oranges and reds

I noticed all the orange color in the kitchen last week and wanted to take a picture. I didn't even realize until later that there was a small runner coming through the kitchen. That is kind of the way it has been lately. That little hand often grabs an apple or persimmon.

Thanksgiving came and went, quite deliciously I must say. Here is my mother out in my brother's yard. He gets up at three am and smokes the turkey for twelve hours or so. Pair that with more side dishes than will fit on the table and a spice cake with caramel icing and you have quite a delicious dinner.

We are back to school this week, and Ella is working on two or three big projects at once. Christmas looms, and I'm trying to meet it with a sense of peace. We are trying to get a chimney added to our house and a woodstove installed before the first snowstorm. This photograph is of some seed pods we found while my friend Donna was taking some gorgeous pictures of the children at the Horticulture Garden. Is it a weed or a Truffula tree?

birding

I walked to my neighbors house early in the morning a few days ago because she has a hummingbird still feeding at her feeder, and someone from the Maryland Banding Lab was coming over to identify and band it.  When I arrived he had the bird in a piece of stocking in the living room and was weighing and measuring it.  It weighed 3.3 grams. A penny is 2.5 grams. It is a female Rufous Hummingbird. She could hang around until January before she makes a dash for Mexico.

........

Last night we went out to see Lincoln, and when we pulled into our driveway a large bird flew right in front of us. We paused and it landed in the maple tree in our yard. It was a light colored owl. We watched it for a moment and then, afraid that we would scare the babysitter, pulled closer. It sat for a minute and then flew. We looked it up in the bird book, and it was a barred owl, often called a hoot owl.

eleven

She is a voracious reader and crafter, but drops everything on the floor the moment she is finished with it. Right now she is watching cartoons with her baby sister on her lap. She likes archery and chickens and just finished an eight week life skills class at the Unitarian Church. She would be a vegetarian if bacon wasn't so delicious. She wants to save the world. She is learning to make injera and wat for a school project. She is teaching herself to draw manga characters. She wonders when I will let her color her hair purple. She is going to be Georgia O'Keefe for history night.

Today she was reading two books, Bud, Not Buddy and The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis and was astounded to find the exact moment the two books intersected.

november light

kombucha

My kombucha is probably struggling with the low temperatures in my kitchen this week, but I'm excited to be trying something new. After my big success with sauerkraut, I thought I'd continue my latest obsession with fermentation. It isn't really fermenting, but a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast, hence SCOBY.  I like kombucha brews, so we'll see how this one tastes in a few days.

halloween

Next year we have to make our Halloween costumes early. I was racing the Hurricane and Appalachian Power to sew up a little yoda hat for John and a werewolf costume for Ella. Luckily, this little butterfly was easy to put together and made her oh so happy. Our power was out for about twenty four hours, and the kids carved pumpkins in their snowsuits in the middle of the kitchen floor.

Om

first eggs

hatched on May 7

pumpkin gathering

The family spent the afternoon at the pumpkin patch. yesterday afternoon gathering huge pumpkins, riding the goat cart, riding horses, shooting a pumpkin slingshot, and petting animals. Many friends were there, and we spent the whole afternoon. Next year I'm bringing a picnic because the kids spent a lot of time begging for food and treats. I need a soup thermos big enough for all of us. Ruby and John both rode a horse for the first time, and I think that Ruby hugged the goat twenty times. The leaves and the landscape were gorgeous. Back in our warm house, I needed to keep Ruby occupied while the two Johns went out to mow grass. I let her stand on a wooden stool and make the gravy for dinner. She was excited by all the new things she tried in one day.

falling

homebody

I'm going to spend more time in my favorite places this year, and my own back porch is very high on my list.

shakori hills

We went on our last camping trip of the season at the Shakori Hills festival in Pittsboro North Carolina. It is my favorite festival of the year, and we bid farewell to warm weather with a veritable four day hootenanny. We feel asleep to sing-alongs and woke up to fiddle tunes in the middle of a country meadow. We came home dirty and exhausted and ready to do it all again next year.

11

Someone turned eleven this week.

Rabbit and Robot

I took all three kids to the Rabbit and Robot Book Launch Party on Sunday.  The amazing and lovely Cece Bell had come to John's class last year to read some of this book while it was a work in progress.

Getting ready for the book party required a trip out for silver spray paint, the destruction of a pair of leggings, the raiding of a box stash, much duck tape, the sewing of a coonskin cap onto a small pair of pants,  and the use of several Magic Erasers.

John covered his bike helmet in foil, old cans, a whisk, and a spatula. Then he taped a candy thermometer to the front and donned a box covered in foil. Oops. He wouldn't fit in his carseat. The costume had to come off and go in the truck.

Rabbit and Robot. Cece Bell. Pure sweetness.

feathers

what I've been doing at night

She is going to be auctioned off tomorrow night to benefit the kid's school.

cosmos

The cosmos and sunflowers are above our heads, and the goldfinches are eating sunflower seeds all day. Soon, this will be the chicken's daytime run until spring. We have a few watermelons left to eat and a few more pints of pesto to make.  The hyacinth beans have met at the the top of the gate.

We had our first scattered frost night before last.

equinox

We went to the farmer's market today on a family outing, and then this afternoon the children went out to "harvest" tomatoes, basil, sunflower heads, onions, and all of my zinnias.

things I love

John and I camped at a music festival in Pinnacle, North Carolina this weekend. Just the two of us. We sat in chairs for whole sets. We saw all the music we wanted to see. We drank cups of coffee to the bottom and held hands. I loved the workshop sets, Del McCourey, Keller Williams, and the Yonder Mountain String Band. I liked Patterson Hood from the Drive By Truckers. Our next and last festival of the season, Shakori Hills, is in two weeks, and we are hoping to sneak in a fall trip to Grayson Highland's State Park for the wild ponies and amazing vistas on the Appalachian trail at it's highest point in Virginia.

Now back at home we've had rain and cooler weather is setting in.  I made delicious Concord grape jam a few days ago, and we may never buy jam again. I want to pick raspberries on Sunday, and I have a big bowl of apples ready to make applesauce.  Last night I made my first fall inspired pot of soup with potatoes, carrots, porcini mushrooms, and cabbage.

I met the truck from Countryside out by the highway yesterday to pick up a hundred pounds of organic chicken feed. No one in town sells organic feed, but I met a group of people dedicated to feeding their chickens wholesome unprocessed food.  It truly is "chicken granola".

I just discovered Whole Larder Love.  For the first time in my life I thought I might want to hunt something, chop down some trees, and build a smokehouse. Or maybe go fishing.

Eight years ago we were living in Portland, Oregon and spending much of our meager paychecks at the Portland Farmer's Market. We could see it from our apartment. There we found Ken's Artisan Bakery, and from the farmer's market we followed him up to his bakery/ restaurant in northwest Portland.  Last night I went to bed at eight o'clock with the kids, but my mother called to say that she was ordering me a copy of Ken Forkish's new book Flour Water Salt Yeast.

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".