Snowy Fun in the sunny South!

This is a view I don't often see out my window...On the rare occasions we do get snow here, it tends to be mostly ice, so it's not very fun to play in. Yesterday, however, we had a nice fluffy snow -- about five inches, which is the most Kathryn has ever seen, and maybe Lindsey, too! Lindsey attempted to build a snowman in the backyard, but Lacy is a crazy snowman-killing dog, so that proved impossible.
The front yard, beyond the reach of Lacy's snowman-demolishing paws, proved to be a better place to build a snowman. The snowman was SO big that Ken and Lindsey had to transport his parts in a wheelbarrow!
Georgia snowmen are kinda hairy because of pine needles!

This morning, we went sledding across the street. This was a first for both Lindsey and Kathryn! As a matter of fact, my dad gave Kathryn this sled about four years ago and this is the first time we've ever been able to use it!

Lindsey...

Kathryn...

And Ken...

I gave Lacy her first lesson in becoming a sled-dog. (Although, admittedly, there is not much call for that here in Georgia!) Every time I said, "mush," she ate snow. But finally, she took off!
This was fun!
The girls made snow angels, then we had to go in and warm up Kathryn's toes. Once everybody was thoroughly thawed, we walked over to my mom's house. She had cinnamon rolls in the oven for us, and brewed fresh coffee for Ken. As we were leaving, Ken noticed bunny tracks in the snow; I should really expand on that for a good nature study!

Now the snow is melting, but it's been fun. I'd been saying I wanted at least one good sled-able snow before spring came, and we got it!

Nature Study: Bracket Fungi

Finally! An official nature study! Hurray!

While playing outside yesterday, we noticed some weirdly interesting mushrooms on the side of an old pine tree stump. We poked and prodded them, and were surprised at how hard and tough they were! I came inside later to research exactly what they are, and it appears that they are turkey tail mushrooms -- but I'm not sure they are "true" turkey tail mushrooms, so we won't be boiling them to make tea, crushing them into powder, or even chewing them as we stroll through the woods, like one eminent herbalogist likes to do. True turkey tail mushrooms are said to be fantastic for all sorts of health woes: tumors, cancer, HIV, malaria, and more! If all that is indeed true, then we need to be doing some serious mushroom farming!

Today we went back out and pulled one of these off, which was more difficult than you'd think.We brought it inside to study more closely, using our magnifying glass.
Lacy the WonderDog wanted to study it, too. {hee hee}
This study goes along with Outdoor Hour Challenge #41: Flowerless Plants. In the Handbook of Nature Study, we learned that these are considered saprophytes, which are a type of fungus that feeds on dead or decaying matter, rather than being a true parasite that steals nutrients from a living plant. Some varieties of bracket fungus, however, grow on living trees and are very harmful. There is no way to rid a tree of this fungus once it takes hold.

We're so out of practice with nature studies and our nature journal, that Kathryn is a little resistant to doing journal entries. I think it's because she's too much of a perfectionist with her drawing, so that's something we'll have to work on. For today, I printed out a photo of our fungi so she could paste that on her page and just write a few sentences about it.

I hope to be posting about many more nature studies as we try to get back into the habit of doing them!

Sleepy WonderDog...

We have quite possibly the cutest dog ever. Now that she has finally stopped shredding things, we finally bought her a new cozy bed. She loves it!

She looks like a little deer when she's curled up asleep.

Lacy is a rescue mutt we found on PetFinder. October is Adopt-A-Shelter-Dog Month, and we encourage you to do so! We think rescue mutts make the BEST pets!

We love WonderDog!

LacyDog

Yes, our Lacy the WonderDog is on twitter. All the cool pets are. Lacy has lots of twitter doggie pals, but also some cool cats, a squirrel (because what self-respecting dog would pass up the chance to chase follow a squirrel?), and even a capybara! Some live here in Georgia, but most are all across the United States. Lacy even has a few anipals in other countries!

Some of the pets on twitter do things to raise money for pet rescue organizations; some are just there to be silly. One of Lacy's twitter pals, a formerly homeless dog named Duke Richard II, held an "Easter Bling" costume contest earlier this month, and the judges awarded Lacy first prize for her bunny outfit from last year. [I'm just getting around to posting about this -- sorry, Lacy!]

Duke Richard's "mum" took him to a pet store to help choose Lacy's prizes. The following week, Lacy received her first official mail, addressed to LacyDog! Her prize contained two boxes of yummy treats; a package of peanut-flavored tennis balls (which have proved a bit TOO delightful to resist shredding!); and a ChuckIt with a brightly colored tennis ball, so we can throw balls without getting slimed with doggie slobber! Lacy was delighted with her prize!

If you're interested in finding out just what it is Lacy does all day, and what some of her twitter anipals are up to, you can follow her on twitter. Her twitter info is on my sidebar as well. And if you're looking for your own wonder pet, look for a new furry friend already waiting at a shelter near you.

Nature Study - Dogs

We've been out of the habit of doing nature studies lately, but we're trying to remedy that. Yesterday we did Outdoor Hour Challenge #51: Wolf, Fox, and Dog. We watched part of a PBS show called In The Valley of the Wolves, and Kathryn wants to watch the rest if it soon. It does have some graphic parts, but she doesn't seem disturbed by it. I'm always conflicted on those parts, and never can decide who to cheer for: the predator to get food and feed it's family, or for the prey to get away and live another day. Either way, it's life.

We read about wolves, foxes, and dogs in our Handbook of Nature Study. Kathryn has never seen a wolf or fox in real life, but I have. I've always had a fascination with wolves. One of my fondest memories is of meeting a domesticated wolf and spending at least an hour (I lost track of time) years ago just talking to her and petting her; I felt really special when the owner said the wolf seldom let anyone touch her and usually hid from people. Only once did I ever see a fox in the wild, and it was thrilling to see it bound away. When I lived in the mountains, a coyote ran down the road in front of my house, and my dad has seen wolves at his house in the mountains a few times in the past few years.

In the "METHOD" section at the end of the lesson the author says, "For the observation lesson it would be well to have at hand a well-disposed dog which would not object to being handled." We just happened to have a well-disposed dog lying right by the couch, so we studied Lacy!

First we studied her paws, with thick pads and non-retractable claws. (We think it's cute that some of her toe pads stayed pink.)Then we talked about moist dog noses, how well they can smell, and how amazing it would be to be able to smell so many things from so far away! Guess I'd never really thought before about how the shape of the nostrils and the fact that they're set right at the tip of the nose to maximize the ability to smell. We talked about dog hair, differences between breeds of dogs and what they were bred to do. We talked about ears and how well dogs can hear, and held our hands up to our ears to imitate the shape of a dog's ear to see how that helps it hear better. We looked at Lacy's pretty eyes and talked about the similarities between the pupil of a dog's eye and our own pupils, verses the slit-like pupils of the cat. For Kathryn's journal entry, she drew a picture of Lacy and labeled various parts with info about some of the parts we had discussed. To finish off our lesson, we went out in the back yard and watched Lacy run around and demonstrate the lean and muscular body of a dog. Thank you, WonderDog, for letting us study you!

Super Powers

I live in a family of superheros.
As evidence, I present this photo of SuperMan and WonderDog:


Now, in reality, Lacy the WonderDog actually jumps much higher than this, even from a standing still position. But the really impressive part here is that she has learned to jump at the exact same time as Ken; I can tell by her ear position that she is still heading upwards in this photo. It is dadgum tricky to capture superpowers on film, let me tell you, so this is the best shot I got that day.

I hope you're enjoying your week!

Nature Study - Oak Trees

For Outdoor Hour Challenge #33, we studied oak trees. We have one fairly large oak in our yard. I find it quite interesting because when we moved in, we thought it was dead because it was March and all the leaves on the tree were brown. I mentioned to my dad one day when he was here, and he told us that this kind of oak doesn't shed its leaves in the fall; instead, it holds them all winter, and when the sap rises in the spring, then the old leaves fall. We kept an eye on the tree, and he was right. (My dad is often right about trees and nature sorts of things.) Based on my reading in The Handbook of Nature Study, as well as some internet searches, I believe our oak tree is a type of red oak--probably a pin oak. We gathered a few very pointy-lobed leaves, but couldn't easily find any acorns.

At church on Sunday, we took advantage of the large white oaks near the playground for a little nature study. What better place to take a moment to appreciate the awesome God that made the awesome oak tree? We found plenty of acorns here, and gathered a few nicely rounded-lobed leaves, and admired how huge these trees are! I had read aloud the section on oak trees from The Handbook of Nature Study on Friday, and was pleased with how much Kathryn remembered as we discussed some of the characteristics of white oaks versus the other types of oaks.

Click for a larger view of Kathryn's journal entry.

Yesterday, we did leaf rubbings and drew a few acorns in our nature journals, and decided we'd see if Ms. Comstock was right about white oak acorns being "sweet" as compared to the bitter acorns of the black oak group. I've eaten a very bitter acorn, which was orange inside, and the bitter taste lingered long. But after nibbling one of these acorns open, we admired the almost-white inner nut. When split in half, there was a lovely completely smooth, flat side. We--me, Kathryn, and Lacy--all tasted the acorn and decided it was very much like a cashew in color, texture, and flavor. (We're pretty squirrelly around here!) Though not quite tasty enough to purposely gather for snacks, we decided that we could forage for these if ever we needed a little sustenance in the woods, and they'd be much more appealing than, say, grubs. (Dad has eaten those. Ick. He's a worst-case scenario kind of guy who likes to be prepared for anything. And he talks to bears. But that's a story for another post all it's own.)

I've mentioned that I have possibly the smartest dog ever. She has a yearning for knowledge, and is quite involved in our studies. I just have to share a few amusing photos to prove my point.

Lacy comes for a closer look.

And her own investigation.

We've already moved on to studying maples, beginning with our walk yesterday evening and continuing on this week. Oh! I almost forgot to mention that we were able to harvest some seeds from our sunflowers this week to save to replant again next year. I don't know if they'll come up, but it'll be fun to try. We've left the sunflower heads out for our little birdie friends to enjoy.

I hope you're enjoying your own nature study and outdoor time this week. We sure are!

Sneaky Seal

As part of our fun new notebooking project on Native Americans, we're studying the Inuit people this week. Kathryn and I have decided that we would not do well if required to eat as the Inuits of the old days did; fish and blood soup, and raw seal or caribou just doesn't sound all that appealing, but I suppose if that's what you've grown up eating, you wouldn't have a problem with it! We've also been reading Julie of the Wolves, about an Inuit girl who must be accepted by a wolf pack so that she does not starve after she becomes lost on the tundra. Kathryn is loving the book and has set up a tent in the playroom and tells me all about how she must go in search of food and sometimes can't find any. If we ignore the fact that it's a princess tent and plastic doll food, then it's pretty true to the story. I suppose Lacy could play the part of the wolf. I haven't figured out who Sock Monkey is in the story, but she's involved somehow. {grin} I read this book over the summer, and it's a great story except for one part that I can't believe is included in a book intended for age ten and up. So I've glued a few pages together and we'll skip that part entirely. (Although this is not a close enough shot to see it, there is a mischevious twinkle in Sneaky Seal's eye as she prepares to pounce upon her prey.)

Yesterday part of our project was making a paper fish and doing a little ice fishing. Because we didn't have stick-on magnets as the project called for, Kathryn used a little ingenuity and rigged a bit of yarn on top of the fish as a perfect place for the hook. Lacy enjoyed this craft, too, and we named her Sneaky Seal because she'd try to creep up on the fish as Kathryn was "fishing." When that didn't work, she bit the hook and line. She really had us giggling as she enthusiastically assumed her role as Sneaky Seal. Homeschooling is fun for the whole family, even the canine members!

This morning Lacy must've snatched the fish off the table and ate it (shredded it, actually). Kathryn found the confetti fish and was pretty upset until she realized we could make another paper fish. After she calmed down, we decided it was actually pretty funny, and realized that Lacy really took her role as Sneaky Seal quite seriously!

Wonder Dog

One year ago today, we welcomed a new member into our family...

I promised a continuation from yesterday's story, and this is it:

After Ellie died, we all missed her, and our home felt SO empty without the pitter-patter of doggie feet. It was especially hard on Kathryn, who had grown up with Ellie. We all thought we'd want to wait quite a while before getting another dog, but after talking about it more, we decided we didn't want to wait long. We knew we'd never replace Ellie, but we all felt that adopting another dog would honor Ellie's memory. So I began searching, and found a litter of 6-month-old greyhound mix puppies on PetFinder that we were interested in meeting. They were with a no-kill rescue group called Our Pick of the Litter, and were going to be at an adoption site one Saturday, but Ken was playing in a concert that day, and Kathryn was with her dad, so my mom went with me to meet the pups. I had sent in an application that week just in case. After observing and interacting with the puppies, Mom and I both agreed that Lacy had the best personality to fit our family, and I adopted her that very day.

This photo is from Lacy's 1st day home, & it's still one of my favorites of her.

We loved Lacy right away, but getting used to life with a puppy instead of a very mellow 13-year-old dog was a change for us all, especially Kathryn. And perhaps getting her two days before we started our school year wasn't the best timing. . .

"So, for our math today -- NO, Lacy -- as I was saying -- leave it! -- what this math page is about is -- don't eat the electrical cord!..."

But Lacy's goofy and sweet personality worked it's way deep into our hearts. She's very smart, and learns quickly; she was potty trained within a few days, and has learned some pretty crazy tricks I never would have even thought to teach another dog... like jumping through the hoops of Ken's arms, leaping over us when we're squatting down, jumping and spinning simultaneously to land in Ken's arms, as well as the typical commands like "sit" and "shake". Before Lacy, I've never seen "jumping for joy" literally, but Lacy leaps like an overgrown bunny whenever she's happy. My biggest challenge was teaching her which things were NOT okay to chew on; furniture, the Dyson vacuum cord, the curtains, a couch pillow, and a couple of Kathryn's toys all fell victim to Lacy's need to chew. But we invested in some rawhides and a giant nylabone, and now she chews to her heart's content and leaves the rest alone (mostly!).

Lacy participates in as many of our nature studies as she can, and we're almost convinced that she can read. I know for a fact that she can spell, and I think she may be at least at a 1st grade math level. {grin} It's really quite comical how deeply she pays attention during our school days. Being part greyhound, she is in the sighthound category, and she is very observant, has excellent vision, and seldom ever barks. She loves the chance to go wake Kathryn up in the morning, and tells her "night-night" in the evenings by putting her front paws up on the bed. She can jump straight up in the air with all four feet from a standing-still position high enough to look me straight in the eye. Sometimes she runs and spins simultaneously; I don't know how to explain it except for saying she spins like a top! And wow -- watching her run is truly amazing! I have never seen a dog run so fast and look like she is enjoying it so much! Everyone who ever sees her just stands with their mouth hanging open a little in awe at her speed, agility, and joy! I wish you could see just how FAST she is!

It may sound silly that I prayed for guidance in choosing our dog, but God really does care about every detail of our lives. Adopting a dog is a long-term commitment (13+ years in my experience) that affects our daily lives, so why wouldn't we pray for guidance in something like that? Lacy fits into our family just right. We're very thankful for our Wonder Dog, and hoping for many more years with this goofy mutt!

Paw Prints on My Heart

[I don't usually put so many photos in one post with photos, but this one tells a story spanning quite a few years, so it's rather photo-rich. ]


We're a dog-loving family. We've always had dogs; I can't remember life without a dog in the family! When I was born, my parents had a dog named Sam; for a few years we had a sweet but not-so-smart black dog named Sootie; when I was five, we got a poodle born on Christmas day that I named after Lucille Ball.

When I was twelve, my aunt Beckie's dog had puppies, and I was there shortly after they were born. I fell in love with Dusty, the biggest of the litter of 13 Collie-mix puppies. She was my pal, and when I moved out of the house, she came with me. Dusty was a wonderful dog: she loved blueberries and knew how to pick only the ripe ones; she was the star of her obedience class; she once saved the life of our old pony Flipper, and alerted us when our mare BabyGirl was hurt; she patiently endured toddlers pulling on her. Even dog-fearing children loved her.I tested Dusty's patience by bringing a puppy into the picture. Ellie was born on Cinco de Mayo in 1994. She was the runt of the litter of ten puppies: 7 roly-poly chocolate labs, and 3 smaller black ones. I think Ellie was mixed with border collie, based on her looks (especially in her older years), size, and personality, but combined with the labrador, it was a fabulous mix (do you see a recurring mutt theme here?). She came home in June, and immediately loved Dusty. Although Dusty feigned indifference, they developed a strong bond. I've heard that two female dogs aren't suppose to get along well, but that just wasn't true for Dusty and Ellie.

For years, the dogs were my family, my children. Dusty set a great example for Ellie, and I think she helped to make Ellie such a sweet and patient dog. When Dusty died from a brain tumor at the age of fourteen, I was heartbroken; I had been there the day she was born, and she'd been part of my family since I was 12 years old. Having sweet Ellie to come home to helped me grieve Dusty. For anyone who has never really loved and lost a pet, it sounds ridiculous to think of how much the owners grieve. I don't mean to claim that it's the same as losing a close human family member, but losing a pet is a very real grief, different from any other loss because of the different relationship we have with pets versus the people in our lives.

A couple of years later, Kathryn was born. Ellie did well learning to live with a child, and Kathryn adored her. As Kathryn got older, Ellie really bonded with her. She would often just come lie next to Kathryn while she was playing, and seemed to enjoy it when Kathryn would love on her. Ellie always was a snuggle bunny. When Kathryn was playing in her little princess tent, Ellie would join her. And when Kathryn played her harmonica, Ellie would sing along. (If only I had an audio of this!) Kathryn could barely keep playing because she'd be laughing so hard.Numerous health problems began to plague Ellie; finally, on August 1st, we made the difficult decision to put her to sleep because she was in constant pain. Our very kind vet was in total agreement with our decision. The only other option for Ellie was bladder surgery, but because she also had liver disease and probable bone cancer, it was very unlikely she would ever recover, even if she survived surgery.We buried Ellie in our back yard, along with Dusty's ashes, and planted butterfly-friendly flowers there because she always loved to chase butterflies. Our home felt very empty without the sweet furry girl who had left paw prints all over our hearts.This is not the end of our story; come back tomorrow for the (happier) continuation. . .

Nature Study: Collecting Leaves

Despite the icky hot weather, we did manage to spend some time doing nature study this week. Although we're not "officially" doing school all summer, I am going to try to keep up with nature study because there is just so much going on in the garden in the summer! Part of our unofficial nature study this week was admiring our newly blooming daylillies. They've been looking ready to bust for a couple of weeks, but finally began blooming on Tuesday! They're as tall as Kathryn! I told her I wanted a picture of her with the daylillies, and I'm pretty sure she purposely chose this shirt to match them! We brought one lily inside to study it up close with a magnifying glass, and Kathryn found a "bonus prize" of a tiny pinkish spider that she followed around on the table for a few minutes before it met an untimely demise. (Sorry, but when critters come IN my house, it's no holds barred.)

Outdoor Hour Challenge #17 was to collect and study leaves. Our yard isn't exactly a forest, but we do have quite a few trees - most of them planted by us in the three years we've lived here. We gathered a dogwood leaf, which did give us an opportunity to check back on the tree we chose for our year-long tree study; sometime soon we need to spend more time on a cooler day paying even closer attention to it for the summer part of our tree study. We also collected leaves from one of our maple trees, a redbud tree, a peach tree, our ornamental cherry tree, and a leaf from one of our apples trees. Once inside, we read a bit about leaves in our Handbook of Nature Study, and found quite a great deal of information on apple trees and how an apple is formed. We have only two apples growing on our yellow-apple tree (and none on our green-apple tree) but we only planted them last year, so they will likely need a few more years to start producing more than a few apples. Finding all that information about them makes me want to pay much closer attention to them next year, just before they begin to flower! How lovely it would be to complete a few months of apple-tree nature study with the grand finale of an apple pie! {smile}

We pressed our leaves overnight, and then I helped Kathryn do a rubbing with a crayon, and she filled in the details with a colored pencil. This was something that Harmony Art Mom (Barb) says one of her boys did, and we liked the idea! Kathryn wants to put the actual leaves in her nature journal, too, so we're pressing them a few more days to make them easier to add; that peach leaf was still really curvy and did not want to lay flat! As usual, Lacy wanted to help. I am fully convinced that our dog is benefiting from homeschooling, too. I think she can spell and read. She just can't hold a pencil or talk, so I suppose I can't test her to see what grade level she'd be. {hee hee} She seriously does take a real interest in what we're doing at the table, and would probably sit in a chair if I let her. When Lacy isn't studying, sleeping, or gnawing on her nylabone, she's running - really, really fast!I hope you're enjoying nature, even if it's too hot to spend much time outdoors. Barb had some great hints this week about doing nature study in hot weather. I recommend reading it if you live in a hot climate like I do. I just can't say enough to thank her for coming up with these studies. They're fun, manageable, and one less thing I have to plan. It's inspiration for me to keep up with nature study because I can do these so easily! Barb has had a few discouraging things happening lately, so please stop by her blog and leave a word of encouragement if you have enjoyed participating in or just reading about these lovely little nature challenges!