assemblage of thoughts

1.) keeping all those odds and end vegetables in the freezer and bags of split peas and lentils in the cupboard pay off making big pots of soup to eat during this freeze in.. even if Esme and Mark don't eat it, I eat it and they can eat the other things.  I just don't actually get to making the pots of soup often enough and when they make dinner I usually eat it with them.

2.) we did the stock up runs last week 'just in case' and just in case did happen - we bought extra goat feed, cracked corn and chicken feed, and we've opened them all.  I should have stocked one extra bag of dry cat food, too.  We have enough because I stocked up an extra stack of their wet food they get every night - but it would run out before the other feeds

Our prep was running after work to what place was open - feed store one day, propane the next day (we stood in line for an hour, luckily did get some), stocked up on a few groceries that day which we are using now - Esme found the very last gallon of whole milk at that time the store had - and we are using it - and the store was out of almost all kinds of bread and many vegetables already - next day hunt for bread and a few other things, got one loaf, next day : hunt for bread for Grandma and a case of water, dropped her off one loaf from the same place we got one the day before, which we used just a little bit when the power was out and the well was off.  

used : both containers of ready-to-mix pudding I bought, Esme's ramen, frozen biscuits, bacon, split peas, all the cookies, baking powder

could have used but then found some in our storage : quart jar rings!  and we need to find the propane adapter for the bottle - we didn't need to use the camp stove this time around but we came close , I filled all four clean quart jars we had with water and put rings on them and put them in the room with the propane heater in case we really did get to a bad level with our water.  we wished we had filled up the two five gallon buckets and set them in the bathtub (our bathtub does not hold water long-term) although we had filled about six gallon containers and used three of them before the 9 hour power outage ended.  We were SO lucky to not have pipes burst.

glad to have had in storage : brown lentils, whole wheat flour, regular flour 

3.) Mark and Esme aren't eating the soda bread, either - but I am.  I've had it every day since I made it in some way or other.  I had put half of it, sliced, in the freezer, and put that in hot soup today.

4.) when I'm studying lots of languages together, my facebook has NO idea nor my pinterest - they're picking it up somewhere as a cookie or something, and then my ads and recommendations are in all sorts of wild languages.  Interesting, but also eyebrow raising.

5.)  you'd think I'd start editing one of my books, yea, you'd think that

6.) did start a weaving, made a washcloth, finished a rug, and cleaned part of the upstairs

7.) did the budget for the next few months being pessimistic because I have missed a week of work and I know we will need to be even more careful

8.) reminded myself that risking vehicle, life or limb is the worse of those situations, multiple times, and of course I still beat myself up about it every few hours

9.) audited my knit items that I've made that I was told by many 'you'll never use that' etc... yea, ta-da, using all of it, thank you.  It's not time wasted.  The shawl that took months to finish, wrapped around me right now.  The other little shawls that were 'why do you need that?' one of them is in my bed as an extra shoulder cover at night.  The gloves that took weeks, each pair, EXTREMELY useful, and when one is wet the other one is ready.  The rugs and small wraps and slipper socks and hats and scarves.  I've got them, and I know how to use them.  The queen sized knit striped blankets I spent more than a year making - four of them - one for each of us and one for grandma - we each have one on our beds right now and are using them.

10.) staring at my garden seed trays that I never planted much out of last year, but did use the things I did plant

11.) Mark has grown an absolutely enormous and lovely aloe vera crown from the bits he took off my plant upstairs that is still struggling to live

12.)  Turkish, Polish, Czech, Japanese, Lithuanian/Latvian, French, and that guy in the podcast assures us that if we don't focus on just one language for an extended period of time we'll never learn it.  Spock Eyebrow.

13.) If we had breeding goats they'd be dropping tons of babies right now - seeing it all over the feed, quadruplets, quints, sextuplets, etc. etc.. one goat is a lot, and fifteen chickens - and I don't spend quite enough time with them as it is. 

14.) We are thinking about getting a few more chicks this year because of the aging out of the flock we have - and winter hardiness was always a big point for us - the Sapphire Gems have done fairly well, still have four out of the six but the two that we lost a few years ago were one right after the other.  The Cinnamon Queens have been the best.  I feel sorry for my little Americaunas sometimes so much smaller than the others, except the yellow one, Speck, which might have been a cross over from another box, because she grew up an entirely different color and size than the others.

 15.) lots of notes, what we need to stock up on again, budget, reminders for later etc.

 16.) ribboning the extra whole fresh carrots and putting them in the freezer from the meal a few weeks ago worked great - the last of that went in the soup today.

17.) when the soup is nearly overboiling on the stove, the celery seed smells strongly *ha* 

split peas

frozen bits of bacon, onion, summer squash, carrots, ginger,  

 bit of olive oil

celery seed

 black pepper

small bit of 5 spice powder

water

boil long until the split peas are well mushed

blend it all up, put up a quart jar to cool and then in the fridge

eat the rest

*eating the rest* 

 

  

Sing the Golden Path

Sing the golden path

what else can you do? 

in this space between winter and spring

it is not foolish to dream

of the flowers in winter

only to expect them

to suddenly appear

 

 

 

bits of notes

 Just bits of notes (to be updated later)

 

I found a very large savannah today, on the edge of jungle, mesa, desert and dominion biomes.  So I've found a lot of new things, as I've had bits of these biomes show up here and there but not a savannah as large as this.

Rye seed comes from the savannah grass, where there are also pumpkins, sunflowers, corn, cotton (and probably more) naturally spawning.  I found that out the other day.  I broke a lot of grass though and only ever got rye seed there.  In the plains and sakura environments, the grass breaks to wheat and oat seed, randomly.  In the jungle environments, the jungle grass specifically breaks to rice or cotton seed, randomly.  AND I finally did find the barley growing wild in the Savannah, much like a corn plant.  In the savannah, the dirt can be tilled with a hoe without needing to be replaced (which you must do in dominion and marsh environments before the hoe will work).  The tree saplings that would grow in regular jungle and grasslands do grow here.  A single piece of coal, in a furnace, will toast 4 quantity of sunflower seeds, and there are 5 seeds from every head.

 

 You know how long I've looked for that?  But this is only the third time I've been through a savannah, and this one is a bit larger than the others.  So, it must not be a high spawn rate in them.

I did finally find some cocoa beans in a wayfarer chest (the hampers) and am trying to grow that on a jungle tree.  I keep looking for the new biomes, I know by the achievement list that I haven't found them all.  I haven't even seen a tundra biome yet, or seen the Giant's Causeway basalt flats that I've seen pictures of.

 

 

 

An interesting 'dungeon' brick formation in the Savannah, and some pinkish-red stone called 'Sconia' that I was impelled to go mine

 

 

On Slimes : I'm gonna tell you, in the Savannah environment the slimes are VERY hard to see, compared to the grass ones the color of the slimes here are almost exactly the same as the grass - and in the dark, it's almost impossible to see them.  That could be because my color vision sees more greens and blues - but I've noticed it again and again.  You CAN eat the savannah slime, as you can the grass slime - but not the purple ones.  Also, while I'm on the subject, the purple slimes can climb trees, which in a jungle environment, is pretty far up - I've been way up in a tree not even thinking about that - the noise in other biomes is usually that they are near, but down on the ground and can't get you.  Nope - purple slime come right behind me through the leaves and start attacking.  Purple slimes leave a purple poison trail as well - and if you touch it before it dries it also gives you a hit.  There are also Dark slimes, which I'm not sure if you can eat that - but they aren't much worse than the others.  Mineral slimes are red, and deep underground.  They aren't aggressive (that I've seen, Dark slimes are, they are gray and also tough to see where they live), which is good, because they are TOUGH compared to the others.  You can eat mineral slime.  Anything that was that tough to kill I took that to a house with some food and tried it out in case it was poison.

 

The Sconia rock apparently produces red dye, as well.  I mined all of it.  I went into the brick cave and saw this.  The dunegon was a bust, as the only chest in it had dirt and a stick.  However, the whole dungeon is made of travertine brick - which I may come back and get some if I can remember that.

 

Magenta dye comes from thistles, lilacs and a 'Chiana' purple celosia-looking flower that is actually purple.  Irises give blue dye.  Plantago gives brown dye.  There is a 'Savannah Flowergrass' that also gives a brown dye.  Some of the other magenta-colored flowers come out to pink dye.  Magenta glazed / fired clay is interesting looking, but not so much that I will want a lot of it.  I prefer the orange, white and blue clays.  I am wondering if I should go back and find the dark gray dye (basalt, and slate, I think?) and see if that makes a glazed clay. 

Mesa and Savannah biomes meeting up, Eucalyptus trees and something I haven't yet experienced there on the left.

and yet another one - Eudalite?  It is very pretty.

The colored granites have been hard to find - just a smatter of blue and red so far in the entire world - but I found a whole hoard of green granite today.  I really like the 'lots of rocks' mod that is included with this Luanti Minetest package 'Asuna'.  There are so many things I'm poking around and say 'oo, what's that' and then go dig out the entire vein.  Amber, Amethyst, Vivianite, Covelite (blue), Lapis Lazuli, Sygilite (purple) and much more...  There is a bright pink stone that is scattered in ones and threes where I have found it - but I can't remember the name of it.  Then there are other just interesting things like the blue limestone, slate, shale, amazonite (bright blue-green), chysophase (bright green-blue), travertines and calcites.  I found some orange calcite the other day and although it wasn't enough to make anything big out of - it made a pretty and unique spire for the place. 

 

 Did I find Calcifer, or what?  I think it must be some sort of burning bush.  It went away when I hit it with a pickaxe.  The black block to the right of it is coal dust.  I hadn't found that before, either.  This was in a desert cavern.

 

My spire mapping technique is working exceptionally well.  And I've settled another large quadrant of the world.  I'm using the term 'vast' for when I have an area that is all homogeneous and no good reason to call the cross-point anything else - but I really don't want to build a lot there.  It isn't wasted space, but it is a vast open area that I just have a road through, where four or five cities could have been built, but I don't see any reason to.  

 

update : Oh my, I just found out that F5 brings up a debug window that shows you your coordinates - so now I'm going back to each spire and recording the coordinates there in a notebook.  It was a different key in the original Minecraft.  When I noted this to my daughter she said 'you didn't know about debug?'  Well, apparently not.  It will not replace getting around on the road network, but it will be interesting to see the actual distances.  The first seven coordinate locations that were all supposed to be on the same z were all within 30 paces of the same line - most of them within 10, but apparently that one had a big cliff-face I had to avoid and didn't get quite back to the same z.  I'll also have to go back to the place I called 'Kappa High Point' and record the y.

I've wondered if the fish are specific to the biomes or if they are just entirely luck.  I haven't found anything to suggest they are not just random.  I'd like to find out where the jellyfish are, or if it just a very very random lucky guess.  I got a stick of TNT fishing today - which was unexpected.

Mini Pouch for eyeglasses or other small things

Mini Pouch

sewn from woven fabric about 6x9 inches

 

 

I had hoped it would be large enough to fit a pair of eyeglasses, and it just about does perfectly - maybe a bit too snug.  I'm going to put two more screw pegs on the little loom I had finished making yesterday - and that will give it enough width to make an eyeglass case each time.  

 NOTES:

I had been experimenting with using only some of the width of the big frame - which produces about 15 x 18 inch cloth if I go all the way to the very top with a needle for the last few rows.  To make the handbag I warped it only halfway across and also stopped a few inches from the top, making 10 x 15 fabric.  But then I wanted the smaller frame as well to reduce the time to make something smaller, and to not have to support the entire weight of the bigger frame on something every time I wanted to work.

So now I have three sizes I can make something out of 

15 x 18, table mat, pillow, larger bags

10 x 15, small handbag, small pillow

6 x 9, eyeglass case or small pouch, pockets for inside of other bags

If I really wanted to get fancy I could make four panels of the largest and sew them together and make a pillowcase or a rug - but after doing that much work on something I doubt I'd *really* want to use it as a rug - but it might be a nice thing to lay across the top edge or bottom edge of a bed over the top cover sort of thing (is there a name for that?  Coverlet? I guess just a throw? I use some of my thrifted afghans like that, because I find it pretty, and it gives a 'landing zone' for the cat as well, and keeps the dog off my pillows (sometimes) or at least gives me an idea she jumped up there and I can stare at her disapprovingly as she asks 'but how do you KNOW Mom?' //Charlotte) 

for the record : My standard pillowcase sham looks like it is 30 inches by about 20,22 inches.   A coverlet, a throw?  For that use it would have to be 60 (give or take) by 42-48 inches.

 If I somehow managed to put all the screws into my larger frame that I already have marked out (it's a lot of work, just ten into the little loom yesterday hurt my arm - Mark says I should use the drill press) that would make an area about 22 by 16 inches.  And if I put screws on the cross-wise of that frame, it would make an area 16-18 inches by 40 inches.  That's a lot of screws. And that frame needs a stand really to make anything larger on it - it is heavy and hard to make sit still when you're working on anything.  I was using it mainly for making really long thin straps warped continuously around the whole thing - the way I used to use doorframes when I was a teen and in college to make belts - and had worked up only a 2 inch by 22 inch set of pegs on it to make one strap a while back, but hated the way that yarn combined with the warp so I took it off after only about 8 inches and stuck it in a drawer *sigh*.

 

 the small frame, warped for a second piece, complete with electrical tape repair when I busted a little part of it

 

The Bits:

I did too much weaving that yesterday - but I am sending it off as a birthday present.  I have five days on starting tomorrow at the post office, so I need to resist starting another project and make soup, do laundry et al.  I have a book to read I've started but then haven't been stagnant enough to grab back up.  I'm continuing to learn Spanish through the French interface at DuoLingo, and I feel that it is helping to sort out some of the grammar things that seem much more natural for French but when I try to translate them to Spanish I make mistakes by adding too many articles etc.  

Mom notes

I had the weekend off, and we did some things.  Out in the yard this morning I helped Esme improve upon her leanto tipi.  I used old computer cords (networking cords) that were already in the yard and broken to weave in and out of the branches so they will stick together better.  The structure is pretty solid now.  We also took some of the bricks from the garden and made a pretend brick fireplace.  She found an old piece of grate shelving to put over the top of that, and we used a board on top of two other bits of log to make a table.  I found a rubber doormat the dogs had drug out in the yard a long time ago (which was a trick - because I couldn't find it way back then) and put it in front of her 'fireplace'.  She found some pieces of bark for plates and set the table.  Now she has a great pretend house.

After all of that we watched Jumanji together - she really watched it from start to finish.

I finished one of my baskets the other day, started cutting out squares for a quilt out of recycled stuff (old pillowcases, stained shirts etc.) and made two new pillowcases to replace the ones I was taking.  The herringbone fabric is grey on grey.  I've done some laundry and some cleaning.  As one of my friends says on FB often - 'I adulted for the day'. 

I did finally get to watch my calculus video - to help explain what they are doing in Math Girls about derivatives.  The teacher on the video is Keith Devlin of Stanford, and I remember his MOOC a few years ago I participated in really taught me what the logic symbols (union, etc.) meant and had me thinking.  Esme was starting to go through her preschool then, and times became hectic, so I never finished out the course.

Esme has some goals for this week - watch some Engineering videos, spend some more time on her Indian House, and find out why crabs walk sideways - is it in their DNA?

Mostly notes and babble

The healing from the oral surgery is coming along nicely.  And now I have two days off starting tomorrow and that will be nice.

I'm still prepping a bit for Esme's school.  We looked up the details of a trip to a gem and mineral museum for the upcoming year.  I've copied out and put some 'worksheet' like activities into her 'to do' folder - some travel stickers etc..  I put our printed copy of the edited poems in that folder, too.  I've still got my eye on a couple of books to order, but may decide to keep a list of them and have them as 'end of first quarter' refresh supplies.   In all, I think we've spent about a hundred dollars on her school supplies to kickstart... that is with using last year's supplies as well.  I know other things will come up and want to not feel like 'whoa, but I already spent all this...'  I'm definitely not into 700 dollar curriculums and ongoing subscriptions etc...  We are definitely taking the 'eclectic' approach, picking things here and there that we think will work for our situation.

Maybe list so far: Reading comprehension workbook (language arts/spelling/interpreting content will be her hardest subject with her language development), Reading and math for gifted students (actually threw that in the cart because it had 6 good reviews and a deal on a used copy), TumbleHome Learning press dinosaur fossil kit and Galactic Academy of Science books (for later in the year maybe now), Little House on the Prairie used copy.  Geoworld excavation kit for fossil.

National Geographic copies: April 2013 Reviving Extinct Species, should we? (ordered, as it directly deals with her questions in science) , also want to look into January 2012 Twins copy because she has interest there, February 2012 is Dogs, maybe, June 1989 is also about extinction of dinosaurs with a pullout supplement.

I would like to get her reading a kid's news site several times a week. I found one at Scholastic that seems like a good match for her.

There are some graphic novels on a nearby library's website we can access and I think she'd like to read some of those....would have that time dedicated for her to explore their free library.
Maps, landmarks, monuments, highway systems, sewer systems, water and electricity systems... we touched on that the other day just in conversation ... might have her make a pretend 'city' and add these things to it one by one, like SimCity.....we had a copy of that, but it doesn't run on my computer anymore.   There were some good photo essays I saw out there about the Statue of Liberty and National Parks, for days when it is hard to get into much else.

Spelling is tough for her - as if it doesn't stick- but I think it would be good for her to know how to spell color names and major parts of the body (like eyes, teeth) by the time the school year ends.  So, there will have to be weekly spelling tests and activities that center around spelling common words.  I might use Grandma's Silly Situations game some for making sentences and stories.

For my own reading:
I'm enjoying The Martian.  I copied down the title of 'In the Unlikely Event' by Judy Blume as something I might want to read myself, but too old for Esme.  Also, interested slightly in the Harper Lee 'sequel' Go Set a Watchman, but I'll wait a while and finish the books I have before I get anything else.  I was most of the way through the Black Fawn by Kjelgaard before I switched over to The Martian.  I read a lot of Kjelgaard in middle school and found that as a free Kindle book online.  I also downloaded a highly reviewed ebook called The Green Ember by S.D.Smith

In other news:  I've repaired our quilt in several places.. doesn't mean much to anyone but me.  I like it...and want it to last longer.  We made it several years ago and Esme watched me baste the edging on it during one Christmas season.  I've also got an idea for a kid's book  - based on some things Esme was saying about her painting the other week... am making sketches for it and may make a few paintings for it.

First Grade Curriculum materials

Will update this as I go here.. but want a collection to refer back to and add on to...

Spelling : K12 reader list of spelling words   We are using the first grade spelling words as 'spell it from hearing it' and the third grade spelling words as vocabulary and copywork. I have a 1968 spelling primer 'Language Mastery Primer' that I bought at a library sale we are using, as well.  We picked up a 1.00 dictionary for her to learn to use, at the same place.

Reading Comprehension : k5 Learning Reading Comprehension   This is a hard one to find something simple enough for her writing ability but tough enough for her logic capability.  She can read a lot more complicated items, but her handwriting still is a barrier at times, and she is just beginning real composition.  We have a book from the Calvert school that Aunt Dot sent to us that has lots of fables and questions in it - we've used that, and also some of the poetry from it for copywork.

Reading - books, poetry and rhymes.  plurals, tenses, etc... too many to list, but we are active in searching out books to introduce her to, read with her, etc etc...I have bought several 'old school' textbooks that are on her reading level, and we've read them sometimes when she doesn't have something else she is 'into' and we haven't finished.  She has her own library card now, and we have went often.  She likes the chapter books from Franny K. Stein and also the Stink Moody series, they are fun.  We've read some Charlotte's Web, and I have Half-Magic and Little House in the Big Woods on reserve, but I don't want to start more than two chapter books at a time.

Handwriting:  'the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog', for copywork, mixed with other sentences and copying names of dragons, etc..   She has a perfectionism tendency...but once in a while she lets me correct her and I do see her improving steadily.

'English':  First, things that come up, like homonyms she doesn't understand, or capitalization and punctuation while we are writing some sentences.  Second, 'voice' in reading actually falls under this, I believe - because once you understand how sentences in books flow, the punctuation and forms come easier.  Third, identifying

Math with : Khan Academy, Matific and using specific games online that make her think about math while she is playing them - multiples, scarcity, probability etc...  She has done the Dragonbox algebra prep for age 5 and up from start to finish.  We also downloaded and used Math Stretch as a mobile app and some calculation apps for basic addition/subtraction. We started with multiplication tables up to 10x10 earlier in the year and very simple division with fractions (circle pizzas) and regular numbers (counters/word problems).  Still working on the 11/2 is 5 and a half TWICE... maybe find some materials for that or make a prop to help.

Math / Geometry : Matific and Khan again, and trying to put some hands-on in there.  Also have used Solid shape Geometry worksheets from Mathworksheets4Kids which she is ready for.  Making PVC items from our kit works in here, too.  Math Salamanders 3D solid nets

Science:
Asking questions and finding answers  - researching for information, creating tests and recording the results.  Started with the Chemistry cards at Pinay Homeschooler, introducing them 9 at a time (page) and talking about them.  She is picking up on the ideas with the pictures and categories much better than she did with just the letters.  We have done lots of experiments, ones she found online and some we got from a Lowes kit, oobleck and such.  For nature science she is learning a lot about different animals and environments, how to prepare and care for different pets and animals and learning about plants with her greenhouse.  When it was warmer we went for lots of nature walks around the house and answered her questions as they came up.

places to investigate more,  GeoDetective , Try Engineering and Edheads

Geography:
Started her out playing World Explorer map geography game at the library.  She didn't really believe all of these other places could be real at first - thought it was just stories.  We have three hallway maps, bought and from National Geographics.  We are using National Geos and youtube videos to investigate different places, the animals and people who live there, as well as tectonic plates, volcanoes and etc...  We printed out a map from Printable maps and put it up on her wall, for us to fill it out and color it in as we learn from the other maps.

History
We had her watch Liberty's Kids from start to finish, and have talked about history in general, where people lived, where they moved to, Columbus discovering America, wars, Indians and the settlers - taking little bits as she is interested in them.  She has played the Civlization game with me and it gives some good ideas that people had to learn things slowly etc.. I think once she has a better idea about the world in general- from our geography studies and relating those studies to history and people, she will be ready to take on more lessons.

Languages:  She did a little modern Greek online at the beginning...waned off of that and it became too much of a chore.  She agreed recently she should go back and learn it some more.  BUT - she had remembered several words all this time!

Photography, Video : She has used our smaller camera, printed out the photos with me at the store - and is learning to take photos and video on the tablet.

Computer interface:  A lot of the games, Minecraft, PBS kids etc that she plays fall under this.  She is really good (and has been for years, really) at figuring things out to play complicated games.  Now, she is learning from them, learning how to look things up about them and really getting into them for strategy and quests.

Other supplies:
Electric Company series videos
Blue Planet series videos
Mr. Roger's Neighborhood (on Youtube)
SnapCircuits electronic building kit
art with Joy of Painting videos, art supplies with Mom
other building kits we picked up long ago...Da Vinci and so forth
mancala and dominoes, checkers and dice
balltrack building kit
Knex and Lego
dolls and figurines, making up stories
Scrabble and Monopoly
paper, glue, scissors, yarn, macaroni, beads etc.. making things
simple cooking with Mom and Dad, measuring etc.
weighing with a balance scale
woodcrafting with Mom and Dad
candlemaking with Mom
sewing and weaving lessons with Mom
rollerskating, weight lifting, running laps and general exercises
taking care of her chickens, puppy, cats
cleaning up after herself, putting away clothes, organizing desk etc.

Specific materials I've sourced for her:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Books from The New Basic Readers collection (several years ago), Fun with our Friends etc.
-----she has almost outgrown these, now - but will keep them for a while
-----There are two other similar books 'Up and Away', and 'Seeing New Things'. That last one is a science book.  They were both from library sales.

Library discard sales:
Sun and Shadow (1982 primer book 'Level 4'...of 1st grade, perhaps?  it doesn't say)
Pets and Promises (1980 primer book - listed as 2nd grade level 1) , seems more difficult than the other one.


Books from the 1979 Childcraft How Why Library - we have four now, one from my original set (Indian Book), the Story of the Sea, Things we Make and Rhymes and Poems.  Probably will add more as we go.

 Power Pack and Supergirl comic books
A book called 'the Car', on the history and construction of the car, also car racing.
A topographical map showing mountains, volcanoes and ocean currents.
was going to buy a world political map - but found one at the big box for 5.00
The Half Magic, Charlotte's Web and Little House in the Big Woods books
A compass and binocular multitoy from Toysmith called Optic Wonder
A vintage Speak and Spell
candle molds
Seeds for her gardening projects, dianthus, cockscomb, geranium and herbs.

Zoo trip and bits

Giraffe feeding at the Memphis Zoo

 Mama Giraffe saying 'don't drop the food!'

We bent down and gave a baby giraffe some food under the fence, which the Mama let it have after consideration.

 

Tyrannosaur art sculpture at the zoo 

Esme never did quite reach his chin - she was too scared.. but it was very cute!

Most of the animals were asleep as it was very hot for them.. and Esme was upset she was not allowed to go swim in the fountains like the local children (the bleach reeked to high heaven probably masking a world of other ills).  She kept asking 'Can we go to the zoo now?'... which was an annoying disconnect because she wanted to go play on park equipment she had seen by the cafeteria and we finally told her to stop asking - the animals were 'the zoo'... she was quite upset all the way through the Teton trek because of the fountain.  She tried to sniff the grizzly through the 'grizzly sniffing slot' and it was not interested.  

 

Esme trying to sniff the grizzly through the 'sniffling spot'

China exhibit with some beautiful architecture and sculptures

 I loved the China architecture and the statues in there, although the panda bears were asleep.  The red pandas (which I loved from Fargo zoo) were very cat like, following the keeper around and rubbing on his legs.  I was glad Mark got to see them in action.  We fed the giraffes, which Esme loved, and when we got to see the elephants Esme said 'There is a little child over here, look at the child elephants!', to which Mark cracked up.  We got a squishy purple dragon at the gift shop, but had to wait in line forever so we were not interested in going into any of the other shops. 

see all the pictures at Mark's album zoo trip 2013

 

The polar bear kept coming up to the window and grin growling at the people, backing up and doing it again.. some lady said he was neurotic, but we thought he was just having his own fun with us.

Esme got happier at the polar bear and seal exhibit, the air conditioning helped.  She probably would have watched the seal for another hour if we let her, as it was having fun between this room and the lower windows with all the people watching its 'show' as well.

 seal breaking water in the pool

 Penguins swimming

The penguins were what Esme had originally wanted to see, and they put on a swimming show around their keeper but since it was the last thing of the day we were kind of tired out at that point.  We let Esme go to the playground for about 10 minutes and then started the trip home.

 Esme at the dino

garden note

I did not plant anything today - what restraint ;)  I have winnowed out the sunflower heads from last year, the basil seed and a lot of the broom corn seed.  Just that tiny bit of red broom corn I bought last year has reproduced itself thousandfold.  I have given some away to anyone who wanted some at work - hopefully it will feed other birds this next coming winter.  We have so many new and different birds this year - because of the logging opening up our woods.  There are also quail and turkey I am hearing in the woods, and saw last year.

Work tomorrow, but also more seed preparation for the weekend.  There are still marigold heads and zinnias to strip out and maybe a dozen field corn cobs to strip as well.  The only planted seeds that have a chance of being up this weekend are some of the beans and the radishes.  I will see and report!  I bought a Japanese eggplant that will likely be planted tomorrow.  I have never grown eggplant before, but am willing to try.  They are self-pollinating, like tomatoes, so just one plant should do well.

Also: My sunburn is very itchy!  Tonight after returning home from work - being inside all day long mind you - I am itching up a storm more than 24 hours after having been in the sun.  I have such a weird system.  It is like that with nearly anything heavy I lift as well - 24 hours or so later my muscles are telling me about it... but not before, unless I do something really unwise and then I know it almost immediately.

fall bugs and foxtail grass

Something is eating all of the new beans as soon as they put their heads up - and is now starting to put holes in the purple hull pea leaves as well, apparently they aren't quite as tasty, but they'll do. I had expected the new squash plant to get eaten when it came up - as those bugs are still prevalent out there. But, I hadn't expected the new beans to be eaten as soon as they put their heads up. There are a lot of things nibbling on the beans but it has not done anything to really stunt those plants yet. I'm going to need to put chemical on the garden for the second time during the entire season... if any new bean is going to survive. Hmm...

And my one lonely cornstalk is up, from the one lonely dent corn seed I put in the ground. They are very viable.

I was collecting interesting seed from some grass out by the roadside. The closest thing I can find to it online is yellow or green 'foxtail' grass. It has small seeds in a fuzzy caterpillar like head. The seeds become dry and fall off at a gentle touch or can be coaxed off in a threshing like process. I collected a small tin of them. Then I read that dogs often get the seeds in their nose, eyes or ears and have terrible complications from sniffing and burrowing around in it. Our dogs were right there next to the grass - and didn't seem the least interested in it. I am on the fence about spreading it around behind our garden, which I was going to do because of it's interesting 'grain' like potential and the fact that we have quail and turkey living back there now. It is liked by wild game fowl as a food source - which I could tell just by examining it in the wild. I would hate our dogs to get a problem from lodging seeds in themselves - but they seem smarter than that. It might be different if there was a whole field of it...

I need to look into other grains at our co-op tomorrow. I want to get a grain crop that I can grow for chickens and other animals - but that could also be threshed without terrible difficulty to store, either for livestock or for an emergency food supply. It is always nice to have something on hand that has multiple purposes. I have found a few good sources to buy seed online if our co-op does not have the hull less varieties of the barley or oats that would serve as that multiple purpose grain. Hull less oats would be the best choice, because it is easily digestible by humans, dogs and other livestock and is a good keeper, as well. I was also thinking about sowing common rye grass in a few places only for the fowl and livestock. It would be nice to get some of that growing wild out there.

bean notes

The whippoorwill cowpeas are getting ready to mature - the pods are not quite plump yet, but there are a nice number of them. The black-eyed peas have surprised me. I thought they were almost done with their crop. No... they were just getting started! I see three times as many pods now as what I've already picked - and it will be a week or so before they are ready. The Kentucky wonder and white half-runner beans are starting to produce enough for more plates of green beans. I am enjoying the brown Mississippi silver crowder peas - they taste more like a dried pea than the black-eyed peas and taste like they have a lot of minerals in them.

Other notes: The White half-runner beans were planted intermixed with the Kentucky Wonder beans, but I can tell the difference. The half-runner beans plump out quickly with large shelling beans inside them and the Kentucky Wonder grow longer and skinny before they begin to develop beans inside. That makes a lot of sense as the SSE boards were mentioning half-runner types are more likely to be large beans. The black Shackamaxons are planted at the end of that row and have purple flowers instead of the white/yellow flowers both of the other varieties have. However, they have not yet gotten any beans on them.

Notes: I have seed (three total) for Tongues of Fire beans, and they look VERY pretty. They have red pods with striped beans inside when mature. I should plant those next season, and put them on poles. The files say they are pole beans. In that same box are three Scarlet Runner beans that were not planted and might need a second try.

I am really looking forward to planting Esme's experiment beans and seeing what they become next. An article said that it only takes a few beans of any type to make a 'variety', and then year after year it will become more hardy for the land it is planted in. Most of the bean swappers on the seed saver's exchange are exchanging as little as five beans per variety, and that explains while some of the packets from heirloom sites are ten or fifteen beans each.

With these new beans and cowpeas, I've joined Seed to Seed. The challenge is to grow a new plant or variety from seed, save the seed, and replant it the following year. I'm already planning on doing that ;)

Small pieces of art

My coworker wanted me to draw some flowers at work for an announcement. It was interesting to draw something again that someone else wanted. Then I was on the phone for about an hour trying to find something for a customer - and I sketched this little lizard monster during that time. The two styles are completely different.. realistic flower and stylized lizard. It makes me want to break out the inks Mark and I bought in Yellow Springs when I was pregnant with Esme. They are in a box on my sewing table and I have not been into them in months.