Simple Pleasures

-Getting to see one of our new honey bees up close (this is a bee, right? Not a fly? Gillen just looked and declared that it was a horse fly. Nah. I would never include a fly as a bearer of pleasure.)-I walked and the kids biked to the post office today and for the first time we went right through the local school parking lot while school was in session. We take our rebellious opportunities where we can get them.
-Nicolas home before dark and not too tired to take a walk with us.

-Roasted asparagus, again.

-Line-dried sheets on our bed tonight.

-Many, many Goldfinches and Hummingbirds at the bird feeders today.

-We got our second notice about a speeding ticket from Australia. I was pleased for two reasons. One, I had lost the first notice and was afraid that we'd be fugitives if we return to Australia. Secondly, in true Aussie fashion, it was the most polite request for money I have ever read. "This notice has been issued, as the original Penalty notice was not finalised by the due date...You have been nominated as being the person responsible for the vehicle at the time of the offence."

-A much more exciting arrival from Sydney - my brother sent us pictures of Zoe!:


-The next round of Irises is getting ready to open - this time, in deep purple.

Monday Farm Photos

It was a rainy day here at the farm. There was even the possibility of a freeze tonight. Helen and Nicolas weren't concerned about that, but we were all very cold. Even the visiting documentary film makers from Maine were shivering.

Michael and Wendy are travelling around the country making a cool documentary about the difference between industrialized and organic farming. They have already made two other films that I am excited about seeing - one about the fight between their small Maine town and Wal-Mart, called Our Town, and one about the migration of the Alewife - a fish that swims all the way from the sea to fresh water rivers in Maine, swimming upstream by the thousands to return to the place of their birth.

This time, their passion is good food. Their journey to explore this passion has shown them how convoluted and political the story of food has become. After they interviewed Nicolas, we had them back to the house for dinner. Wendy inspired us to roast our asparagus with oil, salt and garlic. It was so good that I will have to eat it that way every night until it is gone. Michael, who didn't like beets, had some by mistake in the salad and found he had changed his mind. In addition there was local, grass grown meat. We enjoyed a slow meal and made some new friends. I wish them great success with their film and message.

For the birds, it was business as usual. The turkeys are down to seven eggs, having destroyed the rest (meaning those probably weren't going to make it) and Gillen is still anxiously awaiting the emergence of the first poult.

Sweet Home

On our way out the door yesterday, we realized that the roof was leaking. We soaked up the water from the floor, put out bowls to catch the continuing drips, and escaped for the newer house of our Atlanta friends. It isn't a huge leak, but it is the beginning of revisiting the roof we had thought we'd taken care of years ago.

We are in an old house. There will always be something we need to fix. It will possibly never be warm enough for me in the winter. We will probably always have to drive at least thirty minutes if we want to eat out or meet friends or see a movie. We will have to repaint it again in a year or so.

I have never lived anywhere this long. I had never known what goes into a home.

Each of the past ten years, while the subtly sinking foundation has caused tiny cracks in the walls I'd painted, our kitchen doorway has been further covered with lots of children's indelibly marked new heights. Every Spring, the Daffodils, Irises, Dogwoods and Azaleas have further enveloped us in their (mostly) untempered glory.

This year, roots are more literally taking hold. Gillen and Jesse have started a backyard farm. Gillen's bird garden from last year is being expanded.
There is enough going on in our back yard for Gillen to have been inspired today to create a sign post that leads guests around "the grounds".
Thank God for Netflix, warm sweaters and visitors. I think we may be here a while.

The Birds and the Bees, and the Bullfrog

I finally bought this book for the boys, about eggs, semen and what they can create. It also has other answers to possible questions they may be having. I learned at last year's Live and Learn Unschooling Conference, from what the teens had relayed in a round table discussion with Diana, that the kids really preferred having the books to a one-on-one sex talk with their parents. They also said that they were more comfortable talking to an adult friend that they trusted, about any questions they may have about sex, rather than to their parents. This makes sense to me. It doesn't mean that they aren't well-adjusted or trusting of their parents. It's just such a heated topic.

I left the book in the car and then in their room and saw that they both read it often within the first few days. I asked Gillen how it was and he said that he was really surprised by the great number of eggs that there are in women. He was so comfortable talking about this and about other things he'd learned. I remember being excruciatingly embarrassed when I had to ask my mom to finally get me a bra, let alone questions about sex. Maybe it is that he is growing up in nature, seeing the birds , the bees, the ducks and the turkeys breeding all the time. Plus, we never had "Animal Planet".

Speaking of the birds and the bees, we have lots of both brightening our world. Our mayor found out that we were looking to get more bees and took Nicolas and Gillen to his friend's house last night where there was a swarm of them. They easily transferred the bees to an empty hive. I figured that they'd bring it to the farm but they brought it here, to our back yard! I am so excited. I will be doing lots of research in order to finally have our own honey. We've had hives at the farm for a year but haven't given them enough attention and we lost one of the queens.

Seems the mayor likes bees better than he does squirrels. Remember, this is the same guy who offered to pay Gillen to shoot squirrels in his back yard.

Today, we watched the mayor and his wife drive right through our backyard until they were a few feet from the hives. They just stayed in their big old red car, silently watching the hive through the windshield, while we watched the Mayor and his wife through their side windows. They finally saw us and were shaken from their hypnotized bee reverie.

It's Spring. Down here, we're all a bit awed by the sudden signs of so much new life, by the many mating calls, and by all the pollen.



My favorite backyard animal:

Texas Hold' Em

Gillen never did master "the poker face".



I am so glad to be out of Candyland and on to Hearts and Poker.

What do we do all day? A long answer...

The minute we got in her parents car to drive with she and her brothers to NY from NJ, my twelve year old niece leaned over to me and curiously asked,

"So, what do you do all day?"

"It's different every day. Sometimes we have a few classes in Atlanta so we go to those. Or we work at the farm together. Or we go to a museum. Every week we go to a park with friends. But it is really different every day." I probably left most of that out but I may have included something from this list.

I could see that she wasn't satisfied. Clementine really wanted to know how we fill our days - how the kids learn without school. She told me about her Chinese class in school and we convinced her to speak a bit for us.

"We do lots of crafting," I told her, knowing how inadequate this sounded. The subject changed to what she does all day and we never revisited our day.

Yesterday, I read this day-in-the-life post by unschooling mom and childrens' book author, Melissa Wiley and I was reminded of how much I love reading these. I decided last night that I would take note of everything that happened today and answer Clementine's question of what we do all day. I was ready to include everything - arguments, challenges and problem solving, as well as the more loving moments. As it turned out, it was a very peaceful, beautiful day. I will have to pick another day for the challenges.

Both boys woke up at about 8:30 this morning and came into the office to cuddle up with Nicolas and I. We were both checking e-mails. Nicolas went to the farm and I asked if either boy wanted breakfast. Nope. They usually aren't hungry for at least an hour after they wake up. I got myself a cup of coffee and a piece of toast.

Gillen decided late last night to start embroidering again. He learned "clothing tattoo" at a "fun-shop" at last year's Live and Learn conference. Last night he picked out a pattern and I ironed it on for him. This morning, he immediately got going on it. He wants to embroider a piece to hang on the wall. But this one, that he is doing on a flour sack dish towel, is for practice and is a gift to me. So far it has a few reeds and three lily pads on it and he talked about his plans to add many more bits of nature. About an hour later, we had all gravitated outside to experience the first blue sky and full sun in a few days. Gillen or Jesse (can't remember which) fed Tuki and Fracas and Gillen toweled off Tuki, who had once again come home muddy from her morning walk with neighbor Larry. Gillen cleaned up his bird garden and then told me that he has decided to embroider his garden on the piece he does for the wall.

Now hungry, Gillen asked if I would scramble the duck eggs we'd brought home yesterday. I emptied them into a bowl and then Gillen decided that he wanted to do the scrambling. He noticed that one of the eggs had a dot of blood in it and we talked about whether this meant it had been fertilized. He removed the blood. While we ate, Gillen talked about the ducks and turkeys. He thinks that the missing duck is sitting on eggs somewhere. He told me that ducks will go without water or food for long periods of time while they are sitting. Hmmm. Is this true?


After breakfast, Jesse decided to blog about seeding corn yesterday. I helped him with spelling when he asked and started some laundry. Gillen jumped on the trampoline and reserved the computer next to play his new favorite game - Zoo Tycoon. Once Gillen was on the computer, Jesse ran out to jump. He came in a while later with big news - the next installment of "Avatar" had come in the mail from Netflix . They rushed to get it on the DVD player and were whisked into the Far East where young mentors are teaching the even younger hero of the story about air-bending, and other ways to use the elements to aid them in their quest. They watched a few episodes and then ran to the trampoline to "air-bend" with one another. I continued with the laundry, put on the black beans for tonight's burritos and got dressed.

Jesse came inside and starting drawing many fantasy animals, asking me to decide, in multiple choice fashion, from which of several real animals each one of his creatures had evolved. I got two right and was wrong on several. He was using a blue gel pen on all of his drawings and I asked if he would be interested in trying a pen and ink technique that I had just read about. "Not now," he replied. He talked again about his card game that he is creating and wants to finish by the unschooling conference. We talked about whether or not it is similar to Yugioh or Pokemon. He said that he wants it to be an entirely new game. We watched a Japanese cartoon on Schuyler's blog and then talked a bit about animation and how it is made. He is fascinated by it lately and I think I want to get the Flash software (I think that's what it is) that would help him to create animation.

I saw The Little Town on the Prairie library book and remembered that we were going to have to return it tomorrow. I asked them if they wanted to play with legos and playmobil upstairs while I read it to them. Soon it will be too hot to play up there during the days. They agreed but Gillen decided that he wanted to read to us. I brought up my crocheting project (I am making bags to sell at our farmer's market) and Jesse built fantasy creatures while Gillen read a few chapters. The phone rang. We didn't make it downstairs quickly enough and the kids decided to watch another episode of "Avatar". Inspired by Ma Ingalls (and Christine), I reorganized a cluttered area of the kitchen.

Gillen decided that we should have a picnic. I got the blankets. He cut up the apples and divided them between several plates with peanut butter on the side. We cut up cheese together. I got chips,salsa,trays and water. Gillen prepared a bagel to split with Jesse. I grabbed my camera, crocheting and Little Town on the Prairie and we set up our first picnic of the year.The boys told me about a game they had made up on the trampoline earlier that had them in warfare in different periods of history. They would use martial arts, guns, knives, swords or bombs (all weapons created with their bodies) depending on whether they were in the middle ages or Asia or "modern times".
After eating, I read to them and then Gillen decided that he wanted to crochet a bag for the market. I reminded him of how to double crochet.
While we were working on this, Jesse went inside and got his notebook and a pencil. Encouraged by Mindy and by her daughter Sophie's example, he has decided to start writing down ideas he has for his card game or his book, instead of just talking about them. So he wrote about his book ideas, asking me for help with spelling.It was deliciously warm and I could have curled up on that blanket like Fracas and slept the rest of the afternoon. But I shut off that thought (to be recaptured another day) and asked the kids to help me take the stuff inside. Once inside, Gillen kept crocheting in the living room and Jesse played Zoo Tycoon. I made rice, grated cheese and folded laundry. Eventually, the rice finished, I made burritos.

Nicolas and I rarely go out without the kids but today we had both made plans - he with a friend to play golf and me for a moms' night out. Helen kept Gillen and Jesse at the farm for a bit while waiting for Nicolas to get home from his golf date. Gillen got to check on his birds (still no turkey poults). When I left, Jesse was in front of "Mimine's" house, on the ground, writing in his notebook.

It was a good day. I really like the simple ones, at home, when we can just meander from one interest to another without the pressure of getting ready to be somewhere. Though, outings can be mighty fine as well.

Monday Farm Photos

I'm beginning with the end - the farmer's end, of Monday, when he returned home with something far better than a bouquet of roses. He brought me our first ever bunch of asparagus!!!

As for his expression - I leave it to you to decide. Is he looking at me with love as he hands me this fruit of his labors? Or, do you think he might just not appreciate his end-of-day, worn-out farmer "look" being photographed for my blog?

Yes, it was the latter, but luckily he can really laugh at himself, almost as well as the boys and I did. :) This may be my favorite photograph of him, ever.

Arugula:
Leeks Enough carrots to feed our entire county's rabbit population (not that they get any, I don't think ;):
Swiss Chard:

Despite being tired from visiting friends this weekend (and being sad about leaving them) we had a wonderful farm day. It was foggy. All the colors are so deep when it is overcast. I don't get hot, or swoon. I can pretend that we are in Wales. I really wouldn't mind ending up in a damp, cool-ish, green place somewhere in rural England.

Today, I am very happy right here, documenting the ongoing dramas at the farm and getting to eat freshly harvested Spring vegetables.

We are once again growing the heirloom Red Flint corn for a restaurant owner in Charleston. Last year, this project helped get us to Australia. Later - Jesse blogged about this as only he can.Unfortunately, Jesse is not stomping on wine grapes, just filling trays with soil.

Remember the opening scene of"Reservoir Dogs"? Here are Gillen's Reservoir Ducks, with just as much cool, dramatic swagger. Green Tea, Jet and Mae-Belle were herded by Gillen to a flooded area that has the perfect "pond" for their needs. The baby pool we'd been using developed too big of a leak. We hope that they can find their way back to their food. Ducks are... well, kind of challenged in the short-term memory department.

I wonder if Blaze, who has been missing for a few days, has lost her way home. I hope that's all it is. Gillen had been hoping that she and Jet would sit on these eggs. Today it was decided that we would go ahead and eat them. Duck egg omelets for breakfast tomorrow.
Jesse gave me a tour of the forts that were constructed a few weeks ago when the cousins were visiting. The style is both Asian and old-world and there is lots of space. There are cement blocks every few feet, thickly rising up several feet from where they are firmly planted in the ground. They were once part of the foundation for a house that was here more than a hundred years ago. I love the bamboo wall that they created, and the Azalea tree that they planted from a cutting. Definitely a peace-time fort.

Here, the anxious turkey breeder is watching Flamer sit on her eggs. To the side, one of the dads is gobbling a few warnings his way.Gillen is hoping for chicks in the next few days.

The fairy weeks

For one or two weeks every April, Spring bursts forth, more liberally stretching its Wysteria vines, its Carolina Jasmine, its Dogwoods, hundred-year-old Azaleas (in our front yard) and Bradford Pears with new color, scent and freshness than have ever been felt before. But of course, it all happened last year, and the year before that - that year it was the week my sister got married here. Does it just feel more intense with age? I find myself shouting out in glee, pointing out every single Dogwood, probably driving my kids crazy with my continuous, "look, look did you see how many different colors on this one block?!"... sounding like my long ago grandmother?!

But today, while we were driving in our neighborhood, Gillen said that he couldn't imagine not living here forever. Jesse said something similar later on the way to the farm. I am not just getting old. We're in that short window of bliss before the too quick fading of subtle colors and fresh grass, wrought by a southern summer sun. Maybe this year we won't have a drought. This week, any thing is possible.

On the day that you were born, though I love you, I may forget you

A day late for another birthday. This time it is my brother. I have always been bad about birthdays but have never missed his, even by a day. He is really good about mine as well. Maybe we feel a special responsibility to one another as the only ones left from our primary childhood home. Whatever the reason, the deck has been internally stacked towards remembering my brother. Until this week.

I have been trying to prepare for these lapses, having gotten worse every year. A few winters ago, at a gathering of Nicolas' family to celebrate his mother, I stood up in front of the many nieces, nephews, brothers and sisters and proposed the idea of not necessarily recognizing every birthday. Rather, I proposed, we could just get a card or a present for one another when the mood hit us. I loved the honesty and spontaneity of this. I was very enthusiastic as I described the excitement one would have over the unexpected wrapped surprise in the mailbox, seven months before the day one was born! I painted a scenario where we could take one another to dinner or even throw one another a party, just because of really liking one another. Not all the time, no obligation...

I was met with unflinching, stone cold silence. No one was impressed. The first reaction came from Stacy. She is a birthday genius. Stacy keeps everyone's dates in her head(doesn't even need a calendar) and is always on time with a card, all while working at a full time job in NY. Now, with a new home in NJ and a baby to boot, she still has a perfect record. Her response was, "Are you a card person? Or do you prefer e-mail, a phone call...? Did you like birthdays growing up?"

The thing is, I love acknowledging birthdays, with homemade cards and cake, and would do so for everyone, if I only hadn't developed a block about being on time. I grow tired too easily and am terribly forgetful.

I have a birthday calendar on the wall, a silly one by Boynton, with cartoon animals pretending to be human. I have had it there, warping in the humidity, since Gillen was young enough to like Boynton, eight years ago. It is open to March and has been for a long time. It could serve me well (I wrote in all the significant family and friend birthdays and some added their own) if I would only take the time to go to that dark corner of the kitchen and look at the ugly thing.

Tomorrow, I will make myself a new one, right after sending my godson a gift. His birthday is on the sixth. I'm on time!