Adventures On a Rural Homestead

Homemade Bird Suet

Alex wanted to make suet for the birds yesterday. He looked up some recipes online, and then made his own based on the ingredients we had. He filled muffin tins about half full with mealworms (from our mealworm farm!), chopped pecans and sunflower seed, then put about 1 tablespoon of coconut oil on top. He put them in the oven at 170 F until the coconut oil melted. After they cooled a bit he put them in the freezer for a few hours. Then they came right out of the muffin tins, and he put them out in our suet block holder for the birds to enjoy! 

This morning the boys made pinecone peanut butter feeders. We've enjoyed watching purple finches, goldfinches, cardinals and woodpeckers eating at the new pinecone feeders. Alex moved all the birdfeeders to a spot outside of our living room window, and we've been watching bird t.v. A perfect way to spend a cold winter day! 

 

New School Year

“Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other.” ~ Paulo Freire

We do school year round, it's a nice way for us to maintain rhythm and be able to take breaks whenever we want to. We're using an American History study from Build Your Own Library as a core study for the year. It's nice because it allows for children of different ages to study the same subject. Alex will do more in-depth writing, reports and reading, and there are good quality picture books for Eli. 

We started today with our First Peoples study, we read some great books and had big juicy conversations. For Make it Monday I taught the boys how to braid, and they made neat bracelets. This is a very different history than the white-centric history I learned in public school. The boys and I are eager to read, write and create together this year! 

“There is no difference between living and learning... it is impossible and misleading and harmful to think of them as being separate.” ~ John Holt

 

Nature School

Alex has always been very interested in rocks, fossils, animals and nature. This week he set up a "nature school" for Eli, and they spent hours talking to each other and examining our collection of fossils, skulls and jawbones, rocks and minerals.

One evening Alex asked Nick, Eli and me to sit on the couch while he showed us his favorites from the collection. He passed them around and very carefully explained what they were, what time period they were from, etc. It was such a lovely evening, I love to see what my kids are interested in! 

Sewing Masks

The CDC now recommends that everyone wears a mask in public. I've been fretting about getting a mask sewn for Nick, but didn't think I had any thin elastic. His sweet aunt Karen sent us some elastic, fabric loops, and a complete mask! Nick is the only one of us that goes out, he picks up our milk delivery weekly and delivers my parents milk and eggs. But we decided we should all have masks, in case something comes up and we need to go out. We'll also have our real estate settlement on the land we're buying in two weeks, and we will need masks for that. 

Alex and I used the free pattern on JoAnne Fabric's website to sew easy pleated masks. He did most of them~ ironed the fabric, cut out the fabric and interfacing, and did all the sewing. I pinned the pleats, and he sewed around the masks for the final step. 

We were pleased with how the masks turned out, and that it was a team project. I am so proud of Alex's good sewing skills! 

 

Rt. 11 Chip Tour

Our homeschool field trip group went to Rt. 11 Chip Company earlier this week. We got to see the whole process~ from potato to fryer, the quality control lines, seasoning, bag printing and bagging. The boys were fascinated to learn how fast they pack, from potato to in the bag in just 11 minutes. We also learned that 100 pounds of potatoes makes 25 pounds of potato chips, we didn't realize they were so much water! 

It was also neat to hold the chunks of salt rock that they use, real salt from Utah. We got to try samples of all the chips, and got bags of chips to take home with us. This was a great tour, and we're excited for more field trips this spring. 

Make It Monday

We revived our tradition of Make It Mondays yesterday, starting by baking chocolate chip cookies. Alex asked if he could bake cookies. I showed him the recipe, he gathered all the ingredients and did the mixing, I helped put them onto the trays to bake. I told him tips like that the cookies are done when they lose the glossy look, he liked knowing that. 

Then we finished the pinecone bird feeders the kids had made and took them outside to hang for the birds.

Alex also started working on carving a block to print for cards. He plans to make another set to sell before the holidays, like the bird greeting cards he carved and printed last year.

The boys both asked to knit, so that is our next project, as well as making felt reindeer ornaments through the library's' (free!) Creativebug program. 

La Morena Field Trip

We went to La Morena, a great authentic Mexican restaurant, for a homeschool field trip yesterday. The kids got to mix dough, press and cook their own tortillas. Then we ordered a few things from the menu to try for a morning snack. It was neat to get to be in the kitchen of one of our favorite restaurants. The homeschool field trip group has been a lot of fun. Today we are excited to visit a local sugar cane farm with the group, then have lunch with friends! 

Natural Bridge and Caverns

Alex and I went with our homeschool field trip group to Natural Bridge and Caverns today. Eli stayed with Grammy and Grampa, since it was a long day out. He had fun playing games, reading, watching cartoons and walking to the Indian buffet for lunch. 

Our field trip started with a tour of the natural bridge~a beautiful geological feature that the ranger told us doesn't contain any fossils, because it's been here 2 million years before the dinosaurs! Alex was impressed by that fact. 

The trail through the natural bridge leads to a Monacan First Peoples display, where we enjoyed a tour of the longhouse, wigwam, cooking and tool-making areas. 

One of my favorite parts of our day was the lovely winding gravel trail up to a waterfall. The lines and curves of the stone wall and the giant slabs of rock in the creek bed were so neat and caught my eye.

I could have sat on that stone wall for hours, just listening to the creek trickling by. It was such a lovely setting for a walk! 

After a break to eat our picnic lunch we headed up the road to Natural Caverns, where we had a presentation about how weather affects the caverns, a tour of the caverns, a karst hike to the natural opening of the caverns and gem mining. It was a perfect day for my little rock/geology lover, we had a great time exploring together! 

Homeschool Field Trip: Sheriff's Office

Our homeschool field trip group went to the sheriff's office this morning. They had a great program for our group of 26 children. The kids got to ask lots of questions, see a SWAT vehicle and the motorcycles, and meet the bloodhound scent dog.

I'm thankful for the opportunities we have through this group! 

Learning Butchering

We've made friends with neighbors two houses down from us who also are homesteading and homeschooling. They do their own butchering, and I had mentioned I would like to help to learn.  I was so thrilled this week when they invited me to come help butcher a cow. Her foot had been injured, and the vet couldn't heal it. The boys and I spent over 8 hours at their house on Thursday~ the children all played outside together while Adam, Kelley and I cut up the meat. I went back for a few hours yesterday to learn how to cut up the roasts and steaks. Butchering a cow is such a huge undertaking, and the boys and I have been talking a lot about really valuing where our meat comes from~ the hard work it takes to get onto our plates, and the sacrifice from the animal. 

Adam and Kelly have about every farm animal~ chickens, ducks, turkeys, goats, pigs, cows, and rabbits. The boys loved seeing all the animals, especially the turkey that does a special foot-stomping dance! 

I walked home from butchering last night in the dark, carrying a milk crate full of meat. We'll eat steak on the grill for lunch and pot roast for dinner today. I am so happy and thankful for such great neighbor friends!