The Great American (Bionicle) Novel

Here is Bug's recently penned novel:
Kopaka Toa of Ice

Kopaka siad but the wind grabbed Kopaka. But Kopaka siad i m the toa of ice

Gali Toa of Water

Gali was sit-ing on a rock then gali heard a wave then gali ben cott bie a wave but gali saw that she wath in a big wave

Tokanewva (Takanuva, Toa of Light)

Tokanewva was siting on a rock Tokanewva got cott

U well fide six toa spehrit stars n tokanewva's (You will find six Toa spirit stars and Takanuva's)

Toa Pohatu

Pohatu cott a fish befor pohatu can eat the fish pohatu hrid (heard) a rock fall

Toa Onua

Onua was diging then BOOM!!!!!!!!!!!! Woh!! siad onua. run siad onua BOOM!!!!!!!!!! Woh!!! siad onua

Toa Lewa

Lewa jumpt in the skie then the grand (ground) jumpt and BOOM !!!!!!!!

Toa Tahu

Tahu jumpt takoowa was skared

Squeeee! A Chrysalis!!!

We think this is Bug's caterpillar working on metamorphosing.

A New Project

A friend of ours found four caterpillars in her garden this week and kept two for her son (Bug's best bud) and gave two to us!



We have been watching them munch on their parsley, dill, and Queen Anne's lace and are looking forward to seeing them metamorphose. We are pretty sure they are Black Swallowtails.

Fast Plants: Day 34

We are nearing the end of these Fast Plants! Just three days until we remove the water supply and let the seeds dry out so we can harvest them. The timing has turned out to be perfect, too. We planted our tomato seeds for the garden last week, so we will have more green things coming up and managed to "schedule" our rhinovirus during a less interesting week. Lots of very interesting seed development stuff going on, I'm sure, but not much to see from the outside.

Maple Syrup

Bug participated in the Maple Syrup homeschool field trip at the Aldo Leopold Nature Center on Tuesday. The rest of us tagged along for part and found a quiet spot to dig out crayons and paper for the rest. Here is Bean's take on the topic. Be sure to click on each one to go to Flickr to see the labeled details...

First, she gathers sap with her little brother:



Then she gets ready to eat the finished product on pancakes with Mom and Dad:

Fast Plants: Day 29

There has been some new growth with new buds and flowers. We have just left them alone as we will be removing the plants from the water in a week or so. I thought about pinching them off (as we did with the buds and flowers that arrived shortly after pollination), but in the end laziness and a rampant rhinovirus won out.

Fast Plants: Days 23 and 25

We have gone to every other day for pictures as the fast changes are slowing down. The seed pods are growing, but there just isn't as much to get excited about day-to-day. Here is Day 23:



And here is day 25:



And a bonus picture of the seed pods today. Since the progress photos have been sharply focused on the fireplace screen in the background, I finally pulled out my tripod for a detail picture. They look an awful lot like little green beans right now. As if I wasn't already having a huge hankering for fresh, local vegetables.

Fast Plants: Day 19 and 21

Day 19...lots of pods growing!



Day 20...Sunday again. Apparently we are hopeless on Sunday...

Day 21...flower petal almost gone...pods growing like crazy.

Fast Plants: Day 18

The seed pods are growing!



And here is a fairly bad picture of the roots...lots of 'em. They caught my eye as I was refreshing the water reservoir, so I took a quick picture.

Fast Plants: Day 17

We did our third and final day of pollination today! Then we pinched off any unopened buds and will now watch and wait for seed formation.

Here is yesterday's picture:



And today's:



They are a bit spindly post-pinching today.

And a closeup of the flowers, since my little camera tends to focus on the background...

Fast Plants: Day 15

Today was the first day of pollination. We have been reading about flowers and bees and pollination and discovered that the scout bees go looking for nectar and pollen and then come back to the hive, where they do a dance to tell the other bees where the flowers are. With the proper mood music in place, we did a rather rowdy and enthusiastic bee dance. Beeb even got in on the action with Mama's bee. Then we "flew" downstairs and pulled out our plants and started pollinating.



We will be pollinating for the next couple of days. When our bees aren't busy pollinating, they hang out in their honeycomb condo. Amazing what you can do with three blank index cards and a little glue stick, eh?



My bee is not pictured as she is temporarily indisposed behind the barrister bookcase. And our obligatory side view. The tallest ones are over 8" tall!

Fast Plants: Day 14

Whoopsy-daisy! With daddy home over the weekend, things can occasionally get away from us. We forgot to check our plants yesterday. Well, remembered when everyone was finally settling down to bed, but everyone was going to be sleeping late anyway from the change to daylight saving time, so we waited and checked first thing this morning. Lots of excitement to see though! The tallest plants in each grew over three inches in two days and Bean has the first flower. We should have more flowers by tomorrow so we can start pollinating!!!

Fast Plants: Day 12

Today's big excitement was making bee sticks in preparation for flowering and pollinating. We improvised since real bee bodies are scarce this time of year. We used a small yellow pom-pom, a black pipe cleaner, and a pair of stick-on google eyes for each.



Rapid growth continues...

Fast Plants: Day 11

We are starting to get some buds (embiggen photo to see them) and stem growth has really taken off!





And since the plants are a bit more photogenic than either top or side view reveals, a couple of vanity shots:

Fast Plants: Day 10

Fast Plants: Day 9