Thanksgiving

My, but the day went quickly!

I could say the same thing of the year, actually. From start to finish, it has been the fastest year I've lived through yet. That happens to all of us, I know. I even think I have figured out why. When we are babies, a single day is a significant fraction of our overall lives. By the time we hit our 30's, 40's, and 50's (and so on), a single day is an increasingly smaller fraction of our overall lives. When you are three days old, one day is an entire third of your life. At age five, one day is 1/1825. By thirty, the fraction becomes 1/10,950 of your life. Of course, the days would seem to go by more quickly, given that context. 

Anyway, the kiddos and I have been busy with school and home. We have also put up the tree and decorated the house, where we spend a great deal of time saturated with Christmas music! (:  

Today was Thanksgiving. Hubs, who has been working very long hours away from home, got to spend the day eating and resting. My, how needed that was! :) We did not go out, and we did not have anyone in. It was our own little piece of heaven on earth. :)

We kept the dinner small (for us), but it was still quite filling. We made entirely too many cookies this week. I surprised and pleased myself by not having the appetite for them. Yay! Even the magic cookie bars that ended up being an impromptu experimental pie did not sway me. Same goes for the peppermint/chocolate fudge, and that is saying something... the stuff tastes like York peppermint patties!

Now we are officially in the holiday season, and I look forward to wrapping gifts and spending even more time with my three favorite people. :) I hope your day was lovely, wherever you are, and that you have been blessed with family or friends. 

Why I Homeschool

When I was schooled at home it seemed to be pretty taboo, certainly much more than it is these days. Home educating families were so far on the fringe of society as a whole that some awful stereotypes were created and perpetuated. You know them, and we make fun of them. :) 

Here is a YouTube video that cracks me up. 

In the years between being a student at home and a home educating parent, the number of people educating at home has grown considerably. Where it was once primarily something religious families did, you will now find doctors, lawyers, former public school teachers (I know of at least three personally), atheists, agnostics, etc on the bandwagon. You really cannot pigeonhole homeschoolers the way you once could. 

One frequently asked question is "Why do you homeschool?" There are a host of ways to answer this question. Some or many of these reasons could easily apply to many of us:

1. The education system is failing too many students or
    the school my child would attend locally has a bad reputation.

2. Religious reasons. 

3. A desire to raise hands-on children who are more involved in community.

4. Ability to raise children to be wholly socialized, not simply 'peer' socialized. What??? You mean I disagree with the anti-socialization lie? Why yes! Yes, I do! lol HS children socialize with people of all ages and very many walks of life. We don't practice peer socialization, we practice world socialization. You know... the 'real world' everyone is so afraid they won't be prepared for. lol  

5. Desire to provide better standards of education.

6. Better self-esteem for child: no bullies to fear and to face.

7. Focused learning - an easily distracted child can be better kept on task when it is important.

8. Individual attention every time it is needed. No child left behind, for real.

9. Child-led education. (Child learns each subject at his/her own pace.)

10. Focus on mastery rather than teaching to test. 

11. Homeschoolers are no longer a shunned society of students. Over 2 million children are educated at home, and the percentage grows every year. Our children are welcome everywhere any student is, and can often join a variety of extracurricular programs. Some HS families still dress visibly differently, but statistics are changing. Chances are you have seen HS students out and about with no clue that they were 'different'. Oh right, we aren't! ;)

12. Early (or late) graduation. In an education that is based individually around the learning needs of the student, said student may complete high school at the point of readiness. 

13. Less summer lag. HS parents are aware of learning opportunities in the smallest things. By the time we are working through our first full year of home education, teaching our children through daily life has become a habit. It is not a habit you shut off in the summer. Kids continue to learn, and parents know which concepts to keep a child practicing if there was difficulty learning during the school year. 

14. Extra focus on special interests. If the child has a passion for any certain subject, there is no limit to the study, focus, life application, and hands-on learning that can be tailored around the subject. I know of HS students who went into tough, specialized fields by the time they were 20 (give or take) because they were able to put extra time and work into college courses in addition to regular school work. 

15. Limitless potential. Certainly every point begins and ends with this. You CAN do anything you set your mind to and work hard for.

16. Love of learning never has to be lost. Traditional school structure and environment has a way of squelching the spirits of children, and killing the love of learning we are all born with. Children are little sponges, soaking up as much information as they can. By the time they are toddling, they are little explorers and scientists. Parents are more finely tuned to their children than any person in the world. Using this information to educate them in their own fashion (kinesthetic, visual, auditory, tactile) means that the child learns in a way they enjoy. We don't teach the child 'how' to enjoy learning. We learn from the child what they enjoy naturally, and indulge the craving for information in a way that feeds that natural pleasure. 

17. Unlimited resources. Libraries, museums, zoos, aquariums, art galleries, music (or other) halls of fame, a million or more sites on the internet, in-person testimony from people who have lived through wars/economic changes/natural disasters/etc, national parks, national monuments... the list is endless. We have some pretty awesome field trips, and you can get discounts to a good many of the types of places listed by using student ID's. You have only to ask. :)

18. No school shootings. It breaks my heart that this should even be on the list. :/ Child stress, depression, and suicide are right up there as well.  

19. No labels. A child's sense of self matters. There are no bad-mannered peers telling your child who or what they are. One minute your son is a super hero, the next a book nerd, the following minute he's an athlete. Children are who they are, and they deserve for that to be kept intact as long as possible.

20. Flexibility. Are we sick today? Yup, fevers all around. There is no school, and no penalization for missing the day. We will just fill it in on a day off, and nothing is missed. I love never being really behind. When I had my second baby, doing school at home meant that we got to start later in the year and work around the naps and feeding of a newborn.

21. Getting to continue to see my child's 'firsts' as they learn and grow.

22. No drugs. If my children are taking something, it is because it was prescribed by the pediatrician. ;)

23. Variety! I have done homework (when I was in school) at a table, at a desk, on a couch, on the floor, in a chair, out on the lawn, up in a tree, outside on the roof, in the car, in a hotel, at the library, at a museum or other facility... you get the idea. 

24. Sleep! I let my children wake up when their bodies decide they have rested enough. We keep a decent bedtime, and nobody in the house is sleeping all day. (You won't find us waking up at ten, for instance, unless someone is sick.) Kids who get the sleep they need are fresher, healthier, and happier. It is a win-win.                           

25. Refreshing or relearning information in areas in which you have grown weak. This is maybe one of the best perks of all! haha You can see that the farther we go into grammar, the better off I will be! ;)

26. Nobody is having sex with your child. We live in a hyper-sexual society. Sex is on television, in songs, in the clothes we wear - everywhere. People are fond of saying "kids will do it anyway", but this is not true. It is certainly untrue for younger age groups. Children are born innocent and whoa, get this, they are capable of staying that way! They are not exposed to teachers/janitors/coaches who prey on children. Knowing how the body functions, and been pressured into sex acts while still mentally too immature to understand or handle them are two very different things. 

***Side tracking for a tangent: I do advocate for being open and honest with your child about their bodies! In fact, studies show that children who know the proper terms for their genitals are less likely to be victimized. Predators know there are legal loopholes, and they exploit this. 

If your child calls a vulva, vagina, penis, testicles, and anus some cutesy name you made up to avoid your own discomfort, the predator can say "Oh, I didn't know he/she didn't want me to touch him/her there. They never said not to!" It sickens me, but it is true. Talk to someone from CPS, a lawyer, or a judge. There is real danger in using nicknames for genitals. Teach your children the names and functions of their own bodies without shame! Give them bodily autonomy and teach them how to respect their bodies so that they require respect from other people!***

Ahem. I got myself all heated up there. lol My apologies!

Anyway, you get the gist. I had to stop because there really are too many reasons to homeschool to list. We would be here all day! I consider each point mentioned above to be a perk of homeschooling, but none of them are the reason I personally educate my children at home. I have wasted your time getting to the point, haven't I? lol 

Why do I homeschool? Simply this. These children are mine. I waited three years for one and seven years for the other. I begged for them. I cried for them. I prayed for them. I invested my entire heart into them years before they ever arrived. I had a lot of time and thought put into how I would parent. These babies are my gift from God. I was entrusted with their lives, their safety, their entire childhood. That is a privilege, and it is a responsibility.

Of all of the teachers in all of the world, there is not one who will invest the time, energy, heart, passion, patience, fervor, spirit, or quality into their education that I will. I have been a careful observer from the time they were born. I know to what materials/methods they best respond. I can read in their body language when they are tired and need a break; just as I can tell when they are ready to focus and spend time on book work. 

There is something precious in witnessing the education of a child. These are moments I never would have been aware that I was missing if they were in another school. We cheer mightily for our little ones when they take their first step, say their first word, or learn to tie their shoes. Imagine how many hundreds more moments there are just like that! I will never forget the first time my daughter successfully wrote an 'A', or read her first words. Just like taking her first steps with sweet, chubby little baby feet, I witness her first metaphorical steps into new skills and concepts every single day of my life. It is miraculous. 

I now have five full years of home education under my belt, and a sixth currently underway. I have never lost the wonder I feel at my children. I gaze at them in awe when they do not even notice. I hope I never do lose this sense of wonder. It helps me to foster their own sense of wonder at the world around them. Homeschooling is not a choice I made. It is an extension of my heart in their sweet lives. Everything else that comes with it is icing on the cake. :) (: 

End of Season :)

     Our summer gardening season has come to an end, just as quickly as it began. 

As August progressed, and we continued to reap veggies and fruits from our garden time took her toll on our little backyard haven. Bugs abounded, and became more than just a nuisance. Giraffe was getting bitten upwards of twenty times every time we went outside. The pumpkin plant took over the yard, and under the massive umbrellas of its leaves millions of six legged, two winged creatures thrived and multiplied. 

The cucumber was the first to go. Our pumpkin plant choked it out. When it was clearly no longer going to produce, husband pulled it out of the bale for me. We found one final cucumber, about eleven inches long, and relished eating it. :) In all, though we would have loved to have more cucumbers we were greatly satisfied with the 9.5" to 11.75" size we saw in the cucumbers we did harvest. 

Then something else happened. My tomato plants fell over! The beefsteak and the heirloom tomatoes which were booming like you've never seen - healthy, beautiful tomatoes - fell right over, cages and all. The bales were composing so well that they simply could not take the weight of the fruiting plants.

Ahh... so this is why they say to stake and wire the straw bales at the beginning of the season. This is why I do not really find pictures of tomatoes in bales growing through cages. Natch. Never mind. The tomatoes on the porch fell over and continued to grow. These will also. 

Then my cherry tomatoes began to taste really bad. I mean really, really bad. I have no clue what happened here. They were still producing in great quantities and great size, but they tasted like dirt. In fact, they tasted dirtier than dirt. I figured that was as good a sign as any that time was up, so I went ahead and pulled those myself. 

Next my broccoli bolted. Yup, you read that right. It up and bolted! lol You can see here that the new, large broccoli heads that I was waiting to get 'just so' burst into flowers right before my eyes. I hit Google to see why this would be. It turns out that when we hit our hot streak, the soil overheated so the plant took that as a chemical cue to flower and go to seed. Who knew? 

Then another tragedy struck. This one felt malicious, and caught us off-guard. Our pumpkin plant, which had produced nine pumpkins total (six of which made it to fully ripe), suddenly began to die. When we moved closer to examine it, we could see that some unscrupulous person had come into the yard and pulled it completely out of the bale. :( :( :( 

This felt so unkind and thoughtless! I do not know if it was some random neighborhood child. We do not live near anyone specific, but people and children from the neighborhood behind us sometimes cross through our yard. I also wondered if it was the mean lady who lives behind the fence. In the first two years we lived her, she deliberately mowed down every plant I planted in MY yard. The truth is, I honestly do not know who did it. I just know that it made Giraffe cry. 

You can see in the same picture what I meant by the tomatoes fell over... they genuinely fell over onto the ground. lol Staking never was an option for us, as we had promised the homeowner's association that our garden would be temporary, and we'd remove it at the end of the year. 

These various things indicated to us that the end of season was, indeed, upon us. Choked out cucumber, bolted broccoli, pumpkins ripped out and left to die, tomatoes on the ground... yeah, it was pretty much over. Husband took an hour or so and ripped out the plants - allowing me to harvest the last of the tomatoes so they could ripen in the house. In spite of the many swarms of bugs now living in the composting straw, and even a bumblebee nest in the tomato bale, he worked hard and got them torn apart. We took the torn up straw and used it for mulch at the back of the yard against the treeline. At one point, hubs found a mouse! It did not squeak, but I pretty much did! lol

The very last thing we harvested was the celery we had left to grow in the shade up by the house. I had mistakenly forgotten to blanch the celery plant, so it was a bit bitter to the taste. You can see it was HUGE!

I cannot tell you the sheer number of slugs and pill bugs we found in this thing, either! I am not even kidding. Giraffe was excited, too. lol She got containers and was gathering bugs and slugs like nobody's business. She is back in home school, and one lesson suggested that the student might enjoy making and tending a bug zoo. Which, incidentally, is exactly what it sounds like. Various containers filled with backyard bugs that will inevitably meet their demise inside my house. haha Giraffe looooves bugs, and our yard has certainly had more variety this year than ever!

So anyway, that is how our season ended as quickly as it began. Four bales placed into the yard and treated with care and even affection. Four bales ungraciously ripped of their guts as plants were pulled, and then hand-shredded into mulch. Four black spots on the lawn, laid bare and waiting for new grass seed to be scattered, and grow. 

It was a beautiful summer. Our garden was such a source of delight for us. More than that, it was an ongoing science lesson for my children. :) We made friends with bees, where we were once so afraid. We learned deeply about each of our plants, and how they grow and produce. We harvested cucumbers that were just shy of a foot long, where once was a three-leaf plant. :) We successfully raised six small pumpkins. We nearly drowned in tomatoes, albeit mostly very small ones at the end. We had a head of broccoli and decided we like it better steamed than fresh. :) We had our own celery, and decided next year we probably would not do the celery or the yard-encompassing pumpkins again.

Finally, our little watermelon seeds grew. :) We have one single plant left of our garden, and from it a vine with a few small watermelon flowers peeking out. 

Husband kept the half-bale of straw the plant is growing out of, and set it atop the now-vacated planter on the patio. The planter which held and sustained twenty-six fully grown beefsteak tomato plants through a period of several months, and brought us such lovely tomatoes once we got the knack of watering them correctly. :) The sheer amount of bugs at the end made us say things like "We will NOT be doing this again next year!" Not two weeks later, I am already thinking fondly of the experience we had and saying to myself,

"Maybe... just maybe..."

Depression is NOT a Sin

Severe Depression Hidden Beneath a Smile

I was raised in a world where religion conflicts with the general consensus of society. 

Please understand, this statement is NOT to bash or undermine the value of spirituality in one's life. Rather, it is more a statement of the obvious. Religion and the world at large tend to clash. 

Sometimes that clash comes in the form of a lack of understanding about certain issues. At the time, depression was one of those issues. I do not remember anyone directly stating  that depression is a sin, but the idea I left childhood with was that it was. I believed that depression is a trick of the devil, and is something a 'good' Christian would not allow themselves to experience. The idea that somehow having enough of the Word of God in your heart would hold depression at bay. 

Then it happened. My husband and I moved. Someone in a position of authority over us was wreaking havoc in our personal life. Our daughter was born in such a horrific and traumatic way that I had never even heard of the possibility of a birth going so wrong. We moved away from the place of pain, and spent nine months living with different family members. It. Was. All. Too. Much. 

I was already in denial and avoiding the reality of depression and PTSD after my birth trauma. The denial lasted for about a year. By the time the two year mark rolled around, I was increasingly overwhelmed with both, but had such intense shame that I remained untreated. The people in my 'religious' world were oblivious to my pain. Two ladies from religions very different than my own randomly and briefly entered my life. Both of them saw it, and both of them caused me to break down and cry. It was almost another full year (3 years in, if you are counting) after that before I went to see a doctor. I knew I was depressed, but I was hoping not to be told that. The answer came back swiftly. The chemicals in my brain were imbalanced, and I had full blown MDD and anxiety. The doctor put me on Cymbalta, and I - so desperate for help - was too afraid to take it. 

Acknowledging what I resisted for so long opened the flood gates. I quit going out. I quit seeing people. I mechanically went through the motions of being a mother - something I had SO coveted after infertility and loss. I felt so cheated that this thing I wanted most in the world had brought me so much mental torture and pain. I felt guilty that I had not 'given' my sweet and happy daughter the perfect entrance into the world she so deserved; guilty that her birth was literally the worst day of my life instead of the best. 

I desperately hid my suicidal misery from everyone I could think of, for fear of being judged a weak Christian. The truth is that I have never sought God more fervently in my life. Reading Scripture filled as much of my spare time as possible. Prayer was a continuous inward cry of God, PLEASE HELP!! It was vital to my life in a way it hasn't been before, but even then I could not pray the depression away. It was NOT a demonic problem. It was a physical problem. My husband and doctor would convince me to get on my medication, and then I would confide in someone who would say "If it were me, I would not take it." so I would quit cold turkey, and become suicidal all over again. 

Let me make this clear to everyone who says that suicide is a choice. It is ONLY a choice in the barest possible sense of the word. Lynn Wells, person,  would NEVER in a million years take her life. Lynn Wells, sufferer of depression, believed that the world was better off without her... that someone could be a better mother to her child, a better wife to her husband, a better friend to her friends. The list goes on. Depression cripples you. It lies to you. It changes you. Suicide is never the rational choice, but depression isn't rational. It just isn't.

Thank the Lord, my pastor stepped up to bat for me. He explained to me that there are some outdated ideas about depression - not just in religious circles, but in the world at large. He explained to me that we are now aware that depression IS an illness. It is something that often (as in my case) is determined by chemicals in the body. He, along with three other people I love tremendously (one being my husband) became my core support, and made me understand that it was OKAY that I was sick. I timidly allowed a few more people to know what I was going through on a lesser level. To my shock, in a time when I initially felt that I was letting down everyone and could trust no one, I found myself graced and braced with a support system. 

About ten months after I was prescribed medication, I weaned off of it. I had prayed non-stop that the medicine would make me sick as it worked so I would know when to step down. It began making me ill about six months in, I think, and the doctor reduced my dose. When it made me sick again later on, I was able to come off of it. I could laugh again. I could smile without forcing it. I felt weak and vulnerable, but I was clearly recovering. People began to tell me "You sound so good!" instead of asking "Are you okay?" :)

Something important happened during that better part of a year when I was receiving help and treatment. I finally came out of my denial and acknowledged the pain I had been going through the past three years. I grieved over my birth experience. I grieved over the person who had nearly brought ruin to my marriage (not a female... nothing like that). I grieved over the friend who walked away from me when I needed a friend the most. I grieved, and grieved, and grieved, and at the end of that grief I rediscovered joy and peace. 

Could I have prayed away the depression? No. It was chemical. It required medication. Did I 'choose' to be depressed? No. NOBODY in the world wants to feel that. If you've been sad and figure you therefore understand true depression, I promise you that you do not. I still get sad sometimes. I still get the blues sometimes. Winter scares me to this day because I am most likely to develop days and days in a row of sadness. None of these things is the same as true depression. I hope to never experience it again, but I am glad that I am aware now that it exists. I am able to extend understanding and grace to those suffering, where before I could only do what essentially boiled down to praying for them to fix themselves. I am deeply ashamed of that.

I know this has been a long blog, but it bears repeating. I am NOT speaking out against religion. I am NOT saying that Christians are bad people who don't get it. Why? Because I was young and ignorant when I had those views, and since I have been through it myself, my eyes have been opened to an entire world of other Christians who have also been through it. We DO cling to our Lord and Savior when we are despairing. We DO look to His Word for comfort, and comfort may be found. I had a very young and arrogant view of life, but that has changed now. 

If, somehow, you find yourself among the small fraction of people left who think depression is a sin, please reconsider. 

Depression is not a sin. It is not a demonic possession or oppression. It is not a choice that any person would make for himself. Depression is serious, and when believers turn their back on one another (again, the few that do - I am in no way indicting everyone), then they ARE sinning. 

We are called to "Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;". (Romans 12:10) Yes, there are verses about reproving, rebuking, and exhorting (2 Tim 4:2) and a verse stating "faithful are the wounds of a friend" (Prov 27:6), but those verses would be grossly misapplied in this situation. An uncaring person focuses solely on reproving, rebuking, and wounding but ignores the edifying, affection, brotherly love, honor or the many, many commands the Lord has given to treat one another with love, compassion, and grace. 

In this time of renewed national attention on depression, may we Christians not brush it off as a 'worldly' problem or as a symptom of failing faith. Let us discover those in the church pews who are suffering, and wrap ourselves around them in support. When people fall ill or are struck with tragedy, we step up for them. When that tragedy or illness leads to depression, let us not back away. God forbid we should be condemning, but instead be stabilizing, supportive, and renewing. These are true hallmarks of Christianity.

Late Update

 Hello! I have been having a lot of trouble with cameras and cards for this summer, so this morning I snagged my husband's phone for a few quick pictures. My garden looks to be a sloppy mess right now, but that is because it is growing! Can you tell?
I couldn't even get all of the pumpkin plant in the picture, it has sprawled out so far!

This is a view of the garden from the back. 

That same pumpkin plant has also spread lengthwise along the back of all of my other bales on both sides of the bale out of which it is growing. In fact, it is now crawling up the chubby little pine tree that is in our yard!

You can see that it has grown behind the cucumbers, watermelon, and broccoli plants to the begin winding its way up the tree. 

The flower you see blossoming on the tree is a female pumpkin blossom. This morning I saw two bees in there. Now I wonder if I will end up with a pumpkin in a pine tree!

There are three pumpkins growing at the front of the bales right now, and two of them are already turning orange!

I did not expect that so early in the season. These pumpkins have not gotten very large, although they are much larger than they started out. 

This pumpkin is one of the first two blossoms I pollinated by hand. The other one grew for a while and then died off. 

This little pumpkin is from the first blossom that Giraffe pollinated by hand! :) 

I am so proud of her! She has come to really love learning about gardening. In true home schooling style, we have found many lessons in the backyard through this experience. 

We have learned about seed germination, properties of soil, parts of a plant, pollination, growing conditions, plant illnesses, photosynthesis, metamorphosis, insects, bees, fertilization... you name it! :) 

The best part is that none of it has been schooled learning. It has all been naturally incorporated into daily life. :) 

This little guy is the first pumpkin to have been successfully pollinated by the sweet little honey bees!! :) :)

We are very excited by this, and it gives us great hope for the female blossom open today on the pine tree. 

           :)      :)      :)      :)

The celery is growing a little bit taller every week. 

This last week saw a lot of tall new shoots grow straight up the top. My celery is now, finally, just about the height you buy at the super market!

Now we just need it to thicken up and finish getting ripe. I am concerned it might end up bitter, given the amount of water it has soaked up from a summer's worth of water play. 




Tomatoes continue to boom. The beefsteak tomato plants in the planters are still growing like crazy. You can hardly see the wagon they spilled over onto anymore. lol 

The plants here are now over 5 feet tall, and sending up new shoots every week

This is how it looks from the other side. Like I said, my plants/garden/yard are a hot mess. lol 



As long as I get a good yield, it is a hot mess that I am willing to live with!















The broccoli finally came to a head, as you can see here. 

:)  :)  :)



We have been very excited to watch it grow and thrive!! My dad came by the other day and cut it out for me, so now we wait to see another one come on! 

Since the pumpkin plant grew through and took over the cucumber, it has been slow to produce. 

We are averaging one to three full sized cucumbers about every ten days. This was our largest yet, measuring just shy of 11 3/4 inches long. 

It has been a real delight reaping the slow harvest of peas, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and finally beefsteak tomatoes and broccoli. If we can just get the watermelon to take off in spite of being planted late, we will happily add watermelon, pumpkin, and celery to our harvest before summer is out. :)

Hand-Pollinating Pumpkins: The Results Are In

It has been four days since I hand-pollinated two pumpkin blossoms on Thursday morning. I am pleased to announce that.... IT WORKED!!!!

Pumpkin A has grown considerably over the last four days, making me so glad that I did not sneak a peek ahead of time!

Just look at this little fella! Such lovely dark green lines on him, and looking like he's going to be an oblong little fella before we know it. :) 

This one has at least tripled in size! 

Again, YAAAAY!!!! WE DID IT!!! 

Pumpkin B is a little bit larger, and a little bit lighter green. Both of these little guys look deceptively like watermelon at the moment, but I promise you they are not. :) 

I could not be happier with the results of our little science experiment! Imagine that, dust a little pollen in the blossom and four days later you have actual baby pumpkins!! :)

You can bet your boots that I will be hand-pollinating every single female blossom I come into contact with after this. Our first plant (which I left to nature) did nothing at all. :/ The ovary simply dried up and fell off. 

This way is much more fun and productive. 

Of Pumpkins and Pollination

Of Pumpkins and Pollination

My pumpkins are out of control! haha At least, that is how it feels some days. They are wild and sprawling all over my yard and the other plants and I wouldn't have it any other way! I am absolutely delighted by them!

The picture at the top of the page is from this morning, while these other two first photos are about a week old. My pumpkin plants have grown even more and are taking up even more space now.

What merits this pumpkin-specific blog, you ask? Why am I prompted to keep gushing about them when I've already updated? Well, let me tell you. It turns out that they are mildly complicated little things! A while back I googled 'growing pumpkins' so that I could make a mental list of what all we are doing wrong and try to right it. 

I was fascinated to learn that pumpkins are different from their cucumber and tomato garden-buddies, in that a pumpkin blossom doesn't just die as a baby pumpkin grows. Far from it, in fact. Pumpkin blossoms have a gender! They are specifically male or female! 

Take a look at the pumpkin blossom in the picture to the right. Notice the long thin stem growing straight into a yellow blossom. :) 

This slender stem is known as the MALE pumpkin. These are the first to grow in a pumpkin plant. It is said that they serve the purpose of luring bees to the plant for pollination. The idea is that by the time the female blossoms mature and open, the plant is on the daily route of bees and has a better chance to be pollinated. 

That thought intrigued me greatly, and seemed a wonderful feat of nature. What, I wondered, does a female pumpkin blossom look like? 

It turns out that, true to my own life, the males are lean and the females are plump! lol Note the approximately golf-ball-sized green ball at the bottom of this blossom? That is what is called an ovary. 

This ovary looks like a baby pumpkin, and for good reason. If the female blossom is pollinated, the ovary becomes fertilized and will grow into the pumpkin fruit. Who knew?

We discovered the female blossom and her ovary/pumpkin in waiting pictured here too late to do anything about them. 

As of this morning the blossom has dropped off of the ovary and we are waiting with baited breath to see if she begins to grow into a fruit in the next four days or simply drops off, unfertilized. 

Come on! Are we pregnant or not!?!?!

I was so inspired by this little girl (and her two other tiny friends we just discovered a day or so ago) that I decided to look up this whole male/female thing again. This time I read articles and I watched videos on YouTube. I ended up running across countless videos about how to pollinate your own pumpkin blossoms by hand. Wow! You mean that I can make pumpkins happen all on my lonesome??? Of course I am going to try it! 

I learned that female blossoms open first thing in the morning and are only available for a few hours, so I went out this morning to take a peek. OH MY SOUL!! I have not one but TWO more pumpkin gals right up front that I did not even know were there! I MUST pollinate these suckers right away!! How did I miss them, when the differences are so obvious? They are sitting on the grass and while I do look at my pumpkins, I haven't been handling them (so as not to disturb them). Anyway, back to the business at hand. 

These females were apparent, not because of their swollen ovaries (hidden in the grass beneath them), but because of their carpels. 

The carpels (seen here in the very center of the blossom) are the little prongs growing out of the middle of the flower. They're growing directly out of the bottom of the ovary. 

This pumpkin flower has six carpels. 

These carpels need to have really good contact with pollen in order to fertilize the pumpkin (ovary) behind the blossom and encourage growth. 

This pollen comes from the stamen of a male plant. Notice on the right how the male plant has but one prong in the center? That is the stamen, and it is covered in the fluffy yellow pollen that bees crave so intensely. Speaking of which....

This is a honey bee. :) They are in short supply these days because there are fewer flowers, and in general pesticides have caused them to get sick. Entire hives can die from it. This is why we use only organic pest control in our garden.

I was concerned because I have seen sweat bees, carpenter bees, wasps and the like, but not a single honey bee. This morning I found four of them dancing around my garden! 

Now, do I think the world population of bees is suddenly going to disappear? No. Do I think it is my responsibility as a human being and as a child of God to care tenderly for His creations? I do! In fact, I link it to being good stewards of God's planet. :) We may use the planet, but let's take care of it, shall we? One doesn't have to fear that we're trashing the earth to extinction to care about how we treat it. Okay, back off of the soap box. ;)

As gently as I could, I collected a male pumpkin blossom and removed the petals. The idea is to do this carefully so that you do not knock the pollen off of the stamen.

Once the stamen was exposed and the stem had the look of a paint brush, I gently 'painted' pollen from the stamen on and around the carpels of the female blossom. You can see here I made sure to brush the inside as well as the outside. :)

Ideally, I would have liked to use two male blossoms for each of the female flowers I hand-pollinated... BUT there is the matter of my sweet little friends the honey bees. 

When I approached they became a little bit erratic. By the time I had stolen a blossom and stripped it of the petals, they were getting anxious. While I was pollinating the first flower, they were freaking out around my head and ears telling me in no uncertain terms "BUZZ OFF!!!" hehe

I finished hand pollinating with one flower for each female, and headed around the back of the bales to get a couple more male blossoms that had good, thick pollen on them... aaaand then noticed that the sweet little bees were in full-on freak out mode. In fact, they pounced on the next blossom I was after, and three of them went at it! I got a video of their angry little bee fight. When they fell off in a bee ball, I took my bare toes as far away from that patch of grass as I could. lol 

Did my girlies get fertilized? Will I have two precious little pumpkins to show for my care and concern? I am honestly not sure. We'll know in a few days (hopefully), and I'll be sure to tell you.  Maybe next time I will get to use two stamens for each set of carpels, and gently tie the petals closed so the bees can't steal the pollen away from the female blossom... we'll see. In the meantime, I have learned a lot and had a truly interesting and unique experience.

Winged Things

The Dragonfly

This is going to be short.

No, really! I know you have no reason to believe me, but it is true! In direct contrast to the rest of the blog, this is just a quick post to show you a few grainy pictures of my favorite winged insects. 

The Damselfly

The dragonflies and damselfies are our most frequent winged visitors during the afternoon, and come in a range of colors. Dragonflies are much larger and rest with wings out to the side. 

Damselflies are smaller, and rest with wings closed over their back. The metallic blue dameslflies are my favorite, although the one pictured is blue and black. 

The Humble Sweat Bee

Bees are another backyard and garden staple. We have spent the summer so far in cohabitation with carpenter bees, eye bongers (aggressive, large, fuzzy bumblebees), wasps, and these shiny metallic fellas - the sweat bee. 

This is a closely cropped picture, as you can barely see this guy as a speck on the huge pumpkin leaf he was using. Shocked that he didn't fly away, I took his picture up close. I didn't realize until I looked at it cropped even closer on the computer that he did not move because he is snacking on another small something or other. :)

I have a new favorite this morning, but will mention them in the next blog post.

Straw Bale Garden Update! :)

Finally! An update! :)

This is a photo of my straw bale garden first thing this morning. :) All four bales are fully in use now (finally), and as you can see, things are really growing! This is an update on the veggies and fruits so far, both picked and on the vine. :)

Our prettiest plants by far (and also the most thriving) are the cucumber and pumpkin plants. 

While it used to be a simple matter of 'cucumber on the left, pumpkin on the right' you can see that they have now intertwined. :) Can you spot the small yellow cucumber blossoms on the half of the bale with the larger pumpkin blossoms? 

If you look even more carefully, you might notice the little vine of leaves that is now growing on top of the bale to the left of the cucumbers... those are pumpkin!! It has wound through the cucumber plant and onto the broccoli bale, where it is now sneaking tendrils towards our newest plant...



Introducing our very first watermelon sprout! This is a 'sugar baby' watermelon and is said to get between 6 and 12 pounds, have high yield, a sweet taste, be drought resistant, and have a shorter season. 

This makes him a good match for us, since we seeded at the beginning of July instead of in June. The long, thin green sneaking up on him is the pumpkin vine two plants away. I may have to release that tendril so it doesn't choke the watermelon seedling out.

Back to the cucumbers for a moment. They began to produce little cukes last week! :) A few of them turned yellow and died while they were still small, but two others took heart and really began to grow!

This is what they look like on the vine while they are still in the middle of the growth process. You may be able to tell by looking that they are very prickly... or as Giraffe says, 'poinky'. :)

These are the first two cucumbers we picked. It turned out that we grabbed the guy on the left a smidgen too soon. He was mostly crunchy flesh, almost no seed whatsoever, and was light green in color. We will wait longer to pick the other cucumbers still waiting on the vine. 

Don't mind my nails here... I finally used that Mother's Day gift certificate on the last weekend in June to get my nails done, and I wanted a little nod to Independence Day. :)

Tomatoes of all three varieties are growing now. I have hopes that I will end up with more beefsteak tomatoes than I know what to do with!

Pictured here is the first beefsteak fruit that showed up, and is on the vine growing out of a straw bale. This plant now has four to six tiny fruits growing. I am excited to see how big they get, and to have them ripened and ready for tomato sandwiches!

This little beefy baby is one of the guys growing from the big planter we let get out of control. I can see at least six of these little guys from any given angle, and generally get up to around fifteen before I quit counting. If I can keep these plants alive, we should be rich with tomatoes the rest of the growing season. :)

I did what I could, tying plants to the tomato gate, but when you have let 26 plants grow out of control, you inevitably end up with a mess...

This mess, to be exact. These are the tomato plants from the planter, and as you can tell some of them have fallen over. 

In fact, the entire planter fell over! It is (as you can tell) being propped up by the red wagon my children will now not be using for the rest of the summer. lol

We actually popped a few heavy stones on the back of the planter so that (between the weight and the wagon) it will not fall over again. This group of plants is now taller than both Giraffe and Koala!

You might think they cannot possibly survive with so little soil to share, but I am keeping them watered and fertilized. So far, so good. 

The broccoli has also begun to thrive, although you can see that pests have done some serious damage to the leaves. Not long after snapping this photo we bolstered the plants with more rich dirt around the base, and a good covering of dirt for the whole bale. 

The watermelon are planted to the right of the broccoli. Hopefully they will join the pumpkin and cukes in taking over the yard before we know it! ;) 

We also purchased some diatomaceous earth to spread around the plants as an organic pest-control option. We over-did it on the pumpkin plant, and some of the leaves ended up looking quite dusty. However, I will say that my plants do seem relatively pest-free this morning and the bees are still able to light on the blossoms to pollinate. So far I am very pleased with it. :)

The celery is still growing very well by the house. In the morning it gets a nice good dose of direct sunlight, and is quickly overcome by shadow from the house. This is good, because if it were in direct sun all day it would wilt. 

You can see that we took a clean plastic cup, removed the bottom, and pressed the stalks up through so that they can grow straight and tall.

It turns out that this has also been very helpful with pest control, although we have had some small slugs enjoying themselves on the leaves. :) We did remove that bit of plastic which blew into the yard and hid up against it... in case you are wondering. ;)

The sugar snap peas are still growing well, and if I would ever locate the packet I started them from we would have many more! For some reason, I have misplaced it. 

Pictured here are the first four pea pods we harvested. Giraffe was unfamiliar with how to pick peas, and I did not think to tell her, so these look a little rough. No big deal though; she is learning as we go, just like I am! :)




Here are the crisp and hearty peas that were in those pods. :) They were not enough to boil or steam, but I would not have had the chance anyhow. 

As it turns out, Koala is nuts for sugar snap peas and Giraffe prefers the pods they came in! These babies were gone in absolutely no time at all. :)


There is more to show and more to say, but I am tired and isn't there always? I am having the literal best summer of my life. It has nothing to do with finances or health, friends or circumstances. It has everything to do with my little family living in our little house and growing our little garden in our little back yard. :) The days are spent busily playing out of doors in the water, sliding on slides, swinging on swing, swimming in inflatable pools (or whooshing down slip 'n slides), barbecuing with husband, watching more fireworks than we can count shoot off around the neighborhood, watering and tending our plants... in so many words, it is heaven on earth. :) I am experiencing a level of contentment unparalleled to any other period of my life. The Lord has been so very good to us. I could not ask for more. :)