Biodynamic Gardening and Composting

Biodynamic gardening is a work in progress!  There is so much to learn.  We are starting off with a compost pile, built according to biodynamic principals.  Mommy took a workshop at Steiner College and got to see some large compost piles in action at Raphael Garden.

At home, we created our own pile with layers of straw, manure, greens, and lime/ash.  Soon, we will add the biodynamic preparations to it.

Straw

Manure

Greens

Lime/Ash

The kids helped shovel, cut and cover the pile. 

Once or twice per week, we check and record the temperature using a really long thermometer. We are hoping that the pile will get to around 130 degrees F.

Signs of decomposition!  Mushrooms, bugs, earthworms.... 

We drew about composting in our Main Lesson Books, showing how we layered the pile, the stages of decomposition, and the biodynamic preparations.

Next, we learned about the Zodiac and drew a wheel showing days that are good for planting and harvesting.

The Astro-Calendar is helping us learn more about when to sow and harvest.

More biodynamics to come....

Genista Caterpillars & Scotch Broom Plant

Genista caterpillar (Uresiphita reversalis) Pyralid Moth feeding on Scotch Broom

While trimming vines and bushes the other day in the yard, the kids noticed that one of the bushes was covered with caterpillars!

We weren't sure what type of caterpillars they were, so we found out the type of plant...Scotch broom. It grows wild throughout California, and it's a plant that we've used for dyeing. Then, we did some research to find out what caterpillars like to eat broom and ended up learning about the genista caterpillar.

Some websites claim that the genista is a "pest" and can defoliate complete bushes and trees in some parts of the US. After observing the caterpillars for a week, we realized that to us, they are not a pest, and although they have been hungrily munching away at the leaves, the bush still has a lot of leaves.

Now, the caterpillars are moving slowly and they have made some interesting-looking webs. We will continue to watch them, hoping to catch the final phase when they become moths! A wonderful person on flickr.com who had pictures of genista told us that the moths will come out of the cocoons at night.

We decided to wait and trim the bush once the caterpillars have become moths. Then, we will take the timmed branches and dye with them, as broom makes a lovely green-yellow color for our handspun yarns!

Potato Harvesting!

Ricky carefully harvesting potatoes

This week, we harvested baskets full of potatoes from the garden. We didn't even know that you could grow potatoes in California! What a delight to dig around and hunt for them. We studied different types of roots this year, so it was fun to find roots that we can also eat!

Yay! We found another one!

Wilson hard at work

Basket full of potatoes (basket woven by Daddy)

We've also been harvesting some tomatoes, onions, yellow squash, zucchinis, cucumbers and string beans.

In the next few months, we are hoping to have pumpkins, scallions, chard, bell peppers, citrus fruit, figs and watermelon. We love gardening by the creek in our back yard.

Homemade Botany Books

Separate from our science main lesson books this past school year, Ricky, Joey and Wilson each made their own Botany Books.

We tore pieces of watercolor paper and used Stockmar watercolors to design our covers. Mommy cut some white paper to fit the books and punched two holes at the top of them.

We each made a "twizzler" out of yarn and tied the tops of the books.

The botany books contain a table of contents, sketches of plants from our yard and the UC Davis arboretum, names of plants, and poems/quotes about plants.

We observed the apple tree in our backyard all year. Once per month we sketched the same branch. Finally, there are little apples this month!

The bulbs we planted at a homeschooling bulb planting clinic in October bloomed throughout the spring. We sketched some of our bulbs as they grew.

We will continue to add sketches, information and poems to our botany books as we explore our new yard.

Light, Energy, and Mysterious Fowl

refracting laser light

Our kids may be on spring break but opportunities for learning never cease! We decided to spend an afternoon at the Explorit Science Center in Davis, CA. Our first order of business was to enjoy a lunch buffet in the dorm dining commons at University of California at Davis (UCD). Jennifer and I both graduated from there and have always enjoyed delicious meals when we were residents on campus. So we keep coming back for more to share the culinary joy with our kids, along with lots of hungry college students!

On the way to the dining halls, we spotted this mysterious wild fowl near one of the dorms. We discovered that it was a guinea hen. We have never seen one on campus before and now knowing they are native to Africa, we could only wonder as to how they got there. UCD has a top-notch veterinary school and the campus is surrounded by farmland, wetlands, and other natural habitats, so maybe the guinea hens were in fact residents of the area.

a guinea hen running fast

Just a mile or two from campus is the Explorit Science Center. This small non-profit science center rotates exhibits on the biological sciences and the physical sciences, and we enjoy periodic visits to learn from their fun, child-friendly, interactive displays. Ricky has been studying about the properties of light, so the timing was perfect to see their most current exhibit on light and energy.

a magnifying glass and prism at home

A curtained display allowed for the manipulation of a a beam of laser light as it traveled through prisms and bounced off mirrors. Another display called Newton's Cradle demonstrated the law of the conservation of energy, and the difference between kinetic and potential energy. A series of light bulbs, LEDs, compact fluorescent, incandescent, and halogen, compared the electrical usage of each of these household items. (LEDs - light-emitting diode bulbs, were the most energy efficient, using only 4 watts of energy compared with an incandescent at about 60 watts.) A cool kit on circuits enabled us to create some simple devices that turned on bulbs, played music, and sounded a police siren. Other displays allowed us to figure out which materials were good conductors of heat and electricity, and which materials were good insulators. Along with the rotating exhibits, the center maintains fixed exhibits as well that the kids enjoy returning to.

hmm, which light is most efficient?

setting up a circuit board

a camera that views object up close

static electricity

viewing animation on a zoetrope

We had a pleasant afternoon learning about light and energy. Lunch was yummy and filling. Now I am wondering, what are those guinea hens up to at this very moment?