Friday, December 5, 2014

Friday.......


I looked out yesterday at the feeder and the downy was looking back at me.  The starlings apparently had cleaned out the suet feeder and she was searching all over for more. She kept starring at me in the window.  Not to cause her stress I went out and placed a new one in the suet holder.  I think the warm weather made the suet so warm that the starling were able to devour the last on so quickly. 

I had a request from a cousin who wanted a copy of the large group of people in the middle picture. I found a storage container a few days ago in the storage room where I was cleaning and clearing and there it was.  It showed up just when I needed it. It was the same container that had the cookbooks.  The whole container became another project as I found some old family trees that I really had not read over very well.  I guess the older you get the better it is to understand them. I discovered a set of family on my dad's side that had two different mother's and that all 12 of them did come over to the United States.  The original story back before internet, was that only two brothers came over and settled in two different places in Iowa.  That is a whole other blog to share of the Frederich Burgus family he being my great great grandfather.


I have decided to share a photo of a hardy geranium per day until I get all the photos posted.  This pink bloom didn't bloom all summer so I was glad to see it set on buds a few weeks ago. 

The birds are not hungry anymore.  I guess the warm weather makes it easier for them to pull seed from the trees and bushes.  I see them picking food from the spirea bushes and also my burning bush.  I don't have the juniper bush to feed birds this year but I am so glad I got it out of that location. 

Free day before the weekend is always a good thing.  It feels more like real retirement.  I went in yesterday to teach the half day in science and I got to make fudge candy.  The science lesson was teaching about the ingredients in lava and different parts of the fudge recipe represent each ingredient in lava.  Combining condensed milk, sugar and chocolate bits was combining rocks and chemicals.  Adding heat to the mixture was like the heat from the earth.  The butter represented different chemicals and the marshmallows were limestone rocks.  Vanilla was a secret ingredient.  The whole thing was microwaved in 45 seconds intervals between stirrings.  Finally the whole magma mixture was poured out onto the ground (cookie sheet) and the magma was allowed to cool.  It was a fun way to review for a quiz that they were having today. The class that had made magma the period before gave us some fudge to eat at the end of the period.  The microwave doesn't heat it up so hot that the sugar doesn't quite cook in so when you eat it, you can feel on your tongue crystal's of sugar as if you are eating a rock-like candy. The kids behaved well for this lesson.

Thanks for stopping by today.  

2 comments:

Patsy said...

What a fun way to teach, I have some of my grandmothers cook books and they have lots of recipes for Tea Cakes not as sweet, like we have now. Guess sugar back then was a treat. That is a
Great family picture.

Far Side of Fifty said...

That is a great science lesson! :)