Second to Last Day Subbing

Last full day of subbing and second to last day subbing this year. Hard to believe we're halfway through May! 

I was in 1-2nd grade today. They too have a jam-packed schedule with different classes every 30min or so. Whew! This class had finished some of their textbooks already, so we did a bunch of review things and educational games instead of traditional lessons. 

Two extra fun things today: I got to be a mystery reader in kindergarten. I brought my class with me and read two books, On Account of the Gum and Sneaky Sheep. Both big hits. Mrs. E particularly enjoyed the first book and took a picture so she could find it later. 

That afternoon for science we did STEM challenges with keva blocks. They got 20 blocks only. I let each student (there are six) pick a challenge for them to do: build an animal, build the tallest tower, build the shortest tower, build a maze, build a piece of furniture, and build the outline of a person (we split into two groups and they combined their blocks). They wanted me to pick a challenge, so I picked "write your name in blocks". 

It was cool to see the differences in how they approached the challenges. Some of them used the blocks to make outlines of shapes, some set blocks on their sides, some set them on top of each other. All very creative.

Their classroom has a few mice that can be 'programmed' to move certain ways. The girls (I forgot to mention, this is a class entirely made of girls) asked to test their mazes with the mice. You press buttons on the mouse's back to say how many spaces forward, side to side, etc. you want it to go. Most of the time the mice made it straight just fine, but when it came time to turn, it was hard to judge the distance correctly and the mice broke most of the walls. 

After school I picked up more t-posts at TSC for our fences and researched gate options for our goat fence. The posts fit in my little red car! While there, I peeked at chick feed (lots of organic options here) and chick prices. The breed we bought were $5.50 a piece! I'm very content with my $1 chicks. 

Chicks

I did a thing today...

Chicks were not in the immediate plans for the homestead, but someone at bible study this morning shared that Americana chicks were $1 at Bomgaars, on sale because they're getting their adult feathers. Ooo! Green egg layers! 

We planned to get a few chickens from my dad a little later this summer, but his green egg layers are old and not producing so much. That coupled with $1? It's a done deal. 

I went down an internet rabbit hole searching for diy chick/duck food. Man, there are a lot of ingredients to source. That's a someday project. So, I decided to look locally, preferably for organic feed. Might be a long shot in Mankato. 

Two places were dead ends. Believe it or not, Bomgaars had some organic, non-medicated, non GMO, etc. chick starter! And of course the chicks. I brought three home and let them chill in their travel box until I got their home set up.

They're in the garage with a heat lamp, not sure if that's necessary in this weather. I'll keep an eye on it. I also put some mesh fencing around the outside to keep the chicks in their pool and Mopsy out of the chick area. I'm not sure how she would react to them, but I don't want her to have an easy snack. 

Here they are, lovin' their new home! Beaks are dipped (sometimes they need help finding water, so you dip their beaks in to give them a taste). We gave them starter feed after supper, dipped their beaks in their food dish, and when we left they were happily chowing down.

Our ducks come next week!

Last Day at Mt. Olive

I feel like a celebrity when I walk through the halls at Mt. Olive. I've taught so many students this year, most recently the younger grades, who particularly light up when they see me in the hallway. They wave, excitedly whisper to their friends, "It's Mrs. H!", and sometimes even give me hugs. It feels a bit excessive honestly. 😆

My last day at Mt Olive this year was in third grade, and we got along just fine. They had a morning very packed with academics. Their teacher actually trusts me to teach English! First sub she's had teach a full-on lesson!

Their interactive whiteboard board was not interactive first thing in the morning. I know enough about this kind of tech to problem solve, so I tried a number of things. I wasn't successful and said kind of to myself that it was a mystery what was wrong. One of the students spoke up and said, "That could be a story! In that book!" 

I wasn't sure what they were talking about. They said, "It's a mystery, so we need to call that guy.  That guy from the read-aloud book you did last week. The detective!" I had no idea they loved the book so much: Smiffy Blue Ace Crime Detective. He came up another time that morning with another mysterious circumstance. Can't remember the specifics. Later that afternoon, the kids requested we continue reading that book instead of their regular read-aloud book. We were able to finish before the end of the day. They wanted more. Unfortunately it's just a one book series. Must not have been popular enough for them to write more. 

The big event of the afternoon was roller skating. A company shipped them a bunch of crates of skates to use for two weeks. This was day two of their PE unit, so most of them remembered what their shoe size was, how to put the roller skates on, and how to actually roller skate. It wasn't as hard to manage as we all thought. I did have to help tie shoes for quite a number of students, but overall it was very smooth. 

Once everyone was taken care of, I put on my own pair of roller skates and enjoyed a half an hour of peacefully gliding around the gym. I haven't roller skated in years, but it came back to me right away. One common theme of conversation from students I passed was how many times they'd fallen down. Most of them said it was fewer times than yesterday! I am pleased to report I did not fall down at all. 😎

After school, G and I went to the Arboretum in Chaska to celebrate Bekhor's due date. The tulips were spectacular!

There was a really great art exhibit from a MN artist. He tried to incorporate pop culture/MN themes in each piece. This one was one both of us particularly enjoyed. 

Breaking Up the Day

I spent the morning at Immanuel reading to the 7-8th graders and the afternoon at Mt. Olive... reading to 5th graders. 

ILS 

I had wanted to finish reading the last 90 pages of the read-aloud I'd started with them the first time I subbed this year. We did it! They were satisfied with the ending and want there to be a movie version. Partway through the morning, someone had the idea to read in the outside classroom. Fantastic! It was my first time out there with a class. 

Some of the boys had gone mushroom hunting over the weekend, so mushrooms were on the brain. Believe it or not, they found about 15 morels! Some were quite big, some were quite dry. The boys have plans to cook them at home. Makes me want to poke around the woods!

Mt. Olive

Pretty simple afternoon. One class had a spelling worksheet; I read aloud stories from Bloopers, Botches, and Blunders: Life's Hall of Shame. The only other 'big' subject was reading. We read from Mr. Lemoncello's Library. One class asked if they could sit under their desks while we read. Sure! The other class asked if we could read outside for class. Sure! 

Fun day, but whew! My voice is tired!

Mother's Day

I've been dreading Mothers Day, more than Bekhor's actual due date. But the day was not as horrible as I thought it would be. Sad, but not horrible. 

My grandparents planted a tree for each grandchild when they were born, and my dad decided to carry on that tradition. He picked out three swamp oaks from G's garden center and we planted them Sunday afternoon. 

Lil and Miri each helped dig the hole for their tree, fill dirt in, and water them. Lil had a blast and got very possessive of her shovel.

When Dad asked Lil what she wanted to name her tree, she said, "Beer" 😂 or maybe it was "Deer". Too windy to tell. Maybe we'll wait to name them until they're older.

Bekhor's tree:

The rest of the afternoon, I scrounged around the farm looking for supplies for my future ducks. They'll hatch in a little over a week! I found most of what I need for them. My walkabout gave me lots of nostalgia of chore time as a kid: the smell of lilacs, walking through puddles, the duck tree...

There's even a duck in it!

Supper saw us at Grandma's house with an aunt and a few cousins. We had a "tea party" with cucumber sandwiches and at least seven varieties of tea! I only got to one unfortunately, but they sent me home with envelopes of the kinds I didn't get to try. We had to leave shortly after supper to go to the hospital to visit Grandpa before visiting hours were over. He seemed in much better spirits than he had been earlier in the week and it was good to see him with more energy. Keep praying for a speedy recovery and regain of strength!

Surprise Strawberries

We found wild strawberries growing north of our lilacs! Some even have flowers and little berries started. I dug some up and transplanted them so the goats don't eat them all. 

While I was at it, I planted some old bare root asparagus that G had brought back from the garden center. The ground back there must hold a lot of moisture because there is moss growing in a nice mat among the grass and dandelions. The shovelfuls stuck together, so I just set them back, settled in my asparagus (see below) and then laid them back down.

As I was digging, a lot of dandelions came up and I threw them off to the side in a pile. As I worked it suddenly occurred to me that some people specifically save dandelion root for herbal remedies. How could I let them go to waste?! 

I bundled them up and now they are in our fridge waiting for me to figure out what to do with them. 😜

New Fence

The goats were traumatized enough by the two tie out sessions, G and I made it a priority to put up more goat pasture. Again, another session of night homesteading after G got home from work. 

We didn't have time to finish the whole thing, but we couldn't leave the goats locked in the shed for a whole day, so we rigged the fence to be upright even though it's not completely attached. You can guess that the goats would try to take advantage of the weak spots in the fence, and you would be right.

Here's their original pasture with the grass eaten down to the nub: 

They like to stay close to their old pasture and gradually eat their way further into the new stuff. They've very much enjoyed browsing among the lilac bushes. I put up some netting fence around the new windbreak we planted so they couldn't eat them all, and they've stayed out of it for the most part, but every once in a while Gerda will stick her head through, get her horns stuck, and try to pull back getting even more tangled. Thankfully I've noticed each time. Today's to-do list is to swap out the fence for some with tinier holes. 

Here are the two weak areas in our fence: 

That little section in the top picture blew over once pretty soon after we had set it up and the goats got out. G noticed them before they caused any damage and we reinforced that area so it won't blow over anymore. 

I got home from school one day and noticed two of the plants we had just planted in our planter by the garage had been pulled out and were lying on the driveway. It looked similar to deer damage, but deer don't come up onto our yard during the day. My goat senses were tingling. 

I checked the front gate and all was secure there. The goats came out of the goat shed to see what I was doing, so obviously they hadn't gotten out, right? Just in case, I walked around the fence to see if there were any places they could have gotten out. Bingo. The whole wooden fence had blown over making a very easy pathway out of the enclosure.

Upon later inspection, I discovered more goat damage to plants. They had eaten a bunch of leaves off my pomegranate bush and the fig tree. Ugh! Guess we better make reinforcing the fence a higher priority...

Goat Tethering

The goats had eaten down most of the grass in their pasture and were getting hungry, so G and I decided to tether them in our front lawn until we could get a fence put up in the backyard. 

This is a bit risky because they haven't been trained to be tied up and we didn't want them to wrap around each other, get tangled, or get hurt. I tried to think through all possible negatives before we tied them out, and I think it went as well as can be expected. 

I bought a 150 lb dog tie out steak and a cable / tether for a dog of similar weight for Ilsa (the mom) and a second set for Gerda (the baby). Before tying them out, I tried to get them used to stepping over a rope by having them wear a sheep halter I found back at the farm from our sheep raising days. It worked quickly. A few hours after I put it on they were already stepping around it or holding their heads so the rope wouldn't be in their travel path. Smart goats! 

I finally quit putting it off and tethered them in the front yard with the help/moral support of my dad (he'd come up to pick up some trees). 

The goats were NOT fans. They really did not like being separated from each other. I actually moved one tether a few feet closer to the other one so they could overlap just a little bit, but not enough to wrap around each other. Still didn't like it. They wouldn't let me come near them without frantically bleating. I guess G continues to be their favorite, haha. 

But they did enjoy eating the new grass. 

I left them alone for a while and kept and eye on them from the house. Gerda would lay down from time to time, which indicates that she was feeling relaxed and not scared.

The second time I tethered them, I tied them out by myself and lured them out with "seven layer salad" aka veggie scraps. It worked better than I expected. I swapped which goat was tied further away and put Gerda down closer by the pond. 

There must be something about that spot that freaks them out, because Gerda was quite frantic and tried really hard to get up to where her mom was tied. Ilsa had done the same thing when she had been tied down there. She would run and try to break her collar, but it would hold and jerk her completely off her feet and onto her back. Cue the frantic bleating. Actually, it broke the first time and I had to put a different one on her. Thankfully I had one in the garage! It was a metal chain halter from the farm, one previously used by our very first goat Easter Lily. That one hasn't broken yet. Gerda's hand braided twine collar still holds strong!

K&3

"Are you rich?" 

Believe it or not, two kindergarteners separately asked me that today. It was all because I wore a necklace (a Christmas present given to me by a student years ago, one he picked out himself) and a shiny bracelet watch bought on clearance from Maurices. That's all it took!

My normal watch is out of commission for the time being; the watchband broke. My alternatives are fancier (and their batteries had been robbed to keep my regular watch afloat), so I save them for special occasions. I had been carrying the watch face in my pocket, but I got sick of that and finally replaced their batteries so I could wear a watch on my wrist. The metallic shine makes it look expensive I guess. 

I must say, kindergarten is not my favorite. Lots of silliness and wiggly bodies today. The teacher I subbed for only teaches kindergarten in the morning; she moves to 3rd grade in the afternoon.

As of today, I've taught every grade level at Mt. Olive except 2nd grade. The 3rd graders have heard about me from brothers and sisters and friends, so they were pumped I was the sub. "You get Mrs. H today? She's awesome!" I overheard a 5th grader say in the hall. One 5th grader saying hi to me at lunch told me her 3rd grade sister has had a countdown going for 11 days. I hope I lived up to expectations. 😆

My afternoon in 3rd grade consisted of religion (David and Goliath), memory work practice/quiz, and art. I brought a few read-aloud options with me just in case we had time, so during art I read them a few stories from Smiffy Blue: Ace Crime Detective. Pretty sure my character voices lived up to the hype. 

Mrs. M had some teacher appreciation gifts for me from students. Earlier in the year the principal had had me fill out a favorites survey. Today I got: a box of goldfish crackers, cookie m&ms (must not have had any pretzel-filled ones), dried apples, Pringles, and a couple of very sweet notes (one from the mom and one from the student).

Make Your Own Calcium

What do you do with a whole bucket of egg shells? The Internet says to turn it into calcium for your garden (specifically tomatoes) and for your chickens as an oyster shell substitute. I bet I could even sprinkle some on Joe's lettuce! 

I thought it would be a lot more work than it actually was. 

First, I collected eggshells in an ice cream pail until I had plenty to work with. Some sources said it was important to bake the eggshells to kill any salmonella that might be on them, and I decided to try that method. So I baked the eggshells at 400° for 10 minutes. That's what all that golden brown coloring is on the shells in the bucket, baked egg whites.

Once they were baked, they sat in the ice cream pail for quite a while because I wasn't sure if I wanted to just crush them up or try to pulverize them. Eventually I decided to do the pulverizing method. We have a spice and nut grinder that I bought for G to grind his coffee beans. He doesn't use it much so I don't think he'll mind that I borrowed it. 😉 

Pulverizing sounded messy and loud and hard on the equipment, which is why I was hesitant in the first place, but it wasn't too bad on all of the above. It didn't take long to grind up the entire batch of egg shells. The only downside of pulverizing was the very fine dust that flew up whenever I took the lid off after grinding, but that's easy enough to clean up.

And here's the end result! 

Further Adventures in Sourdough- Naan and Hot Pockets

My brother-in-law enjoys using chatgpt to find recipes. One day, we decided to see how the artificial intelligence would handle "sourdough discard recipes". It provided a whole list, most of which I knew already. Somehow, I thought he said naan as an option. It wasn't, but we looked it up anyway. Here's what it came up with: 

Using sourdough discard in naan is a fantastic idea! Here's a simple recipe for sourdough discard naan:

Ingredients:

- 1 cup sourdough discard

- 2 cups all-purpose flour

- 1 teaspoon sugar

- 1 teaspoon salt

- 1/2 cup warm water

- 2 tablespoons melted butter or ghee

- Optional: chopped garlic, chopped cilantro, or nigella seeds for topping

Instructions:

1. In a mixing bowl, combine the sourdough discard, flour, sugar, and salt.

2. Gradually add the warm water, mixing until a soft dough forms.

3. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for about 5 minutes until smooth.

4. Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover with a damp cloth, and let it rest in a warm place for 1-2 hours, or until it doubles in size.

5. Once the dough has risen, divide it into 6-8 equal portions and roll each portion into a ball.

6. Heat a skillet or griddle over medium-high heat.

7. Roll out each dough ball into a thin circle or oval shape.

8. Place the rolled-out dough onto the hot skillet or griddle and cook for 1-2 minutes on each side, until golden brown and puffy.

9. Brush each cooked naan with melted butter or ghee, and sprinkle with any optional toppings if desired.

10. Serve warm and enjoy your homemade sourdough discard naan!

Feel free to customize your naan by adding garlic, herbs, or seeds to the dough before cooking.

So... We made it! My sourdough discard was verrrrry old, so the naan didn't puff up much while cooking. Still, it had good char and good flavor. I would try it again!

My next adventure was making a sourdough pizza crust to use as the outer dough for a meal inspired by a runza/calzone recipe my mom liked to make when I was growing up. What I made is nothing like her's. 😅 I had leftovers/wrinkly potatoes to use up and wanted something G could grab and go for lunch during this busy week at the garden center.

What I came up with... Sourdough pizza crust on the outside and filling option one- shredded pork, shredded potatoes, shredded carrots; filling option two- sloppy joe meat, spinach, shredded potatoes, and cheese. 

The recipe involved using some active yeast to get a better rise. Here's the dough ready to rise. 

I forgot to take a picture after the rise before I rolled out the dough, but it definitely doubled in size! 

They turned a beautiful golden brown and tasted pretty good too! 

1st Grade

The student teacher is still with this class, but she's teaching fewer of the subjects, so I got to teach a little more: religion, one math class, music, and handwriting.

All went well. Music was actually my favorite class to teach. They have an online curriculum with short videos of songs to learn/rhythm games/music games to play. So I just had to click buttons and lead them. Catchy songs. Fun game.

Handwriting- Since it's the beginning of the month, they're doing some "see how much I've improved" handwriting exercises. One is an alphabet race. They have two minutes to write the alphabet, both upper and lowercase letters. If they finish before the timer, they do it again and see how many times they can write the alphabet. Then they wrote their full name on a paper. Most of the papers I saw didn't have too much variance in the handwriting (or some looked a little messier!).

They had an English test. A few of them asked for an 'office', a cardboard trifold that sets on top of their desk to block others' views and keeps their attention focused on their own papers. Such a cute way to phrase it!

It's teacher appreciation week at Mt. Olive. The school is decorated with road-signs and traveling themed displays. Each teacher has a suitcase sitting open outside his/her classroom door. Parents and others can bring in treats and gifts and favorite things for them. Another cute idea!

Other fun things today... someone brought donuts for the staff (which I was invited to partake as well) and a parent monitored lunch, so I was able to eat lunch in the classroom with the student teacher and have some adult conversation.

A grandma came in as a mystery reader and read a book to the class. She hung out with us the rest of the day and helped when the kids needed help. Our last activity was making David and Goliath bags, basically a foam purse to hold foam stones. They had to use yarn to sew the bags together. I had the idea to put tape on the end of the yarn to help it go through the tiny holes. That was the best idea I've had all day! Way smoother execution. The kids loved the bags and some wore them the rest of the day. The only downside are all the little blue foam dots littering the floor...

Kindergarten Day 3

ABC time today we were studying the difference between long vowels and short vowels, specifically how adding an e on the end of a word causes it to be a long vowel. The kindergarteners called it a "sneaky e". Their homework was a worksheet with a bunch of pictures on it. They were supposed to write the name of the picture (tag, name, vase, cat, bat, map, cape, etc.) and decide if there should be an e at the end of the word. 

Most of the class finished lickety-split, but one boy completely shut down after doing just one. He said it was too tricky and he didn't know how to do it. I tried everything I could think of to help him/get him started. Nothing worked, just tears and whining and shoving the paper away. 

I realized that I don't have much experience with kids refusing to do work. If 5-6th graders don't want to do something, they will sit there and pretend to do it. It's pretty rare for them to obstinately defy you. 

So, what did I do? 

First, I gave him the choice: you can do it now and then play at recess time, or you can sit here now and work on it at recess. He didn't know how to handle that, but he was NOT happy he would have to work on it during recess. Again, constant tears for the rest of class time until recess. Wailing as I grabbed a clipboard and a pencil for him and led the rest of the class outside. I gave him two choices of where to sit. He didn't choose any, so I picked the picnic table. 

For a while we both sat there, him crying, me trying to get him to work. Then I remembered a piece of advice from my Daily 5 curriculum. If kids are reluctant to do a task, 90% will do what they're supposed to after about 20 minutes of wasting time (could be less, but 20min is typically the max). Recess was thirty minutes long. So, I told him I was going to check on the other kids. Maybe 8-10 minutes later he turned around and got to work. He was finished with the worksheet with 12 minutes of recess to play! Woo! 

The rest of the day was simple. We finished our reading lesson after recess, watched a short video telling the story of Alice in Wonderland, ate lunch, and then got on the bus to go to the MLC play in New Ulm. 

They did a version of Alice in Wonderland. The costumes and the set were really neat, as always. The kids really enjoyed the play even though we were in the tip top seats in the auditorium. We made it back to school just a little past 2:30, just ahead of the New Ulm bus. 

Now all the kids have been picked up, the classroom is tidy, and I'm ready to head for home! The weather is gorgeous, so I think I'll do some outside work before supper. I have firewood to move in preparation for our new goat shed...

Kindergarten Day 2

Tears. Lots of tears today. None from me! Lots of emotions from the kindergarteners. 

Rain= indoor recess. Not enough cool toys to go around= tears. Not enough space and/or not paying attention to where other kids are= bumps, stomps, crashes= tears. Toy from home lost in the classroom= mega tears. Someone else took the comfy chair for reading time= tears. Got stuck with a partner he didn't want to be with= tears. 

There is a reason I chose older grades to teach. Whew! All these little people's emotions are exhausting! For me and them. 

Even with the big emotions, we accomplished Mrs. E's lesson plans. Today was Mm- Minute to Win it Day. They rotated among four stations. How many... chains can you link, cups can you stack, blocks can you stack, cubes can you connect... in one minute? They loved it. But some got frustrated *ahem*tears*ahem* when they didn't build a _fill in the blank_ as big as another group.

No butterflies hatched today. Hopefully tomorrow!

One more day! And tomorrow will be pretty easy, mostly wrapping up lessons we started today and then we're going to a play at MLC in the afternoon!

Homestead Update

Birthday card from our cat, Mopsy (assisted by my father-in-law 😂): 

Homestead updates: things are poking up out of the ground! I thought my asparagus died overwinter, but it's alive! All four stands!

Our psychological deer fence. If you look carefully, you can see our planted seedlings among the grass in the garden.

Onions coming up!

Kindergarten Day 1

It has been quite the day in kindergarten, going to the complete opposite end of the spectrum of students!

Mrs. E is going on the class trip with the 7th and 8th graders, so I am subbing for her the rest of the week. She had things laid out pretty well, but their attention spans are so short, there are lots of small segments of classes. Also they need a lot of help with things and there is not much independent work. 

Our themes of the week are tigers and butterflies. All the reading and writing lessons are about tigers. The class has a bunch of butterfly chrysalises that might hatch this week! So far, nothing yet. 

The 1-2nd graders are hatching ducks in an incubator. Four have already hatched and are ready for holding. The kids are pumped! One kid almost missed the bus because he wanted to see them before he went home. 

Speaking of ducks, I ordered three varieties of ducks for G and me to have at our homestead. He wants egg layers, so we are getting Khaki Campbells. There's a minimum order amount of 15 ducklings, so we're also getting Cayugas and Blue Swedish varieties, five of each kind. There's not enough room for 15 ducks on our place, so Dad will take all the extras. They are scheduled to hatch on May 20th and arrive within 48 hours!

7-8

Tuesday I was the 7-8th grade teacher at Immanuel. This class is a tough one, so I wasn't super looking forward to the day. I remembered I had been reading a book aloud with them that I hadn't finished. It hadn't been published yet when I first read to them, and it had been so long that the electronic file expired. Thankfully it is published now! G picked up a copy for me on his way home from work the day before. 

The day went very well. Everyone was respectful and quiet and riveted to the story. Before school one of the girls said the three 7th grade boys had been really excited for me to read aloud to them. The 1-2nd grade teacher said on the way to school her son (one of those 7th graders, one who gave me a run for my money last year) had said how much he was looking forward to having me teach their class and then, "Man, we really gotta get Miss H back next year." 

We read about 100 pages! Only 95 to go in the book. I think I'll come in a few days before the end of the year to finish reading the book.

Another funny moment from the day: the kids are working on their musical parts. One of the girls (a girl who gives a lot of attitude to everyone) is supposed to roll her eyes on one of her lines. She quite seriously told Mrs. L she didn't know how! A classmate said, "Just give a side eye instead."