fall in photos

I seem to be just an occasional poster to my blog these days. My days are filled with playing, schooling, pushing Owl on the swing (she calls it the woo), reading, crafting, pushing Owl on the woo, gardening, animal tending, piano concerts, poem recitations, pushing Owl on the woo, baking, cooking, and occasionally cleaning. My evenings are filled with knitting, planning, and dreaming. I am so thankful for the fullness of life I'm living and I'm keenly aware of how fortunate we are. Not many posts ago, I did a summer in review. Here's my fall in review.

Owl copies Pumpkin in everything. Here they are doing piano theory work together. Our school space is in the background. It's nice to have a dedicated school/creative space.

Alybug and Owl at Cades Cove on our fall vacation

The 3 big girls at Cades Cove

Pumpkin carving just before Halloween.

Em with a baby chick

Pumpkin with a baby chick. We bought 15 new chicks just before Halloween after we lost a couple of our hens. We now have 15 chicks and 2 6-month old hens who just started laying eggs. The girls are so excited to be collecting eggs now as a part of their animal chores. Owl likes to "helpa" with egg collecting too!

Owl with her first ponytail and me

She keeps us all laughing!

One of my favorite things about our new home is the sunrises and sunsets we see on top of our hill. Here's a sunset.

Owl chases the big girls as they head down the hill to the tire woo. She seems sure that she's a big girl too.

Trick or treat

The girls found their costumes in a catalog this year. Hopefully we can return to homemade goodness next year... We have Alybug the Indian, Owl the strawberry, Pumpkin Rapunzel, and Em the cowgirl.

Rosie the chicken

Wednesday morning, Rob, Owl and I woke up to 3 crying girls. It took a few minutes to get out what had happened. They went out to do the morning animal chores and found Rosie, Pumpkin's beloved chicken, dead in a corner of the chicken yard and her feathers were scattered about. They saw a raccoon scamper away from the yard.

The girls stayed with me and we snuggled while Rob went out to see what had happened. Oh, how they cried. The grief was deep. Alybug and Em gathered around Pumpkin with their tear-stained faces, telling her how very sorry they were.

I often talk about how I would like to raise our own animals for meat. We would know the animals were lovingly treated and killed kindly and humanely. We would know what they ate and under what conditions they lived. Anytime I bring this up, the girls (who are nearly vegetarians and absolutely never eat chicken) protest strongly. I say, "Someday you may change your mind." They assure me they won't. I have read a couple books about backyard farming, but, other than that, I've made no real steps toward it.

We have some friends (vegetarian, animal-loving friends) who raise chickens and the two women were talking a few weeks ago about the personalities of their chickens. I smiled politely in the conversation, but I had no idea what they were talking about. My dogs have personalities, but our chickens... I visit them in their yard, but I can't tell them apart, and I have never thought of them as having distinct personalities. But now that I have witnessed my girls' loss of their hens, I have come to see their love for chickens in a new light. I have a newfound respect for the sacred connection they feel and the deep bond they share.

Rosie has been buried in our backyard. We gathered around her grave with tears, flowers, happy memories and words of love. While it was difficult to watch my girls grieve so deeply, it was beautiful. I have a new understanding of each of them and a new reverence for their bond as sisters.

all tucked in safely

A raccoon has discovered our chicken yard this week. It has been a difficult few days. We lost two chickens, both times the girls were the first witnesses. This morning's sad discovery pushed them over the edge. While we figure out how to fortify our coop, the remaining 2 chickens are in our house- in the girls' bathtub, to be specific. Pumpkin asked at bedtime to get Muffin, the bunny who lives outside and seems to be safe from the raccoon in her spot, and bring her inside too. So, tonight, safely sleeping under our roof we have 2 dogs, 2 hens, 1 bunny and 15 new baby chicks.

mountains

We vacationed in the Smoky Mountains for a few days last week. Fall colors on the trees, crisp autumn air, sightings of a deer and her fawn and a couple black bears in Cades Cove, apple picking, a hike to a waterfall, hopping rocks in a creek. And when we returned home and I asked Pumpkin what she liked best about the trip, she had a hard time deciding between the air hockey table and the hot tub at our cabin. Hmmm.

Oh, for a tribe

Alybug and Em's story work this semester is the story of Aionwatha, from the Haudenosaunee tribe. Today as I was reading to them, I found myself on the verge of tears. I read about the clan system and how the people organized themselves into clans and then larger moieties for the purpose of taking care of eachother. They all depended on one another to take care of the children, do the planting and harvesting, celebrate the festivals, and on and on. They needed to accomplish these tasks together, because alone they could not do it all. Honestly it was a factual reading, with lots of repetition in it, in part for how this story can be used to teach multiplication concepts. And there I sat, with a big lump in my throat.

Owl is not sleeping well these days, and so I am tired. Pumpkin is needing lots of individual attention as her reading skills progress. Alybug and Em are doing more focused schoolwork which requires more preparation time for me. Of course there is the usual work of keeping our house going and our bodes nourished. Today as I sat reading to Em and Alybug while nursing a fussy squirming Owl and using my eyes to ask Pumpkin to save her math workbook question until I finished reading, I thought the Hauenosaunee were on to something. Oh, for a clan.

summer's end

We visited Birdsong Nature Center yesterday for a fall hike in the woods. We were told that when the mockingbirds come back it means that summer is over. Just this week we've been hearing the mockingbirds. Despite my attempts to order them, I couldn't get blooger to cooperate, so in no particular order, here's a look back at our summer in pictures...



Owl swinging at the girls' barn.
Pumpkin getting Casper ready to ride.

Alybug getting Star ready to ride.
And all 3 girls ready for their trail ride.

Em in a corn maze.

Pumpkin calling to her big sisters.

A rare opportunity to play in the rain this dry summer. Alybug and Em are splashing in the road.
Pumpkin eagerly began piano lessons at summer's end.

All 4 girls dancing. Owl could do this all day.
A brilliant (although not so in the photo) rainbow above our house. Although we expected to find one, there was no pot of gold in our barn.


This summer Alybug and Em spent lots of time in the kitchen. They proudly cook dinner for us one night a week, but are often at work there.
Owl loves to feed carrots to the horses across the street. She signs horses and says "eat!" over and over to us throughout the day.


The girls building a hay fort with our freshly mowed grass.


Em on the rope swing at Wacissa.
Alybug and Em's 9th birthday celebration at Ichetucknee Springs.


Rob and the girls at sunset at St. Augustine.
Owl loved playing in the surf.


Pumpkin with Rosie on her shoulder.
Alybug with Hope (who turned out to be a rooster not a hen!)

It was a full summer. We have gladly shifted toward fall. The shorter days and crisp air are welcomed.