Dangerous Plants and Animals; New Chickens

We've been doing a lot of reading all together: bible, nature magazines, children's storybooks, rhymes, Mystery of History, science books, etc.  Trusten is doing really well learning how to read with the Rocket Reader's Learn-to-Read Bible, which I also used when teaching Jaden William how to read. He's doing well with most of his workbook work, too.  Jade's still doing workbook work now, too, but the main focus is math.  He's still not finished with the Grade 3 math workbooks, though he's done something like 40+ pages in his Grade 4 grammar.

Liv loves playing with her baby sister, and is usually nice when she's doing that.  It's when she's doing something else that she often becomes naughty:

Nice mode turns naughty later in the day

Muddy yet again, as she doesn't seem to understand that "jumping in the sprinkler" means just that

We had many run-ins with dangerous creatures—both plant and animal—since my last post.  Here are a few:

Deadly black widow spider

Poison ivy rash, which poor Liv experienced body-wide (but is fine now)

Deadly water hemlock

Water hemlock (Cicuta maculata) grows abundantly around here, and I took special time out to teach the kids about this plant one day, because they like to pick it for my bouquets (which is fine; it's pretty), and Liv wanted to eat some on that particular day.  I told her to NEVER eat that, because it would kill her.  That was back before it all (almost) seeded.  I searched diligently to find a little today to photograph.  Down in the shade I found a bit.  It's important to be able to tell this and Queen Anne's lace (otherwise known as "wild carrot") apart, because they look very similar at a glance when the water hemlock is fuller of the little white flowers than the picture above shows, like seen in this picture.

 Queen Anne's lace (Daucus carota) has an edible taproot.  The root is a wild carrot. The flowers are also edible, but the leaves are toxic and can even cause skin irritation.  Here is some Queen Anne's lace from our yard:

Note the frilly leaves underneath the flowers at bottom left and the difference in the leaves at bottom right when compared to water hemlock

I dug up one of the Queen Anne's lace plants today, and sure enough the root smelled just like a carrot (I've wondered for a long time).  We also tasted it.  It was too hard to eat raw, though.  I read and learned, though, that the plant is a biennial, and it flowers during the second year during which time also the root is very hard.  Apparently the roots are better to eat toward the end of the first year.  Calorically speaking, I think you'd burn more energy digging one up around here in the Ozarks than you'd get by eating it.  The rocky soil makes it quite a task.  They are said to be especially abundant in Missouri, though (where we are) and are thought to be an invasive species that is a nuisance to many.  Well, I don't quite see it the same way as those folks.  I imagine they are the same type to buy the damned Monsanto's Round-up toxin to spray on their dandelions and other lovely edibles.  I think Queen Anne's lace is pretty, and it gets an extra mark of approval for being a wild food source.

L: Jaden holding my freshly-dug-up plant; R: the white carrot after I washed it

Jaden William turned nine, and we went to the Dixie Stampede for his birthday.  I thought it was neat how it worked out, because we'd just watched Dancing with Wolves the night before, and they are both themed around the War for Southern Independence and have a lot of horse riding.  We had fun, and he loves his gifts, too.  Nathan bought him a nice watch (that he got about a month early), and I got him some books and a science kit that has 70 or more science experiments.  He has been having so much fun making things in the test tubes.

About to open gifts before going to the show (where pictures are not allowed) and enjoying some black cherry cream soda

Some other random pictures:

Can you say squash jungle?!  Our garden is doing well, and we finally got more chickens!!!!!!!

One of Jaden's latest caterpillar finds, perhaps for a Polyphemus moth, which I've posted before, but I've also posted a caterpillar before that we believed to be the larva of the same, but it had reddish dots, but that doesn't mean this isn't the same, as I've seen variations in many species

My sweet baby girl, Elizabeth, at six months of age, learning to sit and having fun with Momma (me!)

Until next time...