Month: November 2008

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Lego competition is right around the corner

I didn’t realize that the First Lego League competition is next weekend.  Man we still have a lot to do.  The kids pretty much have the robot programed to do everything it’s supposed to do for the competition.  Now the kids really have to work on their presentation they have to give.

I wish I had been to last years competition so I would know more about what to expect but I’m walking into this blind in a lot of ways.  I can honestly say that I have enjoyed this more than a lot of things I have gotten involved in over the past few years since my kids left home.  I just wish I would have known about this when my sons could have gotten involved.

Check out the First Lego League and you just might want to get involved too.  It’s a great program.

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Happy Thanksgiving

All my children are home, my Indian family is here along with my white family.  We are having a ‘true’ Thanksgiving complete with Native Americans just as the first one had.  It’s that a wonderful day!!  I look at my family and am so very proud to be a part of both of them.

There is so much love and respect in my home today that I couldn’t ask for anymore.  The turkey’s cooking, and all the fixings are cooking too so the house not only is full of love but it’s full of the heavenly smell of a wonderful dinner.

Here’s wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday!!  May your day be truly Blessed like mine is!!!

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Lego League update

Well I am having a blast working with the kids on the First Lego League team.  Our competition is on December 3rd so we are running out of time.  It’s going great so far.  We have come up with a name for the team.  It’s I Bots.  I standing for Intelligent, Bots for the robotic Lego of course.  The logo is going to be a large eye with the eyeball being the earth instead of just a regular eyeball.  That is to symbolize us having an eye on our planet.  Pretty cool huh?  The kids came up with that.

I must admit, I am quite impressed with not only the ability of these kids but also with their ideas for the challenge.  It’s supposed to be about helping global warming.  We’re focusing on the use of Sorgum to make Ethanol to help with emissions to keep down global warming.  Pretty smart kids and something that I can see myself working with for many years.  I can’t wait for the competition.  I hope we do well, well I hope the kids do well because they have worked so hard.

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And now down come the leaves

Fall is living up to it’s name.  Leaves are falling like snow.  All it takes is a little puff of wind and the skies are full of yellow, red, orange, and brown leaves.  It’s quite pretty but someone has to get them up.  That someone is ME!!

Thank goodness I have one of those attachments that goes on my riding mower that sucks the leaves up.  The thought of raking and raking and raking just gives me a backache simply thinking of it.  These things are great but one things for sure, you get dirtier than you ever did as a kid playing in the dirt.

Another good thing about them is the mower actually chops the leaves up some and I then put them on my garden before I turn it under.  That helps to feed the soil, keep it moist in the summer and is a great way to compost the leaves when you have as many as we do.  I would guess there are about 25 trees in my yard so that’s a lot of leaves.

I’m so glad we had 4 cut down and 16 topped so they aren’t producing as many leaves as they did before we had that done.  I donated the wood from the trees to a local man that didn’t have any heat besides a wood stove and was quite poor.  He came and picked up the wood and split it himself so all we had to do was pay someone to cut the trees down and top the rest.  Between the tree guys and the guy we gave the wood to, we didn’t have to clean up anything.  In fact, I bet the guy got enough wood to heat his house for 2 winters.  I hope so anyway.

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Veterans honored today as it should be

There have been several in both my white family and my Indian family that have served in the military in all branches.  I am very proud to honor each and every one of them on this day.  Sunday my wife and I went to all of the graves that are local to us and put flowers and American flags on each of them.  It’s a small gesture but a way to honor those that are no longer with us.

Each and every one of us needs to thank a veteran today for the sacrifice they and their families have made to serve our country.  Find a veteran, tell them ‘Thank You’ and make sure they know how much you appreciate them and their family.  If there’s an older veteran in your neighborhood, ask them if there’s something you can do for them on this day.  Maybe they need some help with something or their yard raked.  Whatever it is, give back to them for what they gave to us.

That’s just a suggestion of a way each of us can honor a Veteran.  It doesn’t matter what you do, just make sure to honor those that are gone and still living because without them, we would not have the freedoms we have today.  I’ll sure be doing something for the WWII Veteran in my neighborhood.  I do every year, all year long in fact.

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Tribal customs

Today is the day the citizens of the United States vote for their president.  Well did you know that the American Indians also vote for their leader?  Some tribes chose their Chief in other ways but usually a Chief is chosen by a vote.  They aren’t usually voted out though, unless they really do something that harms the tribe.

I don’t know of a single Chief within our tribe that was ever taken out as our Chief.  I have often wondered if we call the president the Commander and Chief because of the American Indians or does that term come from something else?  I need to see if I can find out how they came by that title.  If you already know, please let me know.