We have a small flock of chickens. We have six older birds, ( five hens and one rooster) and five younger birds ( as well as four little, littles).
We introduced my nearly three month olds to the older flock and one of the birds hurt her leg. She has been living in the lower end of my breezeway for about a week. This morning she apparently got herself out of the tote and was wandering around.
Then this happened……..
Apparently, she needed to make a phone call
After our camping trip this past weekend we found ourselves at Mystic Seaport. The kids learned a few knots, a few skills like how to make dipped candles, and they learned a few facts about whales. We learned that often men would go on whaling trips for three to five years, and what they were doing was collecting whale oil. Whale oil was used as an oil to lubricate machines, used in cosmetics, and used for lanterns and such. All in all not unlike how we use petroleum today.
As a side adventure a whale watch opportunity kind of fell into our laps! We saw a single humpback whale named Nile. Nile was born in 1987 I believe. Every year she comes back to Stellwagen Bay Sanctuary. Unfortunately my phone died and I did not get any pictures of her.
We learned that there are two types of whale, baleen whales and toothed whales. Also all dolphins are whales, but not all whales are dolphins. An Orca whale is a toothed whale that is technically a dolphin!
baleen from a minke whale
We got to touch the baleen of a minke whale, we learned that baleen whales open their mouthes wide letting lots of water, fish and krill in, when they close their mouths they force all the water out through the baleen. All of the krill and fish get stuck on that baleen and the scrape it off with their enormous tongues. The kids asked a bunch of awesome questions during the q&a, but my mind is a bit foggy at the moment, I will add them later. All in all we had a great time, a great learning experience and they barely knew they were learning!
(We also saw this awesome sail boat that all the kids on the boat insisted was a pirate ship)
Today is day three of our hatching eggs adventure! We gathered eggs from our chickens (white rocks), and my inlaw’s chickens. We may get a few Rhode Island Reds and Americanas add well!
I will try to upload pictures when I candle the eggs.
I currently have to turn the eggs by hand three times a day. That means taking a break from our busy schedules to come home and turn eggs midday. We have five eggs from each house, each is numbered (or lettered) and I am trying to keep decent records.
I am also starting a Pampered Chef business, more on that later.
As you may know, all of my kids have nicknames on my blog, baby #5 is hence forth known as baby Thor. He was born at the end of January, at home, and he took his sweet time, blessing me with a forty hour labor.
Now we’ve got three blue eyed and four brown eyed in the family. ❤
We have been a very busy household as of late.
Just to update some things, we did end up getting Boris and Alice, although we renamed Boris Jabberwock, aka Jabber.
Also for those who do not know monkey #5 will be making his way to the family some time in late January, early February.
The kids have been busy, we just finished the Fall play, and cheerleading (they were the same weekend! Talk about a tired momma!)
We also just finished a homeschool co-op, the kids did theater, Irish step dancing and plastic straw construction. They had a blast and made a bunch of new friends.
Hopefully I can find some time to get back to blogging.
So, these treats are just too delicious to delay the recipe any longer.
It is
2C of cool whip ( I am currently working on using real whipped cream, will update later)
1/2 C of peanut butter ( this is a guideline, because I am pretty bad at remembering to measure)
Combine them, put them in cupcake papers or silicone cups like I did.
Freeze until solid, I leave them overnight but I would say 4-6 hrs to be safe
I also drizzle chocolate sauce either on the bottom of the cup, or on top of the peanut butter before I pop it in the freezer.
(Chocolate sauce recipe)
Combine sugar, salt and cocoa, then add water. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently until thickened.
Remove from heat and let cool for 5-10 minutes.
Then add Vanilla.
I put mine in a reused agave nectar bottle
I haven’t told the kids that I made these yet, otherwise they would all be gone!!
We kicked off our Pioneer unit with a trip to Coggeshall Farm Museum . We attended their “Breakfast on the Barnyard” event which they hold every Saturday morning throughout the Summer.
We fed chickens and turkeys some stale bread while they wandered around us. We learned that free range chickens do best with a rooster, a rooster actually lets out a distinguishably different noise if a predator (like a hawk) is around.
Bean got to open the gate on the sheep pen and let them out for the day, it was so funny to watch them jump as they ran past the crowd of people.
We also met their bull, cows, donkey and horse. None of their cows were in milk, and there were no babies but Bean fed the bull and the older two kids both got to brush him.
We also got to tour the house on the property, we were told that it was actually a renter farm. The farm is the only museum in RI that was not owned by a wealthy or important person. The house was able to be turned into a museum simply because it was never updated. No one wanted to live there, there are absolutely no modern amenities added. The guide said that the house was a stepping stone for families or groups of people, working their way up to owning their own farm.
These were our lovely guides that showed us around and made johnnycakes for us. The woman taught the kids how to play “graces” and how to roll the hoop on the ground as you run beside it.
It was amazing how many people that were there for school vacation, overheard me talking to a friend about the homeschooling classes they offer at the museum and came up saying that they are homeschoolers as well.
Our next outing for our Pioneer unit is Old Sturbridge Village in the beginning of May! ( I am such a geek that we went to OSV for our honeymoon) We are currently reading “Caddie Woodlawn”, and soon we will be digging into the “Little House” series!
I say “choose” because it is a constant decision. Every few months I ask the kids if they want to go back to school next year, and I review what we’ve been doing, and the progress that they have made.
The first reason that we made the initial decision is because public schools tend to be “one size fits all” and with clothes, sure it might technically fit, but it isn’t flattering in most cases. That is how I see the school system, yes, it provides the basics but it certainly is not tailored to the child.
Bean is reading and comprehending at a fourth or fifth grade level, she read the first two Harry Potter books over the Summer between first and second grade. However, she is at “grade level” for math. She used to tell me that she hated reading, it was so boring and she didn’t understand why she had to do it. Turns out the books she was reading at school were just far too easy for her, even in the “advanced” reading group.
Mage is great with math, but struggles a bit with reading.He also has a speech delay that occasionally effects his spelling and reading. He needs a little extra help in these areas.
We are also really active in the local home school community, going on play dates and various other activities. Mage plays tee-ball, Bean does theater and the younger two, well they are kind of too young for anything anyway.
I want my kids to grow up with self confidence, they are a product of my husband and myself, chances are they are going to be odd. My biggest goals for them, is for them to be comfortable in their own skin, and be a thoughtful, educated, knowledgeable, and wise person. I want them to know HOW. It is okay if you don’t know something, but know how to find out, knowledge and wisdom are different animals, knowledge is the possession of facts, wisdom is knowing how to use those facts and apply them to a new situation.
I do have a list of things that I want my children to know by the time they are adults, things like how to sew, how to cook, how to chop wood, how to change a tire, and a car’s oil. But it is a long list and food for another post. I hope I have given you some insight into our world.
Beanie and I went to meet a breeding pair of show rabbits today. Alice and Borris.
Alice is a broken sable point and Borris is a sable.
Here is a picture of Alice and her last litter, they were born last Easter.
Alice is a proven show winner, she has won one leg ( an award) and once she has won three she will be a “Grand Champion”
I am a mom of four, we are in our first year of our homeschooling adventure and we are busy people!
First let me introduce you to my kids, before we start on any adventures.
hoping to keep some anonymity on the internet they chose the names they want to be called on our blog.
My eldest is Bean or Beanie, the youngest is Cuddlebug, (she always needs to be held), my eldest boy wants to be called Mage (he is a big video game fan) and my youngest boy is a crazy Monkey.
Sometimes we go on adventures, like to the zoo, and sometimes even staying at home can be an adventure……at least for me.
In fact today, we are going to check out some rabbits, the kids want to join 4H and do the rabbit shows, only problem is………….we don’t HAVE rabbits. We plan on fixing that sometime soon. Beanie seems really excited about working with animals, she claims she wants to be a vet when she grows up.
We will see.
mommaofmonkeys 