Old Testament Block 3rd Grade

Here are Erin's paintings of the first six days of Creation, she really enjoyed painting these! At the moment she is busy with the story of Ruth. We'll post more on this later in the week.

My most recent farmyard order

Today, I am sharing another aspect of my life with you that I enjoy so very much, and that is creating these precious little characters! Each one has their own special look and personality and are truly treasured by those they belog to!

They are all knitted in pure Merino sheep wool and are all filled with pure fleece, they are soft and warm when held and are just so special.

This order has been completed for a special friend.

Thank you all so much for reading my blog, I so look forward to all the comments that you leave for me to read and even though you are really far from here, your thoughts are treasured....

Botany and Old Testament Blocks

This week Jenna has been learning about the grasses.....



When we were learning about Monocots, we learned that an Agapanthus plant was also a Monocot, ( this means that when the plant emerges from the bulb or seed, there is just one leaf, in Dicots, there are two that emerge),



In Charles Kovaca's book, Botany, (which is absolutely fantastic, by the way!!), he compares the flowers to butterflies and a monocotyledon, like an Agapanthus for example, could represent a butterfly, Jenna built a butterfly from an Agapanthus flower. The petals are the wings, the stamens are the antennae and legs and the ovary is the abdomen.






The rose, which is the perfect higher plant, beautiful with a beautiful scent is a Dicotyledon and is very special. If looking at the geometry of a dicotyledon, the rose, we found that it has five sepals that hold the petals and five main petals that surround the flower and many more petals but always in groups of five, thus if one had to draw these five points from the sepals we would be able to draw a five pointed star! In monocotyledons, like the Daffodil for instance, these have 6 points, because there are 6 petals. We have learned so much this week and have decided that we love Botany, so many discoveries.....





Erin is busy with her 3rd Old Testament Bolck and today she painted the letters in the Hebrew alphabet. We cut out paper and she painted it red and then she copied most of the letters with paint and these will be placed in her book that we are making for her block.

Our Wine is Finally Ready!

Here is our finished product!

When I started my blog in March this year we were busy harvesting grapes to make wine. Today we finally bottled and corked our wine, we also made labels for it and our children have been involved throughout the process, learning about fermentation etc.. It has been a great learning experience for everyone in our family. We have decided to make wine again next March and it will be a family tradition that we will all look forward to each year.


Here are some more photos of the decantering and corking process.






This is the corking device, we had to soak our corks in boiling water to soften them for a few minutes, then a thin piece of gut is inserted into the bottle neck before the cork goes into the bottle, the cork is then pushed into the bottle and once it is in, the gut is pulled out and this allows for trapped air to be released.

Today we bottled twenty bottles of wine and we still have enough wine for about twenty more, it tastes really great and we are quite impressed with it. It will have to stand upright for a few days and then we will lie it on its side so that the corks will not dry out and they will constantly be in contact with the wine which is important. We even made our own labels.

Have a great week ahead.....

Our Garden after the rains....

I love the rains that arrive with Spring and Summer. During Winter, there is no rain and although we have a borehole it is not very strong. But when the rains come, like they have now, everything turns to green and grows forth beautifully!

Our Veggie and herb garden are full of new life, sprouting with mielies, onions, cucumbers, pumpkins, squash and potatoes etc...

This is our grape vine in the front garden that we made wine from in March this year, we are going to bottle it today, it was a wonderful learning process for our children and for us too.

We love our urban homestead where we live and it is becoming more self-sufficient everyday.

Have a great Sunday!