May Morsels

First, an introduction:  This scary guy (my new header) is the troll who lives beneath the bridge in the "Three Billy Goats Gruff", drawn by Kale.  He now lives on our upstairs hall light switch.  Awesome.  

May Morsels:  

In the past few days it feels like someone waved the magic wand of spring over our little piece of the world.

Beech, lilac, birch and other early leaves unfolded overnight, the pear and cherry trees exploded with blossoms and the perennials are doubling in size each day.  We put up the screen doors and have been throwing them open each morning to greet the morning warmth.  

This is the time of year when our house is cold.  We have a well insulated, radiant heated (by our woodstove, with propane back up) exposed concrete slab in our home.  All winter we are toasty to over heated.  But in the spring and early fall, when its too warm to warrant lighting a wood fire, the slab temperature drops quickly. Early mornings we find it is often a few degrees colder inside than out.  It's a blanket breakfast kind of season.  But by mid afternoon, with all the windows thrown wide open, its lovely. We're not complaining (much).  

This is the season when the indoors shifts to out.  When the end of the day brings toys and blocks scattered on the porch and lawn, when art supplies are hauled about in baskets, and the mess inside builds until a rainy day insists we clean up a bit.  

                           (this one's for Clove)

Our chicks moved outside two weeks ago.  As of last weekend they are off their light completely, and nearly all feathered out.  Soon we'll begin the interesting process of introducing them to the old ladies.  It never goes smoothly.  Our system needs a bit of work.  I'd like to set up some summer housing for the ladies that can be in the electronet fencing we got last year (the one they fly out of every time I put them in it).  Then the new chicks can have the coop to themselves long enough to feel like its theirs, while the old ladies live in the orchard for the summer.  Then they can all bunk together when the weather turns.  Someday I'll get it all worked out.  Until then we'll muddling through chick introductions, chasing chicks back into the coop each night (where they don't want to be because of those old meanies).  Maybe this time will be different.

A couple of weekends ago Rob repaired the front of the fence.  Some of the posts had floated up, and the chickens were beginning to sneak underneath it.  The new set up is sturdy, and spiffy as all get out.  I'm working on two rows of raspberries along side (with a path for mowing in between).  

The garden is still mostly mud, with more green in the paths than in the beds.  But its getting there.  The garlic is up, the peas are up, lettuce is coming along.  We had our first salad from the cold frame last night, along with fresh picked asparagus and chive pizza.  Yum.  This is the first year I didn't start any seedlings indoors. I put a bit in the cold frame, stuck the early stuff in the ground (peas, lettuce, spinach, beets, carrots, radish) and bought the rest of the plants from our good friend Polly over at Village Farm.  Their seedlings are beautiful, and it feels a bit like magic to suddenly have big robust plants in a bed that was empty minutes before.  Insta-garden.  I think I like it, but I'm not quite sure.  There's something about coaxing all those tiny plants along, nursing them through those early stages, then celebrating when they're big enough to leave the kitchen.  Of course, Polly's seedlings are twice the size mine ever are, and far more beautiful.  And, I didn't have to rearrange our kitchen for two months.  Compromise.  A girl could get used to it. 

Our tadpoles hatched, and they are not salamanders!  Hooray.

Its become an annual tradition for the kids to get me a fruit tree for our growing orchard each Mother's Day. This year it was a cherry, decorated with sayings about why they love me.  Pretty great.  For my special day I requested that we work outside in the yard all together.  I started the day with a long, sunny run with friends, then showered outside in our newly re-installed outdoor shower.  We all worked on finishing the cedar surround for the shower, planted the tree, mulched gardens, stacked wood, and finished the day with a BBQ at my sister's with her family and Mimi.  

It was the best kind of Mother's Day. Uncomplicated with lots of outdoor family time, and good company at the end of the day.   

    Outdoor tubbing--after water is hooked up, before shower stall.

I love, love, love the new shower.  Good thing too, because the next day we had our septic pumped and leech field dug up. We've been showering ( and peeing, and rinsing laundry, and doing dishes) out in the yard for more than a week now.  They'll come put it all back together and fill it in after its all dried out--which would be quicker if the sun would come out for more than an hour at a time.
Fortunately, its not too bad thanks to this new set up.  Maybe we just need a sink out there too.  Hmm.

                      New shower

The buzzing ladies made it through the winter and are enjoying the pear blossoms.  Two new nucs (small colonies with an established queen) will be making there way to the bee yard very soon.  Tomorrow's project will be to get the hives in order for their arrival.  

   

Homeschool Thursdays: Map Project

We have a block of time set aside for "project work" a couple of times each week.  Sometimes the project is independent, research based, like Juni's Blue Jay project, other times is something more tangible like a sewing project or art based.  For the past month or so we've been working on a "map project".  This project started with the picture book, "The Way to Captain Yankee's" (below) that shows the map of an island, and tells the story of a Ms. Calico who loses her way--but fortunately has a map with her.  It was cute, though not a book I loved.  But, the kids loved following along with the character's route as she went.  The project launched from there.  We drew maps of "Barefoot" Island (an idea I found on Pinterest). They created different parts of their island, included a key with symbols similar to the ones used in the book, a directional arrow, and labels for different parts of the map.  

From there we practiced reading different kinds of maps: the World Map in our bathroom, the elevation and trail maps from Maine Huts and Trails, some vintage gift wrap from the bookstore that included a map of Washington DC from 1945, and greeting cards with maps of Penobscot Bay.  We pretended we were lost in DC and practiced navigating from one Embassy to another.  

We've been playing the "which way" game in the car, where Kale and Juniper navigate while we drive to familiar places.  

With the Gazetteer we calculated distances, and then to work with a smaller scale, began drafting the footprint of our house, to scale, on graph paper.  This has been Juniper's favorite part so far, and she is fastidious about measuring each wall and piece of furniture before adding it in.  (I have always had a love affair with house plans, so the kids are very familiar with how to draw them--but this is her first, very own house project).  This has been a good introduction to fractions.  

From here I've got ideas to map our property, using Google Maps, and other techniques for measuring large spaces.  Or possible drafting some made up houses, creating a village or town based on the Busy Town books, or maybe making a relief map with playdough.  Maybe all of the above. When Juniper is done with the house drawing we'll make a plan together for our next steps.  I'd love to include GeoCaching as well when the weather warms.


Kale loved the Barefoot Island project, and is always up for measuring, but otherwise has had little interest in the Map Project.  What he is totally into right now is coloring, writing, and words.  We can't make it through a page of any book without him asking about the meaning of a word.  Then he will immediately add that word to his vocabulary.  Often he asks about the meaning of words from books we've read in the distant past, or words from songs, or overheard phone conversations. (We have to be careful about what we say around him). And, he is writing.  He has always been a story teller, but he is suddenly (maybe from all of the coloring?) so patient and focused at wanting to write for himself.  He identifies about 1/2 the alphabet and can draw 5-6 letters independently.  The rest he asks how to form, and then painstakingly, with his tongue working his lower lip, forms each one until his message is finished.  Pretty darn sweet.  There's almost nothing I like better than an E with centipede legs.

Morsels: Easter, Chicks, Tadpoles and more

Morsels:  Tiny bits of goodness from the past weeks....

(Sorry for the list like post, and so many pictures.  It seems to be the only way I can get things recorded these days). 

The weather is ever so slowly creeping toward warm, but just won't quite get there.  I keep trying to clean out our mud room but since we're all still wearing our winter coats some part of each day, its a slow process.           I think we're done with the snow pants.  

The day before Easter we were busy with yard work and gardening.  My running group was mostly out of town or injured, so Wylie biked beside me while I did an afternoon run in the sun.  It was a good fast pace, and a fun way to visit with this growing boy of ours.  

That night I stayed up late, hiding eggs by head lamp, stitching ears onto stuffed bunnies, counting out jellybeans to be fair.  Rob slept on the couch.  Hmm.  It seems that this is the norm at our house and many of our friend's houses too-- Dads who are more than happy to participate in holiday traditions, but moms pulling all the stops to make them happen.  Is that true for you?  I suspect this has been the case historically, for women to create and uphold family traditions.  Which doesn't mean it shouldn't change, or be challenged.     But, it also feels somewhat comforting to imagine my mother, and grandmother, great grandmothers before them, all staying up late, sneaking in times to gift for family, to stitch special surprises for their children, to hide eggs after bedtime and hope the dog doesn't eat them before dawn. 

Our family is not Christian and does not celebrate Easter as a Christian holiday (though we talk about why others celebrate it).  For us it is a celebration of spring, rebirth, eggs hatching, bulbs pushing up through the dark earth, all that good stuff.  Dyed, hard-boiled eggs and candy too.  I'm ok with that.  

We started our morning with coffee (for the tall) and jelly beans (for the short), and a small egg hunt. Somehow the eggs seemed so much better hidden at 8:30pm by headlamp than they did at 7:00 am in bright sunlight.  It was a short event. 

Easter Sunday was sunny and 50's, and when sitting directly in the sun, on a protected south facing deck, it felt near 80 for an hour, which was just enough time to leave a bright red collar of sun burn at my neckline, but more importantly to pretend it was summer while I sat and visited with my sister and her family, and Mimi over an Easter lunch and wine.  The kids hunted 50 eggs or so with cousins, and ate too much candy.

The Friday before, we made an impromptu trip to Tractor Supply for inner tubes for tires we needed, and a few new chicks for our flock.  Our older ladies have not been earning their keep. They're lucky summer's coming and upkeep will be cheap for free range birds.  Come fall they'll be taking a trip (perhaps the freezer, perhaps your house? Anyone interested?) So, 6 new biddies, Elsa and Anna (of course), Lollypop, Snowflake, Shelby, and one more.  They are not breeds I love, but its hard to say no to chicks.  We may pick up a couple of Buff Orpingtons (my favorite along with Americanas) when they are available at the hardware store in town.  And, we'd love to adopt some 16-20 weekers if anyone has some.  

Monday both big kids had play dates for the afternoon, so Kale and I kept busy by collecting frog's eggs (we hope).  Every year we go out for frog's eggs, and more often than not, hatch salamanders.  Salamanders are pretty cool, but they're not tadpoles.  This year I think we may have got the real deal.  Too early to be sure.  If anyone knows a sure fire way to tell them apart I'd love to hear it. 

    Almost green grass (and trucks), my retaining wall project in the background

   Marley's new spring haircut,  before....

   
    and after.  She goes to Dogwood ReTreat to be groomed a couple times each year. We love it there!

     

                Kale got some spiffy new stripey pants made from a Goodwill tube top find.  Score.  

     Mac and Cheese, hamming it up for the camera...

    Early garden work

     Searching high and low for eggs

    Leaving Mimi's after a lovely Easter celebration

The Girls at 8

The Girls at 8

My daughter and her friend
in matching culottes,
shirts knotted above the midriff
trying on their femininity like gaudy lipstick,
too bold for the occasion (a walk home from the food coop).
Hips swaying for two blocks,
a nod at what's to come too soon.
But the early spring sun is warm.
By the third block they are bare-chested, tee shirts tossed in the bottom of the buggy
little girl chests flat and strong, yesterday's fuzzy braids
slapping bony shoulder blades,
bare feet cracked and muddy.
Raspberry popsicle stains their faces--
The lipstick of the eight-year-old.

                                                -Jasmine P. Fowler

Really Good

Last week we had a few days of indoor type weather, perfect for color mixing, garden planning (on paper), and fireside napping.  We've all been passing about a chest cold that's had me hacking like a pack-a-day smoker every evening, barely able to read bedtime books, and croaking through the first hour of each morning.  I'm about done with this cough.  Truly.  But, its hard to complain now that spring is honestly here, and if my only complaint is that I only have enough energy to sit in the sun and look at the garden, well--its just not worth complaining.  For now we're soaking up this well deserved spring sun every chance possible (except that one snow day--what the heck?). The pigs have been in their new electric wire pen for two weeks now, and are mucking it up the way pigs should.  There have been picnics on the deck, school work on the deck, knitting on the deck, yoga on the deck, coffee on the deck (do you sense a theme?) fairy houses everywhere, barefoot play, raking out of garden beds, sap boiling, and plenty of mud play.  The bulbs are pushing their way through the newly thawed earth, red maples have started to bloom, and the frog chorus is going full tilt.  Our magic marker list of "signs of spring" has grown to two columns, including colt's foot blooming, flickers spotted, the wood thrush calling, and mourning doves mating below the feeders.  Spinach and lettuce are coming up in the cold frame, and the garden is nearly dry enough to put in some peas.  

Its really good.  

Nature!

Kale called to me from across the deck, where I was enjoying the sun and a mug of tea.
"Mama, look!"
"What is it?"
"Come look!  Quick"
(me not wanting to get up) "Can you tell me what it is?"
(yelling) "Nature! Life!"
Well I had to get up for that.


    A little stink bug or something similar.  Outside, and alive.  Surely a sign of spring.

                   
                      Also, kids in trees, another sign the seasons are shifting...