February 12, 2008
Here’s where we left off last time. This is a Caterpillar D6D - it is a powerful machine. He (Dave) had to cut a little off the bank so he could get up there easier. It is steeper than it looks in the picture. This is where the road to our house will be. I painted lines for him so he knew where I wanted the road to be.
One tree down. The plan is to just run over all the trees in his path so he can get back there to clear an area where he will eventually push all the trees to. He ran over that tree like it wasn’t even there.
There he goes… can you imagine how fun it would be to drive one of those?
I really think I need one.
This is after he came back and pushed the trees out of the way. It cleans up pretty nicely. This road will be about 12-15 feet wide.
This is a road he is putting in that will be alongside the house.
You may be able to make this out… there is a big loop around the building pad and this is where it comes together to meet the main driveway. I am on the driveway looking toward the building pad. The building pad is back there quite a ways - you can’t see it from here. It looks kind of sparse now, but that’s just because the leaves are off. It will fill in nicely in the Spring.
See that black plastic pipe in the road up (down) there? That is where he is headed. Time to install the culvert.
But first he is going to cut out the hillside so the driveway is not so steep.
I really do need one of these…
Even Katie thinks so.
The “grader guy,” Clarence, from the township just happened to be driving by and asked if we wanted his help. Of course I took him up on it.
I could kick myself for only getting 20 feet of pipe. I will buy more at a later date and have the guys from the township install it for me. They will install it for free if I provide the pipe. So, I will just have them take this one back out and I will connect another 20 footer to it and make the entrance wider.
To be continued…
Posted in Building our House, The Great Outdoors This post has 6 Comments »
February 11, 2008
For the ladies…
Grass. Covered with ice.
Grass. Covered with ice. Close up.
Some sort of bush. Covered with ice.
Some sort of bush. Covered with ice. Close up.
Some sort of bush. Covered with ice. Closer up.
I know this looks like the same bush covered with ice. But it is not. This is a different bush covered with ice.
The different bush covered with ice. Close up.
The different bush covered with ice. Closer up.
And for the men…
My truck. Covered with ice. I wish I would have bought a 4X4.
Does anyone want to trade?
My truck. Encased in ice.
I don’t think I could get out of the driveway. Who in their right mind would build a house here with a driveway sloping toward the house?
The van.
The trailer. Icicles and all. And water drops on the camera lens.
Big icicles.
Big icicles. On the lock. burp. scratch. snort
Posted in The Great Outdoors, Weather This post has 3 Comments »
February 11, 2008
When I went out to the property the other day to meet the "bulldozer guy," I noticed the water was up about a foot or so and flowing over the low water bridge.
The water was only about 4 inches deep on the bridge - safe enough to drive over.
Here’s the view from the other side of the bridge.
A closer look. Yes, the water really is that blue… due to the high levels of dissolved Limestone.
It was cold, so I let Jenna and John start a fire.
The Jack’s Fork.
The Jack’s Fork with the Little Pine Creek coming in from the left.
The little Pine Creek flowing into the Jack’s Fork.
The Little Pine Creek.
I had to check on the bridge again on the way out. It’s still there - minus a chunk of concrete that fell off.
Look for more bulldozer pictures tomorrow.
Posted in The Great Outdoors This post has 7 Comments »
February 11, 2008
This is for all of you out there that think "stuff" doesn’t happen in elementary school. Thanks Christina.
Teachers making accommodations, preparing to counsel other students
Posted: February 08, 2008
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
An 8-year-old boy is preparing to return to his home school district in Colorado as a girl, so school officials are designating two school restrooms as unisex facilities, and preparing to counsel other students on the issue of transgenderism.
The report comes from KUSA-Television in Denver, which did not identify the third-grade student or his family in the Castle Rock suburban district.
But the report said the student had attended his home district several years ago, as a boy, and then had taken classes in another district for a time.
One parent, identified by the television station as Dave M., said children in the elementary school are going to wonder what’s going on.
"I see this as being a very difficult situation to explain to my daughter, to explain why someone would not want to be the gender they were born with," he told the station.
His daughter will share a classroom with the boy dressing as a girl.
"I do think that there’s going to be an acknowledgment that ‘Why are you in a dress this year when you were in pants last year?’" he said.
A spokeswoman for the Douglas County School District in Castle Rock, said the district’s calling "is to educate all kids no matter where they come from, what their background is, beliefs, values, it doesn’t matter."
Whei Wong, the district spokeswoman, said the school is preparing two "unisex" restrooms for the student to use and teachers have been instructed to address the student by name, instead of using a "he" or "she" pronoun.
She also told the television station the school is handing out packets of information to other students and their parents containing "information" about transgender people, and officials will answer questions from other students about the boy-seeking-to-be-girl "in order to protect the child as much as possible."
"It’s something we haven’t had discussions about before. It’s something that we haven’t may really had to think about before, but now we will," she said.
Family therapist Larry Curry told the station that the student’s age is "very early" to be having such issues.
"I don’t know too many parents who are equipped to answer that kind of question or deal with it without some other support," he said.
But Kim Pearson, of the TransYouth Family Advocates which lobbies on behalf of such students, said students as young as five years old are "realizing their true gender identity."
Her group works to break down obstacles for such students, she said.
"Initially there was a lot of resistance (in the Douglas County district)," she said. "Now their position is they want this child to be safe of their school."
Her messages weren’t a comfort to Dave M., who believes his daughter is not ready to think about the transgenderism.
"I don’t think a third-grader does have the rationale to decide this life-altering choice," he told the station.
He also is upset that although the district has been making preparations for months, officials just recently let parents know what was going on.
"I just find it ironic that they can dictate the dress style of children to make sure they don’t wear inappropriate clothing, but they have no controls in place for someone wearing transgender clothing," he told the station.
Wong confirmed "mental health professionals" would be provided for other students, staff or parents if there are "any concerns at all."
Posted in Home School, Think About It This post has 16 Comments »
February 8, 2008
I went out to the property this morning to meet the "bulldozer guy". His job today was to cut in the roads and a building pad.
Caterpillar D6D
To be continued…
Posted in Building our House, The Great Outdoors This post has 7 Comments »
February 8, 2008
First on Fox: Teacher Accused of Terrorizing Own School
Last Edited: Thursday, 31 Jan 2008, 11:18 PM EST
Created: Thursday, 31 Jan 2008, 4:31 PM EST
A suburban Philadelphia teacher has been arrested for making terroristic threats against her own school, including messages promising to kill people at the school. Police said the woman was a teacher at the Longstreth Elementary school in Warminster, Pa. Susan Romanyszyn, a fourth-grade teacher, said nothing as she surrendered at a local district justice office on charges she made 17 terroristic threats against the very school she worked at.
Romanyszyn was charged in connection with a series of threats made against Longstreth that had students, teachers and parents on edge for weeks. Police said the threats left at the school included references to bombs and quotes such as “Die Today, Kill Em All, You Won’t Catch Me I Have A Gun, You’re So Stupid I Have To Kill You And I Won’t Stop Til You All Die.”
Romanyszyn has been teaching here for several years, sources said. She has been on a leave of absence since late October. Officials alleged Romanyszyn was upset about not getting a fifth grade teaching position she wanted. The threats caused police to search the school and to station extra officers there for the past four months.
Romanyszyn was ordered held on $1 million bail, but expected to be released on $100,000. Judge Daniel Finello ordered her to stay away from school facilities, teachers and students.
Police allege Romanyszyn left nails in the teachers’ parking lot, made a makeshift bomb with screws and did drawings of a gun, a machete and a pipe.
WATCH A VIDEO CLIP HERE.
4th-Grade Teacher Charged With Terrorizing Her School
Last Edited: Thursday, 31 Jan 2008, 7:43 PM EST
Created: Thursday, 31 Jan 2008, 7:43 PM EST
A suburban Philadelphia teacher has been arrested for making terroristic threats against her own school, including messages promising to kill people at the school.
Police said the threats left at the school included references to bombs and quotes such as “Die Today, Kill Em All, You Won’t Catch Me I Have A Gun, You’re So Stupid I Have To Kill You And I Won’t Stop Til You All Die.”
Ephesians 5:11 - Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, rebuke and expose them.
Posted in Home School, Think About It This post has 9 Comments »
February 7, 2008
I found this on Michael & Debi Pearl’s website. I don’t get it. The book was banned by the pastor because it was too divisive? I wonder what kind of church that is…
By: A Happy Wife in Texas
It is hard to keep our mouths shut. Others want to know how the miracle happened…but our pastor says it is against “the law” of the church…the ONLY law our church has ever had.
Dear Debi,
I have to tell you a crazy story. Keep in mind that we go to a conservative church. Several of the people homeschool and use your child-training literature, including us. I finally got around to ordering Created To Be His Help Meet when my marriage seemed to be falling apart. I had really thought I was honoring God in my relationship toward my husband, yet I felt like I was living in prison, with him as my jailer.
I couldn’t put the book down. It was just so liberating. I finally understood what God meant for me as a wife to be like, and I loved it. My husband REALLY loved it. It is like a fairy tale, it is so good. I was thrilled when my husband handed me $200 and told me to buy a case of the books to give away at church. It was like giving out miracles.
Two Sundays later, our pastor stood in the pulpit and said that he was banning Created To Be His Help Meet from the church members, because it was too divisive. He said if we owned one, we were to throw it away. We were shocked. He has never banned church members from watching X- or R-rated movies. He has never banned anything, so why a simple marriage book?
After church, we asked our pastor what was in the book that was not right. He told us it was not because the book was not Scriptural, but because it was divisive, and therefore not good for the church body. My husband told him our marriage had been almost over, but because I had read Created To Be His Help Meet, we are more in love than we ever were.
Our pastor admitted he had not even read the book, but that several women had come to him insisting that he ban the book because it causes conflict. Are a few women going to decide what the rest of us are ALLOWED to read? If they don’t like it, we will not DEMAND that they read it, so why do they DEMAND that the rest of us not be ALLOWED to read it?
So, now our church is really in an uproar, because a dozen or so couples are wonderfully in love for the first time in their marriage, having already read the book before the BANNING. It is hard to keep our mouths shut. Others want to know how the miracle happened…but our pastor says it is against “the law” of the church…the ONLY law our church has ever had.
This blows our minds.
– A happy wife in Texas
It is hard to keeps their mouths shut??? ARE they keeping their mouths shut? If so, why? It sound to me like it is time to find a new church. I wonder if this is one of those churches where the pastor is not accountable to anyone… Your thoughts?
Posted in Marriage, Think About It This post has 17 Comments »
February 7, 2008
A couple of weeks ago I took John, Jacob and Jason out to the property. We had a mission. We were to be meeting someone at the property at 2pm. We picked up breakfast on the way and ate in the truck.
John
Jacob
Jason
We also grabbed lunch on the way. We parked the truck at the main road and walked to the river to eat. We did that so we would not end up with any visitors driving down our road. It sure looks different around here in the winter!
This is taken from the Southeastern corner of our property, looking Northwest. Our property is on the left. The plan is to have little cabins on that hillside. Way up river is the low water bridge - you can’t see it.
Here I am at the same spot looking East, across the river.
Looking Northwest again. This time we are a little bit further down river.
This is where the kids play in the tubes. This is looking up the South Prong of the Jack’s Fork River. It is hard to tell in this picture, but the main river is straight ahead. Coming in from the left is the Little Pine Creek.
Looking East. Here is the county road. Right around that corner is a low water bridge. The one I was tossing the kids off of into a swimming hole. I am parked on the road that goes to the camping area. We own the property on both side of the road.
Now we are down by the low water bridge looking West, up the county road. We are going to build our house at the top of that hill, on the left.
The sun is almost down. We should be heading home now. But first let’s get a couple more pictures of the water.
Looking West, where the Little Pine Creek flows into the Jack’s Fork.
It looked a lot nicer in September.
Looking Southeast, towards the low water bridge.
And what’s this? This is why we went to the property. To meet the man who is going to put in our roads and building pad. This is in the camping area, marking where we want a camp spot to be.
On our way home. See the smoke up there? That fire has been going since, at least, August 2007. They are adding two more lanes to the highway here. I am assuming they are burning all the brush and root-balls from the trees they ripped out.
What a nice day. I will be meeting Dave, the bulldozer guy, at the property on Friday. This time he is bringing his bulldozer!
Posted in Building our House, Daily Life, The Great Outdoors This post has 14 Comments »
February 6, 2008
Check out the FOUR DAY PROMOTION launched at VisionForum.com starting today February 6 and continuing until midnight, Saturday February 9th 2008 . This $25.00 coupon is available to you. This will be valid for purchases of $75.00 or more when you use the following universal coupon code:
Posted in Uncategorized This post has No Comments »
February 5, 2008
Please take the time to check out this website.
It is really important that as many people as possible join this campaign by signing their petition. ParentalRights.org brings together everyone who agrees that the vital role of parents in the lives of children should not be undermined by government action or policy.
I’m standing with them and you should too!
If you haven’t already done so, post this information on your blog or link to my post.
http://www.ohmydad.com/2008/02/05/could-you-lose-your-parental-rights/
Just one example of many…
Judge gives Utah woman 1 day to finish enrollment
By Bob Unruh
© 2008 WorldNetDaily.com
A homeschooling mom in Utah has been ordered by a judge to enroll her children in a public school district within 24 hours, and have them in class tomorrow, all because of a paperwork glitch that very well could be the fault of the district.
The mother, Denise Mafi, told WND that she already has enrolled her children in the district, under the threat from Judge Scott Johansen, who serves in the juvenile division of the state’s 7th Judicial District, that he would order her children taken away from her.
As WND has reported previously, such threats are becoming more and more common in Germany, but that nation still lives by a Nazi-era law that makes homeschooling illegal.
Mafi told WND that not only is homeschooling legal in Utah, she’s been at it for nearly a decade.
So what’s the problem here?
It seems that an affidavit she faxed to the local school district for the 2006-2007 school year, documenting her homeschooling plans, was lost by the district. So when she went to court with her juvenile son to have the charges dismissed (under a case held in abeyance procedure) stemming from a clash among children, she suddenly was presented with four counts against her for failing to comply with the state’s compulsory education requirement.
She thought she was meeting the court’s demands earlier when she enrolled her two youngest children in classes, and put her two older children in an online curriculum connected to the public school.
"Well everything fell apart in court today. I had to enroll my two oldest in public school. They start on Monday. If I didn’t the judge said I would lose custody of my children. He threw out the plea and we go to trial on January 9th. I have NO CHANCE with this judge. He will find me guilty. He already has. So I will probably be spending some time in jail. Please pray for my children," she noted in an online forum connected to a "Five In A Row" homeschool curriculum she had used when her children were younger.
She said her public defender had reached a plea agreement she thought would be satisfied by her action, an agreement hammered out with the prosecutor. However, the judge rejected everything, she told WND.
"It is a long story but basically it boils down to the school district says I didn’t file my homeschool affidavit last year. I faxed it to the school district office on Oct. 27, 2006. Somehow it was lost. I have my copy," she said on the forum.
"The judge is very anti-homeschooling. Stated last week that homeschool was a failure. I am a total nervous wreck," she said.
She is part of the Utah Home Education Association and she was seeking advice from that organization, but officials could not be reached Friday or Saturday by WND. She is not a member of the international organization concerned with homeschooling called Home School Legal Defense Association, but a spokesman for the organization told WND officials were reviewing the situation, and the initial reaction was that the prosecution of the woman was simply outrageous.
Mafi also told WND that the judge’s other demands are that her children are not allowed to miss school unless they have a notice from a doctor, and the judge initially wanted to issue an order that she was not allowed to move out of his jurisdiction for two years.
"This is all because the school district says they never received my 2006-2007 homeschool affidavit. I have a copy of the signed affidavit. I have already received my exemption for the 2007-2008 school year," she said.
A WND call to the prosecutor in the case did not get a response, nor did other judicial officials respond to inquiries about the situation.
Mafi told WND the worst part is that because it is a misdemeanor, Utah law does not allow her to demand a jury trial. But it also carries with it a maximum penalty of six months in jail, on each of the four charges.
She said she had received a confirmation the fax to the school was received when she sent it, but likes to clean out her paperwork before the start of a new school year, and apparently had disposed of it.
She said she has asked her public defender to work on a complaint against the judge and she’s trying to raise funds to have a private lawyer continue her case.
"If it was any other person in the state, they can put their children in an online public school and it’s acceptable," she told WND. "I can’t do it. I cannot pull my children out and put them in a private school of my choice."
"He [the judge] just does not want them under my supervision," she said.
Mafi said the state has made no allegation of education neglect, and her children are performing work at grade level. But she objects to the public schools’ anti-Christian world view, she said.
As WND has reported, German authorities operating under the law stemming from Hitler’s desire to control the minds of youth have ruled not only that homeschooling is a basis for child endangerment charges, but a local government was remiss in allowing a mother to take her two children to another country where homeschooling is legal.
The recent decision from the Federal High Court in Karlsruhe, Germany’s highest court, was reported by the German edition of Agence France-Presse as well as Netwerk Bildungsfreiheit, an advocacy organization for Germans who wish to homeschool.
Now the organization is noting the similarities with earlier court rulings, when Adolf Hitler was in power.
A ruling from the State Court in Hamburg dated 1936 pointed to "endangerment of the mental wellbeing of children, who would have been denied participation in the national community?," a premise that corresponds to the recent Federal Supreme Court decision, the group said.
"Only the words have been chosen somewhat differently by the Supreme Court in order to conceal the fascist spirit of the decision," the analysis said.
"It is quite chilling that the reasons stated by the authorities and courts in child custody terminations in Hitler’s regime ? correspond in their spirit exactly to the decision recently rendered by the Federal Supreme Court," the analysis said.
It said what courts used to call the "national community" now is the "public" and what was "participation in the national community" now has been called a justified interest in "counteracting the formation of religiously or ideologically characterized parallel societies and integrating minorities in this area."
The analysis found that the "National Socialist (Nazi) regime" specifically targeted members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization, including the State Court in Hamburg decision from 1936 in which judges found: "Custody rights shall be terminated for parents who, as fanatical Bible students, cannot rear their children in accordance with today’s State and because this endangers the mental wellbeing of the children, who are thereby prevented from participating in the national community."
Hundreds of children were taken from their families for reasons no more important than they failed to sing Nazi songs with others, the analysis noted.
"Authorities, who interpreted the civil code according to their national socialist legal notions, considered it beyond question that the childrearing practices of Jehovah’s Witnesses was ‘endangerment of child welfare’ and ‘mental and moral neglect,’" the analysis said.
WND has reported previously how German officials targeted an American family of Baptist missionaries for deportation because they belong to a group that refuses "to give their children over to the state school system."
A teenager, Melissa Busekros, also returned to her family months after German authorities took her from her home and forcibly detained her in a psychiatric facility for being homeschooled.
And WND has reported on other families facing fines, frozen bank accounts and court-ordered state custody of their children for resisting Germany’s mandatory public school requirements, which by government admission are assigned to counter "the rise of parallel societies that are based on religion or motivated by different world views."
In the case involving Melissa, a German appeals court ultimately ordered legal custody of the teenager, who was taken from her home by a police squad and detained in a psychiatric hospital for being homeschooled be returned to her family because she no longer is in danger.
The lower court’s ruling had ordered police officers to take Melissa ? then 15 ? from her home, if necessary by force, and place her in a mental institution for a variety of evaluations. She was kept in custody from early February until April, when she turned 16 and under German law was subject to different laws.
At that point she simply walked away from the foster home where she had been required to stay and returned home.
Wolfgang Drautz, consul general for the Federal Republic of Germany, has commented on the issue on a blog, noting the government "has a legitimate interest in countering the rise of parallel societies that are based on religion or motivated by different world views and in integrating minorities into the population as a whole."
Drautz said homeschool students’ test results may be as good as for those in school, but "school teaches not only knowledge but also social conduct, encourages dialogue among people of different beliefs and cultures, and helps students to become responsible citizens."
The German government’s defense of its "social" teachings and mandatory public school attendance was clarified during an earlier dispute on which WND reported, when a German family wrote to officials objecting to police officers picking their child up at home and delivering him to a public school.
"The minister of education does not share your attitudes toward so-called homeschooling," said a government letter in response. "… You complain about the forced school escort of primary school children by the responsible local police officers. … In order to avoid this in future, the education authority is in conversation with the affected family in order to look for possibilities to bring the religious convictions of the family into line with the unalterable school attendance requirement."
Posted in Home School, Think About It This post has 15 Comments »
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