Tuesday, September 14, 2010

September At The Homestead

For this month, we're spending extra time at the Bradstreet homestead, doing a little homestead caretaking for Alex's parents.

the homestead garden
lots of pole beans
heirloom yellow

bag full of cauliflower
such a Maine man
swiss chard love <3
like stained glass

Basically this means we're harvesting the late summer crops and saying hello to the bees. If we should find upon our arrival that say, the pump in the well has gone kaplooey and there is no running water in the house, then all the better that we have checked in. Eh hem. Barring any similar problems developing, I'm confident the the tomato horn worms will our only major concern. And those are easily fixed with a boot heel or inquisitive unschooler with a jar.

nom nom nom...gross
not a pet, but a specimen
field biologist

Adam and Olivia have been enjoying the biology lab offered by another homeschooling parent, so they were inspired to do some field biology while at the homestead, collecting specimens, sketching and mostly video logging what they could find.

near the bee boxes
animated discussion

We all discovered how easy it was to see things, once we began looking. We found many types of caterpillars, but no woolly bears, which is what the kids were hoping to find, as they are measuring and charting the bands for their lab.

Monarch caterpillar
content caterpillar

Hickory tussock caterpillar
Hickory Tussock caterpillar

Milkweed tussock caterpillar
milkweed tussock caterpillar

common milkweed
milkweed pods

mushrooms
large mushroom
near the stone wall

asters
late summer flowers
purple aster

dogwood
maybe a dogwood? anyone?

and the bees, of course.
active bees

We'll be up again mid-week, perhaps to meet with some people of the well spelunking persuasion. Eh hem. We'll check on the crops (there's so much swiss chard and Alex picked twelve pounds more in grapes and tomatoes, beans, and, and...!) It's a little extra to do (and find space for) but it gets us up there, connecting with the land and the seasons and the fascinating things we share this planet with, so it's all good. That's a lot of swiss chard though, I'm just saying.

a full cart

3 comments:

  1. beautiful photographs, looks like a very magical place. my son (6) would like to pass on a huge WOW to your caterpillars.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That IS a lot of chard! Maybe you can make chard chips with a kale chips recipe. Just cut the juicy stems off.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Beautiful!!
    (And "Hi!" by the way. :) )
    Now I'm having a serious need to get out to the fields and do some searching for myself.

    Let's hope the babes are up for it today, too!

    ReplyDelete

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