Helping Grandpa Whit With Chores

Sunny is about two and a half weeks shy of being two years old, and there are a few things in his life that he just loves doing. One is pushing this little Radio Flyer wagon all around the farm, and another is riding around in the golf cart helping Grandpa or TBear with the chores. The day this particular picture was taken, Sunny hadn't had much of a nap. It shows. He doesn't normally sit this still, but by evening chore time he was pooped.


Some days both Sunny and the goat kids make the job a little busier. This is our 2 month old buckling, Moe. Whit says Moe is numb-er than a hammered thumb, and I think he's probably nailed that one on the head. Moe keeps shinnying under the electric fence to get to grass that must be greener on the other side of said fence. In fact, it must be greener on the other side of the turkey fencing too. The only problem is that he'd rather try to get to the grass by going through the fence rather than around it. It's been rolled up to make it less challenging for him for now (no turkeys yet...except for Moe), but he still gets tangled in it like a fish and needs rescuing occasionally. On the bright side, at least he just stands there now looking stupid and waiting to be untangled without struggling and winding himself tighter.

Sunny is good for sympathy, and comforts Moe. They're watching as Whit rolls the fence up to make it harder for Moe to look so dumb. (He's a very sweet little goat though.)

We're trying to reclaim some pasture on the outside of the sheep and goats' yard. The scrubby trees have been cut and are just waiting for time with the backhoe to wad the stumps and roots up, and bury them. Now that the grass is growing there, Whit lets the sheep and goats out to roam in that section and browse. The three little goat doelings, whose names are not Flopsy, Mopsy, or Cottontail (but that might have been appropriate) are standing here watching Sunny who is watching Peter...I mean Moe.... get untangled from the turkey fence. They've never had an issue with that fence, and can't seem to understand what's up with Moe. (They're too young to grasp the "numb-er than a hammered thumb" concept.)
Sunny likes to chase, um, run around with the goats, so they're on their guard for the game of tag that they're sure is about to ensue.

Taking the feed and hay out to the horses is the next job. TBear is a safe golf cart driver, so Sunny gets to ride around with him and help, which he loves. Here, they're picking up the horses' empty dishes on their way back to the barn. The golf cart is one of Whit's modifications. He added a dump body to the back, held down by a rubber strap (which also makes a good handhold for Sunny.) We use this cart for everything from carrying hay and feed to the horses to trucking weeds from the garden to the compost pile. It is a very handy little cart. And to think, people pay lots of money for those John Deere Mules....or are they Gators... whatever.
After feeding and watering the sheep, goats and horses, the last job is to get the eggs from the henhouse. Sunny is carefully helping Whit put them in an egg carton.

Here he comes with the wagon again.Chores are done, and it's time to sit and chill for a few minutes while waiting for dinner to be ready. The days are warm again, finally. In the background is a corner of soil prepared to be a garden. TBear wanted his own patch of dirt to plant something. Stay tuned. I'll post pics of what he finally chooses to put in that spot.

A Visit to the Aquarium

This year TBear has been studying marine biology for science. We used Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day by Apologia, and loved it. At the end of each week's lesson, TBear wrote a paragraph about what he'd learned, and often did a related experiment. Writing and narrating about what he's learned is wonderful, but the highlight of the lessons was creating a clay replica of some of the creatures he studied.

TBear created an aquarium from a box by lining the top and sides with blue paper, and the bottom of it with yellowish paper. Each week, after he finished the unit, he would make a clay or paper replica of the creatures he studied. While it may have seemed redundant in addition to the narrating and writing, it very nicely solidified in his mind the anatomy of the creatures as he tried to recreate them accurately for his aquarium box.

Here are some pictures of the end result. He was very proud of it, and I thought it turned out pretty darned good too!


I love the clay squid on the right side, and the humpback whale breaching. TBear's favorite pieces were the sea lion on the rock (on top of the box), the squid, the nudibranch, and the bright pink sea anemone. :-)

I also really liked how the bright pink sea anemone turned out (next to the sponge on the left.) He used Sculpey oven bake clay to make most of the creatures. Because the oven is only set to about 275 degrees, and the baking only takes from 4 to 10 minutes depending on the density of the object, he just baked the creature with the pipe cleaners in it.


Recently, on Memorial Day weekend, TBear went camping in Boothbay with some friends. The small but impressive Maine State Aquarium in Boothbay was only a few miles down the road from the campground. On Sunday, Whit and I drove down to Boothbay, and my friend Sonia and I took TBear to the aquarium. (We were sad that TBear's friend came down with a fever about the time we arrived. He stayed behind in the camper with his dad and Whit, poor baby.) As we wandered around the aquarium, I was tickled to hear TBear sharing so much of what he remembered from his science.

We thought the sea anemones were pretty neat. All the creatures in this aquarium can be found in the Atlantic waters off our coast here in Maine.

One of the highlights was a touch tank with a few dogfish sharks and two skates in it. The dogfish shark acted just like a dog, pushing its snout up out of the water and wanting to be petted! The aquarium docent explained that they might have gotten the name dogfish because they like to hunt in packs, but I'm pretty sure it's because they like to be pet like a dog does. The docent explained that the shark's skin actually has a lot of nerve endings and it really does like the feeling of being stroked. It was a pretty interesting experience. We learned this year that dogfish sharks' skin feels rough if you pet them from snout to tail (and doesn't feel good to them) because it is made up of scales called dermal denticles, which are basically tiny, sharp spikes (i.e. "teeth") that point in the direction of the tail.

Finally, TBear spent some time at the shallow tank, which had starfish, sea cucumbers, scallops, horseshoe crabs, hermit crabs, spider crabs, and other small creatures that one could pick up and look at more closely. It was kind of interesting picking up the horseshoe crab. They tend to whip their tails forward as you turn them over in sort of an en garde position to defend their tender undersides.

I can't believe I didn't think to get a picture of the lobsters! One was distinctly half blue, half yellow due to a strange genetic anomaly kind of like albinism. The line of color went from eyes to tail with the left half being blue, and the right half yellow. While Whit and I have been diving for lobsters in the distant past, and we used a scale to determine whether they were "keepers" or not, I just learned that there is actually an upper size limit on lobsters. Their carapace has to measure between 3 1/2 and 5 inches for them to be keepers. Anything larger than 5 inches has to be tossed back. It takes about 7 years for a lobster to reach the 3 1/2 inch minimum carapace length. My guess is that because it takes so long for the lobsters to grow to a minimum "keeper" length, by returning lobsters over 5 inches to the sea, they're allowed to continue reproducing as long as they live (which can be decades), thus avoiding being overfished. (There are a LOT of lobsters being shipped out of Maine each year, as well as being consumed here.)

All in all, we thought the trip to the aquarium was a great way to wrap up our study of marine biology this year.

Spring Effects, or maybe Affects

I really have nothing stellar to report today. It is just a beautiful spring day in Maine. I don't know if it's the effect of the beautiful weather or what, but I saw some things that just struck my funny bone, so I thought I'd share.

While I was teaching math this morning, I happened to look out the window and observed that the horses are certainly enjoying the warm weather. They were napping. We knew before we got them that draft horses are not particularly high strung, but I don't think I've ever seen such laid back beasties. Pat seems to have the nap thing down to an art.

I seriously think he was drooling.
I actually walked right up to the fence and talked to him before he came to. (See Mom? He's really not dead this time either. :)

Riss came home early from work this morning, and presumably took charge of Sunny. Apparently, she was on a different wavelength. This is what happens when everyone assumes someone else is watching Sunny.

Some people have a nose for chocolate. Others have a gift for finding lost shoes.
Sunny is a marker magnet. He can find them anywhere you hide them. He really likes magic markers. He found this one hidden in TBear's room. He's a very bad dog, Carl.Yes, Sunny, nice job. Fortunately it was water soluble and came off easily. Fortunately.
That was enough entertainment for one day. Sunny and TBear are outside having wagon races, but they're moving a little too fast for pictures, so you'll have to imagine that.

The Farrier Visits on the First Warm Spring Day

It's been a long winter, but spring has finally sprung here in Maine. It was in the mid-70s here this weekend. Small green leaves have sprouted on my lilacs and the birch trees. My daffodils are up and blooming in the dooryard, the grass is turning green.... and the farrier came to trim our horses' hooves today. We love our farrier, Sandy. He does a great job, and is very patient with our creatures. Our horses, on the other hand, weren't wild about having their feet done this afternoon. They never are, really. We continue to try to work with them a lot to make this a better event, but it can still be a challenge the first time around after a long winter. (Whit keeps them in pretty good shape all winter, until the farrier makes it out again.)

I have mixed feelings about our horses' feet. Take Scooby, for example. This is our most reliable, low-key, steady workhorse. You can walk around behind him, or bend down to hitch up a wagon or logs to the singletree for him to pull, with absolutely no fear of being kicked or even stepped on or backed over. (In fact, we hitch Scooby up to the stock to pull it into the barn for the farrier to use.) Scoob stands patiently waiting for the click of your tongue, and off you go. And yet, this poor boy has an incredibly difficult time standing still in a stock for the farrier to trim his hooves. Sandy doesn't hurt him at all, and certainly makes him feel better by the time he's done! Scooby just doesn't like it, and Pat's not a whole lot better.

Look at the stock below. Scooby, who was first in this time, in all his 1600+ pounds of slightly overweight, winter glory did a tap dance (more than once) until he sheared off six #10 screws holding the 2x2 in. board which supported the 2x6 floor boards. See how the floor lists on the left side? (The photo is actually of Magnum getting his feet done. He's a good boy. He doesn't dance much.) Whit's repair list isn't getting any shorter.
Sandy noticed our sheep, which are both hard to miss, and for sale. He made an offer on two of them, which delighted Whit as we are trying to whittle down our flock some. We raise meat lambs, and although we shear our sheep every spring, we do not get much money for their fleece, at least not nearly enough to support them for the rest of the year, so we need to decrease our flock size.

This is what Sandy is driving today, his wife's car.
These are the sheep Sandy bought. I'm not sure what his wife is going to say about them in the back seat, but there you have it.

The spring day was so lovely, Whit hitched up the horses and we all went for a wagon ride later that afternoon. (Look at those feet. Aren't they lovely? :)
Sunny, Rissie and her friend went along for the ride.

TBear and Sunny seem to be practicing for photos like those early ones where no one smiles, but they had a good time. Don't let them fool you. : )

Spring Cleanup

Just three weeks ago we had about two feet of snow on the ground. Now, most of the snow has melted and the grass is starting to get green in between the patches of mud. Mud season wasn't too bad this year for us, although it's hard to avoid in the horses' field. High muck boots are a must because one does sink up to one's ankles when walking out there. Whit finished burying rubble and stumps and raking out the field on the garden side of our house. Time to move the horses there to let their field finish drying out.

Scooby was brought in to be harnessed so he could help move their hay feeder. Those are two of our new baby goats...escapees.
Scooby was so excited to be working again after a long winter that he could hardly contain his excitement, which is pretty funny looking. He prances. Look at those ears perked up...he is one happy horse.

The hay feeder tends to tip forward when it's being dragged, so TBear is ballast.

Into the newly raked field.

Another small project to finish was dragging some logs out of the woods to be cut up for firewood. Scooby is already harnessed, so now was a good time to do it.

TBear's job was to wrap the chains around the logs and attach them to the singletree.

It wasn't exactly a tough workout today, but Scooby is definitely enjoying the brush down and catching some rays here. Boy was there a lot of hair coming off that horse. The barn swallows will have lots of nesting material when they get here.

Going to the dry field. I brought his buddies over too, shortly after this.

This rocking horse in our barn belonged to Whit when he was Sunny's age. That makes it more than forty-five years old. They just don't make toys like they used to, do they. We love this horse.

Tapestry of Grace Year 1, Unit 3 Wrap-Up

We spent last week wrapping up projects and reviewing the third quarter of our history studies.

TBear learned that after the reign of King Solomon, around 931 B.C., the Kingdom of Israel was divided into the Northern Kingdom of Israel (with ten of the original twelve tribes) and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. The Northern Kingdom endured centuries of spiritual decay and political upheaval until finally it was conquered and destroyed by the Assyrians, the people deported and scattered. Lasting a little longer, eventually Judah became more and more corrupt until God must judge them too. Judah was conquered by the Babylonians, who then deported the Jewish people to Babylon. TBear drew a beautiful picture of the Ishtar Gate in Babylon, through which conquered prisoners were marched, and I thought I had a photo of it, but I don't. (I know it's part of the A-Z History book he is compiling so when that is done, I'll post a photo of that.)

Next we noted that the Persian empire rose to conquer the Babylonians (and everyone else) and freed the Jews to return to their homeland. The Persians set their sights on lands to the west. In our study of the Persian wars we saw that the Greeks successfully prevented the Persians from conquering any of the lands west of Greece. However, after uniting to fight a common enemy, the Greeks fought between themselves, which brought our studies to the Peloponnesian Wars and the achievements of the Greeks. TBear was especially interested in the Spartans and Athenians. We spent quite some time creating armor for a Greek Hoplite warrior. He was fascinated by their weapons too, but we skipped reproducing those for now.

The first project was to create a pair of greaves, which are the shinguards worn by the Hoplites. Next he designed and made a cool shield out of foamboard. The final project was to make a helmet out of a paper paint bucket, but do you think I could find a paper paint bucket?? They make metal and plastic ones now, but the paper ones that can be cut up are hard to find around here apparently.

So we bought some poster board and he designed a helmet along the lines of a paint bucket. First he drew a circle, which he "smushed" into an oval for the top of the helmet.Measuring the circumference of his head plus a little breathing room, he cut a rectangular piece of poster board for the side of the helmet. (The really cool thing about that was that we had just studied calculating perimeters and areas of circles. I love applied math.) Next, he cut the eyes and nose piece out, along with notches for the helmet to sit over his shoulders.
After some experimenting, we decided that gluing and taping to hold the glue till it dried worked best to assemble the top and sides of the helmet.
The flat top was made round by folding pieces of newspaper and taping it to the top.
Originally, the intention was just to papier-mache the top part, but TBear decided he wanted to make the whole helmet more rigid, so he papier-mached the whole thing.

After some brass-colored spray paint and a red plume, the helmet was finished. I thought he did a fabulous job.
Here's the whole Hoplite assembly. It really brings home the difference in climate between Maine and Greece this early in the spring! :)

Here's Sunshine watching the progress of the project with his buddies. : )Since using the Excellence in Writing curriculum this year, TBear's writing has improved drastically. Not only that, it's a lot less painful than it used to be to get him to write. He is actually enjoying creating his A-Z History book. The paper below is about the Hoplites and their wonderful weapons, which he presented at our small celebration.
TBear made up a shopping list for me and we created a Greek meal for our celebration too. We had a nice selection of olives, feta cheese, and hummus with pita bread to start with. Then we made some grilled chicken with sourdough bread and olive oil for dipping. For dessert we had slices of pound cake with warm honey drizzled on top. We also bought some figs to try. Truth be told, we prefer them in the fig newtons. :) However, we all agreed we liked this meal a lot.
Next up, we take a look at the Etruscans and the founding of Rome. More fun projects are in store for us. TBear informed me this morning that he's already read David McCauley's book, "City" and would like to create some models of Roman architecture and engineering.
It's working for me.

Maple Syrup Sunday

After tapping the maple trees last weekend, we had to go around each day and empty the sap buckets before they overflowed. Whit built a sled using some old skis and leftover pieces of wood that fit three Polar water cooler bottles, which we used to collect the sap until this weekend when we started boiling it down. Many people have big, nifty drums on horse or ATV-drawn sleds that they use to transport their sap to the sugar house, but since we only put out 16 buckets this year, our small sled is enough. We like the plastic 5-gallon water bottles with their small necks so the sap doesn't splash out as we pull the sled along.

Leaving one of the bottles near the woodstove, we were able to fit the other two water bottles and our grandson, who liked the ride, in the sled. It sure made it easier for him to keep up with us.

He thought the whole collecting process was great entertainment, and he had a front row seat!

After the sap is collected from all the buckets each day, we transfer it from the water bottles into a clean, new 30-gallon trash can so we can fill the bottles with the next day's sap. By the way, the trash can is only used for collecting sap. When the sap season is done, we store the buckets, hats, and taps in it for the next year.

When we're done making the trip around our small "sugar bush," we leave the sled out by the sugar shack for the next day. Well, okay, so the sugar shack isn't built yet... Rome wasn't built in a day either. : )

There was still quite a bit of snow last week, but slowly, steadily, it's been melting.

Maine actually celebrates Maple Sunday, which was this past weekend. It's the day that all the commercial sugar houses around the state invite people to stop by, sample, and buy their syrup. Our storage containers were all full, so we needed to start boiling our sap down into syrup. Like the rest of Maine, it usually turns into a fun social event for us too.

The bottles are emptied into a bucket that sits higher than the evaporator on the woodstove. The sap is gravity-fed into the evaporator.

The boiling process must be constantly supervised to make sure the evaporator doesn't boil dry. Impurities rise up out of the sap as it boils, collecting in sort of a scum on the top, so someone needs to keep skimming that off. TBear is taking a turn at the job here, while his chum watches.


It takes all day to boil the amount of sap we've collected. Whit starts the fire right after chores in the morning. By lunchtime friends have joined us for some home-made soup, fresh bread, and Sunday worship around the evaporator. It really was a wonderful day of rest and fellowship.


Below is the bucket of sap feeding the evaporator on top of the woodstove. The woodstove is recycled from an old fireplace insert. My talented brother fabricated the nifty copper evaporator for us.

The snow is melting quickly. Hopefully the weather stays below freezing at night and warms up to near 40 degrees during the day for the next few weeks. We need to make enough syrup (before the weather turns too warm) to last us until this time next year, when we'll do it all over again.