Geocaching

On Sunday we spent the day geocaching with our friends Beth, Chris, Alex and Ben. Dan & G accidentally happened upon a geocache about two years ago when we were visiting my folks in York, and we were soon proud owners of a Garmin eTrex Legend C. We'd tried to get a few other people interested, but never had much luck until this summer with this crew. They are now even prouder owners of the next generation of Garmin technology, so we all headed out to not one but two geocache locations. The first site was a three-parter that we weren't able to finish earlier this fall because the mosquitoes were horrendous. The second was a 10-part cache at a nature preserve. It was a bit nippy out, but it was perfect weather for all the trudging we did.

Ben & G discover a set of coordinates

Alex locates the coordinates on a pier

Chris & Dan program their tricorders GPS units with the new coordinates

Hiking to the next stop

Why are these people listing?

Light the Way

Saturday, November 17: Jamer & Kayleen invited us to go to Costco with them. It was an expensive day for Dan. In addition to all the stuff G & I had to have at Costco, we visited Target, Office Max, Starbucks, Noodles & Co. and Home Depot. At HD, I finally found light fixtures for the attic. After the work-filled weekends of October and the last few weeks, it was a nice change of pace to spend the day together doing nothing much.


Wall sconce now installed in the attic stairway

Jammer Time

Friday, November 17: The 10-day Thanksgiving break started at 2:45 p.m. Hooray! Agenda: sleeping, more sleeping, eating, shopping and swimming.

G and I bought matching jammies for our aggressive schedule of lounging

Roman Day

Thursday, November 15: Roman Day finally arrived ... and none too soon. Kids and parents had beaucoup organizing to do, because in addition to family and friends, community leaders were invited. Grandpa, Dan, Dan's cousin Stacy (not only family, but a Chamber of Commerce Ambassador), the local Target Community Grant Captain (the mosaics the students did for Roman Day were supported by a Target art grant) and I were at G's table. She'd really put a lot of thought and detail into the myth they were asked to write, and her maps were beautiful. We were really proud of all that she had accomplished over the trimester.


G plays latrunculi with our guest from Target (who happened to go to school with Dan's sister Pat)

Going Green

Wednesday, November 14: Dan and I coordinated a wreath fundraiser for G's swim team. We picked the wreaths, greens and centerpieces up, collated orders and waited around for people to come and get them. To put everyone in the holiday spirit, there were scattered flurries throughout the evening.


Wreaths took up all the space in one of our garages

Lend Me Your Ears

At least once a year, G's school does a huge to-do called a "Day of Learning." Students dress in costume and share with family, friends and community leaders what they've learned about their thematic unit through roundtables, skits, presentations and music, capped off by a time-period feast. This Thursday will be "Roman Day." D, G & I spent about an hour and a half tonight putting together a costume of a stola, palla, tiara, earrings and hairstyle. Here's a sneak peak ... more to come later this week!

Latin hand gesture for "O Most Revered Pater Familias"

Concrete Idea

The foundation of one of the barns needed to be reinforced. It was a job for [da da da dah da daaah] Uncle Fred and his backhoe! He, John & Dan spent the better part of the day shoring up the granary by pouring a concrete support wall. This included mixing, shoveling and hauling a couple of tons rock and concrete. They all shouldn't have any trouble sleeping tonight.

Fritz & Dan conferring about how to get the job done



Everyone at his appointed task (with moral support from Maike, as usual)


Top of the support wall with everyone's initials and date noted

How Bizarre, How Bizarre

When G and I got home from school on Friday, she found this little shaving cream sculpture in the bathroom. We were afraid to touch it in case disturbing it caused a full-blown explosion. At least it smelled good. Dan diffused it later that evening and managed to retain all his digits.

Eulalia!

Through some good fortune, our local indy bookstore was able to snag Brian Jacques on his U.S. tour to promote Eulalia, his latest book in the Redwall series. Typically he does much bigger venues, but he agreed to appear before an audience of 120, the capacity of the public library. He is as wonderful a storyteller in person as he is in print, so the evening went very quickly. Moral of his appearance, as well as his books: Good will always win out over evil. Let's hope that's not fiction.

The author performing the description of Cluny from Chapter 2 of Redwall

G & her friend Chloe waiting in line to get their books signed

G meeting Brian Jacques

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Chuckin'

A few stills for those of you who can't get the video to load:

Loading a pumpkin

G tries her hand

Makes Me Wanna Hurl

With blood, sweat and tears, the trebuchet has been resurrected and rendered functional.

Late Bloomer

Double hollyhock

Silhouette

Hanging Out

A better place to do it than the mall ...

G and her friend Em with Starlight, Eadie, Crescent, Clover and Honeysuckle

Don't Let the Rain Come Down

Ah, the romance of living in a 100-plus-year-old farmhouse!

Point of egress, directly over our bed, for the rain water coming in through the leak in our roof. Forecast calls for rain on and off for the next few days. Let's hope Jesus the Roofer answers his voicemail.(OK, actually his name is Jim, but he looks like Jesus, if He had driven a pickup and traveled to job sites with His Boxer instead of His Disciples ...)

How You Fix a Broken Jack-o-Lantern

With a Pumpkin Patch, of course!

Long, busy day. Huge pumpkin day. Lots of big groups, people who've come here year after year. Thank goodness pumpkin season falls during autumn, when it is dark by 6:30!

Here's what it looks like if you take a hayride with Dan. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) you miss all the pumpkin humor when you're not right here ...

Farmers' Market

Dan & G spent another Saturday morning at a local farmers' market. Amazingly enough, they came home with an almost-empty flatbed. Or maybe not, since a friend told us that a stand in town is selling pumpkins for $20-$40! Since none of ours are more than $5, I guess that's why they could unload them so fast.

G with the flatbed of produce

Dan chatting up a family friend

Afternoon Stroll

By late afternoon, we needed a break. We decided to walk out to the hickory trees to see if there was a nut crop. We filled two buckets for the woman who grew up on the farm and her husband. There are more out there, so we'll probably go back next weekend.

We stopped at an apple tree that's been there as long as anyone can remember. The fruit is tangy and sweet ... G says it's the best apple ever

Foraging for hickory nuts

The cows waited expectantly for us, hoping that we were planning on moving them from one pasture to another. Wonder what bovine disappointment feels like

Getting Picky

We picked the last of the apples today: Fuji, Macoun and Braeburn. Uncle Jamer was here to help us sample the just-off-the-tree produce. Consensus was that fresh really is more flavorful!



Handfuls of Fujis

Iris enjoys the windfallen ones

Last Call

In years past we've kept the pool open well into October. But not this year. Dan closed up the pool today. Before he did, G and I got one last dip in. And now, summer is officially over.

G and Maike get one more water game in this season

Open For Business

This was the first weekend of pumpkin season. Dan & G did a farmers' market and Grandpa was at a fall festival yesterday. We had people show up in the yard even though the sign wasn't up. Once we got the sign up, it was a pretty steady stream of customers, except between 12 and 3, when the Packers were on. (Side note: They won! Bonus: They beat the Vikings! Trifecta: They are at the top of their division with 4-0! Cherry on top: Favre surpassed Marino's touchdown pass record!) It was a good start ... let's hope for three more like it.

Maike and our porch display

Victoire and Cocoa check things out

Pumpkin patch from the cow pasture

It's All About Timing

When the high school girls have a home swim meet, G has been going to be a timer. She's been having a good time. Tonight some of the older girls she swims with went up against some older girls who attended her school. We didn't get the final scores before we left. Just as well ... she just wanted everyone to do well.

On Lane 1 this week

Night Visitor

Between 1:20 and 3:00 a.m. there was quite a commotion outside our bedroom window. A Great Horned Owl was hoo-hoo-hooing up a storm. At first we thought it had a chicken, because there was screeching as well. But the noise continued along with the hooting, so something else was going on. In researching owl .wav files online this morning, it seems that we either had an adult and a juvenile talking to each other, or a young adult who couldn't make up its mind how to vocalize. Maike and I searched around the trees for pellets or carcasses, but didn't find anything. I'm hoping it's not back tonight.

Bit O'Honey

Dan and Jamie harvested the honey from their hives this weekend (with an assist from G and Becca). It was an interesting experience for all concerned. There must be some impressive mathematical formula to illustrate the amount of time, energy and money they put into this project versus the honey yielded, but I don't know it. But whatever ... it's Darn Good Honey!

The "Bee Team": G, Dan, Jamie & Becca

Anticipation over what they will find

Brushing off bees so they can see what's there

Jamie and G work the extractor to spin honey from the combs

Checking to see what's there

Pouring honey from the extractor into a container

T-Minus Two Weeks and Counting ...

Despite G's annual Nasty Back-to-School Cold, we went and scoped out the upper pumpkin field, where the specialty cucurbits are this year. While at first glance it looks like a weed field because of all the rain, we found Jack Be Littles, pie pumpkins, birdhouse gourds, swan-neck gourds, white pumpkins, butternut squash, turk's turbans and buttercup squash. We found zero Cinderella pumpkins and no Baby Boos that weren't mush. We'll open up the fields this week in preparation for High Pumpkin Season.

There are rewards hidden in the weeds. Fortunately they are mostly velvetleaf and foxtail (which are not skin irritants), not pigweed



G with some of this morning's haul

Comfort Me With Apples

Apple picking season is finally here! The Galas and the Cortlands are just right; the other varieties we've got (Fuji, Empire, Macoun, Granny Smith, Yellow Delicious, Red Delicious and Braeburn) need a little more time. We'll have more than enough for fresh eating this year, so G and I are already dreaming of crisps and cobblers!

Galas ... spotty but delicious

Lots of Fujis to come!

These Cortlands had extremely white flesh and packed some pucker!

Dad on a Hot Tin Roof

Dan's fixing up the chicken house from the top down. I didn't know whether to watch in case he fell, or not watch in case he fell.

But in our little village of Anatevka, you might say every one of us is a Fiddler on the Roof ...

Target Marketing

They know I have an 11-year-old. That I have a common Jewish surname. And maybe that I'm a sucker for anything in a slick, glossy format. The "Bar/Bat Mitzvah Party Guide" that I got in the mail today had me dreaming of the party that we could throw. Too bad I am not actually Jewish ...

And too bad G doesn't have a Hispanic surname ... maybe we could get a quinceañera planner in a few years!

First Day of Sixth Grade

Unexpected Resident

The hummingbird garden is overrun with weeds from all the rain. I was removing big stalks of lamb's-quarters when I came across this spider. I only damaged the web a little, and I'm just going to let it and the weeds be for now.

Looked to be one of Aragog's spawn (click to enlarge)

Web/spider made obvious