In addition to preserving the last of our chard, Liam and I finished feeding our mushroom patch. After topping the woody compost with a layer of fallen leaves and a few bags of fresh hard wood shavings, we finished it all off with a nice layer of fresh straw. Our friendly fungi is now well fed and the mushroom patch is ready for winter.
Our final farm activity of the day was rendering the leaf lard from the pigs. This is the top quality lard that is used in baking. Ian took the reins on the rendering and using the slow cooker had it done within an hour.
Three jobs well done and a productive day even though school work could have gone better. The boys are pumped for Halloween and their focus on anything not spooky leaves something to be desired. They are chomping at the bit to carve their pumpkins into Jack O' Lanterns tomorrow and bake up their Halloween cupcakes. Somehow subtraction, counting by groups, learning their letters, and discussing methods of animal communication are subpar competition for the upcoming fright night. Go figure.
At least Alistair has learned to say "Boo!" followed by "Ahhh!" which we have turned into a learning tool for Seamus who is struggling to remember the soft "a" sound. We now chant: "The ghost says: "Boo!" and A says "Ahhh!"" Done and done. Who says I can't use Halloween to further my own agenda? Mama picks trick, definitely trick. I don't even want to think about the chaos that will follow the boys getting into the Halloween treats. Maybe they will accept bags of delicious steamed swiss chard instead? Fat chance.
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