They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit.
Monday we tried to get stuff done. Honestly we did. And some things got done, like school, bread baking, feeding the hooligans, etc. These are all good things, but they are not satisfying in the way that building infrastructure is. If you feed the hooligans today, you have nothing to show for it except a… Continue reading Odd Jobs
It's getting that time of year again! Time to plant the garden. We planted a dozen or so rutabaga last week, and this week we are starting the peas. On the crop rotation plan (yes, there is one) they are going to be in row four this year, so the first task was: Cleanup on… Continue reading Cleanup on Row Four
It is funny how things never quite go according to (our) plan on the farm. It's also funny how one thing leads to another. For instance, we got to the farm on Tuesday with a list of tasks to get done. One of them, the smallest and easiest, was to come back with four 1/2… Continue reading Taking Apart Shelves
What do you do when you wake up on Monday with a hankering for pancakes (a.k.a., a "pankering.") but there is no pancake mix to be found in the house? Well, once you have gotten over your shock and disappointment, figure out what people did in the olden days before pancake mix was invented. We… Continue reading Growing up
Saturday was a run-around kind of day. The older three kids were all over the mountains with Deedee and Papa, picking apples, so Winnie got to be an only child for a day. She is very good at being an only child. Takes to it like the proverbial duck to water. Fortunately she only gets… Continue reading Garden Snacks (not just for people)
With the last of the fine weather (by which I mean, brisk but clear and not raining) we finally tackled the blackberry patch. The kids really enjoy pruning, actually. There is something inherently fun about snipping branches off of living trees with pruners or loppers. It all started on Tuesday afternoon with Seppi and Daddy… Continue reading Blackberry Pruning
Winnie is such a helpful baby girl. More than anything else, she wants to be intimately involved in every single thing Mommy and Daddy are doing. She starts out helping a little bit. Then a little bit more... Then finally she inserts herself right into the middle of the whole process, and "helps" even more.… Continue reading Helping
A small man trying to show up his older sister (and cousin). I gave them the task of replacing all the cinder blocks they had taken for building their transmountain railroad, back on the stack from whence they came. All the ones they hadn't broken with hammers to make them easier to work with. Ellie… Continue reading Never Underestimate…
What do you do when your pirate ship springs a leak? You bale out! But then Daddy (Uncle) comes along and tells you to put the bale back in. Daddy is particular about stuff like that. Then it becomes a problem solving/strength building exercise. Which, in many ways is just as entertaining as the pirate… Continue reading Bale Out!
The grass is coming back in the pasture, slowly. To buy time until it is ready to put the sheep and cows back on it, we have run them through the orchard, and pastured them on the laneway, but they still want more. We don't want to feed them exclusively on hay before winter even… Continue reading Four Legged Brush Removal
