pumpkin picking

2025-26 School Year–Week Nine

This week in algebra, Chickadee put everything she’s learned about graphing equations together to write equations for lines that had already been graphed, and then graph parallel and perpendicular lines to go with it. She also did some word problems about roller coasters that used her knowledge of slope and graphing equations. In science, she learned about chemical bonds, and the difference between ionic and covalent bonds. She read about the Irish Potato Famine and the Boer War in history. We began Treasure Island. She practiced writing an instructional sequence in writing. This week’s recipe from the American Girl Sweet & Savory Treats Cookbook was “Frozen Yogurt Berry Bites” inspired by Kaya. They were quick and easy to make, and tasted delicious, but I can’t help but think they could have done better than “berries were a staple of the Nez Percé diet” for Kaya.

And today we went pumpkin picking…not in our own backyard like last year, because we didn’t grow anything this time around, but at our favorite local pumpkin patch. For the first time in several years, all five children were home and available, so they all come along, and since we couldn’t decide, we ended up with four pumpkins (and apple cider donuts, too!):

It looks like next week, it’s actually going to feel like fall, and I am very excited about that!

2024-25 School Year–Week Five

First things first…we had our annual trip to the pumpkin patch a bit early this year, because the pumpkin patch was in our backyard and the pumpkin was ready to be picked! Ladybug and Chickadee have diligently helped me care for it over the past month or so, and we were very excited to have a successful harvest!

OK, now on to the classroom stuff. Ladybug learned about the faulty appeal to authority and appeal to the people fallacies in logic. In physics she continued working on problems involving Newton’s Second Law of Motion. She read about the Olmec and the building of San Lorenzo and La Venta in history. We discussed Origen and the problems of universalism in religion. She continued to read The Merchant of Venice. In psychology she learned about the structure of the brain and the nervous system.

Chickadee reviewed inequalities and decimals in pre-algebra. In science she learned about scientific theories and laws. We continued reading Tom Sawyer. She took notes in writing. In history, she learned about the start of the slave trade in North America. We continued reading The Wizard of Oz, and made two more recipes from The Wizard of Oz: The Official Cookbook. Chickadee helped me make Peach Iced Tea, and Ladybug made “I’m Losing My Hay,” curried hash browns obviously named for the Scarecrow.

We went to Belleville’s Oktoberfest for a fun little outing today, and got to see part of the naturalization ceremony, and we have some fun plans for this weekend, too!

The Most Sincere Pumpkin Patch

“Each year, the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch that he thinks is the most sincere. He’s gotta pick this one. He’s got to. I don’t see how a pumpkin patch can be more sincere than this one. You can look around and there’s not a sign of hypocrisy. Nothing but sincerity as far as the eye can see.” It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

There is not a pumpkin patch anywhere that is more sincere than the one we got our pumpkin from this year, because the pumpkin patch was right in our own backyard!

“He’ll come here because I have the most sincere pumpkin patch and he respects sincerity.” It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown

As evidence, here is a photo I took that captured the Great Pumpkin (Harold, our friendly yard bunny) right before he rose (sproinged) out of the pumpkin patch (this was the second time that happened…the first time, I didn’t see him in there, wasn’t expecting it, and he scared me half to death when he jumped up!). He liked to hang out there in the shade of the leaves throughout late August and early September.

So about our pumpkin patch. Every year after Thanksgiving I toss our pumpkins that we picked at the local pumpkin patch into the backyard so they can return to the earth. And most years in the spring and early summer, pumpkin plants start growing, and sometimes even flower. In the end, though, I usually mow them over at some point when I’m doing yard work. But when Bunny planted a small garden near where I had tossed them this summer, I decided to leave them alone and see what happened. These are the first two pumpkins we harvested early in August:

We had tossed some mini pumpkins out there last fall, but I’m also notorious for growing exceptionally small plants, so we had no way of telling if they were supposed to be the size they were when they turned orange. We do think that even though they were all small, we might have had two different types of pumpkins, because in total we harvested two regular shaped pumpkins and two that are fairly oblong (with one still growing on the vine…we’ll see what it turns into if it stays healthy).

And then one day, Ladybug and I found this pumpkin growing on one of the other plants (in addition to different shapes of pumpkins, the leaves on some of the plants were noticeably different, too), and by the time we noticed it, it was already larger than the ones we had harvested…and it also had a neighbor! We weren’t really sure what it was, because its shape was different still, and I was thinking it was a squash of some sort, because last year, we picked something that looked rather like a butternut squash. We also weren’t sure it would survive, because its flower had remained attached for what I thought was too long, and I was worried it had caused the gourd to rot.

After removing the wet flower, and letting it dry in the sun for a few days, it became clear that no harm had been done. We made sure to water it daily (because we really haven’t had much rain in the last month or so), and occasionally we even rotated it so it didn’t develop too much of a flat spot on one side.

It kept growing…a lot. It seemed like you could literally tell a difference from one morning to the next! Chickadee wanted to make it a “milk pumpkin” like in Farmer Boy to see if that would make it grow even larger, but we have far too many cats that wander our neighborhood and yard for that to work.

I don’t know why the lighting here is so weird (perhaps it was a cloudy day), but it finally started turning orange, and filling out to a more standard pumpkin shape, so we were fairly convinced that we were really growing a regular size pumpkin!

I was a little worried about it along the way. When its skin was still soft and bright green, I dinged it with my fingernail, and part of it peeled off. I was sure that was going to be the end of the pumpkin, but it grew more skin over the blemish. Meanwhile, its neighbor, which had been bigger all along and presumably healthier because it didn’t have its skin injured, died on the vine. Growing stuff is weird, and I had no idea what I was doing!

Anyway, despite the injury, it kept growing and turning orange, and I was really hopefully we might get to harvest it.

Yesterday when I checked on it, there was very little green left, and even though it’s still early in the season (possibly too early for it to last until Halloween, let alone Thanksgiving), I decided we’d go ahead and pick it before any bugs or pumpkin diseases got to it. You can even see its “scar” from the fingernail incident here…it’s amazing how healing nature is!

A successful harvest!

I bought a bag of Ghirardelli milk chocolate pumpkin spice caramel squares as a prize for whoever came closest to guessing the correct weight. It weighs a whopping 12 pounds, and Moose won the contest with a guess of 12.7 pounds (no, we didn’t score it The Price is Right style, but I did consider it).

Bunny has one of the small pumpkins that we picked early in August at college…here’s the remaining harvest to date:

And so, that is how we came to have the most sincere pumpkin patch in town, maybe even in the whole state! We may just have to give it a try again next year and see if we can repeat our success!

Chickadee Thursday

I know it’s still early in August, but we went pumpkin picking this week. In our backyard. Yes, I grow everything in miniature, but Chickadee thinks our harvest is cute!

2023-24 School Year–Week Seven

Ladybug learned how to find reference angles in pre-calculus. She started reading The Divine Comedy. In history, she read about the Byzantine Empire and the fall of the Comneni dynasty. She finished the chapter on solving two-dimensional motion problems in physics by using the range equation to solve for parabolic motion. She wrote an essay about the three main narrative point-of-view choices in writing. In health, she started a new chapter on interpersonal harmony.

Chickadee reviewed geometry terms in math. In grammar she reviewed coordinating conjunctions. She finished the chapter on the digestive system in science, ending with the renal system. We started reading Felicity’s Surprise. In history she read about the Sui dynasty in China and the Yamato dynasty in Japan. We continued reading Anne of Green Gables and baked Miss Ellen’s Pound Cake from The Anne of Green Gables Cookbook.

And finally, it cooled off just in time for us to go pumpkin picking today! There’s not much that ruins a field trip like trying to pick a pumpkin while it’s hot out, so I was very grateful for the literal change in the wind!