Halloween Sneak Peek

 I finished up a knitting project yesterday:

Spider Baby

And I'm having fun with my glue gun (and sewing machine) today:

Princess Hair clip

I learned many years ago in MOMS Club that if I want to get something done, invite more kids over!  The kids run off and play and leave me completely alone.  Even D is fast asleep on M's lap back in the office.  I'm using this time to finish up the Halloween costumes...

Witchy Hair Clip

La piece de resistance:

Witchy Skirt

I used a bat template to add a little flair.  I wish I made one for myself.  Hmm... what time does Joann close?

Rooster Business

*Warning-butchering details*
**But not too many.  If you ever knew what chicken were really like, you would never eat them or their eggs again**

I spent my precious weekend time dealing with our rooster problem.  They don't fight or crow too much, but there are a lot of them and I'm tired of feeding them all (the price of chicken food per pound of chicken meat is not very economical).  Plus, the hens are going through a molt and not laying very well.

New feathers-picture from a month ago

The hen above is the one that was attacked by the eagle last spring.  She had a deep cut along her back and her feathers just now grew back.  She is looking so sleek and pretty now.  We aren't planning on butchering our hens...yet.  But if they keep eating and not laying eggs, I may change my mind.

Alice- the lump on her chest is her swollen crop

Alice was a sweet, friendly hen.  She suffered from chronic sour crop and didn't grow very well.  We eliminated her from the flock and found her crop had a giant ball of grass she couldn't pass.  She was stunted in growth from her inability to get nutrients from her food.  Her heart was about the size of an almond and she had no developing eggs.

Biter

We had a lot of roosters hatch our from our experiment.  The one above was a jerk (Kenny was his dad).  I accidentally picked him up thinking he was a different chicken and he bit me.  Not a peck, a BITE.  We butchered him at the perfect age.  I'm not supposed to be happy about killing, but his meat was so niiiice.


Killing Rocky was the worst.  He was my favorite because he would follow us around the property and eat berries with us.  He was so friendly and never ran away, but would submit to pets and wattle massage.  I heard E say, "Is that Rainbow?" and M reply, "No. Shhhh!"  Then she started to cry and ran in the house, although seconds before that she was helping me pluck.  I know we can't keep them all, but Rocky was my darling!  He came to us because he was aggressive at his old house.

Joe

Joe came to us last year with his brother (who was eaten by a predator).  We got him as a meat bird, but kept him around.  He made some cute chickies this year!  But he is old and we can't keep all our roosters.

Rainbow Sun and Kenny- getting ready to fight!

Rainbow Sun is the black rooster.  We are keeping him because he will breed true with the australorp hens next spring.  Kenny.  He was our first rooster and he was MEAN.  He jumped on the kids.  He had long spurs.  He once broke my skin through my jeans by jumping on me and hitting me with his spurs.  No one is sad to see him go.  Well, maybe a little sad.  He was a very protective rooster and very good at spotting trouble (until his eye got poked and he became blind in one eye).  M had a hard time catching him, even with a net!  The boys like to sneak up on him and scare him

Joe and Kenny bring light to the "tough as shoe leather" saying.  I had to put them back in the pot for a few more hours.  I have never seen such tough meat.  It was like a rock!  I can imagine Grandad having a good laugh and saying, "I told you so!"  He always warned us to take the roosters while they were young and not let them run around too much. 

Rodney

Remember these chickies?  Rodney, Kenny's son and the only purebred buff orpington male, is the biggest rooster in the flock.  He is even bigger than Kenny was and his full rooster feathers and comb haven't even grown in all the way.  (Teyla ended up being a rooster too, so we changed his name to John.  John Sheppard.  Because we like Stargate Atlantis).  We are keeping Rodney and Rainbow and maybe John (as long as we keep a good hen to rooster ratio).

Well, that's about it for now.  I still have a huge mess to clean up in the kitchen and I'm a little tired of being in there.  But dishes don't wash themselves!

My Kids Are Going to Hate Me

I've decided (as of Monday) that for the next month, we are focusing on physical fitness.  We are going to work on our Presidential Physical Fitness Award, the Cub Scout Physical Fitness Sports Pin, and the Cub Scout Hiking Sports Pin.  So far they have run a 1/4 mile at a local track, found their resting heart rate, raised their heart rate to the target zone, and... are you ready for this?   They did an aerobics video.  If you ever want to laugh so hard you fall on the floor and roll around, watch my boys do aerobics.  At first they giggle and fool around.  But as soon as their heart rate goes up and they are trying to keep up with the old lady (me), the laughing stops.  We used canned food for weights and I carried D in a backpack (he fell asleep).  We are supposed to do a plethora of activities, including participating in aerobic activity three times a week for one month and log five hours hiking.  Good home school time, I tell ya!

Edited to add:  We have done three video workouts together this week.  Not only is it great physical activity for both me and the boys, we save a bunch of fire wood too.  If I'm too cold, I put in the workout video and get active!

Autumn Nature Walk

Days like today can't be wasted.  There will be plenty of time to sit at the table and twaddle our days away.

 I took IJ and F on a quick nature walk around our property.  Some home school families have been picking chantrelle mushrooms, so I went on a hunt to see if we had any growing on our property.  We saw so many other species, that IJ was awed by the humungous diversity of fungus among us.

Peeking through the grass in the pasture

Shining in the sun

Hiding under leaves on the 5 scres

Under the Great Maple

On the Great Maple, and so very tiny!

Snail-like Puffball in the Old Growth Fort

Not a mushroom, but still a cool picture!

I have seen so many woolly bear caterpillars this fall.  On one 15 minute drive, I passed seven caterpillars crossing the street (I tried not to run over them)!  I think we may need to make up a new joke.  Something along the lines of...

Q: Why did the woolly bear caterpillar cross the street?
A: To get to the other side!

Just kidding.  Anyone have a better punch line?

Farm Fresh Eggs

Being a Mr. Krabs personality, I understand why people are reluctant to buy farm fresh eggs for $3/dozen.  You can get a dozen eggs at the store for less than $2, they are all the same size, and they are always clean.  I happened to have a dozen store eggs and one odd farm fresh egg, so I cooked one of each for comparison.

Farm Fresh on the left, Store bought on the right

Look at the difference!  The farm fresh egg (this one happens to be a free-range egg) has a clear white and a dark yolk, compared to the cloudy white and the light lemon-colored yolk from the factory chicken.  The chalaza is the part of the egg that keeps the yolk suspended in the egg.  You can really see the factory egg's chalaza.

I couldn't believe the difference, even after a full year of chicken farming.  I didn't really think there was a difference!  And they tasted totally different too.  I didn't think I would be able to taste the difference, but I was wrong about that too.  You can even tell the eggs apart after they've been cooked and flipped:

This time of year, farm fresh eggs are harder to get.  And free range is even harder.  The chickens stop laying as much when the day length shortens.  And one year old chickens go through a molt and stop laying completely.  This is a frustrating time.  I'm getting 4 eggs a day from my 40-some hens.  Some of them are too young to lay, some are molting, and I think some are hiding their eggs in the bushes.  I'm always thinking, "why am I feeding these unproductive hens?  Off with their heads!" 

Teaching Music: A Review

We love music in our house.  M has 18,500 songs in his music library, with genres running the gamut.  I was blessed with piano lessons and many opportunities to participate in music activities in school.  M and I have always wanted to share his love of music and my knowledge of the mechanics with our children. Unfortunately, balancing all the homeschool subjects, housework, out-of-the house activities can force music (and other art projects) to the side lines.

This year I have been using A Young Scholars Guide to Composers published by Bright Ideas Press.  This is a 32-week curriculum that covers 26 composers and includes all sorts of scholarly maps, timelines, and even quizzes!  The recommended age group is 4-8 grade, but I've found that the information really doesn't have an age limit.  I'm learning so much, right along with my kids.  And my baby and preschooler are also positively influenced by the lesson as you will see...

The book is divided into historical periods, which is so easy to match up to whatever period we are studying in history.  Right now, we are in the mid-1800's.  I looked in the book, chose a composer (Chopin), and started to prepare the lesson.  I searched for Chopin in our digital music library and came up with nothing!  Can you believe that?  No Chopin?  I got online, reserved some Chopin on the library website, and started waiting.  Chopin came home from the library yesterday.

S listens to Grande Valse Brillante

This morning, I had the kids get their blankets and pillows to make comfy nests on the floor.  I played the music and had them listen with their eyes closed.  The first song happened to be featured on a Baby Einstein DVD, so D ran to the TV to see what was going on!  When he figured out the music wasn't coming from the TV, he jumped back on S's blanket.  The rest of the kids got all excited they knew the song too.  After I settled them back down, I read out loud the biographic information, paraphrased so E would understand, and gave each kid one question to answer at the end.  Afterward, I had them listen to the rest of the CD while they wrote in their journal or quietly looked at books.  It was a great way to get some music appreciation into their academic diet.

E draws a picture of Chopin in her journal

I am really enjoying using this book.  Like I said before, I am learning SO MUCH.  While reading about Chopin, we learned that Mozart's Requiem was played at Chopin's funeral.  As we watched The Incredibles for Family Movie Night, the Requiem was played during the Jack-Jack Attack short.  I was so proud to show off my musical knowledge (to M). 

There is no way I could get through the entire book in one year, but I'm looking forward to savoring it for years to come and possibly supplementing with other music products from my favorite homeschool store. 

As a member of Timberdoodle's Blogger Review Team I received a free copy of A Young Scholar's Guide to Composers in exchange for a frank and unbiased review.

A New Adventure: And More Pumpkins

I met my friend that I wrote about in this post at the park today for some fun.

"Come back, Tigre!"

Then we secretly planned to surprise the kids with a trip to a pumpkin patch that was right down the road!  The very next time there was an altercation between some kids, we said, "Alright, that's it!  Get in the van/truck!"

And then we were off... to the cutest little pumpkin patch very close to my house.  We had a lot of fun in the short time we were there...

I came home with too many pumpkins.  I'm going to have a LOT of pumpkin puree in the freezer, hooray!

This little bay is on the way home to my house.  One of my most favorite things to do is check it out to see what the tides are like and if there are any birds and if I can see the moon.  We saw the most awesome harvest moon last week as we were headed home from a Scout meeting.

"Nice pumpkin, but we want cat food!"

Tonight, I made up my own version of The Phantom Hitchhiker, starring the kids' oldest sister, L.  The whole story was set in our old hometown with all the landmarks IJ and S remember, including the railroad crossing on Main Street and the cemetery down the street from our old house.  IJ, of course, ruined my story by saying, "I read that story in book already, Mom!"  I said, "Stop ruining my story!" but S and E didn't were absorbed with their pumpkin painting and didn't hear me.  They kept asking, "Did L really see a ghost?"  It was great!

First Fire

 M finally took pity on us shivering people and built a fire in the wood stove. Usually he is the cold one. 

But if he is gone at work, he doesn't know how cold it it.  And he won't turn the heat up higher than 55 degrees.  No, I'm not kidding.  The oil furnace is expensive to run.  Wood is free.

The first morning fire felt like Christmas.  I had to make hot cocoa for the kids' breakfast.  Thank you, M, for all the hard work you put in to chopping wood this summer!

Chicka Chicka

One thing I love about the infinite supply of little kids in my house is...

...never having to stop reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.  One of my favorite memories of S is (was) his obsession with this book (and DVD).  He filled notebooks with drawings of letters climbing coconut trees.

Today I read the book to F and felt that warm, fuzzy remembering feeling.  When I started to sing the story, S covered his ears and told me to stop.  So I made a coconut tree on the refrigerator so E and F could play with the magnetic letters.  Two more pieces of poster board bite the dust.  And guess who is spending his break time playing with the letters and coconut tree?  That's right- S!

D at 18 Months

Can you believe Baby D is 18 months old today?  No longer a baby, he is a full blown toddler.  He is starting to say more words, and less "Da."  He says bye, moon (mn), horse (ahs), orange (ahs), banana (nana), milk (mkna), Peek-a-boo (baba!), bellybutton (baba!), dog and yuck.  He knows all his family members, but they all sound like nana when he says their names.  He still looks for Grandad when he goes in his room, which always makes me sad.  He buzzes at bees and crows at roosters and makes monkey noises.  He can point to his head, hair, ear, eye, nose, mouth, bellybutton, foot, bottom, and (ahem) his little boy part.  He signs outside, water, airplane, and boots.  And today he said, "Choo choo!"  The first sounds in this video are his word for milk, the smacky mkna sound.

He throws his dishes on the floor when he is finished eating.  When I pull him out of the high chair and put him on the floor, he picks up his dishes and throws them in the sink.  He puts his banana peels by the sink.  He throws diapers in the garbage (he uses disposables at night).  He jumps off the couch.  He puts the oven mitt on his hand and opens the oven (when it's cold).

Those eyes hypnotize the mama monster

He says, "mama," which is music to my ears.  Unless it's first thing in the morning and I want to sleep.  He likes to wake me up by belly flopping on my face and pinching me.  This morning I said, "Go find Daddy.  Daddy.  Go find Daddy!"  He just wriggles on my face and pulls my hair and says, "Mama! Mama! Mama!"  I say, "Go make me some coffee!" and he cries.  So I have to say, "Do you want an egg?" and he says, "Egg! Egg! Egg!"

He isn't very good at playing on his own.  He prefers to be the center of attention and cries if he sees someone else on my lap.  E tells him, "Don't worry.  You'll learn that there is always enough love for everyone."  He sits on the couch with his brothers while watching Pokemon but keeps his eye on S so he can laugh when S does.  He loves music and has figured out how to turn on the school CD player and listen to Latin songs.

He is right on track for the terrible twos.  We can't keep the books on the shelves anymore. I can't wait!

Melting Snow

I fixed the washing machine.  All by myself.

When M came in and saw that I had taken the whole machine apart, he thought I'd lost my mind.  He told me a story about some mountain climbers that summitted K2, the most dangerous peak in the world.  Three climbers died on the way up.  On the way down, the last three got caught in a storm.  They suffered from the cold and lack of oxygen and started to go crazy.  Some tried to melt snow in their sleeping bags.  Only one survived.

M thought I had reached the point where I was melting snow in my sleeping bag.  That my life had gotten so crazy and out of control, that I started dismantling my appliances.  Sorry.  If I were a meth addict, I would be that crazy.  I just have never done a big project like this since we've been married.  I usually make him do the big things.  I was actually quite informed on how to properly dismantle my washing machine and knew exactly what I needed to do to fix my problem.

The drain pump worked fine, the drain hose had no blockage.  Further research revealed it was actually my auto load sensor.  I have this fancy machine that thinks it is smarter that I am and can choose how much water needs to go into my wash load.  I obviously can't tell how much laundry I put in one load because I went to public school and I'm an idiot.  This feature is what gives it an energy star rating and I've always hated it.  I hate opening the washer to add one more thing to find that there is not enough water.  This sensor is now malfunctioning and makes the load agitate when there is no water and adds water at the very end of the last spin cycle.  I found out that the sensor is activated by the "fabric softener added" switch.  I never use fabric softener, so it was turned off.  By turning it on, the machine fills for a full load and doesn't use the auto senor.  Problem solved!

I didn't find this solution at any forum that also sells appliance parts.  It was a pdf document that some random person posted somewhere.  But I was ready to fork out the $70 to replace the sensor.  I just didn't want to pay anyone to drive all the way out here to do it for me.

Of course, if I really cared about the environment, I would replace the sensor and continue to let the machine make choices for me.  Especially since the factories, appliance parts stores, shipping companies, gas stations, and appliance repairmen need the income.  But since I only wash full loads anyway, both the environment and the economy will have to suffer.  Just this one time.

Pumpkin Patch

 Remember this picture?

S and IJ 2005

We've added a few kids to our garden since then.

You can't even see the pumpkin!

 D got to wear the fish hat this year.

Never a Dull Moment

I was wondering why the kids kept bringing wet laundry back to be folded.  The washing machine isn't draining properly and some water has been draining back into the tub after the last spin cycle.  And since the kids manage the laundry steps between washing and folding, I had no idea that sopping wet clothes were being put in the dryer.  I did a little research and did this:

That used to be my washing machine.  I decided that instead of calling my husband and freaking out about how much money it was going to cost to fix whatever is wrong, I got on You Tube and Google.  After watching a few videos, I got to work.

I'm giving myself an award (pretending I'm standing on stage, holding my award, okay?)  I'd like to thank my dad, for letting me play in the garage when I was a little girl and giving me a tool box when I graduated from community college.  That tool box has come in handy so many times.  I'd also like to thank Ernst Home and Nursery, my first employer, for having such bad customer service that they would put an 18 year old girl in the hardware department with only the training module for experience.  I'd also like to thank my first car, for always breaking.

Okay, enough with the jokes.  I'm thinking the drain pump might be breaking.  I have a new one in my shopping cart; I'm just waiting for forum people to get back to me before I buy it.  Anyone want to do my laundry for me for the next week?  Did I mention that I'm behind because of camping last weekend?  And that I still cloth diaper?  Do I hear someone laughing?