lake's chickens

This is Lake Long Smith, and I would guess this is from the fifties. That is our back porch, the original front of the first house. I love that there was a chicken picture. The family also had horses, pigs, cows, and horses, and there was a working blacksmith shop on the property. Lake kept a large garden and the family had an orchard. It was said that she fed her own family as well as "all the poor people in the the county".

other voices

We heard a lot of stories when we moved into this house, and now I have some pictures to go along with the stories. The original house last built in 1876, and before that the family lived in a cabin out near the big catalpa tree in the backyard. The original farm was eighty acres.

Last Easter Sunday a man knocked on our door and told us that he had grown up in this house. He was a foster child taken in to work on the farm. His mother was unmarried, and social services placed him with the family in this house. He spoke highly of them and was happy that they helped him maintain a relationship with his mother. He recently bought a neighboring house, and his birth mother will celebrate her seventy fifth birthday there.

The top picture shows our neighborhood without the modern road. In the middle is Lake Long Smith as an older woman. The middle right is from our front porch.  The bottom photo is from the sixties and shows the farm outbuildings that are now gone.

Below is a picture of Lake Long Smith, her father in law, and Lake's daughter Norma. I think this picture is from about 1935. Our house was built by the older gentleman. Many people have told us about Lake Long. She was born on a farm on Brooksfield Road about a mile away. Norma, the young girl, was well known by many of our neighbors. She sold the farm and died in February 2007 at the age of 81.

cooling

This was really the only way to cool down this weekend.

butterflies

three days in a creek

We spent the weekend camping down in Catawba with friends, kids, coffee, delicious food, and crackling thunderstorms.

sunflower

sunflower, a photo by oyabakamama on Flickr.

The days are very full this week. The kids are simultaneously excited and exhausted, and I think I'm right there with them.

spiders and fog

Someone told me recently that you can estimate the number of upcoming winter snowstorms by counting the number of foggy mornings in August. Suddenly every morning is foggy, and the spider webs are white with dew. Yesterday the children were scurrying around for sweaters when they got out of bed.

fifth

She wanted me to take a few pictures of her for the fifth grade homework website. She says it is just like facebook, only it is just about schoolwork and her teacher is on it.

first day :: first grade

the perfect blue

I ordered some things this year that I've never planted before, and this has to be one of my favorites. Borage.  We have been eating the buds and flowers in salads, and they taste like cucumbers.

the august garden

We have joked about the sixty dollar tomato, but we are havesting a steady supply of tomatoes, lots of basil and other herbs, watermelons, onions, and raspberries. We have hot peppers and lemongrass, and the grapes are ripe.

I had the best tomatoes of the summer while we were camping at Fairystone State Park this weekend. My friend Nancy was walking around giving away her delicious dinner leftovers, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers with balsamic vinegar. We spent the day swimming in the lake and came back to cook fresh corn and beans, and my kids get very excited about hotdogs.

I am already planning next years garden. Better tomato stakes. A design that allows more walking space. Potatoes. More flowers. Succession planting.

party

party, a photo by oyabakamama on Flickr.

john's 7th birthday

john's 7th birthday, a photo by oyabakamama on Flickr.

Keep on cooking

happy birthday john

dragon driving

We tell our children that music festivals are about the music, but what they are really about is the magical moments when an almost seven year old can drive a dragon, a recycled handmade dragon that breathes fire.

Ruby had her bit of festival magic while picking some little leaves while we were watching some music. A huge flowing swan puppet fluttered down to eat the leaves from her hand.

bugs

Bateau on the James

sit, a photo by oyabakamama on Flickr.

I was going to title this post "Things I've learned while I took a month off from taking pictures and posting on this blog". On Sunday I was standing in The Bookery in Lexington, Virginia looking though a stack of Sally Mann books, and I realized that I had to start taking pictures again.  I think it has to do with only having a "big" camera right now. It is easy to leave it behind when it is going to be hot and dusty.  We have been festivaling and travelling, and the kids have been taking turns going to Camp Granny. 

There are tomatoes in the garden. I keep thinking of it as my practice garden because it is a wild jungle out there with tomatoes falling over onto basil and watermelon vines taking over everything. It is a riotous mix of flowers and vegetables, but we have eaten cucumbers, squash, tomatoes basil, and many greens. There are some giant watermelons out there waiting to be harvested by the young watermelon farmer who planted them in the utility room in March. My second round of eggplant is coming along, and I'm going to try the Mallobar spinach soon. I read that in tropical regions it can grow 14 feet high. 

The chickens are big girls who should start laying in the next few weeks. They are very tame and social. Their coop needs another layer of roofing material before winter, but lately I feel that my building skills are lagging behind my desire to do these big projects. It has taken us over a month to fence in our vegetable garden, but that should be complete by the weekend.

This picture is from Amazement Square, a children's museum in Lynchburg, Virginia. Ruby loved their interactive Batteau on the James River.

ruby draws

ruby draws, a photo by oyabakamama on Flickr.

watermelon farmer

watermelon farmer, a photo by oyabakamama on Flickr.

gyro john

gyro john, a photo by oyabakamama on Flickr.

gyro daddy

gyro daddy, a photo by oyabakamama on Flickr.

suddenly, we are five years older

finally, someone my own size, a photo by oyabakamama on Flickr.

We are headed out camp at a music festival this weekend, and this is a photo from the same festival five years ago. This is John at two years old and his friend Grace who lives in Oregon. They are flying out for the festival this year, and John and the big kids have our tents all set up. Ruby and I are leaving in the morning after we make the hummus. We are ready for lots of kids, dancing, playing, and sitting under the trees on top of a mountain.

I've spent the day getting ready to go. I"m making Korean baked tofu, sesame slaw with cilantro and green onions, roasted potatoes, pasta salad with olives, red peppers, sundried tomatoes, white beans, feta, and pesto dressing, and a pot of brown rice. I've packed wraps, bread, fruit, and cheeses. It always amazes me how much my children eat, and we are camping with at least three other kids.

hipster

My mama got a new hip, her second in three months. The littles and I are at her house in Tidewater Virginia being reacquainted with high temperatures and humidity. It is hard to breath or move, but the okra is growing mighty fine. Tomorrow night I'm making bhindi masala and cooking garlic naan on the grill.

My camera is in the mountains and I'm feeling odd about that. I want to take a picture of the okra I picked today on a wooden trencher.

I had a funny chicken experience today. I went over to our friend Ari's house to pick up my mama's milk from Saturday's farmer's market. I went in the gate and started talking to an especially pretty little hen. Bak. Bak Bak. Suddenly fifty chickens are coming at me expectantly, and about half of them are roosters. I looked them right in the eye and kept on about my business getting milk, eggs, and bacon from the freezer.

her apple tree

Ruby's grandparents gave her an apple tree and a plum tree for her fourth birthday. We'll watch them grow.

derecho

I'll never do a rain dance again.

Last Friday the kids and I went to the lake for the day with friends, but Ruby passed out on the beach around eleven in the morning.  I called an ambulance, but the lifeguards cooled her down quickly with shade, fans, ice packs, and iced water. The EMTs took all her vital signs and thought that she just needed shade and lots of liquids. I had a big cooler of iced water and a cold cut up watermelon, and we stayed up to our necks in the river. I was so wiped out from such a mama fright. Ruby is currently explaining  to everyone that she wasn't unconscious. The sun was in her eyes.

That night I was out among my tomatoes wishing for rain and started doing a rain dance.  What showed up were seventy five mile an hour winds with only a hint of rain. The power was out for the long haul, friday through thursday. On sunday night I took the kids to Richmond, and John stayed here to take care of the animals. Tidewater, Virginia is pretty much the hottest most humid place around these days, but my mother had power, running water, and the sweet, sweet air conditioning. We left there today, and my car themostat read 105 for quite a while. By six we were home, and it was 81. The kids enjoyed some fireworks in the driveway with their daddy tonight.  He had cleaned all the old food out of the fridge and cleaned the house, and it is good to be home.

blueberry

ella miranda in the blueberries

ella miranda in the blueberries, a photo by oyabakamama on Flickr.

We joined some school families early Saturday morning to pick blueberries. I'm just thrilled that this farm is less than five minutes from our house. The berries were the largest I've ever seen and were just dripping from the bushes. We picked more than two gallons in an hour, even with Ruby eating berries steadily.

beans

beans, a photo by oyabakamama on Flickr.

Remember when Ella used to say "farmer marketing"?  Here is some real farmer marketing. These Stonecrop beans were perfect last night with some local corn on the cob.

gardening

gardening, a photo by oyabakamama on Flickr.

After a brief stint of letting things go, John and pulled a massive amount of weeds out of the garden this weekend. There is black cloth under that hay, and I'm going to find some newspaper and buy more hay for the rest. The children and I planted tons of basil last night and handfulls of sunflower seeds.

I thought we would have it fenced this weekend, but maybe by next weekend. Apparently we are flirting with disaster considering that every neighbor put up deer fencing on May 15. I'm always in denial about how much these little projects are going to cost. I'm sure we'll be repaid in tomatoes alone when the "Mortgage Lifter" starts to bear fruit.

inquisitive

clarisse is comfortable with people, a photo by oyabakamama on Flickr.

clarisse

clarisse, a photo by oyabakamama on Flickr.

chicken girl

chicken girl, a photo by oyabakamama on Flickr.

i got a rooster for my birthday

i got a rooster for my birthday, a photo by oyabakamama on Flickr.

4 circles around the sun

4 circles around the sun, a photo by oyabakamama on Flickr.

the dance of four

the dance of four, a photo by oyabakamama on Flickr.

peach blackberry pie

peach blackberry pie, a photo by oyabakamama on Flickr.

the littlest

baby, a photo by oyabakamama on Flickr.

country living

country living, a photo by oyabakamama on Flickr.

Back when I was ten and reading a lot of Foxfire books I was entranced with the idea of having a root cellar, and now we have one with wooden bins, dusty shelves, and a nice collection of old blue mason jars. Inside I found a vintage picnic basket, a coal miner's lunch box, and some McCoy planters. There are old gallon jars still filled with apple cider than may be more than twenty years old--talk about "the mother" of the vinegar.

For now, the root cellar makes a great place for us to store our bikes, but with the arrival of this visitor in the photo the kids say that they are never going in there again.

Fast Forward

May 14 :: June 4, a photo by oyabakamama on Flickr.

From tiny baby chickies to big teenagers in a mere three weeks. This week has been dedicated to getting these girls into their coop. We have been digging and putting up posts, stretching fencing, and making more trips to Lowes than I ever imagined. The kids and I took the girls out to their newly fenced run to let them take a look around, and they promptly ducked their heads and walked right through the fencing. It is that two by four fencing that will hold them well when they are a bit bigger. I may own my own fencing pliers, but I don't really know what I'm doing. One more trip to Lowes for forty feet of hardware cloth, and we'll try that one more time. We did dig a trench and put in a cement shield against digging predators. The top will be covered with poultry netting. I still want to put a metal roof on my coop, but hopefully by the weekend the utility room will be liberated.

coneflower

coneflower, a photo by oyabakamama on Flickr.

a small harvest

chard, a photo by oyabakamama on Flickr.

dance around the peace pole

dance around the peace pole, a photo by oyabakamama on Flickr.

john (headed for the first grade)

john (headed for the first grade), a photo by oyabakamama on Flickr.

ella miranda graduates from the fourth grade

ella miranda graduates from the fourth grade, a photo by oyabakamama on Flickr.

out the driveway

out the driveway, a photo by oyabakamama on Flickr.

john rides on the lane

john rides on the lane, a photo by oyabakamama on Flickr.

I feel like I've been holding my breath all week.

Untitled, a photo by oyabakamama on Flickr.

I'm so ready for the weekend. A long one with no where to go.

being here

It is never too late for any of us to look at our minds. We can always sit down and allow the space for anything to arise. Sometimes we have a shocking experience of ourselves. Sometimes we try to hide. Sometimes we have a surprising experience of ourselves. Often we get carried away. Without judging, without buying into likes and dislikes, we can always encourage ourselves to just be here again and again and again. Pema Chodron

Mi Familia

ella's family, a photo by oyabakamama on Flickr.

Ella's Spanish teacher is one of my favorite people ever. They were studying the extended family, and I just had to show you her family complete with her aunt and uncle's dogs, our cat, and a box of baby chicks.

I just adore the details in all the family members.

self

self, a photo by oyabakamama on Flickr.