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Although we are not technically on summer vacation yet, we still tried to enjoy the first official weekend of summer to its fullest.
Happy Memorial Day, everyone!
We heard the puppies over at Juniper Moon Farm were getting bigger by the second so we had to rush right over and get some cuddles!
Oona is completely in love. She begged and begged to bring one home RIGHT NOW.
I can’t believe how fast they are growing! They are making adorable puppy sounds now – barking and growling as the play.
I am in love with the two biggest, fattest ones. They were totally chill, happy to be snuggled.
We’ve decided to call ours “Orzo”, once we have him picked out.
Much to Oona’s disappointment it will be quite awhile before a puppy comes home with us; he has to stay with his brothers and father as long as we can let him to learn how to be a good guard dog.
Not that Susan, Zac or Caroline are complaining. More time for puppy love for them!
Today I gave the kids a break from math and spelling, packed them into the car and drove an hour away for our yearly spring tradition – cherry picking!
It’s a beautiful drive out to the mountains and the girls oohed and aahhed at all the big old historic estates in Albemarle County that we passed on the way.
It’s perfect timing, too, because we just ran out of our last jar of Brandied Cherry Jam that I made last year. And, like last year, we picked waaaaaaaaay more than planned.
In all, we came home with just under 20 pounds of cherries. At $3.99 a pound…….you do the math. Every year it’s the same. We plan to not spend too much, and we pick too many. I gripe about it as I am paying for them, I gripe about it all the way home. I gripe about it as I stand and wash them for what seems like hours.
Then, after we’ve eaten our fill and I am planning out what to make with them I always say “We didn’t pick enough cherries!”
I washed, de-stemmed, and packed into ziploc freezer bags about 13 pounds of cherries. They’re dead easy to freeze, and this way I don’t have to make jam right this second. I am, in fact, waiting until I can order some Weck jars this year.
Because Weck jars are prettier that’s why. And yes, they are ALL going to become jam.
It was THAT good.
Okay, you can file this in the “Better Late Than Never” category. It’s been busy around here! There’s LAND CLEARING going on!
It’s been a bit slow going, but it’s been good because our landscaper is really looking out for how the land will look and how best to use it without working against what we’ve got. The good news is there’s a lot of really good trees (read: really old, tall, straight, hardwood trees). Enough, in fact, that we can sell some to pay for clearing the land and have some left to look nice and provide shade during the heat of summer. It’s going to be great, y’all!
We did take a break from land and house work Saturday to go to Juniper Moon Farm’s Spring 2012 Shearing Party.
And I am so glad we did! We got to see so many friends that don’t live close enough and spend some time with the animals.
Maddie provided face painting fun for the kids.
The geese behaved themselves quite well.
We also got to meet Susan’s new cow, Luna!
She’s ridiculously sweet.
Our friend Michelle was there with her adorable baby. Hi Michelle!!!!
Paul and Erin. He was probably talking about buses. That’s pretty much what he does these days.
Emily got to talk about her crazy mad skills as a shearer in between working the sheep. She’s only recently back from a stint at the shearing olympics in New Zealand. (Seriously, google “Golden Shears”).
We all got some Jerry love.
Some more than others.
I’m not sure, but I think Jerry remembers Paul.
He spent a good five minutes trying to pull Paul’s shirt off. Neve thought Jerry either really liked or really hated that red shirt.
But after he spent an equal amount of time trying to tear off Paul’s ears I decided he definitely remembers Paul.
I sort of finished a sweater for Oona.
As in, it’s done but she won’t let me have it back long enough to properly block it.
The pattern is called Boheme, and I used Juniper Moon Farm’s Sabine. It knit up super fast, and I added two little i-cord flowers, similar to the Boheme sweater that was gifted to Oona in December by our friend Suzy Q.
The buttons were some adorable Jemima Puddleduck ones I found at JoAnns ages ago, and was thrilled to finally have something that matched so perfectly!
Hopefully at some point it will get blocked so I can get a decent picture of the lace portion on the bottom.
We’ve been spending time on and off at Juniper Moon Farm all month to visit all the new babies, and last time we were there Neve took off with my camera. She took almost 300 photos.
The following are the best ones (and for an 8 year old with no real camera knowledge they are pretty good!!!).
I think she’s ready for some formal lessons, don’t you???
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!
As you may or may not know, St. Patrick’s Day is our wedding anniversary. This year was number 16 – and we celebrated the way we always do: with good food, cold Guinness, and watching Darby O’Gill and the Little People together. Maddie made a lovely Chocolate Stout Cake with Bailey’s Cream Cheese frosting, and I made Jamie Oliver’s Steak, Guinness & Cheese Pie (from Jamie At Home). I made fresh granola and played with my new Janome sewing machine, and Paul brought home his new toy: a giant trailer.
There’s no real recipe at play here: I just toss some oats, sesame seeds, coconut & sliced almonds with some dried blueberries, some honey, some maple syrup and canola oil and bake it lightly.
Truffles and Speckles fighting over a nesting box. Neither one would cede to the other, and they ended up both laying their eggs at the same time.
No, I don’t particularly like “Hello Kitty”. The machine just happened to be branded that way and it was a steal.
Paul’s new toy.
What do you mean I can’t have this marshmallow Oona dropped that’s bigger than my head??!!
Normally I wouldn’t give up on winter so soon. After all, where I grew up, March was blizzard season. Even here in Virginia we’ve had more than a few surprise March snowstorms; at least of those was nearly record – breaking. However, given the incredibly mild weather we’ve had since fall I think it’s not foolish to expect winter is done. Perhaps we’ll have another blow-out – who knows? But I am not holding my breath. Not when in the same week we’ve had several inches of snow followed by nearly 80 degree temperatures three days later.
So, over the course of the week we’ll be washing and packing away the heavier winter items and changing out our winter decor for spring.
Yes, I change the art on the walls along with the sheets, the pillows and the blankets to coordinate with the seasons. It’s easier than a re-doing your furniture every time you get sick of where it all is.
It’s hard to believe I took all of these pictures not eve a full week ago, considering a few days ago we were outside like this:
I gave in and planted some of the cold crops: beans, peas, arugula, Black Seeded Lettuce, and Red Romaine. I’m afraid if I wait for the normal planting date it will be too warm.
Spring cleaning, here we come.
I’d like you all to meet Katie.
Katie is the adorable twelve year old daughter of my friend Jessie and also a friend of my Emily.
Katie was diagnosed with diabetes when she was very young, and hasn’t had as easy a road as many other kids her age. There have been some very scary moments over the years. Somehow, despite the many restrictions she faces every day she manages to be down to earth and full of grace. So recently when Jess announced that Katie was going to take part in a clinical trial to test algorithms used for an artificial pancreas I wasn’t really surprised. But I was proud.
You see, this was Katie’s decision. Although she knew she was to be compensated handsomely she also knew she’d be subjected to A LOT of intrusions on her personal comfort (I’m being nice here) for the duration of her hospital stay. She wanted in anyway.
And you know what? It wasn’t easy. Her first round of this trial was very well, trying and painful. When things got particularly tough Jess told her she could quit if she wanted to. Jess would even give her the money she’d be out by excusing herself from the trial.
She told her twelve year – old she could leave the pain behind and still be paid.
Katie stuck with it. She said she needed to let them finish the research, because it was important to her.
I wanted to share this story with you not only because I am ridiculously grateful to be their friend, but also because everyone needs to remember that kids can do amazing and selfless things – I kind of think that in a lot of ways they can be far more selfless and wise – and stronger - than we adults are.
I hold my children to higher standards in many ways than I do my adult friends and occasionally I catch flak for that. You know what? I think they can handle it – I think kids deserve far more credit than we give them.
I didn’t think it would happen – I dismissed all talk of it.
But it happened – we got SNOW! Not only that, we should be around 4 inches by the time it stops – a positively HUGE amount for us!
The recipe for the French Onion Soup comes from Susan and it can be found HERE. It is AMAZING. I made some crusty bread today to go with it and pulled out my French Onion Soup pots, filled them with soup, stuck a thick piece of bread in each one, topped with grated gruyere and OH MY GOODNESS.
Best way to warm up on a snowy, blustery day!!!
