Too much of a good thing?

Aaron and Claire are readers, no doubt about that. But sometimes I wonder if they don't read just a bit too much...

Industrial Pittsburgh

On our way out of Pittsburgh, we all went to Braddock to see the amazing locks and steel mill. Our timing was very lucky: we got to see a large tug loading 7 huge coal barges into the locks, then they closed the massive gates, flooded the locks, and then pulled the barges out with a smaller tug (the Joe T). Oh yeah, it was a gorgeous day.

New friends

During our trip to Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving, Aaron and Claire made some new friends: Sophie and Evan. The kids haven't spent much time with dogs and being around these loving dogs made the kids much more comfortable.

It's dissolving!

The other day, we did some experiments to see how different things reacted in water: salt, sugar, corn starch, soil, flour and oil. After seeing which things dissolved or became suspensions, we tested if we could filter the water using a coffee filter. We were all surprised that the oil hardly passed at all through the filter. To top it off, we watched some Skittles dissolve. A morning of water fun!

Fall garden

It's late November, but we still have quite a few greens (mostly chard) thriving in the garden. The cold frame has its share of greens (mustards, tatsoi, mache, mizuna, a hardy lettuce, spinach, radicchio, and even parsnips) that we hope will last through the winter -- we had pretty good luck last year despite some really cold days (-12!).

The tunnel has only a little stuff showing. We are hoping that it will give those sproutings a head start in the early spring.

Leaves, leaves, everywhere!

Hanging out with friends

After swim lessons, we had the chance to spend a pleasant afternoon on campus with Kim, Sarina and Anthony: Mirror Lake, the amphitheater, the Geology/Fossil museum and the new library.