This property continues to surprise me. Today we found feverfew, yucca (that feels out of place!), and a kiwi, a chestnut, and a persimmon tree. It's going to take me years to restore them all but I am game.

Our new babies. We decided to raise heritage American guinea hogs this year as they are (supposedly) lighter on the land and although slower growing, are very family friendly as well. Just in time to help us start off apple season.

sorry y'all are sick! I haven't done pizza in my cast iron pan before, I bet the crust is amazing 😋

Deep breath. Even though we homeschool year round, my cultural default is to reset (mentally at least) in September.

This is my 22nd year homeschooling 😱

It has never been just "plug and play". Circumstances change, and not every child is going to thrive on whatever you did with the last one. Every person is unique and has their own interests, abilities, talents, and work ethic--and that includes our children.

My advice (not that you asked):

* Enjoy your kids and work to maintain a good relationship with them. That doesn't mean being their friend and not their parent; it means not purposefully driving them nuts.

* Let them have a childhood. They don't need more screen time, they need more outside and boredom time.

* Your kids are never too old to be read to.

* Academics is not the be-all end-all of a life well lived. Make sure to balance physical exercise, creative pursuits, animal husbandry, cooking, and all sorts of real life skills.

If you'd like more helps, consider reading my book Slow Schooling.

https://amzn.to/4e8xE0B

Happy educating!

#homeschooling

#homegrownkids

#grownostr

From the garden for lunch today, to be piled underneath ground beef and kimchi. The light is odd today; probably another forest fire in our area (declining my soap box at this moment). My keets are growing nicely. They're a love em or hate em kind of bird; I happen to really enjoy them. Most of them will get sold, I like a smaller flock of 3-5. And I found my eggplants growing 😍, well hidden in the massive tomato jungle.

for real!!

Snapshot from my day: inviting my little boy's friend to come over for a play date and having his mom put him in his Spiderman costume...and then asking my own son to put on his. Neither was expecting to be greeted by another Spiderman 😂

niiiiiiiice

yes it is!

Right?!

Figs are ripe and it's time to pick huckleberries. Apples are coming on fast. I don't mind sharing with the deer that come by because they tend to leave my garden alone with their bellies full of fallen apples.

so pretty

ugh sorry! Here in the PNW slugs love to hide (and have slug babies) in the edges, in between the wood (a fave of theirs) and the garden soil. I got rid of that problem by getting rid of the wooden raised beds 😬 and just had mounds for my garden beds instead. It actually worked quite well and it did keep the slugs at bay. Not sure if that's even an option that would make sense where you are.

Nice little harvest this evening for supper sides.

I'm very thankful.

We had a good rain last week. You're reminding me to keep it moist. Did you add worms to yours?

The down side of being gone so long is that I have no idea when (if) my bioreactor hit higher temps. I'm assuming the best and am going to find and add worms.

Finally home after adventuresome and long travels. My adult kids did awesome and kept the gardens alive, even if they did let the cucumbers grow to small footballs and I found more than one small infant sized zucchini 😂. They did quite a bit of harvesting and even did some unexpected canning! So happy my kids know what to feed themselves and how to put food by.

Way to go!! Those are my favorite kinds of meals, all from scratch 😋

great pic!