Summer Projects

We first saw our house on a house hunting trip last year. Our realtor understood that this was the house we were going to buy. As we drove away, discussing the information that we needed to find out before making an offer (restrictive covenants, etc.), Bruce said: "Of course, we'll have to replace the carpet."

My observant engineer--I had not even noticed the color of the carpet, being enamored by two (count 'em) pantries and a second master suite. I certainly did not notice that the sculpted Berber was worn in the hallways and fraying at the seams. Only 4 years old, it was definitely well used.

And the color was realtor neutral--very blah. But last year, we had bigger fish to fry. We needed to paint before we moved in. We had work to do to sell the old house, and we bought furniture. My very first--and probably last--good, matched furniture. So the carpet had to wait.

Not that I let it go. I showed Bruce the regular updates I got from Lumber Liquidators. I dreamed over flooring options on our many trips to Lowes and Home Depot. I got samples of wood flooring to show my mom when she came out for the Bar Mitzvah.

But I expected we'd be waiting another year or so.

When I was cleaning for Pesach, I accidently caught some unraveling carpet in the vacuum, making the hall look more rag-tag than before.

But last week I showed Bruce the latest sales flyers about flooring. And he said, "I suppose we ought to take care of this before the hallway carpet completely unravels." My astute husband! He noticed. "And before the prices go up due to cost of gas." My financial wizard! "Anyway, it will bring up the value of the house." My fine investor--as long as he doesn't want to sell this house!

So last Friday we went to Lumber Liquidators. There we saw some Brazilian Cherry that we really liked. And we shopped at FloorMart. Just to compare. There we also found a great sale on carpet and I brought home some samples. But we also learned that the cost of installation on the hardwood flooring would cost more than the materials cost per square foot. Ouch! I could see my dream of hardwood fading before my eyes.

When we woke up on Saturday morning, my intrepid mate said, "Last night I dreamed that we installed the flooring ourselves." And I said, "Funny, so did I." It was basheart*! Obviously, we are meant to do this. So on Sunday, we got out the house plans and did some calculating. We decided that we will have the master bedroom suite and the guest suite recarpeted. And we will put in the hardwood flooring--Brazilian Cherry--in the rest of the house. We are DIY people anyway. We painted our house ourselves, we put in the faux hardwood flooring in my son's room and the office of the old house, we have done landscaping and we have put in a bathtub.

Today, the carpet man came to measure the two rooms that will get carpet.

It is funny how that worked out. At FloorMart, I picked up a sample of carpet and said to Bruce, "This will not look as dark in our house." It was a sample of Stainmaster Manic series called Desert Pebble. I brought it home with two other samples, both lighter. On Monday, when we scheduled the measure, I took the other two back and came home with three that were darker. But it was Desert Pebble all along! It is a frieze, that has a very light pinkish-tan base with yarns of green and brown mixed in to give it texture.

Tomorrow, we pick up the wood. Putting that in is going to be a job! It is Bella wood, which is not engineered. That means we put it in plank by plank. But in this house we do not have any curved walls to deal with, as we did in the old house. (Picture from Lumber Liquidators page).

This weekend, I must finish my stonescaped steps out on the hill. Because the wood has to sit here for a week before we can begin. I expect we'll be very busy throughout the month of June!

Hurrah for sweat equity! I will have beautiful floors at less than half the cost. The sale price on the wood was incredible. And by installing it ourselves, we'll have lots of "togetherness."

It's gonna be fun!

Hanging Out in Bed

One of our errands yesterday was to pick up a Site-to-Store order for N. at Walmart.

N.'s bedroom, though cozy, was a little too dark with the blue curtains and valences we had gotten last year. Also, his comforter was a little small for the bed and was getting rather raggedy because during the cold weather, N. liked to show up to breakfast draped in it, with Lily pulling on the corner like a page!

We couldn't find a comforter set we liked locally, but we found one on line and had it shipped for free to a local store. So we picked it up yesterday and found curtains that complimented it at the store.

The curtains are khaki material--called Navy/Vanilla--with smaller red, gold and khaki stripes. They are brighter than the plain light blue curtains, and they are tab top, so there is no need for valences. This brightens up the room considerably. N. says that they look more "rugged" and "masculine," than the gathered curtains and valences did. Maybe he has career in interior design ahead of him, should he ever get tired of naturalist and tracking vocations.



The comforter is the same material, and I ordered a Full/Queen, which is bigger than a Full size, so that it can be tucked in under the mattress. This keeps it on at night and also N. likes the tight wrapped feeling. It has the red, blue and khaki colors that are in the curtains.

N. and Lily are still hanging out in bed this morning, enjoying the new comforter.

N. says: "It's very comfortable! I guess that's why it's called a comforter.

He also learned that our friend Megan in Australia and her Boy call it a "Doona."

I think we're in for a laid-back day.

Progress Not Perfection! Carnival of Homeschooling and Our Stonescape Project

The work goes slowly but surely!

On Sunday, I got myself a little dehydrated while I was working on the steps in the afternoon. I didn't realize it until I almost fainted getting out of the shower.

NOTE TO SELF: Always take a large container of water outside to the worksite!

I tend to get absorbed in what I am doing and do not think to go in to get a drink. It has been somewhat humid--relative to the usual climate here--and so I did not feel very thirsty. It was obvious, though, after drinking several glasses of water after my shower that I was very thirsty!

Even so, I got three steps done on Sunday afternoon.

Yesterday, I was trying to figure out what is going on with e-mail--certain messages are not coming through. We had some errands to do, also, so I did not end up working on the steps. Today, an appointment and more errands, so I am guessing I will not get back to the work until tomorrow.

When I get back from the appointment, I have some inside work to do. And then some pleasure!

The Carnival of Homeschooling Alaska edition is up over at About Homeschooling. There are a number of good articles there, so I will be spending some time over there in the next few days. The pictures of a trip to Alaska alone is worth the trip--how very different from our New Mexico surroundings! But I always enjoy finding new blogs to visit at the Carnival.

I know there was a problem with COH in that some posts were not accepted and one was delted due to an overzealous host/editor. However, that problem has been resolved and a certain blog hosting site is no longer hosting COH, so the content will continue to be more diverse. So I have no problem recommending the COH again--although I refrained for a few weeks. This edition of COH is very balanced and diverse. Sometimes progress is made in fits and starts, just like my Three Hundred Million Year Stonescape project!

Being impatient by nature, I have to remind myself frequently that patience is sometimes rewarded! My motton for a long time has been:

"It is not up to us to complete the task but neither are we free to desist from it."
R. Tarphon in Pirke Avot 2:21.

The 300 Million Year Stonescape Garden: The Beginning

Today we began an important project. It is actually my project in that I will be doing most of the work for it. But this morning I needed some help getting started.

This is the hillside on the southwest side of our house--beyond the side garden.

It is pretty barren and has a steep slope. After watching arroyo downcutting happen on it last summer during the record monsoon rains, I decided that there ought to be no more delay in taking care of this problem. So last week I checked out five different books from the library about stonescaping. the idea is to build steps across the hillside and make a terraced garden on the slope in order to stop erosion. I am using rocks taken from our land. The Sandia Mountains are topped by Pennsylvanian limestone and there is plenty of this float on our hillsides. When I explained to N. that the stone we are going to use for our project is about 300 million years old, he thought that was pretty cool.

So we are now calling this the 300 Million Year Stonescape Garden. Pretty catchy, eh?

N. was eager to get right out there and begin moving big rocks around, proving his strength and manliness.

But before we could do that, we had some measuring to do. In order to determine the rise on the steps, we needed to know the slope of the hillside. To do that, we used a laser level laid on the ground on the top of the slope. I leveled it and pointed the laser at a plank that Bruce and N. were holding at the bottom of the slope.

The "rise" on the slope was 5 feet and three inches.
N. told us this was the same as 63". He divided 12 into sixty and then just added the three. All that mental math in Saxon is paying off!

Then it was time to measure the "run." N., being quite literal was ready to run up the hill. Bruce explained the run is actually the distance from the bottom of the slope to the top of the slope in a straight line. So N. did run up the slope, with the end of the tape measure in his hand. He held it straight above the laser while Bruce held it at the height of the laser mark on the plank at the bottom.

Here is N. just before lowering the tape measure so that it was even with the laser level.

The run turned out to measure in at 18 feet. N. told us that it was the same as 216". He said: "I even checked it on the calculator, Mom!" He was right.

So then I said: "Hey, N., we need to calculate the slope or percent grade of the hill. You do that by taking the rise over the run. He punched that out on the calculator:
"Let's see. 5.25 feet divided by 18 feet. That would be 0.291666 feet over...feet?"
So we showed how the problem looks by writing it out on the board.

"If you divide something by itself, what does it equal?" I asked him.
"One." N. answered.
"So if you divide feet by feet, then that equals one, too." Bruce said. "They cancel out. We can round off the 0.29 and change to O.3."
"Change?" N. asked in true Aspergian fashion. "Are we talking about money?"
"Figure of speech!" I said. "Bruce means all the numbers after the nine in your answer."
So N. rounded and we showed him how to multiply the slope of 0.3 in order to get a 30% grade for our slope. Pretty steep.

N. decided he was done with math for a while. He took the wheelbarrow off to get big flat rocks.

In the meantime, I calculated the number of steps we'd need if the riser is about 5" and there are about 18" between steps. The number is about 12 steps.


But N. was game for measuring for the cut and fill of the first step.

Since the steps are going to be far apart--more like a rising stepping stone path, and because they will be wide enough for one person, we used a garden trowel to begin the cut and fill.

We found that the soil on the hill was very loose and sandy and yet full of very friable (crumbly) shale that is native to the location, as well as small stones from the gravel in the side garden above, that were brought in by the previous owners of the house.

Of course, as I began the work of cut and full and placing the limestone "fieldstone" steps in earnest, N. got distracted by the sound of tree frogs peeping in the nearby woods. After helping lay the first stones, he was soon disappeared to investigate the frogs. And that was fine by me. The laying of the stones on a narrow path (about 18" wide) is really a one-woman job. And he did give about an hour and a half to the project on a sunny day.

Anyway, he learned a lot! he learned:

• that the Pennsylvanian limestone that caps the Sandia fault block is more than 300 million years old.
• that the notation for that is 3.0 exp 8 years b.p. (3.0 times ten to the eigth years before present)
• to tell the difference between country rock and rock brought in
• to tell the difference between limestone and shale
• that the definition of friable rock is "crumbly" rock
• that the definition of slope is rise over run
• how to cancel out units in setting up a scientific calculation
• that math can be really useful for accomplishing a worthwhile goal

And he was just helping for a "little while."

This is unschooling at its best!

Shabbat Walk in the High Meadow

We have been so very busy lately!

Because we had a major holy day this week, we packed a lot project planning and shopping into Friday afternoon.

We have three major projects planned for the summer. We are going to purchase and install--yes, we will install--hardwood floors in the dining room, hallways, living room and the offices. We are going purchase and have carpet installed in the two master suites. And I am planning a rock slope and steps for the hill at the edge of the side garden.

Today it was nice to take a Shabbat walk in the high meadow south of our house. This meadow will eventually be developed and we are hoping to buy a lot on its edge. In the meantime, it has such a beautiful view of the Sandia Mountain Fault Thrust.


Looking to the north, we can look down at our house--ours is the green roof that has the Ponderosa Pine growing in front of it. Our elevation (about 7300 feet) is the higher part of the Pinyon Juniper Woodland ecological zone. Since it is close to the ecotone (transition) with the higher Ponderosa Pine ecological zone, a few Poderosas tower about the rest of the trees. We have a living laboratory here for learning about the ecological zones and how they change with elevation from High Desert Shortgrass Prairie (in Albuquerque) all the way through to the Spruce-Fir Woodland at the top of the Sandias. At a little over 2 miles in elevation, at our latitude, the Sandias are not quite high enough to have an Alpine Tundra zone.

This year, the wildflowers are coming out early, and are quite spectacular.

We took a nice picture of some Indian Paintbrush--a flower we usually see blooming later in the summer when the monsoon rains come in.

There are a lot of purple peaflowers and purple "pinks" growing the meadows around here, too. We can see the sunflowers coming up, but they won't be blooming for a while. N. was interested to learn that New Mexico has its very own sunflower, Helianthus neomexicanus, that blooms along our roadsides in mid-to-late summer.





I know I have said this a great many times, but look at how green our meadow is! We are just thrilled with the rains we have gotten here in central New Mexico this spring! It is so green that we actually got chlorophyll stains on our shoes and jeans! The fire danger is only moderate this year. Last year at this time it was extreme!


Zoey and Lily had a great time sniffing among the gopher holes in the meadow. No gophers in sight, though. They are smart enough to stay inside when they hear us walking the dogs above!

It's with great gratitude that we took a peaceful Shabbat walk on the meadow this morning.
Tonight, Bruce is the co-host for the first of the summer Star Parties at Oak Flat Picnic Ground further south in the Sandias. He is loading his telescope in the truck as we speak.

Tomorrow it's back to project planning and prep! I am hoping to get the slope on the small hill in the side garden. Bruce will be working on getting his garage workshop ready for hardwood floor project. He will also be determining the area to be floored and the number of boxes of Brazilian Cherry we'll need. N. will have a great opportunity to put his math into practice with both of us!

Unschooling Shavuot: A Lesson Plan in Experiential Learning

Often we think of cooking as a lesson plan only for the little ones. Food and dining, however, are very important experiential elements for human social intercourse and for the transfer of cultural memes from one generation to another.

Brain research has shown that people learn best when they are physically and emotionally comfortable. The sensory experiences involved in cooking and eating provide all of us, young and old alike, with these experiences. In all of our human traditions, we know this. When we want to teach something important, when we want to celebrate or commemorate something, we generally include food.


For our learning about Shavuot, we included a lesson on the preparation of the Erev Shavuot feast. N. and I planned the menu and researched the recipes. Our primary source was The Jewish Holiday Cookbook by Joan Nathan.

Those of you who cook a lot know that a good cookbook does more than list ingredients and give step-by-step instructions. Joan Nathan's book is a wonderful source for learning about the culinary customs for Jewish holidays and how they are derived from the religious imagination and practices of Jews over time. The practices of Judaism are derived from many different cultures that our people have lived in, giving us a rich background of experience to learn from. On Tuesday afternoon, N. was responsible for making Blintzes--a crepe wrapped around a cheese or fruit filling and baked or fried. It is a popular dish for the holiday of Shavuot--the Feast of Weeks.



When N. read the recipe aloud, we learned that Blintzes are derived from the Russian recipe for Blini, which are made from a risen bread dough. Blintzes, however, are made from crepes, so they are faster to make because you do not have to wait for the dough to rise.

The first step for Blintzes is to make the crepes. N. learned that crepes are small, thin pancakes that have more egg than flour. Since we chose to use the Grossinger's recipe, N. also learned about the Jewish kosher resorts in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York. These were originally founded to give Jews a place to get out of the city and have fresh air and abundant food. Many hotels, clubs and resorts on the east coast excluded Jews in the bad old days. History becomes a part of every Jewish cooking lesson!

In order to make crepes that really thin and light, so that they can be rolled up around the cheese filling in Grossinger's Blintzes, you have to beat the eggs well and then mix them into the other ingredients (milk, salt, flour and oil).
It is important to thouroughly beat the fat of the egg yolk into the protein of the whites. It is the protein that gives the crepes structure and the fat (and air mixed in by beating) that makes them light. A little salt brings out the other flavors in a baked dish.

Gaining an understanding of the physics and chemistry of food is important to successful cooking!

We fried the crepes on one side only in a small frying pan, and stacked them browned side up on a plate. We made a cheese filling from farmer's cheese, sugar, butter and vanilla.

Farmer's cheese is made without rennet (derived from the lining of a cow's stomach) that makes a cheese hard. Rennet would make a cheese unkosher and Jews cannot use hard cheeses made with it. Farmer's cheese is also commonly made in the spring, during calving season, when milk is plentiful. So it is perfect for Shavuot, which celebrates the waxing moon of early summer. Amazing what you learn from a cookbook!


Finally, we rolled a heaping tablespoon of the cheese onto the browned side of the crepe, and placed the newly-made blintz into a greased pan for baking. We baked them in a hot oven (425 F) until they were browned on the outside--about 15 minutes. MMMM! We wanted to eat right away!
But there was much more to do complete the feast!


When MLC came home from class, she decided to make a greens salad with strawberries and apples. N. said: "Strawberries and apples? In a vegetable salad?" MLC told him that since Shavuot is Chag haBikkurim, the holiday of first fruits, it makes sense to use spring fruits at the meal. She also told him that many people use fruits in salads. We discussed Waldorf salads, French country salads and other innovative salad recipes that use fruits.

I mentioned that I had read that one reason that Shavuot is the least celebrated Jewish holiday in North America is because we have not found a way to incorporate the celebration of the first fruits harvest in a meaningful home-based ritual.

MLC decided that she would even added some blueberries since I had gotten some for topping the blintzes. These salads are good with either a blush wine vinegarette or blue cheese dressings.




In the meantime, N. and I prepared some Wolfie's Borscht. As we made it we learned that Wolfies is a famous Jewish Deli in New York. We also learned that although Borscht is parve (neither milk nor meat) by itself, it is usually served cold with with sour cream as part of a milchlig (dairy) meal.


Here is our beautiful borscht served as the first course of our holiday meal. Egg is added to the beet base, and it is garnished with a dollop of sour cream topped by fresh dill.
Bruce insisted that we add boiled potatoes as that is how his grandmother Fanny made her Borscht! Tradition! Tradition!


The holy day candles have been lit, the wine for kiddush (sanctification of the day) is poured, and the table is decorated with greens (chive flowers) from our own garden.



During the soup and salad courses, we discussed Torah, Mishnah and Gemara portions related to the commandment to bring first fruits to the temple and to be happy at Shavuot. Our study was based on Deuteronomy 26: 10 - 11, and the study questions were taken from Torah & Company by Rabbi Judith Abrams. (Teen Tested. Teen Approved!).




But of course, everyone was waiting for the main course.

Poached salmon with lemon pepper and fresh dill.

And blintzes with sour cream and fresh fruit!

Ah! Now that's experiential learning!

Making an A-S-S Out of U and M-E

The plot thickens.

And I don't mean the plot where the weeds are growing thicker by the day, either.
Although that plot is thickening, too. More rain is on the menu today.

No. I am talking about the Great American N.'s Jewish Education Controversy.
For those who do not want to go plowing through my archives, the short version is that the teaching methodology in N.'s 7th grade religious class at our synagogue was inappropriate. Frustration was mounting. Attempts to communicate with the teacher were ineffective. I made other plans and I took him out in order to use a variety of sources and methods in a number of places to "unschool" N.'s Jewish education. I have have attended meetings, met with the rabbi and met with an education sub-committee. (For the full story follow the two links above sequentially).

The point being that I have withdrawn N. from the Machon (religious education) program.
Tonight I got a progress report for N. from the teacher. You know, the teacher of the program that N. no longer atttends. The one who could not possibly make any accomodations for him.

In the comments section it said in part:

" It is unfortunate that (N.) was unable to take advantage of the Machon experience and live up to the Brit* (contract) of his Bar Mitzvah. Hopefully there will be a method by which (N.) will be able to be be part of the Machon experience through Confirmation. I have no doubt that (N.) will very much enjoy learning about Torah (the Jewish canon) and Mishnah (part of the Talmud)..." (Parenthetical statements mine).

(*The agreement that N. signed was that he would observe Shabbat, Holy Days and Life Cycle events, continue to study Torah and participate in the life of the community and engage himself in the holy task of Tikkun Olam--Repair of the World.)

As homeschoolers and unschoolers, gentle readers, no doubt you recognize the incredible depth of assumption made in a very short bit of writing! Most likely, you have also developed the sensitivity to see it yourself having been the target of such assumptions in other contexts related to your homeschooler's education.

But bear with me, please. It is very therapeutic for me to dissect this out for myself and thus have a good laugh instead of going to bed angry--G-d forbid!
Teacher comments in teacher red and my (wishful) responses in good old-fashioned black.

Warning: The "Nice Gene" on my X chromosome has an inexplicable point mutation tonight.

1. "It is unfortunate..." --From the passive voice used here one might think that it was an act of G-d rather than a pedagogical decision that you made that there is only one way to reach a kid and if you don't, well, it must be his fault. This has "evasion of personal responsibility for your teaching" written all over it.

2. "...N. was unable to take advantage of the Machon experience..." --You mean that you were unwilling to make any accomodations for N.'s disabilities and thus there was no advantage to him being in your class.

3. "... live up to the Brit of his Bar Mitzvah." --Of course, NOW I GET IT! You are the only person in the only program that can possibly teach N. Judaism. Experiential learning, informal learning, the use of innovative texts and programs, the fact that I am quite conversant with Hebrew language, Aramaic, and Judaica count for nothing without exposure to your "Mavenship". Neither does the learning and understanding of other teachers, one of whom has rabbinical ordination and who speaks Yiddish as well! How, well, totally IGNORANT of me, to think I could (gasp!) teach my own child. And to think that N. might really learn something through the actual practice of Judaism! And to think those benighted Chasids might actually know something. What was I thinking? My mistakes in this regard are too numerous to count! S'licha. So sue me.
Or maybe I should sue you? I'm the one who's out the $500 tuition.

4. "Hopefully there will be a method..." --You do mean "I hope there will be a method" don't you? I mean, you are an English teacher for your day job, aren't you? Grammar aside, there are a lot of methods. You refused to use any of them. And the future tense is entirely out of place in this statement. N. has not stopped learning Judaism just because he has stopped attending your class.

5. "I have no doubt that N. will very much enjoy learning about Torah and Mishnah..."
--Ditto the last two sentences above.

Incredible assumptions. Only one assumption is missing. This teacher does not assume responsibility for his failure to meet different learning styles in order to reach all his students.

Sound familiar?

You know what they say about making assumptions: It makes an A-S-S out of U and M-E.

I've had my laugh. Tomorrow I will post some great pictures of N. not learning about Shavuot.