No School Day 16

Apr 2

April Showers bring up the flowers!

Horticulture- Started the day working on the raspberry patch. Got the pathways laid and some compost in. We have found pathways make of metal last much longer and keep the weeds out better than wood paths. Still need to move a few more plants and put some hay on top. Probably won't get it done before the rain comes. Tree blossoms are beautiful!

Weather- Poured rain, and had some hail. No more outdoor activities today.

Home ec- The great baking began! The girls make 3 loaves of bread and another batch of Scott's famous mint brownies. Only this time Brittney made the mint portion purple instead of green. She wouldn't admit it, but pretty sure she didn't want to use the last of the green food coloring on actual food because then she wouldn't have any left to dye her horse green!

Perhaps she is going to have to make herself a green apron so she doesn't get herself so dirty while baking!

Just in case you are wondering, the mint brownies still taste just as yummy when they are purple.

Apparently the homemade bread was really good too, but I wouldn't know.

No School Day 15

April 1

Horticulture- started the day working in the raspberries again. Still lots of work to do in the garden.

When the gardening was done for the day we went riding.

PE/History- Rode our horses at Wire Road Conservation area. We haven't been there for awhile and WOW what a difference spring makes! The grass is so green and there were beautiful flowering trees to see. Just stunning!

For a little history lesson, The original Wire Road was an important encampment during the Civil War. It was occupied by several thousand Confederate troops before and after the Battle of Wilson's Creek.

A fork of the Cherokee Trail of Tears also passed through this area. A major trail of some sort is thought to have existed on this area since Europeans first traveled in Stone County.

The Crane Creek flows through the bottom the conservation area.

Fun to ride our way through history!

Horticulture- Brittney found more 4 leaf clovers. I just don't know how she does it. She just is walking along in a field of green and says "Oh I found a 4 leaf clover!" Such a lucky girl.

Home ec- Carissa and Scott make Cajun chicken and Parmesan pasta. Yum!

No School Day 14

No school day 14

 

Horticulture-Family History- Time to weed the heirloom raspberry patch. It was way overgrown with weeds. The raspberries have a long family history. They came from my great great grandpa's raspberry patch in Logan Utah, starts moved to my great grandma's house in Utah county, then to my mom's in West Valley and she brought starts to us 13 years ago. Long history of these same berry plants, and they still taste yummy! They don't really love our hot climate here in Missouri so they do struggle but sometimes we get a good crop depending on they year. Most of them died out a couple of years ago when we had a really hot summer so we are kind of starting over. Decided to gather all the live plants and move them to a couple of rows so they could thicken up and be all together, strength in numbers! They struggle when they have to fight the weeds alone spread out in the larger patch where they are now. When they are close together they shade the weeds too and we don't have as much weeding to do. Hmmm sounds like another good lesson there. Long process to remove weeds, trees and transplant. Going to take several days but we got started.

 

Earth Science- In the raspberry moving process Carissa and Brittney learned they could easily dig a well. All you need is a tiny garden shovel, dig a hole and within a couple of minutes you have a hole full of water. If you use a bigger shovel you get more water quicker. They now have knowledge as to why it is so easy for our ground to turn to mud. The water is sitting right there only a couple of inches underground, at least this year.

 

The really wet ground did make it easier to dig out and pull up the week trees that started to grow. 

 

The roots on those trees are HUGE no wonder why they are so hard to get rid of!

 

Scott turned the compost pile so now it is aerated and ready to be spread on the raspberries or the garden.

 

Still more work to do but its a start.

 

Animal Science- We always take time for puppy snuggles.

 

 

No School Day 13

No school day 13

Home ec- Brittney learned how to make Scott's famous mint brownies last night, They are divine! Usually we like to share, but Corona Virus you know. I guess we will have to eat them all.

PE-Music- Cleaned up the yard Carissa and I sang the nursery rhyme 1-2 buckle my show, 3-4 shut the door, 5-6 PICK UP STICKS, 7-8 LAY THEM STRAIGHT. Certainly the song was written to get kids to clean up the sticks in the yard. It is an endless process when you have 30+ trees in the yard.

History- Brittney did learn a valuable life lesson, lock the tack room door on the horse trailer BEFORE driving away...or you end up with broken stuff on the road.

PE2-History-So after that life lesson we rode horses at Wilson's Creek National Battlefield. Glad the trails on our public land are still opened! Since two of our horses lost shoes and one is lame, we borrowed 2 fast horses from Lori, Classy and Babe so we could get our ride before the rain came. Our plan was to go fast, out and back across the battlefield trail to the trail of tears but NOT go across the river as the flood waters are still high. Used my new riding app, we went 6 miles in 90 minutes and that included stopping to switch stirrups between the two kids. And we beat the rain! Got home just as it started.

US Government- on the drive to our ride we continued on with our discussion topic of the problem with the wild horses in the US. Brittney came up with her plan as to how to fix the problem. She decided that all the cattle will be removed from public land since they outnumber the horses 50 to 1. Then the wild horses in the BLM stock yards or ones being rounded up will be given 1 year limit to be in the corrals. After that time if they are not adopted they will be sent to slaughter. But that there should be slaughter facilities in the US only. The meat will go to feet prisoners in jail and anyone on government assistance. But then after researching the laws she realized she is going to have to change a bunch of them since they are so crazy and don't make any sense at all. Like the law that says you can't sell horse meat without a USDA inspection, but there are no USDA horse meat inspectors because there is another law that says it is illegal to pay a USDA inspector to inspect horse meat. Sounds like the US Government right? So perhaps she is going to have to be a politician now.

Going to continue on with the topic since it hits close to home as horse lovers. No easy answer, but keeping 50 million "wild" horses in corrals indefinitely is not a great plan either.