Fearless Hummingbirds

Mom & Dad in Auberry have been feeding the Hummingbirds for a while. They've become used to people changing the water in the feeders; fearless may be a better word. Kevin went to change on of the feeders and the birds were all over it before he got it hung up. They were busy eating, but were continually watching Kevin too. In the picture, you can see one bird looking Kevin right in the eye. Lora took this pic through the kitchen window.

volcanos, explosions, and lava

My fifth grade class made volcanos in school. My teacher, Mr. Karagozion, divided us into six groups We started by getting our supplies: cardboard, newspaper, a water bottle, paper mache, brown or black paint, paintbrushes, vinegar, baking soda, scotch tape, and red food coloring. In five days we had finished it and erupted it.

The first day we took the water bottle [cut the top off] and taped it to the cardboard. We also crumpled up the newspaper and taped it to the water bottle the size and shape we wanted it. The second day we did paper mache. The third day we painted it. The fourth day we added plants and animals. The fifth day we poured the baking soda in the cut water bottle, then we added a few drops of red food coloring to a cup of vinegar and poured it into the vent. There was a big fizzle! It was cool and fun and it stunk!

Amanda

My Letter to the Editor

'Each voter's voice'
09/14/07 The Fresno Bee

It is so frustrating to watch Democrats and Republicans bicker, their arguments with each other changing depending on what benefits them the most.

Right now Democrats are trying to block a ballot proposal that would allow individual election districts to award electoral votes to the winner of the district vote. Rest assured that if this initiative were to benefit them rather than possibly hinder them, they would be rattling their sabers on the other side of the fence.

This change to the electoral college system is a long time in coming. What is wrong with letting each voter's voice speak louder than it has in the past? In the 1992 presidential election, I was driving to the polls when it was announced over the radio who the winner was in California. I hadn't even voted yet! How is that making my vote count? How is that letting my voice be heard?

No wonder we have such low voter turnout. At least when I call "American Idol," my individual vote gets counted. It doesn't matter who is bringing this ballot initiative to the table, the important thing is that it is finally there.

Lora Nehring

34 Finds and even more Family!

Today was a fun day! This morning we drove from Kerman down to Castaic for our neice and nephew's first birthday party. We left really early so we stopped part of the way down to watch the sun rise. That was neat!

We got to Castaic, and just as I said to the girls, "There's Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Renee's house," we saw Jeremy was pull out, so we exited the freeway and then followed them to Heritage Park for the party. There were a LOT of people there to celebrate Lily and Zachary's first birthday! Renee's mom and three of her sisters and several neices and nephews were there, and on Jeremy's side, including us, my mom, Kathryn came down from Alaska and my dad, Don, brought great-gma Willie down from Fresno.

It was HOT! It was so very, very hot! It was 100 degrees and very humid! As Jeremy said, when they planned the party it was the coolest summer on record, and who knew it would be so incredibly hot! Yikes! (At 7:00pm we took a photo of our car's thermometer - it was STILL 107 degrees!)

The theme of the party was the Backyardagains, and the kids played pin the necktie on one of the characters, and my mom had made some cupcakes with the characters on them. They looked great and when it was time for the twins to have their cake, they had a wonderful time getting frosting all over the place! It was great!

After the party we went back to Jer and Renee's and spent a few hours visiting. When it was obvious that Katrina needed a nap and wasn't going to even try with all that was going on, we left and went to do some geocaching on the way home.

Before today we had a record of 27 finds in one day, but thanks to the plethora of caches in the LA area, we were able to find a record-breaking 34 caches in one day! And that includes a record 0 no finds as well! There were some that were simple park and grabs. In fact the way we approached one cache made it so we didn't even have to get out of the car! Then there were also some really new and different ones. We even found one that was hidden in a camoflauged metal film reel canister. We have never seen that kind of hide before. We also found several benchmarks and made several travel bug trades. We cached until we were having to use a flashlight to find, and then it was time to head home. It was a really long, but a very fun day!

See the Party pics here.