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Candle

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One thing I love about homeschooling is the creativity the children get the opportunity to exercise.  For his birthday last week, Simon wanted candle wicks–his current interest (at least, one of his current interests!) is making candles.  The wicks came today, and he wanted to try out an oil lamp, like people used in Bible times.  I gave a tiny bit of direction–and permission–and he did the work.  He used a large mussel shell, filled it with cooking oil, and submerged a wick in it.  It works!  I wasn’t sure what would happen when he lit it, so made him try it outside on a metal pan, and had a tub of baking soda close.  No problem–it burned perfectly and safely.

 

Update:  Several minutes after I posted this, someone went outside and noticed the cats lapping up the oil!  So, if you try this, don’t leave it where your cats can reach it.

When Your House is Full of Boys…

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…you may hear conversations about topics such as butchering our heifer and what we’re going to do with the hide (I’ll spare you the details of how to work on it).  Yes, we do plan to butcher the heifer (she is not going to calve, after all), and the boys are anxious to do the killing, gutting and skinning ourselves–they can’t stand it that Daddy hasn’t made the decision yet.  Part of the conversation included chewing hides to soften them, as the Eskimos do, and eating raw meat, as the Indians do.  Boys!  I hope the rain stops soon for awhile so they can get outside again–this cabin fever is going to drive me crazy!

Slow Down!

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I’m not ready for this–my baby is starting to get around already!  A couple of days ago he started getting up on his knees and lunging forward to grab things that he wants.  In my opinion, four months is too early for this–but he doesn’t care what I think.

Black Chicken

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I was putting a chicken and a duck in the crockpot this morning to roast for supper, and told the boy who happened to be in the kitchen, “I’m cooking a purple chicken and a wild duck!”  He laughed and reminded me about a Mexican who once bought some chickens from us.  When we lived in Michigan we sold a lot of old laying hens to Mexicans–they liked them better than fryers and bought a lot from us live to butcher themselves.  This particular man wanted a white chicken, and we happened to have one that was covered with white feathers.  Now, it so happens that some white chickens (I think Silkie bantams) happen to have purplish skin, and the meat and even the organs are quite dark.  This man took the chicken home and killed and plucked it, but the next day he was back complaining about the “black chicken.”  His exact words were, “We eat cat, and we eat dog, but we don’t eat black chicken!”  I think we gave him a different chicken, and we’ve been chuckling about it ever since.

By the way, this is a great way to use a tougher chicken, like an old laying hen.  My sister-in-law discovered this method by accident, and I now do it a lot.  Simply put one or two chickens in the crockpot with no water and turn on high for 6-10 hours, till they are fully cooked.  Delicious and tender!  I take off the breast meat when we’re ready to eat, and the drumsticks and thighs, then add water to the pot and cook again to make broth from what’s left.

Times Have Changed!

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Yesterday when we were cleaning I saw some notebooks I used to keep a journal in for the older children when they were young.  I tried to write something once a week for each of them.  I actually kept that up for about four or five years before life got too busy!  I brought out the book I wrote for our oldest, and read her a few excerpts.  She enjoyed that so much that she copied some things into her blog, and scanned a few pictures from the photo album I made her when she was small.  I was reading that book and looking at pictures from back when we had a 3-year-old, a 2-year-old, and a baby.  How times have changed!  Back then, if something needed doing, I did it.  Now, I can assign it to be done.  Then, I was working with babies all day, with no adult conversation–no wonder I liked talking on the phone!  Now, I can converse intelligently with my nearly-grown daughter, and the boys are even old enough to really talk to.  And, they can do so much by themselves.  For example, yesterday afternoon the 8-year-old wanted some play dough.  He had come across a recipe in one of our science books.  I told him to make it himself.  He did, with only a little coaching while I was working nearby, and then he taught two of his brothers (10 and 6) how to, also!  He also made dinner rolls, but was confused about Tablespoons and teaspoons and used the wrong one to measure the salt!  Oops.  Now we know what happens to yeast when too much salt is put with it.  He made the rolls into tortillas instead and I’ll use them for a casserole that needs salt.

Notice the tabletop. So many blogs I read have pictures of immaculate kitchens. They always seem a bit unreal to me. This is very real life in our house! The ingredients for a meal or two are sitting there waiting to be used!

He’s a Distraction!

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No, I haven’t been on here much lately.  For one thing, there hasn’t been anything real exciting happening–just daily life.  For another, we have a major distraction–this was yesterday during school:

Such cuteness is hard to ignore.

He loves his walker–he can investigate all sorts of things! Yum! Pajamas!

You caught me!

Sometimes it seems like he’s all mouth.

 

 

Jar Blessing

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I took the rubbish to the dump today, and paid the usual $3 to get rid of it.  While I was dumping it, I noticed, beside the dumpster, a couple of boxes of jars.  The man gave them to me, and then remembered that I like big jars, and brought me a gallon jar that was there, too!  All this for nothing–I would have paid $32 for them at Recycling.  That pays for a lot of trips to dump rubbish!

Milk!

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We have another cow on the place today.  Our landlord is wintering over several hundred dairy cows from farms near Culverden (122 cows are here).  Ninety percent of New Zealand dairy farms are seasonal, meaning all the cattle calve in about August and are dried off in May, and most are trucked away from their home farm and grazed elsewhere over the winter to give the home farm a rest.  Our landlord planted oats after the wheat was harvested, and the cows are given a small strip every day.  This one cow had her calf at least a month earlier than she should have, and of course it died.  She bagged up, though, so they offered that we could milk her till the herd goes home. That will keep her in milk for the farmer and give us more milk! Our own cow is still in milk, but not producing a lot, so this is good timing.  The cow arrived here at 11:00 this morning, and I milked her immediately.  We got 10 liters of colostrum!  Now I’m trying to figure out how to use it.  I found a couple of intriguing recipes here and here and here.  We’ll see how many I actually get around to trying.  Looks like, if we want to try the Indian recipes I’ll have to find some cardomom; wonder if the little local supermarket has it?

I think I’m a farmer at heart, and that cows are my favorite animal.  Also, I  look at things around me with the thought of whether we can get food from them!

She stood very still while I milked, although she has likely never been hand-milked before.  She has lovely big teats!

This cat showed up while we were milking–looks as though it wants to move in.

Baby is Talking!

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Our baby is really trying to communicate now.  He turned three months old last week, and is getting more fun every day.  His coos are more of a growl right now.  The other morning I got a video of him, and tonight I actually found time to share it here!  So glad for the occasional Sunday that we come home from church before 5:00!