Oregon City, Oregon - Week 48 - November 23 to November 29, 2020

Another week with the same themes as last week - with the addition of Thanksgiving.  Of course, with the coronavirus pandemic going on and with Gov. Kate Brown's  "lockdown" (strong recommendation) to have no more than six people from two families meeting together....hmmmm -..it was kinda difficult with large families.  We've been sharing Sunday dinners with the Scotts and Louthans for weeks and months (total 14 people) and then we teach two Scott and 3 Louthan children four days a week.....so we decided we could do Thanksgiving dinner with no further risk than normal.  We had enough delightful food to feed the families for two more days -  plus we sent food to Ryan's mom and dad and sent food home with Warren who also brought food.  Ray and I cooked the turkey on the Traeger, made mashed potatoes and fried broccoli, and a pecan pie and an apple custard pie.  Whew!  It was fun to cook for a change.  I told the entire group assembled families that, while as a young person my goal had been to become a great plant scientist, I have come to understand that probably my biggest accomplishment was to raise six wonderful children who are each amazing individuals.

Here's the spread on the 'island' before we gathered.

After dinner we had our third Readers Theater performance.  This time it was the legend of Slappy Hooper who was a sign painter.  His creations were so realistic that oft times the final outcome was a real disaster.  He finally ended up painting sunrises and sunsets for the big "Boss."  Jude was the narrator and Abby took the individual parts which perfectly suits her enthusiastic reading style.  Dad was Slappy, and I did sound effects.

Busy with school this week.  Ruby had her lesson, "Living Things Grow".  Her lab was in the greenhouse with Dad: she and Janie planted seeds - marigolds and peas.

 

Jude and Abby also studied "Living Things Grow".  We watched an amazing YouTube video about the metamorphosis of frogs from eggs to tadpoles to froglets to frogs. Then they saw the lab in the Science Weekly lesson (which I was going to skip because I thought it was a 'lame' lab) and they got excited because it was about the metamorphosis of a butterfly.  They were supposed to use different shapes of pasta to illustrate the process.  They had watched this process last spring when 'in person' school ended, so they knew the process.  Apparently they love to glue and color things.

Abby is so careful with the glue.

Jude was careful too.

The finished products!!

And they stayed after to play

 After celebrating Thanksgiving, Ruby and Janie came for a sleepover - it was the first time they'd stayed at our house.  All went perfectly!!!

And a hearty breakfast.

Dad finally assembled his birdhouse that he got for Father's Day.  He tried to get the little camera to work, but needs to get Paul to help him.'

He also repaired the gate to Jessica's chicken coop/house/pen.....after "something" got in during the night  and "took" Silky away.

I got Dad to help me with a big project.  I've had my eye on five downed tree trunks that have been providing a perfect "trellis" for ivy and blackberries.  He did them in with his big chain saw, and now I have to figure out when and how to drag them out of the woods.  You can see him  the bottom of the following two photos wearing his yellow jacket.

Saturday afternoon he was able to burn up all the the branches that I had pulled up over two days.

Only two more weeks until Burn Season is over.....and we can take a break from working in the woods.  It's getting kinda cold outside, and everything is wet.

 Oregon City, Oregon - Week 47 - November 16 - November 22, 2020

Another fast week - between preparing for and teaching lessons for science, playing Sudoku on my phone, cutting down filberts in the woods, I'm pretty busy - sounds like what I said last week.

Jude and Abby come four times a week for reading.  Dad takes Jude, and I have Abby.  Abby ALWAYS puts on my fuzzy oversize sweat shirt, and we start reading.  Her special talent is that she reads with total enthusiasm.  If the text says, "she whispered," then she whispers and so forth, for "shouted", "whined" .... she is fun to read to and to read with.  Here she is with the rabbit Cinnamon on her shoulder

For science we studied the living body and talked about systems, mostly.  They outlined Abby's body and proceeded to add a skeletal system, circulatory system, and digestive system.  It was fun.

The fourth graders started organisms, and we had models of a plant cell and an animal cell and compared and contrasted them using a Venn Diagram.

I worked on cutting down almost all the rest of the filberts in Sector 5.  It is hard work, you know.  And now it is cold, so I have to "gird up my loins" to get out of the door and on to the ATV.  This was a pretty big trush right at the corner where the Barstad property joins on our southern property line.

And after - with the chainsaw to show size.

Friday and Saturday were beautiful sunny days, BUT they were not "Burn Days".  But I cut and dragged branches anyway and staged them artistically around the burn pile which had been adorned with cut hydrangea stems.

We celebrated Gretchen's birthday - she'll be nine on Thanksgiving Day.

Warren gave me my birthday present - a bit belated- no problem

 

Only three more weeks until Burn Season is over.  What will I ever do then?

 Oregon City, Oregon - Week 46 - November 9 - November 15, 2020

Well.....another week of school, post election disgusting events, and working in the woods.

Always, if it isn't raining, I am in the woods hurrying to get things cut and cleaned up before the Burn Season ends on December 15th.  Actually (and secretly) I will be pleased when I can take a break from all the physical work.  The work, however, will resume in mid March 2021 when Burn Season opens again.

One of the last filbert trushes that needed to be removed was so big that I asked Dad for his help with the big gas powered chain saw - - it is too heavy for me to use.  Here is the remaining stump and me holding the lower part of the trunk as if it were a trophy elk I had just harvested.

There are (were) a bunch of logs along the top of the hill of Sector 5.  They have impeded my access to the area for months, but I have begun to remove them with my trusty ATV

Dad has been my ever faithful Burn Pile Guy.  He keeps up with everything I pull up and feeds it to the fire.

I have found all kinds of things in the woods - a trailer hitch which seems practically new except for the rust, the handle to a machete, balls, washing machine tub, drain tiles, iron pipes - this week I came upon a length of plastic rope tied to a cedar limb.  Maybe......... attached to a treasure box??

I tried to uncover it by digging with a shovel, but the ivy vines and roots were still too thick and strong.  Finally I just used my hands to rip out the ivy and uncovered the rope, but no treasure box was found.

But I was able to display the coil of rope like a recently caught sturgeon.

Friday it rained the whole day - so much so that I didn't go outside at all.  I spent the time by cleaning up the pool room (pool table room) which had been flooded during the storm back in September.  It took me a long time but, I am happy with the results.

We celebrated Travis' birthday on Sunday.  Because of the new state wide 'lockdown', we all wore our masks.  Travis kinda went overboard on his mask

We did another Readers Theater with the family for an audience.  It has been a good addition to our reading program with Jude and Abby,  This time we did the "Real Story of the Three Little Pigs".  It was fun, and I think the two kids enjoyed doing it.

My goal for next week is to clean out all of the Salmonberry bushes along Main Creek up to the Cistern.

Oregon City, Oregon - Week 45 - November 2 - November 8, 2020

So this week was the Election (with a capital "E"), the woods and school.  Probably the most impactive was the election.  Biden has won with 290 Electoral College votes, and two states haven't finished....Georgia which will most likely go to Biden and North Carolina which will go to Trump.  It was a nasty election with a very divided electorate.  Biden has accepted the nomination, but Trump has refused to concede to Biden and actually, Trump has begun numerous litigations (to overturn the election)  which will eventually peter into nothing.  In the meantime, while the courts are dealing with the cases, Biden is forming his transition team, is setting up a Coronavirus Task Force tomorrow, and totally being presidential  -  ready to take over on January 20th.  For me it is a such a relief to know we don't have to deal with Trump anymore.  What is especially sad is the nearly half of the voting population does not feel that way - they still want Trump.  We can only hope that Biden can "heal the soul of America" as he has been saying all along.

It was nail biting time before Biden got Arizona and Pennsylvania. but as soon as PA was called for Biden, Biden was declared the winner.  When Arizona went for Biden...fini.  And then Nevada.  Only North Carolina and Georgia remain uncalled, but it doesn't matter because 270 votes were passed.

The acceptance ceremony was held at a big outdoor venue in Wilmington, Delaware.  It was exciting to watch it all happening.  A very important moment was when Kamala Harris came on to speak, dressed all in white, like the old time Suffragettes.  She has become a role model for millions of young girls and women.

Joe Biden actually sounded presidential and not once, did he congratulate himself or talk about how many votes he got...... We are all hoping the Biden will meet our expectations.

Fortunately there is life beyond politics.  

In social studies Ruby learned about timelines and that they are a way of organizing events in the past.  I made a timeline of my life using old photos that I found in ...a..box..in the basement.

The second graders have moved into life sciences, and this week we talked about plants.  Fortunately I knew the material already.  We talked about the transport of water and demonstrated it by having carnations take up colored water....and the kids can even pronounce xylem.

Working in the woods is getting harder, mostly because it is colder and there is frequent rain which makes life slippery.  I spent the week removing filbert trushes (tree + bush) from the edge of the woods right at the source of South Creek Spring.  There really is a cliff there, and I had to be super dooper careful when I was pulling up branches, that my body didn't end up over the precipice.  Taking out the filberts cemented by dislike of the species - they are bad plants.

Here is a before picture.  The blob of green on the tree is a mass of ivy which I could never spray because I couldn't get in close to the trunks.

And here is after all the filberts were removed.  The green is a big cedar that was pretty much hidden by the filbert trushes.

I took this photo right at the same spot, but the view is to the right and shows all the falling yellow leaves.

Next week I am going back to Sector 4 with the plan to remove two or three filberts that we missed last spring.

The maples on either side of the driveway are the "best" they have ever been!