Happy Labor Day, y'all!
We had a pretty fun and much needed weekend. On Sunday afternoon, I went out to take the cover off the pool so that we could swim. When I got close to it, it was making a strange "plink, plink, plink" sound. I finally realized that it was RAINING! Little drops were hitting the cover, making it "plink!" There was no thunder, so we went in swimming any way, although J complained that she was getting wet. I'm sure that we got too little moisture to even register, but it's good to know that the clouds still remember how to do it around here!
Sunday night, after our cookout and Klondikes, we set up the first ever Poplar Ridge Drive In! We hung a sheet from the gutter above the garage, set up lawn chairs in the driveway, and watched "Kung Fu Panda" while getting munched upon by skeeters. It was pretty fun!
Today we got the first actual, genuine, guaranteed egg from the red pullets. Maybe they heard me complaining yesterday that I was tired of feeding 37 hens and only getting 2 eggs a day? In any case, I set up more nests for them this evening, and here's hoping for a BUNCH of tiny eggs tomorrow!
Hope your long weekend was fantastic.
Monday, September 7, 2015
Saturday, September 5, 2015
Week 2 is Through!
The word of the week is Algebra. This and soccer practice dominate J's life at the moment, and therefore, the life of our family. A letter came home from the Principal on Friday that begins, "We have been made aware of concerns about our...Algebra program this year, including the level of difficulty and the amount of time spent completing homework."
The Middle School has moved to a new book this year, which supposedly incorporates the Common Core Standards (dirty words, GRRR!), and is supposed to encourage students to be "self taught learners." It also requires the students to purchase a graphing calculator (which cost $88 at our local Wal-Mart.)
J's homework this weekend was 30 exercises involving various functions of the calculator. Let me tell you something...even if your child did not throw away the instruction book on the first day of school, this thing is tremendously difficult to figure out! The Principal's letter states that "...the teachers are using every minute of class time to provide the students with instruction on each lesson." The truth according to J seems to be somewhat different - she says that the teacher went over 2 examples in class on Friday.
In any case, all told, J spent about 4 1/2-5 hours on Algebra homework this weekend, which includes watching several YouTube videos about the calculator functions (very helpful!) So. Glad. That's. Done.
L's soccer coach finally had all of his clearances come through, and was ready to have practice on Thursday. We were all suited up and getting L's soccer ball in the car to head to the field, when she ran around the side of the car, and straight into the opening back hatch with her face. She reacted so strongly that I was concerned that she might have done more than just get a giant goose egg on her forehead, but JP checked her out and thought she was ok. So...she missed her first practice, poor thing. The school nurse called me around noon yesterday to report that L had been in to see her, and requested an ice pack for her head. I've heard nothing more about it today.
It is Labor Day weekend, which usually means that we work more than normal. JP & Dad put the Brush Hog on the tractor and then JP mowed the fields. I mowed down the weeds in the orchard, and removed the straw bale Kitty Kastle from the veranda. (It was meant to be a temporary thing, but stayed out there for more than 3 years!) I also broke down and watered the trees in the orchard, as it has been about 3 weeks since they've had any water.
Speaking of dryness, all of the forecasted thunderstorms have dispersed before hitting our corner of the world, so it is super dry. I used all of the water from the 1000 gallon rain water cistern on the garden, trying to keep the Fall peas, the tomatoes, and the eggplants from dying. I spent a couple of hours hauling 3 loads of water yesterday to fill that cistern as well...never did that before. So far (*knock on wood*) our well has been hanging in there.
We are planning to take it easy tomorrow, hopefully with friends. Possibly on Labor Day, we will also chill. It would be nice.
Enjoy your long weekend everyone, and if you want to cook out and play in the pool with someone, come our way tomorrow afternoon. It'll be fun!
The Middle School has moved to a new book this year, which supposedly incorporates the Common Core Standards (dirty words, GRRR!), and is supposed to encourage students to be "self taught learners." It also requires the students to purchase a graphing calculator (which cost $88 at our local Wal-Mart.)
J's homework this weekend was 30 exercises involving various functions of the calculator. Let me tell you something...even if your child did not throw away the instruction book on the first day of school, this thing is tremendously difficult to figure out! The Principal's letter states that "...the teachers are using every minute of class time to provide the students with instruction on each lesson." The truth according to J seems to be somewhat different - she says that the teacher went over 2 examples in class on Friday.
In any case, all told, J spent about 4 1/2-5 hours on Algebra homework this weekend, which includes watching several YouTube videos about the calculator functions (very helpful!) So. Glad. That's. Done.
L's soccer coach finally had all of his clearances come through, and was ready to have practice on Thursday. We were all suited up and getting L's soccer ball in the car to head to the field, when she ran around the side of the car, and straight into the opening back hatch with her face. She reacted so strongly that I was concerned that she might have done more than just get a giant goose egg on her forehead, but JP checked her out and thought she was ok. So...she missed her first practice, poor thing. The school nurse called me around noon yesterday to report that L had been in to see her, and requested an ice pack for her head. I've heard nothing more about it today.
It is Labor Day weekend, which usually means that we work more than normal. JP & Dad put the Brush Hog on the tractor and then JP mowed the fields. I mowed down the weeds in the orchard, and removed the straw bale Kitty Kastle from the veranda. (It was meant to be a temporary thing, but stayed out there for more than 3 years!) I also broke down and watered the trees in the orchard, as it has been about 3 weeks since they've had any water.
Speaking of dryness, all of the forecasted thunderstorms have dispersed before hitting our corner of the world, so it is super dry. I used all of the water from the 1000 gallon rain water cistern on the garden, trying to keep the Fall peas, the tomatoes, and the eggplants from dying. I spent a couple of hours hauling 3 loads of water yesterday to fill that cistern as well...never did that before. So far (*knock on wood*) our well has been hanging in there.
We are planning to take it easy tomorrow, hopefully with friends. Possibly on Labor Day, we will also chill. It would be nice.
Enjoy your long weekend everyone, and if you want to cook out and play in the pool with someone, come our way tomorrow afternoon. It'll be fun!
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
Where's the Bear? #41
It has been SO hot lately! Definitely NOT ideal for all of this soccer practice that the girls have been doing. It is not the dog days of summer (July 3-Aug. 11), and it's not Indian Summer (late September - early November), so WHAT is it?
The bear thinks it's BEARLY tolerable.
The bear thinks it's BEARLY tolerable.
Tuesday, September 1, 2015
Week 1 is Done
L is in a class with a teacher that was not her first choice, and with only one out of her group of girlfriends. She is also disappointed that recess does not happen until the very end of the day. Every day, she scowls and grumbles.
J has Jr. High soccer practice for 2 hours every night, and over an hour of Algebra homework as well. I have been picking her up from school, so that she has 45 minutes more to do homework than if she would ride the bus home. She comes home from practice at 8 PM, sweaty, exhausted & ravenous, and sometimes has more homework to do before a shower and bed. She spends most of her life in a state of semi-consciousness.
This afternoon, we were asked to come to the Library for newspaper pictures. Both girls were among the top readers in the Summer Reading Club. J racked up over 42 hours of reading in the 6 weeks of SRC, and L read more than 36 hours.
At this point in life, I am extremely grateful that we had such a low key and laid back summer. It allowed our minds and bodies to rest before the upheaval of school and Fall sports. I only heard the girls complain a time or two that they were bored. They read A LOT. We got in the pool almost every day. We made some day trips and did some fun things - nothing huge or glamorous. It has been lazy and unstructured because of JP's continued eye issues and forced activity restrictions for the past 2 months. We all slowed down. Perfect.
And now for some REALLY good news: JP was released from all activity restrictions as of last week. Hooray!
Now we are sweating and math-ing and reading and grouching through another week, and looking forward to a 3 day weekend. We'll need the extra break - J has her first soccer game the following week, and L will return to piano lessons. (We've decided to wait to add on guitar lessons until soccer is over with in October, as we might be able to squeeze a lesson in weekly, but not daily practice time.)
Welcome to Fall!
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Thursday, August 20, 2015
Lions & Tigers & Birds & Bees...Oh My!
During our busy Fair/Family Vacation week last week, I somehow lost sight of the fact that this week is the last week of Summer Vacation. I have veered back on track, however, and we have accomplished Back-to-School clothes shopping, as well as a trip to the Zoo so far this week.
My parents have the opportunity through their insurance company, to attend several activities at nearby locations throughout the year. This summer, they were offered "Zoo Walks", where they were allowed free entry into the zoo up to 2 hours before opening to the general public, along with a "Meet the Keeper" program once a month. They invited us to go along, since they were allowed to bring one guest each. We had a nice time there, although it was hot. We were able to see about half the Zoo before too many people were there, and left shortly after lunch.
I called the Apiarist who tends our hives over the weekend. He came out and set up a sugar-water reservoir for them down near their hives. There may be fewer bees at our pool now, but still anxiety causing when you want to climb the ladder to actually enter the pool. Over the past few days, I've learned about 30 minutes before we hope to swim, if I throw back the solar cover so that there is about a 2 foot space of water surrounding the ladder, the number of bees diminishes enough to allow safe entry into the pool, as well as careful removal of the solar cover.
This morning I discovered that another hen was missing. I found her beneath the roosts in the Chick-bit house, where she apparently fell peacefully asleep last night. These poor ladies are definitely showing their age, laying very few eggs, and not getting around as quickly as in the past. That pullet egg that J found a while back must have been a fluke, as we haven't seen another in 2 weeks. I would actually expect them to start laying in the next week or so.
My parents have the opportunity through their insurance company, to attend several activities at nearby locations throughout the year. This summer, they were offered "Zoo Walks", where they were allowed free entry into the zoo up to 2 hours before opening to the general public, along with a "Meet the Keeper" program once a month. They invited us to go along, since they were allowed to bring one guest each. We had a nice time there, although it was hot. We were able to see about half the Zoo before too many people were there, and left shortly after lunch.
It was a relief to cool off in the pool once we returned home. We've been having an issue lately, however, with the bees in the pool. Apparently they discovered that our pool is an excellent water source once everything else dried up. They have been swarming around the ladder, where there is an opening in the solar cover. This makes it difficult to get it to use the pool ourselves!
I called the Apiarist who tends our hives over the weekend. He came out and set up a sugar-water reservoir for them down near their hives. There may be fewer bees at our pool now, but still anxiety causing when you want to climb the ladder to actually enter the pool. Over the past few days, I've learned about 30 minutes before we hope to swim, if I throw back the solar cover so that there is about a 2 foot space of water surrounding the ladder, the number of bees diminishes enough to allow safe entry into the pool, as well as careful removal of the solar cover.
This morning I discovered that another hen was missing. I found her beneath the roosts in the Chick-bit house, where she apparently fell peacefully asleep last night. These poor ladies are definitely showing their age, laying very few eggs, and not getting around as quickly as in the past. That pullet egg that J found a while back must have been a fluke, as we haven't seen another in 2 weeks. I would actually expect them to start laying in the next week or so.
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Where's the Bear? #39
The bear planted all these baby trees, and then it stopped raining. Now I have to carry water to them every other day. I wish he would help with that too!
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