The Farm Report

  • Toy stores should sell large piles of dirt

    Toy stores should sell large piles of dirt

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    We’ve got a new driveway. That itself deserves its own post, which I will do later.

    But in the meantime—dirt.

    Because the new driveway is about six inches thick, they dumped these huge mounds of dirt in our yard to regrade the edges. The kids are ecstatic. We spent the better part of the evening outside, climbing up and down. Throwing rocks. The kids decided it was Utah, and went hiking and exploring. Pretending it was a slide. The kids were downright filthy. Glorious summer fun.

    I think we might get another pile of dirt next summer.

  • Field Trip: 8/11

    Field Trip: 8/11

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    Oops. Did your computer just crash from loading all these photos? Sorry about that. There were just so many good ones that I was struggling to edit.

    Today we had one of my favorite field trips. Nancy had arranged for us to go to the farm where she gets her milk. We thought we would simply have a small visit and see how they milk the cows. The farmers had different plans.

    They started by milking a cow for us, showing each step of the process. Then they threw us on the hay wagon for a trip into the field to meet the cows up close and personal. Then back to the barn where the kids got to gather all the eggs from the chicken coop. Then they took us into the house the show us how they make butter, which we then enjoyed on homemade biscuits, fresh from the oven. And when we finished our biscuits? There was homemade ice cream.

    I love unexpected outings like this. I love when people go out of their way to make their teaching a great experience. The kids were enraptured as were the adults.

    In the midst of all this crazy, my heart and soul needed this slowdown.

  • Still…here…somewhere…

    Still…here…somewhere…

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    I know I’ve been AWOL for a bit. We’ve been ridiculously busy.

    It’s that time of year where we completely toss all sense of reason to the wolves and decide it’s time to help remodel another room at Neko’s school. Well, in this case, two rooms. Which was a beyond a ridiculous idea.

    This idea was made even more ridiculous when we accepted a pre-sale for a t-shirt which we thought would sell just a few tees, and then ended up selling 1,200 in a week. Which is awesome, except, oh, crud, weren’t we supposed to be remodeling rooms this week?

    This is the first room just after we finished installation. It still needed the stuff brought in, which includes lots of shiny computers with enormous screens.

    One room down. One to go. And 1,200 shirts to print and ship.

  • Bug of the Day: Tiger Moth

    Bug of the Day: Tiger Moth

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    I know, you are all probably thinking that this is becoming some sort of nature blog. Sorry about that. This is what summer is like around here. It’s beginning to look a bit like a zoology museum, with all the specimens we’ve been collecting.

  • Freckles

    Freckles

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    When I was little I desperately wanted freckles. My tomboy self thought nothing would have suited me better than some summer sun, places to explore, and a face full of freckles.

    Today I looked down at Ellery and noticed the summer sun has spread a sprinkle of across her nose, and omigosh they are adorable. And I’m only just a little bit envious.

  • For the designers

    For the designers

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    I can hardly even stand how amazing this card is. I adore every little decorative element on the type. It had to be documented before we handed it off to Sylvie.

  • Kendall and Grand

    Kendall and Grand

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    We stumbled upon this intersection today while driving in San Diego. Kendall and Grand? We’ve got that back at home, too.

  • Sea World

    Sea World

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    I dare you to walk out of Sea World not wanting to check monster.com and see if there’s an opening for a Marine Life Trainer.

  • The beach

    The beach

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    We have made it to the beach. It’s moments like this that I have extreme guilt about not living closer to the ocean.

  • We made it to Legoland

    We made it to Legoland

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    We made it to Legoland. Shep’s head exploded sometime that morning. You may have heard it all the way from the west coast.

    On a side note, how I adore all the Lego creations. My favorite was the recreation of Obama’s taking the Oath of Office. I imagine there are like, a zillion people in line for that job. But you know, if you hear of an opening…