Several Poems (About Stuff)

This was the title of a poetry book Lasborn wrote this year. It came home with a bunch of end-of-year papers he wanted to burn. Luckily, I saved it.

I wish I was a floating nose
off someones face
shooting snot at my enemies
hardly


If I were an animal
I'd be a rock
If I were a car
I'd be a jeep
If I were a city
I'd be Delaware
If I were a river
I'd be the Huan river in Korea
If I were a pet
I'd be something with 56 heads, 72 eyes and 68 legs and arms
If I were food
I'd be chili
If I were a planet
I'd be Uranus
If I were a board game
I'd be Munchkin
If I were a building
I'd be the Sears Tower
If I were a famous person
I'd be Jon BonJovi
If I were a sport
I'd be sitting on my butt doing nothing


Munchkin
humorous, funny,
door busting, stealing, stabbing
You must have the Mace of Sharpness
fun

Garlic Scapes

This week's farmer's market find for the Iron Chef Project is garlic scapes. Our friend at the Hungry Toad offered me some last year and I loved them. This year, Lastborn picked them to experiment with along with a package of Kale that his dad will help him cook. Dad's got a way with Kale that mom just can't match.

I gave Lastborn a piece of raw scape to try and he found it way too spicy for him. So I chopped some to put on top of Firstborn's ramen noodle lunch (I will get him to eat his veg). Firstborn was very pleased with the garlicky spice, but Lastborn won't go near them raw.

We then chopped them up and sauteed them with mushrooms and olive oil. Then added some broth and at the last minute added some washed pea pods. Yum.

In fact, I got so many scapes, I've been adding them to lots of things. I think they would be particularly good in that chive dip we did last week for the last Iron Chef Project.

Sadly, scape season goes by too fast and we will probably have to wait 'till next year to try the pesto.

Proof of concept

So this spring, I built a water collection system to irrigate my new side garden. The garden runs down the hill along the back side of my house.

As illustrated in this picture, the collection system is simply a garbage can with a spigot at the bottom. It rests on two cinder blocks to hold it higher and to give room to place a watering can below the spigot.

At the top, I've installed another piece of gutter to redirect overflow into the existing rainwater runoff channel. In the winter, the bucket can be removed to the garage, and the downspout s-bend can be removed and replaced with a direct downspout into the runoff redirect.

Unfortunately, because our gutters are very clogged right now, it has taken me two months to fill up the bucket. We are having our gutters cleaned this week, so I decided to set up the soaker hoses I will use for the garden and open the spigot to test whether the full bucket will drive soaker hoses. My hope was that the pressure of the full bucket with the downward slope of the garden would be enough to drive the soaker hoses.

These pictures show the relationship of the collection bucket to the garden.

And here it is, the proof. Look at those little droplets on the hose and the puddle underneath. We have irrigation!!!

Teacher Gifts

Dear Mrs. J,

First, I would like to sincerely apologize for what you are about to see. I have read in several reliable publications, that teachers like receiving gifts that are made by their students. I don’t think those writers ever had Lastborn as a student though.



I have mentioned that Lastborn discovered cooking this year and that he got a book called the Everything Kids: Gross Cookbook. Well, he chose to bake cookies from that recipe book. He chose to bake Trolls Toes for you. They are a bit too graphic for my liking but they do taste good. If you don’t have the stomach to try these, I understand. Maybe you can bring them to the teacher’s lounge and share with the staff just what you have been through with Lastborn.



Thank you so much for all you have done for Lastborn this year. His time at W has done a lot for his confidence, and every year he seems to get better and better teachers. Enjoy your summer.


Casey and Lastborn

The Iron Chef Project

Every summer, I try to have a goal for me and the kids. Something we can look back on with pride, or at least good memories. The first summer, it was visiting places in Ohio that we had never seen.

Last year, it was about participating in camps.

For Lastborn, it will be the Iron Chef Project. This was Miss T's idea really, but Lastborn came up with the name and is very excited about the idea. We will attend our local farmer's market every Thursday and buy one item that is new to him - something he is not familiar with. Then we have to figure out how to cook and eat it.

We started last week and he picked out chives. I bought a chive plant that I was in need of anyway. I taught him how to make His Grandma's cream cheese and chive dip. He got to cut the chives up himself and stir them in with a little milk until the cream cheese was soft. Then we even found some soy cream cheese so that he can enjoy this treat more often. He loved it and carried it to school with crackers for snack.

I showed Lastborn all the herbs in my garden last week and let him smell and taste them. Now, when we are cooking, I can send him outside to cut me some fresh herbs when we need them.

So what will we find at the market next week?