Proof of the mire... the OX was missing for the photo shoot

So if you have been following my blog or a friend of mine on Facebook you have heard that things are a bit "messy" at our house. My sister wanted pictures and origanally I thought that I did not want to remember these wonderful moments but as I watch the mess get messier and messier I figure I needed to prove that "YES THIS IS AWFUL AND I CAN PROVE IT!" so here is a little glimps of a tiny bit of the mess at the Woodin Nickel...

the "HOLE" a tree was planted exactly on top of our septic tank... the roots literally just broke and tore up the LID to the tank. We have to make a new lid before we can continue with our project. The beautiful Yellow badger in the background made it possible to dig out the stump and the hole that you see here. We are so greatful to Rusty for letting us borrow it and to Mike for helping us run it!

this is the tree about and hour before it was brought all the way to the ground. We decided that we should cut off all of the limbs one by one so as not to have the tree fall and break our house or our fence. You can see Jon is strapped to the tree with his Hunting Tree Stand Harness. His Hunting Habit did pay off a little bit. Jon lopped of the top of the tree not too long after this picture and then Jim came over with his chain saw and and dropped the trunk of the tree for us without breaking anything else. Then we cut it up and hauled it to a big pile for a big bon fire to be held at a later date...

Get out of the mire!

April 26 2010 If the blasted Ox would just get out of the mire we might be able to clean this mess up!!!!

Yes septic problems continue to rule the roost. While nothing has entered into the house again we have been searching for our septic tanks…note the plural form of the word tank. Jon spent much time digging and yelling for me to run around and flush everything so as to perhaps hear the elusive tank. We borrowed a little bobcat backhoe from our neighbor and finally found a pipe line. Jon and our neighbor Mike dug and dug and dug. Finally after much toil and questionable language emitting from the mouth of the EQP not to mention Rain, Jon found the tank. And in doing so Ripped a good size hole out of it…and broke the pipe to the drain field…oops. Guess where the elusive tank was buried….Right under a HUGE pine tree. What idiot planted a tree directly on top of the tank!?!?! The weight of the huge tree…any guesses as to why it was so huge and healthy?… Was crushing the tank. So now in order to fix.. Ahem… replace the smashed tank requires a chainsaw before the project can continue. I have been band from using my Bathroom and am now required to descend to the basement for all bathroom activities. (I refuse to use the bathroom on the main floor. While we are thankful for Hunter’s potty training success he is still a very poor aim) When the huge tree is cut down and removed we shall have a very big bonfire and you are all invited to bring your own hotdogs and roasting sticks…and a shovel. Then we will be able to finish digging out the crushed like a tin can tank… and then somehow we plan on dragging it out of the hole and putting a new tank in the said hole, next we will have to replace the drain field pipe which was ripped in half courtesy of Jon and then we will fill in the hole with some “roughed up dirt” It was earth day this last week I feel a need to plant a tree. I have a good idea where I will NOT plant one. However, some grass seed is now on my shopping list for this next week.
In other news Wyatt has sprouted two new teeth. Pictures on my blog show his smile with just the two opposite teeth. I called him my Hillbilly baby for two weeks but now his Tennessee Teeth are beginning to even out and he looks less and less like he in two tacos short of a combination plate. Wyatt is also a bit of a inch worm and is moving around the floor little bits at a time he is also developed a great love for tearing up paper and has got to a few books and magazines that now are a bit rumpled and chewed on. I do not have much longer before I am truly in trouble with the messes Wyatt will make.
Erica has NOT been doing well in school since Spring break. After three weeks of falling test scores her teacher called me in and we met with the principal and discussed her grades and behaviors. The end result is we are going to have her repeat Kindergarten this next school year. This will put her in the same class as Elena and Caleb, but Lyndsay, Wesley, Andrew and Mckay will be ahead of her. Which is fine. I think if I tried to push her forward into first grade I would be setting her up to fail.
This week we added 28 laying hens to our menagerie of pets at the Woodin Nickel. The birds were up in Howe Idaho and the boy who had them wanted to start some new chicks. His dad told him he had to sell some of his full grown birds to make room for the new chicks. He Sold us the birds for $2.50 a bird! There were many many people who wanted to buy the birds for that price but nobody wanted to drive clear out to Howe Idaho to get them. Kind of like no one wants to drive clear out to Kimama. But Jon woke the boys up early on Saturday and they Borrowed Fred’s truck with the camper shell and drove the two hours out there and picked up the birds and brought them home… Anybody want to buy some farm fresh eggs. I’ll make you a deal!
Speaking of deals If anyone wants a few Tomato, Pepper, or Cucumber plants from my green house Let me know and I’ll make you a deal on those as well. I might sell some flowers too but I am not sure how many of those I’m willing to let go. And Fred has got A LOT of Cabbage starts in the green house as well. If you talk to him I’m sure that he might let you get a few or half a dozen from him.
I have continued to Lose Marbles but I am getting better at keeping them in my marble jar and My children are getting a bit better at keep a hold of their Marbles as well. In the end if the Marble jars work I may not Lose my marbles.
Hunters speech evaluation was: HE qualifies for any and all Speech therapy. The question now is what program do we try to get him into. OF late though he is adding about a word a day and really trying to make the sounds. HE came running into the house the other day and very clearly said “Will on Road!” And sure enough William had escaped and was out on the road AGAIN!!! Just hanging out on the road AGAIN!!! That Boy of late will hang out by the door waiting for an opportunity to escape OUT to the great outdoors. He reminds me of how the Cat waits on the other side of the door waiting for a chance to come IN!
I don’t Know if I mentioned in Past letters that Stiles Achieved and was awarded he WOLF in the scouting program. HE was also awarded 3 arrow points. Most of which he earned courtesy of living here on the Woodin Nickel. This home has been such a blessing to us in so many ways. The biggest is that it is given us many opportunities to teach our children about hard work and responsibility. I hope Marcus can start “LEARNING” those lessons soon. HE likes to hide when it is time to work. Reminds me a bit of Crystal. Anyway… I think that for the most part you are up to date on the majority of the goings on of the Woodin Nickel. I am thankful for all that I have been blessed with even if it feels like the OX is ALWAYS in the Mire. One day all of my Little OX’s will grow up and move away and take their mire with them but then I have this funny feeling that they will bring their own little bits of mire back home with them. But I’ll just try to clean it up…like always…hey were is a washcloth and about a gallon of disinfectant?

Love Monica and the “HERD” Wallowing at the Woodin Nickel.

Hillbilly BABY

Wyatt Loves to be in his Jump Up Johnny. WE caught him catching some ZZZ's.

the pine wood derby was a blast. Stiles Won in the wolf division for our pack. But I was too dumb to make sure that I had a camera. These pictures are at the District run off derby. He did not make it to the semifinals but gave the other cars in his heat a definite run for their spots.

My Hillbilly Baby Wyatt. The two opposite teeth came in first and now the other ones are pushing through. I thought I had better capture My Wyatt with his Hillbilly smile because in another month it will be gone.

I've Lost my marbles

MJ and all you other beloved people. Jon and I have decided that our “NEW AWESOME” Computer is somehow crappy. Meaning it just doesn’t work right. We have called the store from which we parted with greenbacks for the said hunk of junk and they are willing to exchange computers with us. Something in the Way cool new processor is simply not processing the information well, fast, or in the right order. I am not happy with Intel right now and am writing this on my old laptop with the broken H and K key which means that I have to go back and carefully fix all of my Errors. But I do feel better that perhaps the reason I was HATING our New computer was not my fault. We shall see if we like the computer better after the exchange is made.
Wyatt is a wiggly worm and manages to move about slowly and with little efficiency. He has cut one bottom tooth and one top tooth and is working on the other top tooth. This has made nursing painful and NOT desirable. We are planning on being totally weaned by the end of May. So Jon and I introduced Marble Jars. In which each person in the family has a jar with a certain Amount of Marbles. Marbles are taken away when a person decideds to yell in anger, throw a tantrum or refuse to be obedient. Rewards are given for having a large remainder or marbles at the end of the week, a reduction in privileges is given for no longer having marbles. We started Saturday and will start over next Saturday. I have already lost Most of my Marbles. I am in trouble. If Mom or Dad lose all of their Marbles in a week the kids get extra marbles. I hope to not lose my marbles.
The green house is full of green plants. The Gardens have been roto-tilled and the Chickens and Ducks are growing like crazy. I see brown grass turning greener every day and the tulips and daffodils are coming up all over. I also am aware of the weeds trying to take over again this year. Maybe we will win that war this year…or maybe it will end up in a draw.
I spent most of the last two weeks cleaning my Carpets. They look SOOO Much better. I just wish I had a bunch of money to spend on Paint and the like so that the room scould all look super awesome. But do not be dismayed. William already spread into the white carpet Chocolate pudding the day after I relinquished the rug doctor into Camille’s hands. So do not feel bad if your carpets have a spot or two. My newly cleaned carpets now match yours once again.
Well I am sure that many other noteworthy things happened this week but Wyatt is crying and it is lunch time and I soon will be conducting a scout meeting here at my home. So I will end with a far off hug and kiss and hopefully new great news next week. Work Hard MJ. And Kudos to Cody. You go girl. Taking care of Babies is HARD WORK. Believe me I KNOW! And Good Luck SARA. Hope your last little bit being a “baby house” is as pleasant as being totally miserable can be.

Love Monica

the mire gets deeper

Dear MJ. Last you heard there was an Ox in the Mire…or rather A LOT of mire in my basement shower. So the story just keeps getting better…they always do right. Jon gets a hold of Bro. Jim Sant from our ward and Jim comes over and after a series of rescue maneuvers manages to move on through what ever it was that was Stuck in the line. Great now I have a big job involving much disinfectant but as high fives were going all around for the cleared sewer line we noticed a pond developing in the side yard. We were pretty certain that our Water hydrant had rusted out and we needed to dig it up and replace it … This would mark the 3rd one that we have replaced since we moved in. Well in order to proceed the Water had to be shut off. So the cleaning of the poopy bathroom was shelved as Jon and I grabbed shovels and started digging a hole to China…a rocky hole to China. There is a lot of rock in the ground this close to the river bed and gravel pit…go figure. After much digging a many bad examples in language and with the help of some of the neighbors we finally won the battle late in the 11th hour, and were able to turn the water back on. We took much needed showers and proceeded to ignore the mire still in the basement then went to bed. We recognized instantly that our Water pressure (which we have always grumbled about the lack thereof) had not just doubled but perhaps tripled in strength. We were fearful in that first shower that we would be thrown through the shower wall, the impact tore off our skin and we were no longer standing in the rain trying to get wet.
The mire in the basement did eventually get cleaned up and much bleach and disinfectant was used and some towels were indeed ruined. But the bathroom is quit shiny and clean now and all of the spiders were obliged to move out. Because of the mire and its far reaching effects to the carpet in the basement I felt that it would be a very good idea to borrow Mom’s rug doctor and do a little extra heavy duty spring cleaning to my basement carpets. Mom let me cart her vacuum home after a brief trip to the farm during our kids spring break. I spent most of last week moving furniture and cleaning the carpets in my house while my big kids are at school, I am very pleased with the results and was feeling extra pleased with the appearance of my home. Then Easter came and went and after I scrubbed out numerous jelly beans, chocolate bunnies, and robin eggs, not to mention hard boiled egg, I am wishing I had waited one more week before I spent so much time cleaning my carpets. The dumb part is that the rooms that I have not yet cleaned were left unscathed and no candy was ground into the carpets in THOSE rooms. Oh well something about Murphy and his dumb law…
We had spring break and as part of that we Participated in the Spring Fair in the Holt Arena. We spent most of the first part of the week preparing to have our booth ready for the show and the end of the week standing in the Holt Arena trying to sell our wares to the passing homeowner. Camille was a sweet heart and helped take care of our kids. And Jon has been a busy man ever since trying to follow up and give bids trying to generate some jobs for us. So far the Spring Fair has been helpful in putting us in contact with people who want some work done.
Hunter is joining the ranks of the potty trained. This last week something finally clicked and I told him that if he did pee in the potty he could wear underwear and if he had an accident then I would have to put him back in a diaper. Well he really really wanted to wear underwear and we are on day 4 with no accidents and he is the informing us of his need to go. I am so happy and do a dance every time he comes back out of the bathroom. Hunter is pleased too and is always grinning from ear to ear. We are still diapering at night but I don’t think we will have to do that for too long. He hates for us to put the diaper on at bedtime.
We really loved conference and Easter was very pleasant. I came away from conference with a new found desire to be a better Mom and Daughter and Disciple of Christ. I hope to be a good example and tell the “Stories of Jesus” to my children so that they will Know those stories and not doubt. I was very pleased today to hear Stiles Quote the story about being a used up $20.00 bill and still worth $20.00. I really didn’t think that he was listening but apparently he was. My children never cease to amaze me!
Well many more things have happened but I am totally tuckered out and want to go to bed.
Love you all, Monica

Ox in the Mire

Dear MJ and Family. I missed last week. I don’t know why. I guess that the lack of having a missionary Brother has reduced my insistence on hogging the computer for an hour or so to spew forth the embarrassing goings on of my family. The truth of it is that I am having a hard time finding things that are humorous to write to you about and provide cheep…no wait FREE entertainment for the rest of you. On second though it probably is cheep. Jon’s work has slugged down to nothing. Which means he is hanging around the house a lot. This could be good and bad, don’t worry I DO NOT forget to take my pill every night, Wyatt is a good reminder. Speaking of Wyatt, the little monster has sprouted a fang! Nice mommies say “O look Jr. cut his first tooth. Isn’t that precious.” This Nursing Mommy looked in his mouth one day to find the razor sharp projection and realized why she had been in extra pain of late. He is barely 6 months old! I think that a second weapon of mass destruction will emerge soon, and judging from the lack of sleep Jon and I are getting because of the emerging pearly white it had better show up soon because the rest of the family can not take to much more of grumpy Mommy and Daddy hanging out in the same house all day long before somebody has a SUPER NOVA moment and everything goes black! I admit I needed a time out today in a very bad way…sorry Kids.
Anyway Spring is in the air. We have started an array of plants in the green house and Jon has carted Home some 30 baby chickens with some 25+ and a few Ducks to arrive this week. Currently the market for a laying hen is between 10-15 $ a chicken and the hens are sold within 2 minutes of being listed online. So we are hoping that we can make a little extra cash for our boys to put in the bank towards their missions. Every time I look at all those little boys and think about when this letter will be addressed to them I cringe at the cost. But I know the blessing will far outweigh any dollars and cents.
William or as we affectionately call him “Willy Joe” has often heard his name called out in stern and firm tones. “WE do not eat out of the garbage…We do not drink out of the toilet…we do not put mommies toothbrush in the toilet…We do not throw entire rolls of TP in to the toilet… we do not play in the flour…We do not sit on Wyatt’s head… HOW did you get up there?…Get down from there…Don’t touch that…WE Never EVER EVER go out on the road and lay down and wait for Mom and Dad to find us!!!” William has been a bit of a handful lately…I think it might get worse.
Parent teacher conferences came and went. The cold hard truth was reveled to me and I knew it was coming. Stiles is competing with about 5 other boys in his class for the title of Class clown. Other wise his grades are good. Could be better if he would devote some more attention to his work rater than being silly. Marcus is doing well all around still a bit behind and slow when it comes to reading but definitely getting better with his reading skills. Erica has learned a TON. She is still below where she should be and gets distracted easily. The teacher can tell from her behavior that she is THE youngest kids in the class. If she doesn’t mature in leaps and bounds over the next 3 months it might be a very good idea to repeat kindergarten. (Jon is so not thrilled with that Idea) We will see how she does this spring.
Stiles- I mean WE but I should say Stiles built a pine wood derby car. The races were good and Stiles’ car was the fastest car in his den by a long shot so he will attend the district Pine Wood Derby in April. We had set him up to just be excited to run the races and not care about who won. He was a trooper and a good sport about beating the other boys in his den. He was kind of disappointed that he didn’t lose any races. But then was bummed out when We did the pack race and lost to the boy who won for the entire pack, on the first race so that he wasn’t able to race again. Marcus offered his condolences and told him that he was just supposed to have fun building the car. Marcus needless to say can hardly wait for the derby next year.
This morning I found the mess of messes in my downstairs shower. Apparently we have some sort of obstruction in our sewage line and all of the “Stuff is being back loaded up out of the shower drain and into the bottom of the shower. Now since this is a little used bathroom in our house the shower has been “collecting” the stuff for maybe a week now. I now know why my house was smelling “funny” I thought it was just because of the cloth diapers, but my suspicions are that William flushed “something” and now it is caught and only letting the liquids go past. And since it is Sunday we determined that YES it is MIRE but the Ox is not in it nor did the OX want to get into it to clean it up so we choose to ignore the mire until the Ox is good and ready to get into it. Wish us luck tomorrow. We hope we do not get stuck in the mire.
So I guess that brings you all up to speed on the doings of the Woodins out on the Woodin Nickel. Not much of most things but hopeful you enjoyed your free entertainment and perhaps there will be a good story to follow up to the ox and the mire story, but I really hope that it is NOT that good. Will might give me some good material if I can keep him off of the road. Anyway I Love you all.
Beware the IDES of MARCH! Monica and the messy Woodin Nickel Knuckleheads!

new computer

Hey MJ. Okay Okay, So I didn’t get you a letter last week. But I was looking to come from behind for a more dramatic victory. The truth is we bought a new computer and even though it is supposedly user friendly and an excellent hunk of metal, plastic, screen, and circuits Jon and I are NOT computer Wizz’s in any way, shape or form. So I guess I’ll plead that I have just been intimidated by the new monstrosity in the office. The Kids are not so easily bullied. They have Already managed to mess up the computer in a way that I still am not sure what they did or how I undid it but it required several hours and a huge headache to fix. They are most jazzed that there are now TWO computers connected to the internet and are usually playing games on WEBKINZS most of their Waking Hours. Jon has been pulled into the fun and is often found playing a game “to help one of his kids out because they were going to lose unless he intervened” Yeah sure right Jon! My other big excuse come in the way of a mean little virus. I already let you in on the fact that Stiles had contracted Fifth’s Disease. Well last Monday Erica and Myself broke out in Rash. Erica’s was much worse than mine. Mine only lasted about 24 hours. But the Joint pain has been making me quite miserable. This weekend I kept looking at my knee sure that it was swollen to twice it’s normal size and black and blue like someone took a baseball bat to it. But alas it looked fine on the outside but it hurt like crazy and made me a VERY grouchy person. On Sunday night I decided that the regular ibuprofen were just not cutting it so I took a prescription one left over from when I had Wyatt. I was expecting a pain free night with perhaps a bit of sleep. Well apparently it was too much meds to my system because I was in a night sweat for most of the night. And I am sure it was the meds because right after I had Wyatt I had horrible night sweats until I quit taking the painkillers. I figured my night sweats were hormonal but like I said 800mg of Ibuprofen is TOO much for my system. Then to make things even more fun William and Marcus have broken out in rash as well. Only Hunter and Wyatt have not been affected …YET. Fifths disease is NOT FUN! We cleaned out the greenhouse a little while ago and are planning on doing some planting this week. There is a class being taught this Wednesday in the greenhouse for those members in our Ward and neighborhood. I am NOT the teacher. I hope to be a good student. Dad was a great teacher but I just am not sure how to grow food without a tractor and less that 100 acres so I am hoping that the wisdom of others will help me in this regard. We did alright last year but we also made a bunch of mistakes. Plus Wyatt trying to come early kind of messed up the harvest. But we are hopeful for this year. Parent Teacher Conferences are looming in my face again. I again am terrified to be told the cold hard truth. I already know the truth…I just don’t want to be told the truth. But Erica seems to be catching on and up to her classmates. Her teacher the other day told me that Erica has really begun to FIGURE IT OUT. And I can tell she has as well. Marcus is increasing his reading skills in leaps and bounds although they are smaller leaps and bounds than other children, he is figuring out some of the mysteries of reading the English language. Stiles still needs major improvement in his handwriting skills and a good push in Science. But he reads for enjoyment late into the night and then is grumpy the next day. Hunter is learning his ABC’s and mimics every letter but W and sometimes Q …who can blame the kid. He is trying to learn to say words but so far he still hasn’t figured out that if he would try to use words then we would know what he wants. He has a well Child check later this Month. We might see if a speech therapy class is something that could end his and our frustration. William is into EVERYTHING!!!!! I forgot what a child that age can do and undo in a short amount of time. Mostly he likes to sit ON Wyatt. Will is also growing like a weed. He sometimes will eat more at a meal that both of his two oldest brothers. Wyatt is a happy content Baby. He is now officially 6 months old and still has not rolled over…that I know of. Jon has gotten him giggling which is really funny. And he is good at blowing poop out of his diapers. Lately he has gotten into the bad habit of peeing AFTER I take his diaper off. And then I have to change his clothes as well. WE do A LOT of Laundry in this house. Or maybe we SHOULD do a lot more laundry in this house. I’m thinking that another washer and dryer set would not sit idle for very long at all in our house. It is the Laundry Folder who is always slacking and holding up progress. Anyway March is here. The Lamb and Lion thing. We are suppose to warm up to 40 degrees and then I am sure it will start snowing again. It usually does. The Mud is Just so much fun! We miss you, Keep working hard. Love Monica and the Woodin Nickel Knuckleheads