Art Classes

I've enjoyed watching the boys take art classes the last couple of years and have regretted not taking any during college. So while I'm waiting until the time that I can go back to school for a master's degree, I'm taking classes through the Southwest School of Arts and Crafts in San Antonio. Rather than focus on textiles, I decided to go back to the basics. I started with a drawing class and here is my final project, a portrait of Connor. I'm amazed that a few drawing lessons can help so much. I highly recommend a class for two reasons. One, you get to learn how to use the different tools of the trade. I had never heard of a stump and now it is my favorite drawing tool. Two, you get to watch your instructor correct your drawings. I realized that moving a line an eighth of an inch can make a huge difference to how correct something looks. I used to think that a drawing was hopeless. Now I know it only needs a little tweaking. And with my new skills, I can erase a bad line and it no longer shows. That eraser is my second favorite tool!

Now that we have your attention...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Texas!

Thank you for accepting our newsy letter by blog... the money we will save on printing, paper and postage is being donated to Heifer International (www.Heifer.org).


Life with the Drake Family has not drastically changed. We are living in another warm climate. It is another 80 degrees as I sit and write this! It was near freezing Thanksgiving weekend. I just don’t think I will ever appreciate Texas weather.

We've had a busy year due to another move. California is a wonderful state and we explored more hidden corners on our way out of state. We visited King’s Canyon and Sequoia National Parks and Joshua Tree National Monument. The rest was a blur (except for a near speeding ticket soon after crossing the Texas border) as Scott’s new boss wanted him quick. The Air Force never changes.

The leave Scott did not get this summer we managed to take this fall. We went to visit friends in Germany and had the most marvelous three weeks. Visiting Germany is like visiting home. So many friends welcomed us with open arms and we had a marvelous time. Come over and see the photos!



So... here’s the quick and dirty update.

Scott is working for the Air Force Personel Center at Randolph AFB. I have no idea what his job title is but I do know that he has ten people working for him who place all of the Logistics Officers in their jobs. When they’re busy, they’re very busy. When it’s slow, they’re busy. He’s enjoying himself very much. And he’s keeping his eyes open for that next job :) Scott's also become Ryan's math instructor this year. The pair of them make a great team and it's nice for mom to be a parent instead of a teacher for one subject!







I am taking time for art classes and just completed a semester of basic drawing. I am amazed how a few lessons can make a huge difference. Also, drawing isn’t about lines. It’s about shade. Who knew? I've also learning how to play Mah Jong (big thumbs up) and how to organize a Local Foods group. The latter is a new concept here – how to buy and eat local food and share it with others. I've had to learn where the food is! The Drake Men have had to learn to appreciate local cows’ and goats’ milk as well as local meats, including lamb and bison, as well as fruits, veggies, and pecans. Texas has a lot to offer!

Ryan is no longer a boy but a young man. He turned 12 in September. He loves martial arts and is looking forward to playing Soccer again this spring. Math is his favorite subject and he hopes to become an engineer or an inventor of some kind. Currently, he’s working on a National History Day project about children on the homefront during WWII. He now has his own email address: ryan.ernest@gmail.com. He would love to hear from you!


Connor is still our fun loving, adventure seeking boy. And he is all boy (see picture on front page). He just earned his blue belt in Kuk Sool Won and loves the challenge of learning new forms. He doesn’t have a favorite subject but you can’t keep him away from books. He is always reading something new and something old, sometimes at the same time. He discovered Calvin and Hobbes a little over a year ago and I think he’s become an expert. He has started designing his own comics and wants to learn how to make games for the computer. I never know when he walks down the stairs if he’ll be dressed to slay dragons or to play four square. He makes our lives exciting! You can find Connor’s recommendations about computer games at his blog, http://gaming-by-connor.blogspot.com/

For those who would like to keep in touch by email, Angie’s has stayed the same: angiedrake@hotmail.com. Scott’s is ff94533@hotmail.com. If you would like our snail-mail address, please send me an email. I'd rather not post it on the internet for all to see! Please let us know how you are doing. It’s hard to keep in touch with AF friends and family but we are always happy to hear a voice from the past!

Our love goes out to all of you!

Angie, Scott, Ryan and Connor

Persistence

We have just finished move number eight of our 17 year stint with the AF. Although boxes are unpacked, I am still surrounded with piles of books, stacks of mail, miscellaneous furniture, and the odds and ends (like rubberbands and missing pieces to the game that I gave away two bases ago). But our computer is hooked up to the WWW after one mishap with an incorrect power cord. And life is ready to resume it's schedule.

The boys have been off school for so long that I'm not sure they really remember what it is. But I'm in no hurry to hit the books because that is exactly what they are doing this summer. On their own. With no prompting from mom. They are both turning into avid readers. I need to thank Brian Jacques and his wonderful series of books that begin with "Redwall." They are immersed in fighting mice and spying hares and loving every minute of it. It also means that their comfort with the written language is also improving - they are more apt to pick up a magazine and read an article just for fun. Ryan saw an article about Harry Potter in the New York Times and decided to read it, definitely something he would not have done on his own a year ago.

So this year we plan to battle writing. Hopefully it won't really be a battle, but the Redwall language is leaking into our daily life! My first goal is to write more myself. I used to write a lot and have found that years of motherhood had sapped the writing bug. The boys have always stepped up to the plate when they've seen either myself of their Dad doing something. They willing workout because Dad provides a great example (Mom tries to follow). They eat healthy food because they see us doing the same. They read books because we read a ton. They limit TV viewing because I make them. But hopefully they'll remember all the time they had to do other things - like play war outside after dinner with friends or spend an hour on the computer playing their latest round of Civilizations. So maybe, just maybe, when they see me spending time writing, they'll be reminded of the importance of it.

Reading hasn't been the only lesson learned this summer. The greatest lesson of all has been persistence. They've watched me persist in finding an organic grower to supply our vegetables, a farmer's market to buy more vegetables as well as meats, cheeses and breads, and an affordable health food store. They watched me for hours on the phone waiting to speak with people to get our phone turned on and our internet service working. They had to stand in line with me while waiting to turn in passport applications and learned all about bureaucracies. Luckily the latter didn't require a lot of persistence, just patience. And, finally, they are watching me persist with this house. It can be pretty daunting to wake up each morning and know that there is still more to be done to make a home livable. And as much as my boys have helped (and they have), somethings only I can do (like set up office files and help lost game pieces find their way home).

Global Learning

Today, we experienced a perfect example of Global Learning and I just wanted to share. The three of us sat down to read a chapter from "The Story of Science" by Joy Hakim. The chapter was about Aristotle and his teacher Plato. In it, we learned more about why the earth was round and the proofs used to defend the theory. We learned a little geography from the maps provided. In a side bar, Hakim shared that Lewis Carrol wrote dedicated his book, "Symbolic Logic," to Aristotle. So we started to talk about Carrol and Alice in Wonderland. Then I asked if they had heard the poem, "Jabberwocky." They didn't remember it, so out comes our "500 Best Poems" and I read Jabberwocky. They remembered it from Drama class! Then we read "The Walrus and the Carpenter." Connor enjoyed the poetry so much, he asked if I would read Longfellow's "Paul Revere's Ride." So off we went, riding with Paul Revere through the American Revolution. Then Connor asked, if there are 500 poems, why is the book longer than 500 pages? So we talked about how long Paul Revere's Ride was (3 pages) and figured out that if every poem were that long, how many pages would the book have? Then we estimated how many pages the book actually had and looked. Both boys were very close.

So, only 45 minutes and we covered Science, History, Geography, English Literature, Drama, American Literature, Poetry, US History, and Mathmatics (specifically multiplication and estimation).

Wow, what a morning!

Hiking Without A Trail

On our last full day, we went on another hike, this time without a trail. We actually started on a trail, on the west side of Tenaya Lake, and had to cross the stream. You can see that there is a nice rock path through the water, but this year the trail is still underwater. But who needs a trail!




Ralph had us follow the stream instead of staying on the trail. He knew of a great place where the stream turns into a waterfall and we hoped to hike down to the pools at the bottom. We quickly appreciated the no trail part as we got see some signs of wildlife. First, a marmot. He was very curious about the pack of people hiking on the other side of the river. One of our group was very good at making kissing noises that marmots seem to enjoy.







And we found evidence of bears. The one that clawed this tree was either very tall or he liked to climb. We think the latter. There are claw marks a couple of feet above the top of the boys' hands.








And we found actual snakes! We haven't identified this one yet but we think he is a plain old garter snake. On the way in, we saw him on top of the water of a small pond. On the way back, we found him (or a twin) near a rock on the forest floor. Good lesson in animal habitats!



Today's hike was fairly easy, lots of forest and rocks but all fairly flat until the very end. And then we started to hike down. If we hadn't hiked Fairview Dome, this might have scared us a little. But by now we were feeling like pros. We knew where to walk and when to crab walk (maybe once or twice).








But lots of the down was just gradual over huge expanses of granite. The landscape was so huge that we couldn't help but feel small.






Our reward, a great water fall at the other end.
















Our surprise, a lot of people enjoying the water at the other end. Who knew! There must have been about 20 people enjoying the stream by using it as a huge waterslide. Most used mats and just flew down mountainside.








Ryan tried it once with Ralph. He said no to any further trips. Maybe next year with Dad, he told me. And better to go single rather than two at a time. The trick, not to control anything, but just let the water take you where it will. Connor and I didn't give this a try.


But Connor did enjoy swimming with Ryan at the bottom of the river. The water felt wonderful after a hot hike.


We also enjoyed exploring the huge holes left by the river. Connor thought they looked like extra large solution pockets, which is probably what they started out as. He learned a lot about time and geology.


So we all learned lots on this day. Ralph learned about a new sport at Yosemite and decided that he enjoyed it. The boys learned about risky behavior (some of the sliders were drinking beer and doing some pretty risky things). We all learned about animal habitats and some more about the geology of the area. And, as always, we learned to be flexible. We didn't expect the trail to be underwater nor did we expect to swim or waterslide at the end of the hike.

This wasn't the end of the day, but it is the end of this day's blog. To find out about our evening and the drive home, tune in later.

Day 3 of Good Camping

After two great days of hiking, we decided to take a day off. The larger group went on a very long hike that they still can't decide the distance on. We know that it went hours longer than expected and that they traversed lots of snow... it was a good trip for us to miss! Lesson - making good choices.

Instead, we went to see the South Tufas of Mono Lake.



We spent a couple of hours learning about how tufas are formed and about the wildlife of the area. Here are the boys collecting brine shrimp.



There were also lots and lots of alkali flies that never landed on you. They were amazing because they never touched us once. We watched nesting osprey and violet green swallows as well as lots of California Gulls (not seagulls). Mono Lake has risen a lot this winter and we learned why the lake could be higher still, how high the lake actually should be, and how the water has been diverted in years past. Lessons - biology, food chains, nomenclature, and environmental science.

After lunch in town (even happy campers need a restaurant meal every once in a while), we headed south to see some remnants of an old volcano. Just driving along the highway, you can see several craters from past volcanos. The sight we visited looked like a dumping ground for huge blocks of obsidian. It was actually an obisdian flow from one of the ancient volcanos. We had never seen anything like it!



I had promised the boys a visit to a hot springs after all of this educational stuff, so we drove a little further south to Hot Creek. It was highly recommended as a great place to cool off. We would have to swim through the cold creek to get to the hot springs! However, when we arrived, we were sadly disappointed. These hot springs have been closed off due to recent geologic changes. What, more science! Instead of swimming, we had a little lesson in geology.



So it was time to call it a day. We were all hot and tired as we climbed back into the van and headed back to camp. But Connor's sharp eyes spotted a fire! We just had to pull over and see. We weren't sure if it was a "real" fire or not until we pulled over and watched it grow very quickly. We knew that it had been called in because we watched fire trucks and lots of men arrive. After about 1/2 hour we also watched the helicopters come in. They look so small against the backdrop of a mountain on fire. The boys were amazed at how high the flames would go. A gentleman by the side of the road gave us a lesson in firefighting (he was a firefighter from way back) and we learned why some smoke is black and other smoke is gray. A couple of days later we learned that the fire had been put out fairly easily and had consumed only 18 acres. Needless to say, we had a lesson in firefighting!

The Joy of a Good Camping Trip, continued

When we woke to our second day of hiking, we learned that a bear had walked through camp the night before. We had heard some banging around and one of our group had yelled out in the middle of the night, "Get out of here!" The bear didn't seem to find much, but Ryan was a little concerned as he was sleeping on his own in his one-man tent. But he knew that as long as he didn't go to sleep with a bacon sandwich in his hand, the bear was highly unlikely to come and visit him.

After the success of our first day, my boys were very ready to hike. We were a larger group as more families had shown up the night before. Our goal for the day: to hike to the top of Cathedral Peak. Those of us who could make it to the saddle could decide if they wanted to grapple with ropes and belay lines and climb to the peak. This picture is from Wikipedia and shows the peak much better than any of my photos.



We began our hike from the Cathedral Lakes trail but didn't stay on it for long. We headed on a smaller, climber's trail that took us to the base of the mountain. That part of the hike was our usual style of hiking; through the woods, along a gorgeous creek, then gorge, then creek again, across rock and through woods. It was gradual uphill but our legs were a little tired from the day before. And then we started to climb.

The picture below is of Connor climbing down the slope. I was too busy trying to get up it to take any photos going in that direction! Notice the ground. We are hiking on tiny pieces of granite, some as small as gravel, some like marbles, some as large golf balls. It made for very interesting hiking going up. When we reached larger rocks, we had to choose carefully where to put our feet, as some large rocks were loose. One young man actually knocked one loose. We heard the yell, "Rock!!" and learned that you should hide behind a tree or the closest large rock and not try to look to see where the rock is. We had no problems seeing this one about twenty feet from us. It bounced down the mountain side like one of the boys' bouncy balls. Scary.



After a long and challenging climb up, we all reached the saddle of the mountain. Connor and I were elated to make it so far. This was Class 3 and Class 4 on that Yosemite scale. Ryan was chafing at the bit to go further! So on he went to the Class 5 part of the climb, with Ralph and the crew. I had a hard time letting my oldest go it on his own, but I knew that he had a lot to learn on the rest of the mountain and that Connor and I were at our max.

Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of Ryan at the top (I'm hoping to get some soon) but here is a picture of the mountain that I took. Ryan sat at the top of this and looked across the world. He told me that it was not an easy climb and that he was nervous and scared at times but he trusted his instructor, listened well, and was rewarded with feelings of accomplishment, pride, and awe at the beauty of Yosemite.



So while Ryan was hiking up, Connor and I started our hike down. It took a long time! We planned our route and slid on rock and scree. Slow but sure, we made our way to the bottom. On the way down, we found us a marmot!



When we finally reached the bottom, Connor got it in his head that we needed to beat the others back. Now, it had taken us an hour and a half to hike down. I knew that the others would make it in half that time. But we started some serious hiking. On the way in, we had stopped at least four times to rest. On the way out, we didn't stop once. Connor hiked his heart out and at each landmark he said, "They didn't beat us to the creek!" and "They didn't beat us to the big rock!" until finally he could say, "They didn't beat us to the end!" This was a great success for my seven year old since he had been at the back of the hike for the last two days. And, fifteen minutes later, the first of our climbers started arriving at the trailhead. The two ten year olds and the twelve year old hadn't had enough. They decided to run back!

Ryan was thrilled to find out that the first person to climb this peak was no other than John Muir himself. And he climbed it on the same route that Ryan followed, though he didn't use a rope.

Lessons learned for the day - eating habits of bears, how muscles grow, geology, natural history, CA history, animal habitats, perserverence, personal limitations, and teamwork. Not bad for one day.