On the first day of crazy week...

Crazy week is the week of final drama rehearsals before the big production.  It has become a tradition for us since joining the White County Homeschool Theater when we started homeschooling.  During crazy week, we have extra long rehearsals, last minute costume sewing, stage and sound tweaking, sack lunches and fast food dinners, tired siblings, props that have gone awol, and cast pizza parties. Great fun!

Usually it is the first week of December, but this year crazy week actually began on November 30th since that was Monday.  That was the morning Little A woke me bright and early,
"It snowed mama! It snowed! LOOK out the window!" 
"Oh, that's frost sweetie."
"No, mama! It's snow! I know it is because I prayed for snow!"

Well, it was a pretty hard frost (our first this season)....and in Arkansas it might as well be snow, LOL!

The "snow" had all gone by chore time, but there were some lovely ice circles from the kitties food bowls.



More of crazy week to be posted soon....

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.

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).