Seventeen

Dad had intended to be here for Joshua's seventeenth birthday but that didn't work out. It was just the three of us and Birthday cake:

I can't believe it's seventeen years since we brought home that precious little bundle. Now he's all grown up and taller than both of us. Last year we came to the decision that he should go to the local public high school for his last three years. There are no kids his age for miles and really no activities going on for his age group either. It seems like every time he made a friend the family moved away. So, last September, after 8 years of being home schooled, he started 10th grade 20 miles away. I was so worried that he would have trouble adjusting. Worried that perhaps he would be behind - though he always did well on the end of year tests. Thankfully, he settled right in and made Honor Student. His overall  average is 100! We're so proud of him.

One of his birthday gifts was a two day Beginning Blacksmith course at The Jacksonville Center for the Arts in Floyd. It's something he's been wanting to do for a long time. Now he plans to build his own coal fired  forge, like the ones they use there:

Apparently they're not that difficult to build and Ken can get the parts easily.