Our Teen, More Wildflowers, & A Sssnake!

Recently, my oldest turned thirteen.
I wasn't ready!
Honestly, some days I wish that the hands of time could be turned back to her infancy and I could redo so much.
She's a good kid, but bless her heart, her mother has a horrible temper.
She wanted her ears piereced. They are now.
My young teen is beautiful but dealing with an old-fashioned, ridiculously conservative mama is going to stretch her...and stretch the old mama at the same time.
I'm praying for elasticity.

Here are a few more wildflowers:


Roundleaf Groundsel


Wild Violet


Fringed Puccoon

Of course, while tramping over prairie and through the woods, we're already seeing the wildlife that the warmer spring temperatures are rousing. The snakes are already active.
This is just one of several I've already seen.


Some type of water snake

And one of my favorite hiking companions is the three-legged dog.



Now to wake up kids and start the day!
Blessings, Julie

My Wildflower Watch Begins

When I first started blogging several years ago, many of my posts were nature related. And many of my posts were exclusively about the wildflowers the children and I discovered on our little forty acre homestead and the surrounding areas. At that time, my oldest was very involved in putting together a wildflower notebook for 4H and to enter in the county fair.
I can remember one day loading the kids in the van and we drove from one end of our county to the other just looking for and gathering wildflower cuttings. It took us all day, but we had great fun. We've also learned a lot about how the Native Americans and early pioneers used many of these plants for food and medicinal uses. We learned to look close and identify many by their leaves or how many petals the paticular flower had. The website we use primarily for identification is Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses  as we live in north central Oklahoma. Although, there are other websites that have been helpful as well as books.
And so this is my introduction to a series of posts that I will be doing throughout the wildflower growing season. I promise there will be a few that you've never seen or noticed before as I discovered for myself. One of my favorites and more subtle, as it is a low-growing, trailing plant is, Ratany. It blooms in late spring and early summer. I took this photo of it a couple of years ago.

Actually, I have many favorites and to be quite honest I was a bit surprised in the beginning of this learning experience to learn that there are so many different kinds of wildflowers.
And so my trek to spot the wildflowers begins. As busy as things have gotten around here of late, it's gonna be nice to carve out some time to stop and smell the roses!
Blessings, Julie

Life Around The Farm As Of Late

We're really liking this Botany unit! This morning the kids and I found mosses and lichen specimens on a short walk around the house. We came back in and they drew and colored the finds to put in a notebook that each of them have started for our Botany unit.



Another beautiful moth took up temporary residence in our barn. This time a Luna Moth.



As you can tell by the long worn hindwings, this moth has seen better days and is probably close to death. We measured its wingspan and it was a little over four and a half inches.
After taking this photo, there was another Luna Moth in the barn just a couple of days later.



Yesterday morning a Summer Tanager was flitting about in the oak trees behind the house and I was able to get a quick photo. We've never seen them this early in the Spring and were pleased to get a glimpse of him.

My husband went to one of the local sale barns yesterday morning and purchased our first bottle calf of the Spring.
My oldest child had first pick of the calves this Spring and she named him Raymond.



These past few days have brought horribly violent weather to the east and northeast of us. Tornadoes and flashfloods have brought devastation and death. Please remember those in your prayers that have lost loved ones and homes.

Blessings, Julie

Botany, Eggs, & A Snakeskin

Our Spring has gotten off to a late start. We've been dry here in central Oklahoma. Actually, most of the state has been experiencing drought.
Wonderfully, the past couple of days have brought rain. And it's amazing how quickly the flowers play catch-up!



I had purposely planned a Botany unit for the kids this Spring as we could take advantage of so much of the plantworld beginning the cycle of life.



When in grade school, I personally enjoyed drawing diagrams of the subjects we were studying...labeling them and coloring them with great care. My kids enjoy doing so, also.



It's interesting to watch them...and the learning process is made so much easier when it's a hands-on lesson.
I had gone out to the garden and found several different bean seeds and sprouts in different stages of developement. The children were able to put them in order of growth, label the part of the seed, tell me whether or not the bean plant is a dicotyledon or monocotyledon and then explain as well as show me how they knew that.



We're using Apologia's Botany for our core of study, but I've supplemented from other sources also and will omit the material from Apologia we've already learned. I'm excited about this unit and have lots of plans regarding instruction, experiments, and field trips.

Along with the flowers blooming in the pasture, veggies growing in the garden, and the trees leafing out, other signs of Spring abound.
Interestingly, we have a Wyandotte female chicken that has gone broody (she's ready to lay a clutch of eggs and hatch them out).
From what I've read chickens go broody more so in the Spring. She left her clutch of eggs for a short time to eat and another chicken hopped in the Wyandotte's nest to lay her daily egg. This confused the Wyandotte and she took up nesting in the nest nextdoor to the one she had been in.
Needless to say, the clutch of eggs that she had been on for nearly five days was abandoned after the interloper had laid her egg and went on her merry way.
So this morning I brought the eggs into the house so the kids and I could check to see if they were fertilized and how far along in developement they were.
There is a wonderful website here that shows pictures for every day of developement. We used this website to identify that yes, our eggs were fertilized and they ranged from three to four days developed. I didn't take any pictures but we're now excited about trying to hatch eggs out in an incubator we've borrowed from our local extension office. I'll definitely keep you posted on how that goes.

Speaking of eggs, I gathered eggs from the coop and from the nests that my free range chickens make in the yard just the other day. I cracked open three, one yolk ran, but the other two yolks stayed intact.
By looking at the two intact yolks in the picture below, can you tell which is the cooped chicken's egg and which is the free range chicken's egg? If you said the more orange one is the free range chicken's egg...you're right! The free range chickens get a more varied diet and their eggs are much more nutritous. 


 

And speaking of the varied diet of a free range chicken, did you know they will eat baby snakes? I've seen for myself three baby snakes killed and eaten by two of my hens.
I'll transition there to the subject of these last two photos.
Last week my little guy came to me with a long snakeskin he had found in the backyard. When I told him I wanted to measure it, he said that the tail had torn off when he was picking it up off the ground. We went ahead and measured the majority of the skin.




After measuring the snakeskin, my little guy insisted on going and finding the "tail" so that we could get a full and more accurate measurement of the snake. He came running back with it just moments later and we were able to measure the tail and then add that to our measurement of the larger part of the skin to get a total of four feet ten inches long! There's a seriously long snake out there somewhere. I'm just hopin' he's of the nonvenomous type!



I really didn't want to leave you with visions of the monster snake "slithering around" in your head, so I posted another photo of the Irises that are beside the driveway to the house. I took these in the morning when the sunlight was just peering over the horizon of the property to the east of us. It had rained in the night and left behind some welcomed moisture on the blooms.

Seeing His blessings in the small things, Julie

Things Aren't Always What They Appear To Be

Last week, Samuel came running into the house calling me to "Come look!...Mama, come look!"
He led me out to the front porch where he showed me a large brown moth that he had caught out at the barn.
I set the large moth up on the wall of the porch...and then...it spread it's wings out.



Wow! We were delighted to say the least! Who knew such a dull brown moth could really be so beautiful.
I went inside and quickly found our "Butterflies and Moths" identification guide and looked our gorgeous friend up.



He's a Polyphemus Moth, a member of the giant silk moth family and we know he's a "he" by his fuzzy antennae. The Polyphemus Moth can grow to a six inch wingspan. Ours is pretty close. After becomming moths, they only live for ten days as they cannot eat due to very small mouthparts. They mate, females lay their eggs, and then they die. We felt blessed that we were able to see this guy before he passed on.



Things aren't always what they appear to be, case in point, the Polyphemus Moth.
But this is a lesson I'm learning in my own life, my spiritual life as I've posted in a recent entry entitled, In Love We Journey On .
I'm learning that in order to line up with God's will, hear His voice, and heed His guidance, I had better stay close to Him.
And as of late that is where I desire to be more than any other place.
No, so much of this world is not what it seems and in order for us as Christians to stay above reproach we had better stay in His Word, meditate on it, fellowship with believers of deep spiritual maturity and that have a passion for the things of God, and pray without ceasing.

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. ~2 Timothy 2:15~

Blessings, Julie

Take A Hike! Part 2

Back to the hike, remember, we're in the ravine.
The kids are playing in the little stream that is fed by a spring further up toward the house.
The stream runs over a sandstone bottom and eventually waterfalls down into the lake.



I "play" too. But my play is a little different as I take a stick and turn over small rocks looking for life underneath. I'm still looking forward to that day when I see a salamander...none this day, but the water striders and crawfish that scurry here and there are appreciated.
The leaves, some floating atop the gentle water gliding, draw my attention.
This sycamore leaf, submerged, has been preserved by the cold temperatures of the water.
Its color, amongst dulled browns is welcome.



There are many varieties of trees in the ravine, the forest above, and around the lake that borders the western most part of our farm.
Many types of oaks, elms, and flowering trees like the red buds and hawthorns thrive in this wood. Sycamores that tower, willows and persimmons are all common here.
The lone green clothed are the red cedars.
The ferns are plentiful here on the damp rock. I've transplanted some to our yard.



So while standing here taking pictures, the boy decided to walk along the top of the wall of the ravine. No surprise there, huh?


"Hey! You! Get back away from the edge of that thar wall!"

The gray hairs abound.

On another subject, tomorrow we will be heading to our state's spelling bee. My oldest, who inherited her dad's spelling genes will be competing. We're excited...and nervous. I'll let you know how it goes. Did I say I was nervous...I am.

I hope you have a wonderfully productive and blessed weekend! Julie

Take A Hike! Part 1

Yesterday, after lunch, the kids and I took a hike down to the lake.
It had been awhile since we had all been down there together...and it's always an adventure!



On the way, we stopped at the edge of a pond that borders our property and picked up freshwater shells.
I think these beautiful creations so fascinating and take great satisfaction in knowing that the children enjoy these wonderful finds also!



Before we get to the woods and ravine that lead down to the lake, there is a low area with an outcropping of rock. This is such an interesting place as we often observe a wide variety of animal tracks in the dirt here.
We enter the woods and the kids always make me nervous by walking right up to the edge of the steepest part of the ravine! I have the girls pose beside it and then we walk further along until we get to the place that we can climb down in it.
The ravine is one of my favorite places here at Forty Acre Farm. Many times I come here by myself, my only companions, the dogs.
When it is windy, and it often is here in Oklahoma, I climb down here and walk along the stream bed...quiet, all exept for the wind up in the tops of the trees. But here, sheltered down below there is always a hush, and a wonderful smell of fresh earth...and the faint gurgling of water as it finds its way to the lake...which is just beyond the ravine.

Brrrr! This Post Is Not About The Weather

This past Sunday, I left my kids, Tim, and the bucolic farm life to drive down to Southwest Oklahoma.

On my way, I sashayed through the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge to see how the wildlife were faring.

"You guys faring okay?"
"Huh, what?! Faring...what's that supposed to mean?


Then I made my way further South and onto my husband's parent's house...where I spent the night.
The next morning, I was up dark and early at 3:50 AM.
I drove the forty miles on slick, icy (this is not a post about the weather) roads to Frederick to pick up my mom as she had knee replacement surgery scheduled thirty-five miles away at Altus at 7:00AM.
We arrived at the hospital in Altus at 6:30.



A nurse came in to take her vitals and start prepping her for surgery. She glanced at Mom's ankles and lower legs and noticed a considerable amount of swelling.
The surgeon was in Mom's room within fifteen minutes examining her ankles and legs.



Tests were ordered and to make a long story short, the surgery was canceled.
I drove Mom back to Frederick and then proceeded home encountering snow three fourths of the way home.
A wasted trip? No, I don't think so.
We're taking all of this one day at a time and trusting the Lord in it.

Gonna throw a fact out there. This AM it was 9 degrees with a windchill of -5.
Just a fact, a seriously cold hard fact.
Thanks for clickin' over,
In The Deep Freeze, Julie 

What's Up Here

We're full-swing into summer now and it's definitely heating up around here.
My green beans and peas have finished producing and are now ready to be tilled in.
I had thought of planting a fall garden, but as we're a bit busy this week with Vacation Bible School it won't get done within the next few days.


Obviously, I've had time to take pictures.
We've had quite a few skippers flitting about and enjoying the zinnias out by the vegetable garden.

Last week I took a short walk to the spring that is in our back pasture and took some pictures of damselflies and dragonflies.

I found this picture to be a bit comical. This sweet little damselfly looks as if it has spectacles on.

Too cute!

Back at the vegetable garden, where I've planted Mammoth Sunflowers, I took this picture of one my large beauties. The texture here is gorgeous and I love that the moisture from a recent rain shower is still present. The bumblebees and carpenter bees congregate regularly on these and I was rather surprised that I was able to get a couple of pictures minus any bees.

Sunflowers just scream summer.

Along with ice cream, swimming pools, shorts, cicadas, butterflies, bumblebees, hotdogs, sandals, and fresh salads straight from the garden, yum!

Along with trying to get a fall garden in the ground, I'm expecting my school related order from CBD (Christian Book Distributors) to make it here soon. I'm excited...is that odd...but really I am.

We're going to start using Apologia this year for science and will also be working on a rather lengthy unit covering the twentieth century in the United States.

I can honestly say I'm looking forward to it!

I hope your summer days are comfortable and productive!

Blessings, Julie