Montshire and King Arthur

On Sunday, as one last hurrah before sending the boys back to school, I took them on a little day trip.  We went to the Montshire Museum in Norwich.

Below, Wayne and Cole learn about artificial joints.  On the right is an example of a knee replacement.  Maybe that's what Wes's knee will look like someday.

An example of turbulence.  The photos on the wall behind them are examples of how turbulence affects different things.

Cole looks at himself on the monitor of an infrared camera.

Making giant bubbles.

Wayne uses the elevator bike. It demonstrates the amount of energy needed to raise an elevator full of stuffed animals.  He pedalled like crazy, but it went up very slowly.

A honey bee hive.  The hive is inside the museum, but the bees can come and go outside as they please through the tube.  We found the queen on the picture to the right. Can you?

Remember about a month ago when we found that horrendous insect in our pond called the Giant Waterbug?  Well we found it here at the Montshire too.  We had the privilege of seeing it magnified about a million times.  Freaky.

Wayne and Cole loved the fog machine. They kept going back to it.

After a while, we took a little break from the museum to go to the King Arthur Flour Company for lunch.  I could spend hours in there browsing their merchandise.  And the smell of fresh baked bread - like walking into heaven.

King for a day and lunch on King Arthur's lawn.

Aftarwards, back to the museum to see the outdoor exhibits.

There are many nature trails to explore.  This is the view I had of Wayne and Cole the whole time.

Checking out some bird calls.

Back on the main grounds, exploring the principle of water pressure. You can put those little pipes on the fountains in different configurations to see how it affects the way the water comes out of the other fountains.

Wayne disappears into the humming stone.

As you have probably guessed, Wes stayed home with Heather.  They went to Shadow Lake, which was a good place to be because it was a very hot day.

Wayne and Cole are on their 2nd day of school.  They both like their teachers and Cole likes his two new classmates.  The morning routine, however, is hard to get back into.

 Meanwhile, heather and I are enjoying some one on one time.

Open For Business

Welcome to the Grand Opening of the C&W.

Last winter or spring, Cole somehow decided he wanted to build a bookstore to sell books that he would write and illustrate himself.  I told him that sounded like a great idea, thinking that by the time summer rolled around, he would forget all about it.  He didn't forget about it, but the idea evolved and changed into something more manageable like a lemonade/farm/baked goods stand.  Wes, Wayne, Cole, and Heather have been working on building it, in dribs and drabs, all summer.

These were the original plans Wayne drew up.  Some changes were made along the way because they were using scrap lumber, but the final product is not too far from the plan.

Earlier this month, giving it a questionable coat of primer.

and paint.

On Friday night, Wes loaded it onto a trailer and hauled it down to the Potato Field entry.  Saturday morning the kids set up shop and waited eagerly for their first customers.  They were selling Wayne's homemade applesauce, chocolate chunk cookies, lemonade, and just because Cole still thinks of it as a "bookstore," some old books that they had all outgrown.  Our garden has produced next to nothing, so no vegetables for now. Later we might have some corn and pumpkins. They hear a car...

It drives by.

It seemed like an eternity to the kids, but after not very long really, their first customer, Ned Andrews stops for some lemonade and cookies.

They say word of mouth is the best advertising.  A few minutes after Ned goes home, Darlene Young (Ned's wife) comes rolling down the hill with her two nieces.  Afterwards, she drove right back up the hill, so I know she made a special trip down to show her support.

Business really started to pick up.  Mr. McNichols from next door stops in on his way back from recycling.  He was our best customer of the day, buying some of everything we had to offer and also leaving a very generous tip!

Some people from NY who were staying at a camp on Daniels Pond bought several things.  They were two older couples and were quite charmed with Heather's beauty.  I think they liked the whole little-kids-out-in-the-country-lemonade-stand kind of thing.

After lunch, we had visits from Becky Koenneke (who the heck knows how to spell that?!) who was working in her greenhouse across the road.  Then her husband Bill K. rode over on his lawn mower for refreshment.  Later their two teenage kids walked over and bought cookies and lemonade.  

During a lull in business, we found 3 Monarch caterpillars on milkweeds on the side of the road.  Wayne and Cole decided to sell them, 25 cents each.  Don Vincent stopped by with a woman who was visiting from CT.  The woman bought a caterpillar, although she was concerned about its survival on the trip back to CT.

Uncle Ricky made an appearance. He was on his way home from mowing at the camp. Soon after he stopped, Ernest and Cecile pulled up. They drank lemonade and chit chatted about school starting and what grades Wayne and Cole would be going into. Ernest wanted to know if their girlfriends had stopped by.  They said they didn't have girlfriends.

Nash Basom and Murial Hess stopped in after having lunch at the Runaway Pond Cafe.

We saw no sign of our neighbor Marvin, but his son Logan roared up on a 4-wheeler and bought some applesauce.

Brian Perron had driven by on Friday evening when Wes was hauling the stand down, and we were getting it set up. He promised to be a customer but must have been busy haying.  Wayne and Cole kept asking all day, "When will Brian come?"  We closed up shop for the day at about 4:00.  Shortly after that, Brian and his wife Julie pull into our dooryard, apologizing for not making it during regular business hours, but wondering if they can buy something that we might still have left. They bought cookies and applesauce, with Julie promising to bring the applesauce container back. How nice of them to make a special stop for the kids.

Many of the people who stopped reminisced about their own children's roadside stands.

All together the kids made $39.75.

When we started on this little venture, I was worried that the kids would be bitterly disappointed with the way things might turn out.  After all, there is not a heck of  a lot of traffic on this ol' road.  I guess I underestimated the kindness and generosity of our neighbors.

Apples

We have our own real-life giving tree.

Anyone know how to prune an apple tree?

Wayne and I picked all these apples.  Mostly Wayne.  He climbed up into the tree because the really good ones were up high.

Last fall, Joanie and Wayne picked apples and made homemade applesauce.  He really liked doing that and has been looking forward to doing it again ever since.  Last weekend he rode his bike over to her house and they took a walk, picking wild apples.  Then they went back to her house and made applesauce.  Now Wayne is on an apple-picking, applesauce-making kick.

 The weather conditions this summer, have apparently been good for growing apples.  They are ready about a month earlier than usual.  We love having apples growing right in our front and back yard.  Not only can we just go out and have a snack, we've been making oodles of applesauce for Wayne and Cole to sell in the "bookstore." (That's a chapter for another day.)  They both also want to have enough to take to school for snacks everyday next week. 

While these apples were cooking the whole house smelled like apples and cinnamon, apple pie, autumn.  It was amazing.

We left the peels on and strained everything afterwards.

Two big jars, just the beginning.

A yummy sample.

We all agree, so much better than store bought.

It's a Girl!

"Just living is not enough," said the butterfly, "one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower." ~Hans Christian Anderson

Our butterfly has emerged .

Yesterday we knew it was almost time because it turned from that pretty green color to transparent - we could see the monarch all scrunced up inside there.

She hung upside down for a few hours so the wings could straighten and dry.  We can tell that it's a girl because males have a black spot on one of the veins of the hind wings and females do not.

                                           

Cole was really proud.

When we thought her wings were ready, we took her outside to go free.  Cole tried to get her to climb on his finger first, but the wind made her flutter over to a corn stalk leaf.

We watched for several minutes before it flew away, high into one of the pear trees.  She has a long journey ahead of her.  Hope she makes it.

Then we found a new friend.  Meet Little Tree Frog. That's Heather's hand he's captured in. We gently observe him for a while before letting him go.