Long Time No Blog!

So, here we are, over a week since my last Blog. I really am going to try to update more often, HONEST! We have been very busy and I have been feeling very old! You see, I turned 41 a few days ago and I think it was more difficult for me than 40 was. Not to mention that my 40th birthday just could not possibly have been a full year ago. Nope! It is simply impossible that a full year has passed so quickly. It seems like only yesterday! I can not believe how quickly time goes by. Too fast, really!

So anyway, we have been busy with school and activities and what not around here. We finished our bean experiment. I made mention a few weeks ago that we planted beans in different pots. One pot had soil, water, and sunshine, one had soil and sunshine but no water, and one had soil and water but no sunshine. So which one would you think would grow the best? Well, one would think it would be the one that had all of the above, but one would be wrong! The beans that were given soil and water and put into a dark box grew the fastest! Now granted, they were quite pale in color, but they out grew the other by inches!
Here is the one that had no sunshine.

 

Here are the other two taken on the same day as the previous photo.

 

And here are all three together.

 

Now mind you, all these beans were planted on the same day in the same potting soil and fed the same water. The only thing we can figure it that the beans in the box were so desperate for sunshine that they put EXTRA energy into growing in order to look for it! Very interesting. The other interesting bit is that within 24 hours they had greened right up just as bright as the others. We also "planted" a number of beans in a clear glass with wet paper towel so we could see the sprouting occur and look closer at the roots. Here is a picture of those beans beginning to sprout.

 

The good news is that we now have a number of bean plants that have been transplanted into a garden in the back
yard and we will hopefully have some home grown beans to eat in a few months. We have also returned the earthworms to the back garden. They had been living in a pan on my kitchen counter for a good 6 weeks, and while they were interesting to look at and watch, we decided they would do better back out in the garden where they belong.

Beyond the beans and earthworms, we have also been learning about evaporation, rain, snow, hurricanes, and tornados. We watched evaporation while boiling water on the stove and caught the evaportated water in a large, inverted, glass bowl and watched it drip right back down into the pan. The water cycle in action! We also discovered that an empty bottle is not empty at all and that solids in water do not evaporate. Fun stuff!

Next week we will be receiving a shipment of Painted Lady caterpillars and a Praying Mantis egg case. We have done the caterpillars every year for a number of years now but it is always awesome to watch them grow, create their chrysallis and emerge as butterflies. The Praying Mantis egg case is a new one for us. Apparently the case holds about 100 eggs! Yikes! That may be enough to give me nightmares! We will be able to see them hatch, grow, molt and hunt. I also ordered a fruit fly culture with fruit flies to feed the Mantis. Neato!

So that is about it in a nut shell. The weather has been really nice and we have spent time at the park a number of times this past week. We did have a freak storm pass through on Wednesday evening and we did get rain today. We really needed it! But over all it has been beautiful and in the 70's. Spring is most assuredly on the way.

Hope you are all healthy and happy. Many Blessings to you and yours.