I had a wonderful, whirlwind Saturday with the lovely Miss Eloise,
and her Mucho-Happy brother, Luca. Benoit dropped them off at the farm
on Friday evening, in time for visits with all of the critters, evening
feedings, helping Gakki bake bread and finally eating supper and playing
for an hour or so before bed.
Saturday we left the farm at 8:15
am and drove to my sister Jeannie's home in MD to share a celebratory
lunch for her 60th birthday.
From there we traveled to Mom's
home, through the congested roads, presumably due to University of
Maryland graduations. At Mom's the kiddos delighted in the
lift-and-toss-you-out recliner, as Mom cautioned against a likely
catastrophe. All survived.
Then it was back in the car for another two and a half hours, driving
the kiddos back home to Rochelle. They delighted in spending the
remaining daylight playing in their yard, rolling in the experimental
tall grasses area, climbing and dancing with trees, building a bonfire
and using branches of leaves for umbrellas until they decided to fetch
Mama's favorite umbrella to defeat the raindrops.
When Jenn
returned from her events, around 8:15 PM, I made the journey back to the
farmette, arriving at 11:30 pm... a day full of driving, but made
perfect because my passengers were PERFECT!!
We are enjoying having the lovely Miss Eloise here on the farm with
us for a few days during her Spring break. Eloise and I had a good
laugh this afternoon as Joe tried in vain to get the goats to
concentrate on eating the brush, while the goats preferred to snack on
Joe's young willows he planted at the back pond's edge.
Eloise is
so happy to have a few days back on the farmette. She told me she sure
missed the animals and she is sure they missed her. Big crazy dogs,
goofy goats, squawking chickens, crowing roosters, fat, fluffy rabbits
and one coy cat .... this kiddo loves them all! She does not want to
miss a single feeding opportunity.
This afternoon after work I came downstairs and walked outside to
enjoy the lovely warm weather. As I walked out, I saw our cat, Pretty
Boy, grab a young squirrel, which I believe had just fallen from the
giant sycamore tree.
Pretty Boy ran to me with the squirrel in
his mouth and all the while, the squirrel was squealing in fear (and
perhaps pain). Pretty Boy then put the squirrel down, where it lay,
squealing still. And then it quieted. And then Pretty Boy played with
it, but the squirrel wasn't having fun.
Eventually, I got Pretty Boy away from the poor squirrel and Joe picked
up the squirrel and took him back to the giant sycamore where MaMa
squirrel had been yelling incessantly the entire time. After
about 15 minutes, the poor scared, and maybe slightly injured, squirrel
made his way up to the lowest of the giant branches, where he rested
while MaMa continued to call him back up to the nest in the hollow in
the tree.
Hopefully, the squirrels are all happily cuddled in their
nest tonight.
Well, I was living in denial, while Joe scurried around yesterday
preparing for the predicted heavy snow Saturday. I woke up to 7 inches
of snow on the ground this morning. We missed a couple of prep details,
as I discovered when I went to feed the critters this morning....the
blowing snow had filled my boots sitting on the shelf on the back
stoop... oops.
So, while Joe started clearing some paths around the
property, I donned my hiking boots and spent the day taking care of
critters and removing 11 inches of snow from the tarp roofs of our
chicken yards. I am so sore and exhausted from essentially boxing with
snow laden tarp roofs. That snow is HEAVY and my arms are SORE!
The critters are confused, but they are hanging in there. They spent
most of the day hunkered down in their facilities, but at feeding times,
they eagerly engaged. Whitey could not wait for me to get her food for
her, so she opted to help herself from the feed van.
I hope everyone else was able to enjoy the snow... we are looking forward to another long cold day of snow work tomorrow.
I knew November was going to be a busy one this year. Lots of travel on the work front and lots of projects on the farm front. Throw in a couple of plays and a visit with my granddaughter, and, well, November is flying by!
We decided we needed MORE storage for the farm equipment, shelters for hay and straw and piles of mulch etc. We had some space that had challenged us at every turn as we tried to grow something, anything.... corn, sunflowers, apple trees, apricot trees, raspberries, blackberries... you name it, it grew at a snail's pace and produced poorly. Joe always contended that this area of the property had once been a road, and I think he might be right. At any rate, it provided the perfect location for our new structure.... 18' X 73' long... with roads up to it and along side it between it and the woods. However, before installation could occur, some "minor" work had to be done to create the pads and the roads. 120 tons of road dirt later, Joe is ready to start spreading gravel and crush-n-run. Weather permitting, the buildings will be erected on Friday (EEK).
Meanwhile, with winter fast approaching, wood had to be reclaimed from fallen and felled trees. And Joe built a new wood shed near the front of the house so he won't have to track through the cold and mush to get wood every day, once we put the wood stoves into action this season.
And I have been traveling to northern VA, to Salt Lake City Utah, and am now working in Fairfax, VA, getting ready to head to Huntsville, AL tomorrow night.
Still, despite the work schedule, I was able to make the drive to Smithfield, VA to see my son perform the role of Sir Galahad, in Spamalot. It was a little different seeing Steve with long curly hair, but "anything for the show!" Steve is the one with the red cross on the front of his tunic. Lots of fun.
I was also able to spend some time in Rochelle, VA visiting my favorite
daughter Jenn, her family and my nephew, Andrew, who lives and works there
now. Luca, who will turn a year old next week, is walking now, and basically loves anything he can put in his
mouth. He also is very fond of climbing up and down stairs.... He adores his sister, who can make a game out of anything. She was modeling packing materials while I was there. Luca will stop everything to enjoy playing guitar with Mama!
I spent the night in Rochelle, VA and then brought the lovely Miss Eloise back to the farm for a four day visit, which included taking her to see the local community theatre's production of, "Mary Poppins." The Court House Players, gave a wonderful performance, and Eloise thoroughly enjoyed the play, even though she fell asleep about halfway through Act 1 and slept right through the intermission. She awakened when the orchestra started up the music for Act 2. She has no idea she even fell asleep. :)
Naturally, she had a blast at the farm, as she always does. That child simply loves the animals, and loves feeding them. If she were here every day, I do believe we'd have some rather robust critters!
We've had a couple of cold snaps, but they have not been enough to spark up the wood stoves yet. Still the gardens are essentially done for the season. I did pick the last of the bell peppers on Saturday, and the figs, late to produce, will not mature all of their fruit, but the wild flowers are still blooming as if they believe they can bloom right through to next Spring!
All in all, I have to say, November, if we survive it, will have been a fun, busy month. We plan to don our kerchief and cap and head into our LONG WINTER NAP, come December.
