Old Stone House Field Trip

A few weeks ago, the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classes went on a field trip to the Old Stone House. Here, the lady is demonstrating how a root cellar was used to preserve root vegetables through the winter.

 Boys digging potatoes.

 Girls and Ben cleaning carrots in the grass. The box is a stand in for an actual root cellar.

 A lesson on textiles and weaving.

 Stencilling, a popular art form of the day.

 Heather may be twice as tall as all the kids in her preschool class, but mixed in amongst the 4th grade class, she was referred to as "that little one."  The OSH volunteers would say, "That little one is welcome to come in here and get involved too."

 Next stop, the cider press.

 Cranking to chop and grind up the apples.

 Next the apples get pressed to squeeze out the cider.

 This crank operates the press

 The cider was really good.

 The blacksmith's shop.

 Turning the air thing to make the fire bigger. Can you tell I didn't really pay much attention to the technical terminology?

 Old style dress and games.

 A ride on a stage coach.

 Fred Webster built this stage coach when he was 88. Now he's in his 90's.

 The last stop of the field trip was a hike up to the tower. I thought a lot about Aimee and Tyler and baby Caroline while we were up here.

 Later that evening, open house at preschool. Sheather showed off her classroom and some of the projects they've been working on.

 Wayne and Cole remember this playground, but now they look like giants on the equipment.

Hunter Safety and a Bike Ride

Wayne has passed his hunter safety course with flying colors. I'm not entirely comfortable with that.

 Now he will join a long line of family hunters.

 Something I'd rather think about than my 10-year-old son hunting, is this bike ride we went on a few weeks ago. It was a beautiful, warm day and the foliage was nearly at its peak.

 At one point we stopped for a water break out around Danile's Pond Rd. and Wayne noticed this heart carved into a tree.

 He also noticed this funny looking mushroom.

 I'g going to turn this photo (beow) into a poster.

Beaches and Trails

On a recent trip to Maine, Cole, Heather, and I explored some beaches and hiking trails near Gramma's house. (Wayne had to stay behind with Wes to participate in the end of the season Fall Baseball tournament, which they won.)

Lincolnville Beach.

 Hiking and Walking trails at Camden Hills State Park. That's the ocean shining through the trees.

If only all our fall days could be like this.

First Day of Preschool

Heather started preschool on Sept. 12th. She loves, loves, loves it.

 And she was the best dressed girl in a skirt that she and Joanie made together!

Wayne's Birthday

On Wayne's actual birthday, Sept. 8th, he requested raspberry pie instead of cake. Wayne's not a big cake eater.

 The raspberry birthday pie, all lit up with 10 candles.

On the weekend after his birthday, we had a party with friends from school. It was a baseball themed party.

 I tried to make it fun for girls too, so there was some t-shirt decorating.

 The main event of the party, was a wiffle ball game. Here, Dante is at bat.

Then, moving on to cake (cupcakes) and ice cream.

 the attendees, back row: Ben,  Natalie, Jordyn, Abby, Asom, Liam, Wayne, Dante. In the front: Well you know, Cole and Heather.

We had invited the whole 4th grade class. Wayne was a little disappointed that not everyone showed up. I was not disappointed.

Cole's Butterfly

Cole and Heather found this caterpillar on a milkweed at one of Wayne's fall baseball games.  We brought it home, lost it in the car, found it again, and fed it oodles of milkweed leaves until it was ready to make its transformation.  Cole watched it every moment that he could, because he wanted to see it molt into its pupa stage. It sheds its skin one last time, and underneath is what we know of as the cacoon.  He and Heather were lucky enough to see it happen. it took anout 15 minutes.

 After a couple of weeks, the cacoon turns transparent and you can see the butterfly all scrunched up inside the cacoon. That's when you know it will emerge very soon.  When we noticed its "transparency" one morning, Cole took it to school, in the hopes that his classmates would be able to see it emerge. Unfortunately, for them, it stayed in the cacoon all day. In the car on the way home, Cole was like a nervous father scolding me anxiously for every little bump our tires hit - and ther are quite a few! Maybe those bumps set thing in motion, because the butterfly emerged while riding in the car. We had to pull over by the mailbox and watch it happen. When we got back to the house, we waited for the wings to dry and straighten and then we let it go outside in the garden.

This is a male. You can tell by the dark spot on one of the veins of the hind wings in the photo below.

 Heather, turning into a photographer.

 Thanks for the learning experience little butterfly!