Homeschool Field Trip

We went on a field trip to Historic St. Mary's City yesterday. It was windy and cold, but it was a lot of fun. I was surprised at how much they had for people to do and see.

We started in the Indian village, where we learned about how the Indians that met the Maryland colonists lived. Below are some of the kids using a rock to make tools from rocks and bones. Tyler was grossed out by the guy who was scraping meat off a deer hide to make clothing, but he gets grossed out by a lot of things.

We moved on to the Town Center, where we met colonists dyeing wool and operating their shops.

We learned how to use a seventeeth century printing press.

We also were drilled as Maryland's early militia, and got to see the firing of a musket. Everybody thought it was pretty loud. Connor could not believe that the colonists could perform the seventeen steps of loading and firing this gun, not once, but three times in one minute.

Then we moved on to the boat that brought them here, the Dove. Everyone loved this part. This was the only part of the day we were glad is was windy because you could really feel the boat rocking.








While Kenzie and Bekah fit in the bunks just fine, I can't imagine how grown men slept there, nevermind all the passengers, who had to sleep on floor of the hold.










Finally, it was off to the tobacco plantation where we ground up corn to make flour, made some corn bread, planted some beans, worked in the field, and fed the cows.

The Duet

Ok, here they are:

Thud!

The sound of Connor's hopes being dashed. But I guess I should say 'Splash'. Connor had his first opportunity, as a certified soccer referee, to ref a Capital Area Soccer tournament. He was going to make $144 for six hours' work. Not bad for a twelve-year-old. I heard him come downstairs this morning, about 7, all dressed in his referee uniform, only for me to tell him the tournament was cancelled due to the rain we had overnight (I had gotten up earlier to check, but fell back to sleep before O told him). DARN! Back upstairs to change out of his ref uniform.

At least now we know he'll get to his piano recital on time this afternoon. He and Kenzie are playing a duet for the first time in public. After all the battles between those two, while trying to learn their ensemble piece, I'm very proud of them for hammering through their "creative differences" and putting together this song. If I can get a good video of it, I'll post it here.

Alex's day is still on schedule. His high school baseball team has a game in Frederick, about 2+ hours from his school. I guess they got less rain than we, since they haven't cancelled the game, and the radar show all the rain has passed. He just got picked up by some friends to go meet the bus, which will be passing by our house on the way to the game in about an hour. Seems kind of pointless, but that's what you get when you go to a school thirty miles away, in the wrong direction.

I still don't know if all the other local games/practices are still on, or not. Tay has baseball at noon. Ty has soccer at 3. Kenzie also has softball at 3, but I don't know when she'll be getting home from piano. It really doesn't matter if she misses some of this softball. It's a rec team. Most of the girls could never play at a level any higher, which is fine, that's why we have rec sports. Kenzie will have fun because she loves the game, at any level. I'll have fun, because all the stresses of travel are not there; and because I, as an assistant coach, can be involved with teaching the kids what little I know about the game. Anyway, I'm thinking the fields, especially infields, will be too soggy for play.

I almost forgot to mention we had an attack this morning. We lost two hens to a fox. We actually saw him, this morning, munching on one of them for breakfast (only got a measly head because I scared it off). Too bad my .357 is too loud to be fired in a neighborhood; I really hate that fox right now. Kenzie and I, out in the mud this morning, tried to fix the holes it dug under the fence, but now that it knows food is so easily available, it won't go away, I'm sure. Kenzie's going to have to be a very diligent shep-, I mean chicken-herd, for a while, making sure her hens are secure inside the coop every night.

Tomorrow, we have another long distance game; this time in Hagerstown. It's a soccer game for Kenzie. She wants to ride with some friends, not her dad, so if I want to go I need to bum a ride with someone else, too. I'm not driving, alone, for a four hour round trip no matter how much I enjoy watching her play. On the other hand, some of my other kids will want to go, so I won't be alone after all.

Rotten Eggs

So much for raising chicks. It didn't work. Next time, I guess we'll use an incubator. The kids did discover that lovely rotten eggs odor when Tyler squeezed one the unhatched eggs. Yuck! At least now, with the days getting longer, we're getting plenty of eggs again.

New Babies Due Soon!

And here's the proud mama, in full brood mode. She's sitting on twelve eggs that, by my calculations, are due to hatch tomorrow. Once we noticed that she was getting very "broody" last month, we decided to try and let her hatch some baby chicks. So far, we've hatched chicks in an incubator, and bought some day-old chicks from a hatchery; but we've never let nature take its course in the hen house, so what the heck. I just hope we don't get too many roosters. I did not enjoy culling the roosters from the flock the last time.

This has gotten Kenzie interested in her chickens again. She was getting a little lax in her attendance to their feeding, watering, etc., but now she's getting things ready for the new additions. Once the chicks hatch, we'll move them to an area of the coop that mama can keep protected from her coop-mates and Nugget (the rooster). She's already gotten very bossy; even Nugget seems afraid of her. I think she'll be a good mother hen.

Big Snow

I can't believe it's March already. I missed a whole month of blogging and didn't even realize it. Too busy; and it's only going to get worse, with Spring activities heading our way. We were forced to slow down a bit over this past weekend, though, with our first snowstorm in six years. We've have tiny snowfalls almost every year, but usually nothing over a few inches at any one time. This one dumped about 8 or 10 inches on us, which was pretty good considering that two days before the storm hit, they were calling for zero accumulation and temperatures around or above freezing. We haven't gotten above freezing for the past four days. This was one of those coastal storms that hits us on the Eastern Shore harder than those on the other side of the Bay. Usually, we don't get this much snow. Schools were all closed on Monday and Tuesday, and opened late today. I let the kids have off 'til today, even though I hate taking snow days when our classroom is just a few steps away. Here's what it looked like this weekend.

Here's what it looked like the last time, in 2003, when had about 18 inches.

Connor Futsal Highlights

He had a ton of highlights from today's game. He kept goal the whole first half; only allowed one goal; went into halftime with his team up by a score of 3-1. They wound up winning 7-6 against a very good, and very tall, SP team. One of the kids had a beard, NO LIE! I shoulda took his picture to prove it. Connor's team is playing in a 13/14 division ( Connor's team is mostly 12 year-olds ), but I didn't expect to see facial hair on any of the players. Anyway, here's a few of Connor's highlights.