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Am I a Soccer Mom Now?

We finally made the big step on Wednesday….we traded in our little Mercury Tracer for a mini-van! A grey Toyota Sienna, to be exact. We’ve actually been thinking about getting one since last year, but had to put it off for a while.

I really like it and asked Dave to put a big bow on it for Christmas….like in the commercials and some movies! I know it’s corny, but I’ve always wanted a car for a present. 🙂

Noah and Hannah cried when we took the van for a test drive, but after a couple minutes they settled down. Now Noah is just so excited about “his” mini-van….it’s so cute!

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Where has the time gone?

It’s been too long since I posted last. Let see what’s been going on here… I got a part-time job at a store in the outlet mall, I started painting the living room and hallway and we butchered the turkeys for Thanksgiving (I was the plucker). We also have farm guests … well the sheep do. Two ewes from western NY are staying with us to “visit” with our ram – Karloff.

I’ll try to post again soon … with pictures of our newly painted walls!

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K.I.L.E.

Keystone International Livestock Exposition. We went to Harrisburg on October 2nd to see the National Tunis Show (and all the other animals). Hannah loved all the animals except for the pigs, which Noah loves for some reason. When we were looking at the Tunis sheep she decided she wanted to get in the pen with the “babies.” I told her, “no,” and she showed everyone how well she can fake-cry.Noah was going to help hand out awards to the winners, but the show was running late and he and Hannah were getting hungry and tired. He gave out a few awards then we headed home, making a stop at Perkins for ice cream on the way.

We also got to see Noah’s poster in person at the show…very cool! Oh, and the grand champion ewe at KILE this year was a Tunis ewe from Massachusetts. Yay!

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Noah’s 1st Day of Preschool

Noah has been looking forward to preschool since we visited it last spring and today was his first day. He was so excited and had a great time. He goes Monday, Wednesday and Friday for 2 1/2 hours. Today I took Hannah to get some fall clothes while Noah was in school. I think she really liked have time alone with Mommy… and having all my attention to herself! Anyway, here’s a picture of Noah in his classroom.

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A Great Week

This week has been sunny and warm…and busy! Dave stayed home with us on Monday and Tuesday because he had just finished a big project at work last week. On Wednesday, my dad came up to spend some time with us. We always love when he can visit because we don’t get to see him as much as we’d like.

We spent so much time outside enjoying the weather that we saw lots of wildlife and made many new discoveries this week.

Dave worked mainly on cutting up the Locust trees that fell in August on his days off. While working on the tree out front he found this pretty caterpillar. I researched it online and found that it is a Black-Spotted Prominent caterpillar (Dasylophia anguina). One of their host plants is the locust tree.

 I took out my tomato plants on Tuesday because they had become affected by late blight, a fungal disease. This year I tried a lot of different heirloom varieties in the garden and I found it interesting that the late blight affected the heirloom tomatoes worst than the hybrid grape tomatoes in the same bed. Some of the Brandywine tomatoes were actually rotting right on the vine, which attracted butterflies! I got some good pictures of a Question Mark butterfly (Polygonia interrogationis) feeding on a tomato.
 The different markings on the inside and outside of its wings are amazing. With its wings closed the Question Mark looks just like a brown leaf, but when the wings open they reveal beautiful brown and orange markings. In the fall the butterfly develops a violet margin on its hindwing.
Another fascinating new bug, er spider, I found this week was a female Spined Micrathena (Micrathena gracilis). She is very small and has a web near the lower part of our deck. I first thought there was a parasite or growth on the spider until I looked closer and realized its abdomen is very large and spiny. It was very calm and let me photograph her easily.
These interesting mushrooms are growing in my perennial garden near my rose bush.
They are about 4″-6″ tall, yellow-orange in color and have a slimy, black substance on the cap. They seem to only last a day, appearing in the morning and shriveling up by evening. After some research I found that it is a Stinkhorn mushroom (Phallus rubicundus) and it’s frequently found in mulch and wood chips. Its spores are in the slime, which attracts flies, etc. They get the spores on their bodies and transport them to new places.
Yesterday I took Noah and Hannah for a short walk up to the road.
There were lots of vultures circling above…probably checking out the field across the road. Our neighbor cut hay on Wednesday and some vultures were following the tractor all day, probably hoping for some casualties. Anyway, among the vultures was a Bald Eagle! I pointed it out to Noah and he thought it was cool.

I hope you enjoy all the photos. We had fun exploring and photographing around our little farm.

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Noah’s Birthday

Noah turned 4 this year! He had a great birthday party – the theme was Handy Manny. The day turned out very nice…sunny and warm so the kids could go swimming.

We had pulled pork, pasta salad, grilled veggies and potato salad. I also cooked a leg of lamb on my new rotisserie that turned out terrific! I used a recipe from BBQ University…here’s the link: www.bbqu.net/season2/210_4.html#leg_lamb.

For Noah’s toolbox cake, I used chocolate chippound cake frosted with almond flavored buttercream icing. I covered a wooden dowel with plastic wrap for the handle and iced that, too.

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August 9th – My Birthday

My birthday was a nice, relaxing Sunday. Rainy morning…we got home from church and the rain gauge read 2″. The rain cleared up in the afternoon so Dave and Noah went outside to do some work.

Close to dinner-time more dark clouds started moving in, and the Weather Channel said we were going to get a strong storm. Dave fed the animals and I ordered dinner. I was halfway there when the clouds opened up and I got soaked just running from the car to the restaurant! The closer I got to home, the more leaves and branches I saw in the road. Our driveway was just littered with branches! When I pulled up to the house I saw the tree in our front yard had blown over!
I went around the back of the house and hurried in the garage. There was just a flurry of excitement when I got upstairs. Noah had been at the front window and watched the tree fall. Dave was in the kitchen and saw the wind carry Noah’s empty pool from the deck across the backyard and pin it against the fence. The pvc railing on the pool broke and so did the fence rail.
While Dave watched the pool fly through the yard, the tree by the back barn fell. It missed the barn but took down part of the chicken coop fence.

Another tree fell near the back pasture at the edge of the woods and our neighbor lost 2 trees…one took the rungs off a section of our fence. The storm didn’t last too long at all but the damage was high. About a half hour after the storm past we lost power for about 6 hours. What a day!
Dave came home early from work on Monday and stayed home on Tuesday. He repaired fences and started the long job of cutting up the trees.
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Homegrown Harvest Dinner

We attended the Homegrown Harvest Dinner and Hoedown held by the French and Pickering Creeks Conservation Trust on Saturday, 8/1. What a fun night! Noah and Hannah really enjoyed themselves…Noah did the egg and spoon race and watched the horse pie bingo (I guess the cow couldn’t make it). Hannah walked up and down the little hill in front of our table all night.
It was our first time exhibiting our farm like this. I really enjoyed talking to people about the farm and the animals. We also enjoyed seeing all the other displays. We have a lot of ideas of how to improve our exhibit.
We thank the Consevation Trust for including us in this great event!