Remember how I had ripped out a bunch of the squash plants to make room for a new fall planting?  The plants were yellowing and withering up, and I didn’t expect them to live another week anyway.  When I tore them out, I left the  plants in the path, expecting them to turn into organic…

 This adolescent male cardinal was caught between the two layers of chicken wire we had on the orchard gate to keep the rabbits out.  Ethan rescued it – and instead of saying thanks, it bit him, hard!   It was worse to handle than the charioteer spider he found on the ground, although you wouldn’t…

The first sumac berries are ripe, and so we’ve been enjoying the first batches of sumac berry lemonade.  Here’s what might pass for a recipe: Gather sumac berries when they are ripe and red (the stickier they are, the better).  Next you have to agitate them in water to get the sour stickiness off (that’s…

We had some friends over on Wednesday, and it took Clothilde a little getting used to not being the littlest one for a few hours.  It made me realize that it is slightly unhealthy to be the littlest of several children – everything always revolves around her. Today is our last weekday of our summer…

 The corn stalks are golden and dried, and so we have been harvesting the ears of corn that are also golden and dried and hang upside down on the stalk.  They turned out beautifully for the most part.  Some that were planted too close to the pumpkins and got strangled out didn’t pollinate very well,…

We didn’t get anything done this past weekend.  The remaining chickens are still being fed and moved around, nothing in the lower room was fixed up, the children’s new loft bed was not worked on, the winter garden beds were not built.  The only thing I can claim I accomplished were a couple of loads…

You would think that the countryside would be quiet and peaceful – full of the beautiful sounds of nature – a bird singing, the wind moving quietly through the pine branches, a trilling cicada, perhaps the unhappy moo of a far-off cow separated from her herd.  But I’m afraid that pastoral noise has become quite…

It’s been horribly hot the past few days.  Mid-nineties and steam-bath humidity.  No fun.  But our weather karma seems to have shifted a little, as all week we have been heading home just as the huge black booming clouds are descending and showering the garden and pastures with cooling and much-needed rain (and dramatic lightening). …

For whatever reason, Twilight Sparkle has been horrible lately.  One reason is that she is a really bad size – small enough to still slide under the gate in seconds, but big enough to jump onto the milking stand and eat the mamas’ rations while they are being milked.  She has always slipped under the…

No, this isn’t the watermelon harvest!  These are the wild watermelons we call “Notermelons” because they are bland and taste like cucumber (not watermelon).  All the animals (pigs, chickens, cows, goats) like to eat them.  Some are growing in the pastures, but the ones in the garden are getting eaten by something (rabbit?).  Last year…

    Sunday was Ethan’s grandmother’s 96th birthday down in St. Petersburg.  It was a long drive, a restaurant meal, an hour in a house with extremely fragile decorations at toddler height, and another long drive home.  So Clothilde and I stayed home.  I was dreading a long day of keeping up with her and…