End of Indian Summer

Can't let November close without a post....

The last day of warm weather came last weekend--perfect for catching up on the few remaining chores before winter. The chicken coop operation consumed most disposable time this summer and autumn, leaving little for things like cutting and stacking wood to dry for next year, raking leaves and planting new trees. We did get in a couple new apple trees, and here Myrick and I take a break from leaf-raking and pile-jumping: a good day.

Looking forward to T-day weekend, when GRO and Sasha will be joining us for a bit of hard labor and chainsaw practice....

Hiking with Dad in the Rain

We skipped church one recent Sunday morning because we were just in need of some family time. And of course it was raining. So what to do? Put on the ducky raincoat and next-size-up-rainboots and go for a hike anyway!

My First Eggs!

Yay - our very first eggs! They are a bit small to start out, but oh-so-yummy! We pulled in 8 over these past three days. Nate has been busily getting their permanent nesting boxes installed, the seams insulated against drafts, their roost nailed in place, the inner door made, and last on the list will be the roof over their run to give some protection from the winter snows. Thank you, Nate!!

Snuggling with Lamby

I know this seems like such a dull video - Myrick is just laying here watching televison. But I'm posting this for my mom who will enjoy watching Myrick love on lamby. Not very action-packed, but so sweet!

Dressed up for Sunday School

Flying Eyebrows

End of Summer Photos

Summery Summary

Already we're back to school, and I let the entire summer escape without a single post by me.

It was busier than we anticipated it would be. Between a visit to SC, a visit to MI, in-town family visits, doctor's appointments, naps, home chores, and school work preparation, we kept a steady pace going.

Highlights? Getting to SC two days after school ended and sharing the good baby news with the family was pretty memorable. It was great for Myrick, Maddox, and Nixon to have a week to hang out together and create some more of those memories. Going out for a dinner with Chris and Jes was wonderful, too - it's not often that Nate and I get to "go out" for great food and socializing with adults! Myrick worked on potty training with Akie and Poppy and loved playing in the "Girls Club" upstairs with Akie after helping her make up beds. "Girls Club", by the way, is my mom's walk-in closet with oh-so-many nifty things to play with like old jewelry, big girl shoes, laundry baskets, and a full-length mirror in which to admire her cute self all dressed up in this finery! Myrick also made a trip over to Ms. Gail's pool and had a blast jumping in off the side of the pool - talk about getting brave. It was a good trip, but we sure missed having Nate around for the majority of the trip - he was back here doing chores and keeping up with this place.

Next up - a trip to Michigan. Because of a doctor's appointment I missed the long ride out there with Lally, Papa, Nate, Myrick, Vixen, Jubilee, and Whidbey so I joined in the fun a couple of days later. I think the outing to Sleeping Bear Dunes might have been my favorite time. Myrick sure had a blast, and that was what was so much fun for me - watching her giggle and scream as we ran down the dunes! I could've done without the vomiting and diarrhea on the trip, but the good times more than made up for that little set-back. Maddie and Myrick had more fun with the giant grill cardboard box than with any other toy that was there. Watching them make memories together at the kitchen table, in the family room, down at the beach, and in the backseat of the outlaw-mobile was great to witness. Note to self: don't have an outdated passport next time - ouch!

The "rest" of the summer was... only 3 weeks long. Between chores around here and school prep, it felt too short. We did, however, get in many good trips to our local lake beach with Myrick. She loved every minute of those except, of course, when it was time to pack up and go home. I'll have to post pictures of our summer adventures a bit later - they're all stored on the slow computer, and I'm not feeling up to dealing with it at the moment. It was a good summer to go through the first trimester - lots of naps and taking care of my body. And now, school is already swinging and we're trying to get back into the routine. Although for Nate, this year is anything but routine as he starts his new position as a high school science teacher - yah! Now, if only we can hold it all together until early February!

Week 11

So we reached another milestone in this fowl experiement: 11 weeks. The significance of this much-feared day is that the 'broilers' are shipped off to the butcher. I gather the term is gender-neutral, referring only to those who have been chosen to make the ultimate sacrifice in the interest of stocking our freezer. Ours happened to be all cockerels (males). These guys have just begun to find their voices (rehearsing at 5:30, of course), so it should be a bit quieter 'round these parts.

It was an affair to remember, chasing these birds around their pen and stuffing them all into Whidbey's old dog crate, perched in the rear of our Outback. They weren't sure whether to run inside the coop or out; Em was positioned inside chasing them out while I tried to pounce on them. Quite a sight, I'm sure. We finally rounded up all 14 and set off for the 45-minute drive to the butcher. Despite 95 degrees outside and a bumpy ride and close quarters inside, all survived intact (as long as they needed to...).

I returned yesterday, and now our freezer is 14 birds richer. We were prepared to find tiny little things waiting for us, but the birds don't look all that small. Meat birds would certainly produce more, but these look respectable. We'll see when we try to cook them!

In an attempt to console the remaining pullets, I put in a window to allow more light. With a little red to match our front door, we've got a splash of color back there. Their big moment comes around week 20, I gather, when they begin laying!

Our other new addition has been a pair of red-tailed hawks nesting nearby. They certainly like to hang out around our yard. Coincidence?

Kicking out the flock

Our little chicks that were so cute a couple weeks ago have reached adolescence. The incredible amount of dust that they stir up in our basement has worn on their hosts, and so it is time for them to leave and strike out on their own, to seek their fortunes with little more than the feathers on their backs, and to define their own sense of success and failure.



We wish them well, especially since our chicken coop, while largely varmint-proof, has not exactly been tested yet. And our local coyote has been leaving plenty of signs that he's around.



From the pictures you may notice that it's awfully dark in there. The coop is unfortunately far from finished; we have plans to add windows, another chicken door, and--oh yeah--a run so that they can venture out into the rain! At the moment they're simply locked up with this door providing the only light. And it doesn't help that the sun has been out maybe three times all month....


We also hope to do some free ranging, although we're a bit skeptical that they'll actually come back at night. Also, what do you think Whidbey will do with a yard full of chickens? Hmmm...she tends to play a bit rough, that one. But I picked up a fishing net just in case I have to rustle up me some stray fowl. I guess we'll see.

A Wet Fathers' Day

My third Fathers' Day! Pretty exciting. Despite all good intentions, we were thwarted in our plans to go strawberry picking today by the excessive rain this month. Not a good year for strawberries apparently.

Instead we opted to head on down to the beaver pond to take the canoe out for a spin. We received a fantastic life jacket from Lallie and Papa yesterday for Myrick, so we were all safe as we checked out the resident muskrats, beavers, red-winged blackbirds and Baltimore orioles. Bugs weren't too bad. While it's nice to reminisce about Seattle weather, I think we're all ready for some sun 'round these parts!

Stomp Your Feet, Baby

While Akie was here taking care of Myrick, she taught her some funny things that she continues to do. Like when we're outside playing, she will occassionally run and wrap her arms around the basketball pole and yell "Home free, home free!" The other thing that she loves to do is to do this "routine," where she says "Clap your hands, stomp your feet, shake your head, nod your head." She has corresponding motions to go with all of them and likes it if you do as she instructs! She has recently taken to telling her doll what to do, which is what this clip is of.

Mommy Made Me Put Bows in My Hair

We wrestled... and I won.

The Chicks!

Blondie

The Chicken Dress

'Tis the Season

'Tis the season for transplanting tomato seedlings, raising 24 little chicks, finding lowbush blueberries and wild roses all over our land, harvesting the wild alpine strawberries from our yard, hanging laundry on the line, walking Blueberry Trail with Myrick, smelling the delicious peony in bloom right outside our front door, getting the chicken coop ready, finding coyote scat in our driveway, sleeping with the windows open, watching the peas and trumpet vines make their journey upwards, and last but not least, celebrating the end of school drawing near!

Long Weekend List

Well, May has almost flown by without a single posting from me, so I thought I'd better get to it. Happy Memorial Day! I'll do a short version of a post and just write a list of highlights from our three days:

• blowing bubbles with Myrick and hearing her yelling "Catch bubbles!"
• sleeping in three mornings in a row
• taking naps two out of the three days
• hanging out with Maddie and family in Exeter on the tire swing, enjoying lobsters and family company
• hearing Myrick say over and over again "Where Akie go?"
• playing "hide" with my funny girl
• getting the peas staked out in the garden so that they can climb upwards
• hardening off my tomato and pepper seedlings
• having a beer with my husband on the front porch
• not doing any more school work than is absolutely necessary!
• hanging my laundry out to soak up the warm sun
• digging out from under a pile of laundry in our bedroom
• playing in the sandbox with a sandy little girl
• knowing that this school week in only a four-day gig

Kitchen re-do

When we first saw this house, one of the quirks that we found most interesting was "the column." Perhaps this was a fad of the '70s kitchen, along with avocado-colored appliances and fondue pots (although I must admit, since Gerold showed me the wonders of Swiss fondue, I'd love to have time to use ours a little more). Or perhaps the column was erected so that one wouldn't have to see too much of the eye-sore kitchen at any one time. Or maybe it was just installed as a place to hold someone's Star Wars-figurine collection. Regardless, it was an interesting architectural feature.

It didn't take too long before we decided that the column had to go. Repainting the kitchen brightened it significantly, but wherever we stood the column was blocking either a window or the rest of the room.

As Dad perfected his skills at creating gorgeous kitchen counter units, we gradually needed the space in the column less and less. Finally, with Dad's counter adorned by the lovely granite we dug out of hiding in our 'barn,' the column emptied, my brother's sawzall and a hammer, the column came down. The top half now resides in the landfill, and the bottom half remains as a temporary counter until we can replace the island with something a bit more functional.

It's a huge improvement, largely because it makes the kitchen so much brighter. See for yourself! Thanks, Dad.

"E-prise Daddy!"

Hasn't everyone had this question posed to them at one time or another: "If you could have any superpower, what would it be?" I've always struggled with my answer and never felt I had a good one. I suppose you could view that as a good sign - that I'm content with what I have and don't need super-human powers. However, the decision came to me today rather out of the blue. If I could have one power, I think it would be to have the ability to freeze time. And yes, in case there was doubt in anyone's mind, of course this has everything to do with Myrick.

Don't get me wrong. I don't want her to stay a 2-year old forever. I suppose at some point I'd grow tired of it. For the moment, however, time is going too fast. It breaks my heart to know that someday when she's a sassy teenager I'll wonder what happened to that sweet little voice. When she hides in the closet and whispers "I hide," and then jumps out and says "E-prise Daddy!" when Nate walks in the room is priceless to watch. She brings an awful lot of laughter into this house with her squeaky inflections. I am treasuring every minute of it.

Wrapping Up Winter

Now that spring has a firm hold on us around here we get to take stock of the situation left by Old Man Winter. The aftermath of the December ice storm has required a fair amount of cleanup; downed branches and debris litter the yard everywhere. Conveniently enough, however, winter also took its toll on our wood pile! The two go hand-in-hand, of course, requiring only a little (considerable) effort from us.

The damage was not pretty. It was interesting to see how different trees sustained it. All the gray birches out back were bent over by the ice, and, as Robert Frost knows, they're still like that. One could do worse than be a swinger of birches!

Most other trees, however, lost limbs. Pines took it the hardest, but maples lost their fair share as well. Our old, overgrown apple tree also lost a major limb--quite a loss. The tricky part was that most of those maple branches were hung up 30-40 feet in the air, and not very securely. This was where my parents saved the day. As an anniversary gift, they hired an arborist to do some quality pruning for us. He brought his climbing harness and chainsaw, and within a couple hours had cleaned up the canopy and our diminutive orchard. Thanks, M + D!

So the rest is up to us, transforming all the fallout to either a huge brush pile or a stylish wood pile. What could be a better way to spend April break?

Making and Eating Cookies with Mommy - Yum!

Gussied-Up for Church

One of the beautiful smocked dresses that my mom found for her in Greenville. This was her Easter dress last year, and it still fits perfectly! Notice how she matches the walls in her room.

Brushing My Teeth

Peek-A-Boo! I See You!

This is where she runs and hides when she's avoiding getting dressed!

Chicken Pictures

Here's what the Dominique looks like:
And here's what the New Hampshire Red look like:

Cluck-Cluck

I think I've decided that Nate and I are the slowest people on the planet when it comes to acting. Take chickens for example. We've talked about it for some time, read books, visited friends with chickens, interviewed other chicken owners, researched how/when/where, but when it comes down to taking action, we get around to it... eventually.

It is official, though. We finally took the plunge and placed our chick order. After much debate and talking it to death we decided on a straight run of 12 New Hampshire Reds and a straight run of 12 Dominiques. For those of you who don't know (and I'll assume you don't simply because this is all new information for me, too), a straight run means both male and female, roughly half and half. So yes, we have both hens and roosters showing up, although at this developmental stage they are referred to as pullets and cockerels. When they arrive they will be two day-old fuzzy, fluffy, cute little chicks... that will grow into both our egg layers and our dinner meals. Yep - that's right! Our plan is to butcher the roosters and keep the hens for fresh eggs. They get here in about 8-ish weeks and then 8-ish weeks later we take the boys "to market." Not entirely clear on the details of how that will work, yet, but to be sure I will keep all posted.

Presumably we'll have around 12 hens left for laying. Which, if we did the math correctly (albeit a little late), we should have about 70-ish eggs per week. Holy cow! Or chicken! Or egg! We realized this after we placed the order. What to do with that many eggs??? Some will go to friends/family, some for our fridge, some to our church's food pantry, and then who knows. I guess we'll have to play that part by ear. Actually, we're playing a lot of this by ear - flying by the seat of our... tail feathers if you will. Our plan is to learn as we go! Anyone have any great recipes that use lots of eggs??

Crazy Cackler

This video clip requires a slight explanation: she loved hearing her voice echo into the water bottle and went on cackling like this for some time. Thank goodness for cheap entertainment!

Snuggling George

Sunny Day Photos

Vacation Highlights

Honestly, this Spring vacation has been rather dull - and I've loved every minute of it! We've gotten some chores done: painted the kitchen a lovely green, cut out the awkward kitchen tower to make room for a new granite-topped island, planted my seeds in flats, ordered chicks, and burned the brush pile in the meadow. Nate and I have thankfully had some time to just hang out with each other - what a joy to remember what that's like. He's pretty good company! Errands, laundry, and watching movies has rounded out the rest of our time. Myrick has had some lovely time outdoors with plans to really enjoy tomorrow's 80 degree temps! All in all, I think I'm ready for the end-of-the-year push. Two months of school left, and then it's summer! Here is a photo taken on the day we were burning brush. If you look carefully you can see the aftermath of this winter's ice storm: all of the bent-over birch trees in the background.

Time to Catch-Up

Time flies when you're working hard. The time between February break and Spring break has been a bit of a blur with some curve balls at work thrown our way. Toss into the mix our 7th anniversary, Myrick's 2nd birthday, me out of town for three days, and Nate's science fair and you can imagine where the time went.

There were so many moments when I wanted to just stop and catalogue what was happening. Myrick is changing so much so fast that I can't seem to capture it quickly enough. I'd love to think that I could sit down for just 10 minutes each night and throw some highlights up here for my friends and family to read. Even that modest goal, though, appears to be too much. My professional workload has been crushing these past weeks. Finally, though, a moment to catch my breath and catch up on my writing. Spring break couldn't have come at a more needed time.

On our agendas this break: selecting and ordering our chicken breeds and finally getting my seeds into some soil and under grow lights. Hopefully that will happen tomorrow. We ordered heirloom seeds from Seed Savers, and Myrick had a mighty fine time today shaking the seed packets and naming all of the veggie pictures on the front. She calls tomatoes "'matoes" - just one of the many adorable things she's doing these days. She's even mastered some three-syllable words lately, like "amials." That's animals in Myrick-speak. Anyhow, I finally got the peas into the ground two days ago, so hopefully that isn't too late to get a better crop this year. We would be hard-pressed to get a worse pea crop than last year, that's for sure; I think we managed to eek out 7 pea pods last summer. Like I said, this year has to be better in the pea department!

As I drove Whidbey to her vet appointment this morning, it occured to me how lucky we are to live where we do. We really have just about everything we need right here in our own town. A full-service vet, a pizza place, our library and church, our dentist, two cute restaurants with yummy food, a volunteer fire/police department that has promptly rescued our family and home not once, twice, or even three times, but four times already, a great k-8 school, beautiful old historic homes, and so many miles of beautiful trees and land that remain undeveloped except by farmers and homeowners. This is my little slice of paradise. When I get a chance to slow down every now and then, I get to see what I miss on a daily basis - that life here offers us just what we need.

On that note, I'm heading to bed to enjoy a full 8 hours of rest listening to the spring peepers and the lovely rain that is watering the promise of delicious summer vegetables. Good night.

Oh Egg!: Part II

This is what an egg hunt looks like here in New Hampshire: winter duds to keep us warm while we hunt from spring eggs in the still-brown grass. Gotta love it!

Oh Egg!: Part I

Easter Photos

Here are a couple of photos from Easter. Myrick is wearing the beautiful dress my mom sent despite the freezing temps and wind that day!

Birthday Slideshow

Two Years Ago, Today

I am so overwhelmed by emotion that words fail me on Myrick's 2nd birthday. There are no adequate words to capture all this she is and that she means to me. Instead, pictures will have to suffice until I can collect myself for a reflective moment.

"Warm" March Weekend

It's 50 degrees outside today - WOW! I am so excited for spring to get here and for some of this snow to melt that I woke up thinking about planning and planting my garden. Here are some photos taken today while we were playing outside for nearly an hour without frostbite!! Imagine! Check out Myrick's duds - we have clearly had a pleasant weather shift because she's wearing her sunglasses and no coat. She loved every minute of playtime today.