Trip Pictures

Here are a some pictures from the last few days. Right now I am tired, but I can probably do a longer post tomorrow. We are currently in Louisiana, and hope to be at my Grandpa's house in Mississippi by 6am in the morning.






All seven of us kids (clockwise: Pierce, Lucas, Zoe, Thomas, Stephen, Me, Xiana can't be seen.)






Mojave Desert (with Mesas in the background)






Grand Canyon






Close up of Grand Canyon






Windmills in Texas (I am in the bottom left behind the gate)

Lauren


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Arizona and a Desert

Last night we passed through the Mojave Desert. Even though we could not see most of it, we were still at the edge when the sun rose. The desert was covered with rough reddish-yellow sand and rocks. There were grey-green bushes and tumbleweed growing all over the dry ground. Right now Arizona looks pretty much the same. The road runs straight through the flat land, with large hills and rock formations rising on either side. The hills are crested with sharp red rock, spilling down the side into the yellow sand. The red Mesas rise high above the road with wind-smoothed rocks jutting out the steep sides. A train track runs parallel to the road, and occasionally a train with 100 cars (I am not joking, we counted them) travels beside us, going on... And on... And on... Seeming to never end.

I hope that this gives a clear description of what I am traveling through, since I can't post any pictures yet.

Lauren Ashley

Our Trip Starts

Our trip has started! We are driving from San Jose all the way to Mississippi. Several of our friends have said that it sounds crazy, but that is the type of trip that our family takes. Not only are we driving all the way, but we are doing it in 3-4 days, staying with family in Mississippi for a week, and then driving back in 3 days. We are planning to go to the Grand Canyon, Petrified forest and Meteor Crater. We have now been traveling for six hours, and will be getting to the Grand Canyon tomorrow. I cannot post any pictures right now, but so far we have just driven through miles and miles of farmland; vineyards, orchards, strawberry fields, onion fields, and even fields of red and green dandelions.

Lauren    

Make Fair

Last Saturday my family went to the Maker Faire in San Mateo. This fair includes many people who make anything from steam-punk bicycles to hand-made clothes to lightning timed to music.  A few of the things there were useful and beautiful, others were slightly odd, and others were... just strange. Some of the most interesting things were steam-punk style bicycles, the Sound Cave, and the erector set electric motorcycles.

Steam-punk bicycles 

The steam-punk bicycles (though they had more than two wheels) were all powered solely by the pedaling of the riders. All of the pedals were hooked up by gears and chains to the front wheels. The wide wheels were made using pieces of thick plastic with flattened bike tires screwed onto the outside.

Pierces' favorite was the erector set motorcycle. It was powered by electric batteries, behind the paper and behind the orange straps in the pictures. The way that the metal bars and plates were set up made the motorcycle height adjustable, and made it easy to build.

My favorite was the Sound Cave. It was a wooden box about 5ft by 5ft by 5ft with one narrow opening which was used to enter by. The strings and frame of pianos attached to all the inside walls and the ceiling. The piano strings are played by tapping or plucking like a harp. Because it was inside of a closed, hard space, the sound echoed over and over (thus the name Sound Cave). If you just listened to the music, you would guess that the instrument was a lot larger and complex than it was in reality.

Lauren Ashley

Math Party

Math awards from past years

Last Thursday was our Math Club end-of-the-year party! Every year we have a math scavenger hunt. We first go through a page of math problems and then go to where the answers are on a map of the park. At each of those places there is a multiple choice math problem. The letters with the answers of the multiple choice problems form a math word. This year the word was bisect (to divide into two equal parts). We then have to explain the word to our math club coach.

Working on math problems

After finishing the scavenger hunt we made polyhedra out of six ropes.

Tetrahedron (4 sides)

Cube (6 sides)

Octahedron (8 sides)

Icosahedron (20 sides)

We then had awards for the elementary, middle school, and high school groups. The picture at the top is of awards that all three groups have won in past years. 

Lauren Ashley

Recycle~ Tee Shirt Dishcloths

How to Turn a Tee Shirt Into a Dishcloth

Often tee shirts get holes around the neck, arms, and hem, and the shirt gets thrown away even though most of the fabric is still usable.

Supplies:
Old tee shirt
Scissors
Size 7 knitting needles or size H crochet hook

1. Cut off the hem at the bottom edge of the shirt, at the edge of the sleeves and around the neck. Cut off the seams that connect the sleeves to the body of the shirt, the seams at the sides of the shirt, the seams at the shoulders and the seams across the sleeves. There should now be four flat pieces of cloth which used to be the front of the shirt, the back of the shirt, the left sleeve and the right sleeve.

2. Starting on the sleeves and then the body of the shirt, cut around the piece of cloth in a spiral about 3/8in from the edge to form a continuous strip of cloth similar to yarn. (I suggest winding the yarn into a ball as you go so that it does not get tangled.) When you are done with cutting one piece of cloth, tie the end of one piece of yarn to the start of the next piece of yarn.

3. (For knit) Using the tee-shirt yarn cast on 30 stitches. Knit as many rows as are needed to make the dishcloth square, slipping the first stitch of each row to form a smooth edge. Cast off and weave in ends.

4. (For crochet) Using the tee-shirt yarn chain 30. Using half-double crochet work as many rows as are needed to make the dishcloth square. End and weave in ends.

5. Wash the dishcloth before using. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP. If you DO NOT wash it, the dishes will end up getting covered with pieces of fuzz from the yarn.

6. Use the new dishcloth to wash your dishes. The texture formed by working knit on all rows, or by using half-double crochet instead of single crochet gives the dishcloth a texture that is very good for scrubbing.

Lauren Ashley

Scones

One of my favorite things to have for breakfast is scones, so I have decided to include the recipe I use from the book, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison. (I have made a few changes to make it easier to understand)


1/2 to 1 cup candied ginger, chopped to the size of a raisin (other types of dried fruit or nuts could be used instead)
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar, plus extra for the top
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces
2 eggs
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla


Preheat the oven to 425°F and lightly butter a cookie sheet.

Toss the ginger with a tablespoon of the flour. Mix the remaining flour with the baking powder, sugar, and salt, then cut in the butter. Combine the eggs, cream, and vanilla, then stir it into the flour mixture along with the ginger. (Don't add all of the liquid at once, add it slowly until the dough picks up all the flour. I have measured the liquid volume of eggs, and the size can make a big difference. The regular white eggs that we get from Costco are 1/6th cup and the brown eggs we get from the farmer's market are 1/4 cup. If you end up with extra add it to the 1 tbsp cream to brush the top with.)

Turn the dough onto a floured board and lightly knead 8 to 10 times.

Pat or roll the dough into a circle about 3/4 inch thick, then brush the top with the remaining cream and sprinkle with sugar.

Cut into 12 wedges or into small circles and bake on the cookie sheet until glazed with gold, about 15 minutes. Serve warm.

This time I used dried cranberries instead of ginger in one batch, and in the other I forgot to put the cranberries in before adding the liquid, so I kneaded in some powdered cinnamon and nutmeg.

This is the look that my 2 year old brother Stephen gave me when I told him that we have to cook the scones before we can eat them. He kept the pose just long enough for me to get this picture and them he smiled and asked to, "See a pic-ter a Tepen."

Lauren Ashley

Camera

When I started this blog I had plenty of ideas of what to post about, but soon afterwards our camera broke, making many of these post ideas impossible. Last night Dad and I went out and got a new camera for Mom. Here are some of the pictures I took this morning.

Lauren Ashley

Sewing, Sewing, Sewing

On Tuesday my family decided to work on sewing projects. Mom worked on drafting a pattern for a gored skirt, my brother Pierce (11 years old) learned how to use the sewing machine for his quilt, my brother Thomas (13 years old) finished sewing the sail for his model catamaran ship, my sister Zoe (6 years old) started some lavendar filled sachets and I made a Bebe Au Lait style nursing cover for one of our friends. After I finished making the Bebe Au Lait I started cutting out the pieces for pouches that can attach to a belt for Thomas, Pierce and I. We had been waiting for some books at the library to come in, but we finally couldn't stand it anymore and just went to the library to find the books ourselves. We meant to just pick up the one book that was in hold and lookaround  for a little while, but ended up coming bak with 14 books on cooking and sewing. I would recomend getting the book Sew What! Skirts. It shows how to draft a skirt pattern just using your measurments. Mom and I are planning to make another skirt for each of us before our trip to Mississippi at the end of this month.

I am hoping to write a series on how to sew and knit with recycled materials (after we get a camera). As a sneak peek, one of the projects will be How to turn a tee shirt into a dish cloth.

Lauren