A fun project

AH is a pesto lover. Has been since he was 3. It didn't matter that it was green...he loved it! He still does. Tortellini and Pesto is his favorite dinner in the entire universe. I love to make homemade pesto using our own basil. I grow basil every year, but it just doesn't get as big as I want it to. A while back I bought the book, The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-Sufficient Living in the Heart of the City by Kelly Coyne and Eric Knutzen . I find stories of homesteading a fascinating read, and I was not disappointed by this one. The fun aspect of this book is that it has projects you can do. I've been looking forward to doing one in particular and have been collecting materials to accomplish it. Today AH and I built ourselves a self watering container(or, as they call it now, a sub-irrigated planter) for a basil plant. According the the authors, basil needs even amounts of water. I am really not known as being the most organized of gardeners and my plants usually have to deal with a bit of dryness between the times I remember to water. So it was with pleasure I had AH help with this project. He is an enthusiastic gardener, is thrilled at the prospect of more pesto, and, besides, he got to use the electric drill!! Of course I have pictures:

AH with the finished project and the book that inspired it

AH filling the reservoir with water (that's Solvay, our Samoyed, making sure he's doing it right!)

What is the deal between boys and electric tools?!

The authors have a website called Homegrown Evolution. Check it out!

"Hey Mom, I have an Idea..."

Those were the words I heard one morning about two weeks ago. I should have known those words were going to mean work for me!! I don't mind work, but usually AH's projects have me doing the grunt work and this was no exception.

"I want to sell stuff on e-bay and make some money!

"Okay," I replied. "What stuff do you have that you can sell?"

He thought for a moment and then was gone. He came back 5 minutes later with 3 books. Good choices, too. They were books that were given to him that were WAY over his reading level. He had given them a good try, but they were too much work to read to have any fun.

We were off to the computer to list our items on e-bay. Since it was easier to just use my account instead of setting up a new one with a cool name (which he couldn't decide on, anyway!) we got right into it. We found the stock photo. We researched prices, we guessed on postage and then listed our items. For 4 days, there was nothing. He lost interest. I had to keep checking! He thought it was cool that he finally had a bid after 6 days. After the 7 day auction he had sold one item. We learned not to guess on the postage...I thought I had guessed high, but I was short $.45. Oh well, not a horrible mistake. AH is just happy to have made about US$4.00. (I paid for the envelope, mailed it in a timely manner and pretty much handled everything.) He is pumped for his next sale and to become the next mega retailer on e-bay!! I think I'll let him do the work from now on...

Prom

We were all up and gathered at the kitchen table enjoying a wonderful breakfast made by Doug. It looked to be a lazy, relaxing Sunday.

"Oh, I almost forgot," AD, our 17 year old son, said, "I need to get a tux today." "Oh, so you ARE going to prom! Cool! When is it?" I asked.

"Next Saturday." was his reply.

I'm pretty sure my jaw dropped into my lap and Doug, my husband was stammering out the following, his voice rising with every word (and he rarely raises his voice!), "I've asked you for a MONTH if you're going to prom and if you needed a tux and NOW you decide you are going?!" The 17 year old just looked at us as if we were idiots. What was the big deal? Of course there would be tuxes to rent. Of course a week was enough time!

Well, luck seems to follow AD everywhere he goes and they indeed had the tux he wanted and he ended up having a great time. He went with a group of 26 kids. They had dinner at a friends house and rented a party bus to take them to the dance itself. Here are some pictures I took at the pre-prom gathering of his group:

A little help from Dad

AD on the right with one of his best friends, SC.

The whole group

Think! Challenge

Week Thirty-Five -- Kaleidoscopes
Use the following materials to make your own kaleidoscope.

clear plastic, clear plastic sheet protector (it is doable if you don't have this),black paper, cardboard tube (pringles can, toilet paper roll, paper towel roll),glue or tape, pins or paperclips, rubber band, colored tissue paper, small beads or buttons, scissors

I'll let AH describe what he did:

I found a plastic tube. I put the beads on one end of the tube and covered the top with a plastic sheet. I put a rubber band around it to hold it in place.

Then I cut up tissue paper into small squares and put these into the tube. I put plastic over the end and taped it to the tube. I took the black piece of paper and rolled it around the tube and taped it in place.

I took the picture of the inside of the kaleidoscope:

A New Neighbor

Here is a peek at our new neighbor. Can you see the female Mallard under all the brush?

It all started innocently enough. Last Wednesday I opened our garage door to walk down our driveway to get the mail and bring our garbage can back in. I looked around and caught sight of the duck on our neighbors' driveway. She was all alone and standing still. I told AH about her and, of course, he was racing around looking for bread to feed the duck! He must have been outside there with her for a good 20 minutes throwing pieces of bread to her. She ignored each and every one of those pieces. AH was very disappointed!

She finally had enough and flew away...

But about 5 minutes later she was back. AH left her alone for a while, but went inside to watch her from our windows. He found her exploring our neighbors brush pile and, eventually making a nest within it. AH finds this fascinating. He has gotten fairly close, but doesn't want to scare her. He says her nest is lined with feathers. How lucky are we to have a view to this precious spring event! We are watching and waiting for ducklings!

Homeschool Day at Crystal Cave

Today was filled with rocks, minerals, bats, caves, stalactites and stalagmites, crystals and a wishing room! It was home school day and we decided it was a great day to explore a cave. We stopped by our co-op to pick up some sandwiches for lunch and then we were on our way to Spring Valley, Wisconsin. We traveled through the beautiful rolling hills of western Wisconsin for about 40 minutes; it was a great day for traveling. Before the tour, we explored the gift shop and waited for the tour to begin. We were first shown a very informative video about the caves, how they were formed, animals that inhabit the caves, and how they were discovered. Then Chris, our tour guide took over. When we gathered to meet him his first question to the kids was "how many of you are home schoolers?" Since it was home school day, all of the kids raised their hands. He said that was cool and told us that he was also home schooled! What a great way for our kids to learn...from someone who understood what they do all day and is passionate and learned about this subject! He was a great guide and we learned so much! What a great value, too. We were in the caves for at least 45 minutes and never, ever got bored or felt that we were being rushed!

Here we are going down into the second level.

The cave walls are limestone. The caves were formed by carbonic acid (the stuff in soda pop) over a million years.

We did get lucky enough to meet some of the cave's inhabitants, which was AH's favorite part of the tour (yes, he is my naturalist!):

These guys are Little Brown Bats and Northern Myotis

This guy is smaller than your pinkie finger and he blends right in with the walls! He is an Eastern Pipistrelle.

Some of the beautiful formations we saw today.

At one point in the tour we were taken into an inner chamber and all the lights were turned off so we could experience total darkness. I had to hold onto AH for courage! Then Chris turned the lights back on at the level of a kerosene lamp so we could appreciate how little light the first explorers of the cave had. I'm pretty sure I would not have had the courage to explore those caves with such little light!

The last chamber on the tour was the wishing room. The walls were covered in coins. Legend has it that if your coin sticks on the wall, your wish will come true. AH took a coin and pressed his to the wall...and it stuck! Chris told us the oldest coin they have found was from 1882. That is one year after the cave was discovered.

All in all, a great way to spend our day!

Mozzarella!

In our quest to learn in a more relaxed way, we took a great idea from Denise at Mom in Madison and made our own mozzarella! Fun and Yummy!

The curds begin forming

Straining the curds from the whey.

Austen really liked the mozzarella and shared with Dad and AD. He's hamming it up for a photo...we may be on to something!!

The recipe is found on Denise's food blog, cook.eat.think.

Thank you, Denise!