The Erskine Family's
"LIVING BOOKS FOR THE EARS" Newsletter
A free service of www.homeschoolradioshows.com
November 10, 2005
In this issue:
Camping under an F2
Thomas Edison
Dear Friends,
This past weekend, our boy scout troop had an overnight campout at the park in the valley along the Green River in nearby Munfordville. It was a beautiful day, very warm and windy, not at all what you'd expect for a campout in November.
On into the night, the wind was brisk, the temps stayed warm, and all were peacefully sleeping in their respective tents -- until about a quarter after four in the morning. Suddenly the slight distant rumble of thunder got much louder, and lightning lit up the sky. The wind picked up. One of the scouts' parents drove in quickly to warn us that a hailstorm was coming -- time to get everyone out of the tents and under shelter until it passed. However, there WAS no shelter down in the park, so we herded several sleepy scouts to their parents' vehicles. The adult leaders started to secure our dining gear under a picnic shelter. A couple of parents set out for home.
A few minutes later, the lightning started flashing and popping like the finale of a fireworks show. The wind started screaming and the rain came in earnest. We ran for our trucks, which were parked just above the river bank. I flipped on my portable radio and heard the local DJ talking in frantic tones about the wind shear showing up in the radar images of the approaching storm. Suddenly he was cut off by a NWS bulletin: Tornado WARNING for Munfordville!!! I stuck my head out the door and said, "Tornado warning!" and the parent in the next car pointed at the hill behind us: "...and here it comes!"
I turned to see a huge, boiling, black cloud pouring down over the hill, bearing down on us like a dozen roaring semi-trucks. Hunkering down in the cab of my pickup, I prayed -- fervently, I might add -- as the wind whipped around the truck, bouncing it up and down and rocking it side to side. For a brief moment, I thought we were all about to flip over the embankment into the river -- and then, it was gone.
Immediately after the tornado passed, the winds calmed down and there was a brief light drizzle. We stood around, counted heads, and counted our blessings. It seemed that the tornado (an F2, as we later found out) went directly over us and the park, but fortunately (Providentially) for us did not *quite* reach the ground down in the valley. Instead, it sheared off the trees above us and all down the river, just about ten feet above the ground. Pretty darn close. The camping area where we had all been sleeping minutes before was covered with downed trees. Tents, gear, the park's porta potties and concession building were strewn everywhere. But nobody was hurt. All our guys kept their heads and came through it like troopers.
When daylight came an hour or so later, our boys began to pick up their gear, our Scout Moms worked on breakfast (the boys were a little TOO rattled to do that), and a few of us picked our way up the hill to check out what happened in town. It was surreal. Dozens of businesses and homes damaged and destroyed. Roads impassable. Walls down, roofs gone, buildings blown out, electric poles sheared off, garages in the street, trees uprooted, power lines, cinder blocks, wood and debris everywhere. It really did look like several bombs had gone off. And amazingly, no one in Munfordville was killed or even seriously injured.
So this week, while we count our blessings and pick up the pieces here in Hart County, I'm also searching for one other thing. Surely, somewhere on the internet, I should be able to find some sort of "tornado patch" to bestow on twelve brave young scouts who now have the "mother of all campout stories" to tell for years to come... to their kids and grandkids.
Ye Olde Holiday Resources
First, we have put together a delightful collection of 13 downloadable classic storybooks, recipe collections and even some vintage audio stories for you. The proceeds from this project are going directly to our Pastor (the young fellow who is going to seminary in Louisville and travelling back & forth to Munfordville twice each week for the whopping salary of $700 a month) to help him and his wife out a bit over the holidays, so I don't feel shy at all telling you that y'all really need to get a set of these great ebooks for yourself! Click here to take a look at all this stuff!
And here's our other resource for you this season (one we honestly can't imagine doing without ourselves). Our Favorite Holiday Stories Collection: Over 100 Classic Thanksgiving and Christmas Audio Programs in one delightful collection. These just MAKE the Holidays here at the Erskine homestead. If you want to fill your house with old-fashioned holiday cheer, YOU need this too.
Note: Be sure to take a look at this page soon, because for the next couple of weeks only, this page will also include a link to THREE holiday programs you can freely download for the kids. Give them a listen, then see what THEY say about this collection!
Click here to Preview Our Favorite Holiday Stories!
The program of the week:
The Story of Thomas EdisonThe three great essentials to achieving anything worthwhile are; first, hard work, second, stick-to-it-iveness, and third, common sense. Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. -- Thomas Edison
This week's program is a great complement to last week's stories about "Perseverance", for Thomas Edison persevered through many setbacks and heartaches to become one of the greatest inventors in modern history. Born in 1847, Edison would see tremendous change take place in his lifetime. He was also to be responsible for making many of those changes occur. When Edison was born, society still thought of electricity as a novelty, a fad. By the time he died, entire cities were lit by electricity. Much of the credit for that progress goes to Edison. Listen to his fascinating life story from his enterprising boyhood to revered scientist and inventor in this EXCELLENT episode of "Proudly We Hail", as originally broadcast on July 20, 1952. (Note: All homeschoolers will really get a kick out of the opening scenes of this play.)
Resource: A great site on Edison and his times, with lots of interesting links.
Enjoy!
Best Wishes,
The Erskine FamilyPS. If you are enjoying the shows we provide here, would you do us a favor? Tell a few homeschooling friends about our free programs of the week... and let them know they can subscribe to our mailing list simply by filling out the form at: www.homeschoolradioshows.com. Thank you so much!
Now there are THREE WAYS you can keep up with all that's going on here at homeschoolradioshows.com. Take your pick:1) Email notices when each weekly newsletter is published. Just fill out the form at www.homeschoolradioshows.com, and you'll be in the loop!2) Our neat Living Books EXPRESS program automatically notifies you of updates, lets you access our archives, & more!
3) The homeschoolradioshows.com BLOG is now online too! Check it out here!
LINKS TO SOME OF OUR OTHER FINE RESOURCES: Our outstanding CD collections: Start here. You'll be amazed at all the wonderful CDs we have available. Don't pass up these amazing resources!
Our FREE Special Reports: Learn how to transfer our programs to CD or cassette, get advice for using our programs in your homeschooling, & much more helpful info!
Our Favorite Homeschool Science Experiments! Over 40 great hands-on activities to enhance your homeschool studies! Check this out!
Prospecting for eBay GOLD at Yard Sales! Here's a great resource for those of you wanting to make some extra money on eBay. Discover the often overlooked items that sell for big profits on eBay!
The Healthy Family Guide to Herbs & Herbal Remedies: A great primer on using natural herbs for all kinds of ailments... how to find herbs in the wild... growing your own... much more.
The Soap, Essential Oils & Fragrance Maker's Profits Library:
1012 great ebooks to help you make wonderful bath, aromatherapy and pampering products -- and make an extra income too! Crafters take note!The Merchant Maiden / Earning & Learning - Two great home business resources for your young people. Chock full of terrific ideas and inspiration.
Word Keys that Unlock the Scriptures: WONDERFUL audio Bible studies by Dr. Duane Edward Spencer. A great FREE resource for those who want do "dig deep" into the scriptures.
G. A. Henty Audiobooks on cassette or CD. Great readings of books by a master storyteller!
READ THE INSTRUCTIONS below if you are unfamiliar with downloading a file or are having any problems with your download.
To download a program, RIGHT click (use the right hand button on your mouse) the link above, and "save target as" (or "save link as") to the directory of your choice.
The file should start downloading right away. If it doesn't, try it again, and follow these instructions carefully. (DON'T cut and paste this link into your web browser -- that will just PLAY the program over the internet (it will be jumpy and start & stop a lot), and will not DOWNLOAD the program. If you want to download it to your computer, you need to follow the above instructions.)
NOTE: If the file just starts playing over your computer right away, that's because you clicked the link with the LEFT hand button on your mouse. You need to click the RIGHT HAND button to download the whole show to your computer.
IF you right click the link and your computer does not allow you to "save target", you need to adjust your computer's security settings (or disable your "internet content advisor" settings) to allow downloaded files.
MAC USERS: In order to download these files, hold down the Control key then click the link with your mouse. It will then download to the directory you choose.
If your download is unusually slow, it could be because our server is busy or overtaxed. You might try again at a later hour. It should - eventually - work fine.
This file will be available for the next week or two only, so don't put off downloading it if you want a copy.
----------------------------------------------------------
PLEASE...
TELL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT THIS FREE SERVICE --
JUST SEND THEM TOWWW.HOMESCHOOLRADIOSHOWS.COM
Thanks again! We really appreciate your help in getting the word out about our programs!
See you next week!
Your Friends,
The Erskine Family
PO Box 187 * Canmer, KY 42722
www.homeschoolradioshows.com
Questions? Click here to email us
Copyright 2005, Homeway Press, all rights reserved
