Science and Nature

The last few days have been full of amazing weather and loads of fun. My BIL and SIL and their two boys were up for a visit. We tried out our SOLAR BAGS from Stevespanglerscience.com They are pretty awesome! giant 50 ft trash-bag-like things that demonstrate the concept of hot air rising. Basically you fill them with air on a cool clear morning and wait for the sun to heat the air inside the bag. Then the bag rises..... It can get pretty high. The boys (all six of them) were pretty excited! One shouted, "It looks like a brontosaurus!" People kept slowing down to look at what was going on. The only problem is they rip very easily. Not extremely user friendly when dealing with multiple children under the age of 6. All in all, a really fun time.









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Unfortunately, a few of our seedlings have fallen victim to the Indigo-Blue Bug. It is a crazy monster that just comes and yanks them right out when no one is looking....and even when some one is, but is too far to reach him....I mean it! gotta get the poor guys grown and out where they only have to worry about the deer, birds, and rodents. ha ha!

We also spent lots of time working in the garden. It is really starting to come together. Peas, carrots, mixed greens, spinach, radishes, and tons of onions are in and growing. We also started to plant our strawberry plants which just arrived. I ordered WAY too many, S&A said they would gladly take a few of them off our hands. This week we will add more. I went to check out the raspberry bushes to see just where we would trim. My plan was to cut paths through so we could pick more. However, As I was standing there, An adorable little furry face popped up and looked at me from the center of the patch. Fox pups! 5 of them! sunning themselves from the top of their den.....Smack dab in the middle of the raspberry patch. Mike and I stood and watched them for a while. What hysterical cuteness! We immediately decided not to trim. Momma red fox clearly picked that spot for safety, and really what could be safer than the center of a giant patch of briars! So we will leave well enough alone. We can pick from the outside for this year and see what next year brings. I am in awe of just how red, red foxes are! It was, and will continue to be a treat for us to see them.

We also spotted moose tracks coming right up the dirt road through our fields. I can not believe I haven't seen one yet!! Deer tracks in our garden too. This one does not thrill me. I am hoping there will just be plenty for everyone, us and the deer. I priced fencing and it is just not an option.

Today we tried out the "mentos gyser" from Stevespanglerscience.com. it was a free gift with my order. What great fun. An explosion of diet soda with a lesson behind it. What more could a mom ask for.





The goats are a no go, for now anyway. The owner has sold them. That is fine. I was sort of looking forward to meeting them and making them part of the family, but at the same time, I might not need something else to do and/or keep track of. There is still the possibility of a donkey and a pony. Also, we are still seriously considering adopting sheltered, farm animals though we are just in the talking stages. We still need to bring the hay barn up to animal home standards and we are very busy right now.

We also went out to the river to look for fiddle head ferns. A Maine treat! They grow wild in the flood plains around the river. My sister used to bring them to us so we are no stranger to their yumminess. We picked quite a few. Its really quite fun, like treasure hunting. We had to practically run home as monster dark clouds were rolling in fast and we had to cross acres of fields. We got home just as it started to rain. Cute little suckers aren't they. we cooked them up in stir-fry and tomorrow we will have more with black eyed peas and BBQ sauce. yum! gotta eat them up, they only grow for, like two weeks!




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We have just been going, going, going! I am loving it. The best is falling in to bed at 8pm exhausted and sore. The hardest part is finding time to do all of my "regular" stuff. ie, laundry cooking cleaning. How did those darn pioneer women do it? heck, it can wait until it rains, right?
This week it's beehive building, barn repairing and ripping out walls in the cellar. Oh and of course more planting! Did I mention we have to lug water in 15 gallon barrels in the wheel barrow across the street and down the road to the garden. Then fill up the little watering can over and over to water.... Hope it rains soon! This is supposed to be the wet season! until next time!