on the road again

Tomorrow we're off on a little trip, from which we will return for a quick switch of luggage and the girls and I will head out for a week-long road trip with Goaliemom. My brain is not liking trying to figure out packing for this scenario. I think I am wired to be a homebody: I am very happy when life is blissfully dull.

I had a lovely moment the other day, I had worked all afternoon in the kitchen making applesauce and pie pastry and decided to brew a cup of coffee, featuring some lovely chocolate Arabica brought from Paris by Goaliemom for my birthday. Said cup of coffee accompanied me down to the creek where I sat on an old barn timber that now perches on two rocks to make a bench. I watched the cows in the field across the creek, listened to the wind in the grass, and had that rare feeling of utter contentment that is so sweet and so often elusive. I just hugged the mug in my hands, smiling at nothing in particular, looking around and realizing that yes, we have done a lot of work here, and just enjoying it all.

A new addition to our family deserves mention in this little blog of mine; a hamster now lives with us. The girls wanted to keep a young mouse we caught live, but that didn't work out. However, using their pooled savings and Dad & Mom's okay, they bought a cage and hamster from the pet store. She was quickly christened Willow (Willow Honey Cocoa Hamster, her full name), or as D calls her, Fuzzy McFuzzerton. The girls enjoy her greatly and are convinced that she is the smartest hamster ever to grace this earth.

But back to packing.

fall

Time for another descriptive blog. Fall has most definitely arrived. The pool has been abandoned and sits there, tired and waiting for the winter closing.

One night's frost has taken its toll on most of the garden, so last night we had "last hurrah from the garden" omelets, with cherry tomatoes and basil and green onions. All but the tomatoes, peppers, leeks, and some of the herbs have been shipped off to the compost pile. Some of the herbs were cut and are now hanging up to dry in the summer kitchen. The chickens, meanwhile, have made the garden their playground and spend the days busily scratching, flinging soil everywhere and finding bugs for snacks. The lawn is looking a little shaggy, needing its last cut of the season. Pumpkins are sitting in the sun to 'season', along with the onions and shallots, to prepare for storage. The apples picked on Sunday will find their way into my freezer this week as sauce, pies, or crisps.

The windows are being closed at night now, as the sun's setting brings on the chill. We put a fire on over the weekend and its cheery crackling was a very welcome thing. Outside the maples have started turning to orange and red, the swallows have been gone for weeks, and the sound of geese on their southward journeys is becoming more common. I always find that their honking sounds more melancholy in the fall. I'm sure it's just my perception though.

The girls have been digging out their sweaters and R has taken to stealing my socks on a regular basis.

And there's that smell in the air. How to pin it down? It is crisp, a hint of leaf decay in it, perhaps a distant trace of smoke from someone's leaf fire or wood stove. It brings to mind brilliant blue sky, yellowing grass and leaves slipping through the air or crunching underfoot. Not the wettish smell of spring or the heavy air of summer. It is its own. Fresh, but with a bit of warning that cold is on its way.

The garden will have a new row dug out this fall, to be turned over and have lots of compost added so it's ready for spring planting. The chicken coop needs its winter preparations completed, snow fencing must be put up by the driveway, the old barn foundation should be cleaned out and filled. I want to try putting a coldframe in the garden so I can get some greens growing later into the fall, and hundreds of other little jobs are waving their hands and shouting "ooh! ooh! pick me! pick me!"

Fall is a busy time here, but I do think it's my favorite season.

when does it get normal, again?

You know the kids have gotten their money's worth from bracelet day when they decide on their own that they've had enough of the rides. I think the look on their faces when I said it was time to leave for dance class was something akin to relief. Friday at the Fair was a sunny day, perfect for the Ferris wheel, the Sizzler, and other assorted rides of spinning. I've noticed that that seems to be the general theme of fair rides: spinning. Sometimes even spinning in small circles whilst spinning in larger circles. Spin, spin, spin. No wonder they looked a little green about the gills after a couple of hours. They also enjoyed seeing the horses, cows, sheep, goats, and lots of different breeds of chickens.

Their exhibits did well, each winning something and all happy with what they had done. I even won a ribbon for tea biscuits. We returned on Saturday with D to watch some of the animal shows, but overnight a cold northerly wind had arrived and after an hour of walking around shivering, we decided we'd had enough and went home to do some work around our own farm.

Saturday night also brought the first frost, not enough to kill everything but the zucchini, basil and pumpkin leaves were definitely hit. I'm glad I got most of the beans and tomatoes out on Saturday.

This week is short thanks to a trip to Serendipity's cottage for part of the weekend; the girls and I leave on Sunday afternoon for a road trip week with Goaliemom to visit Bean Boy. Normal week, hmmm. Wonder when.

take me to the fair

The weekend the girls (and, I admit, I) have been waiting for is here. The Fair opened last night but today is the first full day of exhibits and rides, so today we continue our three-year tradition: we get up early, finish school with a drive and determination that is rarely equalled, then drive into town for a day celebrating our inner farm girls. It has the extra benefit of being bracelet day, when they can go on all the rides they want after 3pm for one price.

Our entries into the homecrafts exhibits were dropped off on Wednesday evening, so today we get to see how we did. It's all fun and the girls all worked hard, so no matter what the judges say I'm pleased with the endeavour. It was a good experiment in different art forms for each of the girls - collages, drawings, penmanship, painting, and of course the enduring art medium of pipe cleaners.

The fair is over 100 years old. The midway is not exactly antique, but one look at the shelves of canned goods and racks of quilts is enough to take one back many years. The local women showing their neighbours what they could do in the garden, in the kitchen, or with a needle, sharing ideas and having fun (with, I'm sure, a little competitive spirit thrown in). Change is evident in the categories of digital photography, but the country life is definitely in the forefront.

The girls have been talking about it for weeks. They have planned the rides they want to go on since mid-summer ... "remember the scrambler? ooh, that was so fun!" "but I don't want to go on the polar express again, that was too fast and I felt squashed." "oh no, I'll definitely go on that one" "remember the pig races? they were so funny!""look, look! they've put up the Ferris wheel!". Tomorrow D joins us and we go as a family to see the horses and cattle.

We leave today at 11:00 and will be there until we leave for dance class around 5:30. Lunch will be eaten in the old hall, where a local church provides a home-style meal and once again we feel very small-town. The day should have little that is unexpected and much that has become comfortably, happily familiar.

reconnected

Oh, so THIS is what life with the internet was like. I had forgotten. We are finally, as of noon today, back online at home. The first week was kind of nice, no checking for emails, no sitting in front of Facebook. I did miss blogging though. But by week four it had become tiresome and I felt out of loops that I never knew existed. I have realized that I do indeed rely on internet for much of my communication, both incoming and outgoing.

So today, we are back.

What has happened since my last little post (thanks Seren!)? Well, we could talk about the approach of fall on the farm. We could tell the story of Archie the Wonder Dog meeting a skunk and his subsequent baths in baking soda and hydrogen peroxide. We could hear about our first week of school, currently underway. We could go into the details of our preparations for the local Fair and how much it still amuses me that the local farm Fair has become such a major calendar event for our family. We could hear about the chickens' newfound brave explorations, all the way over to the house now.

That will wait for another day, though.