Last night, my husband’s graduating class got together at their high school football game as part of their 20 year reunion activities. The reunion committee also organized current high school students to lead a tour of their new facilities, as they have just completed extensive renovations and additions to the school. Our boys thought it was neat to see some of the classrooms, etc., in a high school, but Zeke specifically asked what were the big padded looking things on the walls of the band room (the acoustic panels). We took just a moment to remind him about sound waves--he new they bounced off of things. However, he didn't put two & two together to come up with echoes when the sound waves bounce off of large flat, hard surfaces. We explained that the panels help to break up the sound waves hitting the wall, cutting down the echoes which would keep the band from being able to accurately hear their music.

Today, I took a minute to search for a little more information to expand our explanation. I found this great slideshow complete with diagrams to help him “see” how sound waves work. The whole slideshow presents some good information about sound waves--not just echoes. Take a look for yourself: 

For years we have said that we needed to do a vegetable garden, yet year after year passed with no garden. Finally, this year we got it together with the help of hubby's father, and it has been so much fun. We couldn't pick just a few things, so we ended up with a smorgasbord of veggies & fruits:  crooked-neck squash, pickling cucumbers, eggplant, broccoli, zucchini squash, yellow corn, silver queen corn (white), clemson spineless okra, burgandy okra, various tomatoes, various bell peppers, sweet banana peppers, green beans, goose peas (a type of field-peas), sweet potatoes, cantaloupe, watermelon, and mammoth sunflowers.

Since we had to prepare an area from scratch and the spring weather was quite uncooperative here, we got a late start on planting, but I think it has caught up without any problem.... :-)

JUNE 22

It's the mammoth zucchini squash!!

This afternoon I collected a variety of veggies, and we had our first taste of veggies from our garden....delicious fresh green beans for dinner. Even my picky eaters raved about how good they were...YEA!

We have actually already harvested a lot for canning--a ton of pickling cucumbers, sweet banana peppers, and some crook-necked squash. So far, we've pickled a jar of peppers and about 6 jars of cucumbers. Tomorrow we hope to can some squash relish (chow chow, here in the South) which is a necessity for the goose peas that will be coming in soon!