Watercolor

We love taking walks and exploring the outdoors as a family. Ukiah and I especially like drawing and painting so we decided to mix the two. Most of our library time is spent in the non-fiction section getting how-to books, biographies and more books on the things in nature. Sometimes we take our inspiration from the pages of books. I thought I would share a few of our watercolors with you.



This is my dragonfly. I had a lot of fun with it because things kept going wrong so I had to change my ideas of what I wanted it to look like.



This is a bullfrog tadpole that Levi painted.





This is Ukiah's bullfrog.



This is my spider.


Levi's newt.


It is such a nice medium to work with because if you make a mistake, you can just change it into something else! I will try to find something that Silas has done and post that too.

The BIG one!

We have a couple ponds on our property which they boys take special delight in. They wade, canoe and generally muck around...but their favorite thing to do is FISH. Well today was a very big day because Levi, our youngest, caught a HUGE large-mouth bass. At least it is huge to us. :) They said they've seen it but could never convince it to bite. Daddy is away but heard all about it on the phone tonight and he requested that we put up some pictures on the blog. They aren't the greatest...being snapped off in all the excitement...but you will get the idea. :) After all the picture taking, they quickly let it go back into the pond. We are vegetarian. :)




Here is Levi, the big fisherman, with his catch. Silas was our camera man.

Disaster in the chicken house

When we bought our home, it came with 7 chickens and 5 Pygmy goats. Several months ago, one of the chickens was killed by some unknown attacker. Then, 2 weeks ago, we awoke to find that the attacker had struck again. This time it got Ukiah's pet Araucana named "Owl" and our Bantam rooster. We rounded up the remaining chickens and put them in their house that night. This has now become a regular evening chore for Levi. That same week, just as we had returned home from prayer meeting, Drew saw an opposum in the chicken yard. He and the boys jumped out of the van and went after it. Upon careful inspection Drew discovered that it was a mama and she had a pouchful of babies! As cute as the family was, they needed to be removed from our property. She was SURELY the culprit who had been caught heading back for another chicken dinner. After spending the night in a make-shift pen made out of our wagon, the family moved several miles away to a nice, quiet place away from roads. We couldn't resist taking some pictures before she and her little ones were released.

I have seen many opossums in my life, quite a few up close and one as a childhood pet, but I have never seen babies this small. :) This was the only one that came out of the pouch but we could see other tails hanging out. It was snug in the pouch when she was released.

Since her departure, all has been quiet and peaceful in the chicken house. :)

Hyacinths

Our hyacinths have bloomed! We had several nights of very cold temperatures a few weeks ago when they were just starting to come up. I have quite a few glass gallon jars so we covered them up the best we could and prayed for their preservation. We must have at least 20 plants. They were at their peak last week when this photo was taken. The irises began to open yesterday. :)

Silas's project

While my mom was visiting, each of our boys chose a project that they could work on with her after school. Silas, who is 10, is really into gardening and wanted an area of his own outside of the BIG garden. He decided on raised beds for his precious heirloom plants. :) Orange-glo watermelons and St. Valerie carrots are among some of his choices. He received these seeds as part of an exchange we participated in with our online homeschool group.

Drew tilled up the spots for them while they were building the boxes. They used old boards but I expect they will last for a couple of years and will suit his purposes perfectly!

Sprouting

We have an abundance of lettuce growing in our greenhouse and in the beds outside of the greenhouse now. But this past fall and winter when we didn't have much, we grew sprouts by the gallon to add to our salads and sandwiches.

We use glass gallon jars and 6"x6" squares of double cheesecloth. I put 1/3 of a cup of alfalfa seeds in the jar, cover them with warm water and secure the cheesecloth on top of the jar with a rubberband. I let this sit overnight to soak. In the morning I drain all the water out and rinse until the water runs clear. I let the upside-down jar in the sink to drain until after breakfast. Then it goes on the counter on its side. I rinse the seeds/sprouts about 3 times a day and I make sure they are drained well. This is important otherwise they begin to decompose. After the brown seed hulls begin to come off of the sprouts it is important to scoop them out. I have found they are the biggest culprit of sprout failure. If they are not removed, they decompose also and begin to break down the sprouts. I carefully pull the sprouts out of the jar and put them into a big bowl. I fill it up with cool water and swish them all around to loosen as many hulls as I can. They get scooped off and the sprouts get drained. Once they are drained I put them into plastic food storage containers with a paper towel on the bottom so they don't lay in any water that might still drain off. They keep in the refrigerator very well this way and it is SO much less expensive than buying them.

This is the underbelly of a male Eastern Fence Swift. If you could have seen it up close...it was a metallic blue! I am continually amazed at all the places the Lord gave so much attention to detail and beauty. Seriously, this is the underside of a "lowly" lizard who was rather difficult to catch. How would we have known of this remarkable creation if we had not set out to look for it? I really appreciate the inspiration I receive from our children. They are always seeking treasures in nature.

This is a male five-lined skink. The boys catch these quite often. The juveniles have the most beautiful, irridescent blue-purple tail. As the males mature their heads turn a rusty orange. I love the grubby little fingers in this photo. :)

Isn't this exquisite? It is a Spring Beauty and they were all over the place.

Camping

Well, it seems so long ago now that the boys and I went on our camping trip. I thought I would share a little before I move on to the next thing.

As soon as we arrived, the boys went about setting up the tents and making a fire ring. They dug it out about a foot and began building our fire. We decided to make our camp down in the big pasture, along the edge of the woods. On the other side of the pasture is a big hill and in the evening, for about 5 minutes, the sun would shine right on it and caused it to glow a beautiful orange. In Idaho we called in alpenglow. We planned to stayed in the big tent and the dogs were supposed to stay in the little one. As night came, we decided to keep them in with us. :) It was so beautiful...like sleeping in a huge planetarium!

In the morning, the boys gathered kindling and more wood to revive the fire so we could have a cozy spot to sit for worship. Such a relaxing, peaceful time.

We did a lot of reading and exploring and generally had a nice time. I tried to post pictures of some of the treasures we found, but I am having difficulty with the text, picture, text, another picture thing. Any suggestions?

So busy...

Oh, I am not very good at this blogging thing. I just haven't taken the time to write. A lot has happened though that I would like to write about.

First of all, Drew completed his real estate course and scheduled his final test for next Monday! I am so happy for him.

Next, we had a bit of a garden drama. Huge garden, plowed but not tilled and we had SO much rain making it too wet to till. Our not-so-little plants are needing to be transplanted. It was sunny and windy yesterday...sunny today also and so the garden dried out enough to be tilled. Praise the Lord! It took Drew several hours using a borrowed rototiller - another answer to prayer - and it is done. :)

My mom arrived safely from Pennsylvania on Saturday evening for a month-long visit. We have many fun things planned and we are accomplishing a lot here at home.

We successfully rehabilitated and released the cardinal. What a joy it was to see him take off and land up in a tree!

Our camping trip was a great success. I have pictures for a lot of these things and more. I'll see what I can do. :)