Leah the Brave

This post was going to be labeled "Leah's Butter" due to the gorgeous batch she made yesterday. Trina is our regular butter maker, but since she is currently in Seattle, Leah stepped in and churned the cream. Since I am still saving up for a digital camera, my current way of getting pictures for the blog is taking them with my phone and texting them to my email. We don't have much in the way of service at the house, so in order to text them I have to take a little stroll to the top of the driveway in search of service. That was where I was headed after taking this picture of the beautiful butter when the events of the next picture took place. It is much more dramatic from Leah's point of view, so I will let her tell you what happened next.

"So, before Trina left she made butter and it was really sloppy so she put it in little piles on the tray and put it in the freezer to harden. When I made butter I took it out and I was trying to get it off the trays so I had a pointy butterknife which I was pushing underneath the butter with all my might when suddenly it went. It zipped right under the butter and stabbed right into my hand. After one quick look, I closed my eyes, wrapped it in a paper towel and went to sit down. I looked out the window and there was Emily, puttering around at the top of the driveway. She was there for a veeeeery long time. Then the mail lady came and Emily talked to her for a veeeeery long time. Finally Emily came puttering, veeeeery slowly down the driveway. It probably did not take that long but since I was waiting for her to help me with my cut and my hand was killing me, it seemed to take forever. When she came down the sidewalk she yelled at me through the window, 'Leah, you have mail!' and I said, 'Uggggggggg'. After she came in, I told her I cut myself and she said, 'Okay, how bad?' I said, 'Pretty bad, I don't want to look.' Then she got concerned. "


Although the cut was deemed not worthy of stiches, it did take a few steri-strips and some handiwork from Dad. Leah was very brave through the whole thing, but most amazingly afterwards. As soon as she was pronounced bandaged, she got right back to work mixing up bread and doing chores "single handedly". Today it is still swollen but starting to heal, so Leah did not let it keep her from making pickles with me or driving to West Point on errands. To keep up with all the heros of this story, Benjamin has taken over milking both cows now that Leah's hand is out of commission, and quite cheerfully too. Such brave and helpful siblings I have! :D

Painting the town vermillion

So, we needed to go to town.... Leah drove to the gas station outside of Sioux City on the way there and home from the gas station on the way home. I drove in town, which turned out to be good since we ran into road construction, slow drivers, one way streets and we were going places we had never been before. She did a great job on her part of the driving though, handling tailgaters and roundabouts almost like a pro. Next time she should be ready for the in town stuff.
Benjamin needed a lawn mower part from a small engine store in a part of town I had never been in before. We looked it up on Google maps and familiarized ourselves with the road names around before we left, which turned out to be a good thing. The shop was on a dinky little frontage road which was rather poorly marked. Leah's eagle eyes spotted the street name we were looking for and we only ended up having to turn around in a parking lot once to find Marv's Small Engine. While Benjamin got the part Leah and I were amused by the other business on the block. There was a car wash staffed by numerous guys in uniform who rapidly dried each car with rags after it was washed by the automatic washer. They worked like an elite team of, um, car driers. I tried to get pictures of their team work, but we were too far away for the camera to get them in action. After watching how fast they could get one car done, I decided maybe we should start a car wash, we have the staff...:D We also discovered the next place Dad should go for a haircut, right next door to both the car wash and the small engine repair...



Benjamin got us girls lunch, what a sweetheart! I told him he was a great trip buddy... We ate at Taco Bell, where you can get the best lunch for your buck, or um, change. We were rather hungry by this time, as you can see from the picture below.


Next on the agenda was a trip to the mall for some serious shopping. It took a while, but eventually we left with shopping bags victorious! On the way out I happened to see these beautiful umbrellas and had to get a picture for Hillary. The lighting does not do them justice!





Second to the last stop, Walmart! We were all getting a little tired by this point, but not too tired to try out some hats. I am not sure these are really winners in the fashion department, but it was worth a try! Benjamin was such a good sport...:D








And the last stop I was driving so there is no picture, but just imagine a McDonalds drive through and some ice cream and iced coffee and you will get the idea. After a fun day we left the town vermillion and I took the passenger seat again. "Home, James!"

Got a bathroom floor problem? I can fix that....

With the new bathroom in working order, the time has come to make the
old bathroom "useable" for other purposes. Timothy and Benjamin spent a few afternoons chipping off the two or three layers of linoleum, only to discover a rather thick layer of tar underneath. After we tracked tar all over the house for a few days, a method was finally discovered which actually worked. Leah and Becca employed it for an hour or so yesterday morning. As you can see, it includes a blow torch, a chisel, and two trusting people working together...















The commentary coming from the former bathroom was rather amusing...
"Becca, don't catch my hair on fire.."
"Careful, careful...."













They got a fairly good sized section done, as you can see. The cardboard pieces are steps to get between the kitchen and the new bathroom. Fairly effective at keeping the tar confined to one room...













A close up of the process. Here's hoping the Leah and Benjy team are able to get the rest of it off before Becca comes home from Seattle.