School and February

I never write on here because I think I need to post a picture, so that keeps me from doing anything .  I wanted this blog to be a chronicle of my learning to be a "farmer".  Not really a farmer, but to learn back to the land skills.  I have not been doing much of that for the last few years with having 2 babies since we moved to this place. But I know I want to keep this blog going, and inform my extended family and friends about the doings of our family.  So I'm writing again. 
Another function I planned for this blog would be to share what we are learning about in our homeschool. This year with homeschool I have been trying to (somewhat unsuccessfully) apply my MASTER PLAN of EDUCATION.  I have determined a way to incorporate my seven stewardships into a yearly schedule.  I have put Faith as something we do or study on a daily basis, then put the rest of the subjects onto a twice yearly rotating schedule.  For February we are in Liberty.  In March we move to Earth, then Science in April, Brotherhood in May, and Beauty in June.  We did Body in January.  The kids are required to keep a daily journal-- or do freewriting exercises-- each day.  And each month they must do a written report, a project and a presentation of what they have learned.  I am considering having them post a presentation on this blog.  We will see. 
So for Liberty in February, I chose to study primitive houses.  I am fascinated with cob building and adobe earth building.  The crunchy side of me gets into all that earthy stuff.  The kids and I watched this really cool video of an African Village building a house out of mud.  It is about 18 minutes long, but shows the unity that that these people have when it comes to the needs of the people.  I loved it.

Yesterday, since the weather has been soooo warm, I dug a small bucketful of earth- our soil has a rather high clay content- and added some cut up straw to it.  Then I kneaded it with water until it became a thick pasty mud. The kids and I prepared a small bit of ground by removing the sod, and we put some dry earth into a cone shape.  We then put the cob mixture on top of the cone of dirt, placing a rock on one side to leave an opening.  We made a very small igloo shaped structure like a cob oven.  I haven't been out to check on it yet, but when the cob dries we will pull the loose dirt out of the middle and it should leave a hollow inside.  I will post a picture if it works, but I am having my doubts because now it is starting to snow!!  Goodbye warm spring.