released

Well.... after a little research this week, we learned this: "In nature, larger tadpoles in crowded conditions produce growth inhibitors in their droppings which when eaten by other tadpoles, stunt their growth".

This could very well explain their recent cessation of growth... it is possibly just what I had suspected. Overpopulation! We had too many tadpoles in our 10 gallon aquarium.

So today, H and I brought about 60 tadpoles back to their origins (where we got the eggs from) to be released. Which was fine because we never intended to grow this many into frogs!

There they go, into the lake where their mama (possibly) still resides. It has warmed up dramatically since a couple of months ago when we collected the eggs. It almost felt icy back then!

click to view larger

While there, one of the first things we spotted was this slithery guy. He was really big! I have looked him up and I think he's either a brown newt or a Pacific Giant Salamander. He didn't have any markings from what I could see through the murky lake sediment, so I remain unsure. Hopefully most of our little tadpoles will be able to dodge him if he happens to think they look like a good snack!


A view of the lake about 15 minutes from town. It's quite serene there, beautiful natural surroundings with no city noise, just the wind, birds and other critters chirping and calling.

H was quite happy to see her "babies" go to their home, knowing we've kept a few behind at our home to hopefully watch grow into frogs now with all the space and food they need!

early summer days

Just a few early summer days, in snapshots....

S and H have discovered the joy of using the staple gun and stuffing things to make them 3-dimensional. I have a new appreciation for the seemingly superfluous cotton ball (the stuffing).

We are watering the gardens and watching them grow, ever so slowly this year. We rescued a new (to us) terracotta strawberry pot from the recycling center and then a couple of (2 for 1) boxes of strawberry plants they were clearing out at the garden center. Hopefully this super cheap and easy little project will yield a good little crop of berries for us, maybe even for a few years before the clay eventually crumbles.

Spent the evening, just the kids and I, adventuring along the river of a local park. The longest days of the year are certainly my favorite. The kids agree. The hours of play (and tree hugging) time of each day has been seriously extended!

The art of blanket fort building. It started out small, but this only inspired the kids to go big! It wasn't long before K thought it would be a great idea to set up the tent we use for camping instead!
Since we're heading out for our first camping trip of the season in less than 2 weeks, I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to practice setting it up again (it was easier than I remember it being last year - yay!). Hours of soft toy - pet shop - horse stable play ensued....


We continue to observe for changes in the tadpoles.... We've had reports back from the other families who took some tadpoles from us that theirs are much larger and growing much faster. This has me perplexed (since none are dying and all seem happy and active). I can only deduce that we have too many in too small of space, which is making the water toxic too quickly (too much poop!) to be healthy and there is too much competition for food. This week we'll release a good number and see what happens. We also started sprinkling in fish flakes as I was told they like them. Stay tuned.

Ah, and the Donvier. Grandma scored this hand crank Donvier Chillfast ice cream maker second-hand (I think it was $5) and sent it to us in a parcel. It absolutely rocks! First we made vanilla and it is agreed that it's the best we ever had. The recipe used a perfect combination of milk and cream, rather than all cream (in the ice cream we made with a friend's electric mixer previously we used 100% cream and it was far too rich for me).

This week tried coconut milk ice cream. We are definitely all preferring the dairy as the coconut lends itself to a slimy texture on the tongue but it was an interesting and FUN experiment to say the least....



What can I add to this?
Oh, trips to the water park on the few occasions that it's been warm enough.
Pulling horsetail from the gardens non-stop (K is on a mission and S has also recently joined in the battle!).

Reading Hardy Boys mysteries (currently finishing "What Happened at Midnight?), which keep us all on the edge of our seats in a fun and exciting way without giving anyone nightmares. They're also incredibly rich in vocabulary which I myself find as a welcome change and challenge! We're both getting good at deducing word meanings by paying close attention to the context in which they're being used (because neither of us can stand to interrupt the flow of a suspenseful story with trips through the dictionary!).
Researching and thinking up our own good camping meals and snack ideas.... there are so many great sites for this online so I'll leave you with a few good links:

Camping Food Ideas (Complete Family Guide - recipes and ideas)
Simply Frugal (camping food recipes ideas)
Canadian Canoe Routes (camping food recipes and ideas)

That's enough goodness for now!

a favorite sweet treat

This is a traditional Mennonite treat the kids can make
together very easily. It's delicious but very sweet so we
don't make it too often but when we do, we sure enjoy it!
I love the more tart fruits like plums or sour cherries
which balance out the sweetness perfectly.
Today S and H helped me make it with last  summer's
Italian plums from our freezer.

Batter

1/2 cup    butter
1/2 cup    sugar
2              eggs
1 tsp.       vanilla
2 cups     flour
2 tsp.       baking powder

3/4 cup     milk

2-4 cups  fruit (fresh or frozen, not canned; good ones are Italian plums,
blackberries, peaches, strawberries and rhubarb, sour cherries... )

Cream butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla.
Combine dry ingredients in separate bowl and mix into creamed mixture
alternating with milk. The batter should be thick enough to spread, not pourable.
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, spread batter about
1 cm thick covering the whole sheet.
Arrange fruit on top however you like.

Topping (Rübel)

1 cup    flour
1 cup    sugar
1/2 cup  butter

Sprinkle rübel all over fruit and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
To brown the top, at the end of 30 minutes turn oven on broil and watch carefully.
Broil until golden (only takes a couple of minutes).


Today we had the bonus of having some leftover vanilla ice cream we
made this week to add on the side!
They were perfect together.

My variations and conversions are originally based on a recipe I found online several years ago.

long overdue update!

Well, where to begin? According to the ministry, the "official" home learning year has come to an end but the kids of course just keep learning and living and playing; art lessons, gymnastics, park and beach days, day trips to the big city or elsewhere out of town, plus lots of playing in the sandbox and on our inflatable bouncy thing have kept the kids and I all very busy. I anticipate much more of the same over the next few months, plus camping trips, loads of canning and preserving, some major and minor home renovations (indoor and out), some annual festivities to partake in here and a very special girl's 4th birthday coming up.... Whew!

And as for the little wrigglers... if anyone has been wondering about their status, they are doing great!

photo taken today - day 72

They have grown and changed slowly but surely over the last month or so. We keep the tank freshened up with water from a local stream and a fresh lettuce leaf once in a while and they happily wriggle around munching and dozing and growing and.... pooping! They poop constantly. We keep checking each day for signs of erupting back legs but nope.... just more poop. Legs should not be far off though (we hope!). It's great to finally be able to see their mouths opening and closing as they munch down on bits of lettuce.


I've given a couple of batches of the taddies to a couple of other home learning families and we still have far more than we will be able to manage when they start developing legs and needing to be fed a carnivorous diet, so soon we'll be releasing a good number of them back to their origins, keeping a dozen or so at home to raise into full-fledged froglets.

first beach day of the season

We had our first truly full-day beach outing of the year, joined by friends, today.

racing to beat the tide!

There was plenty of frolicking in the sand, wave-jumping, tidal pool exploring, walkie-talkie conversing, adventuring, discovering, happy play and deep relaxing...

hermit crab trying on a clam shell for size

Also bike riding and snacking on lots of yummy food.

off for a ride!

It was so nice to set up "camp" for the day and just kick back and let the kids be wild. Rathtrevor is a particularly favorite and comfortable place for us to do that, a definite please-all day, with something for everyone and plenty of space for all.

knocking just enough to crack but not enough to lose the juice - it's an art form I'm sure

We even ended the day on a tropical note with fresh coconut, which K and S cracked open and we all savored. We are a totally nuts for coconut family!

One of the yummiest coconuts we've ever had!

things are looking busy...

Another update....

We are so excited! Almost all of the tadpoles in the jelly mass have hatched and are looking healthy and active. I'm pretty amazed with the whole process so far and in a bit of disbelief that we have over a hundred wriggling tadpoles on our hands after thinking we'd lost most of them. Doubting Thomas that I was.

taddie update

OK, scratch what I said in the last post. Apparently things are just fine in the aquarium, we've just checked and there are suddenly at least 50 little swimmers wiggling happily to and fro... and by the looks of it, more are to follow soon. The kids' interest just ramped up a few notches, with K saying "now THIS is getting exciting!". We may just have a tankful of froglets yet!

swimmers!

Four days after the last tadpole update, we observed some of the tadpoles begin the process of wiggling free from their jelly surroundings. 6 days later (as of today), out of the entire mass of about 100+ eggs, about 12 have successfully left the mass and are now spending most of their time clinging to the side of the aquarium or a rock and occasionally swimming about. The rest of the mass has turned green with algae and has sunk, rather lifeless looking, to the bottom.

the first tadpole to hatch and attach itself to the side of the aquarium

I am concerned about the oxygen content in the water and haven't been able to find any information about whether they need something to oxygenate the water or not. I remember years ago coming across a stagnant pool of water, created by rain on some solid rock formations, and it was loaded with big, fat, healthy looking tadpoles. Where they had hatched from their eggs, there were no plants, no water movement, nothing special at all and yet they were thriving. I am left puzzled as to why ours have had such a high mortality rate under nearly identical conditions.

using its pointy head and rapid swishing of its tail to wiggle from from its jelly encasement

Anyway, the ones that did hatch are surviving quite nicely so far. We've read that while they are small, they live mostly on tiny particles of plants and algae. We've been feeding them the suggested frozen, then thawed, then mushed up, lettuce leaves. We haven't witnessed them eating anything yet and wonder if it is some time before they need to or if they just don't like the lettuce. Time will tell, I suppose. So far we haven't even been able to make out anything resembling a mouth on them so maybe it is just early still.

taking it easy

The main objective for today, after I worked at the elections for 16 hours yesterday, was to get us all outside for some sun and fresh air. Nothing else sounded better than that to any of us, and since the weather decided to cooperate, that is what we did. Simple, easy, relaxing, fun, freedom.

checking out shells and sun-bleached crab claws

discovering piles of purple starfish against a backdrop of green seaweed - beautiful!

(click to view larger)

admiring a variety of Inukshuks that someone had recently had fun building

crabs - I think H prefers holding the dead and dried up ones to the live, pinching ones

it's hard not to notice the beauty of the yellow lichen on gray stone

a little rock exploring and testing (theirs and my) comfort zones ;-)

The kids were invigorated and then later, exhausted, as S works through the process of eliminating his afternoon nap.... So now it's time for bed.

embracing language

"store"

One of the kids' favorite activities when the weather improves is creating an entire "town" with chalk on the driveway and then "driving" through it on their bikes. This can take up the better part of a day if it's really warm and dry out. Usually "town" includes a store, a parking lot, a large green space with trees, a lake (with fish for pretending fishing) and a police station so that they can take turns being the police officer and catching each other speeding or running through stop signs (!)...

More evidence of K's interest (as well as his progress) in learning to read and spell... This week I observed him phonetically sounding out words like in, store, park, out, stop and writing them in chalk where he wanted them in the chalk "town". This is very new for him and completely self-propelled and natural.

Every single time I see examples like this I get so excited. I can't help feeling wonder and awe each time I witness him joyfully immersed in his own learning process in ways that are meaningful to him. For me it's feels no different than the giddiness and excitement I felt watching him as a toddler stand up and take his first, very own steps.

It seems to me that his motivation to read and write comes from the same source as learning to walk, talk, eat on his own... He is driven solely by wanting to explore, enjoy and get along in the world he was born into. In our society, he sees words around him constantly. He hears them being broken apart and put back together, being played with, sculpted into story and song, labeling things he wants to know more about... They are as much of a part of his world as are water and air. And he simply can't help but want to absorb, understand and use them as he grows....

And even though now we can see the "evidence" of his learning with examples like this, I'm sure his "first steps" toward reading, writing and comprehending language began long, long ago...