Almoner - a medieval coin purse

Pockets had yet to be invented back in the medieval ages. Since holding on to a handful of money wasn't the best laid plan, the people had almoners to carry coins (their alms) and other small necessities. The almoner was tied with purse strings and tied to ones belt.



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Today the kids made their own almoners. They used fleece, yellow to make it look like it could be leather or fine cloth, and cotton yarn. We chose fleece so that they wouldn't have to worry about fraying edges and because we have boat loads of it. They laid out the fleece, put a plate upside down on the fleece, traced around the plate and cut out the circle. All around the outer edge of the circle they cut little slits with a sharp scissor about 1/2 inch apart to lace the yarn through. To make the lacing easy, we folded a bread bag twisty in thirds for a make shift needle. Once the yarn is laced through just cinch it up and it is ready to use. Dancer really like this and made one large and one small one. Hers is pictured above and Spark's is below.

Giving Thanks Challenge - Dancer's list

1. There weren't any deer shot in the field behind us today.
2. I have a pet goat - Eeyore
3. Our house
4. Dad got to work safely tonight
5. That I have gotten to dance for so many years - I am in my 10th year!
6. Nikki hasn't had any accidents inside today.
7. We had homemade yummy buns for supper
8. I belong to a fun 4-H group
9. We haven't been to the emergency room lately
10. All our animals are doing well.
11. We figured out what cause my eczema
12. I have fun friends
13. That people are coming to our house for Thanksgiving
14. I am homeschooled
15. My brother bought me a flower at the dance show yesterday.

Deep thoughts by Spark

"You know what I hate about history?

I know how much life I have missed."

Adventures with Larry

Dad, Dancer and Spark constructed Larry. That afternoon, unaware that Larry had come to life, I came home, pulled in the drive and wondered who was on the lawn mower before realizing that he was a scarecrow. Larry is really living up to his title of being a scarecrow.

Dad was mowing lawn with the other mower, came around the corner of the garage and just about fell off his mower seeing a full grown man sitting on the other one driving towards him before realizing he was a scarecrow.

Dancer took the dog out to potty in the dark and came rushing back in because there was a man in the driveway. A couple of seconds of clearing thinking and she realized it was Larry who had scared her socks off.

Hopefully he will have the same track record with scaring crows if we ever need him to step up to the plate for that job.

A Pumpkin's Story: "The Final Chapter"

"Oh a pumpkin's life. I shone brightly on Halloween night; the star of the evening, the main event. Did I mention winning the 4-H pumpkin carving contest? Have you seen my amazing pyrotechnics that special eve? They say the brightest star burns out the fastest, but not I. On the front steps I will linger, rotting and liquefying as nature intended. Never mind the hazard of my frozen goop on the front step, I shall...HEY, WHERE ARE YOU TAKING ME????"

"You aren't really going to throw me over that fence."

"Please, no, anything but the goat corral"

"AAARRRRGGG!"

"I promise not to rot on your front steps!"

"It can't get any worse than this"

Oh, but it did get worse. Much worse. "THEY ARE EATING ME!!!"

"Sadly now, there can be but one outcome" Although his fate was not as bad as Dancer's pumpkin. The goats stuck their head in her's.

How Static Electricty Works

Dancer has been learning about cells and electric potential in nerve cells. We did the project shown below to see electric charges influencing an object, and to have fun.

Dancer and a Balloon.

When Dancer rubs the balloon on her hair some electrons move from her hair onto the surface of the balloon. The hair is positive (relative the balloon), so the hair reaches towards the ballon that is negative
(relative to the hair). Opposites attract, so they say. Like opposite poles of a magnet.


The balloon has a negative charge in relation to any dense object, here it is, sticking to the ceiling.

"The van is in the garage"

Sounds like a secret code or a password doesn't it?! Nope, it literally means that our van in the garage where it has not resided since late March or early April. I could have had a child in that amount of time!



I had good intentions of cleaning the garage but after I pulled everything out from the back, and on shelves, and stacked along sides, and up in the rafters, and piled on tables, and sitting on the floor on the other side of garage, and anywhere else we had been storing stuff just to get it out of the way, I ran out of steam for the project. Once in a while I would go out there and do a little work or sometimes Dad would make a little head way on the mess.



But all that has changed. Dad, the last couple of weeks, has been diligently working on making room for the van to fit in the garage now that winter is knocking on the door. Dang, I love that man. Vehicles need to be in garages here in our part of the world. Without a garage, every time you desire to use the car it needs to either be dug out of a snow bank or an inch of frost or ice needs to be scraped off the windows. Never a pleasant situation.

So here it is "The van is in the garage."