Summer's Bounty: Taking Stock of Our Farming Successes and Failures

Assortment of cherry, grape, and yellow pear tomatoes fresh from the garden.

 With our first wood stove fire emanating delicious warmth, I have finally accepted that summer is officially over. (Autumn's official start over a month ago is immaterial.) I still have vegetables growing in my garden specifically: leeks and chard — therefore it's still summer, yes?

Overall, our garden produced quite an abundance this year. Pounds and pounds of garlic and onions. (Enough to give away and also save for next year's planting.) Quarts and quarts of tomatoes, leeks as big as my wrist, enough basil to make a couple of pesto dinners. And our first attempt at sweet potatoes resulted in a pleasantly surprising yield.

Then there were some duds: low potato yields, an abysmal strawberry harvest, and my carrot experiment (planting saved seeds) was mediocre at best.

"Moving to the country, gonna eat a lot of peaches."  Presidents of the United States of America

Each fall I take stock of what we produced and start formulating plans for next year. There are a few plants I've given up even trying to grow, such as watermelon and cantaloupe. No matter how hard I try, the vines produce small, nasty tasting little melons. I'd rather just buy melons at market than waste space in my garden for inedible produce.

Then there are the ones I keep trying, despite poor results. Actually there is only one I keep trying: pumpkin. In 10 years I have never had a bountiful harvest of pumpkin. Gourds, yes. Lovely, edible pumpkins, no.

I did grow beautiful vines this year, with gorgeous, plentiful blooms. And they received great care: I hand picked all the squash bugs and egg cases, I mulched and watered, I talked to them, weeded them religiously. And, out of 8 plants three beautiful pumpkin ovaries proved themselves fruitful. Carefully, I draped the vines with their swelling beauties over a trellis in an attempt to keep them bug and disease free. I checked on them daily, and I waited. Sigh. One day they were gorgeous, the next all but one was rotten. Filled with frustration, I cut the darn thing down while it was still green and brought it inside. One pumpkin, the size of a duck pin bowling ball.

As the weather turns frosty, we begin our transition to the more inward self, the start of our hibernating season. It is a great pleasure to inventory our "take" for the year: frozen corn, spaghetti sauce, berries, peaches, garlic paste, basil pesto, applesauce, sweet potato mash, and chickens. Canned tomatoes, applesauce, and peaches. Root cellared potatoes, onions, sweet potatoes, carrots, and garlic. And the leeks, carrots, and chard still in the garden. The satisfaction of growing and preserving our own food is what keeps us plodding onward during those drippy, sweaty, buggy summer days.

It is time to take a breath, set garden plans aside, and enjoy the beauty and change the fall season brings. And enjoy the fruits of our labors.

Canned tomatoes....perfect for quick pasta dinners.

Sixth Grade Waldorf: Egypt

Settling into October, we have completed our study of Egypt and are beginning to read the Ancient Greek myths. Before we go into Greece I want to post what accomplished in our Egypt block.

We started by reading "Tales of Egypt" (Roger Lancelyn Green), while on our trip to New Jersey. It was such a sweet time, curled up on our lounge chairs by the pool reading to each other. I could have stayed there much longer, but, Husband's classes being finished, we headed home.

It takes me a few days to return to normal, so while I tried to get us on track with our schooling we continued reading the Tales as our main lesson work. The following Monday we started in with "real" main lesson work, beginning with reading the book of Exodus from our Bible.

Way back in 3rd grade his class learned the Moses story in their Old Testament block. The Boy even had the opportunity to portray Moses in the class play whilst belting out "Let My People Go!" He reminisced about third grade, but this time 'round he really connected with the plague portion of the story. He seemed to get a kick out of the different versions of the plagues when we compared the story across several versions of the Bible. He was so intrigued that he initiated listing them in his MLB and then illustrating each plague.

i've been itching to introduce chalk pastels and thought the Pyramids at Giza made a likely subject. We tried our hand at blending colors, starting with the light colors and progressing to darker. (Ihave decided that I do not like the feel of chalk dust on my hands. Just thinking about it gives me that oogly, shivery feeling.) Overall we did enjoy using the medium, though. Next time maybe mama will need to wear some gloves!.

I won't post his version. After looking at it for a few days, we decided that it looked more like ginormous breasts than the great pyramids.

While reading a few of the myths aloud, the Boy decided to model a sphinx and pyramid, which he placed in front of his Great Boobies of Giza on our school table, making for lively dinnertime conversation.

He started the year with much enthusiasm. I hope he keeps it up!

Chalk pastels of the Pyramids at Giza

For individual reading, the Boy zipped through "The Golden Goblet." (It's a book my older boys read, so I already knew the plot, and therefore saved myself the time of having to read it now.) I'm determined to start him on short essays this year, so had him write a synopsis. Typically I would ask him to narrate a brief version of the story, and would outline it on the board. The next main lesson I would form those bullet points into paragraphs, with his "help." This time I assigned him to write it out in paragraph form on his own, which he balked at, of course. He was panic stricken, actually. Had no idea how to begin. I asked him to recount the story verbally, as we've done in the past. Only this time I didn't write the points on the board. I just concluded with, "That's exactly what you write down." Furrowed brows eased back in place, "Really? That's it?" Meltdown averted!

Main Lesson Book drawing of one of our fave myths.

A few days later he wrote his own essay about Egyptian mummies, drafting it in bullet point style on our white board first.

 Our main lesson book was finished with illustrating one of his favorite myths, the story of Thutmose and the Sphinx.

One of the last things we did was to construct paper pyramids using our new compasses to make them mathematically acuurate. I'll post directions in a day or two for those.

Completed paper pyramid

We finished our block by listening to the "Bartimeus Trilogy," by Jonathan Stroud. It isn't really about Egypt but gives small references to Egyptian artifacts and historical figures. Kind of a stretch, but it served the purpose of car entertainment on a long weekend to North Carolina.

A New School Year: Sixth Grade

Sixth grade. Wow. It's hard to believe we're on year three of our homeschooling adventure. In the beginning of fourth grade I attempted to keep the Boy on the same schedule as his former class. I really thought he would finish out his elementary and middle school years at school, rather than at home. But, we have so enjoyed our homeschooling experience that we may decide to keep going through high school.

Well, I need to give that some more thought, a lot of thought, but that's not happening today. Today we are in sixth grade and I am focusing on the task at hand.

This year's plan is to follow, loosely, the prescribed Waldorf sixth grade program, with the addition of Egypt and Greece.

My block plan looks like this:

Egypt

Greek myths

Geometric drawing

Astronomy

Greek history

Christmas break

Rome 1

Business math

Rome 2

Physics

In addition, the Boy is taking a year long Latin class at Lancaster Center for Classical Studies, piano with Tina Davidson, a 6-week woodwork class with Mr. Kelly, 5-week handwork class with Barb Freiburg, and 6 weeks of horseback riding lessons at River Valley Ranch. We might try archery in the spring. This makes a full schedule, especially now that there is homework in Latin and piano!

Boardwalk at Asbury

The week I had planned to start found us on the Northern New Jersey shore for an impromptu last-of-the-summer romp while Husband attended a training course nearby. For three peaceful, sun-soaked days the Boy and I sipped coffee by the pool and read "Tales of Egypt," aloud. As the long afternoons waned, we dressed for dinner and headed for the boardwalks of Long Branch and Asbury Park.

The evenings were gorgeous, warm and breezy, as we dined under the waxing, and then full moon. It was a much needed rest before diving full throttle into our studies.

The full moon

If you're familiar with Waldorf education then you know that the study of Egypt belongs in the fifth grade. If you're familiar with homeschooling then you know we home schoolers tend to work at our own pace and mix things up according to the needs of our child. Thus, our study of Egypt and Greece will be in sixth grade.

Welcome to Sixth Grade!

We typically begin our new school year immediately following Labor Day. Husband takes a vacation day in order to start us off with a grand breakfast, we gather as a family to review last year's main lesson books, and then take a leisurely walk in the park. We enjoyed the traditional breakfast and review, but the sky was purging itself of every bit of moisture that day, as our still damp basement can attest.

Our year did not start perfectly, nor will it end perfectly. I'm sure there will be both bumps and fun surprises through the year, that will derail us on occasion. That's all part of homeschooling.