Who ya gonna call?

Poor Steve. Whenever we have problems at home, he is the first to be called. The past couple of days the poor guy can't get a minute's peace!.........

I was taking the older kids to school while Emily was doing her math, so she had Steve help her via the IM.

(8:21:09 AM) emily: dad i need your help for my home work
(8:21:35 AM) emily: dont get it
(8:21:36 AM) steve: what is the question?
(8:25:34 AM) emily: the players were divided into 10 teams with 12 players on each team if all the players were divided into 8 teams how many players would be on each team?
(8:26:15 AM) steve: so you have to 1. figure out how many players there are, and then 2. figure out how many players would be on each team if there were only 8 teams.
(8:26:21 AM) steve: do the first part first
(8:26:30 AM) steve: how many total players are there?
(8:27:47 AM) emily: 120 players!
(8:27:49 AM) emily: ?
(8:28:00 AM) emily: :-\
(8:28:10 AM) emily: guess not
(8:28:13 AM) emily: ?
(8:28:48 AM) emily: well
(8:28:57 AM) emily: ?
(8:29:20 AM) steve: you are right = 120 total
(8:29:39 AM) steve: second part is how many players on each team if divided into 8 teams.
(8:29:46 AM) emily: ok
(8:30:27 AM) emily: 30 on each team
(8:31:16 AM) steve: how did you get that number?
(8:31:30 AM) emily: i donno
(8:31:37 AM) steve: try again
(8:31:53 AM) steve: 120 players divided by 8 teams
(8:32:17 AM) emily: 25?
(8:32:44 AM) steve: quit guessing and do the math
(8:33:05 AM) emily: ok
(8:33:30 AM) emily: 15
(8:33:54 AM) steve: good job!
(8:33:58 AM) emily: i drew a cow
(8:34:06 AM) emily: lol
(8:34:42 AM) emily: moo
(8:34:52 AM) steve: lol
(8:34:58 AM) emily: i love art
(8:35:10 AM) emily: :-D

I saw the conversation once I got home and thought it was cute how she took time for art in the middle of her math troubles. When life gives you math, do art....

* * *

The wind was soooo strong yeserday! {How strong was it? - does anyone else miss Johnny Carson??}

It was soooo strong that:

My fence blew down. Several of the posts had rotted, and a good strong gust (that lasted several hours) was all it took to finish it off. There are still a few panels up, but most are laid in one common grave in my garden. We've needed to repair that fence for years and have put it off....guess it can't be put off any longer.

The gusts also tipped over my dog (pronounced "chicken") run. (I had tarped the top and back so that the chickens would have a dry spot from the snow, but it seems that it just made trouble when the wind got ahold of it!) Remember how Steve, Jared, & I put all of the problem chickens in the dog run for safe keeping? Yep, all of those fast little bantams were out again. This time it was just the younger kids & I were home, and I discovered that Matt needs to take chicken-catching lessons. I had to catch all of them myself with Matt and the neighbor boy helping to herd them to easier-to-catch spots. As a result, I pulled something in my knee, and I'm walking with a limp today. My brother commented that yep, I'm not 18 anymore. Dang chickens! Dang wind! Dang age! Who ever heard of hurting your leg catching chickens?!

And then, to add insult to injury, it snowed about 3 inches overnight. :-(

And yep, after seeing the fence I called Steve at work and he came as soon as he could to lend a hand. What a guy!


* * *

I'm excited that some of you took to the idea of reading The Long Winter. I'm looking forward to hearing your feedback.


I hope that you all had a great day yesterday and took what I said to heart. I think that you are all wonderful and deserve the best that life can give you!

Have a great day!