Since much of Mercury is covered with craters, our astronomy text recommended a crater experiment. We took a bowl of flour out to the deck and dropped rocks, marbles, and balls from various heights into loose and packed flour, noting the various diameters, depths, and shapes of the craters. We spent a pleasant 30 minutes on this activity and then Meg and Nate recorded some observations in their notebooks.
Then (and sorry I don’t have a picture of this) they asked if they could play with the flour. It really does feel nice to sink your hand down into the cool powdery dust. A few minutes later I looked out and water was being added. My better-judgment-sensor sounded a warning alarm, but I snoozed it because they were playing so nicely together and besides they were outside. Next time I looked, the tables were lined with dough balls and a solar oven was being constructed for a little al fresco baking. By late afternoon Caleb had joined the project and there were smears of goo hardening all over the railings, gate, chairs, tables, and swing set (not to mention clothes, hair, etc.) And that’s when I called game over.
We never did get to eat the “bread” since the oven became shaded and the bakers abandoned it and I think the sprinklers gave it a good soaking early the next morning. I half-heartedly hosed off part of the deck but it was too late to clean it up with a quick squirt, and I wasn’t in the mood to chisel, so I tried to ignore it and hope for rain. We did get a few light showers, but I think my mom, whose spiritual gift is cleaning, scrubbed the rest of it away when she came to visit the next week (she also cleaned the green house from top to bottom, and the refrigerator, and whittled away at the laundry and the mending pile…)
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