Water Treatment Plant Tour

This week we went on a tour of a local Water Treatment Plant. Our tour guide was absolutely wonderful; good with the kids and very knowledgeable .

First we saw the lab, where they test the water for bacteria and chlorination level.

We got to see the filtration system made up of all these tiny tubes.

This part is more like a strainer to get out the bigger items before being filtered.

And where they make the bleach they add to the water to kill bacteria.

It really was a very educational trip and I think the kids all learned a lot. And now that we know where are water comes from, maybe next we'll find out where it goes after it leaves our house.

First Picks

The strawberry patch across the street from us opened this week. They have a really early variety and since I still refuse to buy berries from the store and ours here at home are green and only about an inch long we decided to head over yesterday afternoon.

I prepped the kids before we left- we still have a freezer full from our own garden last year, so I told them we were only picking what we could eat in a couple days. We only took one basket to help with that.


But, you see, my family has a problem when it come to picking fresh produce. We really don't know how to stop. It happens with strawberries, peaches, blueberries....

So while we only took one basket, the man at the farm gave us another. And we filled our basket within about 5 minutes. So we picked more. But we didn't go too much over- we only got about 6.5 lbs. And we took some down to a friend.

And today I got enough spinach and lettuce thinnings to make my lunch- with strawberries of course.


I am hoping the cooler, more spring-like weather holds a little longer so that the lettuce, spinach and peas have a chance to grow better. Especially since my self-seeded cilantro has already begun to bolt in the 80 degree temps we had last week.

This and That

More random.

School.

Last week we studied reflection, diffused reflection and how the eye works.
We learned the parts of the eye and what they do and did an virtual eye dissection.

Today we started in on refraction and lens types

I made cookies to try out a new recipe and designs.


This one is supposed to be a Trillium... the best I can do at midnight.


and last month I entered this contest:

I made these Sweet Potato- Date Scones. I posted them over on Morning Glory Bakes, which is a blog I started to focus on my baking.

I got a call this past Friday that my recipe won in the Sugar Free category! They publicly announced the winners today on the Sweet Bytes Blog- check out all the other great sweet potato recipes! I am sure this fall after we harvest this year's crop I will be trying lots of these new recipes!