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!
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