And Then There Was a Cool Front

My absolute most favorite season of the year is fall.  It's refreshing, dry and cool.  And after a summer of sweating even in a swimsuit, we've all been ready for a change to hit the air. (Because I totally cannot rock a swimsuit while buying groceries. Or in my own backyard, for that matter.)

Yesterday, a tiny cool front came along and threw us all into a tizzy.  Suddenly, everyone was scrambling to be outside for every activity.

Let me tell you something, fall changes people.  And animals, too.  Noodle and Hopers suddenly acted like alien children who liked each other.  And wanted to be with each other!

Weird.



They did all school work outside.

Sherlock was supremely happy with this idea because it meant he would be spoiled to death every waking moment.

 



And carried around as if he'd permanently lost the ability to walk. Or had suddenly turned into a very hairy infant.



Hopers took this photo.  She likes to steal my camera.  More and more, the photos are not of her thumb. *Sniff* My baby's growing up!

Don't be fooled by her momentary solemn expression. Poppy suddenly becomes "crazy dog" when cool weather appears. She runs around the yard at full-on torpedo speed, clearly overjoyed for some good weather.

The chickens are also really glad for the temperature drop.  They told me so, of course.



...and I thought my butt was fluffy!

I did manage to entice the children inside once in a while for important things like showers and using the bathroom.  Hopers decided to finish her sewing project she's been working on lately. Pajama shorts!  And yes, she wore them for the rest of the day.  And yes, the color combo with that shirt kind of hurts my eyes, also.

And then there's Noodle.

...who is so, so........... well, almost a teenager!  Plus, I think I need a new time machine because mine doesn't seem to be working.

My alien-invaded children set up a tent to sleep under the stars tonight.

You'll notice Seth is conspicuously absent from these photos.  That's because he's in the woods hunting things.  Yes, fall makes otherwise normal, non-rednecked men become camo-wearin', bow-totin' crazy people.


I, of course, am not crazy. At all.

Whatsoever.

 

Happy fall!

Keeping Kittens Alive, and Other Things to Do Today

About a month ago, a new addition occurred in the chicken coop.

No, it's not more chickens.

This new addition came when my dearest husband decided to bring home a darling little pop-up camper, given to him by a generous friend.  The cost of the camper?

A kitten.

(Cue dramatic music)

What happens when your husband wants to get rid of the rats in his barn and then visits friends with a cat that had kittens.

Let's pause for a moment and surface to reality here people.

1. Two out of four people in my household are allergic to cats.
2. My husband has always declared he hates cats.
3. Our precious, beloved doggy, Poppy, loves cats..........for dinner.

Who, me? I'd never hurt a fly!

And so, based on these three facts alone, normal, sane people would just accept life as it is.  Harmonious and cat-less.  Who needs to complicate things, right?  I can think of a fistful of reasons as to why I'm not a complicated person, but the fact that I now have a cat, a dog, 31 chickens, 2 snakes and 2 kids under my care doesn't plead the case very well.  (We ate the pigs and sold the goats!) Not to mention, I would've never guessed my husband would be the one to instigate this latest bout of insanity.  

Meet Sherlock.

Ha! I laugh in the face of danger!

Sherlock currently lives in the chicken coop.  His favorite activities include hiding from the chickens and then springing out suddenly upon a hen, only to get pecked in the face.  He's learning quickly who's the boss.

Trapped between Mary Poppins and Florence Nightingale!

The goal is to have Sherlock one day be an Ultra Rat Killing Machine in the barn (otherwise known as a barn cat) while having a healthy respect for our feathered, egg-producing friends out there.  At first, he only stayed in the chick brooder, a screened cage in the coop that allowed him and the chickens to get used to each other visually. We are slowly allowing him more freedom.  At night, he has free roam of the coop, and I have even found him snuggled up, sleeping, with a broody hen in a nest box.

Sherlock hiding.  Little does he know, Shirley the Rhode Island Red is stalking HIM!

The true test of whether or not we can keep a cat comes down to Poppy. Her sweet, humanity-loving demeanor turns into wide-eyed insanity whenever she encounters any animal trespassing on her property.  Heck, it doesn't even have to be her property.  (Remind me sometime to tell you the story of why we don't bring her to the beach anymore......seagulls!!)

Squirrel?!?

So now we are smack dab in the middle of trying to train an old dog new tricks.  Like, don't eat the kitten, Poppy, or you'll cause a bunch of little girls to cry for weeks.  I have to give her some credit.  She's actually doing really well so far.  No kitten murder to report.  

We have introductory sessions between them.  "Poppy, this is Sherlock.  Sherlock, this is Poppy.  We like you both.  Please be nice to each other."  I light candles and play soft music while serving them tea in the parlor.  They talk about the weather and avoid eye contact.

Actually, we've been doing a very slow, daily move toward togetherness.  We hold the kitten and have the dog sit or lay down.  We pet them both and tell Poppy calmly and sweetly about 8 million times that she is a good girl.  This seems to be working.  They sniff each other. They roll their eyes.  No one gets too excited.  Today, I let Poppy watch as Sherlock walked around in the barn.  She chose to stay where she was for the vigorous belly scratch she was receiving.

Sherlock was glad.

I was glad.

Then I was sneezing.

Sigh...Can't wait to do it again tomorrow!

Snow Day: Surviving the Winter Storm of 2014

Yes, we live in Florida, and yes, today is a Snow Day. As in, it's Wednesday and schools are closed and mass panic is setting in. Agghhhhhh!!!!


We had fun playing with the bit of snow that did fall this morning.
 

The azaleas are rather confused right now.  It was 72 on Monday.

 

 
 

My garden seems to be suffering through being frozen alright.

 

 

 

The girls enjoyed throwing snow balls at anyone walking by.

 

Now for some hot chocolate and a movie (Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2).

  Hopefully we'll survive this Winter Storm of 2014!

Something New

I love learning. And researching.  And understanding.  I'm a dog with a bone.  If you ask me a question and I haven't the foggiest, I'll gnaw on that thought till I've wrapped my brain around it. I love doing things in a self-sufficient way.  If I see something I like, my first thought is, "Can I make that myself?"  Last year I learned how to make jam and took up canning.  I learned how to raise chickens.  I learned to play fiddle (a little).  I explored new gardening methods and took composting to new levels.  I learned to sew fancy flower girl dresses.  I learned to knit a rug.  I learned to slack-line. I learned how to take apart a piano.  And how to take apart a turkey.  I learned how to install lighting.

It's a problem I have. 

Unless it's math. I have as little to do with math as possible.

It's another problem I have.



So anyway, I've been gnawing on a new bone in the last couple of days.  Here's a peek:

Cheers to all my friends and family who love to learn something new!

Blessings For the New Year

As you may have noticed, I love keeping up family traditions.   Maybe I'm sentimental or maybe I'm OCD.  You decide.  Traditionally, we take a family photo near the end of the year.  Traditionally, it's really hard to get it done.  You know the drill... Someone's grumpy.  Someone's not home. The light is to bright.  The light is too dark.  Get closer and act like you like each other.  Ew, she's touching me!

Sigh.

But we pulled it off. 

Happy New Year!

Feather Ornaments

I have a yearly tradition of making my daughters an ornament for our Christmas tree.  Usually, it corresponds with some new craft I learned that year or something that was new for the kids.  One year I knitted little cardinal birds with their initials on them.  This year I was inspired by our Year of Chickens.  Having begun the chicken raising adventure at the beginning of this year, I thought it might be appropriate to design an ornament to commemorate that.  After all, my children are the ones who now snobbishly refuse to eat store eggs because in their words "they taste like chemicals!" :-)

Once I got on the ornament making train, I couldn't stop myself.  I made more than just one for Noodle and Hopers.  I made one for an ornament exchange party.  I made one for a friend.  One for my mom.  Here are a few of them that I grabbed photos of:

I used only things I had already, like buttons, fabric scraps, beads and lots of hot glue.  In the aftermath, I only ended up keeping the two I made for the girls, but I want more, more, more on my tree!  Plus, they were fun to make.  If you're not careful, I might end up making one for you too!

Fall Door Hanging

I have to admit, I've been a little jealous of all the cute front door wreaths I've been seeing lately.  The crafty person inside me was quietly dying a painful death over not being able to make a Fall wreath for my house because of this:

 

 

 

* Cue ominous music... *

 

 

 

Ah, the dreaded stained glass front door.  It was there when we bought the house.  The previous owners had it installed as an homage to the family shield.  I kind of like it.  I mostly don't.  Every time the holidays spur that wreath-y feeling in me, I take one look at that bright blue family crest and shlump back inside to knit something instead.

The colors will clash, I whine to myself.  It's too busy looking for anything else up there, I complain internally while browsing solid front doors with adorable bow-topped wreaths on Pinterest.

Eventually, my crafty side shoved my whiny side out of the way like a bully on a playground and came up with an idea.  Cover that baby up!  I zipped to the sewing machine, dug in my fabric scraps, made a trip to the craft store, and by the next day, Fall had found its way to my front door.

Fresh cut leaves and berries front the front yard make great colorful accents, too.

So there you have it.  My take on the front door Fall Wreath. What's yours?



Hopers' Post-Its

These are the little notes Hopers left for me on my computer desk the other day.

 

 



With a little deciphering, they read:

I love God in many, many ways.  He loves us in many, many ways, too.  And He will always love us. No matter what we do, He will still love us. Like He still loves people who steal stuff. And He still loves us when we do something wrong.

And just to reassure me, this one came along with the others:

I love you mommy.  You are awesome.


So in case you weren't sure today, God loves you too, no matter what.......from the mouth of a seven-year-old!

Suwannee River Kids Music Camp

If you know us, you know we're always up for a camping trip. What? A weekend in the woods?  Yes please. A retreat by the river? Count us in. So when our new friends, the Boggs, asked us if we would like to go camping with them at the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park for a kids music camp, it didn't take much convincing.

They'd already been helping to inject some much needed musical fun in our lives--giving fiddle lessons to Noodle (and even me) and inspiring Hopers to want to try out the banjo. We've been really blessed by these "special persons" always willing to offer help, drop by to play, lend an instrument, share a meal, or just chat with.

So, when I say we were excited about a weekend of camping and music and hanging out with some new special persons in our lives, I'm saying EXCITED with a capital E.  And a capital X. And C...and you get the idea.

We arrived Friday afternoon to set up camp, spray on a two-inch thick layer of bug spray, and go to the instrument expo.  The kids listened to the instructors talk about and demonstrate each instrument before deciding what they wanted to learn to play for the weekend.  There were classes for guitar, fiddle, banjo, ukulele, mandolin, harmonica, drums, and voice.

Noodle and Amelia already knew they wanted to be in the fiddle class.  They brought their fiddles with them and were geared up to learn some new songs.

Hopers and George Wilder knew they wanted to play banjo, but Hopers didn't have a banjo.  No instrument? No problem!  The camp provides instruments for the kids to use.  Did I mention this camp was completely free?  It blew my mind.  The banjo teacher mentioned one of her instruments that had been named Frankie because it was put together from other banjo parts like a "Frankenstein".  Frankie was also her loudest banjo.  Hopers looked at me during the demonstration with wide eyes and said, "I really wanna play Frankie!"

Hopers and Frankie

The next day, lessons began at 10 am.  Each group met at a different stage or area of the music park.  I'd never been to the Suwannee Music Park and didn't realize how huge it was.  It's like its own town, with cottages and stores and a chapel... not to mention camping, multiple music stages, and a river.  Hippie paradise.

Amelia and Noodle were in a small group of kids who had already picked up a fiddle once or twice.  They had lessons at a ring of stump chairs.  The beginner group of 20 or 30 fiddler kids met in a barn nearby.

Hopers' and George Wilder's group met in a music hall behind a restaurant.  They had about 8 kids in their group.  The first lesson lasted about 2 hours and the kids were enthralled for every second of it.  We had to peel them off their banjos with promises of food and swimming.

After a short break and some lunch, we took off in search of a place to get in the water.  Being May in Florida, it was hotter than two cats fightin' in a wool sock.  Sadly, the swimming access in the park was closed because of high water.  We didn't let that stop us though.  Five minutes across the street from the park was another Suwannee River swimming hole.

We were in hillbilly heaven.

Canoers, Kayakers, and Boaters paddled by

Great fun was had for hours tossing small people into the air

The river is tea-colored from the tannins in the leaves of the trees surrounding its banks.

The camp then fed us all an awesome (and again, free!) barbecue chicken dinner prepared completely by volunteers.  Wow. 

And soon it was time for more music lessons.

What did the adults do while the kids were becoming little music geniuses, you might ask?

We relaxed.  Elisha and I had a great time sitting in rocking chairs and chatting.

We entertained ourselves with the unique art around the camp.

I took lots of pictures of the ever adorable William.  Isn't he scrumptious?


By Sunday morning the kids were a little tired but still jumping for joy to get to their lessons.  We swam some more in the afternoon and then prepared for their final concert.  We gave the kiddos the option to cut out early and head home if they were too tired.  They looked at us as if we'd suddenly sprouted green tentacles from our heads and asked them to get on our spaceship.

So, concert we did.

Amelia and Noodle at rehearsal

George Wilder strummin' a G chord

Hopers crankin' out a chord on Frankie

These are some serious musicians.  By 2:30, Hopers and George Wilder could barely keep their eyes open, but they were determined to play their songs.



Amelia and Noodle, center.  Our friend, George, on the left bravely helped with lessons when their instructor, Kayla (right, purple shirt) couldn't be there.  Both teachers were AMAZING!  Noodle and Amelia were AMAZING too!

The groups played songs they learned and also several songs as one big band together.  Parents cheered and felt proud (I know I did).  Children were proud of their accomplishment, too. We left the Suwannee River Music Camp that day feeling glad we went and talking about the next one.

The next one is in August, but unless there's some freak cold snap happening that weekend, we won't be back 'til November. 

Meanwhile, we are all incredibly inspired by our adventure in music with our new friends.  Noodle, Hopers and I jam on the banjo and fiddles every afternoon.  Even Seth is learning to play the egg shaker.  He's very, very good on that egg.