The Farm Report

  • In the Trust we trust

    In the Trust we trust

    101107_01

    Today was a big day, from beginning to end.

    It began with waking up tired from my adventure in the ER last night. I yanked on some clothes and pulled things together enough to take all three kids to the dentist. Well, really just Neko, but everyone else came along for the ride. Thank goodness I conned my dad into coming, too. Neko was getting a filling, and, well, that just gets difficult, especially with two other kids climbing on me. Long story short, mission accomplished.

    Straight from there to JJ’s to pick up Ellery’s prescription and a few other supplies. Yes, the grocery store with three kids. Thank goodness for the built-in Starbucks and shortbread cookie bribe.

    Then dropping off groceries at home and hastily pulling together a packed lunch so we can make it to playgroup. Make it through playgroup without major melt-downs, and come home for quiet time.

    An hour or so later, we gather up and load the kids back into the car and make it just in time to sign the paperwork to put our farm into a conservation easement with the Trust. This has been a huge thing for us this week as we try to finish the easement before next week’s city council meeting where the whole thoroughfare hoo-ha gets decided on.

    After a few moment of celebration and the acquisition of a coffee drink, it’s off to dinner with my uncle Mark, who’s in town from Germany.

    I’m exhausted. But lots of good stuff is checked off our list, and we hope to have ensured our ability to wake up to our pastoral views for years to come.

  • So do I get worker’s comp?

    So do I get worker’s comp?

    101007_01

    So tonight Shep was running around like a maniac, and I was about to grab him to brush teeth, when he climbed up on the arm of the couch and flung his whole body backward onto the couch. Which, although not a sanctioned activity, would have been fine if my nose had not been in between him and the couch. The back of his head, powered by his full body weight, slammed into my nose.

    Shep is fine. A few moments after the injury, he was bouncing around offering helpful suggestions like getting me a band aid or the Elmo ice pack.

    However, after waiting for FOUR hours in the emergency room, we found out I have a slight fracture on the bridge of my nose. It’s not too swollen, but I’ve got a small surface wound on my nose at the point of impact and it’s a bit black and blue. Tom took this glamour shot right before I departed for the hospital.

    I knew parenting was going to be challenging, but I had no idea it was going to this dangerous.

  • Picture of the Day

    Picture of the Day

    100907_01

    A television and, as in real life, way too many remote controls.

  • Deception in the kitchen

    Deception in the kitchen

    100807_01

    Yesterday we picked up a copy of Jessica Seinfeld’s new book, Deceptively Delicious. The whole concept is pureeing veggies and sneaking them into traditional recipes. I’ve done this sort of deception before, shredding carrots and zucchini into muffins and adding some soy protein here and there. But this takes the effort to a whole new level, pureeing veggies ahead of time and storing them in the freezer for regular use.

    I still think it’s important to continue to present veggies in their whole form, since I want to continue to encourage the eating of recognizable vegetables, but I am not above a little covert cooking as well. One of my children will happily gobble up just about any veggie, but the other one only eats two vegetables. So Sunday night I spent two hours pureeing. And as I surveyed my results, I have to say that if all those veggies end up in my kids, it was worth the work.

    Of course, if you didn’t have time or desire to do all this puree prep work, you could easily just stock jars of baby food, and that would do the trick as well.

    Will keep you posted on how I fare down this road…

  • Random photos from a Sunday

    Random photos from a Sunday

    100707_01

    100707_02

    100707_03

    100707_04

  • Insect of the Day

    Insect of the Day

    100607_01

    100607_02

    100607_03

    Today I found a praying mantis. Knowing how my junior entymologist adores anything a bit out of the ordinary, I popped it in a container and brought it inside.

    Big hit. But now we’re not just satisfied with looking at the bug, we want to know all about it. Like what does it eat? And can we feed it?

    With a little research (thank you internet) we discovered that they eat small bugs, among other things. Having had our doors open off and on this week, we’ve got an ample supply of flies running around, so in no time, Tom was able to catch a fly.

    Now, I have to say, I’m really not a bug person. They kind of give me the heebie jeebies, and the whole crawling sensation, well, ick. But ever since Neko has become interested in bugs, I’m weakening my stance a bit. This whole praying mantis thing was, well, really quite intriguing.

    First of all, they are FAST! They look like this delicate bug, but all of a sudden it zips around and makes a move for a buzzing fly. And the articulation of its head is amazing. It could be facing the other way, and then all of a sudden cranes its neck all the way around to look you dead in the eye. A little creepy, but fascinating, too. After a few attempts it caught the fly, and, well, we got to witness the food chain first-hand. I thought this might disturb Neko, but instead she was just really interested.

    It was getting dark when we finally let it go. Neko’s getting much better about letting these little creatures go. But we always have to take a picture so she can remember them.

    Also included, Neko’s illustration of our visitor.

  • Mix-up

    Mix-up

    100507_01

    100507_02

    100507_03

    100507_05

    100507_06

    100507_07

    100507_09

    100507_08

    I was dreading this afternoon.

    Tom went to a concert out of town tonight, so I was on my own. The afternoon loomed ahead. I stalled getting Neko out of quiet time, but finally relented.

    But instead, it was a nearly perfect afternoon. Neko took the reins on snack, and proudly whipped up a “mix-up” from the ingredients in the snack bin. As we munched our mix-ups, we sat on the patio and decided what shapes the clouds looked like. Neko was a bit of a late talker, so it’s kind of mindblowing as of late to be having these real conversations where there’s give and take and reasoning and pondering.

    When the other kids woke up, we kept bringing them outside and then Susie stopped by with Chris and Alex. We mucked around in the sandbox and they filled dump trucks with mowed grass, constructing a huge pile. Ellery got to spend some time in the swing, which is new for her, and she’s still a little wobbly and uncertain.

    And then all of a sudden it was time for dinner and baths and then everyone was sleeping soundly.

  • Progress

    People need to stop trying to put a bypass through our farm. It’s making me really cranky.

  • Stop squeezing (new ideas into) my Charmin

    Stop squeezing (new ideas into) my Charmin

    100307_01_2

    I consider myself a bit of an environmentalist, but there are some places I like to splurge. Toilet paper is one of them. I only like one brand, and I like to use plenty of it. I refuse to skimp when it comes to this aspect of my life.

    When I picked up my new stockpile of Charmin last week, which I always buy in bulk, I didn’t really think too much when I noticed a packaging change. I picked up my trusty red package. But at the moment of product consumption a few days later, I realized something was terribly wrong.

    Now that I have taken the time to compare my old roll to my new one and browse the internet for answers, I have discovered that Charmin has created a new dichotomy in its line where you get to select between strong and soft, and by looking at the pattern I can see that I’m a “soft” user, but that’s now in the blue package, and I bought the red package, so now I’m stuck with 24 rolls that feel like sandpaper and could probably bear the weight of a small donkey.

  • Getting out of dodge

    Getting out of dodge

    100207_01

    100207_02

    100207_03

    Today was one of those days where we had nothing on our plate, and, quite frankly I needed a little bit of me time. So we loaded up and went to the Children’s Museum several towns over. And they have this really rockin’ dinosaur exhibit, so that’s a reason to spend a stupid amount in gas getting there, right?

    These photos make me realize that my compact camera is completely inadequate in situations where there is no natural light.