Skirt Giveaway

One of the blogs which I follow is Feminine Farmgirl, written by a girl living on a small farm with her 7 siblings (what my family is hoping to do). Right now her mother is having a giveaway of a skirt pattern and fabric which ends tomorrow. To enter go to The Regan Family Farm Blog or click on the link on my sidebar.

Lauren Ashley

Trip Pictures

Here are a some pictures from the last few days. Right now I am tired, but I can probably do a longer post tomorrow. We are currently in Louisiana, and hope to be at my Grandpa's house in Mississippi by 6am in the morning.






All seven of us kids (clockwise: Pierce, Lucas, Zoe, Thomas, Stephen, Me, Xiana can't be seen.)






Mojave Desert (with Mesas in the background)






Grand Canyon






Close up of Grand Canyon






Windmills in Texas (I am in the bottom left behind the gate)

Lauren


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Arizona and a Desert

Last night we passed through the Mojave Desert. Even though we could not see most of it, we were still at the edge when the sun rose. The desert was covered with rough reddish-yellow sand and rocks. There were grey-green bushes and tumbleweed growing all over the dry ground. Right now Arizona looks pretty much the same. The road runs straight through the flat land, with large hills and rock formations rising on either side. The hills are crested with sharp red rock, spilling down the side into the yellow sand. The red Mesas rise high above the road with wind-smoothed rocks jutting out the steep sides. A train track runs parallel to the road, and occasionally a train with 100 cars (I am not joking, we counted them) travels beside us, going on... And on... And on... Seeming to never end.

I hope that this gives a clear description of what I am traveling through, since I can't post any pictures yet.

Lauren Ashley

Our Trip Starts

Our trip has started! We are driving from San Jose all the way to Mississippi. Several of our friends have said that it sounds crazy, but that is the type of trip that our family takes. Not only are we driving all the way, but we are doing it in 3-4 days, staying with family in Mississippi for a week, and then driving back in 3 days. We are planning to go to the Grand Canyon, Petrified forest and Meteor Crater. We have now been traveling for six hours, and will be getting to the Grand Canyon tomorrow. I cannot post any pictures right now, but so far we have just driven through miles and miles of farmland; vineyards, orchards, strawberry fields, onion fields, and even fields of red and green dandelions.

Lauren    

Make Fair

Last Saturday my family went to the Maker Faire in San Mateo. This fair includes many people who make anything from steam-punk bicycles to hand-made clothes to lightning timed to music.  A few of the things there were useful and beautiful, others were slightly odd, and others were... just strange. Some of the most interesting things were steam-punk style bicycles, the Sound Cave, and the erector set electric motorcycles.

Steam-punk bicycles 

The steam-punk bicycles (though they had more than two wheels) were all powered solely by the pedaling of the riders. All of the pedals were hooked up by gears and chains to the front wheels. The wide wheels were made using pieces of thick plastic with flattened bike tires screwed onto the outside.

Pierces' favorite was the erector set motorcycle. It was powered by electric batteries, behind the paper and behind the orange straps in the pictures. The way that the metal bars and plates were set up made the motorcycle height adjustable, and made it easy to build.

My favorite was the Sound Cave. It was a wooden box about 5ft by 5ft by 5ft with one narrow opening which was used to enter by. The strings and frame of pianos attached to all the inside walls and the ceiling. The piano strings are played by tapping or plucking like a harp. Because it was inside of a closed, hard space, the sound echoed over and over (thus the name Sound Cave). If you just listened to the music, you would guess that the instrument was a lot larger and complex than it was in reality.

Lauren Ashley