A Snowy Day

First Snow

It is a beautiful day in the neighborhood.  We have a scant covering of snow outside.  Christopher plays classical guitar on the sunroom sofa.  Ashley sits beside me reading my text.  

Christopher in the Sun Room

   I had one cup of coffee this morning so I am at the same time a good boy and one feeling deprived by his own self-control, alas.  I would rather have two cups today of the high octane juice, it being our first snow day on the Long Yang Homestead.  

At the Top of Sled Hill

Sun Room Coziness on a Snowy Day

Here in the video below, we see our Pulchritudinous Korean Princess from Kwang-joo moves to America to cut wood with her redneck husband (who when they first met did not seem so redneck-esque, mixed in with expats from other places).     

 Frontier Mamma and Her Bow Saw

January 2016 Videos:
1.   Ashley's Room Remake:
2.  Christopher Sledding, "Do You Want to Try It?"
3. Yeah, At's Good
4. "We Cut Together!" 

To Build a Fire

Dear Folks,                           23rd November 2015

    Here we have a video of our third son teaching my wife how to build a fire.  Not unlike a mighty Proverbs Thirty-One woman of yore, Mamma evinces the makings of a Genuine Frontier Woman (hereafter GFW).  It is a delight to see Mamma no longer afraid of fire, but in sublime comfortable appreciation of the blessing God gives us in the wood on our property. 

   In a week or two I will order some trees to plant on our new property:  maybe 14 Dawn Redwood, three Sequoia, three Coast Redwood, 10 Japanese Maples, and two Bristle-cone Pines.

   I aim to begin collecting cedar seedlings off the side of the roads on the next sunny day now.  They grow wild, and being in the 24-foot zone beside of the road, they will be cut when the motorized scythe machines come rolling by.  I want to get them before that time arrives.  

A Day in the Life of the Long Family

Pretty soon, we may need to get another car.  In March, Ashley and Jordan will probably take a driver's ed course.  Nathaniel has already finished it.  He and his mother seem to have begun studying to take the test to get their drivers' licenses.  We will have to pay more for insurance.  My rates are as low as you can get.  That will change.  We may pay ten times as much as we are accustomed to paying, even with but one additional driver.
Down Syndrome People Going Extinct: This article is a tad ominous.  Three Quotes:
1. The true moral test of a society is not how pretty, sober or well organized it is – but how it treats its most vulnerable, even its most difficult, citizens. And the true sign of grace in a man is his ability to look at something that is supposedly ugly, or just different from himself, and see beauty.

2. “The message being sent by the British National Screening Committee (NSC) is that the lives of 25 ‘healthy’ babies are worth more than the lives of 92 babies with Down’s Syndrome,” Scanlan added.

3. And implicit in all of this is the view that life isn’t truly valuable unless it is healthy, pain free and contributing to Gross National Product.

A Good Day:Today was a good day.  I woke up, rebuilt the fire, walked Gideon.
 * peeled apples and cooked eggs for David, washed dishes, started rice cooking, woke David up, took him to the dentist in Raleigh.  
* dropped Jordan off at the seminary to practice piano for a few hours while we shopped in Raleigh
 * shopped at ALDI after the dentist
 * shopped at HanAhReum Korean Food Market  
 * found a sign shop and got information on purchase of old scraps of vinyl and mylar (for juggling club repair)
 * Went to 84 Lumbar, assess their potential to supply our needs for tree houses and beekeeping.
 * Went to Dick's Sporting Goods and bought David some winter mittens (10 smackers) and bought Ashley a set of horseshoes and stakes for 35 smackers
 * Went to Trek Bike Shop on Falls of Neuse Road, and got the old Green bike tuned up, got new brakes and cable, for 14 smackers. 
 * Went back to pick up Jordan from seminary campus.
 * juggled with Jordan in the seminary gym for one hour.  David played with the exercise balls and aerobics step up bars.
 * paid for fax at seminary to sell stock (from educational savings in Duke Energy for children)
 * Drove home, unloaded car with Jordan.
 * Eureka moment!  :: found Ashley had cleaned the table, getting Christopher to help.  discovered she had taught David and Christopher well while I was gone.  Mamma and Nathaniel slept.  Jordan, as per usual, studied alone all day.  (Ashley teachers; whereas, Jordan checks on David and Christopher to remind them of the math homework, check what they did and assign them more.)  
  * discovered that Ashley had taught Christopher shading, and he had drawn (with her help) a lovely drawing of a long-furred dog with a bone in his mouth.
  * Cleaned more dishes. 
  * Ate some of Ashey's egg salad and potato salad.  Good food in spades.  Very tasty.
  * Rebuilt fire.
  * Took Nathaniel to Small Group meeting (7 to 9 p.m.)  We taught baduk at Small Group. 
  * Came Home and hauled in wood with Nathaniel
  * Rebuilt fire
  * Took Ashley jogging for three miles (she jogs; I ride bike).  Rather cold up here in Granville County, maybe 20 degrees.  Reflector vests, Cree head lamp and my sheepskin coat were needed.  Ashley took off her winter jacket, overheated from her running energy output.  I carried said winter coat on my bicycle.  Was very comfortable, very, very happy.  At sublime peace. Would not want to be doing anything else in the world.  Good times.  
  * Must do Bible study, hymn singing and prayer now, then sleep.  Tired.  

A New Work Desk Retrofit

Ashley and Daddy

Ashley and I built a desk together for her room.  She had two wide but shallow closets that were not much use to her.  They are about six feet wide and two feet deep.  The doors are 60 inches exactly.  We noticed that we had a heavy particle board counter top, covered in formica.  She took of the closet doors and commenced to use them for her art work tables.  We used some 2x2's from scrap wood we salvaged from the trash bins in building sites to build a frame to support the desk.

Mamma has a rule of no nail or screw holes in the walls so we had to design something a little tricky to sandwich the framework into the existing space such that it could not move. We did it.  You can see the results in these photos.

The New Addition: A Work Desk for Art and Writing