Firetrucks and butterflies

This morning Andrew took Rachel and Benjamin to the doctor for their post-diagnosis check-up and the doctor determined that...they both still have pneumonia. Rachel, like Alexander (who is doing just great at this point), has it in her left lung. Benjamin has it in his right lung. But it seems like the antibiotics did their work and the kids will just have to cough it out. So lots of (generic) Mucinex for them!

I had the much more pleasant task of taking the little kids to the library (we left Miriam at home to work on some things in a quiet house). Our books were due and I had several holds waiting for me. 

The fire station is next to the library and we could see from the parking lot that they were working on one of the trucks—they had the ladder extended and were greasing it. Phoebe is the one who saw it. First she saw the crane from across the street and said, "Oooh! Loot! A tane!" And then she saw the ladder of the firetruck (which was horizontal) and said, "Oooh! Loot! A boat!"

"I don't think that's a boat," I said. "I think that's a firetruck."

"I think that's a boat," she said.

"No, I'm pretty sure it's a firetruck because that is the fire station, which is where firetrucks stay when they're not being used. What you're seeing is the ladder of the truck all stretched out."

"Well, I'm pitty sure it's a boat."

"Should we go see? Let's go see."

We walked over to the edge of the parking lot and peered through the trees. 

"See," I said. "It's a firetruck."

"Oh! It is a firetruck!" she admitted.

"Come on down!" the firemen called (we were, relationally speaking "up" on a hill above the firemen). "We'll show you the truck!"

The hill was pretty steep, but we decided to slip and slide down it anyway (leaving our three big bags full of library books sitting unattended at the top of the hill). The firemen showed us the 100 foot ladder, how they were lubricating the hydraulic press that works the ladder. They made the ladder go all the way up and all the way down (to make sure every bit of it was lubricated). Then they showed us all the hoses on the truck (they keep several different hoses of different lengths). When the hoses are filled with water they get pretty heavy—a one foot section ends up weighing about one pound, so a 200 foot hose weighs about 200 lbs But they also have, like, 1000 foot hoses as well, so things can get pretty heavy!

The fireman asked the kids if they knew what number to call in an emergency (they do) and asked them where our family meeting spot was. It's been a minute since we've gone over our family safety plan so neither Alexander or Zoë could remember where we were supposed to meet (we'll be doing that for FHE in the near future). So I was telling the fireman that and said...

"Well, when we made our plan we decided we'd meet at the fire hydrant in our cul-de-sac, but now that I'm standing here talking about it I'm...not sure that would be the best place for us to meet in the event of a fire."

"You'd certainly have some company there," he said. "You might consider your mailbox. Perhaps a neighbour's front lawn."

Yeah. We'll...uh...review and revise our fire safety plan soon.

Alexander was the only one brave enough to go inside the firetruck:

He got to see the little computer they use that gives them all the information they need.

The girls were too "shy and scared" (in Phoebe's words) to go inside the truck. 

Zoë simply said, "No, thank you," when it was offered to her.

Phoebe said, "No, thank you. I'm too shy and scared."

Here's Alexander getting a lift out of the firetruck:

And here are Alexander and Zoë standing next to the truck (Phoebe was too shy and scared even for a picture):

The fireman also reminded us about safe sleeping practices—doors shut! I said that was...something we're working on. Rachel and Miriam are good about that. Zoë and Benjamin might be okay...but they share rooms with Phoebe and Alexander (respectively) who are less okay with having the door closed at night. So...we'll get there eventually.

After we said goodby to the firemen we made our way back up the hill, retrieved the bags of books we'd stashed, and headed to the library. My kids always want a million books, so we checked out about a million books, including Escape from Chernobyl (Andy Marino). Benjamin expressed interest in the Chernobyl disaster, so I thought that book would be good for him. I also put a hold on Dogs of the Deadlands (Anthony McGowan). 

Rachel, Miriam, and Benjamin are making their way through the miniseries right now. It's intense but...very well done. Although the creators did use artistic license, each episode was meticulously researched. 

Once home, we sent the kids out to walk our neighbour's puppy. And then did some math and reading (we're reading The Door of No Return by Kwame Alexander, which is just about contemporary to the Irish Potato Famine). And then I headed out to the garden to put fix the garden gate. 

I'd removed it (it doesn't have hinges, but rests on posts instead (I built it...it's shoddy, I know, but it gets the job done)) and grabbed another butternut squash for Andrew. He wanted to make butternut squash soup with our lovely little squash...but needed another little squash to go with it because the recipe called for a nice, big squash. Mine turned out little, but that's okay! The soup was still yummy. 

When I went to fix the gate, however, my little ducklings children all followed me outside, so we spent some time admiring the butterflies and bees and other little pollinators flitting about our garden. 

Here's a gulf fritillary (it was sure hard to catch a picture of—it kept flitting all around):

Here's a couple of Eastern Tiger Swallowtails battling over one of our zinnias (which begs the question of whether I actually like zinnias or whether I actually like butterflies...and perhaps the answer is simply "both"):

In addition to these lovely yellow swallowtails, we also often see black ones with hints of blue. I believe they're still the same tiger swallowtail species...just dark. They can be quite pretty (especially, in my opinion, when they have more blue on them). Apparently the ones with blue are usually females. Here's an injured one we found resting in the grass:

Here are a few Silver-Spotted Skippers:

And here's another little skipper of sorts—perhaps the Fiery Skipper:

We also saw (but didn't get a picture of) a long-tailed skipper! I've found several hornworms decimating my tomato plants (those will turn into hawk moths) and it seems as if the whole world is covered in orange-striped oak worms (a sign that autumn is coming; their adult form doesn't seem to have a common name because the caterpillars are much more noticeable). 

I should print out little identification sheets (like this one, though even it's not comprehensive because it doesn't list tiger swallowtails, for one thing, and also misses out on other interesting pollinators we've seen, like the hawk moth) for the kids to take outside. I think they'd have a blast trying to identify all the butterflies floating around. 

*****

Here's Benjamin marveling over a set of "Dungeons and Dragons" books Auntie Josie sent for him (a perfect thing for him to read while still recovering from pneumonia):

Overall a pretty good day...even if we were doing math work until almost 4:00 due to our late start on our planned curriculum for the day.