When I was a child, legos were my thing. I was very proud of the fact that I could build anything, especially when the box had a suggested age far above mine.
Pre-teen to teenager: it was the Sauder stuff, you know, that really cheap particle board furniture you bought at Wal-Mart and it might last through one move if it wasn’t damp. I had a coffee tin full of spare Sauder pieces because the same locks, nuts, screws, and bolts were used in all kinds of furniture. I was so confident in my wood-building ability that I charged people to put their Sauder stuff together. Basically, if it had instructions, I was on it. (Even mistranslated instructions, because I had intuition!)
Wednesday, the plan was to get off before 2pm. The kiddos and I were supposed to have an afternoon with my sister and niece. Her internet guy stole the late afternoon (you know, “I’ll be here between 2pm and 5pm”). I went home. Laud, Lucas, and I pull up to… wait, I thought Louis was bummed out because they canceled his order?
This crate, just a little too heavy for Lucas and I to team lift into the garage, was sitting outside the garage. “Stump Grinder” was stamped on the thin plyboard it was packed in.
I couldn’t wait for Laud to load up and get full! I haven’t gotten to build anything solid since the Guinea Pig cages! (The silly three-chicken-run was made of scraps and hurried; not something I was proud of and definitely not solid.)
Bingo! Laud is out and building is on! It came with almost all the tools needed (sweet! 13, 15, 17, and 19 mm wrenches! – yes I’m nerdy enough to love tools.) I love spare 9mm and 13mm wrenches because they are the most commonly lost in my toolbox.
Lots of parts and bolts with locknuts later, I’ve almost finished with the star performer for Saturday and Sunday’s adventures! I enjoy the thrill of completing something practical. I can’t wait to build the giant bird aviary for Becky’s parakeets, our guinea pigs, and baby chicks. I am super excited about the prospect of building! I laughed at my own thoughts while I was building the machine because I actually like the smell of the bolts – weird, right?
I handed the user’s manual and engine manual to Louis – “tada! The machine is all yours.”
One of the advantages to homeschooling is being able to pick curricula. Most of us would agree that our children can recite movie lines – sometimes even if they’ve just seen the movie twice.
We used BBC Nature with David Attenborough for science for as long as we had access to it. It showed nature in its entire splendor. Of course, as with Carl Sagan’s Cosmos Series, we had to reflect on their errors in timeline and regarding the theory of macro-evolution. We would say things like, “look at how amazing God’s creation is!” and as they got older, invite them to ask and investigate the question, “why do these scientists believe in millions of years instead of thousands?”
In depth studies of animal adaptations and human interference in our food (animal and plant husbandry) have led to the understanding that “kinds” of animals adapt by losing a recessive trait rather than by adding a completely new trait. This led to my kids saying “oh yes, I believe evolution happens, do you understand the true meaning of the word evolution?” (Spoiler:it simply means change) But have you ever been able to add anything to a creature or plant? We have bred plants, raised animals (Becky bred chickens to get specific traits or colors), watched and observed the genetic traits pass in Guinea Pigs, chickens, and parakeets.
Imagine their surprise and excitement when we discovered a video series that discussed the same adaptation and genetic issues they had seen in life!
We discovered The Ark Encounter website along with Creation Museum and their affiliated YouTube channel called “Answers In Genesis!” Wow! They are not afraid to take on difficult subjects and ask and investigate so many fascinating things about our biology, animal adaptation, DNA structures, explanations of the how and why behind so many scientific theories. It is a wealth of information.
The first single episode we watched (it was almost an hour long) on dinosaurs in the Bible had my youngest five captivated the entire time. Even Theadora, who interprets every video in terms of “Paw Patrol” at the moment, sat on the couch with her snuggly blanket the entire rainy Sunday afternoon as we watched the long dinosaur episode and three others! The podcast episodes are more for those with longer attention spans. The lectures and Ark Encounter and Ark Exploration videos are fascinating.
Well-done science videos help my younglings to remember the subject matter better than simply reading it in a textbook. Apologia science (our core science) textbooks are amazing because they are bright and have experiments that bring the science to life for the students. Adding videos as supplements to our coursework aids in bringing the words off the page and into “real life;” we are a visual people. We like to touch, taste, see, and feel the world around us. If you can’t physically see the Grand Canyon with your own eyes, it certainly helps to be able to watch a video showing it. The tools available to my children far exceed those I had access to 35 years ago. I still default on books, but I am totally willing to include new tools to help them answer tough questions in any subject.
Check out the Ark Encounter website or look up “Answers in Genesis” on YouTube. You will be amazed at the wealth of scholastic information in their videos. Second best to sitting in the actual lecture hall (actually, Louis thinks it’s better because we can pause it, pull out books, and do our own discussion and additional research as they talk).
I’ll type later about our super history supplements (also free from YouTube!) we’ve discovered.
Thank you for reading and I hope this helps you explore some cool new teaching tools!
In preparation for our move and new gardening regime (Louis is moving to raised garden beds), we made our specialized chicken coop tractor. I know, that sounds funny, but our goals were lightweight, easy to move, sturdy, storm proof, and hopefully predator proof.
The intended purpose is for this little run to sit on top of the raised garden bed in between plantings. The chickens will dig up the dirt, take dust baths in it, eat every green anything and all insect life (well, most), and fertilize the soil. They’ve done an amazing job of turning compost into fertile soil for 15 years for us (our chicken experience has been pretty much ongoing) and we’ve played with the tractor idea. Normally, we built a larger version with an attached house that is moved by lifting (4′ x 8′ x 4′) or a static house (12′ x 12′ x 6′) raised off the ground that we clean monthly and dump into each segment of the chicken yard for them to scratch around and finish. In that time, we had three chicken door and rotated the chicken’s access to three separate 100′ x 40′ fenced fields. In this spot, we don’t have full fences and for a while we’ve been fighting off the puzzle of very smart raccoons or feral cats who have ripped into anything that wasn’t made of solid 1×6″ walls! (Yes, they’ve even pried plyboard and wire walls off of the frame to get to our chickens!) So our adult chickens have stayed in a 20′ by 10′ fenced and over fenced (we have a very large community of hawks around here) run area with a tight, 4′ x 4′ x 2′ box we closed them up in at night.
This new box is of 2″x4″, 2″x2″, and 1″x2″ construction. It is made in two pieces that connect together with either a hasp or a simple hook. (Picture shows a hook)
The first section is the run.
The run is 2′ tall by 2′ wide by 6′ long. It is constructed completely with 1″x2″s. It is open on the bottom for scratching up compost. Each wall and the top are covered with 1″ chicken wire woven at each connection for a perfect seam. The ladder matched the henhouse portal. The supporting braces for the ladder help to reinforce the structure of the run. Optional would be a hinged opening at the far side of the run that would allow for larger scraps to be dropped in. The pictured run did not need that.
The henhouse is 3′ tall at the peak, 30″ tall at the short side, 2′ wide and 2′ deep. It has a variety of construction materials. (The pictured house has 2’2″ short peak because it was the first one constructed, but optimally it will have a 6″ slope instead of a 10″ slope.) It has two “floors” along with openings for each. Only the bottom 12″ and an access portal facing the run is not enclosed.
The first floor of the henhouse is the sustenance station. This is 12″ tall and open to the ground (once we have this attached to a raised bed, the henhouse will sit on a platform so the first floor will have a wooden floor). It is tall enough to hold a standard one-gallon plastic or metal waterer and a small feeder. This is accessed through either side of the ladder by 8″ gaps which are large enough for a Jersey Giant hen to waddle through. The rear has a lifting door for access. (This door is also lifted for easy holding when moving.)
The second floor is the nesting box and roost area. This is a solid wooden platform floor and enclosed with sliding doors to access either side of the nesting area easily. (This was their first hour & they already laid their eggs inside!) The box is covered with a plastic waterproof roof that extends over the peak to as to help keep the water out.
It took about a half-day of work to complete.
The chickens are happy!
This size works for three large hens (ours are between 5lbs and 7lbs) or up to six bantam chickens. This design could be customized easily to accommodate larger flocks, wider garden bed areas, or to be a home for one or two bunnies. See our Guinea Pig outside home too!
Becky has been dreaming of and saving for parakeets for over four years. When her savings goal of the summer camp all three teens were to do together canceled due to COVID-19, she decided to invest in Disney shares while they were record low cost (someone has been Christina’s study buddy for Personal Finance), buy her “smaller” cage (we will build a much larger one at our new house), and her birds!
So… Cage…
And now Birdies!
Better introduction of each bird will be coming, but for now, they are all young and sweet with blooming individual personalities. Becky loves them all!
She waited so long for these pets – they have the best! She included toys, feed, treats, bedding, and even a nest box in her budget (not yet in the cage though). She has a continuing budget for new toys and feed – she grows specific plants they love like carrot tops (they love the greens from carrot tops), parsley, basil, and millet. There are others, but I don’t know them all yet. The birds get tasty apple bits occasionally.
And Becky already has them coming to eat from her hand!
When one dream is canceled, you adapt and move on to something else. No, the three oldest will not be able to do a summer camp together because next year Christina will be doing flight and starting Embry-Riddle, but they can enjoy the birds together & Mom got to do a project (the stand, here) with Becky! As they say, your character is showed by how you react to whatever life throws at you – and adding beautiful birds to our family is definitely a plus!
What in the Earth? Actually, in the oceans. It is the scientific name for the Sawtooth Penshell.
Becky discovered two of these perfect shells, each about 6 inches long, on the high tide line at our favorite St Johns County beach. On the ride home, Becky researched them and we learned all about their life, their predators, how they likely died (based on their skeletons aka shells), and how they are cooked.
Yes, these particular bivalves are a seafood with a taste and consistency “quite like a scallop” according to the articles Becky found.
We have a rule of never taking living shells for our collection (this particular beach time would have been a great harvest of beautiful specimens if not for that rule!) but Becky said that now when she is ever stranded on a desert island (been watching too much Gilligan’s Island, I guess), she will know one good item to eat.
Perfect specimens have full shells and these both are broken on the fan edges. The bumps are actually raised sharp points like spikes. Their texture is almost leathery for a shell, and when they are in the sun, they shine with an oil-like sheen.
Beautiful.
A lovely addition to our seashell bowl (we may need a bigger bowl)!
Hope you enjoyed this educational tidbit (and maybe you can find some Atrina Serrata skeletons yourself on the lovely Florida beaches)!
Becky has a thing for all animals – but let’s just go out on a limb and say she’s got a special connection with all things feathered. Chickens. Been there, have that. Monk Parrot. Been there, fostered that. Parakeets. Been there – and she LOVED them! So her savings goal was to have enough money for a big enough cage for indoors, enough for an outdoor flight run, and the parakeets themselves by the time we move.
Circumstances being that instead of spending her time dreaming of birdies while coaching she was staring at her empty wall with no feathered friends; I came home to, “I’m getting something big in the mail.”
Thea doesn’t want to get off of the box so Becky can build it!
Something big turned out to be a huge parakeet cage! It’s like a really large parrot cage but with spaces small enough to contain small birds like finches and parakeets.
She was quick to assemble it.
Oops…
“MOM!”
There’s no stand! She tried to swipe our one and only end table! Nope.
So we decided to use the wood Kimberly collected for her bunny cage last summer when the gym was being built and create a family project!
No Prim! Don’t get stuck
Thea is getting interested
I Help, Mommy!
The saw is too loud for Lucas!
This goes here…
All done, that goes there…
How does this one help, Mommy?
Thea and Lucas were my all-the-time helpers. All pictures are courtesy of Becky & Kimberly. This is something I love about being home more often… last minute, zero-cost (almost, anyway, as Louis had to go fetch some not-too-long screws for the table tops), shop time projects with my girls! Becky and I haven’t worked on a project in quite some time. Working to build things is my absolute favorite… gardens, woodworking, legos, cooking, etc. I love making something useful from “nothing” (or big pile of scrap wood).
Finished product (stand)
Yes, that is a sock between the layers!
Becky and I loved the double-table style we ended up with. Although she sacrificed a few beautiful nails in all this work, we had an exceptional mother-daughter laughing, goofing off, and problem solving time building the project at the end of her savings goal!
Sometimes you choose a pet. You know, you excitedly go to the shelter or the pet store and the perfect friend snags your heart instantly.
Sometimes you are fostering a litter of puppies and one looks up at you with a connection that will never break.
(Christina and Primrose: Pretty sure this was the day she decided to keep her!)
This was the way with Christina and the little black puppy that became our Primrose (Primmy, Prim, or even Primrose Everdeen Tart – when she has chewed something).
Prim has been in our home for two baby births. Until Lucas was about 2, he was her little pup. She followed him around, protected him, and I used to say if dogs choose their people, Prim chose Christina and Lucas. The second birth she’s been here for is Theadora.
Thea loves Prim. She gets excited when Prim snuggles up next to her and squeals “my doggie!” and will either pet her gently or snuggle her whole little face into Prim’s soft fur. Thea also feeds Prim everything… if it tastes really “yummy!” then a bit of it gets dropped over the highchair after “doggie!” gets yelled. Prim knows that means – come get food.
It’s hard for me to get these as pictures because Thea knows what a phone is. If I try to take a picture while I’m sitting next to her, she drops what she’s doing and grabs said phone!
Lucas has grown away from Prim and animals – he likes things with wheels right now. He gets super excited about small animals like helping with the Guinea Pigs or Minuit, but big ones are pillow to him, that’s it.
Prim is a pillow or sleeping buddy for anyone on the couch – although she isn’t supposed to be there; she just took up Sheba’s lookout position. At night, she snuggles curled up in a little ball on the end of Christina’s, Lucas’ or Jillian’s bed. She loves her people. She’ll snuggle next to Thea’s baby pen if Thea’s sleeping there – nestled under the table but up against the baby pen.
We went to visit a friend & they had a Jack Russel puppy. When Thea got home she grabbed Prim in a hug and stroked her saying softly, “my doggie, my doggie.” My baby is thankful for her special doggie.
Once there was a little girl who
loved dogs and prayed for a little black dog.
Her mom had already agreed to take the least wanted puppy from a litter
about to happen. Her mom prayed the
puppy was black.
A few weeks later, Mom got a call – the mommy dog had shoved one baby puppy away and it needed special care. Mom said, “we’ll take it” and the tiny “runt of the litter” fluffy puppy came to her furever home. That was February 25, 2008, almost 12 years ago. And yes, other than a white spot on her tummy that grew to cover her belly and some brownish tan on her paws, the puppy was black!
Sheba with (L-to-R) Kimberly (Sheba loved snuggling on the couch), Jaquline (Sheba would sleep on the walker to keep Kimberly and Becky from “racing” the baby around!), and Thea.
Sheba became the Tart family’s
perfect dog. She loved the three little
humans who grew up with her. Kimberly
was only five months older than Sheba!
Sheba ran around, grew up, played, made doggie friends, herded chickens,
mothered lost dogs who wandered in, loved on chickens when the Tarts lived on
their farm, snuggled with baby chicks, guinea pigs, the two rabbits, and Christina’s
baby puppy, Prim.
Sheba had a wonderful doggie
life.
L-to-R: Sheba with Jaquline (Jaquline insisted Sheba loved “Snow Dogs”), Kimberly had “dressed” Sheba in a beaded necklace she made, Sheba’s favorite sleeping position on any couch.
L-to-R: Sheba in the playroom, Sheba loved the tile floor in that house!, Mom said “no more movies” and the girls couldn’t find the remote… (Sheba had it!) Sheba loved to sleep on that table for some odd reason.
(top) Sheba with puppy Primrose, (bottom)Sheba with Lady (one of our doggie friends), (right) Thea climbed up on the couch to snuggle Sheba, who was sleeping in her new, weird, favorite position.
L-to-R: Baby Lucas, Jillian, and Sheba at the end of the bed (right next to the crib), Sheba’s favorite spot in that garage (next to the food bag!), Thea rubbing Sheba (she loved her soft fur and had just learned “dog!”)
Last year she started to slow down a
bit. In December of this year, she
started feeling sick some days. The vet
said her stomach was failing. Vitamins and special food helped a little. She wasn’t able to digest all her food and
she would get skinny and we had decided once she was in pain, we would put her to
sleep. None of us wanted to lose our
Sheba. She loved being outside when it
was cool because she was bushy furry (we
teased she was an a/c dog because she slept on one of the air conditioning vents
in summer and almost refused to go outside in summer daylight!). On cooler days, she would play on our run
while we were outside. Christmas Day it
was gorgeous. Sheba said hi to both
Grandmas when they visited and ran outside almost the whole day in gentle cool
breezes. We were petting and snuggling
with her by turns. She sleeps a lot since
she’s been over 10 so when she curls down to sleep we usually let her rest. We were enjoying a Christmas campfire and
telling stories. Louis went inside to
get some water. I knew Sheba was fully
asleep when Louis stopped by her longer than just to stroke her and turned his
flashlight on. I handed Thea to Mom and
we verified that she was fully gone. I stroked her soft, fluffy coat one last
time before I wrapped her in her blanket.
The older girls came out to
help. We buried her and said goodbye to
our best furry friend. Sheba had spent
more time with me than any other dog.
She was our first family dog. My mom said, “Sheba probably found Boompa
and Aunt Mary in heaven.” Christina laughed, “oh, yes, she instantly found Aunt
Mary!” Because every time Mary would stay with us, Sheba would seek her bed out
and snuggle with her – I’d be like, “no dogs in the bed, Mary,” and she’d
giggle, wrap Sheba in a bear hug and say, “but she’s a big, fluffy stuffed
animal!” and Sheba would give us the sweet sad eyes so she’d get to sleep with
Mary. Sheba always snuggled up with
anyone who wasn’t feeling well – she always seemed to know before we did.
Kimberly said she had prayed that
Sheba would get to run loose outside, thinking of us having a fenced yard at our
new house, but Sheba had been running loose anytime she was outside lately and stayed
near the house because she didn’t feel good.
Louis set candles out on her grave
for the night. We’ve planted flowers
now. Each pet we’ve lost, we’ve buried
and planted a tree over it as a reminder. Louis called Sheba our perfect dog. That she was.
The Garden Bed we planted for Sheba
Thea’s first Christmas was Sheba’s
last. Our furry family treasure went to
heaven, “raced over the rainbow bridge” as Jillian said, after spending a full
Christmas Day with her family and “Grandmas.” It had been Sheba’s favorite
outside day, gentle cool breezes with a mild, wintery temperature where she’d
stand, face in the wind and wag that super fluffy “duster” tail. I’m going to
miss my Sheba. Two months shy of 12 full
years from her February 25th birthday – rather long for a dog. Goodbye, my sweet, lovable, playful furry
baby; I love you Sheba, run free and fast with no leash and no borders! Your
human family will miss you!
