Cardinal Crash

A couple of years ago, I was walking around minding my own business, when I heard something wham against the window.  Distracted by the sound, I looked out the window and there was a Cardinal bird.  That is the Illinois state bird!  I wanted to get it before the cats did, so I ran out and picked it up.  I found out that it was a male. 

The male cardinal bird is completely red except the black around their short, cone shaped beak and near their eyes. They get their red color from the food that they eat. They mate for life, so I wondered where his mate was hiding.

A full-size cardinal bird can grow up to seven and a half to nine inches long.  The one that I found was about seven inches long.  His eyes were closed, and I wasn’t sure if he was alive or not.  I brought the cardinal bird inside and showed him to Mom. She said that he was knocked out when he flew into the window.  He thought that the window was not there because it reflected the sky.  She said that we could put him in a cage until he was awake and ready to fly away. 

About thirty minutes later he was ready to fly, so we let him go. I gently took him out of the cage, and we went outside on the porch.  He wanted to fly away, and we let him take off.  I was hoping that he wouldn’t hit the window again.  It was exciting to see him take flight!

“Then God said, …… let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.” Genesis1:20 

~Isaac

Big Foot 5

Two weeks ago, all of us kids got to go back with Ryan and Amanda and spend ten days at their house in Oklahoma! On the way down to Oklahoma, we stopped in a smaller town to look at Bigfoot 5! The enormous vehicle is the biggest monster truck in the world, built by Bob Chandler, the founding father of monster trucks! Its ten-foot-tall tires are so big that 7 people can fit in the wheel hub standing up! Bigfoot 5 is a blue Ford truck, with black tires, white wheel hubs, and weighs 28,000 pounds! 

While Bigfoot 5 was in the Missouri town called Pacific, it actually is based out of St. Louis.  When the huge truck is not in his parking lot, he’s probably out at some car show or demo derby. Bigfoot 5 likes to go to car shows and demo derbies, but he never races or wrecks. The enormous vehicle is four-wheel drive, and both front and back wheels can turn, allowing it to drive sideways! There are at least 16 Bigfoot monster trucks in the world, but Bigfoot 5 is the biggest of them all. 

Right across the road from Bigfoot 5, is Bigfoot 1! Bigfoot 1 is a good deal smaller than Bigfoot 5 but is bigger than most big trucks. Bigfoot 1 has tall black wheels and has a blue body like Bigfoot 5.

I am so happy that we stopped to see Bigfoot 5. It was amazing to stand up under a truck and still have enough room to move. It is the biggest monster truck I’ve ever seen! We had lots of fun looking at Bigfoot 5, the tallest, widest, heaviest monster truck that ever was.   

 ~Samuel

(Photo Credit- Amanda Cox)

Autumn Acorns Again!

It is autumn! I like it when it is autumn. 

The oak trees are starting to drop their acorns.  They are the seed of the tree.  Oak trees start making acorns when they are twenty years old.  They are amazing because they can produce lots of acorns.  One tree can make up to 90,000 acorns a year!  Pigs, donkeys, horses, mice, deer, and squirrels eat the acorns.

My favorite thing to do when we have lots of acorns is to paint faces on them. That is very fun to do. I go outside and find them laying on the ground.  I pick them up and take them inside. Then I draw faces on them. I sometimes like to keep the cap on their heads and draw hair.

With leaves from oak trees, I made a tree on a piece of paper. It took glue, sticks, leaves, and a marker. It was amazing. I first glued the leaves to a piece of paper.  I used the marker to draw the trunk.  Then I glued sticks on the trunk. Did you know that oak trees can live up to a thousand years old? Now you know!

I like autumn because there are a lot of things to do with acorns and leaves and sticks. The oak is incredible! 

~Unique

Wolf Spider

A couple weeks ago, I was walking along in the field and there on the ground was a little hole. I stopped, got a little stick, and poked it down the little hole to see what would come out. I poked for a little while, but nothing would come out. I was about to give up, then a big wolf-spider popped out for one second and darted back into his hole. I poked around in his hole a little harder and the spider came out again, but before it had time to go back into his hole, I blocked it up and caught it.

Wolf spiders have especially good eyesight.  They have eight eyes. They have two big eyes and six little ones. Because of their six eyes, wolf spiders are excellent hunters.  Wolf spiders also have a very good sense of touch.  They can feel when something is coming because they sense vibrations.

A wolf spider mom carries its babies on its back. There can be as many as 200 spiderlings riding on their mother’s back. I think it is amazing that all the spiderlings can hang on and not fall off. Wolf spiders are the only spiders known to carry their babies on their back.

spiders live in all kinds of places and are all different sizes. Did you know that they can be as big as the palm of your hand, or as little as the head of a nail? People once thought that wolf spiders hunted in packs as wolves do. That is how they got their name. I don’t think that is true, but they do hunt at night.

Wolf spiders are one of my top favorite spiders. They are very cool to watch and are amazing hunters.

~Jonah

Ushering In the Autumn Equinox

Wednesday, September 22, 2021, at promptly 2:21pm, the sun crossed the celestial equator and we welcomed autumn to Southern Illinois!  Fall time is always an exciting time here at Providence Prairie!  We've been planning all year and working hard "putting by" for the winter.  We've frozen, canned, dried and stored a plethora of harvested provisions for colder weather. The fall equinox confirms that cooler weather is coming, and winter is on its way.

Our day had a delightful crispness in the air- ideal for welcoming the change of season.  Summer attire was not called for! After cleaning and decorating the house for fall time, we enjoyed a pleasant fire in the evening coolness. 

Ever wonder why some years the autumnal equinox is on one day and another year finds it a day later?  It's due to the difference between our Gregorian calendar year of 365 days and the actual time it takes the sun to circuit the earth of 365 ¼ days.  Each subsequent autumnal equinox falls about six hours later than the one before it. That means we should mark our calendars for 8:21pm for 2022.  It seems like I remember it always falling on the 21st when I was growing up, but after a little research, I was surprised to find that it hasn't happened on the 21st for several millennia.  Since Noah wasn't my contemporary, I don't think it has happened in my lifetime!  But we can look forward to 2092 and 2096 where it will fall on the 21st once again!  I don't think I will see those either!

“Equinox” actually comes from the Latin for equal and night.  It is one of two times each year when day and night are very close to twelve hours each.  The second time each year is of course, the vernal or spring equinox.

It is said that the aurora borealis is more often seen during the equinoxes.  This is due to the geomagnetic activity being twice as likely to take place during these periods.  We're certainly going to be on the lookout.  We've seen the northern lights once before here at Providence Prairie, and it was such a breathtaking experience!  We're certainly going to be scrutinizing the evening skies again!

As Fall time is officially here now, it’s time to pull out those cozy sweaters and comfy fall time clothes to meet the autumn.  The leaves are changing, the goldenrod is in full bloom, the birds are gathering to migrate, and we are ready for whatever God has in store.

~Rhonda

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

We recently had the privilege of going to the St. Louis Cardinals ballgame, and the best part was that they were playing the Cincinnati Reds! 

Being a Reds fan in my youth and since moving to Cardinal country, I've never really been quite sure who to root for. So this game was the best of both worlds.

We went with Ryan and Amanda and children, who are diehard Cards fans. (Ryan has switched Amanda over.) Going together made for interesting interaction, as our group was cheering no matter who made the play or who scored! 

It was also the 20th  anniversary of the bombing of the Twin Towers, which had special meaning for Ryan as St. Louis Christian college was to perform the national anthem on the first game back in Bush Stadium after 9/11. That was twenty years ago that he stood down on the field! The pregame show that we hustled to see was both encouraging and exciting. It was topped off by a flyover from the air force! Right over the top of the stadium, the four jets zoomed, flying in special formation. 

This was the first major league ball game our children still at home have been to and they were all very excited! Everyone dressed the part with red, supporting either side. Isaac was able to wear my old t shirt  sporting my favorite Cincinnati player from the Big Red Machine in the 1970s. He was proud to wear Tony Perez emblazoned across his chest and unabashedly rooted for the Reds.

The Reds and the Cardinals are both vying for the wild card spot and the Reds came out swinging early in the game hitting two home runs and securing a four run lead.  The cardinals battled back, however,  and in the eighth inning they took the lead and went on to win the game. 

It was an exciting and enjoyable game filled with normal baseball park hype and fun.

~Mark

Seeds of Change

We hired our neighbor to plant our fields in corn this year. It was unusual to see the soil turned as the land has been in hay for the past many years. The furrows turning beneath the plow turned a new page here at Providence Prairie.

It has been a joy to watch the seedlings sprout, grow, and flourish. Early summer saw the tassels form and brought the excitement of a helicopter spraying the crop. The ears soon followed. 

As September has arrived, the crop has turned its golden hue in preparation for the harvest. Somehow, it's exciting, yet melancholy. Those two feelings aren't typical bedfellows, it would seem. Yet, I find myself experiencing both.

Summer is quickly coming to a close. That gives me pause. I love the autumn months, but inevitably, time past is never retrieved. John Wooden once said, "Without proper self-evaluation, failure is inevitable." As each season comes to a close, we take the time to reflect, reorient and move forward. The possibilities that the future holds are always exciting, yet the door closed on recent time feels somewhat nostalgic.

Nevertheless, whether it's actual seeds or seeds of change, it's amazing to think that tiny little seedlings took root, grew, and are now ready to harvest a crop of a hundredfold!

~Rhonda