I thought I’d do a little post about what’s been going on around the farm lately. Heh heh, it kind of turned out to be a big post, but anyway…
The main thing that Dad has been doing is harvesting corn. Some of the corn grew almost 15 feet tall this year! That’s really tall, even for corn.
For Nature Study this week we learned about corn. Even though I already knew a lot about how it looked, it was neat to learn the reasons behind corn’s appearance. Here are a few fun facts:
- If you break a corncob in half, supposedly there will always be an even number of kernels around the circumference!
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Corn stalks look kind of like bamboo, with little “joints” at intervals. These joints are called “nodes” and they help strengthen the stalk while still keeping it elastic enough to survive strong winds.
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Corn has the parts of a flower, even though you can’t see any pretty blossoms. The tassels are the stamen, and the silk is actually the pistil. Pollen falls from the tassels through the silk (yes, each piece of silk is actually a tiny tube!) to pollinate the seeds (corn kernels).
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There is one piece of silk for each kernel! If a corncob isn’t fully filled out, it’s because the kernel wasn’t pollinated correctly.
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When it’s really dry, the leaves of the corn roll up to preserve moisture.
Here are the two corn pages in my nature notebook:
Wow. How amazing is the attention to detail God has shown in this seemingly simple plant?!
So there’s your mini nature study for today. 😉
Now for BIBPC. This is the poster I made to get extra points. 😉
And this is my entry! The category was “Shiny.”
Story Behind the Photo: I took this picture of Violet, a barn cat, several months ago. She has super pretty green eyes! They’re also shiny (well, obviously), so you can see the reflection of me and my siblings on the other side of the wire.
These are some edits I made just for fun:
The original picture edited:
The cropped picture edited:
I enjoyed BIBPC, Megan! Thanks for hosting it. 🙂
My my, this was quite a long post. XD Thanks for reading!
Did you learn anything new about corn or how we harvest it? Do you do Nature Study in your school/homeschool?
***Allison***
P. S. I’m sure you all know that today is the fifteenth anniversary of 9/11/01. Please take time to remember the heroes of that terrible day and to pray for those who lost loved ones . ♥♥♥
Allison Marie 
Wow, corn is really interesting! That’s neat how tall it grew!
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It really is! Yes, I agree!
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lovely post, and great pictures!
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Thank you very much!
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So beautiful Allison your blog is simply wonderful.
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Aww, thank you soooo much!
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CORN. YUM.
Ahem. You got some great pictures! It’s really cool getting to see the chopper in real life. 🙂 I’d love to see some corn pile pictures! 😉
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YES! 😀
Thanks, Grace! Yeah! Ooh, do you mean the corn pile that I talked about in my letter? Yes, I’ll definitely have to take pictures of that if/when Dad makes it!
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You’re welcome!
Yep, that’s the one! 😀
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🙂 That’s so cool! I learned something about corn! 🙂 That’s cool. 😛
Yeah. All the 9/11 stuff…. I think that everyone -even kids- should know about it, about the heros… and everything. 😐 😉
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Thanks, K. A.!
Yeah.
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15 feet is really tall corn!! I like your photos. 🙂 Isn’t it so cool how you can learn things that aren’t particularly in school, while being in school? 😉
CutePolarBear
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It WAS really tall corn! Thanks!
Yep, it IS great! 😀
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This was super cool and interesting! Yes, I did learn a lot about corn from you actually! 😀 The cat pics were really neat too! You always have the most interesting posts! 😀
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I’m so glad you liked it, Livy!
Aww, thank you ever so much! And you always have the sweetest comments. ♥
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Why thank you! 😀
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Farm life sounds really cool – I learned a lot of new things in this post! 😀
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Yeah, it is!
Yay! It makes me happy to know you learned something. 🙂
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AMAZING PICTURES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! XD XD XD
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Thank you SO much, Kaitlyn!
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Interesting! I really like your drawing of the corn cob. 🙂 So is the corn harvested with all the corn cobs still on the plant?
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Thanks so much, Christian Homeschooler!
Yep, it is! The silage harvester chops up the whole cornstalk, cob and all. 🙂
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You’re welcome! 🙂
Okay! Do you have to pick all the corn for eating by hand?
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Yes, we do pick the sweet corn by hand, but Dad chops field corn, not sweet corn. Field corn isn’t really edible – we have a separate garden patch for eating from. 😉 😀
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Oh, I get it now! Obviously I know just about nothing about farming. XP
So then you don’t sell any sweet corn?
~Christian Homeschooler
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Ha ha! No, that’s totally fine. 🙂 I’m glad you asked!
We have given some sweet corn away before, but normally we just use it all (we cut the corn off the extra cobs and freeze it).
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Okay! That makes sense. Do you like eating corn on the cob than off it?
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Yep! Although cut corn is pretty good too. I don’t really like creamed corn that much though. 😦
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Wow I learnt sooo much about corn! Thank you so much for sharing.
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Yay! I’m super happy to hear that!
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Wow, this must be so much fun learning this way. It’s better than learning about corn in a boring biology classroom, at any rate.
Have fun!
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Yes, it IS so much fun! 😀
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