Experimenting with a spinning composter.......

Ok, so going "Green" seems to be the "IN" thing to do now.  Most of it is meaningless to me and not cost effective.  Composting though has gotten my interest.  My parents used to compost back when it wasn't the "cool" thing to do back in the late 70s and 80s when we had that big giant garden we had.  It's also a learning experience for the kids....that's always a plus!

So, I started researching composting and found some interesting methods.  You can have the open piles of compost and rotate from one pile to the next depending on the degree of rot, but I figured my neighbors might not appreciate that too much - ick!  While researching though I found this cool spinning composter on YouTube.  I showed it to Chris and he made one.  It's pretty cool!  Here are some pics.

Here is a picture of the completed project:

This shows you the door that was cut and the hinges.  You have to have 3 hinges or the door comes open when you spin the composter to mix up the contents.

Here you see the setup of the legs that my husband came up with.

Here is the spinner that he designed based on items he found at Lowe's Home Improvement.

Alternative Schooling!

Now that it is good weather, barring the spring showers, and now that we have a decent table outside, it is fun to do school outside!

Another field trip.........

I had a busy week this week!  We did the Carolina Tiger Rescue field trip with Sophie's homeschool group which you can see pics below.  Then yesterday we went to the Sylvan Heights Waterfowl Park where we saw lots of exotic ducks, geese, swans, and birds from all over the world.  Sophie, McKenna and I went with McKenna's Girl Scout troop.

Playing baseball with the Miracle League of the Triangle

Eric has played baseball with the Miracle League of the Triangle since its inception.  Click here for the Miracle League of the Triangle  Tonight was the Home Run Derby and trophy awards.  All the kids bat every game and get to score at every game.  Tonight the kids all get one shot, however long it takes, to make a good hit and then the volunteers just HAPPEN to drop the ball and miss the throw and so forth so that every player gets a home run!  Everyone cheers and everyone has a blast.  Below are some pics of Eric from tonight. 

          
                                                       This is Eric's coach, JV Cotterell. 
                                                       I love this picture of Eric!

  

Many children have passed from Batten Disease over the years.  I have only recently become actively involved in "blogging" so I have not posted about children that have passed away until now.  I am sure I will not be able to post about every single one from here on out, but wanted to post about Caity Allio. 

Caity was from Vacaville, CA where her family currently lives.  She lost her battle with the Juvenile form of Batten Disease earlier this week.  I haven't had the opportunity to personally know that many families affected by Batten Disease.  Nor did I get to meet Caity myself, but I did have the tremendous pleasure of meeting Caity's parents, Joe and Kathy Allio.  They are incredibly kind folks who are so easy to get to know.  They are the kind of people that you feel as if you've known your whole life from the very first moment you meet them. 

Below is the obituary in the Reporter for Caity that  I found online. 

Legacy.com

We took a field trip today with our homeschool group (North Raleigh Homeschoolers) to the Carolina Tiger Rescue center in Pittsboro, NC.  It was awesome!  They stressed how these are all wild animals and they are firm with everyone, including staff, that there is not to be any petting or treating these animals as if they are pets.  The animals are accustomed to humans but are not pets.  Below are some photos from the Center.  They have cats from private owners who could not care for these animals as well as from other centers/zoos that have gone under due to economic issues.  There was even also one of the lions who had been the center of a show on Animal Planet.  I forget the name of the show right now unfortunately. 

We gathered indoors to get a brief explanation of the rules and safety tips.  We also got to touch some pelts of animals that had died of natural causes.  She explained that that was all the petting of animals that would be done.  So, we got to feel the difference between a tiger's fur, a caracal's fur, and a "bear cat's" or a binturong's fur (which isn't even a cat). 

Now some of the animal pics!

An ocelot!

A tiger!

A lion!

A serval!

I recommend a visit to the Carolina Tiger Rescue Center in Pittsboro, NC if you live in the area.  They do private tours, field trips and have open visits on the weekends.  These cats are amazing!  The staff is very knowledgeable and you are fairly up close to the animals.  Take good walking shoes, sunscreen and bug spray though!  Go visit! 

We are off to an exciting field trip today.  The Carolina Tiger Rescue in Pittsboro. 

Carolina Tiger Rescue

I'll post pics later.  Can't wait to see the Servals.  We have a savannah cat which the breed was created by breeding down from a serval.  The breeder we got our savannah from owns a serval that she keeps as a pet!  He lives in her house!  Couldn't imagine!