Thursday Notes...

The computer is still not wanting to cooperate. It's been an ongoing battle for a while with my notebook. I just downloaded a couple eBooks and set all my links up and saved them for the unit studies we are starting and poof....the hunk of technology just refuses to boot up. Won't even go past the initial boot screen ;o(

I don't like technology. I belong in the dark ages where I can function well enough.

No, I don't usually 'save' my ebooks...I usually just print off my master copy right then and there. I know how tempermental this notebook can be and I've lost too many things because of it.

But, in a daze of stupidity, I saved them. No printing, just saving. Stupidity. I know.

I did finally get it to at least offer me the Safe Mode option page...of course, it STILL ignores me and no matter which of the 4 modes I attempt, and I can't load up anything.

GRRR GRRR and UGH UGH UGH.

Any ideas from anyone with some tech knowledge? LOL...any thoughts aside from opening a window and letting it fall out into the rain from anyone?

My only thought at this stage (It's been since Sunday I've had no computer) is to just pop in that restore disk and see if that does anything useful...it just kills me I am losing things yet again. It's my own fault, though. I know better than to SAVE instead of PRINT with that thing.

What about one of thse external hard drive things? Would that help at all? If I can restore the notebook, and get one to install, would that at least save me the next time it decides to dump on me? I have Dewey's notebook home now, but why trash his with all my accumulated stuff if something else will work, right?

Today is bill day. Such joy, heh? Cell phones and water bill and feed for the animals. It finally rains with the promised rain we have lived under all week and this is the day we need to leave the homestead. Oh well, I like rainy days....as long as there aren't 20+ days in a row :o)

I need to set aside enough gas to get to Birmingham possibly this weekend/week. We are picking up another Great Pyrenees female through an online friend. I love the 2 Pyrs we have here -- Buddy and Cotton -- and with 20 acres to fence off and let everyone free roam, having 3 good guards isn't a bad idea. Surrounding our homestead here is several thousand acres of nothing but thick timber land. East is populated -- as much as our area offers for population, anyway, which isn't too terribly much at all. It's still all country for well over 12 miles to the highway. North is sparse timber and overgrowth all the way through. West and South(ish) is our timber area...around and over the mountain here, no roads and very few 4-wheeler trails even, for a good 2000 acres or more. Over the mountain is another country road, but then it's just more mountain timber area.

We are just surrounded by all manners of critters and with the losses of chickens around this homestead, I'd say they all know where the free dinners are. Buddy likes the chickens too...3 of the layers got into the barn pen with him and his goats and while Jennifer was pinning one down in the corner, Buddy decided she must be playing with him and wanted to play too -- he laid on top of two of the hens for her. Didn't hurt them in the least, just caught them for her. He was rather impressed with himself :o) Cotton seems to be just as ready for fun, though she prefers to play with the other puppies here. They walk through the cattle panels into her area and she rolls all over the ground with them.

We don't have all the information on the new addition yet, but she's a rescue and does great with children. I think she'll fit in just fine with the group here.

Dewey did get the official word on the job -- he will be there into July for sure. Most likely will get the chance to come home each weekend in July, but still -- that's not the same as being done in the next week as we had hoped. He is paring down next week and letting the handful of guys left know lay-offs are there. Not sure which one is staying on for the duration yet. Of course, I'd like it to be Christopher -- I'd hate it if he had no family whatsoever over there, even for just a month -- but lately, dear son has grown plain stupid and lazy. He knows more about electrical work than the guys left at this point, but with Hope not working, he wants too many days off. The maturity level he was growing into seems to have come to a dead stop.

Of course, I'm his mom and I would do anything for him, but stupid and immature is something I can't help him with. He's been raised to do much better than he is, he was not raised to be lazy and he knows what he needs to do. He's just too wrapped up in making stupid decisions right now and not looking at anything remotely long term. It's going to catch up with him and it ain't gonna be pretty when it does. I'd do anything to spare him that lesson, but I can't. He isn't going to learn from mom cleaning up all the time. This is most certainly not a highlight in parenting, that's for sure. I can only keep him in prayer and hope the lesson isn't too terribly hard.

That's about it. I think we will keep the rainy day free after bill paying in town. We can do some reading -- I want to start reading My Side of The Mountain, Jean Craighead George as our read-aloud. We ordered the trilogy through Amazon. We will do it as a mini unit I think while we read. We also ordered the Brian series by Gary Paulson -- Hatchet, The River, Brian's Winter, Brian's Return, Brian's Hunt, etc. And Island of The Blue Dolphins, by Scott O'Dell. I haven't read that since school!

We found some other Gary Paulson books we might try for free reading -- Nightjohn and Sarny for sure later, Soldiers Heart, The various Tucket stories, The Haymeadow, The Quilt, etc.

Soo many book ideas to read -- not nearly enough time in the day for all of them.

I need to layout a definite plan for summer reading. Some basic theme at least, I think. I suppose the chosen books could all loosely be considered wilderness adventures. We should have a sort of game plan, don't you think? Well....reading just for fun is a game plan too I guess.

Another project this summer will be working on the log cabin house we have...(I'll post a picture later to this entry) It needs finishing, and furnishing. We already planned to read (for the hundredth time!) The Little House on The Prairie series, and work on decorating the house some and crafting some people for it from pin style clothespins and maybe some simple felt doll people we can design ourselves. Any sort of dolls would be fun to make really, but smaller ones are needed for the dollhouse, even though it is large.

But, nothing is getting done here and it seems everyone is finished with morning duties and ready to hit the road today. And, the sun is out! Maybe we can move the goats back to their pen while we're gone. They hate the shelter out there when it rains -- they practically climb the fence to get back out and to the barn!

Do you have any fun reading plans for summer?
Any good projects in the works, like our dolls and dollhouse fixtures?