This is a wonderful animated clip to the voice of Sir Ken Robinson.  http://sirkenrobinson.com/skr/

We try each week to go on a field trip.   Lately,  the field trips have been to a couple of museums in the area that have reciprocity with one of the museums we are members of.  If a museum near you participates in the  ASTC Passport program,  I recommend joining.  There are so many museums in a couple hours drive or less for us to visit.  Plus, it is nationwide,  so if you travel you can visit other museums. 

He's in jail!

Important discussions going on here.

Right here is where a huge meteorite impacted the earth.

King for the moment!

This museum is becoming one of our favorites.  It had everything that Joshua loves.

This is not a museum, but an incredible fun place.  Joshua can not wait to go back!

Woooo hooooo!!  He and his friend ran and slid for over two hours!

On the farm:
I've been making lots of herbal soap to sell each week at the two farmers markets we participate with.  I've also been harvesting tons of nettles, goldenrod, red clover, chamomile, calendula, celery, peppermint, lemon balm, rose buds, tomatoes, potatoes, kale, basil, sage, oregano, collard greens, yellow dock root, dandelion greens, chickweed, lambs quarters, and I need to harvest so much more.  I've got to get to the burdock root soon.  I have a few more tinctures I need to make and I would like to make some  more goldenrod vinegar.  Speaking of vinegars,  we love the dandelion vinegar I made this past Spring.  We will definitely be making more of that next year.  I also plan to make some white pine vinegar too.

We were supposed to get a frost two days ago.  I ran around and covered some plants in the garden that I didn't want to loose yet....mainly the calendula and chamomile.  I harvest flowers from both these plants almost daily.  My mugwort plant is getting big enough for me to harvest some for drying.   I'm trying to decide if I'm going to make a moxa with it or use it for tea.  I want to do both but I'm not sure I have enough for both.  I do not want to take so much that I compromise my plant.

I've also been harvesting seeds.  Parsley, lemon balm, nettle, kale (two varieties), celery, mustard greens, and lettuce.     Sometimes,  when I'm feeling overwhelmed with everything I need to get accomplished, I go and sit in the middle of my medicine wheel.  It is quiet and I feel so connected to the plants.  Sometimes,  I sit and make sweet grass braids.  The sweet grass braids smell so wonderful, almost like vanilla. 

We are as busy as our bees that is for sure.  We do love it all though!

It's been so dry here this summer and fall that the leaves on the trees are already turning and falling.  I spent a lot of time yesterday harvesting apples, nettles, goldenrod, basil, peppermint, tomatoes, plantain, oregano, calendula, and lemon balm and lemon balm seeds.  I've processed goldenrod vinegar, nettle oil,  and I'm drying the rest for teas and adding to my soaps and salves.

Basket of stinging nettle.  We drink nettle tea everyday.  Nettles are high in iron, calcium, magnesium and give you great energy.

Sweet hubby has been splitting wood getting ready for the winter.  We use a wood burning boiler.

Buster Brown was being playful yesterday so we gave him a ball.

He knocked it around and even kicked it with his back legs.  Soccer with a steer anyone?

Our big field is covered in white flowers. 

We attended a special night at an observatory in honor of the moon.  They had about 10 different sized telescopes set up for us to view the moon.  When Joshua viewed the moon through the largest telescope, he said he felt like he was orbiting over the moon's craters.

You can see the moon in this photo.

Dad had to hold Joshua up to view through the main telescope.

Joshua finally got to meet another boy who is just as space crazy.  They have spoken on the phone but this was the first time they met.  They had a blast sharing their space knowledge and looking through telescopes.

Oh no! They have red alien fingers! 

We all really enjoyed ourselves.

Joshua's train design

Yesterday,  Joshua and I took the afternoon off from our regular daily life to go to one of our favorite places, the botanical gardens.  The botanical garden has a library with over 200,000 books on plants.   Joshua and I get so excited when we get there.

The library is located in this beautiful building.

Our happy boy!

We can only check out 3 books at a time and the decisions are hard.   However,  Joshua found a book for himself within in seconds and promptly sat down to go through it while I decided what other books we would bring home.    Joshua's excitement as he looked through his book was incredible.  Because we were in the library, he was whispering to me so he would not disturb other readers there.  I could hardly look at books on the shelves because he was so excited at what he was uncovering in the pages of his book.  The book is titled:  Remarkable Trees.  It is a beautiful book. 

You can see how deeply he is studying this book.  Trees, along with the Universe, and trains are all of Joshua's favorite things.  I love watching him chose to study his subjects with such intention and yes, joy!  When we can follow our passions the learning is deep and  joyful.

We sat on a bench in front of the library building and discussed the history and architecture of this magnificent building.  We talked about the history of the botanical gardens  We talked about the age of some of the massive trees at the garden. 

This small Dawn Redwood forest is one of Joshua's favorite places to visit at the garden. 

We  also lingered at an exhibit on rice, fungi, and blueberries inside the building the library is in.  There was a "tree timeline" on the wall at this exhibit and it was interesting to see the evolution of plants and trees.  We found out from the librarian that next fall they will also have an exhibit on trees.  Can you imagine the excitement of Joshua when he  heard that?  The librarian kept smiling as she engaged Joshua in conversation.   The staff at the botanical gardens in various areas remember Joshua and get so joyful when they see him.  Joy is contagious you know.  They love how passionate he is about plants and trees. They love to share their knowledge especially when it's shared with a joyful passionate student.   So many times after they speak with  him,  they look at me and say,  "you must homeschool"  They are always impressed  with his knowledge and his thirst to learn more.  They have even said to me that it is a sad that so many schooled students just don't seem to have that thirst or joy. 

On our way to the garden we stopped off at our office to bring dad lunch and wish an employee Happy Birthday!!  Joshua made a bee line for the blueprints on the conference table.  There he was with intent and joy studying. 

We talked about the blueprints at the garden when we were sitting outside the library.  The building shown on these blueprints was built about the same time the library building was built.  It was amazing how our journey to the garden took us deeply into history, architecture, genealogy, evolution, medicinal plants, trees etc.  

I have to admit that Joshua's joy and passion has showed me how I too can study with joy! 

We harvest something from the farm each day and have been all growing season.  Whether it's red clover flowers for the red clover tea we sell and drink or  simply potatoes.  I've been harvesting potatoes from a bed since August.  I take a little as we need them.  This bed was full of  volunteer potato plants that  shot up this Spring.  Obviously, I missed harvesting some potatoes last year.  The representative from NOFANY suggested strongly that I pull the plants,  put them in a plastic bag, and throw them away!   Do not compost them.   What?!  How wasteful and who needs to add to our garbage stream.  I do understand her stand,  she was concerned about the late blight that so many of us experienced last year.  My potatoes however,  did not get the blight last year.  My gut reaction said to let it be.  I did and well look at these beautiful volunteer potatoes and no blight here!

We have lots and lots of green tomatoes.  They are ripening slowly  Normally,  that would be perfect but since I sell our herbal products, plant and produce at several local farmers market it would be nice to sell these beautiful heirlooms tomatoes.  Oh well we do enjoy eating them!

A friend of mine told me this past Spring about Kale Chips.  Her son took a cooking class and learned to make them..  I am addicted to them.

Wash and dry your kale,  remove stems and tear apart.  Place on a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Drizzle with olive oil and bake at 350 until the kale is crisp.  Salt to your liking.   Delicious!!!!

In the oven baking.

Finished product with tomatoes and wonderful bread.   A perfect lunch!

We've been staying busy as usual.  This week Joshua decided he would like to start riding his ponies everyday early in the morning.  So,  he has decided to go to bed earlier so he can get up earlier.  He takes his new routine very seriously.  The first thing he does is move his turkeys.

After a quick bite to eat,  Joshua is back at the barn mucking stalls and brushing his ponies and goats.  After the chores,  we go for a ride.  He really likes this routine.

Practicing his balance

We ride both bareback and with the saddle.

While the weather is warm enough,  we swim and canoe in our pond.  It's a lot of fun and Joshua is getting better at his swimming strokes.   He's also quite good at paddling the canoe.  We've also been researching lap books and thought it would be great fun to create a few.  His first one is going to be on dinosaurs and I'm sure the next one will be meteorites.   Joshua now navigates google earth to show me the ten largest meteorite impact sites.  He really loves showing these to me.  We have a yahoo widget on our computer that tracks meteorites that miss the Earth.  This widget also counts down Apophis.  He's been talking about Apophis for a couple of years.  He is truly fascinated by our Universe.  One of his favorite TV shows is Morgan Freeman's Through the Worm Hole and Meteorite Men.  Actually,  he loves just about everything on the Science Channel, NASA, and PBS channels.  Joshua has inspired me to learn what I can about our Universe as well. 

We've been enjoying tomatoes, apples, pears, basil, kale, peppers, red clover, lemon balm, garlic, nasturtiums, parsnips, lambs quarters, potatoes and nettles. Due to my chronic lyme illness,  I did not get as much planted this summer as I would have liked.  I hope to get  three varieties of lettuce, spinach, and carrots planted this week. We are also busy harvesting seeds right now.   I have saved so far celery, curly kale,  Canadian stuffing tomatoes, and red Russian kale.

Canadian Stuffing Tomato seeds

Red Russian Kale

I've been busy creating with our soaps.

Exfoliating soap:  organic glycerin soap with organically grown calendula, parsley and organic corn meal.

Organically grown peppermint and organic glycerin soap.

More from our collection.

Our herbal soaps are  made with natural materials and certified organic oils. When possible, we use local products, like certified organic corn from a local  farm. We do not use artificial colors or chemical preservatives in any of our products.  We proudly list the ingredients of each product we make.  None of the ingredients in our products have been tested on animals.  Our products do not contain animal products except the moisturizing soap, which contains powdered goat’s milk and honey.

In a few weeks our online store will be up and running.