Cross Country

Tiegan had her first cross country meet-up last week, so Kea and I bundled up against the crazy cold morning and went to cheer her on!!!!!

She was so excited and nervous and very happy to be there with her friends:-)

I think, considering that she had only done ONE training session, that she found the long run rather difficult.  BUT I was impressed that she kept going, and in fact was able to speed up with a burst of energy on her second lap - I can't even imagine what this little bundle of energy of ours would do with a bit of training:-)

Here she is in the final stretch......I think in the end she got something like 40th out of 63 kids, but *I* was just super impressed that she was able to run all that way:-)  I personally give up after a minute or two - perhaps she can help me train?!

Still mummify'ing that chicken....

and it's beginning to get a little ripe in our kitchen:-(  "We" decided it was definitely time to change the salts as the chicken was a getting a wee bit ripe.  And you'll notice whose hands went for the camera, and whose hands the chicken was foisted upon!!!!!!  

We disturbed the poor King Cluck in his rest, to knock off the old natron salts and replace them with fresh ones

It's a good thing I was directing from a distance, as Jamie was not planning on emptying out the inside salts, but I knew it would still stink, so OF COURSE he had to dig around in there and get them all out.  While I ran from the kitchen holding my nose:-)  Oy!

But now he's all settled back into his bag, smelling as fresh as can be with his new batch of salts surrounding him - until the next time we're overpowered by the freshness of it all:-)  I hope Ry appreciates what his parents are enduring for this project of "his"!!!!!!

In other news, Kea's been sick and so we kept her home all day Mon but then couldn't convince her to stay home any longer.  This is a girl on a mission, and she doesn't have time to be sick.  Unfortunately she passed her lovely germs onto her Dad, so now Jamie feels like crud.  And I've been called in to supply teach at the school all week long, and we're REALLY not used to me working in any sort of full-time capacity, so even though it's just for a week, has it ever thrown a wrench into our lives!  And did you know tomorrow is Halloween?!  Yikes, I was counting on having a few days at home to get ready, but seems we'll just be going with the flow!  Luckily we've succeeded in convincing Ry that it would be VERY cool to go as a ghost this Halloween, and we now have one gauzy sheet with eye-holes set up for one happy boy!  Tiegan cut a black strap off a cloth grocery bag for her tail, and she's as happy as can be being a cat.  And I *think* we've worked out all the kinks in Kea's marionette costume (luckily she's much more self-sufficient in creating her costumes!!!!) so we're more or less set to go for tomorrow!  Now I just need to scrounge up some black and orange to wear TO WORK tomorrow:-)

More Dump Finds.....

Jamie had another exciting adventure to the dump:-)  He LOVES his adventures there - meets so many other people searching through the treasure trove, and always find something cool!  Luckily there's some pretty dedicated workers there, who separate the garbage as it comes in to piles of potentially recyclable items.  So it's not like Jamie's knee deep in guck (he assures me - most of the time!) to find these treasures, just doing his part to lessen the load in the landfill.  Which becomes a fine line between filling *our* property with junk and finding treasures, but luckily it's easy enough to return items when his family feels he's gone too far:-)  Today, though, was a good day - 

He came home with a gorgeous wooden box (for tomatoes from the Barhamas, funny!), a glass water jug, an old saw (who knows what plans he has for that - I suspect an art project!) and most exciting to Jamie, a door stop for our bedroom door:-)  Phew, saved himself a dollar there!!!!!!  We'd also just watched a documentary about a couple in Vancouver who tried to go a year without producing garbage so Jamie was inspired to do his part to reduce waste in the landfill.  He found a bunch of items that really should have been dropped off at the Hub (local second hand store) so took it upon himself to grab them and drive them in.........it's kind of crazy what people will throw away when there are great local second hand stores that would gladly take them in to recycle, but I guess that would deny Jamie the thrill of the hunt and the find of free treasures each week.......you've never seen someone so excited to have the chore of taking out the garbage:-)

Way Up High in the Apple Tree

If you walk down our road a bit, and veer right at the fork, you come across an old homestead.  We love this place, and often hang out here, picnicking and exploring, scavenging and dreaming of what life must have been like way out here in the 'olden' days.  This is our route for biking and running and cross-country skiing and it has been so neat to watch it change over the seasons.

Last time Jamie biked down here, he discovered a fully laden apple tree, so we decided to bring our baskets down and see if we could fill them.

The kids had so much fun climbing up in the branches - even with the most practical of climbing footwear:-)

Everyone picked and picked, and when they couldn't reach areas they shook the branches for me to collect apples on the ground (MOST of the time warning me and my poor head beforehand!)

It was such a good haul, and we never could get our hands on the best apples - the red, perfect looking ones way up high.  Isn't that always the way?  So now we have plans of heading back down with a ladder - let's see if we manage to do that in time!!!!

Ever since, we've been peeling and slicing, coring and dehydrating apples like crazy.  Luckily we all love our apples, and I suspect we'll be sick of apple rings by the end of winter - but for now they're our favourite snack:-)  

Jamie can't resist a poke around the old homestead, though it looks much too dangerous to go anywhere near inside.

Luckily there's enough on the outside to keep him busy - look at how gorgeous this weathered wood is, Jamie gets so excited about different projects he wants to try - when he gets time (ha ha!)  

We're loving foraging for free sources of food, and now have good locations for apples, for wild leeks, fiddleheads and nettles.  Slowly but surely, we're setting our roots firmly in this new home of ours!!!!

You Are My Wild, October 2013

Oh, this family of mine.  They bring me such joy, every day:-)  And their willingness to play along with my camera, to stop and wait while I figure out settings or find something that catches my eye, rolling their eyes at my predictability but still humouring me most of the time - it doesn't go unnoticed by me!

Jamie is definitely the least comfortable hamming it up in front of my lense - I guess it hasn't been a part of his reality since birth like it has for the kids:-)  And I have to say, I can TOTALLY empathize - I *hate* being on the other side of the camera!!!!!!!!  Which is why I have designated myself the family photographer.......

Pumpkin Playdate

Our Christmas gift to Cam and Keane had been monthly play dates over at our house, which have been a fun way to hang out with them and also to force us to do seasonal activities together - I have to say, we've fallen a wee bit behind over the summer, but this month we FINALLY got it together to pull off another one.  Unfortunately Jamie had the camera, so we only have crappy-quality i-phone photos......but they do the job of telling the story:-)

First off, we made pumpkin ice cream

I'd steamed a pumpkin the night before, and the kids took turns separating the yolks from the whites of the eggs.

Keane ended up dropping a couple of eggs on the floor, and I love this shot of Kea jumping in to clean it up while I stop to take photos of the adventure:-)

Creamy yummy-ness:-)

Then we pulled out foam pumpkins to decorate - full of glitter glue and paint, always fun!

I love these play dates as they give our newly teenaged daughter to still be silly and do childish crafts - I hope she's always able to keep this inner childishness shining through:-)

We'd also spray painted a couple of pumpkins with chalkboard paint, so that the kids can practice drawing their faces all month long - and by the time they're ready for actual carving they should be pros!

It was a fun morning, I LOVE October crafts and creating and cooking.  Next up, I think we're going to have a bat theme, maybe make some bat boxes?

Planting garlic with kindergarteners......

I've been getting more and more involved with the school Tiegan and Ryland are now attending - volunteering in their classrooms, getting called in for supply teaching (for money - yeah!  As long as it's not too often.....) and also in trying to support their initiative to get an outdoor classroom going within the school. Right now the focus is very much on the kindergarten yard, where we've spent a lot of time and energy re-grading the land, planting sod, creating planter boxes, set up mud kitchens and weaving stations and rocks to play on.  I, of course, want to expand the outdoor classroom to the big kids' area too (where *my* kids are!!!!!), and am trying to source funding for a big butterfly garden and a bat box project, and am brainstorming on ways that we can bring the 'big kids' outside for their learning so much more too.

However, I personally think that aside from all the cool structures and stations set up outside, what will really get the kids engaged outside and interested in various projects is having adults out there, playing in the dirt beside them and learning alongside them.  So as much as I'm keen to apply for funding and create plans for various structures, I'm also trying to get people to come in and do projects with the kids.  So this fall, as I was getting ready to plant my own garlic, I was thinking that it would really be an awesome thing to share with the kids using the outdoor classroom - it's not often we get a chance to plant in the fall, and they should be able to see evidence of the garlic growing before school is out at the end of June. I brought a few of my precious bulbs to school, shared some photos of how garlic is planted and grows, planted the bulbs in the soil and covered it with leaves, brought some of the small bulbules for them to dissect and explore at their science table, and then brought dried out stalks for them to use at their weaving station.  So fun - and now every time I'm there, they proudly show me how their garlic is doing:-)  I'm very curious to see what emerges in the spring - ESPECIALLY with so many curious and 'helpful' hands involved:-)  But perhaps, at the very least, I've inspired one or two more kids to dig in the dirt and plant gardens?!