Amazing what kids can do

I am continuously delighted by my girls. It's amazing what they can do when they put their minds to it.

As a Venture Scouts project, Younger Daughter was required to pull together a meeting that reflected a hobby. She decided to put on a writer's workshop since she has a passionate interest in writing.

All by herself she contacted the Idaho Writer's League and presented her idea, and asked if anyone was willing to donate their time to this project. The IWL chapter president kindly passed this request on to the members, and Younger Daughter was blitzed with offers from writers generously willing to participate by giving a workshop.

She contacted the Coeur d'Alene public library about a meeting room, set a date, signed the required contracts (which I co-signed since she's a minor) and even paid the cleaning fee out of her own pocket, as was required by contract since she offered refreshments. The library's meeting room is only available for four hours on Saturdays, so Younger Daughter had to limit the number of workshop to three. In order to present as broad a spectrum of subjects as possible, she selected three writers (myself included) to give seminars on freelance writing, self-publishing, and fiction writing.

She kept in touch with her speakers and, as the day grew closer, she pulled together an advertisement (which I mocked up for her). She then sent this to local colleges, vocational schools, high schools, coffee shops, and placed the information in the Coeur d'Alene Press.

Attendance was modest (five people), but all five people were eager to learn, attentive to the speakers, full of excellent questions, and went home very very satisfied.

Younger Daughter welcomed the attendees to the workshop, introduced each speaker, thanked both the attendees and the speakers afterward, and followed up with thank-you notes to those who had helped her out.

This project was on par with Older Daughter's Venture Scouts project last November, which was to put on a music recital in a nursing care facility.

I'm so proud of my girls for having the gumption to pull together these kinds of activities.

Music to their ears

As part of a Venture Scouts project, Older Daughter helped put on a music recital at a nursing care facility in a nearby town.

The recital consisted of the students of an elderly and much beloved lady named Genevieve, who teaches piano and harp. While this particular recital only had four harps present, I've seen as many as fifteen at other recitals.


This past weekend, the short recital was held in the dining room of the nursing facility to bring a little cheer into the lives of the residents. Here the students are setting up...

...and tuning up.

A flyer was distributed throughout the rather extensive facility, inviting all who appreciated music to attend. Eventually there was about a hundred residents who came to hear the joy...

...in all stages of health.

Older Daughter opened the recital by welcoming everyone...

...and introduced Genevieve (on the left, in red), who stood up to take a bow.

One of the things I like about Genevieve's recitals is students are required to dress like ladies and gentlemen. I think the little extra air of formality encourages people to play or sing their very best. This young man was the announcer for each selection.

Here Older Daughter is playing her piece.

This young lady sang a Christmas song, accompanied on the piano by her older sister.

Then her even younger brother also belted out a song. As you can imagine, the performances of these very young people warmed the hearts of the very old people who came to listen.

A harp solo.

I was sitting behind this couple. The wife, on the right, had a very sweet smile. She was clearly in poor health and living in the nursing facility. The husband, on the left, was clearly in superb health and living off-site. They held hands the whole time. When the recital was over, I watched him push his wife's wheelchair out of the dining room. There was a great deal of tenderness between them, palpable even to a stranger like me.

Altogether I think Older Daughter's project was a great success.

Random pix

Here are some random pix from the last few weeks.

Older Daughter went on a snow-caving trip with her Venture Scouts group (I'll post additional pix of her trip at some point). The group took a gondola ride at a ski resort to the top of a mountain and made a cave in the snow, where they spent the night. Here's a gear check before she went. It's not as heavy as it looks.

Coming home from our county seat one day, I happened to parallel a train. I pulled over to take a few shots as it crossed bridges and trestles.

(There's just something about watching trains. I love them.)

Local gas prices. March 2:

March 9:

Making macaroni and cheese. Older daughter got the boring job of stirring the cheese sauce until it thickened.

Snap, our rooster (photo taken through a glass door).

One of our hens, caught in a shaft of sunlight.

Major, barking at some neighbors riding their horses.

Older Daughter and I went walking with a neighbor and her son on a warm day.

I liked the way the trees reflected on a stream of meltwater.

The views were beautiful.

Early morning sunshine on our hay.

Will we have enough hay to get through the winter? No idea. Last year at this time we were buying hay, so at least we're doing better than that.

Younger Daughter is still endeavoring to teach herself Japanese.

Recently she found a library book which is helping.

There's so much "awwww"-factor in this shot that I'm tempted to put it on the masthead of the blog.

Full moon rising in the evening.

Full moon setting at dawn the following morning.

Deer at dawn, crossing the fields.

Sunsets.