Piggies are growing – the weather has turned cold, but I think not as cold as was predicted. The garden is covered, anyway, and some hay was brought up to the piglet nest, just in case. Matilda’s milk that was at first so abundant is waning as the calf grows. I can hardly tell her…
Author: toadstoolsfairyrings
In the Garden: Cauliflower, Onions, and Carrots
The cauliflower is ready! A major gardening victory – I LOVE cauliflower, but I have been unsuccessful growing it until this year! I have a few more plants, but I am definitely going to plant a whole lot more next year! I pulled the first planting of carrots. It’s my fault they aren’t nicer –…
Yarn Along: Colorwork
(this was me trying to pick out the difference between light gray and off-white, which was surprisingly difficult in our poorly-lit house) So…this year, I’ve decided my kids have enough adorable woolens. They hardly even wear them! I’ve spent the past two months freezing my feet off and trying to convince them to wear something…
Piglets!
Star had her second litter of piglets over the weekend! This time we could tell that she was getting close – her udders started to swell, and she looked well, pregnant. (still no piglets from Bee – we are trying to figure out why). She had TEN piglets! That’s a lot of newborn babies…
Homeschool: Zoology
We started a Zoology block for 4th grade last week. It’s supposed to be a Steiner thing about how mice represent intellect and are fearful, lions are emotional, cows are physical and digestive, but people are superior and have all those things. I couldn’t stand to teach something that, as a Darwinist,…
In the Garden: Broccoli and Cabages
It’s been a good week in the garden. I got some new veggies finally other than kale, collards, radishes, lettuce and turnips. I made an amazing cole slaw salad with the red cabbage. It think it was because it was so fresh, but it seemed sweeter and crispier than any cabbage I’ve had before. The…
Liming the Pastures
We just put 2000 lbs of lime per acre on the pastures. That will be our big fertility investment this year. For the past three years, we have invested quite a bit of money on organic fertilizer, but we have noticed that the pastures have become more and more acidic, favoring blackberries and broomsedge…
Goat Cuddles
(If you can’t tell, April hates being picked up like this. She is so cute, it’s hard not to.) It seems like this time of the year is always the most depressing. The pastures are all dead, revealing how much junk is lying around, lost during the summer in the tall grass. Tthe rye never…
Matilda’s new calf
Matilda’s baby was born on Tuesday afternoon! As usual, we got there just after she was all licked clean and was on her feet. She’s a pretty, friendly calf, although I am hesitant to be too enthusiastic. You see, Explorer is her father, and he’s Matilda’s calf from two years ago. Either she’s line-bred or…
Moving On
We just finished our most intense math block of the year – introducing fractions for 4th grade, and basic arithmetic (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) for !st grade. The 1st grade math was fun – we used a story with squirrels gathering nuts (Addition gathers them a few at a time and puts them all…
Did You See Me Dwiving? (Thoughts on Creativity and Kids)
Back when Clothilde was just a little grub, a friend of mine stopped by just to pick something up. She left her 3-year old in the car, strapped into his car seat while she ran in, but of course we started chatting for a few minutes. Mirin was playing outside, and all of…
Toadstools And Fairy Rings 