what is that weird bark? a tree with winged bark in Tennessee

What is that weird bark?

My daughter had a hard time finding it by any description we could come up with.  We tried fractured bark, and corrugated bark, fragmented bark and corrupted bark (all good words, but not quite showing up)  And then we found the terms winged bark and corky bark.

So - what is this tree?

We were pretty sure it is a winged elm.

Ulmus alata

We found this website that had great pictures:

Nature's Wild Things Winged Elm 

The research:

We did look up that it does grow in West Tennessee, where we are located.  I found some great pictures on another site that show trees of this species in the exact state of 'small pinnate emerging leaves'.

At one point we thought it might be a sweet gum tree, as they have bark like this.  There are also a lot of sweet gums in this area, as evidenced by the small spiky ball seed pods they leave on the ground.  But the difference that assured us this was something else is that they have 'hand shaped' leaves, with five points.  We could tell by carefully examining these emerging leaves that they were pinnate, arrow-shaped or feather-shaped leaves.  Each little leaf had a very clear line down the middle and was relatively smooth-edged.

 

Wednesday explorations

giant spider web 

9    - dragon city
9.30a    - game research: writing summaries on two games she tried.
10.30    - excersize outside 100x jumping jacks, 30x 10lb deadlift
      50x 10lb bicurls, .25mi run, rope climbing
11    - microscope exploration - dog hair, tomato section, acorns, rocks, flowers
11.30    - break

12p    - multiplication table: 1-12 x 1-6
12.30    - quadcopter flying
12.45    - break

3.30    - giant spiderweb construction
4p    - break

5.45    - quadcopter flying
6p    - quadcopter cleaning - taking apart with jeweler's screwdrivers, cleaning the rotors, putting back together, flies again!
6.15p    - done

She had today with Daddy...as I had to work early.  We had talked about her being 'very good' to go somewhere fun on Saturday.  She asked to go somewhere specific and I told her she would have to be 'almost an angel' to get that this close to her birthday when we were saving money for that...  Tonight when I get home from work she said 'I was good today...was it enough to say I was an angel, or was it just good?'  *heh*  Nice try.... one day is all fine and good, keep going for the rest of the week ;)  Am I turning into a cynic?

Mom Notes //I'm reading Math Girls by Hiroshi Yuki in tandem with Palimpest (beautiful language....hard for me to read at times, but still entrancing visual images).  I took an hour or so tonight to reacquaint myself with sin and cos so I could figure out what they were talking about in the omega waltz section!  And yes, I'm still teed off at Miruka for knocking Tetra out of the chair, too...maybe they get on better terms?

Bird City

"Bird City"

We did the flea market and the other library today.  Esme had really wanted to go to the other library - and I think I'll try to make a time we can spend longer at it another week coming up.  She found some amazing rubber butterfly models and a kiwi plush which made her day at the flea market.  We looked up and read about kiwi birds as part of our reading for the day.  She learned a lot of cool things and transferred that to making a kiwi burrow and costume in the Minecraft.  She wrote several signs to label things and read three books I had written and placed into the library.

I have started working with her on some of the Spectrum Test Prep book - to see where she is at with her reading comprehension and English skills.  She did four pages with some questioning of what they meant -especially on the phonics questions...she wondered why someone would want to compare the vowel sounds one minute and the end sound the next etc etc... but she did well.

I found a book at the other library on their tiny sale shelf called 'Secondhand Magic'.  I think I will try to get her to start reading it with me.  She loves kites and magic, and it is about both.  I found a novel for me and two English grammar type teacher's manuals that could give some ideas - for a quarter for each book there isn't anything to lose.  I've ordered a Stephen Hawking book 'George and the Secret Key to the Universe' which will arrive in maybe a week.

Math: 
 We have continued in our math with ordinal placement up to four digits, number pattern sequencing, and some 'fact family' type work where she has to fill in the missing number in a long list of equations where they all equal the same number.  The fact family worksheet was from this company: MathSphere
She said it was a cool worksheet because she just had to look at it up and down and she didn't know what they wanted for a second and then she did and it was easy.  It was the one where all the equations added to 20.  The number sequencing patterns were not taken as well...but she is good at this if she tries and needs practice after a summer off.  She likes to try more when there are cute pictures - but the sheet I gave her today was just text, so she had about three despairs during nine questions.

Other: 
We read a third of the 'Secondhand Magic' book before bed.  Esme likes it so far.  Then she told me she had been reading her 'Human Body Facts' book she got in the mail from Aunt Dot.  I mentioned we still have to choose a 'body system' to study first for our body charts. She says the part that makes babies.  ERR...uh...how about we choose another one first, please?  OK.  The Brain, then.  Then she asked me even more questions that led me to grab a notebook and pen and explain X and Y chromosomes in lieu of the rest of the story.  But, yes.. let's really do the Brain first for official school, now that you understand the 'how do the parents decide if they'll have a boy or girl?' idea is random, but based in something I kind-of explained. **it's coming this year.. we will have the full talk**


Mama Notes:  I reached 45% fluency on Duolingo.  I'm still doing lots of practice sessions...which are really helping.  So I maybe do one or two new modules a day and then practice for the rest of the 50 points.  50 points per day is officially their 'insane' level....A few days a week I don't make it...but that is how it goes.  I also bought some soap at the flea market from Dry Hollow Farm, and baked some apple cake.  I'm listening to more music on Spotify, a few new things here and there, and lots of the ones I've found that I like as they pop in my head.  It keeps the 'elevator music' out of my head from work...although I've picked a few of those out and added them in..KT Tunstall, Alanis and a few others here and there.

Fish Uncertainty and more Ecosystem

Esme had really wanted to go fishing yesterday, but it was just too hot.

So, we had an early morning fishing trip to the lake - and one small mouthed bass. 

It was pretty torn up by the hook, so I had her walk it up to the house for pictures.

As you can see, she was kind of uncertain about the whole thing!

We threw it to the chickens, but hours later Mark said they were still hiding in the corner of the pen and pointing at it like a threat to their well-being, so he tossed it behind the garden.

 

 More play and additions to the 'Ecosystem' project.

She had made a log to dig earthworms and termites out from underneath, but then she decided to add a squirrel, and a new tree for the squirrel, and (not shown) there is a little pocket in the tree for the squirrel to hide nuts inside.  She took the story book we wrote last night to bed with her again and tucked it behind her pillow.

Note: Also, she had gotten stung by a wasp on her foot (she told Daddy it was a horsefly bite) - watching it closely... she told me her sock felt a bit tight and she hadn't really realized it was anything different.  But, it is puffy.  Should go down tonight or by tomorrow morning... we'll see.  My family has a reputation for being very allergic to such things so for her I would call it a reaction, but not a serious one.

Anatomical Body charts in progress...

I started to draw the 'outside' body chart tonight and Mark said to start drawing the organ body chart off of the same pattern..tracing over and then filling in.  It is working pretty well.  I'm trying to make it 'not too scary' for her.  I am not sure if I'll do a skeletal one by itself, too... (decided not to, as we have a real lab skeleton hanging up).

Also, we've had a necessity of getting Esme up twice a night for a week or so since my oral surgery - or .... well, there was arguing about it.  So, she progressed a few nights ago to getting up on her own (and meeting me in the kitchen) when she heard my alarm clock go off in her room.  I was using my phone as an alarm clock, and that seemed to work for her.  Tonight we will test run her own brand new dual-alarm clock radio I brought home.  She is skipping rope in her room to the radio now after we got it set up and ready to go (And one test to show how to turn it off).

It was very hard to find an outlet to put the clock radio in (mine was portable battery operated)...but after rearranging several pieces of furniture - I found a Tetris that worked without moving her bed (important when she is getting up and moving). We'll see how that goes...

Thursday greenhouse and more

10:30a     - supply run to stores
                   discussion of science experiment needs
                   supplies for greenhouse, petunia seeds, spraybottle
She kept a little notebook checklist for what she wanted to do/get and helped me check off the items on my list, as well.

11:30a     - groceries, shoe comparison shopping,
                  math during checkouts, self-checkout
12:00     - home, break
1.15p    -  Kahn Academy math, subtraction, equating, word problems
1:45p    -  break
2:15p - Greenhouse operations, dirt, transplants, planting
She helped make dirt.  For a kid who has been head-to-toe in mud often, she seems to have acquired a strange distaste for dirty hands.... We transplanted the geraniums - having her make the pots and transfer one whole by herself.    Then, I had her prepare three four-part pots for the petunias and plant the seeds - but there were only nine seeds!  So she chose some Kale.  She watered and made labels reading off the packages.

2:45p - Minecraft discovery...summoning command, some reading involved...she was upset we couldn't summon a skeletal horse.  We did summon ender crystals and dragons and other horses.
Juiced a lemon with the real kitchen juicer to paint on paper to test a science experiment she saw

3:45  - break
4:30  - clothes care and maintenance, discussion
5     - done

//She checked out Gary's Mod again for her free time, trying to remember how it all worked.

Notes
Her attitude was some better, today.. I only had to remind her to do what she was doing about half as much as usual..   When she first woke up she thought we were going to clear the rest of the garden and till it all today.. but was sad when we said the weather was turning for the worst and there were other things to do today.  She was close to excellent in town -even though we were making a 'rush' of it compared to days we go to the library and playplace for our town trips.  She did complain about making dirt, and did argue a lot about doing the online math, but then saw that her Avatar grew again.. so that was better after that.  She has been somewhat upset this week because of the puppies being sold from this litter, and missing them... but she has done such a good job with socializing them that we have tried to stress how much better dogs they will be for their people as her work well done.

Tuesday Wednesday

11.45a    - candle making (Science AND arts and crafts!)  apparently perseverance on this one, too (read on)

We tried to make dipped candles - but ended up with just prepared wicks because our pan was too shallow.  I thought that might happen... went on to Plan B, and prepared three eggshells by putting holes in the ends and blowing out the yolk and white into a bowl.. she liked that step.  Then we ran the prepared wicks through them and put them in a holder.  BUT - the wax was too hot, and the eggshells not very dry, and the styrofoam holder container melted and let the wax out onto the wax paper we had lined the surface with.  So, we got some sand and put it in a bowl, and rescued one of the eggs that way - getting at least small dome-shaped candles.  It wasted a lot of wax.... but it was a good learning experience. She really liked watching her crayons color the wax, and seeing the 'state change' between the block of wax, melted wax, and cooling wax hardening up on the spoon again.  I ordered some tin molds to use next time, and we talked about what went wrong and what we did get out of it.

12:45p  - puppy outside training

1.30p    - garden clearing / seed harvesting
 She helped me pull tomato cages and t-posts, used a pliers and cut and wrapped up strings of wire, looked for dried bean pods and sundried tomatoes still clinging that might have seeds in them.  We stacked 6 bricks and the tposts and cages away from the garden and talked about what we needed to do to make it ready for the tilling machine, and why we didn't want any wire in the garden.  She told me what she remembered about last year's tilling.. and played 'karate chop' in the dried tomato vines.  She built a 'tiger trap' out of grass, sunflowers and cornstalks and then showed me how it was supposed to work.  The two black puppies rolled around, followed us at our heels and one of them even brought Esme a stick to add to her tiger trap and then acted all happy she had helped.
2:30p    - break

3p      - lake walk, nature discussion, PE games

We walked to the lake and played hide and seek in the long grass, saw a tiny baby fish in the water (really odd for January, but it was 50 out) and ate lunch, which she had helped prepare.  She forgot her sandwich at home so she had to eat part of mine - which wasn't her favorite thing...it was entirely new to her (tuna and avocado, she had packed bologna, but not in the bag she had put everything else in!)..she ate half of it reluctantly, but did eat it all.  We played frisbee and hide and seek.. then walked home.  There was lots of talk about where the sun rose and set and what it meant about what time of day it was now...argument, and discussion about time of year/day, temperature, sky etc.


3:30       - break

4:15    - reading letter from neighbor about her farm
4:30    - pbs kids
5:00    - baking soda experiments
The PBS games site had baking soda experiment journals - and we tried several of them with a balloon to show the air being made instead of a cork.  She wrote down which were acids and which was a base.

5:30    - proper use of candles, matches
I stressed this was adult supervision stuff, and showed her how to strike a match, light the candle (with something under it) and how to transfer the flame from one candle to another to light more than one.  She did it several times and was very proud of the candles we had made ourselves.  She would like to make more another day and is glad her 'broken crayons came to use'.. her own words, because her teachers hated broken crayons and didn't want her to save any :)

5:45    - done, eating supper and very happy

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2015-1-20

This was flea market day, and we had planned to get up very early and take all the puppies.  Esme did a great job getting up when asked, grabbing food and a drink, getting dressed and getting her bag ready to go for the market.  We were in the car in about a half hour including all the packing.

7.30a    - Sitting at the market, doing Math Stretch app, geography discussion with world atlas app.

8a    - flea market (math, socailization, etc), shopped for fruit, toys, made change
We sold two of our puppies at the flea market, as well as her having to watch out for puppies, help attend to them and to people who came to see them, stay in sight and with us at all times, use her bag of 'stashed' food, drink and toys to amuse herself, keep a good attitude and ask good questions as she had them.  She asked me what several things were, why several things were (morning, sun, shadow, dew etc. etc), and talked about memories from flea markets before.  She price-checked a hen for her coop, at 8 to 10 dollars, but had forgotten to remind us to bring her cage so she will have to get that next week.  Then, she bought a large and a small toy, and a bag of apples from the fruit stand.  She looked over ducks, banty hens and chicks, as well as talked to several vendors and their dogs.  Helped pack up at 10:30 to take everything home.
11a    - break (3.5 hours)

2.30p    - pbskids.org
3.30p    - done

+1hr     - scrabble with Grandma

Friday ornaments and science

9.30a    - painting christmas ornaments
10a    - math test, word problems using subtraction and multiplication
         - frustration and arguing on last problem of printed test....borrowing issue led to mini meltdown
          - lots of math word problems written in word processor 'on the fly'
        -- when asked if there were only three seats left on the bus and four people wanted to get on, what would happen?  She asked how big the seats were and if the people could squeeze in together or not... if the seats were big and the people were small...  // there is our divergent thinker.

11a    - Science experiment "Walking Water"
       - siphoning with tube and buckets
      - capillary action with bread and foodcoloring
     - walking water setup with jars, food coloring and towels
      - talking about straws and gravity, air vs. water

12p    - reading aloud (skeletons book - chapter2)
12.30p    - break

2:30   - modeling and molding with Crazy Sand 'clay'
2:45p - spelling primer through pg 34
      - writing lots of common words, correcting mistakes, writing a few sentences
3:15p - using needles and ribbon to finish ornaments
     She said she knew how to use the needle - I said show it, she said prove it,
      just like a scientist proves his experiments and chemicals mix together.  Hmm..yes!
       writing date on and hanging ornaments
3:30p - done

There were pillow fights and  varnishing ornaments when they dried, a trip to a bakery in town when we went shopping for project materials, and we kept checking on the Walking Water experiment all day, because it took that long.  I drew out the principles behind the siphoning experiment and the bread experiment as Mark said my words were kind of vague (and they were).. and Esme understood the concept quite well when we asked her to explain it to us on the way to town later.

 Crazy sand
This was one of the project materials she bought at the store

Finished ornaments hung up.. also some ribbons, other ornaments from 

other years and a little felt puppy toy she stuck in there the other day.

Tuesday

a little ink drawing attempt by me, 

but she wiggles a lot.. so I had to fill in the shadows while she was giggling 

8a    - cleaning and organizing - discussed why we clean and why yes, it will be important for scientists and engineers to clean as well, not only in their jobs but their homes.
8:30     - break

I put on the movie 'Epic' and she watched nearly the entire thing.
I needed down time...knit a bit, drank coffee.
Getting ready for town, planning town

11.30a    - Khan Academy math - subtraction and addition reinforcement..7s table in multiplication up to 7x5, working in multiples to do addition and subtraction quicker than working on fingers, and writing out problems from words with minimal help.  Is it subtraction or addition they want here?  How do you know?  How do you write it.  Reinforcing doing the ones column before the tens, and what borrowing really means as well as how to do it right.  Started out crying about every little thing, brain hurts, why we are doing this.. then she saw I wasn't giving up, and she asked good questions and really started to click the reasoning for HERSELF after a bit, went a bit further to do a full hour.

Teaching Note -- She WILL try to tell me 7 minus 4 is 5 (during the first ten to twenty minutes) just to get me to give up on her. but I won't take that.. I'll ask her to count back 4 from 7 and show me how that equals 5.  She'll throw a frustration fit because she wants to do something else.  I'll say this is what we are doing and I really want her to tell me how that equals 5.. 'because' doesn't work.. etc.  When she knows that Mom is in 'real math mode' she stops fooling and starts working.  Only then does she really click.. and then I can stretch her and see what she knows and she doesn't.  And, afterwards, when she knows she did real work and did it well, she says it was 'fun'.. public school never did that for her, and they would never have gotten accurate test results from her.

12:30p    - break, drive to town

1:3p    - library use of catalog computer to find books on skeletons (question the other day)
             comparing the Dewey Decimal numbers to the author name fiction tags on books
              going out to the 'adult' book section to compare that the numbers and
              name tags mean the same things out there as they do in the kid's room.
              computer game - 4th grade ClueFinders, math, geography, logic
              lunch out in the parking lot
              hibernation pretend/role play with reasoning, questions, science application
              ---she climbed under a table and made a den with blocks as her stored food.. which was 'strange' but she answered the questions well about why she needed to store food, what she would do all winter, and why, and what would happen if another animal came to her den, good or bad...?

4p    - bookstore choosing appropriate books to buy, thrift store, bought two tennis rackets and a toy welding mask for 25 cents each item, Lowes
---asked why shadows 'break apart as you go higher'.. meaning she is holding a spoon in a light from the window at night and watching how the further up she holds the spoon the more shadows it has.  We talked about making an experiment with that..

5:3p     - break

//plan to do some reading in either the Cats to Love book she picked out or another one.
8-9p - bopped around, watched arts and crafts I was doing, cut out a paper hammer, wrench, screwdriver and drill and pretended to be fixing things with her new welding helmet toy
9:15-9:30 - read two small books she had bought for herself today.

I found several reading textbooks and a science textbook for Esme's level between the library bookstore and the thrift store.  One of the reading books had some good 'levelling' passages with pictures and words to know to test her knowledge.

Tuesday Greenhouse science and puppies

 Esme sporting her pretend glasses (see yesterday) and pointing out the seeds 

we are planting today.

All ready for the project!

 Writing it all down in her journal

 Sillyness with Daddy.

8.30a    - Matific math games, measuring, distance comparison, shapes
9a    - break

10:30a    - science, planting seeds 3 diff.kinds with journal entry
------We planted geranium seeds 'Black Magic' variety that I ordered from an Etsy shop.  We also did sunflowers 'Lemon queen' variety and lima beans 'Florida Speckled' that were all from our garden last year.  I intend to have her notice the differences between the different seedlings as they come up, different leaves, how fast one grows compared to another etc..

11:30a     -  break

12.30p    - multiplication chart -- 0 to 5 again by herself, then try the sixes.
12.45p    - eye chart, Snellen variety with 20 foot line.
Determination : We all have somewhat bad eyesight. I couldn't read the 20/40 line even with my glasses on.

1.15p    - balancing; headstands
1.30p    - vocabulary words - 3rd grade set first column. copying from sheet
2p    - break

2.15p    - vocab words - using in sentences, reading own handwriting!
2.30p    - cooking; rice krispie treats
3p    - puppy retrieval and observation
3.30p    - done

Minerva had eight puppies.  We had all of the other female dogs fixed, but not her.  She was so close and had never had puppies... so we decided to let it happen.  There are several real beauties, and she seems to be doing well.  We have lots of misplaced hormone reactions in the other girls, though -- they all feel they should have puppies, and they are reacting in different ways.  Sweetie and Nova are giving wide berth but are depressed.  Daphne is intense about sitting outside the puppy area and growling at everyone - especially Loula, who is spayed but is now the only one who never had puppies at all.  We have a long week ahead of us!

Thursday capacity

9am    - Kahn academy math
9.30a    - music notation video; notes and rests
10a    - break
10:30a  - Capacity book - math with pints/cups water
11a     - break

1p    - planet earth ep 5 "deserts"
2p    - ep 6 "ice worlds"
3p     - zip line stuff with Skittles packages and pipecleaners
done

Wednesday math, a potato and more

 

The Potato clock was done today!

They had to work around a lot of things - but they got it working :)

 

The Dinosaurs did some copycat action and went after the mountain of Skittles in the care of several turtles.  Esme says this is a picture to send to her friend EmK to see in her house!

We started Khan Academy math again, and racked up 4800 points, and then did our first of the computer programming modules.  Will return to it again!

Mark and Esme made a skeeball target for her catapult she got for her birthday, which was their engineering craft project for the day (besides the potato).

Adventure day two and Engineering day

Adventure log drawings

 2014-10-9

8am - Greater / Less than worksheet
    - Bike parts worksheet
    - Starfall
    - Break

9am - Tongue Twisters
    - word search
    - PE (weights! 30x 5lb lift, 30x 5lb squats, .25mi run (quarter mile), 10 situp)

10am - Outside adventure nature observation walk
     - Writing report of observations

11am - recess

4pm  - Web searches with Rhe
     - Designing monkey bars

5pm  - Engineering: pipes, T and elbow joints.engineering vocabulary
5.30pm - Done
extracredit:      Spider egg case drawing for science , discussion

 journal page for engineering with vocabulary and counting up parts needed

Spider egg case drawing



eating watermelon from a coworker's garden with her egg and cheese sandwich for dinner


the light was almost completely gone and the camera had a hard time getting much quickly... got quiet contemplation and 'super excited'... She had her knee-high socks on and rollerskates on and had been skating for about an hour today on the concrete floor just before I got home...

List of things she wants to do 'soon':
Potato stamps art project
ink blots with paint

Engineering school:
Project requests:
Build a cottage out of wood - bit too much for us at the moment...but possible
Buld a set of monkey bars out of pipe and a ladder.. very possible, need used ladder

We discussed both options, looked it up some for material cost and discussed measuring and how to decide how big a project should be when it's done.  Went to a store site, looked up materials, talked about price sorting and how to check if an item is what you want.  Talked about counting pieces in a design so you don't have to go to the store more than once for materials, and why it would be hard to go back once you were building/working.   Then we practiced using our PVC bag of parts and pipes (from the flea market tent) to build a structure, make it stable, balance and mirror (opposite but the same - she said) parts so it comes together.. how to compare lengths of pieces and find four/eight etc. the same, how to substitute a part if you don't have what you need right at hand... She was very good at keeping-trying and then also about making her drawing, counting, and cleaning up.

//transition //
She asked if she had to go to school tomorrow (Friday) and I said not go 'to' school, she would have school here at home, like the past days since Monday. She said she didn't want to do school at home either (she wanted to skate and play and I had told her it was really time for bed).. but then I said she didn't want to trade her Saturday, did she? Oh no, don't want to do that... She still gets the weekend off like she would at 'regular' school and we had fun things planned for the weekend.. and she gets to plan some of the things she wants to do, unlike at the public school.  So, she planned some things and is ready for classwork tomorrow then a fun weekend with no 'required' stuff.  She then said 'I am kind of tired.'  I said I saw it in her eyes.  She said she saw I was tired in my eyes, too.. Yes, and I have work tomorrow.  She flip-flopped for a few minutes while taking forever brushing her teeth.. by the time I had her in bed and reading a few poems to her she was in a sweet mood.

science

 making a 'bridge' and diagramming the parts

This was her own idea of a project, and I did help get the hair ties all the way around all three of them - as that was a dexterity issue and she had tried a few times.  The plan was all hers,and we discussed ways to get the pencils in there without using glue, which was her idea and I said was too messy.

She spent the next half hour assembling similar little bits and bobs with lots of items on her desk until it was time for bed.  Mark says she is just about ready to have a family Knex night.  I've seen her digging in her Legos more, too - trying to make things and working out how they go together better.

Fairy butterfly then seed geekery

 Our fairy butterfly ready to grant wishes last night going to the Halloween movie event.

We have a Halloween school party tomorrow - I'm not sure if she is wearing the same general outfit or if she wants to change it up... she gets home in an hour or so, will talk to her about it.  She was in quite the surly mood last night and an 'interesting' mood this morning... we'll see.

And now, the seed geekery.  Beans and corn.  If you've had enough of this in past years - turn your eyes away now, or just glance at the pictures for the eye candy effect, and run away from the type ;)  I won't subject you to all the measurements and notebook scrawls - but they happened, this morning, while Esme was at school and I was finally feeling in the right frame of brain to 'obsess' in a constructive way.

Not counting what I documented in August  - this is the corn crop for the entire year.  It's not much, volume wise.. yes?  But the genetics are what I'm after, and the eventual hardiness for our soil and climate.  I also would like to choose for the easiest shelling type that has dried under our 'natural' conditions well.  Eventually, it will be excellent for animal feed, although I ended up with mainly popcorn types coming through in the end.

Types represented and mixed this year:
White Cherokee Eagle corn (dent type)
Mandan Bride (I don't see it - know it was there.. but it didn't dominate anything)
Smoke Signals popcorn
Japonica popcorn
Hopi Pink popcorn
Glass Gem popcorn
Peaches and Cream sweet corn (it mixed with one of the popcorns and is represented)

The dried beans from the year, not counting the small white ones - don't know what they are!  They were climbing another tree by the other fence where I had only planted Good Mother Stallards, and are obviously not those!

Blue Black Shackamaxon : planted in Location A and B, in location A it was easy to see that they all came out exactly as expected.  Ate a lot of these as string beans with the Providers.

Tennessee Greasy beans : white beans with black spots that were planted in Location B, climbed eight foot tree opposite of the beans mentioned above.   Some came out like the Hopi with c-shaped streaks (these may be Rattlesnake beans actually...I 'lost them' in the same location), some came out black like shackamaxon mixed with them in same location, a few variants between.  So really, this one is a tossup again like last year.. I should just be tracking what I planted instead of trying to give it a name!

Hopi String Beans : planted in Location A all came out white with black streaks

Bosnian : separate tin of seed elsewhere, might have been one planted here

others planted but not representing above:
Good Mother Stallard - did not produce or are mixed in and I can't tell
Kenearly bush yellow-eyes : did not produce, bush bean so it can't be the progenitor of above...
Mayflower : grew just a few then died
Provider :ate almost all that we got...maybe one or two seeds got saved a while back
Yellow Golden Wax :ate what we got, then it died....

 Two odd but distinct variations in the pile

Where did they come from - what are they?  Are they just oddball genetics in the original set?

 The ones on the left were grown last year as 'Tennessee Greasy Beans' but had come out white with black spots and streaks.  Now after being stored in glass for the year dry.. they are orange with black spots.  The Bosnian, on the right, which I expected to turn orange with age, are nowhere near that color.

A look at the whipporwill cowpea crop alongside the other beans
Mark didn't want me to plant them this next year - there were SO many of them, and there were ants on them when he went to pick them at the end.. but so productive, how can I not plant them?  I ate several bowls worth this summer and there was just always some there if it was needed, or dried to seed if I didn't get to them.  As a 'survival' food, this one really takes the cake as a no-brainer to plant.

Esme's science experiment

We bought food coloring today, new shiny bottles for her.  Then I had her get the writing journal and a marker, and write down 'in code' the experiments she was going to do.  We wrote a 'key' of the colors so she could write just letters (and reduce the stress of the writing) and make 'equations' to record the 'findings'.  We talked  about a 'hypothesis' but she didn't get that - maybe next time.  She did guess once what she thought something would make, red and green would make black - but then she saw it was brown, so there was a moment of interest there. 

We put one drop of each color into the small container of water and used a white spoon to mix and tell what the color was.  Then she carefully wiped the spoon on paper towel (like a true scientist, not messing up her results!) and recorded the result in her book.  If she wasn't sure what the color was, I had her drop some on to the paper towel to double-check.. she decided blue plus green food coloring was 'light blue' because the mixture was lighter on the paper towel than the blue looked like by itself.  I had to agree that was what it looked like... 

After we had gone through as many of the variations as she thought were important (I reminded her to check the equations and see which ones we had not done - she did well!)  Mark had made a container of oil, and we tested what the color did in the oil.  It made 'dots', she said.  We put some water in the mix, and it made bubbles AND dots.  Then we put some of the oil on top of a container of water, and dropped food coloring into it.  It made dots - but the spoon pushed the food coloring deeper into the water, and it made a 'whoosh' and colored the water underneath. 

After we cleaned up I had her come upstairs and 'explain her findings' to Daddy.  We answered a few questions and made a sheet about it to send to her teacher.

We also did a sheet of 'find the missing numbers' and her one sheet of homework from school.  She did measuring and length worksheets last night and this morning before school.  I am trying to do 'extension' without going too deep into the subtraction and multiplication they will be doing in the next grades... there is a lot we can do in science and math that will help her use better language - bigger, smaller, above, below, longer, taller etc etc... 

Her behavior was MUCH better today, and that continued when she was home, as well.  I got her to bed at 8 pm again to be up at 5:30 am...

bit by bit and science

I've sent Esme off to school today with her dinosaur book, and two extra Biscuit books we got in the mail.  I think she is really glad she can read them - and that is the reason I got them.  It will give her confidence that yes, she really can read well enough for some books.  In the meantime, she wants me to teach her science - because they don't teach it in school.  I didn't get far into that one yet - told her I would but would have to think about the best way to do it. She has been doubling numbers, so I started a tiny bit of multiplication this morning.  I haven't done subtraction with her, yet... and I think that needs to be another book for her to start on. 

She surprised me wonderfully on Saturday with several things at the store I work at - she told me what a shutoff valve was for after examining it and opening and closing it.  She knew what to do with a male and female part after looking at them, and remembered the word 'male' from somewhere deep in the past when we had looked at them.  She knew the plug that threaded in was for stopping the water on that side etc... we walked to the electrical switches and I told her the basic idea of the power goes into it on the side.  She said it was like the water and the lightning and the switch made it stop and go.  She has some brain in there... I've always known that, and it is showing so much now. 

I started laying out the science book - following the suit of the 1950s one we had gotten for her back when I was considering fullblown homeschooling.  It will take a while to lay that one out for her...

I am still fighting a cold - again - the day at the park on Saturday was not the best for me.

The other thing she cried about was not having a cheerleading dress like the other girls on the same team.. but I don't think that is going to come to pass.  We don't need Kindergarten cheerleaders in our house... science majors, maybe... but not cheerleaders.  I might make her a dress with the blue and gold fabric the next time I get a chance - but if it looks 'like' the cheerleading dress but isn't... I'm not sure how she will take that.  We had made a decision a while back not to buy the school merchandise when it comes to clothing -- too high of a cliff to fall of there. In her own way she told me I was dooming her to be unpopular... teen angst in a five year old body.  I am glad she is getting better at expressing herself - and telling me what is important to her. 

bits

I've been working on a shrug type sweater out of my Christmas yarn, and it is very wearable, super warm, and supposedly washable. I've ordered a few books from online for Esme, dinosaur level 1 and 2 readers and a laminated labelled anatomy chart that shows the names of the bones and muscles. Esme and I have been talking more about different 'natural science' things, mostly 'how things work' type explanations. The other day while I was cleaning we had a talk about rain, water, floods, faucets and drains. I told her about the day in Fargo when it flooded and I had to drive my truck across town with the rain up to the windows - and how the truck stopped, and I had to be picked up by another truck and taken to the other side of town. She really thought I was 'being pretend' about that - but I told her it was for real long time ago and that I had to sleep on the floor at a place all night until the water went down and someone could bring me home again. She has been really enjoying her Cat in the Hat 'inside your outside' book and we have been talking about blood and how it carries air from the lungs, food from the stomach and etc etc... She is very interested in many parts of that book! I am hoping to win another one of her level one 'dick and jane' readers. I've been talking with several people I know trying to find out more about the local education system and how and when to do the homeschool registration.

notes to self:
more dry erase markers - they were on clearance at L
look for a tote about 18x24 minimum, 18-24 inches tall with a locking lid. Would like to find one of these to put her specifically lighter and smaller 'homeschool' books and items in so they do not get scattered and potentially ruined. The heavier hardbacks could stay on the place I have for them on the shelf - but as I gather these 'Level one' readers and other small books she will need somewhere to keep them separate and special.

ordered today: 'Meet the Dinosaurs', and 'Dinosaur Babies', both from Nana's gift certificate

Astounding Science Fiction Collection

This is Mark's collection of Astounding science fiction magazines, later known as the SF magazine Analog, which is still in publication today. He has magazines from as early as 1939 in this collection, many of them full years, right up until the 1990s. We moved and reorganized these magazines during the last week - putting some duplicates and oddballs up on Ebay at our store.

The Analog magazine published early stories and serials by well-known SF authors such as Theodore Sturgeon, Philip K. Dick, Harry Harrison, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Larry Niven, Robert Silverberg, Poul Anderson - and many more. There were also countless authors that never made it to the level of 'household names' as some of those just mentioned - but are also part of the history of early science fiction. I liked Mark's quote that these short stories are similar to a 'short course in the golden age of Science Fiction.' The magazine also did (and still does) publish fact science and technology articles.

More on the Astounding/Analog magazine publication from Wikipedia.


Close-up - they aren't in perfect condition but each copy is readable.


An old ad inside the cover of one that caught my interest. The year was 1939.


Another old ad from the back of a 1941 copy