1st Grade

Homestead update first: last night we got most of the deer fence put up and some seedlings planted. It was busy at work, so G got home later than expected. I had tried to get things in place for us (setting the posts where they would be pounded in, bringing out the supplies, etc.), but it still took a while. 

He had the idea to put chicken wire around the bottom 18" of the fence to keep mice out. That's something that will need to be added later since we didn't have any at home. We had trouble with the fencer too; the wire wrapped around the ground sparked every tick of the fencer. So, our fence is up but it is not electrified. 

By the time that wrapped up, it was late and dark. We wanted to capitalize on the rain coming in the next few days, so we strapped on headlamps to plant our veggies: cabbage, celery, brussel sprouts, kohlrabi, kale, romaine lettuce, and carrots. All but the carrots are seedlings. I hope the deer don't try our fence until we finish it!

Penelope's home moved outside. I pulled the dog house out from the goat shed and stuck her fluffy bed inside along with food. She sniffed the food and water and then enjoyed walking around the property. Before we went to bed, we found her curled up on some insulation I had tossed out of the goat fence (it had been between the dog house and the goat shed wall). So much for her fancy house. Maybe the chickens would like it for a nesting box?

School was pretty good. It was a much different day than the 5th graders... The student teacher did all the teaching except religion, so I was able to get a lot of computer work done today, and even some of a book read! I did do some things with the students: I taught religion (Ruth and Boaz), supervised kids in the gym, helped stuck kids with math and English assignments, and tied lots of shoe laces. 

I was impressed with how many procedures were in place for their classroom. Lots of songs to get them from place to place, or rhymes/chants to get them to quiet down/move to their desks/walk quiet in the hall, etc. Even with all of that, the kids had trouble focusing and following instructions. From listening to the student teachers' conversations, it seems like a normal thing for these 1st graders. 

Their day is chunked into many small parts. It seemed to last forever! Maybe that's because there wasn't much for me to do. Or maybe it's because I read the clock wrong and thought there was another hour of the day left. One fun thing from today was that a lot of the 1st graders have siblings in 5th grade. At least six of them! And separate from that, I know parents of another three of them! 

Germination Chamber

SFA put on a germination chamber and succession planting workshop. It was on a farm 30 minutes from Mankato, and I was free, so I went! Only two others besides me attended, so we got a lot of one-on-one time and finished early. Even though most of the information is for gardening on a massive scale, I took a lot of notes and can apply most to our homestead.

This is a seeder for a 128 plug tray. Dan, the farmer giving the talk, made it himself. There are two plexiglass layers with holes that line up perfectly over the plug spaces (bottom is stationary, top is moveable). You move the top layer so the holes aren't lined up, dump your seed on top, shake the tray so a seed goes in the hole, and then move the top layer to line up the holes. The seed drops perfectly into the tray saving tons of time seeding. (He also made a block with tiny pieces of dowels glued on to press holes into the soil in the plugs. Once the seeds are in the holes, he dumps some soil on top and smooths it out with his hand.)

This is the outside of the germination chamber. We got a handout with instructions on how to build one, and it doesn't seem that hard. Get an old fridge or freezer that still works. Buy a temperature timer and a humidity timer. Install them on the outside of the unit. Drill a hole to feed the cords/probe through. 

Inside the chamber, put in two crockpots filled with water. The one with the lid on gets hooked up to the temperature gauge, the one without the lid gets hooked up to the humidity gauge. The gauges turn the crockpots on/off depending what the internal temp is. If it gets too hot, the gauge will turn the fridge on. He has his trays stacked on top of each other in order of which seeds germinate first. So he only needs to check the top tray. Once just one seed 'pops', he moves the tray out to be under grow lights in his shop or to a greenhouse. The rest won't be far behind. Then he watches the next tray.

Here is his growing setup, all materials from Home Depot or Menards.

This is the lettuce washing station. Lettuce goes in the orange buckets, it gets set inside the barrel, he turns on the spin cycle and away it goes!

This is where the lettuce goes to dry afterwards. The table surface is plastic mesh. Three box fans sit in a wooden box to blow air to dry it.

Outside, I saw a nifty way to trellis raspberries. 

Here's his main grow tunnel. The plants on the left have been growing a while and will be ready to harvest at the end of May. The rows on the right have been planted to be ready in June or July. The center is left open for plants to be mature later in the summer (succession planting).

This lettuce is all the same variety and will be ready to harvest this week!

G and I plan to make our deer fence like his. It's called a psychological deer fence because it messes with the deer's minds. The small outer fence is an electric wire 18" off the ground. Behind that about three feet is a taller fence with three electric wires, each 18" apart. The deer can't tell how far they have to jump to clear the second fence, and they don't want their legs to get tangled up, so they leave it alone. Dan said he hasn't had any deer problems with this fence. I hope the same will be true for us!

Back on our homestead, I remembered the pieces of seed potatoes I had 'curing' in the garage. I had read that you cut a seed potato so that two eyes are on each piece. Let them dry for a day or two so they don't rot, then plant. These had sat for a few days and started shriveling up. So, even though it was getting dark, I wanted to plant them. We got most of them in their trench before it got too dark. Then, the moon and the lights on our house were bright enough for us to see what we were doing as we covered them up. Here's G making mounds for them. 

Hopefully they grow!

Taking it Easy on a Half Day

Yesterday, a fly buzzed around the classroom annoying everyone. The students spent the day trying to swat it. One boy (my rapper student), whispered to me that Mrs. M had promised whoever killed the fly a piece of candy... but apparently not many of them had paid attention or heard that announcement, because he and one other boy were the only ones who remembered. He wanted me to keep it a secret so that he'd have a higher chance of getting the candy. Well, it worked. He was the one to kill the fly. He wanted his candy right away, but I told him he'd have to wait for Mrs. M. I wrote her a note on the sub plans. She told me today that she had forgotten she'd made that promise, so it was a good thing she was able to find a piece of candy for him!

My day today was super easy. This morning I caught up on a few items that have been on my to-do list for way too long: hemming a pair of pants for a friend, sewing holes shut on a few beanbags I used with the 5th graders back in February, finishing framing a piece of art to hang in our bedroom, making the guest room beds. 

Since I made all our lunches for the week back on Monday, when it was time to go to school, I shoved my salad in my bag and headed out the door. I arrived just in time to take the 5th graders to lunch. 

Our schedule for the afternoon:

• Devotion
• Spelling worksheet (I did read-aloud while they worked... that choose your own adventure book)
• Silent Reading
• Hymn Quiz
• Reading their class reading book Mr. Lemoncello's Library
• Reading the reading book with Mrs. M's class
• Track and Field Practice
• Dismissal

Track and Field practice was wild... the 5-6th graders all practiced at the same time, which is roughly 60 kids. Mr. Z had stations set up and the students rotated between them depending which events they participate in. It was amazing to watch. A complete hive of activity. Boys' and girls' shotput, discus, sprinting, long distance running, long jump. Most impressive? 5th graders doing hurdles! Most ridiculous? How often I had to open the door for kids to get drinks or go to the bathroom!

Tomorrow I am subbing in 1st grade. I was a little nervous about it, but their teacher came over to me and shared that she has a student teacher, so I will only need to teach religion. The rest of the day will be supervising. She said I could bring things to work on. Maybe I'll bring some craft projects to do...

Back in 5th Grade

It's Mrs. M's original due date today. 

She took the day off and I subbed. It was nice to be back at Mt. Olive, especially on a Wednesday for chapel. The kids were pretty chatty all day (not just my class, seemed like most other classes). They were definitely excited to see me, and excited to hear that I will be back tomorrow afternoon (for Mr. N).

Funny moment from today: I overheard two little girls in the bathroom discussing a club they were starting:
"When do you think we should have it?"
"I don't know."
"Probably a Saturday or Sunday. Well, Saturday is cleaning day, so maybe Sunday. We can play and eat peanut butter sandwiches!"

Even though it's the end of the year with mixed up schedules because of testing/track and field practice/field trips, Mrs. M managed to craft a normal day. We did all the usual things, although we substituted handwriting for morning PE since track and field practice happens three days a week at the end of the day (every day but Wednesday and Friday). 

Her class is reading aloud Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. I read quite a few chapters of that today. I haven't read the book since middle school, and it kind of sucked me in... I might have to pull out my copy at home and finish it...

Mr. N's class didn't have a new read-aloud book, which Mrs. M had mentioned, so I brought a Choose Your Own Adventure book and an Encyclopedia Brown. We did Encyclopedia Brown today and will do the CYOA tomorrow. They had fun trying to guess how Encyclopedia solved the crime.

In homestead news, I purchased supplies to make goat tie-outs, so we can tether our goats to the lawn without a pasture fence. Since they haven't been tethered before, I want to start on a day I can keep an eye on them so they don't get tangled up. Tomorrow might be the day.

There's rain in the forecast for Friday and no more cold weather after Monday, so G and I want to get our garden in to take advantage. However, we need a fence before we expose our seedlings to the wild. Since I'm just teaching a half day tomorrow, our plan is to install the fence in the morning before I have to go in, and then plant after both of us are finished with work for the day. Hopefully the fence won't take super long. It's T posts and electric wire, so I'm optimistic! Although, projects always seem to take longer than anticipated... I guess we'll see!

Sourdough Experiments

It all started from a video recipe my sister sent me... strawberry sourdough cinnamon rolls. G and I had friends staying with us for the weekend, the rolls looked delicious, I have sourdough starter in my fridge... why not make some? 

My starter has been staying alive in the fridge, but it wasn't strong enough to cook with right away. The author of the recipe I wanted to make had other articles on her website with detailed instructions on how to recharge sourdough/check if yours is ready to cook with. I tried two different methods of regrowing mine. One was to make a levain, which is a mix of starter, flour, water, and sugar. And the other was to make a 1:1:1 ratio mix with starter, flour, and water (that ratio can make it grow faster). 

The levain won out, so that's what I used to make the sourdough cinnamon rolls. I used the other starter to make these dinner rolls. The yeast likes 78-80 degrees to rise... Our house is normally between 63-65. One suggestion was to put them in the oven with the oven light on. That worked great! Eventually I needed the oven, so I tested out the next suggestion from the website...

Yes, you are seeing that correctly; it is a heating pad (my sister gave me one for Christmas; the inaugural use!). They also suggested making a 'greenhouse' with a tub. I used a clear one so I could see what was happening without lifting the lid. We had a spare house thermostat, so I stuck that inside to easily see what temp it was. With the heat mat on high, it got in the high 80s! Medium was mid 80s, and low was high 70s. Worked like a charm.

The finished products. Not super light and fluffy, but definitely delicious! I had to tweak the rise times a bit to fit our weekend schedule, so I'm sure they will turn out even better next time!

Belle Plaine

Last night, I got a text message around 9:30pm (from the MLC graduate who was going to be the long-term sub for Mrs. M before we knew she would be back) asking if I was free to sub in a 5-6th grade classroom at Trinity in Belle Plaine. She was subbing somewhere else and the school had exhausted all other options and were desperate. 

My plan had been to spend the day tidying our house to prep for hosting our church small group (like a bible study, but we talk about Pastor's sermon and then pray for each other), but I can do that after school, plus G could tidy before going to work, so, I said yes. 

Thankfully the principal was still awake and responded quickly to my texts. Arrive at school at 7:30, students arrive at 8, school ends at 3:10. Okie dokie. 

It was a very early morning... It's a 50min drive, and I left home at 6:30am to make sure I was on time. When I arrived at 7:20, the door was locked as I had suspected. I found out later the principal had arranged for another teacher to keep an eye out for me at 7:30, but since I was early she wasn't watching. Thankfully a student saw me and let me in. The school isn't very big, so I found the 5-6th grade room fairly quickly. 

No sub plans on the desk. There was a pile of student worksheets for the day, and after further examination of the room I found their assignment board filled out and the order of subjects written on the board. I figured I could teach based off that. I poked around for the teacher's manuals to familiarize myself with their curriculum. 

A few other teachers popped in to say hello. The kindergarten teacher recognized my last name... her son is the 5-6th grade teacher at Risen Savior, the school attached to our church! The principal found me too; he had additional plans with detailed notes for the day from the 5-6th grade teacher. Nice. That definitely made the day smoother. 

The kids have been good today. I made sure to crack down on anything sketchy right away. A few tried to be sneaky with games on their computers during worktime. There were lots of quizzes, worktime on projects, and studying for upcoming tests. I basically only taught catechism and 6th grade math. 

One cool thing this teacher has is an economic system. He has a set aside class for it on Friday. Along with that, he pays his students 'salaries' for doing their class jobs for the week. They can earn 'money' for doing jobs and write checks to him and to other classmates for various things. One girl sold her classmates Oreos for class cash. And if they misbehave or are irresponsible with items, they receive a fine. At the end of the year they can use their remaining money to buy actual stuff. Pretty neat! It definitely helps them learn money usage!

Penelope

Spring is popping up all over the place! I planted a few more bulbs down where Bekhor is buried, along with an arborvitae shrub that survived the pot over the winter (that was from one of G's garden center rejects we'd planned to feed the goat, but they maxed out their coniferous greenery eating, so we let it sit). As I dug, I noticed a few feet away this little guy poking through. 

Last fall, I had planted a bunch of bulbs, not sure if they would grow or survive the deer. This one did! I haven't seen any others yet. I wonder what it will be?

The swans are back. I caught them taking their morning bath. We had a very stormy/rainy day yesterday and they weathered the storm in our pond. Maybe they will stay and make their nests?

The biggest excitement from Monday happened while I cut up seed potatoes in the garage. I turned around and found a cat! Not Mopsy and not Flopsy. She seemed tame, so I tried to pet her. She let me. She was all skin and bones, so G and I put her by our cat food in the goat shed. Mopsy didn't like that, but she was too scared to defend her territory. I decided to name this one Penelope. With the storm coming the next day, we didn't want Mopsy kicked out of her own home, so we made a different shelter for Penelope. See below. 😀

We had food and water for her (both of which she appreciated) and some logs to block the rain. G saw her inside right away in the morning when he left for work, but when I checked in the afternoon, she was nowhere to be found. We haven't seen her since. I hope she comes back, but even if she doesn't, at least we could give her a meal and some water.

The Other 5th Graders

After almost a full week off, I was back at Mt. Olive today, this time in the other 5th grade classroom. It was roughly the same schedule, but also very different routines and flavor to the day. The kids were all super pumped to see me. One girl actually ran down the hall to the classroom when her friends told her I was their sub. In Mrs. M's room, I got a lot of hugs (some from students I didn't expect). 

Mr. N arrived at school the same time I did. I was a bit surprised to see him since he had the day off, but he was only there to print his lesson plans for me and make sure I knew where everything was. Mrs. M stopped by to give me a stack of cards her students made for me. There is some great art on the fronts and some sweet words on the insides. My favorites are below:

The rapper student... His made me laugh out loud.

The card in the top right has one line of text inside. The artist said it took him like three hours to do the front, so I'm guessing that's why. 😆

The art on the left side was just like we did in an art project earlier in the year. 

Look at that shading!

My favorite parts of the day... Reading class, we read a few chapters of their class book, Mr. Lemoncello's Library. Mrs. M's class wanted to have students read the dialogue, so we divvied up parts. I was the narrator. It was actually pretty fun and it helped them recognized who/when people were talking in the story (kind of tricky at times since there are many characters). They're hoping Mr. N will let them continue that next week. 

In Mr. N's room in the afternoon, we finally had time for the read-aloud book I started before I left, Slugfest by Gordon Korman. We read during art and library time, went outside for a brief extra recess (the girls invited me to play four square with them), and then they wanted me to read for the last ten minutes of the day before they got picked up. So we did. We are SO close to finishing! We have 1.5 chapters left! That's less than 20 pages! 

I arranged with Mr. N to let me come in on Monday to finish... I'm on the books to come in for Mrs. M next Tuesday to read that class's read-aloud. I'm hoping I can finish that book Tuesday, but if not, I'll come in Wednesday. 

Holzhueter Eclipse Extravaganza!

In 2017, I convinced my college friend L to go with me to see the total eclipse. We found a campsite in the path of totality down along the border between Nebraska and Iowa. It was cloudy, but we still experienced the darkness, complete calm (it had been a windy day), and utter silence when the moon covered the sun. 

Even with that disappointment, I still loved the experience and made a goal to see another eclipse without clouds. Fast-forward a few years. Eclipse 2024. One again, Emily gets a crazy idea in her head and drags G along with it... 

G was skeptical if the trip would be worth it... 9+ hours of driving one way for less than five minutes of an experience? But, I really wanted to do it so he went along with my scheming. (Isn't he a great husband?)

He couldn't take more than a day off work, so this past Sunday after church we took off for Springfield, Illinois, with the intention to stay there one night, drive about 2.5h further south Monday morning, see the eclipse, drive all the way home. First half of the plan went off without a hitch! The drive didn't even seem that long. We arrived around supper time and poked around the city a bit before ended up at our hotel. 

The rest of the plan was to get up early Monday morning, visit Lincoln's home, and eventually work our way south after checking the radar to make sure we ended up somewhere sunny. G had called a few wineries in the path of totality to see if they would be open. "Yes, we are, and we have a table with your name on it!" one waitress told us. It was on a first-come-first-serve basis, but we figured there would be plenty of places to choose from if one winery was full when we got there.

At the hotel before checking in, we parked behind a car with MN plates. As I waited for G to take care of things, lo and behold, a couple I recognized from Mankato came out to the van in front of us. They are members at Good Shepherd in North Mankato and actually had their kids play basketball at Immanuel for a few years back in the day. Small world! 

Monday morning we made it down to breakfast around 7am. Lots of people, all of them talking about going south to watch the eclipse. We got nervous about getting a spot, so we decided to forego Lincoln's home. It's a good thing we left when we did because traffic got heavy the further south we went. I'm not sure we would've made it to our destination in time if we hadn't left when we did!

We ended up at a peaceful little winery out in the country near Clarksdale, Illinois. Very idyllic and hardly a cloud in sight.

After a bit of scrounging, we found a picnic table we shared with a couple from Iowa City (Maggie and Greg). We joked that we'd check in with each other at the next eclipse in 2044... but we actually did get their phone numbers/emails. 😆

It took about 45min or so for the moon to work its way in front of the sun. I tried to take a picture of it with my phone with my eclipse glasses in front. It kind of worked. You can see a bite taken out of the sun in the picture below.

It slowly got darker and darker the more the moon covered the sun. 

It even looked a bit like sunset.

G took the pictures below with his phone during totality. The moon was completely covering the sun! You can only see a little bit of that in the picture. 

It got very cold. Before the eclipse, it had been 75 degrees and I was in short-sleeves, shorts, and flip-flops. During totality, I wrapped up in the car blanket. Like the other eclipse, the wind died down. The birds didn't quit chirping though.

The total eclipse/totality lasted 4min 9sec where we were. It was beautiful. And worth the drive. Even G agrees.

 The next total eclipse is March 30th, 2033, in Alaska. The next one after that is in 2044 and will be visible in the Dakotas. Road trip anyone? 

Homestead Updates

The weather is glorious. 70 degrees and sunny. That makes me antsy to get some work done outside! 

We have a goat pasture blend on order for the backyard. I found a few bags of grass seed in the garage, given to me last fall by a friend, intended for the Nicollet house, but I never got around to seeding it. So, the Mankato house gets it! I broadcast the seed by hand around the front yard since we're not sure if we'll turn that section into a permanent pasture. It might as well get seeded with a heartier grass so if we do a temporary pasture, the goats will have something more to eat than flimsy lawn grass. I found a few seed packets of a wildflower mix, a butterfly mix, and a pollinator mix, so I spread those around too. No clue if any of them will take. Time will tell! 

Other updates:

Two pairs of swans will land in our pond every once in a while. One pair was back! Can you spot them in the picture?

Our rhubarb has unfurled quite a bit. No other progress in the garden. My big task today is to put up portable fencing around the garden so that if/when things do emerge, the deer won't eat them.

The goats are happy. The grass in their pen hasn't greened up much, but they keep browsing. We want them to eat everything down to the nub so that when we do seed the pasture, it won't have as much competition from the existing grass. Last night we decided we want a permanent fence around our second paddock in the backyard. That will give us more freedom (and less worry about them getting out). Other pasture plans are to add two natural ponds, one in each pasture, for our future ducks. I want the weather to warm up some more before we add to our menagerie, so no new animals on deck for now.

Mopsy, our adopted stray kitten, is doing great. We caught her up in a tree one morning, surveying the backyard. She stalks bugs and plays with Gerda (the baby goat). Yesterday, a bird smashed into one of our windows and died. G and I found it on the ground and gave it to Mopsy to see what she'd do with it. She played with it for a while and then ate it. She'll be a hunter before we know it!

Mystery Plant

 Can you guess what this is?

Here's a hint: G and I walked through our pre-planted garden to see if anything had come up yet and discovered this. My shoe in the corner for a reference. 😅

We had seen animal tracks around the area, so at first I thought it was animal. But no. Rhubarb! I hadn't ever seen it coming up so tiny! 

For the record, this is something I had put there, not a volunteer. G's mom originally planted it on the side of the garage when she moved in. It was too shady there, so this fall I transplanted it to this patch of bare dirt. It had already gone dormant when I moved it, and I don't have much experience with moving existing plants, so I wasn't sure how well it would come up. So far so good!

The only other thing we detected in our garden were two little lines of garlic emerging, another experiment planted this fall. I had brought two garlic heads back from a garlic festival in Oregon (while on my annual summer vacation with my college friend L). They sat in a paper bag in my Nicollet house from early August through November, sometime in there getting moved to Mankato and hung in the closet under the stairs. Eventually I remembered them, probably mid-November. The heads weren't looking too good, all shriveled and dry, but there was enough life there that I decided to plant them anyway. 

After supper tonight G and I added two trees to our orchard: Honeycrisp apple to the west and Reliance peach to the east. We also decided to move a non-fruit tree we planted last summer from the side of the driveway to the side yard (to replace a dead tree also planted last summer). This will leave room for 2-3 more fruit trees along that side of the driveway. An apricot tree is our top choice. What else should we plant?