the Hoover Dam!

Dear MJ and the rest of my devoted readers (all two of you)!

The OX has finally been pulled out of the mire. The hole were the septic tank is housed is now all buried and the ground is being settled back into place. As I was about to sigh a HUGE sigh of relief I fell very sick and spent 8 days not far from my bathroom extremely grateful that it was now working properly and I could flush, shower and wash when ever fancy struck me. I spent much time in bed and Jon was very supportive and did not mumble about how the maid, cook and nanny had taken a leave of absence without proper notification. I was even sick in bed all day on my birthday. My children informed me on this day that they could not sort their laundry in the downstairs laundry room because there was a large and very dirty puddle in that room. And sure enough the kitchen “stuff” was not making it all the way out of the house by way of the plumbing system. Our Neighbor Jim Sant, came to the rescue…AGAIN. And got rid of the stinky offending water…AGAIN. I guess that was a very nice birthday present. So I THINK that our Mire is now mostly cleaned up and the OX is back in the Pasture…just waiting… to get back into the mire. My experience is that the Ox will get back into the mire just when it really isn’t convenient.
So I had a Birthday. I turned 16. And I laid in bed or was being very friendly with my commode, not to be confused with comrade. At dinner that day which Jon lovingly purchased from Papa Murphys and put in the Oven all by himself…I said “Now that I am 16 and I can date maybe Jon can take me on a few dates.” to which Jon instantly replied “You know the Prophet said that you should only go on group dates and wait until you are older for exclusive one on one dating. So I guess I can’t take you on a date unless it is a group date.” So I suppose that since we are always with a large group I am ALWAYS on a group date!
Wyatt is very close to being purposely mobile. He is up on all fours often and spins circles like a top. He usually is stuck in back-up mode but I can see that he is going to switch gears here soon before I am ready for it and THEN I an in TROUBLE!.
I took Stiles to the Dentist…$$$$$$$$. Yep there goes his mission fund! And the Dentist told me that if I didn’t have a piggy bank to pay the orthodontist I had better get one started. This is the 3rd Dentist to give me such distressing news. So I guess I will try to believe them.
Erica has a tooth that just keeps on hanging on. Jon tried to pull it out but the only results was a screaming daughter and some blood in her mouth. And since the tooth was not fully extracted the promise of ice cream was not brought to a reality. Erica is ready for school to be out. Mostly she is looking forward to the end of school parties. I am looking forward to not needing to do her hair for her every morning. Because of course I never get it how she wanted it done!
Hunter is trying really hard to talk. He is adding about a word a day. The words he is adding are not full of great diction, syntax, and diphthongs. But I have a better idea as to what Hunter is trying to tell me. I have a meeting with the school district at the beginning of next week to start the paperwork process of getting some intervening help. I got his testing scores back from his evaluation and he was in the 1% for every part of speech that you could be in. I just sat there thinking to myself “well I could have told the evaluators that! Then we didn’t have to waste a whole afternoon. If a Kid does not talk at all…doesn’t that mean that everyone else who does talk, talks better than him?” But as Hunter is trying to make Language work for him I am so grateful that it seems like words are beginning to make sense for him. Before it just seemed like he was not making that connection.
William is being much better about staying off of the road. Jon and I still watch him like a hawk though. Will is picking up a few works and is totally adorable when he says “UH-OH” He says this a lot. Like yesterday when I found that he had taken half a pitcher of RED Kool-aid into his bed room where there is White Carpet that I very Recently cleaned and then spilled every last drop of the Cherry flavored drink…Who even manufactures White carpet??? It should only be sold to the people who have been contracted to build temples. It should not be available to the common village idiot! Mom, How soon can I borrow your rug doctor again?
Marcus is shooting up like a weed. I can hardly believe how tall he has got since spring break. His reading skills are awesome too thanks to the teachers at Tyhee. Reading Scriptures with him is very enjoyable now and we can tell that his confidence is growing daily with his reading skills. He use to get so frustrated if he didn’t know a word that he didn’t even want to try. Now I am impressed with the words that are flowing out of his mouth.
The irrigation water is available for our use. We have MANY MANY MANY broken pipes. Something to do with having a Baby right before hunting season and then of course the afore mentioned season did not result in proper winterization of irrigation lines and the Cold Idaho Weather does VERY mean things to such systems. Not to mention the horses can do lots of damage to the lines as well, and I will not rule out my kids as a contributing factor to the amount of repair that needs to be done. One of the first areas of repair that HAD to be addressed was our Head gate. Last year Fort Hall Irrigation District changed the head gate above us and cause much and many issues with the water. Just when we thought we had figured out the precise amount of water we needed then things would get all flooded and wash out, or dry up and stop the pump. We decided that if our Head gate by our pump was in better condition that we would have less stress and mess. We had in place just a dirt dam with a little culvert built in. SO since Jon has a concrete mixer we decided to fix the gate in a very permanent fashion. It felt like we were trying to reconstruct the Hoover Dam! Jon and I worked Hard all day and into the night on Saturday to get it finished before the water came down the canal. Stiles was a great help and worked his little tail off. Then as we were about finished with pouring the cement the cement mixer lid flipped over on top of Stiles and I. I took most of the force on my back but it caught Stiles right across the top of the head. We were very blessed that he was not seriously injured. Jon had his back to us pouring the cement, from buckets that we had been filling, into the forms. The Motor to the mixer was running and it is QUITE LOUD. I had to scream for Jon to look and see the predicament we were in Stiles was laying on the ground holding his head and I was trying for all I was worth to push the cement mixer lid back up off of me. Since there was very little cement left in the mixer I was able to get the lid off of me and get the mixer back upright. Stiles was not bleeding which I am sure was a miracle and as we were checking him over he said “Can I be done now? I just want to go inside!” We told him that yes of course he could be done and yes he could go inside. WE finished our new cement Gate/dam and now just have to finish putting together the rest of the pipes at the pump that we took apart for our dam building project and then many pipes to be fixed are on the to do list.
The Garden has been roto tilled for the second time and We have started to build a fence around it to deter the Chickens from eating anything we decide to plant. I hope to get many seeds in the ground this week. We shall see what really gets accomplished at a later date.
We are still waiting for a baby horse Jon is getting tired of getting up and checking the barn every two hours in the night. I do not feel too much sympathy for him. It has been rare in the past 9 years that I had the privilege of sleeping all through the night. We are also expecting one of the goats to have her Kids anytime too. We think she might have as many as three Kids. The poor goats and The poor horse look so miserable. And with all of the laying Hens running around the yard it is a wonder that the whole place is not dripping with estrogen! Jon goes out to the barn and the Pasture and asks “HOW are all my girls doing?” He has over 60 of them! All different shapes too!
So how does a Duck drown? We found one of our ducks has drowned in the water trough…Now you may say that that sounds like a very dumb duck, but also in the trough was a great big Chicken that has drown also. Our theory is the duck was going for a paddle and the Chicken was stupid and thought perhaps she could do the same thing. Well chickens DO NOT have webbed feet and they do not float. We think that in self preservation that the Chicken tried to get on top of the duck to save itself and drown the duck then drown itself.
Just a few more serious thoughts. Since the Passing of Tyrell and Rose’s little boy, Levi, I think about how we are all tried and tested in so many different ways I reflected quite a bit about how when I have gone through my trials and have felt the strength of others through their prayers offered in my behalf it is truly a humbling experience. As I sat in the church at Levi’s funeral and saw much of the family assembled there and knew of the eternal bonds within our family and I thought about all of the rest of my family and Jon’s family who were not physically with me in that meeting and of their love and support of me and my family, and I was truly humbled again. Forever Families are real. They are so precious and I am so blessed to be part of such a loving family who has great faith and strength. And I want to thank all of you for your love and support of me and my family and for the prayers you have offered in my behalf. They have blessed my life and fortified my faith in such ways that you can never know and I can never express. I only hope that somehow, in some way I can return the favor. This church is true. It is through trials that we grow and find joy in this journey. I know that it is hard and that there are many things I do not understand, but I know that Jesus is my Savior and that President Monsen is His prophet. I know there is real power in prayer.

I love you all!
Love Monica and the rest of the Dam building Woodin nickel dwellers

getting the ox out of the mire

Hello to all of my Family. May 2 2010
I am still band from using MY bathroom all though the two other potties and all other plumbing is not off limits. The Tank has been found and yes it was directly under a huge pine tree. The roots had destroyed the lid to the tank and a new lid still needs to be fashioned on the to do list for this week. The said tank in question had not been pumped in oh EVER. We even called some of the previous owners of the house and learned that they had no idea that there was a second tank underneath that beautiful tree. Hence a need to clean out the drain field pipes. President Loveland was very understanding and asked us not to destroy too much of his grain field. We were treading very lightly and managed to find that the job was not done “according to the law” the first time it was done…no surprises there, we are out in the county… SO we have just about cleared the drain field lines of yucky black stuff and we have big plans to put the drain field back to it’s original state with a bunch more gravel and big promises to pump the tank regularly so as not to have the sludge pile up. It took a bunch of crap for 30+ years… I think once we get it back together and throw the dirt back on it I might enjoy looking out the windows… The guy in our ward who pumped out tanks told us that when he went to dump the stuff at the plant that there were A LOT of toys and asked us if we wanted them back… We said NO THANKS and told him he could keep the toys as a tip…WILLIAM! I think this week we might actually get the ox OUT of the mire! But I am not going to hold my breath.
There is not much more to report on. The woes of our septic system has been heavy on our minds and I am not recalling much other interesting things to tell. However Erica has announced that she is “No longer a Kindergartener.” I confess I was concerned with her declaration seeing how we have decided that it is in her best interests to repeat Kindergarten next year. She then Proclaimed that she “Is a first grader in Training!” What ever makes your boat float kid. I’m happy to go along with it.
We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of a new foal. The Foal was due today and we have been checking the mare every few hours for the past three days. With all of Murphy’s luck that baby horse will want to come at 3 am on the coldest of all the nights we will have this spring… That is what our baby goats did last spring. Coldest night when all of the other nights around it were almost pleasant. But tomorrow is suppose to be a warmer day. Windy but not so rainy and cold.
The cold weather and lack of lots of sunshine has put the plants in my green house in a bit of a slow down mode. They have not grown like crazy this week. But like I said last week if anyone wants a few green plants to start their garden I could make you a sweet deal.
I love you all and miss you more.

Love Monica!

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