Leading up to the eclipse, I had many ideas as to how we were going to include this into our homeschool plans. Eventually, I decided that I did not want to risk traveling with my kids during a time with other distracted drivers would be adding the activity of "looking at the sky" to the many other things that they do while operating a motor vehicle. We settled on a planned quiet day at home. Our goal was to complete our chores and bookwork and then spend some time in the afternoon under the darkening sky. I didn't even buy those fancy glasses. We were going to experience the event similar to how earlier cultures without the technological advances of eye protection would have seen it.
As it happens quite often around here, things didn't exactly go as planned.
Our chores were interrupted with a discovery that the deep freezer door was not closed all of the way. We had an alarm sensor in the freezer but removed it to replace the batteries and never returned it. Lesson learned that a device doesn't work if not placed into the proper location! We will not even discuss who may have left the door open in the first place (it could have been me) because we do not have absolute proof against the perpetrator.
A significant amount of food in the freezer had defrosted to a point where it needed to be consumed. It wasn't ruined but shouldn't be refrozen. My focus was prioritized to emptying out a large stand-up freezer, cleaning it out, examining each component and deciding what to do with it. Only two portions were questionable enough to be given to the dogs. The rest was freeze dried, cooked, placed into the refrigerator for consumption in a few days, given to a neighbor or returned to the freezer. This activity took precedence and postponed the other morning chores.
Meanwhile, the baby found the makeup...
Apparently, the chickens felt neglected in the drama regarding the freezer and a few of them decided to escape their pen. Our next activity involved a game of Chase-The-Chickens. We returned all but one of them to their area without incident. There was one, particularly foolish chicken that changed directions at the last minute and headed into the woods. This excitement alerted our dog, who up until this time was being distracted by another kid. Once the dog realized that a chicken was out, he wanted to participate in the fun game. He truly enjoys the game of chasing chickens as can be observed by his swishing tail and happy eyes.
The game changed from simply chasing chickens to a game of Chase-The-Dog-That-Is-Chasing-The-Chicken. This increases the excitement element of the game for everyone involved. Dodging branches and tripping over tree roots and limbs was an additional obstacle. Eventually, the dog caught the chicken. He was very proud of himself for winning the game. As he released it to us, the chicken escaped again. The humans involved were tired of this game and so the dog was held in the woods while the chicken was herded back into the pen. If this game had lasted just a few more minutes, it would have turned into "Chicken Survival in the Wild" as we would have challenged this hen to test her abilities on her own.
Given our unexpected distractions, our school day didn't start as early as we had hoped. We ate a feast of a breakfast as we utilized the defrosted food and then sat down to our lessons.
My son didn't mind the text interruption to his math lesson, when we discovered that our public-school family members were on track to miss the entire eclipse. Their school day was scheduled to end during the peak of the eclipse and the kids would be loading into or riding buses during this time. We all agreed that we should help them out if possible. So, after a discussion with their parents and notifications to the front desks of their respective schools, I picked them up early and brought them to our house. We had an impromptu eclipse party!!
Luckily for us, they had glasses to share so we set up in the front yard for the maximum viewing spot. The kids made ice cream and cookies while I was traveling, and we celebrated in style!
After the eclipse, we had a small rain shower for which I found fun to enjoy outside. I didn't realize that the kids had events to attend that afternoon. I returned the kids to their parents soaking wet and with a belly full of ice cream and cookies. I think some of them even lost their socks. On the plus side, they did make it into their vehicle with all of their school bags and prescription glasses. They may have been a huge mess, but I think they had fun. I know we did!
During the eclipse, our UPS delivery guy was hard at work and delivered our raised beds. After our friends left, we all separated to various tasks. Our oldest put together the raised beds. Our son attempted to get the baby to take a nap and fell asleep with her. I mowed a section of field to put into the raised beds as filler. Our daughter used her newly delivered photo paper to practice printing out her artwork. Our other daughter gathered the grass clippings. The hubby was working on the computer. Life seemed to be returning to normal for us.
Later, the hubby took his lunch break and checked on the sheep. I was filling up the duck pool when I received this message, "We have lambs!". I dropped the hose and ran to the bottom of the hill. Yes, it looked as funny as you can imagine seeing this old lady running down our hill in flip flops, but I didn't care. This was our first lamb and I wanted to be there! Let it never be said that we are boring neighbors.
Ewe #3 delivered two baby lambs on the evening of the eclipse. We are guessing that we have one ram and one ewe based on witnessed urination from a distance. We didn't want to disturb the bonding process, so we haven't gotten any closer to verify. We left that task for another day.
By this time, I was getting tired, and we had evening chores to complete. Oh, and the water hose was still running. Luckily for us the ducks didn't mind!
It's a good thing that we have a few years before the next eclipse. We may need all of that time to recover from this one.