Halloween Costumes!

Worms arrived!

Our worms arrived in the mail today!  We opened the box to a bag of dirt and worms which we dumped out into the box.

It didn't look like much so the kids said we needed to try to count them. We ordered 1000!  We started and got to about 8 when N reached down deep in the dirt and found a wad of worms.  Then E and Z decided to get in on the fun, too!

We didn't count them after this but dumped them in to our already made worm bin!  Happy composting little wormies!



Pumpkin Carving!

Jack-o-Lanterns

Z's choice:

N's Choice:

E's choice:

This is Boo (the ghost) from Mario.

Worm Composting/Garden Update

I have ordered worms for a new worm composting (vermiculture) bin I'm going to try out.  Zeke helped me to put our bin together and we have filled it with bedding and started putting in our kitchen scraps to get it ready for the worms.  I have considered doing this before we have tried outdoor composting instead.  We have not been as successful with the outdoor composting as I would like.  We definetly reduce our kitchen waste by putting the scraps out there, but we tend to neglect turning it and checking the moisture and therefore, weeds (and the rapidly growing grass we have) grow up in it and we don't get a lot of usuable compost from it.  I'm hoping with lives at stake (the worms) and $28 of our money, I'll tend to this a little better!

I ended up canning 13 jars of green beans and 3 dozen jars of tomatoes from our own garden this year!

I also made numerous jams/jellies and put up pears, apple pie filling, etc.  from fruits that were gifted to me or purchased. 

My winter garden is growing well.  I admitedly got a late start but this warm weather has helped and my peas, sugar snaps, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower are all growing well.  My lettuce and spinach seedlings are coming up and I noticed about 8 carrots seedlings poking their heads up today (this is the 2nd planting.)  It has been very dry so I've been watering quite a bit.  The dog keeps digging and walking around in the garden area, which I'm pretty sure messed up my first planting of carrots...those seeds are soooooo tiny!

Living the Good Life

This book is about a family in Australia who wanted to live for 6 months without spending any money.  (They continued to pay their taxes.)  They had been working towards this for sometime by working towards using less energy, generating their own with solar energy, using rainwater tanks and building up their garden to provide food, along with caring for a goat and chickens to provide milk and eggs.  They were anxious to get out of the rat race of life where they both worked and their son was in day care for long hours.  This book follows their story as told in diary form.  The struggles, disappointments, celebrations and results at the end of their experiment! 

A very enjoyable book!

Cookie Math

Z adding the correct number of  "chocolate chips" to his cookies!

Archery

We are participating in a group called Contenders.  It is very much like BoyScouts with skills and badges that you can earn.  However, it is much more Bible and faith focused.  This month our activity was archery.  The boys learned all about the bow and arrow, names of the parts and how to shoot.  They all liked it but N was particularly interested and seemed to really enjoy it!

Apples, Apples, Apples

 From the Apple Orchard:  I made Apple Pie Filling to can (12 jars) and used the apples peels and cores to make apple jelly!  Yummy!

Anatomy Science Co-op

We have made some great friends who also homeschool.  We get together once per month and review our Anatomy that we have all been learning at home.   This was our first class day!  It is lots of fun for the kids and a chance to get some classroom time away from home!

Apple Orchard

Pumpkin Math with Zeke