Smiles at Presque Isle

Today we went to a home schooling picnic up at Presque Isle State Park, which is a peninsula that extends into Lake Erie. It was beautiful! And, well, worth a million laughs, too.

Weird Science

Here are David and Ben's science projects from this week. David is comparing how long it takes for food coloring to permeate a warm glass of water versus a cold one. Benjamin's red project is a "Cell-o" model of a cell. Interesting... At least I didn't have to fix a snack after the kids picked all the dried beans and corn out of the jello.

Katie, the Eater

All the kids like to eat, but when you have a two-year-old girl that eats like a cowhand, you have to wonder. Maybe she is going to grow soon?

Garden Harvest

The garden turned out pretty well this year. I still have not found a good way to support the tomato plants. At least not a really cheap, good way. I think the best thing would be to buy a roll of that concrete reinforcing wire stuff and make the big cages. The beans recovered pretty well after an early onslaught by a local woodchuck family. (Mr. Dearborn put electric wire around the garden at a height of about six inches. It was effective, but I personally keep forgetting it is there. ZZZAP!) The corn needed fertilizer, but we were trying to keep it organic.

We were hoping to sell most of our produce, but while the rhubarb was a great seller, the garden vegetables have not sold at all, except for one repeat customer who really doesn't eat very much. In a way, it's a relief, because it is hard to do the stand. You put things out, and then if they don't sell, you have old veggies on your hands. Who wants to preserve old produce? Not I! I haven't done very much canning this year, honestly because I really don't feel like it. We did do some beans, and I am in the midst of tomatoes now. We've done a few jars of tomato juice, and now I am doing plain tomatoes, chunked up for soup. I did a few peaches and cherries, too, and froze three bags of shredded zucchini. That's about the extent of my ambition. (Actually, that was beyond the extent of my ambition. I just could not stand the thought of throwing the stuff away!)

The kids have done really, really well with the garden this year. The oldest three truly did almost everything, from planting to picking. (To eating; they are very good at that part!) It's gone a little wild on us now, but I'll take the blame for that one, not sending them out while things were still doable. Now we are just waiting for our pumpkins and gourds, indian corn and cornstalks to get ready, to see if people will stop and buy that stuff for fall decorating.