Trick Question

Academics are taking up a large portion of our weekdays now.  In Liam's science lesson today, we learned about differentiating alive vs. nonliving objects.  As part of this, he was asked to plant a bean seed inside a cup.  Liam looked at me funny when his workbook outlined this activity.  "Don't they [the home schooling workbook authors?] know that we are farm kids, Mama?  It isn't the right time of year to plant beans.  They are not frost resistant."  We planted them (inside) anyway but I could not help but laugh.  This was after we had engaged in an in-depth discussion about whether an egg is alive.  Kids: "Is there a rooster around?"  "Has it been incubated?"  "Is it in the fridge?"  "Did you candle it?"  "Is the shell cracked?"  Good grief.  

Just in case all the bean planting and debating of life's big philosophical questions wasn't fun enough, today we also took a long afternoon walk/bike ride, picked a few apples at the neighbour's house, and prepared a harvest dinner.  We made a rustic soup from our garden (tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic and chard) topped with roasted long island cheese squash seeds and a side of rosemary focaccia (Liam prepped it this morning) topped with our roasted wine cap mushrooms.  Can you tell I am trying to create smart kids who also know how to cook?

Tonight is the first frost advisory for the Ottawa Valley.  With our CSA program now complete and homeschooling in full swing, I have decided forgo tarping any vegetables to extend the growing season.  It is so time consuming to cover and uncover vegetables and frankly, I am tired out.  I have had a good, long growing season this year; our best ever, in fact.  I also have a good amount of cold tolerant vegetables currently growing in my gardens, so I am happy to let the frost have its way with the more delicate stuff.  Bye bye summer garden, hello autumn veggies (parsley, kale, lettuce, carrots, beets, broccoli, cauliflower, chinese cabbage, cabbage, parsnips, turnip, daikon, breakfast radishes, spinach).  

I did bring my house plants back inside, though.  It is the end of summer vacation for them and they must be banished once again to my office where they are safe from the Alistair monster.

After the kids were in bed, Ian and I finally finished up what was left of butchering the refrigerated chicken meat.  Everything is now packaged well in vaccuum sealed freezer bags and has been stored in the freezer.  We have meal sized potions of chicken breasts, thighs, drumsticks, wings, whole chickens, half chickens, and chicken necks and backs for stock.  We did thirty birds in total and harvested an excellent amount of food from them.  We are very grateful for the meat and I am very proud of Ian and myself.  This was quality teamwork and a job very well done.

And time marches on....