Karen GoatKeeper's Blog, page 31
August 5, 2015
So Who Didn't Follow Directions?
As the list of things still needing attention in The Pumpkin Project slowly dwindles, I begin to daydream about fall book signings with my finally completed book in hand. Then I needed a picture for an introductory comment in the book.
That's when I realized I had a problem.
One of the first directions in The Pumpkin Project is to get a notebook to keep records of all the Investigations. Step 1 of every Investigation says to open this Journal and write the number of the Investigation and date in it.
Guess who has no such Journal?
You are right. I did the Investigations on pieces of paper now scattered in various piles of Pumpkin Project related notes. Not in a Journal.
And I need this Journal. First it will be a nice picture for the introductory directions. Next it will sit on my signing display along with a fake pumpkin. [Real ones don't do well for such events but perhaps I can sneak in some pumpkin cookies.]
So I bought a new notebook. I created some stickers [Try finding pumpkin stickers in July!] and decorated it. Now I am going through each Investigation and writing them in the Journal.
That is, I was until I got to Investigation 7. I know I did it. I have the pictures to prove it. Now, which pile contains the paper with the measurements on it?
That's when I realized I had a problem.
One of the first directions in The Pumpkin Project is to get a notebook to keep records of all the Investigations. Step 1 of every Investigation says to open this Journal and write the number of the Investigation and date in it.
Guess who has no such Journal?
You are right. I did the Investigations on pieces of paper now scattered in various piles of Pumpkin Project related notes. Not in a Journal.
And I need this Journal. First it will be a nice picture for the introductory directions. Next it will sit on my signing display along with a fake pumpkin. [Real ones don't do well for such events but perhaps I can sneak in some pumpkin cookies.]
So I bought a new notebook. I created some stickers [Try finding pumpkin stickers in July!] and decorated it. Now I am going through each Investigation and writing them in the Journal.
That is, I was until I got to Investigation 7. I know I did it. I have the pictures to prove it. Now, which pile contains the paper with the measurements on it?
July 29, 2015
Pumpkins and More Pumpkins
Warm and humid has moved to hot and humid in the Ozarks. The pumpkin vines love it. Ripe pumpkins are already appearing.
Now I have lots of new pictures for "The Pumpkin Project" to fill in those missing pieces. Even the pattypan squash finally produced a squash.
I'm getting tired of starting over, going page by page through the book adding and editing. Maybe soon the Investigations will be done with all of the necessary illustrations.
Then I get to go back to the puzzles. So far one permission request has been denied.
Now I have lots of new pictures for "The Pumpkin Project" to fill in those missing pieces. Even the pattypan squash finally produced a squash.
I'm getting tired of starting over, going page by page through the book adding and editing. Maybe soon the Investigations will be done with all of the necessary illustrations.
Then I get to go back to the puzzles. So far one permission request has been denied.
July 22, 2015
Vindication!
The first time I ever met a computer which was at long distance, my high school trigonometry class was allowed to write programs to run on the new school district computer. Someone converted our Fibonacci programs into tall stacks of cards (Yes, Cards!) which were fed into the computer.
Out of thirty sets of cards, mine were the only ones that would never produce a printout.
So my laptop problems had to be something I had done. But I hadn't done anything.
That laptop finally was so annoying it went back to the store.
Vindication! The laptop was the problem. It was unsalvageable.
I now have another laptop. We do have our differences. I type too fast for it to keep up for one.
However this laptop works. It just updated my website and Pinterest boards.
Do I like it? I'm thinking about it. This is only Day 1 after all.
Out of thirty sets of cards, mine were the only ones that would never produce a printout.
So my laptop problems had to be something I had done. But I hadn't done anything.
That laptop finally was so annoying it went back to the store.
Vindication! The laptop was the problem. It was unsalvageable.
I now have another laptop. We do have our differences. I type too fast for it to keep up for one.
However this laptop works. It just updated my website and Pinterest boards.
Do I like it? I'm thinking about it. This is only Day 1 after all.
July 15, 2015
Love or Hate?
Everyone tells me I will love having a laptop. I was happier without one.
My library is moving. It will be closed for six to eight weeks. A laptop is necessary to keep up my website, GR and Pinterest.
So I have a laptop, a new laptop.
It hates me.
I am coming to hating it back.
It sits there happily talking to itself and sites online for updates. It isn't online, it tells me.
It sits there ignoring anything i ask it to do.
It gobbles up my time as the librarians and I try to cajole it into behaving, then laughs at our efforts.
And continues to sit there talking to itself.
The next step is tech support, or so I'm told. Except I'm not online at home where my phone is. I don't have a cell phone as the house is in a dead zone. And tech support will tell me I have to have Internet access available before they can help me.
My laptop is laughing at me.
I hate it. I need it to work. I have three days before the library closes.
Panic.
My library is moving. It will be closed for six to eight weeks. A laptop is necessary to keep up my website, GR and Pinterest.
So I have a laptop, a new laptop.
It hates me.
I am coming to hating it back.
It sits there happily talking to itself and sites online for updates. It isn't online, it tells me.
It sits there ignoring anything i ask it to do.
It gobbles up my time as the librarians and I try to cajole it into behaving, then laughs at our efforts.
And continues to sit there talking to itself.
The next step is tech support, or so I'm told. Except I'm not online at home where my phone is. I don't have a cell phone as the house is in a dead zone. And tech support will tell me I have to have Internet access available before they can help me.
My laptop is laughing at me.
I hate it. I need it to work. I have three days before the library closes.
Panic.
July 1, 2015
Experiment Time
Rain has returned to the Ozarks and most of my pumpkin vines love it. Yes, I did write vines.
There are volunteer Connecticut Field vines, sugar pie vines, Jack Be Little vines in a big pot, a Red Warty Thing vine and a giant pumpkin vine. These last two are not happy at the moment.
I forgot the Baby Bear that just came up in the garden.
Yes, I do like pumpkins. However this many vines is a bit of overkill. But they are necessary this summer as I try to complete The Pumpkin Project.
for the last week I've been measuring how fast two of the vines are growing. The sugar pie vine in the garden won handily over the Connecticut Field on the compost pile.
Not to be outdone the Connecticut Field has a pumpkin growing. This is the next target for measuring. Three different ways of measuring the pumpkin added together give an estimate of weight.
Next I move back inside to complete several Investigations of roots, stems and leaves. Unfortunately this means digging up one of the vines. The smallest, puniest one.
Microscope pictures are on the agenda as well. Plus more pictures of roots and leaves. Maybe next week. It takes a week to sprout pumpkin seeds.
In the meantime my page by page list of contents is up to page 138 with at least 60 pages to go.
I wonder if I can take a vacation once this is done.
There are volunteer Connecticut Field vines, sugar pie vines, Jack Be Little vines in a big pot, a Red Warty Thing vine and a giant pumpkin vine. These last two are not happy at the moment.
I forgot the Baby Bear that just came up in the garden.
Yes, I do like pumpkins. However this many vines is a bit of overkill. But they are necessary this summer as I try to complete The Pumpkin Project.
for the last week I've been measuring how fast two of the vines are growing. The sugar pie vine in the garden won handily over the Connecticut Field on the compost pile.
Not to be outdone the Connecticut Field has a pumpkin growing. This is the next target for measuring. Three different ways of measuring the pumpkin added together give an estimate of weight.
Next I move back inside to complete several Investigations of roots, stems and leaves. Unfortunately this means digging up one of the vines. The smallest, puniest one.
Microscope pictures are on the agenda as well. Plus more pictures of roots and leaves. Maybe next week. It takes a week to sprout pumpkin seeds.
In the meantime my page by page list of contents is up to page 138 with at least 60 pages to go.
I wonder if I can take a vacation once this is done.
June 24, 2015
Thin Ice
Summer is a busy time for me. Every week cheese is made for the Farmers Market. The garden is constantly in need of attention. The goat kids need handling to be friendly. Then there is Martha, my handicapped kid. Chores are always on the list.
The Pumpkin Project has a whole new dimension now. My Jack Be Little, sugar pie, Connecticut Field, Red Warty Thing and giant pumpkin plants are growing in competition with the weeds as summer weather moves into the Ozarks. I need pictures, but which ones?
There are Investigations, new in the book, I need to do. Which ones were they?
Somehow I have let myself get bogged down in creating the new puzzles. A new kriss kross [pumpkin skeleton] is done with another worked out. The new logic or Pumpkin Deduction puzzle now has a premise. Two new Pumpkin Saying puzzles are ready to type out. The first coloring page sketch is started.
But those vines are growing fast. I need to look up those Investigations and start doing them. I need those pictures before fall.
Besides, it's a good excuse to be outside in the garden enjoying the weather.
The Pumpkin Project has a whole new dimension now. My Jack Be Little, sugar pie, Connecticut Field, Red Warty Thing and giant pumpkin plants are growing in competition with the weeds as summer weather moves into the Ozarks. I need pictures, but which ones?
There are Investigations, new in the book, I need to do. Which ones were they?
Somehow I have let myself get bogged down in creating the new puzzles. A new kriss kross [pumpkin skeleton] is done with another worked out. The new logic or Pumpkin Deduction puzzle now has a premise. Two new Pumpkin Saying puzzles are ready to type out. The first coloring page sketch is started.
But those vines are growing fast. I need to look up those Investigations and start doing them. I need those pictures before fall.
Besides, it's a good excuse to be outside in the garden enjoying the weather.
June 17, 2015
More on Words
Words are on my mind lately as I have been working on pencil puzzles for The Pumpkin Project and my Q entry for the goat alphabet alliteration just for fun book.
Years ago my mother worked at later directed an historical museum in a small Ozark town. I had the chance to browse through some of the old text books from local one room schools.
My grandfather had left school at age 13 when his father died and he had to work the farm. I always wondered why he seemed to have such a good education without much time at school.
Looking through a sixth grade McGuffey's reader, later other readers from the same time period I found the answer. In spite of reading far above my grade level, completing a bachelor's degree and being, at that time, a voracious reader, I needed a dictionary for some of the words in the reading selections.
A memory from one of my first substituting days before getting a teaching position is using the term general consensus and watching all mouths in the room drop open.
So often writers are advised to write on grade level. Check your vocabulary. Check your grade level. Simplify your vocabulary.
So many young people have limited vocabularies now. Maybe we should share the blame.
Teachers are told to set high standards for their classes to encourage students to strive to improve. Not impossibly high just higher than mediocre.
Perhaps we should do the same as writers. Maybe we should use bigger vocabularies, longer words in our writing. Challenge our readers a bit. Grow their vocabularies a bit.
My mother introduced me to teaching ESL English to adults. The rule of thumb was to use a word five times for the reader to become familiar with it, to own it.
English is a rich language, one of the richest in the world as it includes words from many languages and times. It can be a beautiful language. What a shame to let this diversity vanish as we write to grade level.
Years ago my mother worked at later directed an historical museum in a small Ozark town. I had the chance to browse through some of the old text books from local one room schools.
My grandfather had left school at age 13 when his father died and he had to work the farm. I always wondered why he seemed to have such a good education without much time at school.
Looking through a sixth grade McGuffey's reader, later other readers from the same time period I found the answer. In spite of reading far above my grade level, completing a bachelor's degree and being, at that time, a voracious reader, I needed a dictionary for some of the words in the reading selections.
A memory from one of my first substituting days before getting a teaching position is using the term general consensus and watching all mouths in the room drop open.
So often writers are advised to write on grade level. Check your vocabulary. Check your grade level. Simplify your vocabulary.
So many young people have limited vocabularies now. Maybe we should share the blame.
Teachers are told to set high standards for their classes to encourage students to strive to improve. Not impossibly high just higher than mediocre.
Perhaps we should do the same as writers. Maybe we should use bigger vocabularies, longer words in our writing. Challenge our readers a bit. Grow their vocabularies a bit.
My mother introduced me to teaching ESL English to adults. The rule of thumb was to use a word five times for the reader to become familiar with it, to own it.
English is a rich language, one of the richest in the world as it includes words from many languages and times. It can be a beautiful language. What a shame to let this diversity vanish as we write to grade level.
June 10, 2015
Wonderful World of Words
Tongue twisters. Remember them? How much wood would a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood? Or Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers?
Or Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven" or especially "The Bells."
Words have such wonderful sounds. People with small vocabularies have no idea how rich the sounds of English are.
Some time back I started playing with goat tongue twisters. Yes, more goats.
One by one I have worked my way through the letters to Q writing quick stories, tongue twisters and alliterations on goat topics.
Q has me stumped. For now. I will sit down with the unabridged dictionary to leaf through all the Q entries until the topic appears in front of me.
Why should the sounds of words matter to a writer?
In any book words can help create the setting, the situation. Their sounds can make a reader hear the wind, the sea, the rise and fall of a carousel. They can add depth to a sentence. They can twist the meaning of a sentence through their connotations.
So often only picture book writers are urged to pay attention to their words. The rest of us are missing out by not doing the same.
Or Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven" or especially "The Bells."
Words have such wonderful sounds. People with small vocabularies have no idea how rich the sounds of English are.
Some time back I started playing with goat tongue twisters. Yes, more goats.
One by one I have worked my way through the letters to Q writing quick stories, tongue twisters and alliterations on goat topics.
Q has me stumped. For now. I will sit down with the unabridged dictionary to leaf through all the Q entries until the topic appears in front of me.
Why should the sounds of words matter to a writer?
In any book words can help create the setting, the situation. Their sounds can make a reader hear the wind, the sea, the rise and fall of a carousel. They can add depth to a sentence. They can twist the meaning of a sentence through their connotations.
So often only picture book writers are urged to pay attention to their words. The rest of us are missing out by not doing the same.
June 3, 2015
Ambivalent Happiness
Several years ago I dutifully started an author's website. My first book was still a draft. But a website was supposed to be very important.
Advice on such a website said to target your audience. Who was my audience? I'm still not sure. However my books cover topics of nature, country living, goats, middle grade coming of age and science. So my website pages grew in number.
Every week I posted a nature commentary, a country living commentary and a science project. I tried to master SEO and advertise. My website remained ignored.
Until the GoodReads giveaway.Suddenly people began to find my website.
Then my Outside Project began posting Investigations from "The Pumpkin Project" and more people began to visit.
Happiness. Delight. Terror.
A new set of studies just came out on bullying and child abuse. The effects last a life time. Those of bullying can even be more terrible than those of abuse.
Parents are so important teaching a child to have confidence in themselves. This can counter even terrible taunts.
But learning confidence as an adult gives a fragile confidence. Fear and uncertainty sit just under the surface.
I am truly happy that people seem to find something to like about my website. I am also terrified I will find a way to make a mess of it.
Advice on such a website said to target your audience. Who was my audience? I'm still not sure. However my books cover topics of nature, country living, goats, middle grade coming of age and science. So my website pages grew in number.
Every week I posted a nature commentary, a country living commentary and a science project. I tried to master SEO and advertise. My website remained ignored.
Until the GoodReads giveaway.Suddenly people began to find my website.
Then my Outside Project began posting Investigations from "The Pumpkin Project" and more people began to visit.
Happiness. Delight. Terror.
A new set of studies just came out on bullying and child abuse. The effects last a life time. Those of bullying can even be more terrible than those of abuse.
Parents are so important teaching a child to have confidence in themselves. This can counter even terrible taunts.
But learning confidence as an adult gives a fragile confidence. Fear and uncertainty sit just under the surface.
I am truly happy that people seem to find something to like about my website. I am also terrified I will find a way to make a mess of it.
May 27, 2015
Promoting Literacy
Literacy is basic for life and country. It lets you find out about things yourself instead of relying on what someone else tells you.
Being literate is no better than being illiterate if a person never reads.
"The Pumpkin Project" is about science. I think science is important. I also think literacy is important.
The puzzles let me combine the two a little. I'm finding sentences in books mentioning pumpkins and turning them into puzzles for "The Pumpkin Project" with credit for the book in the hopes someone doing the Project will read those books.
My problem has been finding pumpkins mentioned in various books. It's not something I can Google as the books aren't about pumpkins per say.
Picture books abound. Older age group books are harder to find. But I am finding them, usually by accident such as in "O! Pioneers" and "Song of the Giraffe." Both are interesting books. Both are books I would recommend to other readers.
Now to create those puzzles and get permission from the publishers to use them.
Being literate is no better than being illiterate if a person never reads.
"The Pumpkin Project" is about science. I think science is important. I also think literacy is important.
The puzzles let me combine the two a little. I'm finding sentences in books mentioning pumpkins and turning them into puzzles for "The Pumpkin Project" with credit for the book in the hopes someone doing the Project will read those books.
My problem has been finding pumpkins mentioned in various books. It's not something I can Google as the books aren't about pumpkins per say.
Picture books abound. Older age group books are harder to find. But I am finding them, usually by accident such as in "O! Pioneers" and "Song of the Giraffe." Both are interesting books. Both are books I would recommend to other readers.
Now to create those puzzles and get permission from the publishers to use them.
