Homeschooling The Well Prepared Child

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday #1

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I was going to try to do one of those "Wordless Wednesdays" you see on other blogs. You know, when they post one picture and it pretty much explains it all. No words needed. Sometimes there are pictures and other stuff I would like to share with you, but they really do not equal a whole blog post. But.. Apparently, I am not a wordless type of gal! :D

I do want to share my salad for lunch today with you. Although, I used a bagged salad mix, (lettuce just refuses to grow for me, and when it does, it is bitter) the sugar snap peas and cherry tomatoes are fresh from our garden! We are not getting a whole lot of peas, (I think it is the crazy Texas heat) but we have gotten several snacks from our plant.

The cherry tomatoes have produced like crazy and we have enough to munch on while walking about the property, AND we have a small bowl of them sitting on the counter. Zoey gathers them for us every other day. Do you remember my cherry tomato plant that was in the 5 gallon bucket? It got so big we had to transplant it into the ground. It is not so big and beautiful anymore, but it still produces yummy tomatoes!
So that is about it! While I go eat my salad, I am going to head on over to the Homestead Blog Hop and see what's happening! Come join me!

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Saturday, June 6, 2015

Catching Crawdads

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We were finishing up in the garden the other day, when Zoey decided she wanted to go walking with her dad. He always walks our property once or twice a day. I told her to go ahead while I dumped our buckets filled with garden weeds into the compost bin. I could hear them talking over by the creek, but, when I turned back around, Zoey was no where to be seen. Mike was pointing into the creek, and I could hear Zoey's excited squeal. What on Earth is she doing down in the creek?

No it does not look like this anymore.
It is back to being a trickle with sides that are 6 foot high.

Like this...

This is what we are used to our creek looking like in spring. It is just a run off tributary that empties into the larger creek. Even it does not hold water all through out the summer months.

So what is Zoey doing down in the creek? Crawdad fishing! My hubby had spotted a few little ones while they were walking around. Zoey jumped in to see if she could catch a few. She called for me to come down. At first I said I would not come down into the creek and play in the mud! Then I thought about it.. Play in the mud for a bit? Why not? Off came my shoes, and I climbed down the embankment.

She caught one with a bottle and another one with her hands. I actually grabbed the second crawdad up with my hands first. I have to admit, I freaked out a little and tried to sling it into the bucket. It missed and went floating down the creek back towards Zoey. She caught it and managed to make it into the bucket even though she was freaking out the whole time as well. :)

Can you see the crawdad?

Sitting on the bridge, talking about me freaking out when I touched it.
She admitted she was scared as well.

No, Zoey, we can not keep them...

Brother came home from work and walked down to see what all the fuss was about.

He showed us there was nothing to be afraid of when holding it.

EEEKKKK! Get it away from me!

See, it doesn't hurt. Just freaks you out at first!

Zoey and I got back in the creek to look for more. I'm sure us running around and splashing scared all the rest off. Did we eat them? NO! Not only were they too small, they are gross! (Okay, so I have never tried them, they just seem gross to me. Several of my friends say I am crazy and they are amazing, but I just... no... no thank you!) Our favorite Chinese restaurant serves them on their buffet. Alex loves them, I think Zoey has eaten them, but I just can not bring myself to try them.
I guess in a survivalist situation, we at least know where another source of food is, right on our own property. Cool fact I read about is that they can not live in polluted water. If you see crawdads, you know the water is safer than most. Although, Wikipedia says there is a hardier species that can withstand more pollution than the others. You can read more about crawdads HERE.

Crawdads? Crayfish? Crawfish? What do you call them? We love your comments!

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Calm After The Storm

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Photo credit goes to my Amazingly Awesome Neighbor, Bree.

I hear my town was on the news for last night's storm damage. My son happened to be in town when it hit. He is 19 and had rode to town with me earlier to go to his friends house. I had to come back a few hours later and would just pick him up then. Hey, saves gas! As soon as the worst of it was over, I went to go get him. So many downed large trees in the streets, I had to detour several times just to get to his friends house.

The little seasonal creek. On the other side is land. You can see the walk bridge behind the bush on the right. The water is washing over the bridge.

The road in front of our house. This is where the main creek starts to enter our property before converging with the little seasonal creek that runs through our property.

Next day aftermath. A tree had come down, completely across the road. We could hear them cutting it up to move off the road.

You would not believe the actual size of this trunk. If my husband and I tried to reach around it, our fingertips would barely meet.

There are also trees down all over around my property and on our neighbors. The wind we got last night just pushed many right over. Healthy trees, falling because the ground is so saturated the roots have nothing to hold on to. Roads are flooding over. Although the rain is a blessing to our drought ridden state, we have had more than enough in a very short period of time.
When the wind and rain came in, the electric went out nearly immediately. My husband had been watching the weather channel all day and had warned me of the severe storms coming in. We were prepared.

While others in town were scrambling for dinner and candles, my family ate a pork roast that had been slow cooking since that morning. We ate in the garage with the big door open for light and watched the rest of the lightening storm go by. We played cards there until we could not see anymore, came inside and lit my oil lamps.

We got in a discussion about our G.O.O.D. bags and my daughter got hers out. We organized it and changed out her clothes. We all talked, laughed, and told stories. I drank coffee that I had made right before the storm hit. (I have to have my nightly coffee!) It stayed warm by our tuna can burner. When we were ready for bed, I brought in our out door solar garden lights so we could see just enough to not stumble around in the dark.

The electric came on right before midnight. It had been off for 8 hours. I did not worry about the food in the fridge or freezer. We keep large jugs of frozen water in my big freezer just for these times. I pulled a few out and placed them in my refrigerator and freezer compartments. It helped to keep everything cool and frozen. I'll write more on that another time.
So that was our night. While being prepared does not keep things from happening at your house, it sure does make the aftermath a bit more pleasant.

Praying for all those that were affected by this storm all over Texas and the U.S..