Rain!

You've probably heard it before, but there is nothing like rain in the desert, especially in the summer. Last night, while I was out watering my trees and feeding my chickens, the wind began to blow. It felt different, damp. The sky was hazy in the south. The mountains were beginning to fade. Storm. I told Dan he might want to clean up tools and such tonight. He's been working on the RV. We went to bed with the fans off because the wind was blowing so nice.

This morning I woke up to the sound of pattering, almost didn't believe it. I thought it was a dream or the wind blowing something that sounded like rain, but then there was that smell. There are a lot of pictures of desert storms and they are all so pretty, but there is no way to share that smell with you. You can smell it if it's raining in another part of the desert. It's carried on the wind. But it was raining here and raining good, enough to have it run off the roof, not just a mist. I went out and sat on the porch and watched for awhile, then came in and went back to bed for awhile. The boys heard it too, and they woke up and did the same. I heard them in there talking in hushed tones. Then told them to be quiet 'cause I was trying to sleep darn it! :))

It's the 4th of July and it's cloudy and cool. I wish this could last all day. I just got through telling someone how nice it is to live in the dry desert. It's going to be a bit muggy today, that's for sure.

Not Much to Report

But I'll write anyway!

This morning, I went out to feed the chickens and I disturbed the quail that believe the chicken yard is their domain, along with the multitude of cottontail and squirrels. They left behind two babies that were trapped inside the coop. I got to see them close up! They are so sweet. I shoo'd them out and away from the chickens. They ran right out the fence and into the bushes. Too sweet!

My chickens are still in two groups, the older and the younger. But they will eventually merge. This new batch is completely wild. When they were very young, I put them in a box in the coop separate from the others, but not up on the porch like the last two batches. They stink and it's a lot of work to keep the box clean on the porch so I thought this would be easier. What it did was separate us from them and they weren't played with as much as the last two groups. So they are wild. You can't get near them at all and if you happen to be able to trap one and catch it, it screams like it's being murdered the whole time. Oh, well. They can't all be pets. We now have an even dozen, which means when they are all laying we will have enough for friends and family. Right now, I only get about 3 eggs a day, on average, and I know that the oldest ones will start slowing down now.

Every morning, I get up and get my coffee and sit by the window to read my book. I'm continually distracted by the view outside. It's the jack rabbits that always catch my attention. They are so big! About the size of my beagle dog, but certainly not as heavy. And those ears! I love watching them stretch way up to get the creosote flowers that are left. There isn't much in the way of flowers and grass this year. No rain to speak of this spring. When the hedgehog cactus did bloom a little, the flowers and the stalk were eaten down before they even had a chance to show their colors!

What else? Oh, the boys and their cough! I did finally take them to the doctor (first time in six years) and she just looked up their symptoms on her laptop and told me what I already know. Probably and allergy. Jake isn't as bad as Tom, but their coughing is still bad and driving them crazy. It isn't that they feel sick, it's the allergy medicine they are taking. I'm not sure what is worse, staying up all night coughing, or sleeping a drugged sleep. They are just wiped out and I feel bad for them.

It's hot. I hate summer. We've considered going somewhere to cool off for a few weeks, but we'd have to go a thousand miles. Draw backs of living in the middle of the desert. But we do have some plans to have fun in the next few weeks to help the situation. I can't wait for October!

Cleopatra at the Science Center

I'm so glad we made this trip! Yes, it's a 130 miles away. Yes, we had to get up early. It had some costs, that's for sure. But it was SO worth it. I forgot how much I love the California Science Center.

It's a three hour drive from our house and we needed to make some stops along the way; gas, breakfast burgers at Carl's Jr. Carl's has fallen from Tom's grace because they messed up the burgers. Jake just ate it anyway but Tom was furious. It's the principle of the thing. He learned that old adage, "They F. you in the drive thru." Hard lesson for one so young. :))

The rest of the drive was filled with the Beatles. It took three and a half albums to get there! On the way there were many discussions. Politics, economics, future plans, the difference between love and lust. These are the topics my sons bring up in the car.

We got there at 11:15, so we missed the morning showing of Cleopatra at the IMAX, but there was a Hubble 3D one at 12:30, so we went inside to play for a bit and then went to see that.

I remembered why we used to go to the Natural History Museum in the morning and then the Science Center in the afternoon. School groups. Hoards of kids in the same color shirts. It's just insane. I seriously wonder how any of those children survive that. It would have made me crazy as a kid. I got to watch my sons in action though and that made it worth it.

Discovering Wright's Airplane

Wing Lift

The boys both love machines. And they love figuring out those machines. The point of a science center like this is to have experiments out that you can mess around with and see how they work and how they don't. Tom and Jake both take their time. They test each piece methodically and watch each other do the same thing. They take turns (not always patiently, but they are working on it) and use the knowledge they gained watching others work on it. But with a long line of oscillating kids beside them they really don't have the time to really experiment with it like they want to. The school group kids have it even worse. They are all so busy and rushed that they zoom through. They pick it up and try it. If it works they don't know why, only that it did something and someone else frantically wants to try it before the group moves on. If it doesn't work, they drop it and walk away. There is no time or peace for discovery. It's a little sad to watch.

Air flow over a vehicle

But one to what we were doing! The boys had a great time going through the Transportation and Building parts of the museum. It's the best part to them. This museum has a lot to offer, so coming in at 2pm and spending a couple hours in one section is the best way. Come back another day and do another section. It has special rooms in each section for kids under 7. And they could spend the entire day in each of those and not explore their little hearts out. I loved this when the boys were little.

Designing a car

Infrared Camera Entertainment

Yes they are dancing.

Jake's explaining to me what he would use this for. 

Tom and sound. We could have been here all day.

The Hubble 3D movie! Wow! Completely awe inspiring. It's like you are traveling through space or standing on the space shuttle working on the telescope with the earth looming below. Just wow. The boys were amazed! Great to hear them go on and on about how beautiful it was and all the things they didn't know were out in space. It was inspiring just to listen them talk about it.

They weren't tall enough for this the last time we came.

I wish this picture were clearer, but look at the joy on his face. 

On to the Cleopatra exhibit. We entered this as a group with a bunch of other homeschoolers. Getting us to line up and enter at the same time, that was entertaining. One of them was at the Grand Canyon on the same day that we were! That is the third person! The exhibit was beautifully done. So much to look at and it was done in a way that entertained Jake and I as well as Tom. Tom spent about an hour more on it than Jake and I. We waited outside and looked at other things while we waited. Tom came out saying he was sorry it took so long but there was too much to read. Damn kids! Funny.

Jake in awe of pretty presentation. That's my boy!

Shifting Sans Under Water

I loved the coins and maps. Jake wasn't super interested. He was excited to learn that Cleopatra was of Greek ancestry, so he looked for Greek looking things. Made him happy. Tom just looks like he is gathering information and filing it away for future processing. It's crazy. It doesn't matter what the subject is. He reads, listens, watches and five years from now it will relate to something else and he will sound like he's studied it for years, which he actually has. I wish I had a brain like that kid. Jake's different. He likes to watch. He sees the whole picture at once instead of little pieces. It's really fascinating.

We left there at 5pm....from LA...on a weekday. Traffic. It wasn't too bad though. We stopped at In-And-Out for dinner. Talked about a ton of things on the way home while listening to Michael Jackson. I love our long drive conversations. Let's see, kings, ancient civilizations, schools, races, poor/rich, why do some people join gangs, or do drugs, why to Mexicans come here, what is puberty, why do more boys play video games than girls, and on and on and on. It took three hours to get home, so it was pretty in depth.

It was a long day but well worth it!

History and Disney Movies

My all time favorite Disney movie from my childhood is Cinderella. I've seen it a million times and even as an adult I can quote most of the movie and songs by heart. Too bad I didn't use this amazing skill for memorizing movie lines for history!

Tomorrow, we're going on with a group to see the Cleopatra exhibit at the California Science Center. The group ticket was just the excuse I needed to drive down to LA to see one of my favorite places. The mom that is organizing it forwarded the "Educator Packet" from the museum and I started reading it yesterday. I know! It's for the students! :)) That's me. I'm the one that wanted to go the museum, the boys are just along for the ride...as usual. It's part of the plan people.

So reading along, I think, "Hey! I should watch the Cleopatra movie on Netflix." I've had it on there forever. Turn it on. The screenplay is based on Plutarch's histories. Tom yells "Plutarch! I know that name." It's a character in "The Hunger Games". Conversation begins about why that character was named that. Don't know. Have to look into it more. Continue the movie. The boys are not watching, they are playing Minecraft. They have learned some thing called "creating/editing texture packs". This is computer game stuff that makes me yawn just listening to descriptions, but they've been working on it forever and much excitement has been related to it. The movie! They keep interrupting and telling me about Roman things like government, and word origins. And relating things in the Roman Republic that are similar to our government, arguments in the movie that are similar to things they read in the paper or watch on TV today. I'm trying to watch a movie! I didn't finish it. I'm working on it more today but it's going on in much the same manner. But I am getting another sock knitted fairly quickly.

Today I'm reading more of the study guide for tomorrow's event. Ok, here's the link to Cinderella. Jack brings her another mouse, she says "I'll call you Octavian, but for short, we'll call you Gus." Why? Because! Octavian was the great nephew of Julius Caesar that took over after Julius Caesar was murdered. He took over slowly and was named Emperor, creating the Roman Empire out of the Roman Republic. He changed his name to Augustus. Octavian = Gus. Not sure why you would want to name a sweet plump little mouse Octavian, he didn't seem like a very upstanding noble guy, but what the heck.

Oh! And Octavian/Augustus ruled during the time Jesus was with us on earth. So the change between Republic to Empire was happening during that time. Didn't know that.

This is how learning happens people. Millions of little links formed by constant influx of information, little by little the web of knowledge is built. If only I had started earlier, my web could be so much more intricate. But my sons...they probably already have twice the hooks and connections that I have. Can you imagine where they will be in 20 years?! Look out world!

We're home!

You were worried there for a minute, huh?! We got home and I got involved with the house and lost track of blogging time.

The ride home was hot! Coming across the desert in the RV without a good air conditioner makes it seem not so hot when you get home. We stopped for gas in 29 Palms and it was 95, nice and cool comparatively. After 29, it got really windy suddenly and Dan was happy to be home and not have to drive in that anymore.

It was a great trip. We had to cut it short though. I think it was just too hot to be outside much when we got back to Kingman and we wanted to be in our nice swamp cooled house. We are looking forward to another trip though, maybe even spend some real time on the road. We shall see!

Goodbye, Kingman!

Don't these yuccas look like a Monsters Inc. character?

Wasteland...way off down there is the Colorado River though.

So we're home, getting back into the swing of things, dreaming of the next road trip. Man that was fun!

Day Ten

We stayed in Kingman today and took a look around. We left early to beat the heat driving around town. This place is pretty nice. There are a lot more stores than in Yucca Valley. Close to the freeway so you can go anywhere quick. We found some nice areas up the hill a bit that had some great property. Then we went for a beautiful steak n' egg breakfast at Kingman Co. Steakhouse. It was soooo good!

This is Jake...I'm not sure what he's doing.

Cool rocks.

Town Hall. How neat is that?!

We went to Big 5 and Jake got some new boots and Dan bought them all new knives (like they needed another one). And we spent the rest of the day in the pool swimming or playing pool in the game room.

I think we will get an early start tomorrow and head for home. It's hot and we grow weary. I think next time, I'd like to head for cooler pastures. :)

Day Nine

Headed back to Kingman! We have reservations for two nights. I think we are growing weary of travel. Too many stops and too much time in the RV. Jake says he's torn because he wants to keep going, but he is getting home sick.

Geronimo! There were a bunch of signs for this place and we just had to stop. It was great! Tom got an awesome sand art in a glass thing, Jake got another pin, and I got an awesome tortoise that loves me! 

We stopped in Flagstaff on the way and got gas. We tried to find Sunset Crater National Park to stop and have lunch but our directions were wrong so we gave up and kept going west. There were two rest stops on the map, but they were closed. Grr...Then we finally pulled off in Ash Fork because it said there was a museum and a visitor center. We didn't find it. Grr..again. So we stopped in a park and had some lunch in the RV.

Made it to Kingman! It's hot here. It was so cool up in the mountains so it's a bit of a shock to be hot again. But we have air conditioning! Swimming, laundry, showers. Sloppy Joes for dinner. All is well. We will see what tomorrow will bring!

Here are some pictures that Tom took on the road. Enjoy!

This is me sad because the rest stop is closed.

Dust devil in action.

Jake the entire way to Kingman.

The cool camera man himself.