Friends are saving their egg cartons for us and we’ve been researching what breed and how many chickens we want to get, on the internet, in library books: And in the field, at Drumlin Farm: I was checking out their state-of-the-art chicken coop as much as I was the chickens (the photo shows only part …
Author Archives: kaat
Riot for Austerity Month 3: An Average Winter Month
Gasoline: 25% After our road trip splurge last month, we did better this month: we used 31.1 gallons between the three of us, which makes for 25% of the US national average, but more than our first month Rioting (19%). The reason was the schedule changes that necessitated DH to take the car into school …
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*We* are The Economy
I had a great discussion with a friend about David Orr’s essay, “Loving Children: a Design Problem“. She concluded that the breakdown of education is one of the many results of an unfettered capitalistic economic system. It sounded like the end of our conversation, because, you know, The Economy: what can I do about that? …
More Squirrel Shenanigans – and the OWLS!
To follow up on yesterday’s Outdoor Hour Challenge on Squirrels, here are some of today’s nature pictures. Squirrels, of course. Even though I dug out the snow around the bird feeder, they are still attempting to get up onto the baffle. The prickly bush approach must have been too painful, and it wasn’t working anyway: …
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Winter Wednesday: Trees and Their Bark
This challenge is really called “Tree Silhouettes,” but as the trees on our property and in our neighborhood are so crowded together, most of them haven’t grown into the typical shapes they would have had, had they been in an open space where they didn’t have to vie for sunlight with others. Except for the …
Outdoor Hour Challenge #45: Squirrels
Outdoor Hour Challenge #45 is Squirrels. We have plenty of them, three at least, all Eastern Gray Squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis). They come out when the sun is bright on the snow. Comstock writes charmingly about squirrels, and she quotes from Thoreau, which I find always makes for captivating reading. They both seem to describe exactly …
Copying Drawing and Writing from a Book
We had another snowstorm today. Preschool was closed. Amie and I sat ,in our PJs, at her table and decided to draw something. She chose her favorite book of animals, an older edition of the Visual Encyclopedia of Animals (DK). I think she likes this book because it is small, but thick and compact with …
Skills – Competence Project: Pottery
A while ago I pledged to learn the great and ancient art of beekeeping. I contacted several bee schools and was about to enroll. Then I realized that it won’t be possible to have a hive this spring or summer, for the simple reason that there are no flowers nearby. We live in a wooded …
Germinating and Growing Seedlings under Lights: Chamber Set-Up
Today we finally had a chance to set up our germination/seedling area in the basement. It’s not fully done yet, but so far we have: One large Gorilla shelf rack – fits 4 standard Jiffy or Burpee seed starting flats perfectly. $87.97 four shop lights (2 sockets each), chain links and S hooks included. 4 …
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Riot Fatigue: I Feel Like I’m Slacking
This is only our third Riot month and I feel like I’m slacking already. I realized this when last week I volunteered to drive Amie and a preschool buddy to their field trip. This was legitimate, I think: the preschool needed volunteers. On the way back – just Amie and I – I decided to …