Archives January 2021

Posted by Mom on January 11, 2017

We received a book about children and gardening as a gift; and I am so glad we did! The author is a gardener with a passion: inspiring children to enjoy the creativity, beauty and usefulness of gardening. The book has inspired my daughter and I to get our hands dirty.

The book, Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots: Gardening Together with Children by Sharon Lovejoy, begins with an annotated list of the top 20 garden plants for children. It then proceeds to describe nine themed gardens, such as the Snacking and Sipping Garden, the Flowery Maze and the Sunflower House. For each of these gardens, Lovejoy describes the garden’s purpose, lists its plants and how to care for them, presents the garden’s plan and lists activities for children to help them explore their garden. The book ends with some basic tips for planting and tending gardens. Throughout the book is beautiful hand-painted artwork by the author. When I first flipped through the book it was the artwork that drew me in. I found the text to be just as enticing. For a family with an interest in gardening, this book is a gem.

My interest in the book was renewed with the arrival of our first seed catalogue from William Dam Seeds. Despite the fact that our gardens are blanketed with snow, the bright colourful images of the catalogue inspired my imagination to paint serene, colourful garden scenes; it had an almost hypnotic effect on me as I paged through. I’ve since circled plants in the catalogue that Lovejoy lists in her book and that I would like to grow in our gardens. I requested Dad take me on a trip to William Dam’s store as our Valentine’s Day date.

Our youngest daughter shows the keenest interest in gardening. She sits beside me as I flip through the catalogue and circles the flowers she likes best. She was very excited to find one that shares her name. I like to spend this time with her. We share the same interest and it brings us closer to one another. Gardening is therapeutic for the body and mind and having my daughter get excited and dream about floral possibilities is special to me.

I enjoy gardening, especially when I consider some of the benefits of the activity. Here is a quick summary of the benefits of spending time in the dirt with plants:

1. Relieves stress (reduces the level of cortisol, the stress hormone)
2. Builds immunity (direct exposure to dirt and plants boost the immune system)
3. Provides exercise (3 hours of moderate gardening = 1 hour gym workout)
4. Stimulates the brain (daily gardening can reduce risk of dementia)
5. Improves diet (growing veggies makes us more conscious of the food we consume)

Given those benefits, I’m going to be tinkering in the soil for as long as I am able. If I can get my children hooked on gardening too, then I’ll be a happy mom. As for my youngest daughter and I, we’re planning to try the Sunflower House garden this summer. If we succeed, then all of my little ones will see that another benefit of gardening is creating a safe place for imagination and play. 

Happy Gardening!

———–

Harding, A. (2011, July 8). Why Gardening Is Good For Your Health. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/07/08/why.gardening.good/

Jacobs, R. (2014, September 14). 6 Unexpected Health Benefits of Gardening. Retrieved from http://learn.eartheasy.com/2014/09/6-unexpected-health-benefits-of-gardening/

Lovejoy, Sharon, 1999. Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots: Gardening Together with Children. Workman Publishing: New York.

Posted by Mom on December 13, 2016

Ahh… Christmas… Is it not a magical time to be a child? I have fond memories of Christmases past and want to give similar memories to my children. What I remember is not the gifts I received but the emotions of expectation, an atmosphere of restfulness; of a sacred time set apart for the family.

I recently read H. Clay Trumbull’s book, Hints on Child Training (1891), in the months leading up to Christmas. Within the book Trumbull has a chapter on why it is worth the parents’ energies to make Christmas a special time for children. The holiday is a great opportunity to bestow love upon children. I for one don’t want to miss this chance because I’m caught up in the busyness of the season. Upon reading Trumbull, I find myself encouraged to embrace Christmas and once again look forward to the season from a childlike perspective. Trumbull emphasizes that to children, the gifts they receive have a greater or lesser value depending upon the proportion of the giver’s self that is invested in the gift. Therefore, the value increases with the effort parents’ devote to making the atmosphere in which those gifts are received a special, memorable one. Naturally, Christmas is the most important day to children and their anticipation for it is intense. If mom and dad join in the excitement too and give of themselves, the children perceive this and the anticipation ratchets up even more.
“It takes time and work and skill to make the most, for the children, of a Christmas morning; but it pays to do this for the darlings, while they are still children. They will never forget it; and it will be a precious memory to them all their life through.”  (Trumbull, 1890)
Trumbull concludes his chapter with the ultimate reason for putting all that effort into making Christmas a magical time for children: when a person gives himself with his gifts, he is imitating, to a small degree, the love of Christ, who gave Himself to us and who offers the hope of something beyond our understanding that will satisfy our every longing. After reading Trumbull’s words and pondering what that would mean to us, I am excited about December and the family traditions we enjoy. Below is a list describing the traditions at Harrold Country Home that lead up to the big day. Maybe you too enjoy some of these traditions?

Advent calendars – more that just chocolate
We have three calendars to celebrate the advent season, and each one has a daily activity to count down the days to the 25th. Our first is a cloth wall hanging with a heart that the children move from one pocket to the next to countdown the days. The second is a wooden box, built by Dad, with 24 small compartments and a much larger one for the 25th. Within each box the little ones find a Bible verse or two describing the birth of Christ, an object to coincide with the verses, and a clue to the location of chocolates hidden in the house. Within the last compartment they also find the missing baby Jesus for our nativity scene. Our last calendar is a daily dose of audio drama with a Christmas theme from Adventures in Odyssey’s Advent Activity Calendar.

Trimming the Christmas tree and decking the Halls
At some point during the first few days of December we go select a tree. Our top choice is Fraser Fir due to its longevity to retain needles for weeks on end while propped up indoors. Come Saturday, Dad makes a pot of eggnog and we pull out the ornament box. The little ones examine and exclaim over each ornament, recalling it from the previous year, before hanging it upon the tree. I admit, once they go to bed I re-distribute the ornaments so they are not all clumped on the bottom half of the tree. However, the ornaments on the bottom half of the tree never seem to stay where I put them…

The same week as the tree appears the festive decorations also come down from the attic. Again, the little ones unpack the boxes and find homes for these special guests while recalling their memories from past years. We also have some decorations that Grandma and Grandpa passed along to us. These items are special because of all the memories they hold and the smiles they bring to the Grands faces when they see them upon the tree.

All of these colourful ornaments present a great opportunity for Eye Spy.  We also have a glass pickle ornament with the esteemed purpose of been hidden in the tree for someone else to find – this is a German tradition from when I was little.

Christmas storybooks and songs
We also have a collection of books with a Christmas theme that are kept separate from our other books and hold a place of honour in our home for one special month. The little ones recall these stories and describe their favourites before the books appear. We have a few with a jolly man in a red suit, but the majority of our books centre on the nativity story or acts of charity and kindness. Favourites include The Little Crooked Christmas Tree (Michael Cutting), The Legend of the Christmas Tree (Rick Osboure), and On Christmas Eve (Margaret Wise Brown).  

Just as anticipated, if not more so, is the Christmas music. These CDs are stored along with the storybooks awaiting there one-month-of-stardom. The music is primarily carols re-mixed by modern worship artists, such as Chris Tomlin, Third Day and Paul Baloche. The little ones each have their own musical taste and when it’s their turn to pop in the next CD, it’s their go-to favourite that we listen to next. My eldest daughter’s first choice is Josh Groban’s Christmas album, my second daughter prefers Matt Anderson’s album, and my little boy’s pick is Family Christmas by Kidzup (just imagine carols to modern, upbeat tunes with high-pitched voices).

Journey to Bethlehem meal
This is the favourite tradition. On Christmas Eve, we turn out the lights and have a picnic in the candlelight. Our meal consists of foods similar to what Joseph and Mary might have eaten on their way to Bethlehem; some hummus, pitas, olives, and pickled herring (the fish element of the Mediterranean Diet). While munching on dessert (pomegranates), we read the Christmas story from Luke chapter 2. Then the little ones have another annual viewing of the movie The Nativity Story (2006), starring Keisha Castle-Hughes and Oscar Isaac. Then it’s off to bed for the most excited sleep of the year.

Trumbull, H.C. 1891. Hints on Child Training. John D. Wattles, Philadelphia.

Posted by Mom on November 22, 2016

If you want to be a purist when it comes to organic gardening, it will take more than following a few principles surrounding composting and mulching; you need to consider the plants themselves and the seeds from which they came. Here is some information on the seeds that we grow.

First off, gardening is a lot of work. Organic gardening is even more work, but the rewards are sweeter. However, if you want a truly organic garden, you need to populate it with seeds or seedlings that did originate from an organic plant. At Harrold County Home, we plant our vegetable gardens with either seeds purchased from certified organic growers or from seeds we’ve saved ourselves from previous years. This past year we also bought organic herbs.

Purchased Organic Seeds

We purchase our organic seeds from Terra Edibles, an organic seed producer here in Ontario. To be a certified organic seed, the seed must be grown by a certified organic grower; these are growers who do not expose their plants to any chemicals during the growth of the parent plant, harvest of its seeds, or post-harvest processing. We are especially fond of Terra Edibles because they sell primarily heirloom varieties, some of which are hard to find elsewhere.

We like to search out organic and heirloom seeds for our gardens because, well, we enjoy eating the produce, but also because we like to perpetuate seeds with a history. Our ancestors grew these seeds for two main reasons. First, because the plants were so well-suited to the local growing conditions that they could complete their life cycle, thereby leaving seeds for the next generation. Second, these seeds are dependable, and when growing food for a family, you want to save and plant the seeds you can depend on.

The seeds our ancestors grew were also tasty! Unlike conventional agriculture, where seeds are treated and bred to produce an easy-to-grow and easy-to-ship commodity, heirloom varieties taste better and are infinitely fresher. I think the best example of this is the tomato. Typical tomatoes – red, glossy orbs – bought at a grocery store are not picked at their ripest (nor tastiest). Instead, the harvest is timed to ensure the fruits remain aesthetically pleasing upon their arrival at the store. This means harvest occurs before the fruit is fully ripe. If the tomatoes are too green, a shot of ethylene gas will quickly redden their skins to give the appearance of ripeness while keeping the tomatoes firm enough to withstand the rigors of transportation. In contrast, heirloom tomatoes show greater variety in shape, size, and colour than those bright red spheres we’ve come to think of as tomatoes. And all that variety in appearance coincides with a variety in tastes and uses. The heirloom tomatoes that we grow are picked when they are ripe and flavourful and transportation consists of walking from the garden to the back door.

Saved Organic Seeds

Purchasing seeds that are certified organic is a good start. Going forward, you can save seeds from your favourite plants and plant them again the following year. We’ve not been too adventurous with seed saving yet; sticking to the easy-to-save seeds from melons and squashes. We simply lay the seeds out on a paper towel to dry completely. Then fold them up within the paper towel and put the towel into a small paper envelope and file it away in the seed box.

The pumpkin, butternut and acorn squash seeds I saved from last year did sprout and grow this year. Our daughter was also keen to save and plant some seeds from a grocery store cantaloupe (cantaloupe being her favourite fruit). For the learning opportunity, we grew what is definitely not an organic plant. She helped to plant, tend, transplant and tend some more until she was able to pick her very own cantaloupe. The melon was much smaller than its grocery store prodigy, but it definitely looked and tasted like a cantaloupe.

Purchased Organic Seedlings 

Where growing from seed is not an option, or very difficult (i.e., herbs), gardeners can plant certified organic seedlings. My basil seeds did not sprout this year. I was anxious to find some organic basil for our garden. Dad Harrold found some at Sheridan Nurseries and brought them home as a pleasant surprise for me. I like to grow basil next to the tomatoes to repel some of the tomatoes’ insect pests. We also like to eat the basil as pesto, in a fresh tomato salad or with pasta. Needless to say, I really wanted to find some organic basil plants to compensate my seedling failure.

Finding organic seedlings can take more searching out than finding organic seeds. The vast majority of seedlings bought from a nursery, unless labelled organic, are sure to have been treated with some form of synthetic pesticides, fungicides, herbicides or fertilizers. Among these treatments are the neonicotinoids; a persistent insecticide that inhibits the ability of bees and other pollinators to navigate, feed or reproduce and increases their susceptibility to diseases. We do not want to grow such plants in our garden and will forgo planting a vegetable, choosing instead to purchase from a local market, if we cannot find an organic source to plant.

If you are what you eat, then we want to feed our family the freshest, healthiest, and most ecologically viable food. The best way to ensure that is to grow it ourselves.  

Posted by Mom on October 25, 2016

Living where we do, we come in contact with plenty of insects and plenty of learning opportunities. Within our homeschool, we wish to better understand the world around us, and insects, particularly butterflies and moths, give us a glimpse into a very different, miniature world.

Each year we keep a chart of the butterfly species we spot around our yard. We are far from expert entomologists, but we are learning to recognize our local butterflies. Our average number is 18 species; including the Spring Azure, Red Admiral, Monarch and Eastern Comma. These insects do have some interesting names!Around our home we have several different habitats and these attract their different species. Monarch, Red-spotted Purple, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Painted Lady, and Silver-spotted Skipper are all visitors to our flower gardens. In the grassy fields we find Milbert’s Tortoiseshell, Inornate Ringlet, Clouded Sulphur and a variety of the smaller skippers. And in our vegetable garden we see Black Swallowtails and, rather to my chagrin, plenty of Cabbage Whites. We are always excited to see the larger and rarer Giant Swallowtail, Great Fritillary and Common Buckeye when they grace us with their presence.

One year we ordered a Monarch kit from the Cambridge Butterfly Conservatory and reared a handful of Monarchs from caterpillar through to adult butterfly. The little ones enjoyed this so much that we’ve kept the butterfly cage on our front porch each year and raise moth and butterfly caterpillars. 

Last fall we found four Polyphemus Moth cocoons and two Promethea Moth cocoons and put them into our cage. Both of these species of silkworm spend the winter as pupae within the cocoon so we left them all winter on our front porch. Finally, in June, the adults emerged. My little ones looked into the cage each morning to see who they might find fluttering about. The Polyphemus Moths were huge and spanned the width of two 8-year old palms. They were also cooperative and did not take flight immediately but remained on her hands for several minutes for a close-up look. When the Promethea Moths emerged we learned that we had a male and a female. Even though they emerged a day apart, they soon found each other again and proceeded to start the next generation right in our garden.

This summer we discovered the caterpillar of a Cecropia Moth munching on our plum tree. It too went into the cage, along with some plum branches for sustenance. Unlike the other two moth species, we were able to watch this caterpillar anchor itself to a branch and spin its cocoon. It will sit on our porch all winter long and we look forward to seeing its again in June. I find these large silk moths very interesting to observe since the adults are nocturnal and are about their business for only a short time in late spring. Keeping the cocoons in our butterfly cage enables us to study and come to know creatures that are seldom experienced any other way.

And of course, we also raise butterflies in the butterfly cage. In addition to the monarch kit from the Butterfly Conservatory, we also reared in our butterfly cage some Monarch caterpillars we found living on the milkweed in our field. The little ones were excited to find the caterpillars because the previous fall they opened and threw into the wind every milkweed pod they found. I encouraged this dispersal because Monarchs need all the help they can get; their populations are threatened by habitat loss and the butterflies are a Special-at- Risk here in Canada (sararegistry.gc.ca).

The Monarch caterpillars only remain in the chrysalis for 9 to 18 days before emerging, fuelling up on nectar and beginning their marathon migration south to Mexico. So unlike the silk moths, it is easier to keep the little ones engaged in the the Monarch’s life cycle. Although they can’t really grasp the distance the butterfly has to fly, they come to appreciate how delicate the butterfly is and how amazing is its journey.

Another butterfly we’ve reared in our cage is the Black Swallowtail. We find the caterpillars on dill, parsley and carrot plants in our garden and move them into the cage. An interesting feature of these butterflies is their ability to form a uniquely patterned chrysalis to match the object to which they are affixed; grey wood grain to match the greying Red Cedar. Depending on the season, the caterpillars will either emerge as adults within a few weeks or spend the entire winter as pupae within a chrysalis before revealing themselves in May. We’ve hosted both chrysalises in our cage.

My children find insects fascinating and I’m glad we have a butterfly cage. It has given them opportunities to study moths and butterflies up close. When the adults emerge, the girls sketch them in their Nature Notebooks and I read to them some interesting tidbits about the creature they just met. They come away with a deeper knowledge of the insect and a wider appreciation for the magnificence of creation. When they next see a Black Swallowtail caterpillar or a Polyphemus cocoon they will recognize them as familiar friends.

Posted by Mom on October 11, 2016

You can’t live in the country without getting acquainted with bugs. They really do pop up everywhere. And unless you have a sense of humour about it, these invasions can be quite off-putting.

Now some creepy crawlers I can easily live with. And for the record, these creepy crawlers are lumped together and classified as arthropods – organisms with jointed legs. In our home, we leave the jumping spiders alone because the pros outweigh the cons: the spiders give us pest control without the webs. Ants, on the other hand, have to go! As do mosquitos and flies.

This fall I’ve become engaged in a battle, of sorts, with mites, weevils and flies. Not all at the same time, but on three different fronts.

We’ve realized that our poor little backyard flock of chickens live in a coop infested with mites. The mites are nasty little creatures that like to hideout in the woodwork during the day and crawl out at night to feed on the chicken’s blood. I get shivers up my spine whenever I see one. Unfortunately, our coop is made from wood paneling and plywood and once the mites arrive, they are pernicious little beasts and quite difficult to get rid of. They are definitely a small but mighty foe.

These mites are super pests; they are capable of surviving for 34 weeks without food and won’t die in the cold weather, as lice and fleas do. The best defence against these little nasties is, of course, a good offence; and that means keeping the coop clean. We have sand on the floor of our coop and clean-up the mess beneath the roost at least every two days. But as we let our hens free-range, the doorway to the run is open and House Sparrows fly in and help themselves to the chicken’s feed. I’ve found them inside the coop itself and suspect that they introduced the mites.

Now that our coop has been invaded, the battle is on to rid the coop of the mites. Our best weapon is diatomaceous earth. I sprinkled some of this powder all over the horizontal surfaces, on as many vertical surfaces as I could and into all the cracks I could see. I also mixed some into the bedding of the next boxes. The diatomaceous earth works because it is composed of silica, which absorbs the oil and fats from the exoskeleton of the mites while slicing their little bodies. Rather cruel when you think about it, but it’s the mites or my hens. And since I’m the one making the decisions, the war is on!

Another front on the arthropod battle, and one that I’ve been waging for months now, is the Fruit Fly Battle. It has been complicated by three little people who do not realize the importance of properly disposing of snack leftovers. Two little ones in particular are guilty of stashing apple cores wherever is most convenient at the time. And of course, the fruit flies find them long before me. I’ve found cores stuffed in bedroom garbage cans, toy bins and behind shelves.

I have several weapons for my defence. First, I try to keep fruits, veggies, and compost inaccessible to the flies. Second, every few days I make a trap, catch a cluster, and get rid of them. These traps consist of a bit of wine or vinegar at the base of a glass. I make a paper funnel and seal any gaps with tape. The traps always work, but are at their best within the first few hours. Third, I try to squish a fly between my hands by clapping wildly into the air and looking like I’m a few donuts shy of a full dozen. But lately, I’ve gotten desperate and have hung fly tape above some fruity bait – disgusting, yet effective.

The final front in my arthropod battle is with weevils and this came about because of hollyhock seeds. I had saved some seeds from our hollyhocks and was looking to label and put them away until spring. I found little gray weevils crawling about within the container. I started to sort through the seeds and pick out the little insects. The larva had fed on the embryonic seeds, and having matured, burrowed out, hoping to drop to the ground and overwinter in the soil before re-emerging in the spring to lay eggs within the flowers of next year’s plants.

If left unattended, my hollyhock patch will eventually become unable to reproduce since the weevils will destroy the seeds. This battlefront will have to go on hold over the winter and resume again in the spring. At that time I have three options at my disposal; handpicking, spraying insecticidal soap, and removing seed pods. I envision some of these tedious tasks being a chance for my little ones to earn some extra money. The more help in the arthropod wars the better!

Posted by Grandma on September 27, 2016

The entire family was gathered at my eldest son’s house. All the adults were in the kitchen helping in one phase or another of after supper clean up. There were dishes to be taken care of and the all important, who wants what leftover to take home. Empty and full containers were being passed about as the fridge opened and closed. This was all part of one of our family gatherings. As I’m sure it is in many other homes.

When my eldest granddaughter slipped into the kitchen and told me that her foot was asleep and wouldn’t wake up I said, “here sit down. Grandma knows just what to do.” She sat down on one of the chairs. I gently picked up the sleeping foot and leaned in close. I fully intended to kiss it but instead something made me yell. “WAKE UP!” Well everyone in the kitchen immediately stopped what they were doing. Some jumped, others dropped whatever and I’m pretty sure pants were almost wet. But my granddaughter laughed a belly busting laugh and tore out of the room foot now fully awake.

After explaining why I yelled the adults were not mollified. Even less so when my son had to go into the other room and halt the rousing game of Wake Up! my granddaughter had started. She didn’t explain anything, just ran up to her cousin and yelled “Wake up!” who in turn ran to another cousin. Next thing you knew seven little ones were all running around yelling: “Wake up!”

Well, I tell you. The looks I got. The one who started it all is the one to blame. But you know what? Some nights when going to sleep I remember and still get a chuckle.

Posted by Mom on September 23, 2016

Good books inspire a person to higher living and deserves a place of honour within a home. While many of these edifying books were penned over a century ago and are referred to as Classical Literature, their value in moulding a person’s character remains steadfast.

Sadly, I missed out on many classics during my formative early years. It was only while working to amass a growing collection of literature for my children that I came to realize what I had missed. Through my own ignorance, and that of the education system in which I was placed, I was missing out on some of the best elements of western culture. If I wanted my children to read and enjoy the literary classics, I needed to crack open some of these tomes and make up for lost time.

My first memory of exposure to classic literature was A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was a gift from my aunt that I remember starting but never finishing because I did not find the story interesting enough to continue reading. If you are familiar with the story, I think I stopped a few chapters in, somewhere through the explanation of Sara’s life as a student at Miss Minchin’s Select Seminary.

Looking back, I probably stopped because I was not used to reading or listening to children’s literature. If my parents read classic literature to me, I would have had an appetite for the stories – my mind would have been awakened by the ideas of courage, perseverance and adventure that so many of these stories contain. I would have known how inspiring Living Books truly were and would have acquired a taste for finer literature. Don’t misunderstand, my parent’s did read to me – my mom read a lot! But being the eldest of four, I soon outgrew the storybooks that appealed to my younger siblings. A love of listening to stories had kindled my desire to read for myself, and inspired my adolescent self to find my own reading material. At that point in time, my taste for literature was already on its way to refinement; I did not choose to read sensational books, but rather historical fiction, and specifically, christian historical fiction.

Now that I am reading children’s literature with my daughters, I am finally discovering stories and characters I had only a vague awareness of, if at all. And taking the advice of other Charlotte Mason educators, I am reading the original, unabridged stories. Yes, the stories are longer and full of big words and some out-of-date language, but by reading the books as they were intended to be read, the nuances of the characters tell much fuller and richer stories than you would find in the simplified, abridged versions

The classics are full or moral lessons and case studies of human nature. By spending the time with a book’s characters; by following along with them as they struggle with moral issues within themselves; by observing these characters’ interaction with others; and by seeing the whole of the story and the consequences of these same characters’ choices, we have models to either emulate or abhor. Such material is invaluable for teaching children.

I am holding to Miss Mason’s claim that by giving children an atmosphere filled with the best in artwork, music, and literature, the children will develop a taste for quality and an appreciation for the beauty of true artistic, musical, or literary genius. To this end, we are working to fill our home library with literary classics. I plan to enjoy most of these books myself before I pass them onto my children. Here is list of some of the titles I have recently had the joy of discovering:

Treasure Island (Robert Louis Stevenson)
Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
Emma (Jane Austen)
Mansfield Park (Jane Austen)
Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
Little Men (Louisa May Alcott)
Lorna Doone (R.D. Blackmore)
Hard Times (Charles Dickens)
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

… and some of the titles I enjoyed reading with my daughters include:

Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
Robin Hood (Howard Pyle)
The Princess and the Goblins (George MacDonald)
Little Duke (Charlotte Mary Yonge)
Understood Betsy (Dorothy Canfield Fisher)
Heidi (Johanna Spyri)
The Wind in the Willows (Kenneth Grahame)
Black Beauty (Anna Sewell)
The Little House series (Laura Ingalls Wilder)
Chronicles of Narnia (C.S. Lewis)
Pinocchio (Carlo Collodi)
Peter Pan (J.M. Barrie)

To the home educator classic literature is a priceless resource to impart lessons that are best learnt through (another’s) experience. To me, the reading of classics is an advancement in cultural refinement and personal wisdom. The classics really are that – classic! They deserve to be treasured possessions in our home.

Posted by Grandma on September 12, 2016

The grandchildren have a little battery-operated John Deere Gator. This truck has been a thing of joy for the children. They have raced around the barn, crashed into brick walls and taken down a garden gate. But it seems this little truck is as strong as its namesake. The problem we have now is that the oldest child has outgrown it. She can no longer squeeze her length into the seat and reach the pedals. It was a sad day for her until she discovered that she now reached the pedals of our golf cart. Well, forget the Gator, which only held two anyway, the golf cart held three easily and more since dad had built a wooden bench on the back. All three children would zip around the farm with at least one adult yelling at her to slow down. She became pretty adept at keeping it slow, when she knew we were watching but like all kids, let loose whenever she could.

One day I was at my kitchen sink, which is on the back side of the property, where no one could see. I happened to look out my window and there, at the speed of light, goes the golf cart. The children’s noses were up in the air, their cheeks pulled back by the G force. I saw a red hat bouncing up and down race past in a blur. I could also see an accident about to happen. I raced outside where I stopped her and told her she was going too fast. To her credit she didn’t deny it, just asked. ‘How do you know?’ I answered her truthfully and said what all grandmothers have said: ‘Grandma knows everything.’

Posted by Mom on August 30, 2016

Here at our country home we have two garden areas where we grow our organic vegetables; one is a group of four raised beds and the other is a pair of ground plots.

I grew up with gardeners; my parents had a garden plot where they grew fresh vegetables for their family of 6. My dream was to one day own enough land to also grow vegetables for my family. When Dad and I took ownership of our first inner-city home, I tried to grow some vegetables and herbs in containers, but didn’t grow much beyond a few cherry tomatoes and some mint leaves. To compensate for our lack of home-grown harvest, we joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) food co-op and enjoyed fresh, local produce from June to October. We enjoyed eating our CSA-grown food for three years before moving to our country home and having an opportunity to see just how green our own thumbs really were.

We took up residence in November and through that first winter Dad and I were scheming about vegetable gardens. Our visions kept circling back to raised garden beds. In the end, we built four raised beds using lumber from the Western Red Cedar. This wood is naturally resistant to decay and does not require chemical treatments that could leach into our garden soil, and later, into our food.

Each raised bed is a rectangle 18 feet long, five feet wide and two feet tall. Before we filled the beds with soil, we lined the insides with landscape fabric and tossed in some logs, branches and leaves that would slowly decompose and replenish the soil over time. This organic matter also reduced the amount of topsoil for delivery. We oriented the beds east to west, giving the full 18 feet direct sunlight from dawn until mid afternoon. On the western end of each bed we erected a trellis to reduce the effect of the prevailing winds that blow in from the neighbouring field.

Within the raised beds we grow root crops and crops that are favoured by rabbits and groundhogs (i.e., peas, beans, lettuces, and cabbages) or that need to be supported (i.e., peas and tomatoes). I found that planting the veggies across the beds in five foot rows is easier to weed than rows running the 18 foot length. I can simply push a hoe away from me and then pull it back toward me and I don’t have to perform any contortions.

We’re now in the fourth year of using our raised beds and they are working very well for us. Just this spring we ordered four yards of triple mix soil to top them up; those leaves and branches are decomposing and nourishing the soil, but their decomposition is also slowly lowering the soil surface. We also placed a fence around the beds to demarcate them from the surrounding lawn and to protect the seeds and tender transplants during the early growing season from our free-ranging chickens.

Our second location for growing vegetables is a rectangular plot tilled up in an old hay field. For over a decade the field produced hay, but when our renters determined the hay-worthy plants were being out-competed, they planned to switch to growing corn and soy. We did not want to have those crops growing so close to our home and, having read a little about permaculture, wished to make use of the rich soil beneath the old hay field rather than having it disturbed annually by tilling. We re-claimed two acres of the field and, while pondering how to use these two acres, rototilled two rectangular plots. One plot is devoted to perennial crops, such as asparagus, rhubarb, garlic and strawberries. In the other we grow crops that either need plenty of space or are unappetizing to rabbits and groundhogs; these include potatoes, pumpkins, summer and winter squashes, and melons.

The challenge with the field plots are the grasses and weeds that sprout from all the seeds trapped in the soil that we’ve exposed by our rototilling. The little ones and I have spent a few sessions hoeing and pulling weeds but these times just make the harvest taste all the better. So far, we’ve enjoyed eating the zucchinis, watermelons, cantaloupes, potatoes and strawberries while watching in anticipation while our pumpkins and butternut and acorn squashes continue to ripen.

Posted by Mom on August 13, 2016

Grandpa and I went on a vacation this past spring. We were gone seven weeks. During these seven weeks we have a fine example of how unpredictable our spring weather can be. One of our hens died during a heat wave. These chickens are bred to withstand our colder winters but we didn’t know they were extra sensitive to the heat. We do have a cold mist of water spraying just outside the henhouse in the coop but that was not enough. My son said after she died they kept watch for signs of overheating. If their beaks were open and their wings were puffed out they would dunk them in a container of water. That did the trick. So now we have eight.

Here is where we see the unpredictability of our spring weather. A cold front came through just before the heat wave and Henry, a rooster, froze to death. I know I said these guys can take the cold but at night they all roost together in the henhouse to keep warm. Well one night Gordon, the alpha male, decided not to let Henry into the house before the automatic door closed. Henry froze to death. You ask, why two roosters? When we got the chickens they were too young to tell the sex. And it didn’t seem to be a problem until it was. So now we have seven.

We also have Rhode Island Reds. These are all hens as we purchased them when they were old enough to tell what sex they were. Now the white Chanteclers feel territorial and dislike the reds. When we first got them we had to go into the henhouse for several nights and physically put the reds onto the roost with the whites. Now they roost together but the whites still rule the roost.

Okay, so this spring the weather was a bit extreme. Usually when we go on our annual spring vacation it’s rainy with the sun getting warmer. Planting can begin end of April but mainly early May. We miss this part of country living as grandpa and I go to the Gulf of Mexico where we honeymooned forty three years ago. You can read how I feel in what I call ‘my happy place’ in our Poetry Corner.