Posted on May 11, 2008 by Becky
Or rather, books from geeks, GeekDads to be specific.
Today Michael Harrison at GeekDad has a post about Laura’s new b00kn3rd.com blog [it took me a while to figure out that "book nerd" is in there, but then I'm still woozy from my breakfast of waffles, whipped cream, and strawberries] and her post on rare children’s [...]
Filed under: Books, Children's Books, Fun & Games, Raising Children | No Comments »
Posted on May 11, 2008 by Becky
Building a new open-front pole shed.
Tom and his helper, his father, and the boys (Laura is otherwise engaged, halter-breaking Benny) have done this bit in the past week. Daniel especially likes what I think of as the “high wire” work. I’ll stay down on the ground with my camera, and the [...]
Filed under: Farm Life | No Comments »
Posted on May 11, 2008 by Becky
from all the mamas and their offspring at Farm School!
Callie the calico cat and some of her kittens,
Laura’s 4H cow-calf pair, Bunny and Benny,
Oreo the Speckle Park calf,
Filed under: Celebrations, Country Life, Farm Life, Holidays, Spring | 2 Comments »
Posted on May 9, 2008 by Becky
It’s still Friday around here, for another two hours and 50 minutes, so technically I’m not late. It’s been a busy week, with swim club starting (requiring us to be in town four afternoons a week), an art lesson (we had just about forgotten what the art teacher looked like), and a make-up singing [...]
Filed under: Poetry, Poetry Friday, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Posted on May 6, 2008 by Becky
From The Edmonton Sun, May 5, 2008:
Despite a public apology from Syncrude following the deaths of 500 ducks in one of the oil giant’s tailing ponds near Fort McMurray, an investigation by the province will continue, Premier Ed Stelmach said yesterday.
“I certainly thank them for the apology they gave the print media, but we will [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Posted on May 4, 2008 by Becky
that I didn’t post any “before” window project photos. Here are a few before and during shots.
Before, inside (with apologies for the crummy quality):
Before, inside, with Davy:
Before, outside:
During, just after they removed the old window, and the wall:
During, with the new build-out framing:
During, getting ready to install the windows with some very brief snow [...]
Filed under: Around the house, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Posted on May 4, 2008 by Becky
“To plant a seed is a hopeful deed.”
– unknown gardener
It didn’t take more than a week, living with the new enormous south-facing window in the master bedroom, to realize that what I had was not a large sunny window seat but the perfect seed-starting greenhouse. I planted some seeds in early April — from [...]
Filed under: Gardening, Spring, Uncategorized | 5 Comments »
Posted on May 4, 2008 by Becky
When Tom and I heard the news earlier this week about the hundreds of ducks killed earlier this week when they landed on a Syncrude tailings “pond”, we both immediately thought of an article we had read late last year in albertaviews magazine; the article was “The Ponds” by the Calgary investigative journalist Andrew Nikiforuk, [...]
Filed under: Canadiana, Current Events, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Posted on May 3, 2008 by Becky
Late but interesting: I didn’t see this until today, when it was already too late, from Gever Tulley’s blog:
Just a quick note to say that I’ll be speaking and answering questions on Thursday, May 1st at the Maker Day event before the Maker Faire and then again on Saturday, May 3rd, the first day of [...]
Filed under: Childhood, Education, Home Education | No Comments »
Posted on May 2, 2008 by Becky
Via Boing Boing and Pharyngula, word of a new, subversive (that’s PZ’s term) chemistry book, just out this week from the Make Magazine folks:
Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments: All Lab, No Lecture by Robert Bruce Thompson, part of O’Reilly Media’s DIY Science series.
Thompson is also the author, along with his wife Barbara Fritchman [...]
Filed under: Books, Chemistry, Courting Danger, Education, Fun & Games, New books, Raising Children, Science | 5 Comments »
Posted on May 2, 2008 by Becky
I’m writing about the duck deaths at the Syncrude tailings pit earlier this week not because I’ve dug out any news of my own, or have any noteworth comments, but because I’d like to help spread the news of this incident in particular and the tar sands in general beyond Alberta’s borders, especially to the [...]
Filed under: Canadiana, Current Events, Onward & Upward | 1 Comment »
Posted on May 1, 2008 by Becky
(illustration from the Environmental Defence website)
This past Monday, April 28, about 500 migrating ducks drowned after landing on a man-made tailings “pond” (officially, the Aurora Settling Basin), filled not with water but with toxic waste sludge from the Syncrude tar sands (the province of Alberta, Syncrude, and the other mining corporations prefer the tidier [...]
Filed under: Canadiana, Current Events | 3 Comments »