Yard Work!

Seeing it's fall and we are having warm weather today, warmer then what is normal for this time of year, the kids and hubby did some yard work. It's 65 outside! Hubby let the kids take control of the leaf blower and needless to say they had a little bit to much fun with it this afternoon. I don't think any real 'work' was accomplished.

Their goal was to get the leafs to the backyard near the burn pit. However the leafs really didn't get any where. At first they were just blowing the leafs with the leaf blower....towards the back yard, but seeing there is only one blower and two children they decided to come up with this lovely but not every practical way to work together.

Web-Princess blowing leaves into the wheelbarrow. 

Yep, that's right they decided to blow the leafs into the wheelbarrow. Web-princess was able to get some leafs up into the wheelbarrow.

However after getting a few in she would try to blow more and end up blowing the leafs out of the wheelbarrow. Hubby decided to let them be and after an hour of doing this and getting nowhere they put away all the tools and told hubby they were done for today! HA-HA.

Hubby in his wisdom told the kids that was fine and thanked them for their help.  While the kids were playing working I told hubby that in a few minutes you should have them do the work for real. He said no, I'll just let them be today. Sometimes it's just better to see them have fun then worrying about if it's done "correctly".  We'll get the yard later. Besides I told Superstar I would play some yu-gi-oh with him and he's already been waiting long enough today for that. I rather do that with him then worry about the yard right now.

Growing A Willow Tree

One of DH's all time favorite tree is the willow tree. He has always said that he wanted one.  I started to question what are willow tree seeds? Seeing we know we where we can find some at a few public parks and other areas.  My thinking was if we knew what the seeds looked liked or when they seeded we could get some and just grow a willow tree.

A few weeks ago we were @ my mom's house. My step sister was there and we asked her if she happen to know. She said I think you can take a branch, a cutting, and it will grow. So with that I asked my mom if I could borrow her computer to look it up. Seeing there was a willow tree there that we could take a branch or two from it that turn out to be the case.

It was clear that yes, a cutting or broken branch can and will indeed grow and take root for MOST willow tree varieties. Of all the different varieties there are only 2 of them can not be cultivated in this matter. So with that we took a few small branches of the tree that was available to us.

I came home and place it in some water. We have noted the leaves are starting to dry out and fall off. I thought perhaps it didn't work but today we noted there are roots starting to grow off the branches.

In about a week we'll transfer the branches to a pot with soil and leave it  inside for the winter. We think we'll keep them in a pot until they are bigger and then transfer the biggest strongest one to the yard and give away the other ones if they all make it that is!

Frog and Toad

We had a little visitor in our yard over the weekend. Seeing this little toad (both pictures are of the same toad) gave me a chance to explain to the kids the difference between Frogs and Toads. Even DH learned a thing or two.

While observing the toad DS was able to point some thing out on him that he seen on the virtual frog dissection. DH was impressed!

Give Them A Box!

They even at 7 and 8 still enjoy playing with a box. I even got into it! LOL (note to self don't let DH know where the camera is LOL). At what age do they find a box not so entertaining? Any ideas?

School Room! I wish!

Several of the (homeschooling) blogs I follow have been showing of their homeschooling rooms! Oh how lovely, clean, and organized they are! It is a real blessing to have a space for ONLY homeschooling. Then there are homeschooler like me! Not so well organized, cluttered, and cramped for space! (Please see pass the clutter and dirty counters. Thank-you)

This is my living room that holds most of our homeschooling materials: The only thing really missing from these 2 pictures is the wall where our front door and couch are on and part of the wall that has our fireplace (that would be the wall with the wood paneling). In the one picture where the desk chair is right next to me is where the front door is...

This is the kitchen that has the table that the kids work at time to time, and that little corner I call "my office":There really isn't much more to the kitchen other then the counter, sink, and stove. They are all on the 2 walls that are not shown.

Both rooms are about 14x13. So there you have it. As you can see we don't have a "school room", but we are still able to homeschool the children. Please see pass the clutter! I'm trying to find a system/way of decluttering! I'm not every good at "housework" if anything that would be my real weakness when it comes to homeschooling and being a housewife. When I try things are great! When I don't try it gets overwhelming! There really isn't much more to the house other then a cluttered laundry room, if you can even call it a "room", it's more like a closet. An average size bathroom and 3 average size bedrooms. Then again with 950 sq. feet, there isn't going to be much more.

What I lack in "housing" space I make up for "yard" space! All of the back yard pictures where taken from my back door (the kitchen door). The red line that I "drew" into each picture is to help show where the property line is.

Looking to the rightLooking straight outLooking to the leftThat big old dog in the one picture is our dog Gravy! Yes his name is Gravy. When he was a puppy he looked more like a pile of mash potatoes with brown gravy on him. Thus we named him Gravy! He is 6 year-old! Here is one more picture of the Gravy.Gravy is a lab and collie mix and weighs nearly 90 lbs! He thinks he's some kind of "lap dog" and is always trying to sit in our laps! LOL

One last note regarding the yard: I WISH I knew how to garden! I have more then enough space for a garden (as you can see). I just don't know HOW!! LOL That would be the other department that I lack in! At least my kiddos (including the dog) have room to RUN; even with a large garden there would be room to RUN! LOL Perhaps some day I will learn how to garden.