Christmas Eve

We had a lovely day today, celebrating Christmas Eve in ways we all enjoy.

Pancakes with blackberry syrup.

A walk/bike around Beacon Rock State Park.

Lincoln logs

Legos. He's already obsessed with them.

Popcorn snack with mead. We sampled a bottle of the new batch of mead...too soon! We'll let it age several more months.

At bath time I asked, "How many presents do you want to open tonight?"

Hey! Those are for the big guy.

Ready!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We're in full Christmas spirit here, all right. It started with the annual tree hunt where Ole spied a real beauty.

We chopped that thing down, strapped it to the car, and got it home without incident. Win! After a spot of trouble with the tree stand and the lights, we even got it decorated.

We made a visit to Santa, too, where Ole found lots to say about toys I've never heard of. He brought his buddy Bun Bun along--that lucky bunny gets to do all the fun stuff.

We've been counting down the days until Christmas with a Santa calendar from preschool. Ole's mom didn't have any cotton balls on hand, so our Santa has a very colorful pompom beard.

Now my little elf has lots to do. Lay off the candy canes and get back to work!

The barn

I've been holding off telling of the work we did on our barn, hoping to finish it completely first, but that is simply not in the cards this fall. It was mostly finished, though, in two October weekends with the help of family and friends. Perhaps next spring we'll invite them out again (hint, hint) for the last section.
Here it is before--a disintegrating shell of painted plywood. We patched up the worst spots with fresh plywood so there would be something to attach the new siding to.
We ordered rough-cut Douglas fir 12" wide boards and 3" wide battens from a local sawyer in many different lengths. I was curious how they'd deliver and unload so many and such long lengths of boards, so Ole and I were both delighted by the cool dump truck that arrived. It was a delicate operation to slide all the boards off in one piece, but they seemed to know what they were doing.


Dave, the lumber man, full of jokes and ready for payment.

The stack of bound lumber provided an evening's entertainment before the work began the next morning.

Work started slowly as we figured out a rhythm, but by the afternoon it was starting to look very promising.

David and Patrick on the rickety deck.

Josh and Dad adding battens to the upper level.

Dad and Alex rounding the corner of the wood shed.

Forcing a pose at the end of a long day.

By the end of day two it was a beautiful sight! The freshly cut boards glowed in the evening sun.

 My dad came down for another weekend of work (Thanks, Dad!) and with the help of the neighbor's scaffolding (Thanks, Dale!) we were able to finish the front up to the peak.

Ta da! The after...for now

We took advantage of a sunny November weekend to spray it with sealer, so now we just need to build and hang doors to close it up. Just don't tell our secret shame...the back side!

 

October days

Well, that lovely month just flew by! We've been busy with our barn project (photos to come soon), so we spent lots of days outside in the waning sun watching the leaves change.

We've noticed so many caterpillars inching their way through the yard, presumably searching for our mythic basement "where all insects go to die." We're making an official prediction here at 1.7 that we'll have a drier and milder winter than usual. It's all very scientific...based on the width of the Woolly Bear Caterpillar's orange stripe.

There was mushroom hunting as well. I was tickled watching Ole search through the woods with a mushroom ID book tucked under his arm. This beaut is some sort of Russula, maybe. I feel pretty safe letting him pick mushrooms as the chance of him eating one are truly nil--you can see it on his face.

I trudged out to the garden in rain and gathered one last harvest, enough to put up a batch of salsa and enjoy carrot sticks all week.

And then there was Halloween. We carved a few homegrown pumpkins and enjoyed a bit of trick-or-treating.

After a giant rainstorm. That fellow on the right sure has a good attitude!

This fall weather has me reminiscing about our trip to Turkey four years ago this October. Of the many great memories are the smells and tastes of their cuisine. Apple tea is the customary drink hosts or shop owners offer to guests in Turkey, so I've been including tea with Ole's afternoon snack on cold days in lieu of hot cocoa. In addition to apple tea, he's sampled Good Earth, ginger-green, peppermint, and that delicious Aveda blend so far. As we toasted the other day, he tried to pronounce a new word.

 

 

 Salud!

Punkins

We harvested the pumpkins last week, taking advantage of a long string of nice sunny October days. I saved and planted seeds from last year's best pumpkins, and in addition to great classic pumpkins, we ended up with a few funky zucchini/pumpkin hybrids. So we learned a lesson in cross pollination, which is apparently common in squash, pumpkins, and gourds.

 

And then it was more fall fun with a visit to Bi-Zi Farms with Ole's preschool class. He had his first ride in a school bus and a fun morning in the hay bale maze, petting zoo, straw bale pyramid, and shuffling around a muddy field choosing his own pumpkin ("The child must be able to carry their own pumpkin!" shouted a farm employee. Apparently lots of parents must be scamming their kids into choosing the biggest pumpkins or something.)

Ole and the corn stalk.

Three-year-olds and a random hand.

Ole braving the tunnels. I offered to go with him, then chickened out when I saw how cramped they were. Instead, I ran around to the other side each time and called to him.



The loneliest boy on the pyramid.

 

Happy October!

All this pumpkin fun has us in the mood for fall and Halloween. Ole's still deciding on his costume choice, wavering daily between robot, pumpkin and tiger.