First the unavoidable, the schoolwork. We managed to finish up all our themes from last year and so will be starting a new theme when we start up again later in January. We will be doing the Sea and Sky Theme, from WinterPromise. It will be on science and history of the sea and sky. We like these programs as they give us a lot of choices in how we learn and provide us with lots of good books and  fun activities. Although sadly this may be the last year we use them, depending on what new programs they bring out.

On the craft front, I probably spend way too much time in front of my sewing machine, but I did achieve several quilts, some gifts and started on the gift bags, that we want ot be using from now on.

We have enough chickens at the moment, so we are not planning anymore chicks this year. Maybe next year, but we will see. They have started to get out of the orchard so we will have to upgrade the fencing quite a bit to keep them all where they are suppose to be, before they start finding the garden.

And on the subject of gardening, now that I have put the sewing machine away for a while, I am finally starting to tidy up the weeds. Production is down, due to my own neglect, but it is also picking up as well. I really like the whole chicken dome idea, and it seems to be working quite well.

The kikuya is a bit more of an issue, as the chickens managed to kill it off, but did not dig the roots up at all, so that is something that I will have to work on for some time yet.

They left us with a lovely cleared, fertilised and mulched area that was all ready for planting.

These photos were taken at the beginning of spring and shows the gardens just starting out.

This was the first circle planted, and many of the plants are due for replacement. In saying that, it provided us with fresh peas and salad greens for christmas, and is now producing cherry tomatoes beetroot, and some very beautiful cabbages right now.  I have just added some more tomatoes and spring onions but will put more in over the next couple of weeks.

This was the next circle, we have had an almost endless supply of pumpkin plants out of it, which is not so bad since most of my seeds failed to germinate this year. The pumpkins have mostly been transplanted, and I have lots of tomato plants going crazy in there. We have a few green tomatoes on them, but mostly they are just starting to flower.

We have had several meals of broccoli, and there is celery hiding under the broccoli leaves. I seems to like it under there and is doing very well. We are already eating the outer stalks while the plant is continuing  to keep us supplied with celery. The lettuces again need replacing (will probably happen today) as they are all going to seed with the hot weather.

This poor circle has sat neglected for all this time. I didn’t even get around to putting the edging on it. Yesterday I planted some bean seeds, and I have some more started in trays to go in here. I also have some more broccoli plants and well as few other things that are waiting to go in. Good to start getting some production going in here.

On a more positive note, I did get around to planting corn on the other side of the house, and it is doing really well.

It is just starting to form its top flowers so I am looking forward to getting lots of corn of it this summer.

The sheep are still here, they were shorn again at the end of last year and are running in the orchard out of the way. I haven’t decided if I will do lambs this year or not, that will have to be decided closer to march when the ram goes out.

The cows have consumed the most time this year, and also have brought us lots of pleasure and some sadness.

Liquorice is still at the neighbours after being weaned at 10 months, he is looking very good and is very settled there for now. Poor old sweetie did not take kindly to Ollie, when she lost her own calf.

We milked her up until three days ago but now we are drying her off.

Little Ollie seems to only be loved by Murray, but is doing well sneeking feeds from Daisy while Murray is feeding.

He is still much smaller, but is certainly not hungry at all. We will continue to have Daisy feed both the calves for another few months before we wean them off. If she starts to lose too much weight we may take Ollie off sooner, but again to be decided later.

Daisy loves being a mum to her own baby, but will only tolerate Ollie. She has slimmed down quite a lot now that she is making milk, and sometimes I feel that she could do with a rest before she has another calf. We did not intend to have her feeding two calves, it just ended up working out that way.

Neither Daisy or Sweetie Pye are in calf at the moment. We could detect the heat cycles the whole time the AI techs were working, and of course the week after we could get them any more, the both came into heat on after the other. Very frustrating.

This is Sneezy. She was one the calves we got in as week old, late born babies last year. She was always very friendly and seemed to want to be a house cow, by the way she kept coming to see us, for a scratch, and would lick me if I let her. As a last gasp effort, week after the AI techs officially stopped working, she came into heat, so I rang the tech, and he agreed to come an AI her.  At this stage it is looking like she has held, and so she could well be our house cow next year. She was just 15 months old when we had her inseminated, and although we would have liked to wait a bit longer, none of the other cows were coming to the party.

The weather is very dry here at the moment. We had a very wet winter, not much of a spring flush, and now we are going into drought conditions. This is not good for our grass situation, and we are hoping of a few days of rain soon. At least we sold two of our yearlings, so that has eases things slightly.

Overall we have had quite a good year. The biggest high was Daisys baby being born, the biggest low was Sweetie Pye slipping her calf. We are hoping for another good year and not too much excitment, just more chugging on and getting on with life.

So in keeping with our animal habitats theme for the year, we went to the zoo. Now normally when we go to the zoo it is quite crowded and the animals are just sitting around sleeping or hiding, but this trip was different.

It was almost as if after two weeks of having constant large crowds of people through the school holidays, all the animals breathed a big sigh of relief and came up for air (so to speak). There were a few families with preschool children there, but mostly it was nice and quiet, so we got to enjoy the full impact of the sites with interference.

As we worked our way around the zoo, we saw the younger zebras playing. We watched a noted how they really were just like horses in striped pyjamas as the song says. It was nice to see them frolicing around a bit rather than just standing looking bored.

The lions were wandering around and then settled in a nice sunny spot in full view, and the flamegos just across the way were being very noisy. As we watched them all squacking away, they suddenly, as if with one thought took off running to the other side of their enclosure and then slowly wandered back, only to repeat the exercise. It was very interesting to watch.

The elephants were munching happily on there hay right by the fence, and then they went to the back of there enclosure for a wander around.

When we got to the hippos, they were both actually out of the water. As we watched they too wandered around for a bit and then instead of going back into the water or into their mud wallow, they chose to lie in the sun. The other hippo in the other pen was also out of the water, but the water was being drained out and then they waterblasted the area, so cleaning day in the hippo pen.

The servil got up and explored its pen, and the meerkats were all sitting in aline against the wall. They looked so funny you would almost think that they had been placed there. It reminded me of an Anne Gedes type of picture.

Now the funniest sight of the day was when we looked on at the orangatangs. One of the larger ones was wearing two towels. He was strolling around slowly, being careful that they didn’t fall off. It was hard to tell if he was pretending to be a person or if he was trying to hide under them. Either way, it was a great source of amusement for us.

The prize for he best posing animal had to go to the lemurs. When we reached their enclosure they were sitting there minding their own buisness. As we were planning a school exercise on this trip we were taking alot of photos of the animals. As soon as the camera came out, a couple of the lemurs sat up and put their front paws out as if they were posing for the camera. It was very funny to watch and they kept there arms up while we were there.

The tigers had babies, but the mother still had them in the den, so the zoo had set up some movie cameras and screens. In the corner of the den was a smaller enclosure into which we could not see, and that was where the cubs were. While we were watching father tiger came bounding out of the doorway he had been sitting in, and proceeded to play with some of his toys, and pull funny faces while he did.

Back in the den mother tiger decided that this was the right time to bring the babies out. Not outside but into the camered part of the den. So we got to see at least one of the cubs wandering around. A great treat indeed.

Back around in the rainforest area, the tamerin monkeys were quite prepared to put on a show as well, with one little baby practicing forward rolls over and over down a hill. And the macaw decided to talk to us as we went past.

All in all it was a very exciting trip and we were very glad that not only did the weather hold, but the animals put on a show for us as well.

We followed the schedule from WinterPromise, and followed it up with a lapbook from Hands of a Child. This combination seems to be working for us really well. The Animal Habitats study is pretty easy, but has some very fun books, and it is great to have our learning days full of laughter and awe. In some of the books we either have our breaths taken away because of some interesting fact or picture, or we have to stop reading while we control our laughter. WinterPromise have done a fantasitic job of putting together an interesting, fun and informative program.

Our Desert Lapbook and some of the books we used in the desert study.

Because this program is so easy, we have chosen to raise the bar bit and have added a lapbook in with each habitat we study. So far we have done Grassland Savanahs, Rainforests and now Deserts. In between we have done some geography and culture relating to the habitats we have been learning about. So we have also done Africa, and North and South America.

We have a fabulous 5′x3′ wall map that we are labling as we study each continent. Sammie has learnt so much about geography, which we then reinforce with various games as well. The map also came from WinterPromise, along with their Children around the World program, that we are alternating our other stuff with.

In fact, we have liked our WinterPromise study so much, that we have just recieved a language arts course from them. Next year we will, also, probably continue with the same company.

It is great when it all works out well.

This year, Sammie wanted to go to daycamp.

She caught the bus from town each morning at 9:15am, and I picked her up from the bus stop and 4:15pm. It was such a change in routine for us with having to pack lunches and be on time for the bus, I am very glad that I don’t have to do it everyday.

At daycamp, she caught up with some of her friends, and my cousins children were there too. The first task after beinging put into ther groups was to claim a spot the the team hut. Each group had to build a hut over the three days that was then judged on the last day. They had so much fun with it and all the huts looked different. Sammie was thrill the first day when she got a certificate for her hut garden, as she had worked very hard on it.

They also get to cook sausages over a campfire at lunch time, which gave them all a thrill.

In the afternoon they had a choice of 12 electives.  Sammie made a boat and a kite which was her choice for electives.

On the last day they went on a hike and had a waterslide, finished their huts and the parents were invited to come and inspect the huts, and stay for prizegiving and a barbeque dinner.

It was great to see so many happy children proudly showing off their handiwork, and the spirit of the camp was very uplifting.

Sammie came home already planning her hut for next year, so I guess she will be going again.

We were watching something on TV the other night and she was all excited that she recognised a picture of the perodic table on the program. She can spout off that water is H20, with confidence and why, which I think is not bad for her first 3 weeks doing chemistry. And after all she has only just turned 9.

I would have no difficulty in recommending this program to anyone, as the information is both fun and interesting.

We are learning a lot and building a solid foundation on a subject that is so important.

Now that we are back in the swing of it,she is once again begging to do our WinterPromise work. We are currently working on Children Around the World and as I write this she is busy writing a report on Kenya for it.

We are reading the biography of vanilla and she is very engaged with it. The whole program is definitely broadening her awareness. She is, however, hanging out to get back to Animals and their Worlds because that is where her true passion lies.

I have to say though it is so much easier to teach a child who wants to do the work. I just wish she was so keen on things like spelling and math.

We are continuing our two WinterPromise studies of Animals and the Worlds and Children Around the World. We are picking up where we left off last year, so have about three weeks left to finish up Africa, before we can move on to the next animal habitat.

This year we are doing chemistry for the first time, using Noeo Science, so far it is going really well and we are really liking the combination of books and hands-on activities. It is very like WinterPromise in its make up so I am expecting it to be a big hit with us as well.

Over the holidays we did a Horse lapbook and that was lots of fun. We discovered lapbooks half way through last year, and have found them a good way to record what we are working on.