Farm Schooling: Gettysburg, Pollinators, and More Doughnuts

 Big Sister A and her BSA troop went on to Gettysburg for a hike.

The Union troops were stationed on the high ground. 

There were a lot of historic monuments. 

The kids also went biking one evening with Daddy. 

Baby A is 5 months old now! 

Sometimes my kiddos wake up in the morning on a mission. One morning it was trying a pinterest recipe for yogurt doughnuts.  Big sis got everything set-up. I just did the frying. 

She made strawberry doughnuts with either chocolate or plain glaze. 

In our arthropod study we did two days on bees and wasps and two days of butterflies. We made cheese popcorn as part of an experiment on how pollen spreads from flower to flower. We used data from the World Butterfly Census to draw conclusions about types of butterflies and quantities of pollinators. 

Family Fun: Fall Weather

The lighting and weather have been beautiful. 

The summer of 2016 we went to a family reunion at our ancestral farm in PA.  They had a fantastic rope swing there. For Christmas in 2016, I bought 2 rope swings to be put up in one of the hundred or so trees on our property.  We have been talking about it for years. Most of the trees in the back forest have only very high branches and a lot of trees near by.  I finally just decided that the kids are old enough to handle playing on the swings in the front yard.   Hopefully, the front property fence will be done soon, but the kids have been climbing and playing on the maple tree regardless, so why wait.  I also bought some special straps to protect the tree.  Grandpa J helped us finally put up those rope swings.

I think they like them!  Now when we are looking for the kids they are usually either swinging or playing in the sand pit. 

Only trouble with the rope swings is that there are only two -- a good lesson in patience and sharing. 

They realized that they can make a pile with the leaves and hop off the swing into the pile. 

Farm Fresh: Schooling and Livestock Updates

 

In Cub Scouts this week Brother S and Brother M launched rockets that they made with a little help from Grandpa J and Daddy. 

Brother S became a Bobcat.

Miss L found a bag of party balloons and the kids had fun playing with them. They filled some with cornstarch to make stress balls. 

I used the dirt excavated from the cistern patio to fill in some of the pine tree stump holes. Of course, it quickly became another place for playing with dump trucks and digging race tracks.

I spread a nice clean layer of mulch in the two duck houses and our tree guy dropped off another load.  Perfect timing for preparing the orchard and sensitive plants like the artichokes for winter. 

For science, the kids worked on writing, illustrating and presenting "creature reports" on an arthropod of their choice. Brother M reported on Hercules Beetles.

Brother S reported on Crayfish.  Miss L reported on Stink Bugs and Big Sis A reported on Praying Mantises. 

In art class we learned about Salvador Dali and Frida Kahlo. 

We tried to breed 9 does this week! Why so many?  I have not bred any of my does since March (because of the rat saga).  They tend to be less willing to mate the longer it has been since their last litter.  Of the 9, only 5 successfully mated, and those were all does who have not been bred before. 

You can see my notes and XL poster of breeding lines on top of the cage.  I have tried to keep enough genetic distance so that I can continue to sell breeding pairs. I sold one of the does that was bred and already have 2 buyers interested in purchasing kits from the 4 litters we expect mid-November. 

Hubby and I celebrated our 13th anniversary this week. We have not gone out on a real date since quarantine started so we splurged on a carry-out platter of sushi and sashimi from our favorite local place. 

We could have kept it all for ourselves... but we were nice and shared some with the kids. 

The next night we had a big family campfire and cookout with all the cousins and Grandmama and Grandpa J. It was pretty wild and I failed to take any pictures. Big sister A sent this picture to the cousins when they were excitedly chatting online about the upcoming gathering. 

After the first week, the chicks recovered from their rough trip and we have not had any more losses. We have 87 left. They are almost one month old.

 Big Sister A is in charge of caring for them. 

All the photos are very red due to the red heat lamps.  The red light is supposed to keep them from pecking each other. I was very worried that they would outgrow their brooder before the 6 week mark (when they are feathered enough to go outside).  Two weeks to go and they still have plenty of space in there.

Baby A's Life: Weeks 20-22

Baby A has been working on his pushup the last couple weeks. He holds himself up with his arms really well these days. 

Brother S is so much more comfortable holding him than he was at the beginning. 

Grandmama and Grandpa J cam for a visit! Baby A was glad to have more people to hold him and snuggle with. 

A couple days ago we brought the exersaucer down from the attic. All the kids were excited to see how Baby A would react. They showed him how all the toys worked.  We did not put any new batteries in... so nice and quiet!

He loves it!

He can almost stand flat footed in it too.  He is so big for a not quite 5 month old. 

Projects: Painting and Upholstering

 I have been wanting to paint the front door for awhile.  I decided that it would be a good way to test out my barn paint color -- since I wanted to choose a color for the barn that goes well with a brick house. 

 I know that I don't have a steady hand and I hate wobbly edges so I use a lot of painters' tape. As I mentioned in the barn project post, my Grandpa P was a professional painter (not the artist kind, the contractor kind) and I often wish that he were still around to give me tips. He died before I was born.  Either my dad or my grandma told me that he would probably say that it is all in the careful preparation beforehand. 

Even after all that careful preparation there were some spots where the previous owner's paint job got on the center glass and also some glue or something coming from between the welded layers. I spent a lot of extra time making sure that was all scraped for a very clean edge (that probably no one else will ever notice, but at least I am happy with it). 

Good thing I tested out this color before I bought paint for the barn! The color is SW Pewter Green. It's one step lighter than the SW Ripe Olive I ended up using on the barn. I like it with the brick, but if you look at the plants near the door the colors look terrible together. 

After we had the garage doors fixed and automated, hubby pointed out that the root cellar door was in sad shape. Brother M and I worked on repainting it as one of his projects.  This photo shows what it looked like after the top half was cleaned with dirtex. 

Here it is after being completely cleaned and painted inside and out.  We did not take it off its hinges, just taped them off very carefully with painters' tape. 

That same grandpa who was a painter had this armchair. It was handed down to me by my Aunt J. She said that he used to sit in it every night.  Well, that was obvious because its upholstery was in sorry shape around the arms. I started measuring and cutting fabric to slipcover it right before Baby A was born. I didn't finish. 

I worked on it an hour here and there while baby A was napping. Just before we started on the barn project, I finally finished it. 

The fabric is a nice woven weave canvas ticking -- very washable. All the edges are serged to prevent fraying.