Ramblings...

I got a surprise earlier today when I went for my evening stroll through the gardens. It had cooled off from today's high of 94 to a "chilly" 85 and I was taking advantage of the cooler temps. :-) Imagine my shock when finding my Umpqua broccoli just skeletons of their former beautiful selves of just yesterday.

This was the culprit...

Cabbage Worms!!!  Ugh!!

This was just one of many!!!

They blend in perfectly and it was quite hard to find them at first!

I picked them off by hand.

The chickens enjoyed these wiggly green treats!!

The broccoli went from looking like this...

To looking like this...

I had noticed a few small holes but wow!! Hmmm. Very hungry caterpillars!!! :-(

My Indigo Rose tomatoes are ripening already!!  I'm impressed!!  Can't wait to pop one of these beauties into my mouth!!!  :-)

Our Squirtle is doing well. I still have yet to see him eat anything. We bought tiny little pellets for hatchlings and he will snap at them but he just kind of blows them away from himself. I would assume he is victorious with them at some point because he appears to be growing a tiny bit and is quite lively. He sure is a funny little thing.

This week we lost one of our beloved parakeets, Elizabeth (Will passed away three years ago--they were named when Pirates of the Caribbean was first out)  She is the little turquoise and white one (sorry the pic isn't properly focused--buy hey, those bars are pretty clear!)  The green, yellow and blue parakeet is "Handsome" whom we bought to replace Will.

The day before she died, the cage door somehow got opened and she escaped. We haven't let the birds out in a while because this place is so small with so many of us running in and out all the time--not very bird safe. But I really was intending to exercise them soon! Anywho, the kitty--Fluffy--happened to be inside (I was outside during the ordeal) and she caught the bird. The bird wasn't hurt because the kids swooped her up as soon as Fluffy caught her. I wondered if she would be alright since birds have very weak hearts and this wouldn't be the first parakeet we've had to die of "fright". But she appeared none the worse for her adventure. Until the next day. I was getting ready to make supper when I heard some squawking in the cage and looked in to find her lying on the cage floor.  Poor little thing.  We had her nearly 10 years (give or take).  She was a brute with the other birds--quite a bully.  But she was very pretty and had a sweet voice. 

Now, of course, the kiddos are asking about another parakeet.  And it just so happens that PetSmart is having a sale.  :-) 

Son #6 is the big animal lover right now.  When we found Squirtle he asked if we could keep him.  After I told him that we could he said very enthusiastically, "Yes!  We finally have a pet!!"  Then I asked him, "Well, what about the dogs, cat, birds and chickens?"  He was like, "Oh. Yeah.  I forgot about them."  Too funny!!  If it were up to me and the children, we would have a regular zoo!!  Thankfully we have DH (NOT and animal lover) to balance us out.  :-)


We have begun our Summer Session of homeschool now.  I am enjoying public school being out so that the kids can go outside during "school hours" now without worry.  Since we live along the highway I don't care for the children being out and about where they might be thought of as "truant".  It's a little different than being at our old homestead out in the middle of nowhere where we could come and go as we pleased.  But this is ok. 

We homeschool year round and take off as needed and during major holidays.  Usually we take off from Thanksgiving until after New Year's day!!  We work to get in 38 to 40 weeks of school and only do 4 days worth of work in a week.  We're pretty relaxed. 


Hope everyone is enjoying their Memorial Day weekend!!!  I'm hoping we survive the record high temperatures--at least the garden plants are loving the sun and warmth!! 

A Different Kind of Rain (and what's going on in our homeschool)

For the past few weeks we have had a serious deluge of tree seeds!!  At the slightest breeze it's like storm raining down Maple and Elm seeds... Everywhere!

Large amounts of Maple seeds hanging from the trees.

Seeds in the driveway (they kinda blend in--but they're everywhere).

Seeds in the grass.

Seeds in my pots of herbs.

I clean them out almost daily but there's always more when I come back.

The herbs are sage (left), a few types of basils, and catnip (right in larger pot)

Maple seeds falling from the sky.

Elm seeds falling from the sky.

It's been interesting for me, watching spring unfold, since we are living in this new place.  Perhaps this is how it is every year.  It just seems a little, uhm... excessive.  "Mother Nature" being VERY generous maybe?

We do have our tomato and pepper plants in the garden areas now.  I'll try to take pictures soon.  Shortly after we got them planted (on Thursday) it started to rain... and it's been raining almost every day since then with severe storms expected this evening.  We're not supposed to get the worst part of the storm but there is a possibility that it may hail.  Hail is NOT a gardener's friend!!!

Life has been happily unevenful and quiet, although busy. We've been studying the sinking of the Titanic (of which today is the 100th anniversary) in our little homeschool.

We've been doing researching online...

 Studying our Eyewitness: Titanic book

Even DH spent an evening going through it.

And listening to the Librivox recording of this really

cool book.  Click on the picture to take you to the

Librivox page.

We'll continue to work on this project for another week or so.  If we had nothing but time and money on our hands I would love to build this...

Dream on!!  :-)

With the subject of the sinking of the Titanic still on our minds we will then move on to studying the book The Swiss Family Robinson.  Son #4 has been very interested in learning about primative survival skills so this will tie in wonderfully.  I love homeschooling!!  ;-)

Have a blessed and prosperous week!!! 

Why I Love Homeschooling...

I try to explain to my children that learning is a lifelong adventure.  They think it would be nice to just get it over and done with and go about their merry way.  (Annoying Loud Buzz!!)  Wrong answer!!  Honestly, I've learned a lot more than I ever realized that I would just by teaching my own children.  It's great to learn (sometimes re-learn) things right along with them.  For instance...

We've been studying predator insects in Science.  I recognized a critter that I had taken a picture of in early September of 2010 that I wasn't familiar with at the time.

I learned that this was a Goldenrod Spider. They are unique in the fact that they can change their colors from yellow to white to camouflage themselves. Why this one was still white on a yellow sunflower, I don't know. But it was really cool to see. They ambush their victims by blending in with their surroundings and then grab ahold of them, injecting their venom to paralyze them. Then they suck out their prey's juices. Mmmm. It's a cruel world sometimes, is it not? They feed on the insects that come to the flowers for the nectar. In my picture this spider has a bumblebee.

I also learned just today that the birds that I've been trying to identify that make the large flocks in the fall are Starlings.  They come into the wooded area next door to us.  Not in a huge flock (murmuration) but enough to make it sound like a wild jungle outside. 

Check out this amazing video...


Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

© Finiky

The Starling isn't native to North America and can be an invasive nuisance.  But don't ruin my joy with these facts!!  I love to see their flocks in the fall and I'm happy to know what they are now!!  :-)

I also discovered a new bird watching site: Cornell Lab of Ornithology.  They'll send you a free birdwatching calendar if you sign up for one.  And they have curriculum for homeschoolers too.  :-)  Pretty cool!!

I try to make it a point to learn something new everyday.  Sometimes it just happens without thought or effort.  I am concerned however, that each new bit of information that I learn pushes out some old piece of data that I had stored away!!  I'm terrified that I will have to recall some old important tidbit someday that will have gotten replaced by something new.  ;-)