25 October 2020

Our family played flashlight tag in the field for family night this week.  This is Helen making a spooky face with the flashlight.

This week at Craterworks the boys continued building their trebuchet.  Ross showed them how to read orthoscopic projection plans.  Shout out to Ross for his very cool, light up "vote" pin. 

Eddy was in charge of building the trebuchet's swing arm.  He heavily reinforced the arm at the point where it connects to the trebuchet frame.

By the end of our session, the trebuchet was free standing and able to support the weight of the swing arm.  Next week the boys will fine tune their trebuchet and then test it out!

Gibson put some of his new woodworking skills to use this week.  His science teacher assigned his class to make name tags.  Gibson took apart the challenge project he built a few weeks ago (the one that could hold his body weight 16 inches above the ground) and reused the wood and screws to build a name tag holder.  Part of the assignment was to list two facts about himself on the name tag.

18 October 2020

This week at Craterworks, the boys started work on a trebuchet, a kind of catapult used before the invention of gunpowder.  They are using a paper template to size and position the boards.  The boys built the side supports for the trebuchet this week and will work on the long arm and counterweight next week.

 Sad news for Sofi, and a reminder to all of us that the corona virus is serious.  She had dinner with her good friend, Emma, Emma's brother, Ethan.  Within a few days of their dinner, Ethan tested positive for Covid-19.  Ethan and Emma both became very sick.  Sofi filled out the U's mandatory virus exposure form and within a few hours she had to check out of her dorm room and into a hotel room provided by the U.  She can only leave her hotel room to seek medical care until she has quarantined 14 days from the time she was exposed.  Someone delivers food and leaves it outside her door twice a day.  Sofi knows there are other students quarantining in the hotel because sometimes she can hear them calling out their windows, but she hasn't seen anyone since she checked in.  All of Sofi's classes are online this term so she will keep up with her schoolwork.  The child care center where she works is currently closed due to a separate corona virus outbreak so she isn't missing work.  Thankfully, Sofi has tested negative twice since she went to dinner with her friends, so she should be able to return to her dorm on Friday of this week.

The Oregon Student Activity Association moved the entire fall sport season to the spring this year, when hopefully the pandemic will be under control.  The local high school soccer coaches got together and put together an informal league for the fall.  Typically, the 8 different high schools belong to 3 different conferences and don't play each other in a regular season.  In order to get permission to play, the teams agreed to play wearing masks and not to allow fans at the games.  Abe's first game was on Friday and his entire team was excited to finally get to play.  Crater won, 2-1, a great start to the season. 

Brandan and Becky joined about 10 other parents watching the game from the edge of the school property.  We would love to be in the stands cheering, but we're perfectly happy to watch from a distance if it means the boys can play.

Abe and Abigail made cinnamon roll waffles for breakfast on Saturday morning.

Brandan made some fantastic pasta for dinner on Saturday using tomatoes and basil from our garden.

Abe, Helen and Gibson played a trio of We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday.  This is a photo of Helen and Gibson tuning their instruments before the meeting began.  Abe played the piano, Helen the violin and Gibson the cello.

11 October 2020

 This week at Craterworks the boys found a stack of wood and a few hand tools prepared for each of them.

Last week, the boys brainstormed some projects they would like to work on.  Ross and Nathan thought one of their ideas, a Japanese rock garden, would be an easy project to use to teach the boys some new construction techniques.  First they made a box to hold the garden.

The boys also made tiny rakes from bamboo skewers and toothpicks.  After they finished their boxes, they filled them with sand and decorative rocks.

This is Gib's finished garden.  Everyone likes raking patterns into the sand with his little rake.  Craterworks has been a consistent bright spot in a dismal school year.  We're excited to see what next week's project will be!

Depending on how you look at it, here is one of the hazards or one of the blessings of distance learning: the ability to crawl back into bed for a nap between classes.  Just be sure to set an alarm so you don't sleep through your next class.

Brandan started a fire Sunday morning which made this a cozy place to sit.

On Sunday afternoon, we drove up into the mountains to take Abe's senior photos.  At the same time, Helen made a video for her biology class.  She needed to find 5 living things, 5 dead things and 5 non-living things.  Sadly, there was plenty of litter lying around to include in the non-living category.  It was a bit chilly, and very beautiful, afternoon.

4 October 2020

This week at Craterworks, the teachers challenged the boys to build something that could hold their body weight 16 inches above the ground using two 1"x2"x8' boards and as many deck screws as they needed.  They used hand tools for this challenge, instead of the power tools they were introduced to last week.  This is a photo of Ross explaining the challenge.

Gibson drew his plan out on paper before he started building.

Gibson built a stand that looked like a hurdle.  He turned the two board challenge into a one board challenge.  He built his structure from one board and had the amount in his left hand left over.

Gibson succeeded with the challenge and could carefully balance on his hurdle.

Becky took the kids to get flu shots this week.  Most years, they don't bother getting flu shots, but this year is not the year to risk getting sick.  Our pharmacy is using fun "flu fighter" band-aids for those who get vaccines.

The missionaries came over on Friday and filmed Abe and Helen bearing testimony of the restoration of the gospel.  They plan to use the video on their facebook page.

It's conference weekend!  We've enjoyed all of the timely and timeless messages.  The weekend flew by. Helen continued her tradition of taking beautiful (and useful) notes.

On Saturday, Brandan and Becky went to an outdoor concert between the morning and afternoon conference sessions.  Our friend, Emily, organized a string quartet to play and raise money for victims of the Almeda fire.

Helen and Becky went out for dinner after the women's session of conference, another tradition.

Other friends, Mike and Diana, remembered our family likes to do jigsaw puzzles while we listen to conference and they loaned us a puzzle Mike had just finished.  So this is a photo of our traditional puzzling during conference.

Here's a photo of the finished puzzle, a fun Halloween design.

Conference was terrific-- exactly what we thought we needed and more.  We had the missionaries over for dinner tonight and they asked each of us what we planned to do since we listened to conference.  Gibson and Abe said they wanted to pray more (President Ballard.)  Helen wants to become more self reliant (Elder Waddell.)  Becky is going to work for greater unity (Sister Eubank) and Brandan is going to study the blessings promised to the House of Israel (President Nelson.)  

"Don't just endure, embrace the future with faith." -- President Nelson