Today I tried making the chocolate chip banana bread mix I received as a gift this Christmas. It came out horrible! The mix was too runny to begin with so that should have been a clue. It dripped all on the bottom of my oven as it rose! All the chocolate chips ended up on the bottom of the loaf pan. I haven't sampled it yet...hopefully it at least tastes good!
This morning we identified a spider for my father, who e-mailed us the photos from Maine. He found an Argiope aurantia.
Mark has been outside clearing vines off the barn and burning some brush. The girls were outside having fun most of the day. It's a foggy day, but not too bad temperature-wise. Mark found an orange fungus on one of the vines that we will need to identify. Our maple trees also have a green fungus or something growing on them. Since I've never had maple trees before I don't know if this is normal or not...or what to do about it. I'll have to do some investigating.
Georgia helped me make some guacamole for our layered Mexican dip. I use Alton Brown's recipe found
here. After the guacamole was made, Georgia wondered aloud whether the pits could be planted for trees. Off to the computer we went...and we found our answer
here. We now have two avocado pitshanging
Georgia is also voraciously consuming the North American horse breeds book from the library. She has also been sketching various breeds and her sketches are quite impressive. I'll have to scan a few to share here.
The girls have a collection of matchbox cars, including work vehicles for farm, construction, and emergency vehicles. Last night they were asking all sorts of questions about police and fire. They have gone to the fire station open house for the past two years and loved that. They got to use the hose and try to put out a pretend fire, and they learned all about fire safety. Still they had a lot of questions about the nuances of the job, and what they are allowed to do and what they cannot do. It was quite an interesting discussion.
