We put up our Christmas tree on Friday the 7th. It looks nice in front of our picture window.

this is with the flash

this is without the flash

Suprisingly, this is a fake tree from my grandpa's (my grandma died just over a year ago). It looks so real! We put it up in the daytime and put the lights on. Then in the evening we put all the ornaments on it and took a couple pics.

We also went sledding the next day. It was great! There is a hill 5 minutes from where we live. Some kids built a ramp out of snow on the hill, and we had fun snowboarding and sledding off it.

My brother Kyle was in a pen where we keep two male goats, and he scared up a rabbit. The rabbit ran into our chicken yard. Our cat Ginger was in the chicken yard, and she started chasing it. Rabbit ran to the end of the fence, where our dog Angel was standing at the ready. She started rearing up and barking. This rabbit has a secret refuge in our pigpen and ran into there, and then out the other end, where I happened to be standing. I chased it along our barn untill it came upon bloodthirsty Ranger, our other dog, who was stuck behind an electric underground wire. If it hadn't been for that wire, he would have snagged that rabbit. Rabbit ran behind our grain bin. I ran aroud the other side and the rabbit ran into this pile of wooden beams by our grain bin. I tried to scare It up, but had no luck. How's that for a wild goose chase-no, a wild rabbit chase!    

My brother kyle and I have been having fun with what we call the "ice harvest".

I've told you before that we have a pool, and that each winter we have to close it. Well, the hard work pays off. That is, for Kyle and I.

When rainwater accumulates in the pool cover, Kyle and I take long, sturdy sticks and perforate the ice, making an outline of a block. We then pry the ice up, making a sheet. Then we pull the ice up onto our deck (not an easy job) and, in my case, take pictures. You will see that in one pic, the sheets are smaller. Well, that is because when we perforate the ice, some of it breaks into small pieces. 

I suppose you want to see pictures of our unusual trophies. Here they are.   

these are some of our biggest ones

here is our prize

and here's what the cover looked like after our handywork

WARNING!   My brother and I have been harvesting ice for 3 years, giving us 3 years of practice. DO NOT try to harvest ice yourself without proper  safety and, if needed, permission, which could result in hypothermia or drowning.

I've been doing a lot this week because my grandfather came over. We had a great thanksgiving! Some of my aunts and uncles came over. We played football and had a HUGE thanksgiving dinner! Before dinner we had chips and artichoke dip. After dinner everybody had pie and cookies and ice cream and  played a board game. I drew, cut out, and painted a leafless tree out of paper, and me, Kyle and Kaitlyn made paper leaves that you write what you're thankful for on and hang them up on the tree. after everybody left  it looked like a real tree!

I was tagged by Gaelin.   When you are tagged, you're supposed to link to the tagger, post the rules, post 7 random things about yourself, and let someone else know you tagged them by a comment or message.

                                                                      7 Random Things About Me

1. My birthday (feb.22) is the same day as George Washigton's.

2.My favorite sport is baseball, but football is a close second.

3.I don't celebrate halloween.

4. I've ran 19 races.

5. My favorite food is a dish my mom invented called ground beef parmesean.

6.My favorite song is John Henry.

7.I am not allergic to anything.

I will tag Abigail and HillmanAcres.

I said in my last track meet entry that it would be the "last one". There was another one, though.

Gaelin asked me what a track meet really was. Well Gaelin, and anybody else, a track meet is a race that running teams compete in as a group. A lot of times they are high school teams. They all wear uniforms, too.

This one was bigger than most meets, because almost all the teams in the state come to this one race. This is because you can qualify to go to the nationals in Virginia (in which all the teams in the country compete in) in this meet. I can't go to nationals because it's too far away.

I got a great time of 13:29. That is a PR (personal record) by almost 20 seconds.

 P.S.- sorry I didn't post for a long time.

If you live as up north as I do, you'll have noticed by now that God is showing his signs of cold weather. I don't know what to think about that. The past winters have started out fun and exiting, with playing in the snow and christmas and everything, but then there's having to do chores in ten degrees below zero, waking up cold in the morning, and closing up your pool.

I know what you'r thinking. He has a pool?!  Yes, I've been on homestead blogger for 5 months now, and I never told you-we have an above-ground pool that is a big pain to close every winter. All the hubub with the winter pool cover is finally over, and I couldn't be more glad!

We also mowed the grass for the last time. We have a riding mower that we drive around in a circle every time we mow our lawn, and after a while, driving in a circle all summer gets pretty boring. It's one of those jobs that you don't like to do, but in the end are always satisfying.

Today I went to the dentist. I had to get some of my teeth filled and sealed. I really can't say exactly every detail. All I know is that it was a big series of squirting water and fillings into my mouth, sticking swabs in, and putting this stuff on my gums that was for sealing up a small puncture and that if I got on my tongue, tasted nasty. At least now I'm able to say that I have no cavities!     

I told you you'd get sick of hearing about my track meets. This one is the last one.

It was, again, 3,000 meters. and my time, again, was 13:48. I probably should've done it faster, but the week before I was sick with the fever (that was the reason I didn't write for a long time). Sorry I couldn't put the results up. They didn't show up very good.

I did 3 track meets this month so far. I thought I would tell you about them.

The first one was on the 6th. It was In Belvidere, a town right close to us. It was 3,000 meters, just like the last one, the practice meet. I did not do as well, though. my time was 14:33. It was hot that day, and nobody did as good as they wanted to.

The next one was in Rockford, another town near us, on the 10th at a high school. It was 1.5 miles long. It was very cold that day (can't we get a nice day around here?!).  My time was in the 11 30's.

Today I did one called the handicap meet. It, too, was in Rockford. What the coach did was take all the team's times and started the slowest person first, the 2nd slowest 2nd, and so on, and try to make them finish at all the same time.

 I am going goose hunting today. If (or, rather, when) I get a goose, I'll let you know.