Experimental Outside Cooking

We had a hot streak that lasted about a month this summer.  It was humid and in the 90's everyday.  There was no rain to speak of.  The thermometer would show the temperature being in the 80's at 3 am each morning.  It was hot.  It was miserable.  But it gave Sweet the reason to do some outside "cooking".

Car cookies were a given.  She made dough and put some in the back window of the car with a thermometer.


She checked it each hour to see how hot the car was.  Oven like is what we were hoping for.


It was looking good and then...


The thermometer broke.  There were little pieces of glass and red liquid on our cookies.  UGH! 
Sweet also decided to see if she could bake an egg in the back window.


And why not try to cook an egg on the sidewalk and make some toast too?


The cookies turned out good enough to eat with the exception that a thermometer exploded all over them leaving remnants of glass and red liquid as a topping. We did break them open to see their gooeyness.


The other results have been put on video because a still picture didn't do it justice.

This is the baked egg from the back window of the car.


This is the egg that was cooked on the sidewalk.


We found it interesting that the white didn't turn white. It just sort of dried up.

Here is the toast.


What you didn't see in the video is that Sweet spit out her bite after I turned the camera off. She said it was horrible. It sounded like toast but that is as far as it went.

It was a good day of experimenting even though the final products were not what we had wanted. The left over cookie dough in the fridge was just the thing she needed to end of the day!

(c) 2008-2011 Wicked Pickles-Homefrontlines

Normal...Ahhhh

I have started this post 4 times now. I have absolutely nothing to say. We haven't done anything interesting. Nothing scholastic. Nothing fun. Nothing worth mentioning. We have just been living a normal life. And normal is gooooood!

Yesterday the temperature soared to about 80 degrees! Heavenly! We opened our windows and "hopefully" got some of the winter stink out of the house. Goodness knows we needed a little nice weather pick me up. This morning it is really windy though. :-/

We have spent the weekend watching the pair of Iowa Eagles in Decorah.


This is our second year watching them. They just amaze us. While we were watching yesterday we saw the second eaglet hatch (or what we think was the second eaglet hatching).

That was pretty cool.

Later in the day the second eagle flew up and dropped a dead bird, left and came back 3 seconds later with a dead fish. AWESOME!


But my favorite part of the day was when they let the first little one out of the bowl for a while. The mama kept a close eye on her eaglet. When the wind came up she spread her wings to protect it and then took her beak and rolled it back into the nest.


The eaglets are cute as a button and we can't wait to watch their development.


If, by chance, you haven't heard of the Decorah Eagles, check them out! They are terrific living science. (on a side note, I can't believe the boom in traffic on the site....I hear they have even been on the national news! I sent the link out to all my contacts when the first egg was laid. Not one person responded. Now I keep getting emails from those same people telling me so and so sent them this great site and I should check it out. Stop 'noring my emails people...my feelings are hurtin' so. LOL..just pulling yer leg this find Monday morning!)

Today Sweet has an appointment to get braids in her hair for the gymnastics competition this weekend. We are taking a mini vacation so we can enjoy the time away. Gotta pack, clean the car and be ready to leave Thursday morning. We are trying to find economical field trips on the way to Nebraska. On the way back I hope to stop at the Air Museum. Something that will tie in with Civil Air Patrol.

I like normal. It is good. Happy Monday!



(c) 2008-1011 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Sound Experiments

We had a meeting with our Supervising Teacher last week. She brought sound experiments with her.

The picklets made a mouth harp using a Popsicle stick. They found as they moved the stick side to side and further in the mouth it made different sounds and felt different in their mouths.

A wire hanger with string attached to it made for another sound device. Put the ends of the string in your ears and hit the hanger against different items. The pitch changes with different objects.

This was one of their favorite experiments. Tape a string on a ping pong ball and hold it still. Take a tuning fork, hit it against something and then touch the ball with it. The vibration moves the ball. It is pretty fun.

Another favorite also included the tuning fork and a glass of water. In this video Chip showed how the vibration moved the water. You can also hear the vibration when he hits the fork on the edge of the glass.

They made ukuleles with a rubber band, ruler and pencil. Put a rubber band around the ruler lengthwise, insert a pencil under the band and pluck. As you move the pencil back and forth the pitch changes.

Chip experimented with different designs.

I can't tell you how much the picklets enjoyed these experiments. I definitely need to get a tuning fork. I think their favorite part of the day included the ping pong ball and and their clipboards. Paddle ball anyone?


(c) 2008-2010 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Woolly Bears

Blossom left a comment asking:

is "woolly bear" what it's really called?

That posed a very interesting question. I have never given the woolly bear a second thought and I don't rightly know. I grew up being told of the legend of the woolly bear. That legend was handed down to my parents from their parents and so on. I too have handed that legend down to the picklets. But with that question posed, why not put a little science and research into our homeschooling day?

The Old Farmer's Almanac says that the longer the middle brown band, the milder and shorter the coming winter; the shorter the brown band, the longer and more severe winter will be. This legend/old wives tale/superstition/folklore dates back to Colonial times.


In this picture Sweet took of the woolly bear she found, there is just one color, the middle brown band. It is large and indicates that the winter will be mild.


In this picture from E-Nature, you can clearly see the middle brown band and the two darker bands on each end. Finding this woolly bear would mean a semi-harsh winter.

The woolly bear is a furry caterpillar and is about 2 1/8"-2 1/4" long. It lives in most of North America. It is actually the larvae for a tiger moth. The Isabella tiger moth to be exact. The body is covered with fur (that isn't really furry but bristly) and is separated in three colors; with black on the ends and a reddish brown in the middle. It eats wild flowers and isn't usually a threat to crops, gardens and yard plants. It lives in meadows and wooded areas, and is seen crossing the road a lot this time of year. The woolly bear also has other names such as the black-ended bear. My guess each area/region probably has a different name for them.

According to the Ohio State Extension,

"The truth behind the woolly bear's band length actually has more to do with age
than with predicting the weather. As the caterpillar prepares to overwinter, the
caterpillar molts, becoming less black and more reddish-brown as it ages. Woolly
bears overwinter from September to May, and are commonly found along nature
trails and wooded edges and crossing sidewalks and roadways seeking
overwintering sites."

So, the woolly bear is just the caterpillar for a tiger moth. It, much like the weather prediction of the groundhog, is just legend. But, for those of us who were raised on that legend, we will continue to pass it down through the generations because it is tradition. And you don't monkey with tradition.

If you want more information there are tons of websites on the woolly bear. A few are:
Ohio State Extension
E-Nature
Old Farmers Almanac
Cold Spring School
Iowa State Extension

While looking for information, I found this site on how to keep a woolly bear over the winter. The picklets are now eager to find another woolly bear for "scientific purposes". Who am I to say no?
Thanks for asking the question Blossom, we absolutely love learning new things.

(c) 2008-2010 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Journey North

For the last few years we have participated in Journey North's symbolic monarch migration. Each spring we anxiously await a package from Journey North. We received one this spring but it was accidently filed in the generic Tupperware box on the porch, along with a phone bill and a postcard, before it was opened. Imagine my surprise when I searched for a bowl and lid and found mail instead. Mail that is months old. Yup. We moms love surprises like that.

I knew there was major flooding in Mexico so I didn't think we would receive butterflies back this spring. The butterflies that were sent down from Canada and The States were ruined in the flood making the migration back north impossible.

The butterfly we received was made from a student in Mexico. That makes it even more special

As an added surprise we received milkweed seeds. I put the envelope in the fridge and we will plant them next spring.


We are now working on our butterflies to send for this year. Looking at our past symbolic butterflies and the ones that migrated back to us is quite the inspiration. Check out these past posts:
Butterflies received May 2008
Our Symbolic Butterflies October 2008
Our Symbolic Butterflies October 2009

If you want to join the symbolic migration now is the time. Check out Journey North for the rules and regs.

(c) 2008-2010 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines

Scientific Pizza--Part 2

Better late than never is what I always say.

Back in January 2009, the picklets made scientific pizzas. It was The Year of Science 2009. The challenge was to "Create a Scientific Pizza - whatever that looks like to you!" After a little prodding, the picklets decided that was for lunch. I posted it and didn't think much of it.

A few months later I received an email that stated we won a prize for our participation in the scientific pizza challenge. I sent my address and waited.

The beginning of this year I received an envelope from The American Institute of Biological Sciences. Lo and behold our prize came! A $25 gift certificate to Starbucks and a $30 Visa gift card. Along with the cards came this little note.

Pretty awesome, huh?

I put the envelope into my notebook. And forgot about it. Until I ran across that particular notebook a couple weeks ago. Yup. I went to the grocery store and decided to use the Visa card. The 11.83 total wouldn't go through. I called the number on the back of the card. Only $7.00 of the original $30 was left due to monthly service fees. Never used and the company took $23.00! I now know not to buy those as gifts for my nieces and nephews.

The Starbucks card has been put to good use. Strawberry and Creme frapucinnos for me and the picklets. Nummy!

Anyway, winning the scientific pizza contest was a big surprise. Not to mention nummy.

Nature Club

We don't do much with our homeschool association but this year they started a nature club. We decided to join and had our first meeting yesterday.

We met in the morning at one of the supervising teachers houses. She lives in the country and it is just gorgeous. We gathered together, received our instructions and off we went. There was a 1/4 mile of country road to explore.


Flowers are still in bloom. Butterflies and moths are still around and making use of the flowers.



One of the items that was brought up during our briefing was to use our different senses to see what we can notice. Special attention was brought to taste. The supervising teachers recommended NOT using taste. When we got to the clover the picklets and I used our taste. My mom taught me when I was little to bite the end of clover. It is very sweet.

We were also told to look small. I reminded the picklets to look at 1 square inch at a time. If we wouldn't have, we would never have seen this. Sweet found and took the picture of this beauty.


Using our hearing was also important. The sound of the water running had the picklets climbing down in gullies and through brush to find this crick.


Chip noticed these bird tracks in the mud. I would have just walked right past them. I swear that boy sees more beauty in the everyday world that I can even imagine. He liked the way this looks, almost like a painting of some sort.


This purple flower is Canadian something or the other. It is very pretty.


Sweet was in CSI mode. She was digging to extract something that she found very cool.


This picture makes it hard to tell what she found but to the far left is a skull, next to that is a pelvis and to the left of that are several ribs. We are unsure what sort of critter she found but it is now here at home and will be a science project for next week.


We spent about an hour and half exploring and having fun. We were the first ones down the road and the last ones back.

The rest of the group was all the way up the hill, heading back for lunch when Chip took this picture. I am to the left in the grey shirt looking down at Sweet who was extracting the skeleton and Dill is in the yellow in back of me.

By the time we got back up the hill everyone had cleaned up and was eating lunch. Dill, Sweet and I waited quite some time before Chip got back up the hill.

The picklets and I all agree that we can't wait for next month. Each month will bring something new and different because of the changing of the seasons.

MacBride Raptor Center-Child Led

After the tour of the raptor center concluded, we left the group of homeschoolers that attended and went off on our own. On our way out of the park we were stopped by this woodchuck. I had to honk several times before he would move.


WE had lunch in the park. The picklets were starving.


We then headed back to the raptor center to do some nature journaling. We started in the butterfly garden. There weren't too many butterflies though. I did manage to catch this shot. This was one of like 6 that I saw the entire time we were there.


This is a butterfly log pile. Basically it is a pile of logs stacked up log cabin style. There are many openings for the butterflies to perch. There is also a tarp between two of the layers to protect the butterflies from the elements.


This lambs ear in the butterfly garden was a perfect roost for this daddy long leg.


In the woods by the butterfly garden we saw several deer. At one point Dill said, "I see more deer." I asked where and he replied, "In back of you." I turned around and there were two deer about 50 feet from me.


We came to a cliffy area that was just gorgeous. The picklets immediately went to investigate. They had so much fun.

There was a tree growing up out of the cliff. It amazes me that I can plant a tree, in fertile soil, and it will die but a bird can poop a seed, on a cliff, and it will grow. Chip loved this tree.


Dill had fun skipping stones. This one went three times I think.


Chip continued exploring and kept calling me over to see what he found. After tripping down the first time I decided to stay put and just take pictures of their exploration from afar.


The highlight of the afternoon was when Sweet found a treasure chest. Literally.

It was nestled in the cliffs. A perfect little treasure chest for a little adventurer to find.

It was really in pretty bad shape. It was washed up in the flooding earlier this year we are guessing. But there was a letter, a poem, a story, a picture and various other trinkets in the box. She took it home to show Cool and grandma and grandpa. It has now found a home in our garbage can. (:

On the way out of the park we saw someone feeding the raptors. So, we went over and talked to her. She had a bucket of dead mice. All she did was wash off the area where the raptors feed and put a handful of mice on the platform. Ick! She told us that the center had a bald eagle release last week. How cool would that have been to see?

As we walked to the car we saw 8 more deer. This little one was the youngest. The mama, which you can't see in the picture, was to the babes left. She watched us the entire time. After I took this picture the babe fled and the mama followed. Behind the mama were two more younguns about a year older than the babe. It was totally awesome to watch.


We really had a great day exploring and making our own adventures. On the way home the picklets summarized their day in the nature journals. I hope they will look back on this when they get older and say, "I remember that day. I had so much fun!"

(c) 2008-2010 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines