Lovely Day for Soccer

We had a full, but enjoyable week in Mennonite Land, aka Lancaster, PA. We did school in the mornings, and visited friends and family in the afternoons. The girls enjoyed playing with their second cousins on the dairy farm, and playing games with their great aunt and great grandfather at the retirement community. They also loved swimming every evening in the Hotel pool, and playing mini golf just outside.

On our way home, we stopped to visit my brother and his family, newly returned to the Commonwealth after a 12 year stint in New York. We enjoyed seeing their new home, and realizing that it's just a few hours away (vs 7 or 8)!

Yesterday, I did 4 loads of laundry while JP mowed the grass. We went to Outback Steakhouse for dinner with Mom & Dad to celebrate JP's birthday, then returned for 5 Flavor Pound Cake and Strawberry ice cream.

Today JP has been sifting through the 3 inch stack of paperwork from the office, while I worked in the garden and took the girls to soccer. It was a glorious day for both activities!

Theme in Blue

Butterflies and bees drink from me.
I am called a Bluebell.

I wave in the wind.
I smell nice in the summer breeze.

People pick me to make bouquets
and weave my stems together to make
beautiful crowns and necklaces.
A fairy makes a tiny house in my bell.

I sleep all Winter long under the snow.
I wake up again in the glorious, good Spring.

- LAM, age 5

Musings From My Hotel Room

We are joining JP at his conference this week, so are doing cyber school from our Hotel Room. It's amazing how much easier it is to accomplish a significant amount of school work when:

-L has only a limited amount of clothing to pick from
-no one has to make their beds
-I don't have to unload the dishwasher
-there are no dogs to walk, cats to feed, or chickens to tend to
-no violin practice to get through first, and
-I have a week's worth of lessons and materials prepared and on hand

So this morning we breezed through lessons, and made it to the restaurant mere seconds before one of my dear college friends and her 2 boys. We enjoyed a leisurely lunch of Mennonite food, before exploring the Wilbur Chocolate Factory, then the Sturgis Pretzel Factory with them.

This evening, we met JP's sister and brother-in-law, recent empty-nesters, for another Mennonite meal and lovely conversation. This was followed by a brief dip in the Hotel pool before showers and bed.

The girls are sleeping soundly, completely worn out from our very full day. Tomorrow we hope to visit my cousin and her children at their dairy farm, and the following day to eat lunch at the retirement center with my Grandpa.

If only I could leave the beds unmade and the dishwasher unemptied at home, we would be in a much happier place as far as school work goes. SIGH. If only...

Going Pink

I've gone pink on Poplar Ridge this month in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness. Did you know that Breast Cancer is the most common cancer in the United States, second only to skin cancer? In addition, Breast Cancer is the second leading cause of death in women, the first being lung cancer. The American Cancer Society estimates somewhere around 200,000 women will be diagnosed with Breast Cancer in the next 12 months. Since I have several friends who are Breast Cancer survivors, as well as one who recently succumbed to the disease, and I work with patients who are getting a new diagnosis several times a month, I want to do my part and spread the word about PREVENTION.

The three best ways to diagnose Breast Cancer early, while it is usually more treatable are:

-MONTHLY BREAST SELF EXAMS - if you notice anything different while examining your own breasts, make an appointment to have it evaluated right away.

-YEARLY CLINICAL BREAST EXAMS - have your health care provider examine your breasts yearly, or sooner if you notice something has changed

-YEARLY MAMMOGRAMS STARTING AT AGE 40 - it's not a lot of fun to have a mammogram, but it only takes about 20 minutes of your life. Do it.

Ok, I'm done preaching. Enjoy your October!

Root Crops

I spent several hours the past two weekends in the garden, getting it ready for the winter. We are planning to over-winter the chickens in the garden as well...they can till in the mulch and cover crops for us (if I ever get them planted).

In the late Spring this year, I cut up about 3 sprouting red potatoes that my Mom found in her pantry, and planted them in a garden bed. I have been most anxious to see what they did, if anything. By this weekend, the foliage from all of the potato plants had all died back, so I got out my shovel. I ended up with 9 pounds of beautiful red potatoes!



I also pulled most of the carrots, all of the turnips, and a couple of the onions. I pulled the red beets last weekend, and just finished taking my jars of lovely magenta pickled beets out of the canner.



The peppers, both hot and sweet, are still going strong. There are now 19 asparagus plants ferning. The tomato plants are limping along, but are fighting their second wave of hornworms. The chickens got most of them that we picked off yesterday, but we left about 5 of them on the plants. These were covered with the pupae of Braconid wasps: beneficial, harmless wasps, which parasitize the hornworm.



(This photo, and more info can be found here.)

I love my garden, and am very proud of it, but I am never sad to see it go to sleep in the Fall. It is a lot of work, and I have many other cold weather projects to turn to in which to spend my copious free time!

Squeezed out of Mother Earth

It's been a loooooong day. We drove the hour and a half up to 7 Springs early this morning for the Mother Earth News Fair, and missed the first seminar due to the 15-20 minute wait just to get in the driveway at Seven Springs and the 5 minute bus ride from our parking place to the conference center. It was standing room only at every seminar JP and I tried to attend, even if we were able to get there several minutes early.

The girls sat in on a seminar for children about bugs, and L made her own bug catching net.

I think the most enjoyable thing that JP and the girls did was to ride the ski lift to the top of the mountain and back down.

We gave up and left several hours earlier than planned. It gave us the chance to pay an unexpected visit to one of JP's dear friends from college, who lives only 30 minutes away. I'm so glad we did. He is ill, and we were able to celebrate his birthday with him and his wife. What better aid to healing than celebrating?

Now we are home, and the girls are tucked into their beds. I'm waiting for the dryer to stop so that I can put the clean sheets from it directly on my bed, and then I'll crash. Sweet dreams

Scavenger Walks

Kali and I have been going on nearly daily walks in the early mornings for about a year and a half now. It is one of my favorite parts of the day, one which I actually get up early in order to accomplish!

It is becoming darker and darker in the mornings. One day in the not-to-distant-future, I will have to postpone the walks until after Daylight Savings time. Interestingly (while we are on the subject of fewer hours of daylight), the hens lay according to the daylight as well, which is why they don't lay as well in the winter unless they have supplimental artificial light.

It has been lovely to walk through the seasons and the weather. After many walks I will bring back some little treasure to show the folks at home who are still snug in their beds. I go from bringing back the first red leaf of Fall, to icicles in the winter, the first Spring flower and fresh black raspberries or black berries for our yogurt in the Summer.

Here is a list of some of the things I have found:

bones and teeth (of all sorts: deer, horse, small critter - raccoon maybe?)
turtle shells
fragments of sky blue egg shell
big turkey feathers, bright red cardinal feathers
bird nests
a strip of gauzy grey material 10 inches long from a paper wasp's nest
empty wasp nests
flowers
pretty leaves
interesting fungus
berries
snail shells
pretty rocks
the orange wing with eyespot of a large moth
butterfly wings
caterpillars

Sometimes I forage in the garden at the end of our walks, and come home with vegetables, or eggs from the hens.

Every now and then I will come across some trash, which I bring home to throw away or recycle.

I'm still searching for that elusive pot of gold!