Grandpop's Visit and Uncle P's Moving to Florida

 A beautiful windy day at Monacacy National Battlefield. We took some family pictures there, but it was much colder and windier out there than it was at our house.  We'll do part 2 of our photo session later in the year when it is warmer. 

The kids ran all the way out to the cannons in the corn field and came back with bright pink cheeks from running in the cold wind. 

We've had several visits and sleepovers with the cousins these last couple weeks. Their house is under contract now and they are planning to move to Florida.

During one sleepover we made sushi on a zoom party with some other friends from church. 

They all did a great job crafting their rolls.  The salmon sashimi was less popular. I was okay with that -- more for me!

It's always a wild party when we get together. ELEVEN kids running around the house! Snacks and board games ongoing in every corner.  I love it. 

We'll be so sad when they move. 

We combed out brother S's curls to make a big fro.  Not quite as wild as the ones daddy could do in high school. Grandpop is letting his hair grow as part of retirement too. 

Daddy gave the big boys hair cuts for our family pictures.  They had both been letting their hair grow out and it was the longest they've ever gone without hair cuts. 

Funny mohawk time!

Springtime Temperatures: Kits and Seedlings

 Spring is popping up all over the farm yard! My lovely lupines surprised me with how large they already are.

Snowdrops have come and are past their peak now. Crocuses are looking vibrant. Daffodils and tulips are up, but. not blossoming yet. 

Brother S has started decorating the bird weights that I use on my fruit trees.  This one has a nest as well!

For one of our homeschool science labs this week we took the soil's temperature in various parts of the yard and garden. 

It's plenty warm enough for planting cool season crops like peas and onions outside. 

And VERY warm (70F!) in the high tunnel.  The center of the tunnel especially.  The corners of the high tunnel we found to be much colder. 

Baby bunny kits are coming thick and fast including 2 unplanned litters from the ladies in my experimental rabbit retirement community.  I put a buck and 2 does in the old chicken coop and run to see how they would do together.  The buck had had a stroke and kind of hobbles around... I was planning to build a rabbit retirement tractor coop if the retirement home test went well. Haha.  Good test. We will definitely need two rabbit retirement tractors.

I had 10 kits from the litters born late in December and all of them are spoken for or sold.  So it's probably a good thing that I have another 20 kits that will be ready for new homes in early May. 

A's litter of show kits has had some major health problems.  I have been in contact with the breeder we bought them from and I think they are fairly inbred (as with many show rabbits) and much less hardy than our Silver Fox kits.  It has been pretty heart breaking for big sister A.  

The shelves under my grow lights are full to capacity again.  We'll have to start doing them in shifts again soon. 

My helpers have been doing a great job planting and filling pots again as always. 

I moved all of the comfrey outside this week and will move the artichokes soon. We're still having an occasional frost day here and there, but the Farmer's Almanac predicts no frost for our are after March 27th. 

On the front steps, Angelica seedlings are popping up, onions are up, and so is Russian Rhodiola. 

We did some milk jug greenhouses for the onions this year. I usually do them under the grow lights, but I wanted to demonstrate this method for the little garden club I'm leading at church. 

A Season of Contrasts: Cold and Cozy Winter Days

 Baby A is getting so big. He has two little teeth and must taste anything he can get his hands on.  He is crawling a little here and there, mostly still scooting. 

He pulled himself up in his crib. Daddy lowered it right away. He also pulled himself up on the side of the bath tub and almost went in head first. We have to keep him within arms reach all the time.  

Seed sowing is well underway! 100 marigold plugs are ready to be potted up. I planted more than 150 tomatoes (for us and the ladies at church). Brother M saved seeds from his favorite little rainbow peppers and those have sprouted really well. Onions, angelica, chamomile, Russian rhodiola and skullcap are stratifying on the front porch.  Green and red cabbage varieties are just starting to sprout. 

I planted 50 plugs of rosemary for companion planting in my high tunnel raspberry patch. Big sister A chose some flowers for "her" garden this year. Her Snap Dragons have just started sprouting.

Brother S and Miss L like helping me with the seeding, but they LOVE preparing the dirt and filling the pots.  And inevitably they make tracks in my tub of potting soil for their monster trucks. 

There were some arguments over who got to use the seed dibbler (orange carrot thing in this photo).  Miss L got it in her stocking, so she had first dibs, haha!

It has been a perfectly beautiful winter. Cold enough to kill bugs and give blueberries plenty of chill hours and LOTS of beautiful snow days. The high tunnel fan is working well, despite not having its own outlet yet. 

I made Miss L a new snow hat as part of the Livestock Conservancy's Shave 'em to Save 'em Program. 

Hubby has had to do a lot of driveway clearing. He made the kids several nice piles in which they built a snow fort and sledding ramp. Thank goodness for our little farm tractor. 

In contrast, we have been enjoying cozy time by the wood stove, playing board games and listening to books on Libby.  They kids are master hot cocoa makers and recently discovered a recipe for snow ice cream.  They made about 10 batches and used several gallons of milk over the course of a week. 

Big Sister A's Polish doe had 4 kits. They are incredibly tiny compared to our Silver Fox kits. She's been doing a great job caring for them. 

We finished book #2 of the History of Us and decided to work on science for the next month or so. 

As part of that homeschool science, we did a soil testing project. Mostly it was for me and my gardening plans, but sampling soil is a great illustration of how to take a "representative" sample. The mason jar soil composition experiment was fascinating too. 

It was fun to confirm with our own mason jar test that we do indeed have the "silt loam" soil our Ag extension survey says we do.  It's much better soil than I had originally thought.  Not nearly as much clay as it seems like when I'm digging into it. 

We really had to struggle to pull samples from the garden!  It was not frozen, just buried. 

Family Schooling Summary: Creators and Makers

Our 4H program offered an online painting class last Friday. All of the kids wanted to participate. 

The teacher spoke really quickly (geared towards kids 10 and up). Big Sister A followed the instructions and ended up with a beautiful snowman picture. 

Brother M repainted some sections of his picture because he was not satisfied with them and also ended up with a great painting. 

Miss L messed up on her snowman's face, tried to correct it, and then got frustrated and started over with a clean canvas. 

Brother S marched to his own drum the whole time. He determined from the start that he was not going to follow the prescribed snowman instructions.  During the class he made the painting on the right (shark).  The next morning he made part 2, the painting on the left (squid and dolphin).

Big sister A has excelled in her study of the piano. Her teacher told her this week that it was hard to believe that she has only been playing for a year and a half.  We had a conversation over dinner that night about "talent" vs. practice.  Talent helps, but in the end it aways comes down to practice, as Malcolm Gladwell so clearly illustrates in his book, Outliers. Big sister A loves to practice the piano. I think that makes all the difference. 

Brother S had a cooking requirement for Cub Scouts this week.  He wanted to make fish sticks and salad. He made the grocery list, bought the ingredients, chopped everything up, mixed up the salad dressing and placed the fish sticks in the pan.  He liked it so much that he made salad for us again the following night and has been a fantastic kitchen helper. He also made homemade pizza.  The sauce was our homegrown jars and I made the dough, but he has made a lot of improvement on his ability to roll out dough in  a circle.  He also rolled out the crust for our quiche this week by himself. Miss L mixed and made jello by herself (I poured the boiling water). 

Daddy hosted (in the barn) and led brother M's Cub Scout den in a wood working activity on Thursday night. The other kids were jealous that M was able to make some cool scout projects, so Daddy helped them work on their own projects this weekend. Big Sis A finished hers, a "book" with a secret storage compartment.