Monday, June 27, 2016

You've come a long way,baby!








For those back home wondering what Josh is up to. Well, A lot of water has gone under the bridge since that Christening day! We were stationed at Ft. Lewis, Washington, just south of Seattle, in the Pacific North West when Josh was born. He took his first trip to England at two months old. And now, he's twenty one! Can't believe it! 

I guess all those years of home schooling paid off in the end. Despite all my worrying about, "what if we're not doing enough?" Our curriculum was very loose. Just the basic three Rs and then lots of time to pursue whatever interested him. I'm a big proponent of autodidactism and would often put something in front of him with the half joking advice that "If you wish to avoid ending up on a street corner, living in a cardboard box, it would behoove you to study this!" We joke about it now, but he really took it to heart. When I got ill and we determined that it would be best that he attend the local high school for his last couple of years, he already had that work ethic.

A few weeks ago he graduated college with an Associates in Science and Engineering. He's continuing on with a few more classes to get an Associate of Applied Science and Mechatronics.  Then, bwaaahh , (we're going to miss him!) his big goal is to apply to be accepted into The Webb Institute, way up on Long Island New York. It's a small, four year college that specializes in Marine Engineering/Naval Architecture. They only accept a small number of students so that's why Josh is working so hard to get the best grades he can.

Wish my Mum could have lived to see him graduate, but I'm glad Granddad has been able to.

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Time's flying, so we must be having fun!

I'm sorry for the long silence. My Dad flew over from England to stay with us for the summer and we just haven't stopped!

Before he came, I was trying to get the wall finished and the fence up. I'm glad now that it wasn't completed because I'd forgotten how much Dad likes to be involved with our building projects. He's been feeling really good and raring to go every day! So with his help,we completed the fence and it came out great! Then we divided the donkey field into two sections and built a rustic shelter for them using black locust posts that were growing right there on the steep bank. High winds in March demolished the old shelter.

 Anyway, here are some pics of it all. We built the kissing gate into the corner. I've never seen a corner kissing gate before but it works just fine and I absolutely love being able to walk freely in and out without having to latch and unlatch the gate. Or fiddle around tying and untying baling twine, which is what I'd been using for the last three years!

More to come, but just this for today as it's late and I need to get to bed.