Charlie Maguire - Fall is Here

When my cows no longer care to go
Out to their pasture far or near
But stand close in the last warm sun
Around the place, I'll know that fall is here

And when the corn goes into dent
Across the fields like old men appear
And we pick it and store it all away
Around the place, I'll know that fall is here

When the limbs of the apple and the pear
Lean down with their fruit so near
And my children go a'gathering
Around the place, I'll know that fall is here

And when the hunters come from town
Seeking the pheasant and the deer
With their dogs in front to point the game
Around the place, I'll know that fall is here

When the hay and straw are in the barn
Stacked to the roof, tier on tier
Smelling like a summer come and gone
Around the place, I'll know that fall is here

Around the place, I'll know that fall is here
When the evenings come early and the mornings are clear
Over all of the fields that I worked this year
Around the place, I'll know that fall is here

James Whitcomb Riley - When the Frost is On the Punkin

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock,
And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin' turkey-cock,
And the clackin' of the guineys and the cluckin' of the hens,
And the rooster's hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence;
O, it's then's the times a feller is a-feelin' at his best,
With the risin' sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest,
As he leaves the house, bare-headed, and goes out to feed the stock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

They's something kindo' harty-like about the atmusfere
When the heat of summer's over and the coolin' fall is here --
Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossums on the trees,
And the mumble of the hummin'-birds and buzzin' of the bees;
But the air's so appetizin'; and the landscape through the haze
Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days
Is a pictur' that no painter has the colorin' to mock --
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

The husky, rusty russel of the tossels of the corn,
And the raspin' of the tangled leaves, as golden as the morn;
The stubble in the furries -- kindo' lonesome-like, but still
A-preachin' sermuns to us of the barns they growed to fill;
The strawstack in the medder, and the reaper in the shed;
The hosses in theyr stalls below -- the clover overhead! --
O, it sets my hart a-clickin' like the tickin' of a clock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock!

Then your apples all is getherd, and the ones a feller keeps
Is poured around the celler-floor in red and yeller heaps;
And your cider-makin' 's over, and your wimmern-folks is through
With their mince and apple-butter, and theyr souse and saussage, too!
I don't know how to tell it -- but ef sich a thing could be
As the Angels wantin' boardin', and they'd call around on me --
I'd want to 'commodate 'em -- all the whole-indurin' flock --
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock!

On responsibility

Instead of dropping our work and heading to the lake, we did the right thing.

The back window is almost entirely scraped and sanded. (Not yet picture-worthy.)

All the ripe apples have been gathered.
Apples are being peeled, cored, and sliced as I type, on their way to becoming applesauce and maybe apple butter.
Dozens of ears of corn are being husked, on their way to the freezer.
School plans are being finalized, and books stacked in a meaningful way.
It occurs to me that the first week of school will fly by, leaving me torn at the end of the week between planning the second week and transplanting bulbs or picking apples or mowing or canoeing... I think I'm ready for fall vacation. But alas, I will take responsibility for my change of plans. We didn't (all) do school in July and August, so we cannot take September off this year.

At least the cooler nights mean we will sleep well and wake up refreshed, ready to pack a lot of living into each day.

Taste a little of the summer

We never did pick more blueberries to add to the juneberries, so I went ahead and made jam with what I had. I didn't use a recipe; I totally wung it. If I had it to do over, I'd add more pectin, I think. It seems to be a soft set so far, but it may thicken up more as it sits on the shelf waiting for winter.Some of us went to the fair yesterday. Unfortunately, fair season is around a very emotional anniversary in our family. For a few weeks before and after that anniversary, we have to be very careful of how we carry out planned activities, as potential for meltdowns lurks around every corner. I praise God for the flexibility we do have, and for wonderfully responsible and understanding older children.

The fair we attended was wonderful! It wasn't too loud or too crowded. People were dressed modestly. The 4-H exhibits were in a building of their own, larger than the entire exhibit area we were used to in Kentucky. There was so much to see and do, we could've spent an entire day and not been bored. Tired, yes, but not bored. We watched the 4-H goat show, wandered through several of the barns, watched a magic show, and checked out all the exhibits except the flowers.

duct tape wedding dress

antique fair ribbons

Toby tossed hay bales and sang karaoke. We enjoyed funnel cakes, gyros, egg rolls, lemonade, and hot dogs. We never did make it to the flower building, the old general store and farm buildings, or the train engine, and we skipped the midway entirely.

It was a beautiful day, as well. The sun was shining, a breeze was blowing, and it was about 72 degrees.

Loren is taking Lynae to the fair tonight, and I'm a little jealous! I'm sure they'll have a great time.

Let's see what's growing today

We're taking a break from making jam, so we can go scope out the orchard and garden.
Some of the carrots were ready today. I'm totally underwhelmed.Harvesting our "afterthought" lettuce
I guess we're getting a decent return, considering our efforts. I just want to plant a LOT more next year.
We have just enough grapes for a few fun pictures.
Apparently the chickens weren't getting enough foam insulation in their diet. I'm quite ready to have them fenced in and reclaim my shade garden.
"This is my fruit. This is my sister." ~~ Toby poses possessively
Thistle bee - say it out loud. It's fun.

Farmer's Markets

Today we shopped at the local farmer's markets. They offered fresh vegetables, freezer jams, breads, and blueberries. Let me tell you, blueberries were $3.00 per pint, which makes me so glad that we can go out next to our property and pick as many as we want for free!

Anyway, I met the lady in charge of one of the markets. She said it only costs $1.00 to set up a table, so if we set up later this year we will do it there.

Then, after buying corn, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, green beans, and bread, we came home. We spent some time in our garden, which is coming along nicely. Then we picked two dozen plums! I tore off a bunch of dead branches from the plum tree, so now it actually looks like a tree worth keeping.

Well, that's all for now. Until next time!

Blooming, blooming everywhere!

Thank you for all your helpful replies! Every day is a new adventure in my yard. Today I started hacking away at the saddest rose bushes. They don't look quite so sad with the dead stalks removed. (Note to self: wear gloves next time, silly!) The rest will have to wait. I'm not prepared to properly tend rose bushes. They intimidate me. I also have absolutely no experience with peonies, but it appears I'm about to experience them in a big way. Thanks for identifying those, Aunt Marion!

I can happily report that my local honey bee population is thriving and pollinating my plum trees. I have a whole row of them, all white and buzzing.


Many of the apple trees are blooming, though some I expect to bloom later as they're a different variety.

I believe my gorgeous bird feeder tree, seen out my kitchen window, is a crab apple. It smells heavenly out there!

Mena, the dear lady who brought all this loveliness to the property and had an appropriate reputation for doing so, grew her potatoes and corn separately from her other veggies. I think we'll start our garden in that patch, since I'm not certain I've identified the other yet and don't want to take on too much at once. So eventually, I hope to see peas and not dandelions here.

This week on the homestead

It will continue raining until the rain turns to snow. What a lovely mess that will make! We're discovering the extent of our basement leakage. We found two sump pumps and a box fan down there when we moved in, with everything else up on bricks, so we knew this was coming. Hopefully the rains will significantly lessen the drought conditions.

Our chick order has been placed. I have until May 7th to draw up coop plans and submit them to the city council in order to get a building permit, then get to building the coop. I think we'll actually start the chicks in the garage, so that will buy us a little building time.

Unlike the past several years, this week we packed up some of the winter clothes and unpacked the summer clothes. Yes, we're enjoying actual spring weather rather than going from chilly to hot in one swell foop. Have you ever switched out clothes for seven people? It looks like our closets threw up. Thank goodness it's only temporary!

This week on the homestead

We found the blueberries!

Bulbs are sprouting near the house - I think they may be tulips.

The juncos found us.

Grass is growing.

I heard a frog.

Toby and Loren hung a clothesline. Then it started raining, so I haven't used it yet.

Michael and Grace found (and thoroughly enjoyed) a serious mud hole. Too bad they were in their new sneakers instead of their rubber boots!

March snowfall

Snow week: Day 4

On Day 4, we scrapped the neat little snow day plan and hurled ourselves, headfirst, into a blizzard.

No, really. We did.

Denny down at the Deep Rock gas station said we should stay inside if we can. So, like a bunch of fools, we thought it'd be the perfect day to walk to the post office. After all, it was SNOWING! No... it was BLIZZARDING! What could be more fun than that??


Well first of all, Michael's boot kept falling off. Poor kid! And then my foot slipped, my ankle twisted, and down I went. Thankfully, I landed on a foot of soft snow. Really, the rest of the walk to the post office was fairly uneventful. But then we had the walk back, most of which was right into the wind and driving snow.

Let me tell you, those pretty little snowflakes turned out to be vicious ice pellets! I couldn't see a thing all the way home, and had melted snow running into my eyes and down my cheeks the whole ways, turning to ice halfway down my face. My friends, it was not pretty. It was then that I wished I'd listened to Denny. The man knows his stuff, and not just about cars.

We did make it home safely, stripped off our snow-caked clothes, and had a quiet, restful afternoon. And now the family is back outside, ready for Round Two against the blizzard. Crazy people!!

Snow week: Day 3

Yesterday, we took a little detour from our plan. After leaving the laundromat, we drove around the Denham area and looked at the cabin, several deer (including the deer display in the old bar), and beautiful, snowy woods. Then we had supper at the Red Oak Inn and talked to someone I used to know. After supper, we drove around Sturgeon Lake, got a little lost, and then found ourselves close to home again.

Here's what we did today:

Menu
Breakfast: Baked French toast
Lunch: Tuna casserole, cauliflower, broccoli
Supper: Orange chicken & rice, butternut squash
Dessert: Strawberry rhubarb pie

Activities
Morning play time - outside
Afternoon activity - make pretzels (ski hat tip to Kim at Large Family Logistics for the recipe!)
Evening play time - outside

In like a lion

Our latest storm just began about 15 minutes ago. This one is supposed to be a blizzard. We're SO ready for it! My camera batteries are charged, too, so maybe my Kentucky friends will get to see what I'm so excited about.

Here are some pictures I found or took today:

Bob sitting on the end of the gutter suspended from the side of the garage, and (Brave Sir) Robin watching her

The view from my kitchen window this afternoon

The view from my dining room this afternoon

What happens when Mom gets desperate for the kids to do something, anything educational - Legohenge!

A caption contest sort of picture

Snow week: Day 2

Our first day of snow week was a great success! The kids are cleaning up the kitchen right now and plan to go back outside as soon as they're finished, presumably to play until they fall asleep in the snow.

It's still snowing. I'll have to fish 'em out of the drifts before I go to bed, I guess.

Here's our plan for tomorrow:

Menu
Breakfast: oatmeal
Lunch: Surprise soup (It seems my soup never turns out the same way twice, and Jon always says it's the best soup ever. So there ya go.)
Supper: Fried pork chops, mashed potatoes, applesauce
Dessert: popcorn

Chores
Living room cleaned
Laundromat

Activities
Morning play time - outside
Science Time
Afternoon play time - outside
Evening movie: Facing the Giants

Snow week!

We're finally getting the snow we've waited all winter for! I think we've gotten about 8" this weekend, and there's snow in the forecast all week. The kids have spent hours outside today, and finally came in for supper tonight at about 10:00 PM.

Because I'm a flexy sort of mom, I'm declaring this a snow week. Each day, the kids will wake up to discover an exciting menu, a short chore list, and fun activities planned for them, with plenty of time to play out in the snow.

Here's our tomorrow...

Menu
Breakfast: bacon, eggs, toast, hash browns, cocoa
Lunch: Tuna salad on (Lynae's homemade) honey wheat bread, chips, pickles
Supper (Toby's request): Fried tilapia, rice, asparagus
Dessert: Strawberry jello with real, live strawberries

Chores
Home blessing, upstairs and downstairs
Everyone's clothes sorted (and decluttered)
Foyer cleaned
Back room cleaned

Activities
Morning play time - outside
Jon and Lynae - Swedish class (if school isn't canceled)
Toby and Manoah - Dog class (if school isn't canceled)
Evening play time - outside

Ice Fishing

Loren and Toby participated in an ice fishing contest today. It was our family's first experience with ice fishing. First, we stopped at the general store and got a fishing license and some minnows.




Then we drove out to the lake. It was 6 degrees, but the windchill on the lake was well below zero. I was pretty nervous about driving my truck onto the lake. You could see cracks all over the ice, and some actually had ¼" gaps. The ice was over two feet thick, but it was still scary when the ice cracked while we were on it and we could feel it moving under our feet.




Once on the lake, Loren and Toby chose two holes and set up to fish for two hours. They didn't catch anything, but it was definitely a learning experience.




After taking pictures, the other kids and I headed home to make up some chili and biscuits for when the guys returned. I took a wrong turn on the way home, and was grateful for the detailed atlas my SIL gave us for Christmas! We started back the right way, and Michael saw a deer watching us from the side of the road. Unfortunately, I didn't think to get a picture of that until it was too late.

73 Degrees and Autumn-y

The air has an autumn glow about it this afternoon, so I took the kids outside to play. Normally I'd send them out, but today I went with them. I walked until I was winded, then came back in. That didn't take long, since I'm out of shape and recovering from respiratory crud, but it felt (and smelled) so good to be out there!

This has been a modestly productive week so far. We're plugging away at chores, school, and a bunch of desk work I'd been putting off forever. It feels really good to be getting back into the swing of things again. I have no doubt that we'll be doing great by Thanksgiving, and will hate to take a break from school at that time. Maybe we won't this year. We'll see.

Jonathan had a monumental day today. He and I discussed Michael Pearl's wisdom regarding 7 year olds:

"By the time a child reaches seven, he should be making your life easier. A house full of seven-year-olds ought to be self-sustaining."

I explained that we'd been putting off this expectation in his case, trying to make allowances for his unique challenges. But since I thought Jon was reasonably prepared and he was sure of it, we made some changes in his life. Today we updated his chore list, passed on a couple of his chores to Mike and Grace, and put him on the payroll. That's a huge deal at our house. He now earns $1/week per year of age. He gets a check, from which "taxes" have been deducted. He tithes on the gross amount, saves, and uses his spending money to cover everything except toiletry items, curriculum, and groceries. I've also explained to him that if he wants to continue wearing diapers, he can buy those himself. BIG decision time for Jon! Yes, he'll be able to afford that if he chooses. He'll also have to buy his own clothes. I have a feeling this may cut down on his urge to destroy his clothing, though it won't surprise me if he has to buy a few items before he gets it.

True to form, he's had a challenging day since then. No meltdowns, just a lot of whimpering and complaining about silly things, and pretending to be confused about something quite ridiculous. At the end of the day, though, I think we'll come through it all right.

Reason #59

to home church:


Or maybe go straight to a prayer meetin'!


Praise the Lord! We lost a tree and a huge limb in last night's storm, but they were both up the hill and not near the house. I often stay awake during such storms just in case a tree falls on the house. Wouldn't that be a rude awakening?!

I'm so thankful for a husband who will tighten the chain on his chainsaw when I mention that it's loose, rather than disregard my interference.