Black Walnuts

We have a black walnut tree on the side of our house that provides good shade in the summer and a nice limb for the tire swing.  However, in the fall it drops all those walnuts.  It wouldn't be so bad but that is the part of the yard we use the most.  It makes tire swinging like a game of dodgeball  and walking around like a game of twister ... ankle twister, that is.  So a couple of Saturdays ago I spent an hour or so picking them up off the ground...look at all those walnuts! 

Oh, and here's what my gloves looked like afterward:

I don't ordinarily like to use gloves much but those walnuts have an outer husk that leave a strong smell on your hands and can stain them for life (nearly).  When the walnuts are dry enough, the husks come off and underneath is the hard shell.  Now, that shell is very hard and you have to have a hammer (or squirrel teeth) to crack it open.  There are special black walnut crackers you can get; they are huge with an anvil area to hold them and an extra long lever handle and press to crack them.  Anyway, if you manage to get them open, you'll be rewarded with large pieces (or halves if you're lucky) of black walnuts which have their own special flavor.

Wanna try them?  I'll trade you some for pecans.  :)

Tree Limb Crossing

One morning, a couple of weeks back, Big T came running in after taking out the trash saying that a tree limb had fallen across the road.  That was a surprize to me because we hadn't had any strong winds, so I tried looking out the window and even stood on the porch trying to see it.  The garage was blocking the view so I went out with Big T and Little A and sure enough a big limb had fallen down (mostly) across the road.  Of course they felt it was blog worthy so I took a picture with them and Squeakers (our cat) next to it.

Never a dull moment out here in the country...no siree...never a dull moment.

Hay Bales

It wouldn't be fall without hay bales.  This picture really doesn't do justice to the sheer number that are in that field because you can't see all the way to the back.  There must be hundreds!

Playing in the Stream

Wow, I didn't realize how long it's been since I've posted anything until I saw the date of the last post.  Our schedule has really picked up with all the activites and now I have a whole backload of posts to put up.

A few weeks ago, after the rain subsided somewhat, Big T and Little A asked if we could walk to the stream.  We had been cooped up in the house for a few days because of all the heavy rain and when the sun started to shine again we just had to get out.  So, after lunch, off to the stream we went.

Of course, it's hard to go to the stream without putting just your toes in.  After your toes are in, it seems silly not to put your feet in.  Then, if your feet are in you must try wading a bit, with your pants rolled up.  And before you know it, somehow those pants get unrolled and you're practically swimming.  "That's okay," Big T assures Little A  "we have a country mom, she won't mind."  Lol. 

So here they are at the stream....

  

And with a "friend"...

Enjoy the sunshine while it lasts!

Floody, Floody Day

Wednesday was fair recuperation day.  It's a good thing, because it rained non-stop all day.  Our yard was flooded, all of the roads were flooded, the swamp behind my house was flooded, the stream and woods were flooded.  It was a good day to stay home and rest.

Let's Go to the Fair!

It's fair week! Yay! Our family loves the county fair! 

Tuesday morning is the day to enter any crafts or food items you've made during the year.  Usually the week or so before the fair I give the kids a couple of boxes and we go on a scavenger hunt through the house to find things we've made during the year to enter.  It's always fun and surprizing to see how much we've done through the year!  Big T entered 8 items, Little A entered 7, and even I found 3 things to enter.  Judging is done on Wednesday and we pick up our items (and ribbons and checks) on Sunday afternoon.  So, we'll have to wait 'til then to see how we did.

After entering all our items it was pouring down rain so we walked around inside to look at all the exhibit booths (including our 4H club's) by local organizations, merchants, etc.  Then when the rain subsided a bit we went out to the livestock barns to look at all the animals...cattle, goats, ponies, miniature horses, pigs, regular horses, sheep, chickens and other fowl, and rabbits. I forgot to go to the agri building so we missed out on seeing the largest pumpkin and watermelon...I'll have to remember to stop by there Sunday when we pick up our entries. 

We decided to leave to eat lunch and I had to get ready for the sewing class that I teach some of our homeschool girls on Tuesday afternoons.

Tuesday evening is  Free Admission as well as Armband Night at the fair, so that is usually when I take the kids to go on the rides and eat fair junk (woohoo!).  We usually get there around 4:00ish to get good parking and buy our armbands.  Also, if you get there around 4:30 many of the rides will go ahead and start and you don't have to wait in line!  The crowds usually don't really get going until around 7:30ish and that's usually when we're leaving.  Three hours seems to be plenty of time for my kiddos to enjoy all the rides and food and I don't have to drive home in the dark. 

It was a bit drizzly but all in all a very fun day! 

Here's some pics of Big T and Little A on some of the rides:

Little A on her first ride the merry-go-round

Big T on his first ride the swings

Little A on her favorite one: the tiger slide (I pretty much stood here watching her slide for most of the time we were at the fair)

Big T on the "ride that started it all" ... after this one he was ready to go on all the other 'thriller' rides LOL!

A couple more of Little A on the bumper cars and fun slide:

4H Poultry Chain Judging

This was our first year to participate in the 4H Poultry Chain.  It has been very educational and we have learned alot about chickens.  Who knew there was so much to know about chickens? LOL!

Well, to keep the poultry chain going, each child who participates is required to turn in their three best pullets to be judged and auctioned at the county fair.  The money raised in the auction pays for the next year's chicks...that's why it's called a poultry "chain".  In addition, each child will earn money based on how their pullets placed in the judging.

Monday was the day we had to take our chickens to the fair.  Here they are getting loaded up for their big day:

The pens at the fair look small but apparently you can get three pullets in there.  Big T's are on the end and Little A's are next to his.

Judging seemed to take forever....ours were the very last ones and we were waiting anxiously to see how they placed. Big T was hoping to win either Grand Champion or Reserve Champion and the judge kept going back to examine several different birds....it must have been a hard decision to make.  I told Capital J that I didn't think I could be a pullet judge because that's getting a little too personal with a chicken for me. LOL!

After about an hour and a half the results were in.  Big T's pullets received a blue ribbon and Little A's a red ribbon.  I think they did very well considering that this was our first year.  It looks like Little A may not agree with me on that, lol.  Anyway, we'll give it another go next year. 

4H Fair Booth

Today we went to help work on the 4H fair booth.  For the last 3 years our 4H club has put up an informative booth in the Exhibition Hall at our county fair.  It's a lot of work and kinda chaotic but it all turns out well in the end and helps our club earn money, plus our children really enjoy working together.  We always encourage the children to participate so that the booth is theirs and not just a parent production.

We chose "Cookin' in the 'Kid'chen" as our theme this year.  Basically, it will be a kitchen set-up focusing on cooking with children.

Here are some pictures of Big T and Little A working on the fair booth:

Work on the fair booth started at 9am this morning and families are allowed to come and go as they are able.  We stayed to help for a few hours but had to leave before noon so I don't have a picture of the finished booth yet.  I'll post one in the next day or so after we go to the fair.

UPDATE:  I took a picture of the finished booth when we went to the fair on Tuesday.  I think it turned out really cute.  You can't see it in the picture, but there are numbers placed on several items in the booth that correspond to tips on kitchen safety for kids.  For instance the pan on the stove has a "2" label and if you look on the tip sheet on the side wall of the booth, number 2 says "Turn pot and pan handles in to avoid burns". 

Tree Walk

Today we started a unit study on trees so we went for a walk to identify some trees and gather a few leaves.  My plan is to study just two or three trees every day or so and by the end of the month we will have learned about many of the common trees around here.

We could have started with the trees in our yard, but why waste a chance to go for a walk down the road, around the pond, and into the woods? So we packed guide books, paper, pencils, crayons, ziplock bags, and a clipboard in a backpack and away we went.

The first tree Little A picked to gather samples from was a Persimmon tree:

Here is what the fruit looks like:

We did a bark rubbing and a leaf rubbing on some paper with the crayons and labeled them.  Then we collected a leaf sample, to press when we get home, and put it in the ziplock bag.

The next tree was a Sweetgum tree:

Here is a picture of the gumballs:

We did our bark and leaf rubbings, then collected a leaf sample.  All was going well and I felt we could probably study one more tree.  But Big T had found something he wanted to show us and we got distracted exploring the creek bed.  As we were walking along, Little A slid on a muddy part and stepped on something that cut her foot.  It was bleeding quite a bit so I went back to the house to get the car (and a popsicle for Little A - those make everything better, lol) and drove her home.

I doctored her up, prayed for her foot, read her a story, and encouraged her to take a nap.  She woke up feeling much better.  Tomorrow, we'll probably just pick a few trees in the back yard to study.


Bonus:  We found a happy little Sassafras tree, too.  But we didn't collect any samples from it (except one leaf for tasting, lol).

Saturday project

On Saturdays, if we are home all day, I usually have a project of some sort planned that I can't get to during the week.  Lately, they have been outside projects such as tidying the plants. Today, however, I had planned to clean up my sewing area to get it ready for fall and winter sewing projects.

Ummmmm.....yeah.  

So I decided to clean my bathroom instead.  >smile<

Ah...nothing like a nice, clean bathroom to perk you up!

Maybe I'll tackle the sewing area next time.

And here is Little A's "project"...

...a set of towers for her Littlest Pet Shop pets.

Mystery egg

Last week I was watering the plants and I found an egg just laying in the asparagus patch.

Hmmm...how mysterious!  What kind of egg is it?  How did it get there?

It's small (only 1 and 1/4 inches), oblong, hard (not leathery), and white with light grey patches.  I've searched and searched for information about it but haven't found anything. 

Does anyone know what this might be?


Update:  A friend mentioned that it might be a lizard egg.  Well, I got brave enough to open it.  Whatever it is...it is definately reptilian.

Fall is in the air!

Ah, it feels very fallish today! The air had a bit of that autumn chill this morning. I turned off the air conditioner and opened all the windows. I expect that by noon the temperature will have risen enough that I'll close the windows and turn the cold air on again. But how good it is to have some crisp, fall air blowing in, if even for a little while. Fall has to be just around the corner...I can hardly wait!

Ripe raspberries

Time to pick raspberries! Look! Many are ripe already:

Let's look under these leaves:

Juicy, red raspberries waiting to be picked!

I think they are pretty all washed and sorted:

They look just like little jewels up close:

These will go in a bag in the freezer. As more ripen, they will be picked, washed, and added to the bag. Finally, when all the raspberries are picked I should have enough to make some raspberry jelly or syrup. Mmmm....delicious!

Today's dragonfly pic is a Great Blue Skimmer on one of my herb pots:

Volunteer tomatoes

These are "volunteer" tomato plants, which means that they were found growing in the compost pile. Little A and I potted up six to keep. Whether or not they will have tomatoes is anybody's guess since they came up from the seed of whatever hybrid tomato scraps were thrown into the compost. The plants themselves seem healthy, though. "We'll just have to wait and see," I told Little A. Gardening is always an adventure!

Manduca quinquemaculata

Lurking under the tomato leaves is every gardner's worst enemy. Cloaked in green corpulence, it is not easily spotted except for the tell-tale signs of excess frass and stripped leaves. Manduca quinquemaculata strikes again! Otherwise known as: the tomato hornworm.

Generally, those of us of the gardening persuasion feel they deserve a fate of squishing, stomping, or drowning. However, being homeschoolers as well, we had to satiate our curiosity and investigate. What do these voracious caterpillars turn into?

So we saved one (just one...the others...not so lucky) and put it in a gallon jar with a judicious amount of potato foliage that had sprouted in the compost pile, a layer of soil, and a spritz or two of water. Apparently, the tomato hornworm will feed on any of the nightshades such as eggplant, pepper, potato, and of course tomato. It is amazing the amount of leaves this caterpillar would go through in one day! After around three days or so of feeding, it mysteriously disappeared!

Further research revealed that it had burrowed in the soil to pupate.

This happened in June. The jar was put on a shelf in Big T's room and subsequently forgotten.

A few nights ago, Big T heard something making a flapping sound in his room. When he turned the light on the flapping sound stopped. Then it returned when he switched the light back off. Freaky! Finally, he located the sound...it was coming from the forgotten jar!

Here is the large beauty that had emerged from the soil:

A fine specimen of what is commonly called a sphinx moth. The picture doesn't capture the beautiful pinkish-orange markings on the abdomen and lower wings.

All in all it was a very interesting observation project. We learned quite a bit about the Manduca quinquemaculata, its habits and life cycle.

Know thine enemy.

Happy little flower

Why, hello little cyprus vine flower! You look happy today!

Homemade butter

Today we made butter from fresh cream. The cream we used was from milk that we get straight from the cow. We let the milk set in the refrigerator overnight and this morning there was a thick layer of cream. I spooned the cream into two clean glass jars and we sang the "shake the butter, shake shake the butter" song for about an hour.

How do we know when we're done shaking? When it looks like this:

At first when it was a small clump, Big T said it looked like a scoop of ice-cream. Then at the end he said it looked like scrambled eggs. Anyway, we had a large clump of butter in some clearish liquid which is the whey.

Then we drained the whey off (and saved it for soaking grains) and rinsed the butter of any remaining whey or it would cause the butter to sour. Then we salted it a little and here it is:

Fresh homemade butter, yum! Of course we had to try some right away!

It was very soft and spreadable and we enjoyed half a package of crackers with it LOL!

The remaining butter we put into the fridge and it hardened up just like any other butter. Altogether I would say that the amount we made would equal about 1 stick or 1/2 cup of butter.

This was our first time to make butter and I was so glad it came out so well. We'll probably be making butter once a week now that we are getting fresh milk.



Big T spotted this female pondhawk dragonfly hiding in the grass:

Sharp eyes, son!

And here's a little hummer at our feeder: