Happy Halloween

Fling!

In celebration of the end of pumpkin season, Dan pulled the trebuchet out and has it operational. He added an additional 200 pounds to the counterweight this year, with excellent results:

Snap!

Last Sunday, G and Dan discovered a half dollar-sized visitor on our front patio -- a turtle. They couldn't imagine where it came from or where it was trying to go. We have never seen one on our property, let alone so close to the house, despite having a marsh. Since the weather was turning cold, they brought it in and made a really cool terrarium habitat for it. With a little Internet research, they identified it as a young snapping turtle. After weighing the pros and cons of keeping it, they decided it would be better off in the wild. They are releasing into the marsh today so that it can hibernate with the rest of the turtles.

Temporary visitor

Book Fair

G's school is running a week-long Scholastic Book Fair in conjunction with Teacher Conferences. As a PTO board member, I have been spending a lot of time working there. The scale of this one is exponentially bigger than the ones at her old school. It looks as though our 50+ teachers will have at least $150 each to spend once the fair is over. Since it is a new school with a lot of new teachers, that's a shot in the arm for classroom libraries. I hope everyone reading this will buy a book for a classroom next time s/he has the opportunity!


G browsing on the far left. We have a $130 tab so far and there's still a day and a half left!

Costume Party

Hay Ride

Our friends Beth, Peter, Liz and Dale brought their kids and a bunch of friends out to the farm yesterday. In addition to hay wagon riding, pumpkin picking, animal feeding and general running around, Dan came up with a couple of novel activities for the group. He set the moms up by asking if it was OK for kids to climb up the silo -- of course the answer was "no," but it made scrambling up into the hay mow seem tame by comparison. He also took the hay ride down into the cow pasture, where our "heirloom" apple tree stands. The wagon slats were perfect perches for apple picking. The apples were a hit, even though they are completely natural (i.e., a worm here and there). With cousins here on top of it all, it was a pretty good day all around.

Who's the next one up?

"I can see the next county from here"


Everyone wants apples!

Cousin mule ride

October 11

Just Because

Last Hurrah

Dan closed the pool up yesterday. G & I couldn't let him do that without one last dip. At 5:30 p.m., the ambient temperature was 59 degrees and the water was 54 degrees. Did that stop us?

False bravado

Cold!

Did it!

Survived!

An Apple A Day

We have been neglecting our apple trees, so G & I went out and picked Braeburns, Empires and a Granny Smith. The Braeburns were perfect for me: tart and firm. G still prefers Fujis, which are a sweet apple.

"Fruit-laden" is not hyperbole

G with a Braeburn

Season Opener

Yesterday Dan, G & I woke up dreading what was ahead of us: the first day of pumpkin season. But it turned out much better than we thought. (As the saying goes: Expect the worst and you will always be pleasantly surprised.) It was a superlative day, the stream of people coming in was never overwhelming, and the morning and afternoon were relieved by visits from friends. G accounted for half of the sales -- she worked her butt off. Today the forecast calls for rain, so it should be slow.

G and her friend Sarah, who she's known since they were three

The colors of the day

Maike on Stand Down

Merlin's Dragon

T.A. Barron, author of several Merlin series, was at G's school today. He talked about his books and the writing process. The factoid she came away with is that he lives in Colorado and has five kids, all of whom are named after mountains. Mr. Barron also made appearances at local indy bookstores today to promote the first book (Merlin's Dragon) of a new series. G & I went to meet him at one. He was extremely personable and chatted with everyone in line about something. He seemed genuinely glad to see each person; he was especially touched that one girl brought her dog-earred copy of one of his books for him to sign. We've seen several authors over the years, but T.A. Barron is the first one whom G said she would like to see again. If he's at a bookstore near you, you should stop by and see him.

G & T.A. Barron