Trick Photo

What a fun thing to do with your camera. Here she is, holding her smallest brother. She won't be able to do that much longer! He's already up to my chin and growing each day.

Dad is going to hop away before his son can smoosh him! Hope you enjoy our fun as much as we do!

~Rachel

April showers

Ahhh, this is the view from here. Need I say more? A dry trail on a warm day with a good friend and a healthy horse...spring peepers and NO biting bugs! This is the good part of April for sure!
And this is the "other" part of April. Look at the yard work we have to do! The ice storm in December has left plenty of "slash" thoughout the woods. Our youngest will have plenty to do with his ATV in pulling all of this to the burn piles. We don't have tons of woods, mostly fields, but there is plenty of work out there to keep us busy for some time. I see lots of campfires this summer.

This is the stone bridge and it has quite a flowing stream after the rain early this week. This year is no where near the flooding of the last 2 springs though. We had water up to the top of that bridge and it was shooting out this side. It was truly frightening. This year it is rushing, but not at all scary. I just love this bridge!

I hope your April is going well too.

~Rachel

Spring?

Spring? Could winter's icy grip be slowly releasing?

I think so. The stream is running hard as well as Miller Brook. The ice is trying to hold on, but I think the water will win.

I have found pussywillows opening up and that is a sure sign of the season to come.
There is bare ground showing in areas where the sun does it's good work.

King has been enjoying playing at grazing the dried up grasses out in the back field this windy day. I had my first ride of the season on Sunday with neighbors. We did a 2 hour walk along the roads. The weather fluctuated between sun and bursts of snow. It was a great time despite the weather and I am happy to be back in the saddle for the season. King was happy to have the company of good mares and light exercise too.

The poor hens were truly chicken of venturing out in the snow. After a trail was blazed with shovel and pickaxe to break through the tough ice the hens have made their way to "new ground" and enjoyed the first dustbaths of the season. So fun to listen to the sounds out there. Happy clucking, rushing water, song birds chirping and the wind pushing the snow clouds away. I do hope Spring is here for real this time!

Happy Spring to you too!

~Rachel

February

This is the photo that I'll call "Before". Here is one of our cats out on the big rock. She's feeling good in our January...ahem...February thaw. I think the January one was postponed as we never got it! We had only a few inches of very crusty snow and spots of the ground showing here and there too! Then we had a snowstorm overnight Wed. the 18th. And another several inches the next night and after that it is sort of fuzzy for me until I'm quite certain that we had the 18 or 20 inches overnight the 22nd. So here is our "after" photo. Not sure when this photo was. Maybe the 23rd? Anyhow, we had another foot or so yesterday so it's already not the real picture of what it looks like here.


I have been knitting still and here is a hat that I made from leftover yarn. Our guitarist son is showing it off.

I was finding some other great photos of the knitted objects but found this one to show of several at once.




Okay, the tall guy is sporting "turn a square" in wool, the boy with his hand on dad's shoulder has on a seaman's cap I made out of alpaca yarn and the littlest one is wearing a honeycomb pattern hat out of merino wool. The kid in red has a store-bought hat on, but it works just as well for nerf battles!
We find exercise a little tricky with several feet of snow out there on the ground (and it's too cold for the snowball type of thing) so we have enjoyed many a nerf battle this winter.


Here's hoping your winter is as much fun as ours!

~Rachel

Schooling

We have had some good progress in school this winter. We read The Tale of Two Cities and then Christy for our January & February book club books. Those are both long reads and it is nice to have them during the winter to snuggle up with. The kids in book club did a fantastic job discussing those books too.

Here is a Nature Journal underway from our very talented artistic son.

We have a cat overseeing a writing assignment, while birdwatching and "catnapping". Our cats are very talented!





Chemistry at home has been a fun subject for Dad to teach. The lab kit is sometimes quite interesting!

The older boys are also "accessing" at our Middle School and High School for their "A" block class. One has completed French I and is now doing French II in this second semester. The other is taking 2 classes during that block and they are Computers and Art. My 2nd grader and I get lots accomplished during our alone time while the big boys are away from 6:30am until 9:15 when they get in. It's so nice to have them driving there on their own too! Other classes outside the home are Art for the littlest one at the local Elementary, Recess with the area homeschoolers, Dr. Suess storytime, Lifeguarding Classes for the oldest, Fencing classes for the middle and my dear husband. We took a break from theater this spring. Of course there's book club and Piano & Guitar as well. Busy, busy! I get a lot more done though with another driver in the house!

~Rachel

January

C-c-c-cold!

-24 was the lowest that day or the next. It's hard to remember. January had us sipping hot tea or hot cocoa and staying by the fire. It's been a busy month for schooling and a very good time to stay home to keep the fire burning and to keep the oil bill low.

Mouse has found her new favorite spots in the house. We agree. Outdoors we have enjoyed seeing all of the wild tracks in the snow and feeding the birds. Our huntress cats have enjoyed watching the feeder from the warmth of the indoors. Me too!

I've been doing plenty of knitting and I'll blog about that later.

~Rachel

Holidays

Christmas Day.

We enjoyed the excellent company of friends and family in a very relaxed fashion. We have all "cut back" on the holiday gift-giving over a number of years and as it turns out...we spend more time together. Bonus.

This year, grumpy as I was, I decided to not even cook a traditional Christmas dinner. We had a soup and sandwich sort of day. John & I made Seafood Newburg Stoup and had sandwich fixings. My mom added a Minestone and more sandwich fixings and Auntie Lois added a Squash - Apple Bisque. We all brought fun desserts and set the table for dessert at 4:00. We snapped the crackers, and played with the toys, laughed at the silly jokes in the crackers and wore the silly hats. It was a very nice time.

There were lots of activities with Nerf gun battles and snowball fights, a 700 piece puzzle was worked on to 1/2 completion and many stories shared and memories made.

Daddy really enjoys his new gun. Too funny.

And Tide really enjoys his new "Jackolope" toy. He was seen carrying it around and sleeping on it.

The New Year had us going from gathering to gathering. There were many friends seen and lots of time to relax and enjoy.

I did find the time to knit up a "Honeycomb" hat...actually 2 of them during this break. We're gearing up for a nice January. We hope your holidays were as cheerful as ours.

~Rachel