Easy Elephant Toothpaste

For school this year, we are mainly utilizing the free Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool website.  It incorporates many videos and hands on projects, and Owen is really thriving with those inclusions.  We're working slowly but surely through Chemistry and Physics for science.

Today's experiment brought giggles all around, and it was so simple I wanted to share.

First, gather up your supplies. 

*1 20 oz empty plastic bottle (Thanks Bryan for drinking the Coke so we could do this!)
*1/2 cup of 3% hydrogen peroxide
*1/4 cup dish soap (we used Kirkland brand, but don't think it matters!)
*1 T yeast
*1/2 c warm water
*Food coloring (optional) --we did this experiment twice, once without and once with.  With was WAY neater looking!
*A large cooking pot or baking pan to catch the overflow

Next, you need to prepare for the experiment.

Combine the yeast and the warm water in a small cup and mix well. 

Let this sit for about five minutes to get bubbly (activated).

Meanwhile, carefully pour your peroxide and dish soap into the plastic bottle.  Add food coloring if desired.

Swish the bottle around (be careful not to get over excited here and splash it out the top!) to mix the ingredients.

Place the bottle in your overflow container.

Once the yeast is bubbly, carefully pour the yeast into the bottle.

Sit back and watch the elephant toothpaste grow!

The website linked to above has a wonderful scientific explanation so you can explain what is going on. 

Have you completed any neat experiments this year?

Our Columbus Day Project

Happy Columbus Day! 

As part of history today, the kids and I took a few minutes to learn a bit about the voyage that was supposed to result in a shorter route to India for trade.  I kept it short and simple since we mainly have little attention spans.

After the talk, we set to work painting egg carton cups for boats. (I got the idea from here after a quick Google search for an easy craft.)  Each child painted three.  One for the Nina, one for the Pinta and one for the Santa Maria. 

While Sydney, Jeff, Ellie and Jayme painted their egg carton cups, Owen finger painted directly on the table.  I knew he'd just eat the egg carton cups, and didn't want to deal with the mess of shredded paper on top of paint! He made himself VERY pretty...

To keep craft time manageable, I made sure to do it while Simon was down for his morning nap.  I didn't want to see the mess he'd create. 

Once the cups were dry, we stuck a wad of play-dough in the bottom of each.  We were supposed to use toothpicks to create masts for the sails, but we didn't have any.  Thankfully we had a bunch of wooden chopsticks.  Those worked quite well.  The kids decorated their sails and put everything together. 

Jayme decided that the sides of the egg carton pieces she had looked like sails, so she painted those instead of adding the playdough and chop-stick pieces.  They turned out nicely. 

Once everyone else had their pieces together, we moved them to the kitchen counters to continue drying while we cleaned up.  Here are Jeff's boats.

It was a simple way to get some extra art into the day.  The kids all love craft time!

Do you have any memorable craft projects you did?

Saturday Pictures

Welcome to fall ladies and gentlemen, here's a cold for you.  That's the lovely change of season report from here on the farm. Owen catches germs very easily (thanks in part to the Pica and shoving things in his mouth everywhere we go--even tissues if he finds them--EW!), and once it's in the house, it's hard to keep colds contained.  Three of the kids, and now myself, are feeling this one.  I miss summer, fewer seizures and good health!  But, the Lord will give us strength to make it through the sick season. 

Even though we're sniffling and sneezing with sore throats, I took pictures almost every day.  Here they are.

Sunday, October 5

Poor Simon.  Learning to walk is rough.  He tripped over something and found the corner of the wall with his forehead.  I think he kind of looks like a Klingon with the ridge...

Monday, October 6

Here's a walking picture.  Simon is now pretty confident, even outside!  I was worried that his head bump yesterday would slow him down a bit, but he's still going strong.

Tuesday, October 7

Bryan surprised Jeffrey with a motorcycle out of K'Nex Monday night, and Jeffrey loved playing with it when he woke up.  (Simon wanted a turn too!)

 Wednesday, October 8


No pictures!

Thursday, October 9

We took a quick trip to Chewelah to take some books back to the library before they were overdue, and stopped by the park.  Jeffrey and Jayme raced to the top of the jungle gym.

Friday, October 10

Ellie really enjoys helping take care of the new rabbits!  They all have names now.  Belle, Cloud and Mama Bunny are the does and Barney and Raf are the bucks.  We still need to move their hutches into final positions, but they are off the truck and trailer, and so much easier to take care of. What a fun addition to the farm! 

Saturday, October 11

Check out this sunset!  What a beautiful sight. A completely different palette of colors from last Saturday. 

Keep well, and hopefully by next week we'll all be doing better!

My Bunnies Are Here!

Well, one of our farm goals was accomplished sooner rather than later. We picked up five rabbits tonight, and brought them home.  There are four pedigreed American Chincillas (three does and a buck) and a Rex/Dwarf cross buck.

I need to clean the hutches that came with them out tomorrow, and I'll throw the lovely rabbit manure onto the garden to be worked in. 

Then we can get the hutches off the truck and trailer more easily (poop weighs a lot!) I'm looking forward to getting them all the way settled in their new environment.

The lady we bought them from put one of the does on with a buck with us (the chincillas) and recommended leaving both that doe and another in with him tonight. (The does have been together so they aren't a fighting risk.)

In 31 days we should have baby bunnies! Then 10 weeks after that we will butcher for the first time. 

Since it was dark when we got home, I couldn't get good pictures. Instead, I'll leave you with one from Craigslist where I first found our new critters.

 Any words of advice for a rabbit newbie?

A Day Late and a...Never Mind!

Ok, let's just pretend it's still Saturday, shall we?  That would mean we'd have one more day of weekend to enjoy.  I wish! 

Even though I'm late, I still wanted to share some pictures with everyone.  Here you go--seven small moments from our week.

Sunday, September 28

The cats are faster than my camera finger!  There were three of them snuggled up in my tomato plant container on the porch when I went out to milk, but only one stuck around for a mug shot.

Monday, September 29

Freedom!  Our chicken coop is located right next to the pig pen.  And I lost a few chickens to the pigs earlier in the season.  My new little hens--I didn't want to lose, and I knew they'd wander in the pig pen.  So they were contained for longer than I would have liked, but were let free as soon as the butcher left.  They like their new free ranging status, though I haven't yet gotten them to sleep up on a perch in the coop--they prefer to huddle on the floor. 

Tuesday, September 30

A gentle reminder that winter is on the way.  Look close and you can see it--the hail that very much resembled a very early snow fall.

Wednesday, October 1

My little mountain goat has apparently connected the remote control with power and prestige or something.   He just can't quite figure out how to make it work!

Thursday, October 2

We've recently added an individual project time to our school day.  Jeff decided to make a shelf for his room for his first project.  He had to use things from around the farm, and this is what he came up with.  He sanded and painted by himself, using spray paint left over from Ellie's birthday tire see-saw.  I think he would have preferred different colors, but he was excited just to be building something.

Note to self...taking pictures when the sun is high is not a good idea unless you're going for shadows everywhere...

Friday, October 3

In an effort to reduce waste on the homestead, I recently moved the cows to where I can feed them utilizing the old mangers instead of just dumping hay in their pen for them to soil.  They are still getting used to it, but I think they'll have it figured out before the winter locks them in permanently.

See the small gate on the edge of the picture?  It's important to close that tightly, and I now have it tied with bailing twine! Care to guess how we learned that lesson?

Saturday, October 4

Chicken butcher day, take 2. 

I managed to slice my thumb on a very sharp knife (they were dull last time around--sharp ones work MUCH better!)

We also butchered out one of the turkeys.  Yup, only one.  This is why...it was under 8 pounds.  WAY too skinny.  This is taken inside the butcher trailer, right after I dressed him all out.  It was just like doing a chicken, only the organs were WAY bigger. 

Hope you enjoyed your weekend, and have a good week. We're going to look at some meat rabbits on Tuesday, so I'll be sure to let you know if we add more critters to the place.

The Whole Hog!

Warning...picture of a hanging pig to follow...nothing super bloody though, but if you are squeamish, please read a different post instead!

Monday, the butcher arrived at the farm. When he left, our pigs had been processed from this...

Into this...

I learned a lot watching the butcher, and enjoyed seeing the process. Someday I hope to be able to butcher most of our own animals. It'd sure save a chunk of change ($65 per pig for instance....)

A phone call from the butcher shop on Wednesday  allowed me to give our specifications for cut and wrap. I love being able to do that. 

And today? We went to pick up our fresh pork this morning. 

 

I also met the man who had purchased out extra hog from Craigslist and was paid. That money covered our cut, wrap and cure, and paid for the kill fee on the sold pig and our pig. Not too shabby! It was a blessing that it went so smoothly. I had never done that before, and was a bit worried about it all. 

Once the money part had been taken care of, three of my helpers loaded the fresh pork into boxes in the back of the Suburban.  

We had a makeshift assembly line going which tied in nicely with our coverage of Henry Ford in history yesterday! 

We are looking forward to sausage, ribs and roast this winter! Since we aren't butchering a cow this fall, pork and chicken will make up the bulk of our meat for the time being. 

The bags you see contain the pork fat. I'll be rendering that into lard in the crockpot in a few weeks. I'm hoping to try my hand at soap making with it! 

Now all that's left is to pick up the cured hams and bacon in a couple of weeks, yum!!

What's your favorite pork recipe? 

The Importance of Carbon on a Homestead

Ah animals.  They offer great entertainment, wonderful food products and many other benefits.  They also...poop.  A lot!  And while that poop can be a fabulous addition to the soil, it can quickly turn a farm into a stinky place if not properly taken care of. 

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not using our farm poop to its fullest potential yet.  I've been learning.  And I think the most important thing I've learned (due to many of Joel Salatin's books) is that carbon is essential. 

Poop has a lot of nitrogen in it.  That ammonia smell that can build up in the chicken coop? Yeah means there is an imbalance of nitrogen and carbon.  The solution?  Add some carbon!  On a frequent basis.

We keep bins of wood shavings by the meat birds.  Since we have to lock them up at night to avoid predator problems (mainly owls and hawks right now), each morning the coops are ready for a fresh dose of carbon.

 The wood shavings (which we got last year while cutting wood and running the limbs through a chipper) keep the smell down.  They keep the animals cleaner.  And they speed up the composting process! Win, win, win!!!

In the coop where our layers are, we use straw or hay that has been spilled from the cows.  Since we overwinter these birds, I think this works better than the shavings for providing a deep bedding routine.  It also allows me to use the same bedding in the nest boxes as on the floor, so I can dump the stuff from the boxes onto the floor and then just add fresh to the boxes. 

The cows also need carbon--once they are in the barn for the winter. Out on the pasture, they have the grass to lay on and that provides plenty of carbon without me needing to do any work.

 I almost always use straw for cows, but have read about using shavings with them as well, so might try that if the price of straw doesn't drop here soon. 

Rusty, our bull, enjoyed a nice carbon rich stall before being released to the pasture.

If you are experiencing some stink around your animals, your carbon balance is something you'll want to check out!

What is your favorite carbon rich bedding for your critters?