Learning

Late June Garden Update

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It’s late June at Salt of the Earth Urban Farm (home of the BCS Teaching Garden)!  Finally, some warm weather (mid-upper 70’s) has settled in (the tomatoes,  summer squash and bush beans look much happier) and everything is flourishing. 

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The harvest is increasing – every week, we are taking a few dozen cartons of organic snow and sugar snap peas, as well as boxes and boxes of lettuce, chard, kale, bitter greens, and a few choice boxes of herbs and strawberries to Birch Community Services.  We are still looking forward to the coming months and being able to take in more and more food to share amongst the families at BCS (loads of organic bush beans, tomatoes, potatoes, and summer squash will be coming soon!).

Here are a few shots from around the yard – mostly in the front yard –

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A few shots of the front yard, here.  Can you believe just a few short months ago, it looked like this? —>

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(And a day before this, it was just weeds and lawn!  Taken late-February 2010.)

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Front to back in this shot – variegated land cress, beets (with a few Butternut starts peeking thru on the right and a crate of potatoes to the left), Italian kale, cardoons, salad greens, Oregon Sugar Pod II peas, California poppies and De Milpa tomatillos.

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Tomatoes in the front are underplanted with beets and cosmos.  In the backyard, with nasturtiums and lettuce (the shade from the tomatoes will keep the lettuce from bolting in the July/Aug heat.).

IMG_7729Mature artichokes and cardoons take up a lot of space, but while they’re still growing, I’ve underplanted them with daisies, nasturtium and chives (winter squash, dahlias, sunflowers, fennel, and wildflowers are visible in the background.)

Not shown – I planted an herb bed in the front yard – three types of lavender (two culinary, one for sachets), three types of rosemary (I love rosemary!), tangerine sage, tricolor sage, lemon verbena,and curry plant from starts (when pinching pennies, get the 4-inch pots – they were $3 each, versus $9-10 for the next size up, and $30 for large rosemaries and lavenders in gallon pots.  They’ll grow big, too!  Be patient!)  I also transplanted in two types of thyme, oregano, Greek basil, Thai basil, and Genovese basil that I started from seed a while back (for a savings of about $15 over buying potted starts).

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Much of the back isn’t so pretty yet, but here’s a shot of the linear beds near the house  -front to back – garlic; parsnips, kale, chard, carrots; peas and poppies underplanted with kale.  I didn’t take any shots of the bush bean, asparagus, potato and squash beds, which make up about 60% of the backyard.

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Out back, we’re still doing the fairly miserable work of ripping up bamboo (rhizomes and all) for a future raspberry patch (to the left in this picture) and quince and pear stand (where the current volunteer hazelnut currently resides.)  The far NW corner of the yard (not pictured), which will eventually be our Zone 3 fruit orchard,  is currently overrun with weeds.  I did manage to get three apple trees and a Desert King fig planted back there, and my husband expanded the chicken run (while protecting the young trees), so the hens could make short work of the weeds and give me room to underplant the trees with red clover and more lavender.  We are still hunting for a persimmon, a dwarf apricot, and black currants to put back in that area.

More shots from out back in the coming month – the rows of bush beans and summer squash are quite small, and the limas and runner beans are barely reaching up their poles).

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If you’re interested – we’re having a free hands-on workshop on  Saturday, July 17th here at the garden from 9:30-11:30 and follow up with a potluck luncheon from 11:30-12:30.  We will be doing a garden tour, discussing high-summer garden needs and prepping for a fall garden.  We will be starting seeds for fall crops (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, etc), possibly harvesting potatoes, and doing regular garden maintenance.   Bring your garden gloves, shovel, and a dish to share.  Children are welcome.

Contact the garden coordinator for Birch Community Services, Tiffany, at  tiffany.mach@yahoo.com to sign up.

Simple Baby Socks (No Grafting!)

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Another baby wave!  Lots of friends are having babies in the next several weeks, so every spare moment, it’s knitting, knitting, knitting (I’ve even been knitting in church on Sundays!  I actually absorb the sermon better – multitasking prevents the mind from wandering!)!

My knitting tends to go in a seasonal rhythm – winter babies always get hats (usually a pixie or a Debbie Blisspattern with little earflaps) and spring/fall babies usually get booties.  But what to make for summer babies?  SOCKS!

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I found that a lot of baby sock and bootie patterns (you know, the teensy ones) never fit my kids’ feet, even as newborns.  As a result, I took what I like best about some of my favorite adult sock patterns, and adapted it to a bit larger baby sock.  It should fit a size 6-12 months.  If you’d like a larger sock, simply make it a bit longer in the foot, or for a smaller sock, go down a needle size.

Here’s the pattern :

PDF Format

Larksong’s Baby Socks

Size – 6-12 months (for size 3-6 months, use a smaller needle (1 or 0))

Needles – Set of 4 double-pointed needles,  US  size 2

Yarn – any sock or fingering weight yarn, leftovers from adult socks work great!  (about 100 yds, to be safe)

CO 40 sts, divide over three needles as follows: 20 sts on ndle 1, and 10 sts each on ndles 2 and 3.

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For the cuff:

Join (careful not to twist) and knit in K2, P2 rib for 24 rounds (optional – 40 rounds for a folded cuff)

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For the heel flap:

Using only the 20 st on ndle 1, knit back and forth as follows –

Row 1 (outside of sock):  (Sl one knitwise, K1) repeat these two stitches to end of row

Row  2 (inside/wrongside): Sl 1 purlwise, P to end

Repeat rows one and two a total of 18 times (you will count 9 sts on the slip rows on the knit side) ), ending after a (Sl1, K1) row.

Turn of the heel:

Row 1: Sl first st Purl wise, P to two sts beyond center (12 sts total), P2tog, P1, turn

Row 2: Sl 1, K5, K2tog, K1, turn

Row 3: Sl 1, P to one st before the gap (also known as “within 1 st of last turn”), P2 tog, P1, turn

Row 4: Sl 1, K to one st before the gap, K2 tog, K1, turn

Continue in this manner until 12 sts remain (you will end with K2togs w/o a K1 following).

You will have just completed a K row.

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For the gusset:

With needle on, pick up (PU) and K 10 sts on the left side of the heel flap (continuing in the knit direction).  (To avoid gaps, twist stitches as you pick them up, or K into the back of the stitch).

Knit across needle two (option – continue to in ribbing K2, P2 pattern on ndle 2 only until beginning of toe decrease.  This will make for a more snug-fitting sock.)

PU and K (again, twisting sts) 10 sts along the other side of the heel flap and then K6  from ndle 1 to the end of ndle 3.  (The begging of your round will now be halfway across the back of the heel, and ndle 1 will be the needle on the left side of the heel, ndle 2 will be the 20 sts across the top of the sock, and ndle 3 will be the 2nd half of the heel.

For the decrease portion of gusset:

Round 1: K around (if doing optional pattern, remember to (K2, P2) repeat across ndle 2 only)

Round 2:  Ndle 1 – K to last three, K2tog, K1.  Ndle 2 – K across (or, for option, (K2, P2) repeat across ndle).  Ndle 3 – K1, SSK, K to end

Repeat these two rounds until you have decreased to the original 40 sts

For the body of the foot:

K for 18 rounds (my kids have long feet, and I did 20-22 rounds for them.  If using smaller needles for a smaller sock, you may wish to do 14-16 rounds, depending on foot size of the infant.)

(Remember, if doing optional ribbing – continue (K2,P2) rib on ndle 2 – stopping the rib at the end of this section.

For the toe (No grafting here!! Woo-hoo!):

Round 1:  Ndle 1 – K to last two sts, K2 tog.  Ndle 2 – K8, K2 tog, K8, K2 tog.  Ndle 3 – K to last two sts, k2tog.

Round 2: K around.

Round 3:   Ndle 1 – K to last two sts, K2 tog.  Ndle 2 – K7, K2 tog, K7, K2 tog.  Ndle 3 – K to last two sts, k2tog.

Round 4: K around.

Round 5: Ndle 1 – K to last two sts, K2 tog.  Ndle 2 – K6, K2 tog, K6, K2 tog.  Ndle 3 – K to last two sts, k2tog.

Round 6: K around.

Round 7: Ndle 1 – K to last two sts, K2 tog.  Ndle 2 – K5, K2 tog, K5, K2 tog.  Ndle 3 – K to last two sts, k2tog.

Round 8 – end : Continue decreasing in the manner above, but every row instead of every other.  Decrease until 8 or 4 sts remain (your preference, 4 will give a bit pointier toe).

Cut a tail (6 or 8 inches), thread with a darning needle, and sew through the remaining stitches.  Pull tight and sew in ends.

Block if you desire.

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(Note – a baby who fits these socks may be pulling up and/or walking, so please remember that wool socks are VERY slippery on wood or tile floors – if your baby is going to wear these socks without shoes, you may wish to add some puffy paint designs to the bottom for traction.)

This pattern is copyright 2010 by Angela Baker.  Please feel free to use this pattern for personal, gift or charity knitting only – not to be used for socks made for sale without approval of the designer.    Do not copy this pattern/distribute it without permission.  Thank you.

Late May Garden Update Part I

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The garden has really taken off  after a week of hot, sunny weather, followed by lots of rain. (although, the cold nights and wind the past few days haven’t done us any favors).  Volunteers have been able to start taking in a few baskets of organic produce to BCS, mostly radishes, mustard greens, lettuce, chives, tarragon and baby beets, bok choy, and kale.  The teeny harvests thus far just begin to hint at the bounty of the coming months.

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Between slug-picking and weeding and rain showers, we got a few pictures this morning – (above) The boys in the front yard behind Alderman Tall Telephone peas, mesclun mix lettuce, with more lettuce mix and Oregon Sugar Pod II peas in the background.

– the tomatoes are really taking a beating with the cold (40s and 50s) and hail and driving wind this week.  We wrapped about half in plastic (and then ran out of plastic!) but can’t see that it is helping them out much – the hail damage is the worst.   Surprisingly, the tomatillos don’t seem to mind the dreary weather as much and are growing nicely

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Despite a little slug damage, the cardoons we planted back in February are coming along nicely – the largest are nearly two feet across already.  (They were planted closely, because about 20% of the seed stock are infertile – they are smaller and weak and I keep thinning them out.  The hassle of starting them from seed is well worth it – I only used half a pack (@ $2.45/pack), and have 8 strong seedlings, versus paying $7.49 each for large starts from the garden center.)

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The Vulcan Red Chard is doing quite well – just a few more weeks until it will be able to be harvested in any quantity.

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The mustard greens and bok choy bolted in last week’s heat, but the bolted stalks were fed to some very happy chickens  and in the gaps I have planted summer squash (a total of 6 in the front yard, and 19 in the back – a mix of crooknecks, zucchinis, and patti-pans).  I may eventually need to thin them down, but a few are compact varieties, so we’re hoping they won’t get too crowded.

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This is a Golden Hubbard seedling, coming up in the bed closest to the street.  Winter squash are such a treasure – beautiful rambling vines all season, tasty blossoms to stuff with ricotta and deep-fry, and finally, vitamin-packed, long-shelf-life squash in an amazing variety of shapes and sizes to eat throughout the winter.  (Since there is limited space, I have only put in my favorite eating squash – Buttercups, Butternuts, Hubbards, Delicata, except along one side-yard, near the house, where the gorgeous – if largely inedible – Rouge Vif D’Etampes has been planted for harvest decorations.)

For everything you could want to know about nearly every variety of winter and summer squash, I highly recommend Amy Goldman’s book, The Compleat Squash.

To keep the neighbors happy, I have planted misc. wildflowers, sunflowers, daisies, and about 50 dahlias in the front beds.  Add to that those dozen winter squash (to trail out of the beds and along the path), bronze fennel and artichokes, and for good measure, a whole jumbo packet of nasturtium!  If that doesn’t make for a pretty (but still mostly edible!) street-side bed, I don’t know what will!

(Eventually, the front bed will be mostly perennial flowers, currants, a dwarf plum, and a low fence with a grape arbor and a gate across the path, but it needed something to make it attractive this year, especially with so many folks in the neighborhood stopping by to ask what in the heck happened to our front yard!)

And with that, I’ll save the backyard and the chicken update for tomorrow!

“Flying Fish” Blue

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This afternoon’s project was painting the chicken coop a vibrant blue (although it dried darker).

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The girls had a great time, and were sure to get lots of paint in their hair.  🙂

Up next?  A second coat (after picking up a second gallon), painting the trim and posts, and adding a nice bright yellow sunshine in the upper right corner, and this fall, a trellis and table grapes up one side.

Preparing for the duck invasion

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After a flurry of chicken-planning activity this winter/early spring, we have our long-dreamed for chicken flock (the three hens, plus three new Speckled Sussex chicks, and three more chicks on order (2 Australorps and a Buff Orpington)).  And the chicken run is mostly complete (needs a little gussying up, and a grape trellis up the side).  Now, moving on to the next project, the Baker boys have gone into intense-planning-mode for …

DUCKS!

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The boys are a bit so-so on the chickens, but can’t wait for ducks!  We have room for 3 (and maybe sneak in a 4th?) next year, and all the talk from Daddy is, “Where do we put in a duck box and run? What style?”, and “should we get runners or Khaki Campbells?”   Tum Tum’s contribution is more along the lines of  “Duck goes QUACK QUACK!”, but he loves to look through the stack of duck-keeping books with his dad.

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Did you know that the better duck breeds are more efficient at removing slugs than chickens (a major problem in the NW)?  And lay larger eggs (sometimes more eggs -up to 300 per year for Khaki Campbells) than chickens?  And those eggs that produce more substantial whites, which makes for better meringue, souffles, etc!  And, ducks are darn cute!

So, if all goes as planned, by next year, our little urban farm will be complete when it comes to livestock.  Except, maybe for future additions of meat rabbits…or honeybees…If you could (or do!) have any livestock on your property, what would it be?

On the wheel, on the map

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We’ve been studying a lot about map reading and map making, and yesterday afternoon I brought out a huge sheet of posterboard and let the children create and label their own “treasure map”.  (Little Hen’s idea is to re-create the map in real-life in the backyard and then use their map to find the “treasure”.   Pretty clever idea, actually.

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My only concern is creating the “grape soda lake” they drew on the map…   😉

If the rain holds out, I think the girls will have a great time with their treasure hunt this afternoon.

I was feeling a bit under the weather, so while the kids worked on the map, we all listened to some Grimm’s Fairy Tales on book CD, and I had a chance to sit down and rest and work on the wheel.

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The roving is some Brown Sheep mill-end roving we dyed with leftover Easter egg dye (for instructions, see here.)  I’ll ply the singles and it’ll make a nice pastel sock yarn.

Here’s what I got done yesterday.  Not too shabby for my second attempt at using the wheel (after some serious practice with scrap roving), don’t you think?    I hope to get some more done later today as we listen to the rest of Grimm’s:

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A budding artist

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Look who decided to help himself to the craft supply box while I was attempting to make dinner (and the girls were having a tickle war).

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It’s hard to believe that Tum Tum will be TWO next month…he’s outgrowing so much of his sweet baby-ness.  I loved watching him drawing intently and singing to himself all the while – he’s growing into such a big boy so very fast…bittersweet, really.

Fresh Eggs

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We got chickens!!

After months of scouring Craigslist, pricing materials at the ReBuilding Center and researching plans (not to mention years of wishing, dreaming)… we finally found a used coop that met our super tight budget. (A coat of pretty paint, and the sturdy coop will look quite nice in the back corner of our yard.)   And a completely unexpected bonus- the large (6 nest boxes) coop came with enough fencing and fence posts for a very large run.

An even bigger bonus – the coop came with 3 organically-fed, heritage breed, 9 month-old hens – 2 Australorps (two big glossy-green/black girls that lay brown-eggs) and an Auracana (a rusty, stripey hen with big tufts of feathers on the sides of her head that lays blue-green eggs).

We can’t wait to expand out little flock, and I can’t wait to write some more about the beginning of our chicken-keeping adventure.   But, that’s all for now- yardwork calls.   After having friends and neighbors help us move the weighty coop into place yesterday, we need to get out and put the fencing up today, so Sarah, Plucky and Nudge can roam their patch of the yard safely (and also keep the tender baby veggies safe from them!).

More soon…

Seedlings

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Yesterday afternoon, with my son on my back, the girls and I potted up the first of our tomato seedlings – all 51 of them.  (The one above is a “Black Krim”, a favorite of ours for salads.)  Another 26 little tomato-lets (started a week later) will be potted up this weekend, time allowing.
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(Above: Our eclectic collection of potted-up tomatoes – in sour cream and tapioca containers, large paper cups, milk jugs, juice bottles, hand-me-down pots.)
It felt wonderful to spend the afternoon in the warm sunshine, kneeling with my children on the front steps, tenderly moving each little seedling from a starting tray into its own pot.   It felt wonderful to be growing food with my children, and I am grateful for the many, many days  of gardening with them that are spread out in front of us.
One of the most important resources that a garden makes available for use, is the gardener’s own body. A garden gives the body the dignity of working in its own support. It is a way of rejoining the human race. – Wendell Berry

Real Food

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Today we finished Michael Pollan‘s In Defense of Food.   The girls and I listened to it on unabridged book CD over the course of several afternoons of making dinner.  I had really enjoyed The Omnivore’s Dilemma and The Botany of Desire, but somehow missed this one until now.

Much of what he writes really melds with our family’s thoughts on what we eat, how we eat, and where our food comes from, and we found the book affirming and encouraging.

In honor of Pollan’s call to simply “eat food”, instead of “food-like substances”, here’s the food we made for tonight’s dinner while listening to the final chapters of the book:

sliced mangoes and oranges

roasted carrots, golden beets and potatoes tossed with toasted walnuts and bleu cheese (above)

Cabernet-braised beef with dried apricots

brown rice

mint tea

whole-wheat oatmeal-marionberry bars

Pollan quotes Wendell Berry throughout the book, greatly esteeming Berry’s writings on humanity’s relationship to food, agriculture and nature.  (By the way, thanks to Pollan – and even more so to Kortney at One Deep Drawer – I’ve got a whole stack of Berry’s writings on order from the library). Particularly moving for me was Pollan adoption of Berry’s words as a sort of grace at the beginning of the dinner meal: 

Eating with the fullest pleasure – pleasure, that is, that does not depend on ignorance – is perhaps the profoundest enactment of our connection with the world. In this pleasure we experience our dependence and our gratitude, for we are living in a mystery, from creatures we did not make and powers we cannot comprehend.

Baking Day

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Monday is baking day.

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We’re enjoying the Monday tradition of baking homemade bread.  Our favorite “fancy” recipe is Challah – the dough is so kid-friendly, the results wow everybody, and nothing goes better with homemade jam.

It looks like the sun is starting to come out, so I think we’ll go plant some potatoes (along with the usual Yukon Gold and generic redskinned, we’re trying three heirlooms this year – German Butterball, All Blue, and a lovely pink-fleshed Red Thumb).

After some busy gardening, I think we’ll deserve some challah and strawberry-banana jam for afternoon snack.  🙂

Little Ragamuffins

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We scrapped all other plans for today,

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and simply played in in the dirt.

As Firecracker said, “There’s nothin’ more natural than gettin’ dirty.”

Somehow, in the midst of playing “dirt fairies”, “cruel dirt queen who makes her workers dig all day”, “climb dirt mountain”, “search for worms and buried treasure”, and “fill and empty buckets of dirt over and over”, we managed to spread just shy of two yards more compost over the front beds, finally completing them.

Tomorrow – chard, beets, kale, mustard greens and potatoes are sown out front.  The coming weeks – finish backyard beds, plant more veggies, mulch paths, plant a few fruit trees, and finish chicken coop/run.

Our front yard before this weekend’s garden work day:

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And this afternoon:

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Many thanks to all of the volunteers who helped on Saturday!!  We are excited to see the garden grow and develop in the coming months!

Library books this week

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The girls are listening to Daddy read The Mousehunter at bedtime, but our daytime book selection reflects the unusually sunny, warm weather that has us all thinking of anything except the tail-end of winter.

We just finished listening to Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (Which is why we’re starting an asparagus bed -  Little Hen was fascinated by the chapter on asparagus – as read by Barbara Kingsolver’s daughter), interspersed with a complementary collection of Appalachian music.  Indulging a totally separate branch of the girls’ current interests, we had worked our way through a stack of books on Norse mythology and ancient Egypt.  So, it was time to order some new items.  In the afternoons, when we’ve needed a break from gardening, we’ve been scrolling through the library’s website, ordering books, books on CD, and music CDs that appeal to us.

When we went to pick up the books, it was clear that a definite theme must have been running through our collective subconscious while we were ordering:

SPRING!!

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This afternoon, while the rain comes down outside, we’ll be reading the chapters on winter and spring from Our Farm, a book about 5 siblings’ experience of a year on their family’s farm.

What books are seeing you through the end of winter, as we edge toward spring?

Morning reading

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This photo pretty well sums up our morning literary activities of late.

First thing this morning, we had to get a bit pot of chili blanco going on the stove, and batch of brownies in the oven, since it’s our turn to bring dinner to our homegroup.   While Firecracker helped measure out the spices and crush the garlic, Little Hen was in the living room, practicing some yoga with her Yoga Pretzels cards (she says “Warrior 1” is her favorite pose).  She does 3 or 4 cards each morning, when she remembers.

After the brownies came out, we sat down for a little reading.  We are trying to read two stories a day, and the children all really enjoy and look forward to our snuggle time on the sofa while we read and discuss the stories from Scripture.

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For Christmas, my mother surprised us with a copy of my favorite book of children’s poems – Tirra Lirra: Rhymes Old and New, published in 1932 and now out of print (I have scoured used bookshops for it for years, but she was able to quickly find a copy used on Amazon.com for next nothing.)  It is a wonderful, whimsical book fo children’s poems, and the girls got a big kick out of reading some of the poems today.

The poems in this book are full of delightful imagery, tell rich stories, and crack us all up.   I think we’ll keep reading a few every day for now – they enjoyed them so much.

I’ll leave you with the poem from this book that was my favorite as a child – Eletelephony :

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Once there was an elephant,

Who tried to use the telephant –

No!  no!  I mean an elephone

Who tried to use the telephone –

(Dear me! I am not certain quite

That even now I’ve got it right.)

Howe’er it was, he got his trunk

Entangled in the telephunk :

The more he tried to get it free

The louder buzzed the telephee –

(I fear I’d better drop this song

Of elephop and telephong!)

– Laura E. Richards.

An afternoon with Percy Jackson

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A lovely, chilly December Saturday – the icy weather kept us in the house, delving once again into the world of Greek Mythology.    We made  mugs of hot mint tea, and listened to Daddy read from our current Percy Jackson book.

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It’s wonderful to share a passion with your children – there’s not much we love to do together more than read adventure stories and share the world of imagination.

Wishing your family some time to slow down and connect this busy season.  Blessings.

Making the most of our time

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We are feeling a bit like hermits, cooped-up in the house for days and days – the little ones are still wrestling with sickness, and we had to miss church again this week.  Little Hen, still healthy, escaped to Grandma’s house for the weekend (a BIG thank-you to Grandma for inviting her up!).

After homemade pecan-chocolate pie for breakfast (hey, we’re sick!), Daddy read to us from The Lightning Thief, which is turning out to be an excellent choice for Firecracker, who is captivated by Greek mythology.

Another good thing is that I’ve been able to get quite a bit of Christmas-gift knitting done (and give the dog a hair cut, and mop the floors…).

We are trying to make the best of our isolation, and finding we are blessed by the quietness today.  Firecracker is getting up from a rest, so I’d best go, so Daddy can read a few more chapters to us out of The Lightning Thief.

Some Greek Mythology Resources we love :

D’Aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths

Jim Henson’s The Storyteller: Greek Myths (although, the stories are re-imagined a bit)

Classic Myths to Read Aloud

Greek Myths for Young Children

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (well, it has a smidgen of Greek Mythology in it, with Hephaestus and Aphrodite, and we like it)

By Jove, a board game

and we’d love to find this board game and try it out.


Little Knitter

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Look who’s knitting on two needles!

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We are all recovering from a pretty awful family-wide bug, so the past two days we’ve taken things very easy.  Sunday afternoon, Little Hen said she wanted to get some knitting done and set to work on her first real “project” -  a little wool cape for her beloved Waldorf doll, Princess Rooth.  It’s going to be a simple garter stitch rectangle made from purple heather worsted-weight wool (from my stash) on size 8s.   We’ll lace a purple velvet ribbon through one side when she’s done to make it into a cape for her doll.

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Firecracker had fun sitting next to her big sister, pretending to knit for a while, but eventually moved to the dining table to doodle monsters and princesses and such.

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Even the baby took an interest – attempting to disassemble the shawl I’m working on.  🙂

My ambitious girl has said next she’d like to make a scarf for her sister.   Just like her mama, she’s already thinking ahead to the next project.  I think we’ve got another knitting addict in the family!

Base Ten Blocks

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Little Hen tends to rotate through phases where she really enjoys worksheets (which I can respect, although I don’t understand it!).  Her auntie has stocked her with books and books full of math worksheets, and I generally pull out a stack of the ones that match the topic we are currently studying, so they are available to her.

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Right now, we’re working on the concept of place value and adding two and three digit numbers.  Daddy brought some wooden Base Ten Blocks that he wasn’t using at work (he’s a math and history teacher), and they have been a wonderful tool in helping both of the girls develop an understanding ones, tens, and hundreds.

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What math tools have you found meaningful and useful as your kids explore math?

Paper crafting – freestyle

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The past month has left me feeling stretched pretty thin because of obligations and responsibilities to my family and others.     Tackling domestic duties and  “home schooling” the girls while my non-stop motion toddler “explores” the house into a distaster zone has also been a challenge.  Crafting has been particularly tricky – Tum Tum either attempt to eat or destroy anything the girls are working on – and he’s especially good at climbing up on the kitchen table and flinging art supplies across the room in a lightning flash.

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This day, he took a nice long nap after lunch, so as soon as he was sleeping,  I quickly whisked out some craft supplies for the girls to do a little fall paper crafting.  We didn’t have anything in mind  – I put out some supplies with a vaguely autumnal theme and let the girls’ creativity lead them.

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We had a huge pad of fall-colored  scrap book paper (on clearance for $3 this past summer at Michaels),  paper scraps, some oatmeal and coffee tins, glitter glue, sequins, etc, chrysanthemum and maple leaf punches (I am addicted to the Martha Stewart craft punches – whenever they have one of those 50% off the sale price ” coupons and the Martha Stewart items are on sale, I snatch one up.).  After punching out some maple leaves for them, I went into the kitchen to make brownies, and let the girls explore on their own.

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I love what they came up with – Little Hen’s (left) is a “treasure box” (it’s hard to see in this shot, but she wrote “treasures” on it) and Firecracker’s is a bank for “collecting coins for Heifer”.

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We saved the last canister for Tum Tum, who was happy to turn it into a drum after he woke from his nap.  🙂

Note : I hope to get back to some more regular posting by the end of the week.  Life has been a bit overscheduled I just haven’t found the time to sit down at the computer much the past few weeks.  We have some family birthdays, out of town company, and a trip coming up, so I hope to squeeze in some blogging late at night!!

World Forestry Center

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Over the weekend, we took advantage of the Smithsonian’s annual free pass day to visit the World Forestry Center, located right across from the Oregon Zoo.  The building is light and open, and the exhibits are well designed, educational, and attractive to children.

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There were displays appealing to many senses – here Firecracker is smelling the oils from different culinary trees and trying to guess their origin.   Euclayptus had her stumped – she said it smelled like “Burt’s Bees something…but that’s not quite right.”

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Little Hen played the tongue drums for a LONG time – and has been reminding me daily how “if we ever find any tongue drums on Craigslist, maybe we could get them.”

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Of course, all Tum Tum cared about was the MACHINES!  That boy signed “more car” and made engine revving sounds all morning.  “Driving” the timberjack and the jeep totally made his day.

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Little Hen spins a Tibetan prayer wheel.

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Hope you get a chance to visit the World Forestry center – for my kids, it was a chance to try their hand at some really fun virtual experiences – like parachuting as a smoke jumper, running a timberjack, river rafting and riding a jeep in Africa.  But, it was also a chance to learn more about good stewardship of our resources, the importance of conserving forests, and the blessing that their products are to us and to people all over the world, and the value in renewing those forests for future generations.  A very nice little museum -I’m glad we got a chance to visit.

Vaux’s Swifts

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Kortney at One Deep Drawer told me about the congregation of Vaux’s swifts in NW Portland, and this week we made it over to the Chapman School to see them.   For a bird nerd like me, it was a huge thrill.

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We set up early, with hundreds of other families, enjoying our picnic dinner (homemade hummus, Greek yogurt, tomatoes, flatbread, pear sauce), and reading books until the sun began to set.

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The school had some well-made signs up about swifts – with sections at the bottom geared for children.  One sign suggested we try  tracking one swift in the sky as long as possible before losing it in the swirl of birds (which we did!).  We learned from another that a single Vaux’s swift can eat 5000 bugs a day!

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Then, the swifts began to congregate, and we got out the binoculars to watch.  It was truly breathtaking to watch the birds spiraling together and hear their constant vocalizations.   And the evening only got more spectacular as a Cooper’s Hawk attempted (and finally succeeded!) to catch his dinner from the cloud of birds.   The crowd reacted in unison to his swoops and dives – it was quite a show!

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I wish I had a better camera that could have captured just how stunning the whole display really is.   If you’d like to learn more about Vaux’s swifts, and see some better images of their temporary residence at the Chapman School, check out this segment from Oregon Field Guide –

Oregon Field Guide – Vaux\’s Swifts

Safari Girls

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We’re studying Africa off and on lately, primarily because the girls’ interest in the continent was sparked by their favorite musician’s recent work in Malawi.  I picked up this felt Africa playset at the thrift store on sale for a quarter, and it was a big hit.   Along with Dana’s music, we’ve been listening to some African music while the girls played with the felt set and throughout the week  – Acoustic Africa, Ladysmith’s Long Walk to Freedom, and the girls’ favorite Gift of the Tortoise.

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The girls decided they would take turns setting out pieces for the other sister, who would then have to arrange the pieces and tell a story.  I think it was a great idea!  That way, they both had a chance to be to be the storyteller.

(Please excuse my pajama-knee in the shot.  Yes, I was still wearing my PJs after lunch.  It was Tuesday, which is technically PJ day at our house, although the girls decided to get dressed anyway.)

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Firecracker’s favorite was this baby antelope, by the way.  She wanted to be sure it was included in this post.  🙂

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We’ve been watching The Life of Mammals bit by bit, a few afternoons a week, to supplement the study of Africa’s wildlife.  I highly recommend it.  Although it covers mammals from all over the planet, the girls have gotten a lot out of it, and we’ve stopped to focus on, and discuss the mammals of Africa as they are presented.

For children’s books on Africa – here are a few we recommend  –

The Field Guide to Safari Animals

DK Eyewitness Africa

Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain (on of my childhood favorites)

I Lost My Tooth in Africa

Akimbo and the Snakes

Africa for Kids

Why Mosquitos Buzz in People’s Ears

Jungle Dreams

Hungry Planet

After we finish The Life of Mammals, if the girls are still interested, we may watch Michael Palin’s Sahara.  Who knows, maybe that will be a doorway into ancient Egypt – a topic they have yet to discover – or perhaps deserts in general, which could cover Antartica, the Sonoran, Death Valley, Siberia, Australia as well.

Or perhaps we’ll stay where we are, taking in some more of Africa.  I love that we can just marinate in a subject for weeks if we want, learning all we can discover!  For now, we’ll continue to explore the richness of Africa’s peoples, culture and wildlife (and of course, several other subjects on the side!)!


Water-coloring

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Like most children their age, the girls are prolific artists (esp. Little Hen, who loves her water colors).  Our living room was looking pretty bare, and despite amassing a  substantial collection of their artwork, it’s just not in the budget to get anything professionally framed right now.  Why should that prevent us from displaying their art?  So, we strung up a line, hunted down some scrapbook paper on clearance at the craft store, and a little glue and a few clothespins later…the walls aren’t quite so empty.

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Some of my favorites -  The Lady with Grey Hair by Little Hen , who loves to paint people, and Untitled by Firecracker, who takes a sweeping, abstract approach.

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This one – Moon and Sun in the Corner – is  Little Hen’s favorite.

I plan on scouring the thrift stores the next few weeks for some frames I can paint or decoupage to match, and then we’ll get the girls’ work framed and properly displayed.  But for now, we can fill an empty wall, enjoy their creations and stay in the budget.

The last two days, I find I’ve been setting up my spinning so I can look at their paintings while I work – it still amazes me what is working inside their heads and hearts that they can make such beautiful art at such a tender age.   I don’t get ever tired of looking at them, and look forward to what they’ll create next.

Math this week

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Here’s a look at some of the mathematics we’ve been studying this week.  The girls LOVE the Sir Cumference series of books, and even though the math concepts are technically “above grade level” for them, the girls seem to have no problem understanding the material.  For example, Little Hen informed us that the slice of applesauce cake she had for dessert “makes an acute angle.”

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We’ve also pulled out a few board games from our enormous board game stash (mostly from thrift stores) that encourage children to think mathematically.  Despite the tedious sounding name, this Dino game is great for reinforcing the concept of place value for Little Hen, and simply counting and reading numbers for Firecracker.  A great game for kids of diverse ages.

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Hey, That’s My Fish! is a wonderful strategy game (don’t listen to the age suggestions – my girls can play it and they’re both well under 8 yrs old.  Firecracker and I play on one team, Little Hen on the other.)   Sudoku for Kids was a gift from my parents, and Little Hen loves to play it by herself when she needs some quiet time.  Monopoly: Don’t Go to Jail is a fast-paced game we picked up at the thrift store.  It reinforces place-value and three- and four-digit addition.  It’s one of Little Hen’s favorite games.

What tools are you and your children using to approach math in a natural, interest-sparking way?

Books to buy, books to borrow

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We made another trip to our favorite local bookstore, Powell’s.   It’s on the way home from church, and so very hard to pass it by without stopping in.  Every visit I am tempted to spend a ridiculous amount of money on crafting, cooking, and kids’ books.  And I could hide out in the Orange Room for hours and hours if my children didn’t keep dragging me back to the kid corner…

In the end, I exercised some self-control, and left with only this hilarious kid’s book, which will be a gift for Firecracker’s birthday in October.  (But, I also left with a long mental list of things to order from the library – you know, those books you’d like to read once, but are not ready to commit to purchasing.)

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Here are some of the books we’ve been reading this week for homeschool, as well.  Little Hen, who loves to finger knit, is learning how to knit on two needles and spin on a drop spindle, so we’ve ordered a big stack of knitting and spinning books (although the librarian was skeptical when I tried to check out knitting books on my home-educator library card.  I guess they didn’t look like “homeschooling books” to her).   The book on Turkish sock knitting led to an internet search of Turkish culture, and we ordered several children’s books and cultural books on Turkey that will hopefully come soon.  (Isn’t that one of the wonderful things about homeschooling?  How you’re free to chase your interests wherever the trail leads?)

We must have had fiber-art on the brain, because many of our other choices had to do with socks, knitting, sheep, fiber.  Only our new book CD – Island of the Blue Dolphins – seems out of place, although we’ve been listening to it during our quiet-time in the afternoons, while the girls finger-knit or sew with me during the baby’s nap. (Speaking of great kid’s fiber art, Quince and Quire has a neat kid’s wet-felting post)

Some other mamas with stacks of books  – 5 Orange Potatoes, Charming the Birds from the Trees, Red Dirt Mother, and Starry Sky Ranch.  There are always great reads on the bookshelves of Mom in Madison, and  SouleMama,  .  And don’t forget to check out the very talented Mamaroots, and her lovingly hand-crafted wooden playsets with literary themes.