March 2018

 

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Projects!

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This school year, I've decided to try to have a “Project Day” (really, a smallish part of an afternoon) every week for Liam. It's working out fairly well – not flawlessly, but fairly well :) Liam received a couple of books for Christmas that were particularly suited to some projects that are both fun and educational. One in particular, the Rubber Band Engineer, is one of the best books for mid-sized (and up) boys I've seen. It has directions for several varieties of catapults, rubber band guns, and even simple hydraulic tools using syringes and tubing.

It's Officially Spring

(Mostly) great news on the sheep front - they are sheared, and there are babies! Last year we didn't get the sheep sheared until sometime in May, and I had to milk them fully-coated for a month or so. I did NOT want to do that again, and for several other reasons it's just better to get them sheared before they lamb. Their beginning due date was around the 1st of March, so we were getting pretty antsy to get the shearer lined up by late February. Fortunately, everything came together suddenly after weeks of playing phone tag, and the shearer came Sunday, March 4.

A New First

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When I have huge to-do lists, of things that just REALLY need to be done RIGHT NOW, I always find the motivation to do those (other) things I've been wanting to do for a long time and have never gotten around to. So, about 2 weeks ago I finally tried making liquid soap! For years I've used my plain lard bar soap to make fake liquid soap – I (or actually the boys) shred it, further cure/dry it on sheet pans in the oven for days/weeks (until I need to use the oven), then zap it in the food processor and store it for when I need it to make laundry soap powder.