Going Green is great, but I wonder how fast the savings in energy costs overtakes the purchase and installation costs?  So, I sat down with my calculator and my favorite website and worked it out how long it would take for changes made today, NEW YEARS 2010, to start paying for themselves.  (Computed for a family of 5 in a little house like mine.)

1.  New sink aerators can pay for themselves by March 1.

2.  Air drying laundry (buying a drying rack and new line) pays for itself by Spring break.

3.  New low-flow shower heads pay for themselves before Independence day.

4.  By Christmas…

• programmable thermostat
• insulating the pipes
• insulating the hot water heater
• changing all outdoor lights to CFLs

5.  Shortly after New Years 2011, changing all your indoor lights to CFLs will pay for themselves.

Things that pay for themselves before New Years 2013:

• replacing a DEAD fridge with an Energy Star efficiency version.
• replacing a DEAD commode with a dual flush model.
• replacing a working car with a hybrid.

Things that would pay for themselves before I hit menopause (2015-2020):

• Solar H2O heater
• Energy Star H2O heater
• replacing working toilets with dual flush
• planting shade trees

Things that pay before I get run over by a flying car (2030-2040):

• replacing a working air conditioner with an Energy Star
• tankless water heater
• replacing a working fridge with an Energy Star
• replacing a working dishwasher with an Energy Star
• replacing a DEAD washer with an HE
• replacing a DEAD chest freezer with an Energy Star

Things that will pay about the time I’m arguing with my kids about nursing homes (2050-2060)

• installing a whole house fan
• replacing a working washer with an HE

Things that will pay for themselves when Williard Scott’s robot is announcing me 104 years young! (2080)

• replacing a working chest freezer with an Energy Star
• installing skylights
• gray water system
• solar panels

I found the first Australorp egg the other day and was surprised to see it was a different color of brown than the Orpingtons’ light brown eggs.  It’s a deep, reddish-brown, and large for a first egg.  I have heard the eggs lighten up as the hens age, which will be a shame.  It’s a beautiful rich tint, like a strong cup of China black.

There are 3 Buff Orpingtons in our flock as well as the 3 Black Australorps and two Easter Eggers.  The EE’s green-blue eggs are easy to pick out and it’s nice to know, now, that I’ll be able to tell the “lorps’ eggs from the Orps’ eggs making it possible to keep track of who’s laying how many and when.  Not that I’m a real farmer or anything, but, well, curious minds want to know.

The Australorps are an Australian chicken bred from the Black Orpington, which put the “orp” in “Australorp”.  It is a good dual purpose bird (meat and eggs) and a particularly dependable layer, by reputation.  I hope this last is true for my trio, as I don’t plan to use them for meat.  They are relatively calm but not as sociable with people as my Orpingtons.  They seem to get along well with the other breeds and among themselves.  I love the green “beetle” sheen on their black feathers, and the black sets off the scarlet combs to perfection.

“There are children every year, that you think,
If I could take that kid home with me for a year, he’d be an amazing student.”
–Mr. Ivory

My husband is a public school teacher.  He has a noble profession and I admire it and him.  Actually, especially him as he is one of the top teachers in the state, in more than my opinion.  He figured out a technological way that a kid with brittle-bone disease could attend class from home including answering questions, seeing the notes as they were written, and working problems on the board.  He’s a genius.

And as a genius, I respect his opinion of schooling-type things.  People are trying to fix our education system in 14 billion expensive ways, but he puts it simply…reduce the number of students per teacher.   With 35 kids per class, he has a limited amount of time and attention he can give to each student’s particular learning needs.  But with 15?  He says he could knock that ball out of the park and into the next state.

Hubby says that the majority of an education degree is about managing a different class of thirty strangers every 100 minutes for 7 hours.  But as homeschoolers, we don’t need to teach 120 per day.

I have three.   Ever taught a few kids how to play a game?  No sweat.  Even if you had to read the directions a few times.  Right?

Would I walk into a classroom of 30 strangers four times a day and presume that I’m going to do a great job without any training?  NO!

But could I tutor three people that I have known intimately since birth?  That I know exactly who their family is and how much they study?  That know they gain nothing by whining that this homework/test/lesson is unfair?  Yeah.  I can do that.

Is that an insult to his profession?

Hold on, lemme ask him….

–He says he’ll be alright.

Ivory

When I was selecting chicks, Easter Eggers weren’t high on my list in the beginning.  I didn’t really think colored eggs were that big of a deal.  What sold me were stories of their good personalities.

Now, however, I have to say finding the first blue-green beauty in the straw was at least as exciting as finding the very first (brown) egg.  I tell myself I got EE’s for the kids, but who’s the one out there every day like it’s Easter morning?

Uh huh.

The EE’s themselves seem to be at the bottom of the pecking order compared to the Orps and the ‘Lorps, but they are sweet little things, and interesting-looking birds, too. Hawkish.

So far, good all-around gals.

And of course, this:

I found myself staring at leg quarters and whole chickens and split breasts and whole turkeys today.  All on sale.  No idea what was a good buy.  How much meat is on a split breast versus a leg quarter?  How does a whole bird compare to boneless/skinless breasts?  It’s a mystery.

After a great deal of googling, I found this lovely site that calculates it for you.  One problem.  I don’t take my computer to the store.  You?

I computed everything a bunch of times and cranked out something portable.  You will need a calculator.  But this list should give you the tools to compare apples to apples on poultry.

Just highlight the list, print it, and take your teeny-tiny one dollar calculator to the store.

1.5 servings per pound
Chicken / Wings

2 servings per pound
Chicken / Drumsticks
Chicken / Leg quarter

2.5 servings per pound
Chicken / Breast, bone in
Chicken / Thigh
Chicken / Whole chicken
Turkey / Drumsticks

3 servings per pound
Turkey / Breast, bone in
Turkey / Thighs
Turkey / Whole turkey

4 servings per pound
Chicken / Breast, boneless
Turkey / Breast, boneless
Turkey / Ground turkey

5 servings per pound
Turkey / Roasted turkey
Turkey / Turkey ham

EXAMPLE:  At my grocery today…

• boneless breasts are 1.67/lb (~.42/serving)
• whole “natural” chickens are .79/lb (~.31/serving)
• fresh whole turkey is 1.29/lb (~.43/serving)
• frozen whole turkey is .69/lb (~.23/serving)
• leg quarters are .80/lb (~.40/serving)

Frozen turkey or whole chickens are the best deal!

Ivory

P.S.  I’ll do beef tomorrow or something.  I IS SO BERRY TIRED.

I’ve been meaning to make a felt/flannel board for years and never got around to it. Nosing around I heard that glueing the fabric to the board is supposed to interfere with the static that helps the figures stick to the board.  I’m not sure how true this is, but since I preferred a no-glue method anyway I decided to believe it was so. Here’s what I came up with when I finally made one.

Mine is 2′x2′, but make yours any size you prefer. To make one just like the pic above you will need the following supplies:

1/4 in. birch plywood, 2 ft.X2 ft. (any similar board will do, just make it light enough to be convenient and sturdy enough to stand up to wear)

white interior paint, flat, glossy, it doesn’t matter (you can also paint it the color of your fabric of choice)

felt or flannel, at least 25″ X 50″, (1 1/2 yards is plenty–I used the traditional blue–good background suggesting sky, water, whatever)

needle and thread to match your material

If handles are desired, two handles cut out of a paper merchandise bag, I used the rope kind.  Staple gun or small tacks and hammer

Step 1: Paint your board and let it dry. A little sanding at this point will make it much easier to slide the board into the felt later. Painting the board makes for a nicer background without anything showing through your felt. If you have very nice, dense felt (I didn’t) you could skip this step.

Step 2: If you want handles on your board, cut the handles out of a store bag, including the paper that they are glued onto. Glue the handles to the center of one side, on each side of the board. (Two handles makes for a more balanced carry so the handles don’t make the board wonk to one side and whack your ankles and put stress on the handles). For good measure, staple the handles down or tack them down with tiny tacks that don’t poke all the way through the board.

Step 3: Sandwich the board inside the felt or flannel with the fold opposite your handle side. Mark the dimensions of the board with a piece of chalk or fabric marker and trim the material so you have about a 1/2 in. seam allowance.

Step 4: Now you are going to sew an “envelope” for the board. Remove the board and take the fabric to the sewing machine, keeping the edges together (pin if you like). Sew the two open sides which are opposite each other (do not sew the side where the handle will be which is the one opposite the fold) Sew about 1/4 inch outside the marked line to give the board a little room to scoot inside.  Trim the corners and turn right side out.

Step 5: Slide the board into the felt envelope with the handle side on the open side. It should be a snug fit. If it isn’t, you can turn it back inside out and sew one of the side seams again a little closer.

Step 6: Make two cuts at the points where the handles meet the fabric on one side only.

Fold this side over the board.  Fold the edge of the other side down to meet the edge of the covered board and finger press it down.  With a needle and thread, whipstitch the edges together, enclosing the board.

Make a few extra stitches on either side of the handles to reinforce the felt.

Finish stitching, tie off, and you’re done!

This is a much talked about topic in writing circles:

It’s obnoxiously vague, but you’ll be talking about it for the rest of your career.

1. The writer has to identify with his character. If the writer doesn’t love him, no one else will.

2. Caring about the ISSUES in which the character finds himself is NOT the same thing. It’s fine to start drafting a story with a situation or set of circumstances you like, but eventually, the character himself must become more important. If the character himself is replaceable and the story stay intact as long as the pet issue/situation is maintained, then there will be a voice problem.

3. The character must be vulnerable. Some folks try to do this by giving then idiosyncratic flaws. The story must force the character into a situation where something desperately important to him is jeopardized. The reader needs to WORRY about him…that’s identification.

4. The writer cannot do this in a vacuum. This is the kicker. Just like people never have objectivity about their children–a writer never has it about his character. The story has to get in front of people.

5. Fix the trouble spots. Find out what parts turn them off. And no matter what they said about it, the problem is usually #3. Go back and punch your character in the gut a little harder or turn up the volume on the character’s thoughts. Either the character isn’t struggling enough OR the character isn’t adequately communicating his feelings to the reader.

6. Repeat from step 4 until done. Writers can always improve a piece, but there comes a point when it’s “ready to go out.”

Deanna

Filet-ish Dishcloth

1.  ch 32

2.  dc in 6th ch from hook, *ch 1, skip next ch, dc in next ch, rep from *, turn

3.  ch 4 (counts as dc + 1ch), skip next ch space, dc in next dc, ch 1 dc in next dc.  *(dc in next ch space, dc in next dc) twice, (ch1, dc) in each of next 2 dc; rep from * across, skip next ch of turning ch, dc in next ch of turning ch, turn.

4.  ch 4 (counts as dc + 1ch), skip next ch space, dc in next dc. *ch1, dc in next 5 dc, (ch1, dc) in each of next 2 dc; rep from * across, skip next ch of turning ch, dc in next ch of turning ch, turn.

5.  ch 4 (counts as dc + 1ch), skip next ch space, dc in next dc. *ch1, skip next st, dc in next dc; rep from * across, ending with last dc in 3rd ch of turning ch.

Repeat steps 3-5 twice.  Repeat steps 3 and 4.  Dc around evenly and weave in ends.

I found sorting through all of the curriculum totally OVERWHELMING.  If anything will drive you to drink, it’s choosing curriculm.  Aside from that, the only rough spot that I’ve heard is that teaching multiple children who can’t read is time-consuming.  Once they can read by themselves, the workload diminishes SIGNIFICANTLY.

It’s no secret that I’m into old-fashioned stuff.  So, is it any surprise that I’m going for an Old Fashioned Education for my kids?  Probably not.  So here’s the link, if you want to just get to the book lists.

Ivory’s Homeschool Curriculum Choices

After studying up on Charlotte Mason, Unschooling, and about 14 other types of homeschooling approaches and curriculum, I have chosen the following resources:

Old Fashioned Education:  This is the foundation of the curriculum.  I don’t think she uses anything published after 1930.  LOVE HER!  I have already acquired a full set of Rays Arithmetic, McGuffeys Readers, Clara Dillingham Pierson’s Among the People Series, the Red, Green, and Blue Fairy Books,  Burgess’ Animal and Bird Books, and a few others.  But for the next five years, that’s all I intend to buy.  Everything else is in the library or printable (and not something that I feel I need to have a bound book in my hand to take seriously).   I will need to make a few adjustments to her curriculum since I’m picky about children’s literature AND we’re not fundamentalists.

Ambleside Onilne:  This is the curriculum that Maggie at OFE used to build hers.  She likes a bit more structure and I agree with her, but regardless, I bounce between this list and Maggie’s deciding where I want more or less structure.

Angelicum Academy: I find that the literature recommendations for this curriculum more fit my taste in kids’ lit.  I love the Lang fairytales and will use them, but there are a LOTS of books that I feel must be included!

Mater Amabilis: I love their literature list.  And where OFE says “all the best easy read books on _____”,  this site actually lists them.  All the best geography picture books, history, etc.  And since they’re Catholic, I use it as a reference for all the adjustments I need to make.

So, I guess the best way to describe my style is Living Books-esque.  And for anyone who isn’t familiar with that term, it’s all described in Charlotte Mason’s Wiki page.

Ivory

I’ve been asked over and over.  Don’t you homeschool?  You’re so EARTHY and all!

No! Do I look like a crazy person?

As I’ve aged, I’ve learned one thing for sure. Anything that I say I will NEVER do…I end up doing five minutes later. And this is just one more on the list.

I am homeschooling my preschooler and in the fall, I’ll be homeschooling the rest.  Why?  About a million reasons that wouldn’t have convinced me three weeks ago.  So I won’t go into that.  But, I’ll tell you what pushed me over the edge.  Three of my friends were all talking about doing it the same day.

See, it’s one thing when unknown ‘crazy’ people are doing something.  It’s another when three of your friends start talking about it.  One moved districts and her middle schooler hates the new school.  Another has a special needs case.  Another wants an orthodox Catholic education and private school is too much money.  Since THESE people considered it–I was poisoned.  I’m not responsible.

But, I’m totally doing it.  And looking forward to it.

YIKES!

Ivory