week #5

It was a week that only looked like fall. The August-like temperatures made us all pretty uncomfortable. This drought has been tough on the landscape in general, but nothing is more obviously affected than our usually stunning autumn colors. Many of the trees are just dropping their leaves without their usual dramatic display. Those trees whose leaves are changing are lacking the depth of color and luster they usually possess -- what we're mostly left with is a lot of withered brown leaves falling from the trees even without the wind's assistance. Everyone is hoping for some rain relief, hopefully by the end of this coming week. It's probably too late to salvage the autumn display, however. And that's a bummer.

The big event on our farm this week was the delivery of our year's supply of hay. Sixteen round bales, weighing about 500lbs each, arrived in our barnyard yesterday. This is enough to keep our sheep fed until there is grass in the pasture again next spring. The Map Man put up a fabric garage/tent around the bales after they were all stacked.

(Zoo Boy hides behind a tree during a game of chase with some homeschooling buddies.)

Highlights from this week included playing in the children's museum's new exhibit while J was there for his chorus and soccer classes, an overnight trip to my parent's house, bringing along an apple crisp we made as a treat, learning about milkweed pods and seeds, and a trip to Westmoor Park. J topped the week off with his second Tae Kwon Do class, where he learned a couple different types of kicks, his first Keibon (series of exercises) and learned how to count to 10 in Korean. I'm a little luke-warm on the way the instruction is presented (she's quite a forceful type of person), but J absolutely loves it, so I'll continue to just sit by quietly and observe.

(J enjoying a roll in the autumn leaves.)

Books we read at Family Story Time each evening were Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert (which has the kids wanting to plant trees, something I'll happily arrange once the drought is over), Autumn, an Alphabet Acrostic by Steven Schnur, illustrated by Leslie Evans (which is a long-standing favorite around here, both because of the fun seasonal acrostic poems and the wonderful wood-block print illustrations), and Harvest Home by Jane Yolen and Greg Shed (which The Map Man and I just adore, but Zoo Boy won't even listen to -- he leaves the room and returns when it's over. I'm not sure why, normally is ga-ga over any book, but we of course are allowing his freedom of expression on that so long as it doesn't disrupt the rest of our enjoyment of the book).

And here's a plan for the future that J proposed this morning. He said this is a project that he wants to do, which he learned about in his Encyclopedia. (He spends his rest time reading through a children's "First Encyclopedia", working on his hobby of accumulating facts.) He says this is a "floating compass" and that when we make it, the need will spin in two directions, to the north and to the south. I was intrigued and asked him what we need to do it. He listed a needle, a small piece of wood, and a container full of water. I told him that we had everything we needed except for a needle. He pondered that for a second, then suggested that we could buy a needle the next time we go to the store. I thought that was a good idea, and told him so. (In fact, I was planning on buying a package of needles anyway so that we can do a corn-stringing craft.) So I suspect we'll be doing J's floating compass project at some point in the coming days. He also told me yesterday that he'd really like to learn how to play golf outside. (He puts around the house with a plastic golf ball and putter.) So that's something else to look into in the future.

Meanwhile, Zoo Boy reminds me daily that he does not yet have a guinea pig. So far, the local pet shop has NOT had guinea pigs when we've stopped by to buy bird food, but my luck can only hold out so long, as Zoo Boy is also reminding the pet shop owner of his lack of guinea pigs, and the owner has assure Zoo Boy that he WILL have guinea pigs at some point. Zoo Boy suggested that we go to a DIFFERENT pet shop to buy a guinea pig, but I told him no, we want to support our local pet shop guy, because he's a nice man who takes very good care of his animals, and we want our guinea pig to be healthy and clean. So far he's buying it. And I told the pet shop guy NOT to hurry getting in a new batch of guinea pigs. He told me that maybe I'd do better just to hope he doesn't get in a Bearded Dragon before he gets in a batch of guinea pigs. Good point.