Home life

With it being winter we have been in the house more during the day than we would like. Parts of that are fine, we are totally redoing our bathroom and it is going to be beautiful. We now have new wiring to most of the house, new switches and plug ins, light fixtures....I'm very happy.

Kenyon and I have spent alot of time in the kitchen trying out new recipes. I have been asking her about things she wants to learn to make, last week was flan, (don't ask about that) and today we are making tamales. I read alot about them and now understand the whole thing about groups of women coming together to be friends and make tamales. They are alot of fun so far and it is a social thing for sure. Something else I am trying to teach her is how to grocery shop. What are we going to eat, how much is that going to cost and what all do we have to get to do it. Then of course, how to use what we have from other meals to make better ones the next day. It all goes together once you learn it. She actually can cook more than she wants to admit at this point, considering the knock you down it is so good chili she just made with little to no help. I can't wait until the tamales are steaming and we see what we have really created.....
I have to go now, I hear Thad in the kitchen opening cans. I think he is making a cake and I would like to supervise......

The Starship of the Imagination.

I took the perfect picture of the kids iguana floating in the bathtub the other day. I knew I had to do something with it. Donn M came over and helped me with all the new filters he gave us and showed me the way. I like this alot. My iguana is floating in a recently photographed and newly discovered star......Complete with the lightening bolt that started it all. Such power I have. Will it be used for good or evil? I shall meditate on this.

Joes place

My betrothed and I took the kids to meet Joe. Joe is the guy we met 2 years ago at Pig fest and he happens to live on the river we fish on. He lives in a cabin and there are caves on his land. This guy is what we aspire to be one day.... Off the grid. He has a wonderful home in the mountains with a view that could cause you to never leave. I could live very simply for a view like that! He took us for a walk around and showed us his "living room" which is a great big cliff and overhang that he has picnic tables so you can hang out. The kids explored, and we ate lunch and played with his cat. He gave me a walking stick that I like very much and he gave Donnie some feathers and bear skin to make flys with. I gave him a beautiful crystal. He is a real "hillbilly" and one of the nicest people I have ever met in my life. The kids were very impressed by him and his cabin.
I asked him about the "dino yard art" and he said it did escape from Dinosaur World so he brought it home. He is very cool, and if your lucky, one day you will meet him.

It's not the destination, it's the trip!

They kept asking if we were almost there........but we were going from place to place all day, taking them to the cool places we have discovered in NW Ark....Finally after being asked and asked, I busted out with the above phrase.... Donnie laughed at me for spouting off "Red Dirt Philosophy" to the kids, but they got it and settled down and had fun exploring the world with us.

Friday night swim party!

Thaddeus apparently making sure his shorts don't go anywhere during his big jump. 

Dillon mid air.... 

While donnie slaves away at his gig, the kids and I party hard in the hotel. 

Remnants of a damaging industry

Weekend trip with my clan

I am just going to say that 4 couples (complete with 2 pregnant women), 3 days and 2 hotel rooms with an ajoining door left open the entire time makes for really getting to know everyone well. We saw strange things, played alot of practical jokes, ("go ahead Jimmy try the door again, it's really open this time") ate some really bad food, and in general made the rooms stink to high heaven. It was fun. Here are the pictures, you can make the story up as you go!
(the toes are Doug's) (Donnie played an entire song on the floor of the stage with me after midnight, he said no one would notice and I don't think they did)

Picher Oklahoma

It seems like I have heard about Picher Oklahoma for years and all of the sinkholes and the Superfund site, but I have never seen the devastation from the mining that occurred there for so many years. While we were so close we went to go see them and I would have to say that I am ashamed at what we humans do to the Earth. There are entire city blocks GONE, swallowed by the earth, dead trees everywhere, almost no plants grow in all that lead and toxicity. The water runs an oily slick red rust color in Tar Creek. People not only have abandoned their homes, but even left vehicles parked in the drive to rot away. Ballparks and playgrounds are fenced off with barbed wire and US Government signs. The place is surreal, and very, very, sad. Please do your part and take care of what virgin soil we have left, it wasn't just given to us to destroy.

Here is some information about the history of the mines and their impact.

Tar Creek was once the location of extensive lead and zinc mining operations that has left more than 50 million tons of mine tailings in hundreds of piles and ponds over a 40-square mile area. Some of these piles are hundreds of feet tall (see photos) while others are as wide as several football fields. There are sinkholes and abandoned mineshafts everywhere. These mountains of lead and zinc waste completely surround the towns of Picher and Cardin located at the center of the site. The nearby towns of Commerce and Quapaw are also affected as are portions of the Quapaw tribal reservation. The Quapaw tribe owns most of the land which has been leased to people who have built homes on the site.
Dust contaminated with lead, cadmium and other toxic metals blow off these huge storage piles onto streets, homes and school yards throughout these communities. Not realizing that there was any danger, residents used this dust, known locally as "chat," to make driveways, foundations for their homes, or as fill for home improvement projects. Children innocently played on these piles often riding their bikes up and down them.
According to the USEPA, approximately 25 percent of the children living on the site have elevated blood lead levels, compared to a state average of 2 percent; approximately 1,600 residential homes have been identified with unsafe soil lead levels (having more than 500 ppm lead in soil); and five public water supply wells have been impacted. An estimated 28 billion gallons of acid mine water is draining from the mines, contaminating groundwater and spreading contamination across a vast watershed. Portions of the site are so severely scarred and disrupted by past mining activities that it looks like a lunar landscape. All this despite the fact that the EPA has already spent $107 million on cleanup.







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