Dd bending steel for the garden June 17th, 2013

Dd bending steel for the garden 

June 17th, 2013

What are the braces for, you ask?:

The plan is tie twine across each frame horizontally.  Each tomato plant will have a twine rope tie that will come down to it vertically to stabilize it.  Dh found this set up in one of his many gardening books, and this is suppose to be a great way to grow tomato plants....so we will try it out and see for ourselves how successful this method proves to be.  Stay tuned for new pictures with twine demonstrating how it is to be done!!!  This is only step 2, step 1 was buying the pipe and bending the pipe.

You see who does all the work in our home!

The onions are blooming!  They are really so beautiful!

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Garden Pix June 15, 2013

Garden Pix (and some birds joined in too)  June 15-ish, 2013

We have already worked in the garden and built new things up in there since Saturday--so things have changed already!  I'll post those pictures later.  But, here is what the garden looked like on Saturday.  Saturday I took many of the sunflowers out of our garden and planted them in our backyard.  I planted them in groupings, set up against the fence, so they could lean up against the fence for support (with the help of some twine if needed).  I love growing the sunflowers and watching the finches eat the seeds.  Things are coming along, and I am enjoying my backyard the most out of all the years I've lived here.  Our backyard finally has enough trees, bushes, plants, flowers, and birds for me to feel 'at home'....finally!

3 birds

 The other cool thing about our backyard is the 2 ponds to the left--we have Blue Herons that live there.  I saw one creep up and hunt on Saturday.  It was very interesting to see it catch a frog.  Mallard ducks, geese, green herons, and the Blue Heron live there.

 These onion blooms are my FAVORITE right now!!!  Just so beautifully shaped!

 This is the whole "Left Side".

This is the WHOLE garden!

This is the "Right Side"

We planted  2 rows of Kohlarobi, 2 rows of Fennel, and 3 rows of 1 type of Giant Bib lettuce, and 3 rows of Salad Bowl lettuce.  You can't see, but 6 ft. to the left I planted 2 rows of leeks.

 Our Blackberry bushes had branched out and grew off shoots, so we took those off shoots and on Saturday we started 2 new Blackberry Gardens, in 2 different locations. This spot had 1 Blackberry plant, now it has 6 or 7 plants in a line---you can't see the 3 small ones on the left of the big plant very well in this picture.  The birds really like eating our berries, so maybe if we have a lot of plants in various places we will stand a chance at eating more ourselves!!

 These were those 5 tomatoes that the rabbit had eaten the bottom 2 so much that you could barely see them--now you can see where the plants are much better!  Plus the safety screens we set up!

This year we planted 6 new asparagus plants and 5 have sprouted up! We had planted 2 last year (Sophie dug 1 up and 1 safely made it to this year).  We devised a safety net around them to keep them safe until we can build another screen.  Can you see the sprouts?

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Papilio polyxenes

Papilio polyxenes
The (eastern) black swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes), also called the American swallowtail or parsnip swallowtail
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papilio_polyxenes

 After our tea party friend had given me 3 lovely black swallowtail caterpillars, I found I already had many on the parsnip plants I had pulled up and put in my compost!!!!!  I quickly pulled out the dried up plants from the compost.  Then I tried to rescue as many caterpillars as I could!  I have 4 fennel plants in 3 different locations in my backyard and some small parsnips plants by the blackberry bushes.  The homeless insects were soon placed in new lodgings.

 In front of the butterfly bush, I planted 2 fennel plants---and placed some of the black swallowtail caterpillars there.

In front of the 2 newly transplanted (from the front yard to the back yard) roses, are 2 fennel plants.  The 3 caterpillars from my friend quickly ate the fennel off one of the plants, so I had to move them to the parsnip plants by my blackberry bushes where they couldn't do so much damage so quickly!  They were very big caterpillars and had an appetite to match!  You can see the big parsnip plants that I pulled out of the compost pile laying in front of the garden.  I figured if there were any caterpillars that I missed they could have a chance to walk to the fennel plants on their own.

Out in our garden beside our celery is one last fennel plant.  I knew the butterflies might remember from last  year that we had fennel out in the garden, so I wanted one out there too.  I tried to strategically place the fennel around our yard in places where the butterflies would be sure to see it (and lay their eggs!).  I placed it by our Butterfly Bush, our roses, and in our garden.  And here they had already laid their eggs on our parsnip plants!!! Funny!  



I remember at 11 years of age, my Dad bought me chickens, ducks, and turkeys to raise that summer.  Well, I might not be able to do that for my Dd---but at least she can raise butterflies!!!  I'm sure she would MUCH rather the fowl!  But, this is the best I can do in a neighborhood.  Here are some pictures from Wikipedia to see the specific type we have in abundance.  I also found a new chrysalis on our fence too!  I'm tempted to bring it in to watch it hatch....hmmm.

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  Laying eggs on parsley

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  Eggs on parsley

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  First instar caterpillar in northeast Georgia

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  Late-instar caterpillar (without spikes) soon ready to pupate

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  Osmeterium visible after slight provocation

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  Greenish-brown chrysalis

Black swallowtail
Male
Female
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Papilionidae
Tribe:	Papilionini
Genus:	Papilio
Species:	P. polyxenes		The black swallowtail has a wingspan of 8 to 11 cm (3.1 to 4.3 in). The upper surface of the wings is mostly black. On the inner edge of the hindwing is a black spot centered in larger orange spot. A male of this species has a yellow band near edge of wings; a female has row of yellow spots. The hindwing of the female has an iridescent blue band. In the southwestern United States, yellow forms predominate in the subspecies Papilio polyxenes coloro. After mating, small, yellow eggs are laid, typically on plants from the carrot family, Apiaceae, including dill, fennel, Queen Anne's lace, parsley, and golden alexanders. They are also found eating rue and bishop's weed. First instar larvae grow to about 1.5 cm (0.59 in) long and resemble bird droppings. They are dark black with a white band in the middle and have spikes, with a light brown-orange ring at the base of each of the spikes in the dark region (spikes are white on the white band). Later instars grow to about 5 cm (2.0 in) and are green and black banded with yellow spots around every second black band. They have short, black spikes around some of the black bands, although these tend to disappear as the larva nears pupation.  The black swallowtail caterpillar has an orange "forked gland", called the osmeterium. When in danger, the osmeterium, which looks like a snake's tongue, everts and releases a foul smell to repel predators. Black swallowtail chrysalis The pupae may be green or brown, but not depending on surroundings or the background on which they have pupated. The color of the chrysalis is determined by a local genetic balance that ensures the majority of pupae will blend in.[2]

June 10-15th, 2013 SL- Core E- Week 29

June 10-15th, 2013 SL- Core E- Week 29

**in process--will add pictures when I can find where I put my camera!

Inventions kit--built the "telegraph kit"--and it really worked!

Took a good friend to Arbuckle Park for a lovely walk on their trails and found two snails---my camera was acting up though...

This was a particularly LIGHT week.  I had a rough go physically and mentally.  I guess I was due a week of just feeling under the weather.  I think there are times in life when the cards just fall a little heavier than other times and this was a particularly difficult time for me.  My hands and feet were feeling very off...some cysts seemed to burst or something painful....female troubles, or as my father would say "plumbing troubles"... with all of it, I felt very low with it all and just took things slow and steady--very much one day at a time.

I hesitated to say anything personal about me  having a rough time this week--but then I thought I rarely mention that I do have hard times in my blog and should make it clear that everything is not easy-peasy in our house.  We do have rough patches, and health issues, and bad attitudes just like everyone else.  I especially seem to have all those issues!  

Monday was physically my hardest day, so we stayed home and did our lessons.

Tuesday we picked up one of Dd's friend after our lessons, and went to the library to sign up for the Summer Reading Program. After the library, we went to Arbuckle Park and walked the trail all together.

Wednesday we did lessons after Dd and I walked our 2 ponds and the little cemetery.

Thursday we had the L family over for a little Tea Party!!! Then we took one of Dd's friends with us to volunteer at our church's food pantry "The Giving Tree". 

Friday we did our lessons, went to the library, had Dd's friend over to make Father's Day cards with, and went for a walk/bike ride around the 2 ponds together.  

It is gardening time--so a little bit here and there each day, we work on the garden.  We still don't have everything in; but each week we are getting closer.  We are eating lots of strawberries.

Our lessons:

Bible:

Genesis Ch. 37, 42, 43, 45,

2 Kings Ch. 5

Judges 1

Starting Strong by Paula Rinehart

Starting Strong: Never To Small For God--Ch. 3

Know Your Bible: All 66 Books Explained (VALUE BOOKS) by Paul Kent

Know Your Bible by Barbour Publishing

Artist of the Week:

Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists) by Mike Venezia

Getting to Know the Great Artist of the World --by Venezia

 

Composer of the Week:

Ludwig van Beethovan

Meet the Great Composers Book 1 (Learning Link) by June Montgomery and Maurice Hison

Meet the Great Composers

 

History:

The World Wars: An Introduction to the First & Second World Wars by Paul Dowswell, Ruth Brocklehurst and Henry Brook

 The World Wars--pp. 182-205

Read Aloud:

Half Magic by Edward Eager and N. M. Bodecker

Half-Magic

Oxford illustrated Book of American Children's Poems

 

Family Read Aloud:

It Made You Think of Home: The Haunting Journal of Deward Barnes, CEF: 1916-1919 by Bruce Cane

It Made You Think of Home: The Haunting Tale of Deward Barnes, CEF, 1916-1919 by Bruce Cane

Reader:

Return to Gone-Away by Elizabeth Enright and Joe & Beth Krush

Return to Gone-Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright

Math:

Math U See: Epsilon: 23 C, D, E, F

Skip-Counting: 6 Family 12x this week

Geography:

States and Capitals Songs by Kathy Troxel

States & Captitals Songs: #7, Capitals of the Middle: 8 x this week

Science:

Exploring Creation with Zoology 1: Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day -- Young Explorers Series (Young Explorer... by Jeannie Fulbright

Apologia:Zoology 1:Flying Creatures of the Earth: pg. 89-101

Zoology 1 Notebooking Journal: Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day (Young Explorer Series) (Young Explorer (Apologia... by Jeannie K. Fulbright

Zoology Notebook--Dd made an "Egg Book"

Language Arts:

AAS 5

All About Spelling: Level 5, Teacher's Manual and Student Packet by Marie Rippel

Step 1: Review-passed

Step 2: worked on 3 days

Fix-It: IEW:

Week 18 & Week 19 completed

 

ScienceWiz / Inventions Kit by Norman & Globus

 Inventions: Science Kit: Telegraph Kit: completed & successful!

Foreign Language:

Rosetta Stone: 1x this week

Piano: 5x this week--played with her friend when she came over too!

Playaway/  Audio:

Hotel For Dogs - Audio by Lois Duncan

Hotel For Dogs--finished!

Sewing: Dd sewed a purple, little purse-with a little button closure.  Nice purse, with really tight stitching--nicely done, probably her best sewing stitches yet.

Drawing--Last Sunday she drew a great comic strip type of set of action drawings of Star Wars - "The Life of a Jedi".  I liked them very much; but they were drawn on a church bulletin; so she decided to draw them again on good paper.  Then she used fine drawing color pens..very nice.

Happy Father's Day Cards: 

(The flower card is from me to my Dh)

Watercolor Pencil Drawings--2--bird drawings for Father's Day---Shhh!

 Fun book:

The Third Wheel (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Book 7) by Jeff Kinney

Diary of a Wimpy Kid- The Third Wheel by Jeff Kinney--completed.

Daily: BrainPop, and BrainPop, Jr.

Cooking/Baking:
Baked Cookies for Pappa--"Ranger Cookies"
Made pancakes for Father's Day--completely alone, well done!



Gardening:
Helped mow and plant and water, well done!






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