbarrow off to get big flat rocks.

In the meantime, I calculated the number of steps we'd need if the riser is about 5" and there are about 18" between steps. The number is about 12 steps.


But N. was game for measuring for the cut and fill of the first step.

Since the steps are going to be far apart--more like a rising stepping stone path, and because they will be wide enough for one person, we used a garden trowel to begin the cut and fill.

We found that the soil on the hill was very loose and sandy and yet full of very friable (crumbly) shale that is native to the location, as well as small stones from the gravel in the side garden above, that were brought in by the previous owners of the house.

Of course, as I began the work of cut and full and placing the limestone "fieldstone" steps in earnest, N. got distracted by the sound of tree frogs peeping in the nearby woods. After helping lay the first stones, he was soon disappeared to investigate the frogs. And that was fine by me. The laying of the stones on a narrow path (about 18" wide) is really a one-woman job. And he did give about an hour and a half to the project on a sunny day.

Anyway, he learned a lot! he learned:

• that the Pennsylvanian limestone that caps the Sandia fault block is more than 300 million years old.
• that the notation for that is 3.0 exp 8 years b.p. (3.0 times ten to the eigth years before present)
• to tell the difference between country rock and rock brought in
• to tell the difference between limestone and shale
• that the definition of friable rock is "crumbly" rock
• that the definition of slope is rise over run
• how to cancel out units in setting up a scientific calculation
• that math can be really useful for accomplishing a worthwhile goal

And he was just helping for a "little while."

This is unschooling at its best!