Trembling, built-in field trips, and other misc. musings

They're widening the road that runs up the hill past our house. Friday they broke up the pavement and flattened the dirt, and deposited a gigantic cement section of....drainage pipe? I'm really not sure....at the base of our yard. Today there's all sorts of heavy equipment digging the road down deeper and widening it out. The "roller truck" that flattens the dirt makes our whole house vibrate! I'm sure we'll have to move the mailbox.

However, there are some great plusses. My homeschooled children can name the different kinds of construction vehicles better than their "teacher." :) They enjoy congregating outside and watching the action, though I wonder if the neighbors appreciate that part, since the dump truck driver rarely fails to humor them when they signal him to pull his horn every time he drives by!

Actually this at-home field trip started a couple of years ago. There are some grandiose condos being built about a quarter mile up the street, so the first modification we got to watch was the installation of new power poles and lines to carry the extra electricity. A couple of really cool things happened that time. I got some free firewood for our woodstove just by asking, and the fellow who installed the actual lines took both of my oldest two children up for a ride in his cherry picker truck - said he does it for his grandkids all the time. They came back into the house and made him truck-shaped thank you notes.

The kids were also very impressed that if we were to put daddy into one of the 6 foot holes they dug for the new power poles, only 3 inches of him would stick out the top! Mom would be 4 inches under, LOL.

There are so many opportunities to learn new things presenting themselves every day. I am not an "unschooler," we like to hit the books too, but there are some situations that you really shouldn't pass up, especially when they're literally right outside your door!

Speaking of once in a lifetime chances, my precious four year old wants me to read to her, so I'll come back to blog another time, this is an opportunity not to be missed!