Canning

So, it's been long enough since my last entry that I was hesitant to even start up again. But, why not? There are many, many reasons that my energy has been completely tapped out, and most evenings you can find me snoozing on the couch five minutes after I've put Timothy to bed. And that's early. But, we've been busy putting up goodies from the garden. Today was dill pickle day (note the fresh dill heads from the garden too!). And dinner's vegetables consisted of beets, cucumbers and freshly dug potatoes.

I love that. I love how much we've been able to put up this year and I have so enjoyed the picking and freezing and canning that has, at times, given me a sore back. I sit and pore over the Bell Canning book and think what else I could make with the fruits and veggies at our disposal and just hope we remember to pull out the pickled beets or beans often enough throughout the winter so that I can start over again next summer. It also makes me think of all the things I need to plant in the future (mostly thinking of fruit trees).

Of course, canning isn't the easiest thing to do with a toddler in tow who wants to participate in everything I'm doing. I absolutely love this and am so happy to have him involved in the daily chores already. But, dealing with boiling water and super hot ingredients can be a little more complicated with my little guy. So, I try to do a lot of this stuff while he's napping. Easier said than done with my difficult sleeper and I ended up doing the majority of this batch with my little helper. I bet they'll taste better as a result.

Rain

I think this was the last sunny day we had around here... I took this photo two weeks ago.

This rain has been a little frustrating. I am watching my healthy garden drown in just too much water. But as I see that happen, I realize how lucky we are that waterlogged tomatoes are the worst of our challenges with all of this precipitation. Not only that, but remembering how many parts of the country and world deal with drought makes me count our blessings.

In other weather challenges, the big story around here is how to deal with the upcoming winter and staying warm. Again, we are incredibly lucky that our house is so easy to heat. The only problem is the guy we ordered our wood from in March or April still hasn't delivered it--and I don't see it happening. We've called several other people--no one has wood. We have a few fallen trees around our land which will bulk up the pile leftover from last year. I know we'll be fine, although I really wish we had more wood on our property for fear of what the future holds.

I guess we'll all be layering another sweater on this winter!

Dusk

This evening at dusk, as the hermit thrushes were welcoming the setting of the sun, we had a visitor of this young buck. He walked around the backyard for a little over 30 minutes(thankfully, never approaching the garden!) munching on grass and looking around. We have a camera that doesn't zoom very well, but you can see his antlers pretty clearly anyway.

What a beautiful animal--how lucky to have looked out the window at that moment.

Caller #9

Shawn and I haven't gone out a whole lot since Timothy was born. I never did very well with preparing bottles, so it is generally my job to put him to bed at night. Now that he is weaned, however, the only reason preventing us from date night is, well, the cost of going out and finding a babysitter.

Oh yeah, there's also the fatigue factor.

This past weekend, we were listening to a local radio station that plays bluegrass for several hours every Sunday morning. I caught the words Tamarack Grill (a local musical venue and restaurant) and free tickets to lucky caller #9. I looked at Shawn and went over to the phone--I had no idea who the group was, I just thought it would be fun to try! It rang busy for me a couple times and then Timothy started to desperately need something, so I asked Shawn to try just one more time. All of a sudden he starts to say his name and email address, but I thought he was pulling my leg. But no, we actually won the tickets! So, we lined up a babysitter, put the little guy to bed and headed out on our date!

I think I yawned six times in the 5 mile drive to get there. Maybe even before we got on the main road. Once we arrived, however, we found a table (thank goodness--I don't think I could have managed to stand the whole time!), got something to sip on, and chatted while we waited for the band to start. There was an opening band that was just great and a couple really brave people dancing while the entire room watched them. The feature band started a little after 9:00 (which, I must confess, has been my bedtime since Timothy was born!), but they were fabulous. Called Crooked Still--from somewhere around Boston. The banjo player was a riot, the cello player was amazing and the female vocalist had a beautiful voice.

Really, it was a great time. We saw people we haven't seen in quite a while and got a chance to get out of the house as a couple. We were just exhausted the whole time, so it almost seemed like we were forcing it. I wonder how old our children will be before we are not always tired again....

Needs

Timothy woke up the chickens yesterday morning. Yes, most mornings, they wake us up at 5:00 anyway, but Timothy's cry at 4:00 was enough to wake them up through closed windows and across the yard. We got him to go back to sleep for an hour and then, again, a very distraught cry demanding some serious snuggling.



We aren't quite sure what's going on with the little guy, but the last few days he has been incredibly needy and snuggly. He pushes my leg just so while I'm sitting on the ground so that he can crawl into my lap and put his head against my chest and suck his thumb (a new, week-old habit).



This is one of the more challenging parts about being a parent for me. Not the cuddly little boy I have on my hands. I'm loving his love, I gotta say. But rather the fact that Shawn and I are bouncing back and forth all the possible ideas of why he's acting a little off. Is he teething? Did our trip to the coast for a couple days throw him for a loop (it certainly messed up napping)? Is he sick and we're just missing all the cues? I guess I just have to trust that he'd somehow let me know if he needed something in addition to the extra loving that he clearly is looking for right now.

What's funny, though, is that while all he wants is for me to hold him, while we were in Maine, I was so low on the totem pole compared to Daddy. Everything he did he wanted Daddy with him. It was so beautiful watching the two of them play. And boy, did he have fun.

Good books

I like a good book (I enjoy a good biscuit, too--aren't they yummy?) and I appreciate good writing. Not that all the books I read are considered great literature, but that's another story. Now, while you can't always judge a book by its cover, more often than not, you can make a pretty decent choice by a quick perusal on the back.

Now that we're getting into lots of children's books, I am discovering the same is not necessarily true. I pulled out a book the other day with a lovely cover with a title like "Little Big" or some variation thereof. As we started to read through it, however, I discovered some really, really bad writing. How hard is it to identify something that is either big or little I wonder? The book made no sense. Not that I need sense. Timmy and I both enjoy some superb little gems that make no sense at all, but this one had no flow and was nonsensical in a way you don't want a children's book to be.

It surprises me sometimes what books get published. It seems like there are quite a number of kids' books that get published, assuming kids don't need substance. Timothy certainly knows what he likes and doesn't--one of his current favorites is "Ten Minutes to Bedtime", a book with fantastic illustrations of vacationing hamsters, attending the bedtime routine of a little boy. It is mesmerizing for both of us.

Here's to sitting down with a good book!

Farming

Our neighbor has an organic dairy farm of Jersey cows. They are my favorite kind of cow, I would have to say, and I fell even more in love with them on Monday when Timmy and I got to pet some of the calves, one of which was only 1 week old.

We chatted a bit with the farmer--a very nice, down to earth, true Vermonter--and I was asking him some questions about the animals. Conversation led us to the fact that of his three kids, none of them are really interested in carrying on the farm. This makes me so sad, and I know it does him as well. He's got his hopes on some grandsons who are really interested in everything right now, but the oldest is 11. A lot might change in the next ten years as far as what that little boy finds compelling enough to choose as a career.

And while I love having a farm up the road and dream of having a barn and some animals here, I know it is a huge amount of work with not a huge payback. You don't get a vacation and much of your work is significantly affected and determined by fickle Mother Nature. Take the bales of hay in the picture--after weeks of daily thunderstorms, he was finally able to hay on a crystal clear day. The weathermen had projected a completely dry day--it was perfect haying weather. The field had been tedded a couple times and the tractor was raking the dry hay into rows preparing to bale. Hours of work had gone into it. And as he was about 1/3 done with the raking, it started to pour and lasted about five minutes. Five minutes ruining a day's work and compromising the value of the hay.

So, while I love the presence of the farm, I don't think I would have it in me to deal with those sorts of setbacks on a regular basis. It'd be nice to see the farm subsidies going to these small family farms rather than the huge factories of animals where profit is all that matters. Hard to call those farms.

Here's hoping the grandkids want to keep up the farm.

Spice of Life

I'm a fan of variety. I definitely have my favorites, but I like mixing it up some too.

Take peach pie, for example. Perhaps not my absolute favorite, but when peaches are juicy and sweet, how can you go wrong with a lovely pie to change things up a little?

While I often feel a little less inspired to cook in the summer, I still love to pore over my cookbooks looking for inspiration and all the recipes I have yet to try that sound tasty. Funny that I do feel a little lacking in inspiration given the bounty of beautiful fresh fruit and veggies. But, these are usually so good, there's no cooking required. I am also a lousy griller, an area of cuisine that is so welcome in the warm days of summer. Baking is one area that I never feel lacking in ideas and while I sure love chocolate chip cookies, there are so many other kinds of cookies to try! Who knows but that new favorites might be found in the process of all this experimentation?

Busy

How quickly the days go! Timmy's decided that he'll just keep up with the continuous growth spurt and his personality is developing into quite the little squirt! He's really been enjoying our chickens... well, the hens anyway. The roosters scare us both, to be honest! He is quite a handy little chicken catcher--I've had to pry his tight grip from around the tails of these lovely ladies as he holds them up to his chest.
Our garden is growing beautifully. The mix of sun and rain has done wonders for the veggies and, well, everything is doing great. We're starting to get lots of blossoms on all sorts of plants, so we're looking forward to harvesting some yummy stuff soon.
And our little guy learned how to climb a couple days ago. Unfortunately, his judgment hasn't kept up with his physical development and he doesn't always choose the safest places to climb. He sure is proud of himself though!

Going with the flow

We were invited to a dinner party on Saturday night by some co-workers of Shawn's. There were to be eleven of us, hosted by a Middle Eastern couple. We asked what we could bring, and the hostess laughed, saying she didn't understand the American habit of wanting to bring something--it is something they don't do. But, she told us we could bring a dessert, so I made fruit tarts. I was so proud of myself--I had managed to make the two different fillings (the above is a vanilla pastry cream and below is a lime curd) and the crusts on Friday and all that was necessary on Saturday would be to assemble, a process I really enjoy. While I struggle with cake decorating and the use of icing, I love this kind of thing.
Assembly of the tarts was going quite nicely--my intention was to lay the strawberry tart in the middle of a large platter and surround it with twelve of the blueberry lime tartlets. I filled each on a different plate so as to not dribble on the larger platter and to ease refrigeration and was planning to transfer them before we left. While the strawberries were a tad off-center, it looked lovely. As I went to transfer, however, I managed to collapse a side of the crust. I cursed. Loudly. Luckily Timmy was outside playing with Shawn. Then I tried to slide a knife under the tart to give some more leverage. And more collapse. This time I cursed and jumped up and down, so mad at myself for stupidly thinking I could transfer it after having filled and decorated it. And feeling sick to my stomach that I had worked so hard on this perfect looking tart just to break it before we even arrived.

This was on top of the stress I was feeling about Timothy being put to bed by someone else--a first for us.

The anger and frustration lasted while I got myself dressed for the party, but when I looked at the tart again, I realized you couldn't really see the crust from the top, and as tarts are rather difficult to cut without making a mess, I knew the crust would break anyway.

Everyone loved the tarts (and they travelled better not being on the larger platter, anyway), Timothy fell asleep with no problem and yet again, I had the lesson of rolling with the punches--stress isn't going to help any of us. To be honest, I came to it sooner than I usually do.

And Timmy just loved the blueberries!

Afternoon visitor

I was outside working to extend a flower bed to fit a new rhododendron and looked up for some reason. There in our field, standing still as can be and watching ME was this beautiful moose. It seems like all the moose I have seen in the last few years were in the process of changing their coats and therefore looked pretty mangy. This girl was just beautiful. Sleek and prehistoric all in one.


This picture was taken on Saturday--the first of a string of steamy days in the Northeast. Shawn's grandmother got a new ATV and we were taking it for a test drive. The ride to the stream, he was facing the other way, arms wrapped around my neck. On the way back, however, he was as relaxed as I think he has ever been. It is so interesting to watch him figure out the entire world and learn what is scary and what is not. If only he were more tentative around things that are dangerous! But he is constantly having big, full days, because every day is new and carries adventure and, in his mind, great risk. He takes it all with a grain of salt for the most part, but generally happily hanging on to me. On those days when I get frustrated with his clinginess because I can get absolutely nothing done, I need to remember that he is probably overwhelmed, overtired or just not feeling well and tomorrow is another day and he'll eventually overcome that fear or stress. We certainly had a wonderful day together today--river walking, picnicking, pool wading and just exploring. Not a bad life we have here.

Great outdoors

Here's the almost completed chicken coop! Shawn got the windows in last night and we just have to do some trim and doors to finish it up. We'll need to stain it, too, but that isn't a must for the little chicks to start residence. You can also see the plants starting up in the garden. The main two rows of green are some snow peas and the beans are just poking their heads up in the rows next to them. The last few days of rain helped a lot of things along, and now we just need the ground to warm back up for a major growth spurt. Considering their talking of 80s in the next few days, I think we'll see a lot of growth!
Here's our first iris! We transplanted a bunch of flowers from Shawn's grandmother this year and this is our first blossom. The lupin are forming their stalks and the lilies are bushing out nicely--it is so cool to see our gardens coming together.
Timothy is exerting more and more independence. He chases the dogs around with their leashes, wanting so badly to hook them and lead them. I humored him here, and thank goodness Bella is such an easy going dog. She munched on grass while Timmy led her around the yard. He was in heaven. Actually, he's pretty happy whenever we're outside. I'm so happy to see him as an outdoor kid--hopefully he'll always enjoy it.

Today, we're going to help family with flower planting. Well, it'll be a chance for Timmy to see his grandmothers and to play in the dirt anyway--I'll probably spend more time distracting him from pulling up what is planted than actually helping with the flowers, but we'll see.

Testing

Timmy knows what 'no' means. He just doesn't care. I'm not entirely sure what to do about that and how to convince him that listening to me is, well, the right thing to do. Any suggestions?

There are a number of things that Timothy will just continue to do despite the knowledge that he shouldn't do it. Like when he is no longer hungry, he likes to drop his food on the floor. I say no and then he stares straight at me holds his hand out with a fistful of food and lets 'er rip. Often, he tilts his head to the left right before he does something he shouldn't, so at least I have warning. He loves to crawl under the computer table and pull at cords and his new favorite game is pulling the cover off the speaker and drag it around the house similarly to the bread peel you see above.

Safety issues are what really get me. Timothy has been great about standing at the top of the stairs and then pointing to tell me he wants to go down, never making a move to try it on his own. Of course, I'm always right there with him, so he doesn't have that much of an opportunity to try it. Today, I was in the bathroom emptying a diaper but had my eye on the little guy who was on the move. He had been pushing around a xylophone in his bedroom when I snuck out, but then he headed to the top of the stairs. We made eye contact, I said no and told him to wait for me, he hesitated and then moved his little foot over the next step down. Fortunately, it was in slow motion and I was doing the leap through the air as he was about to lose his balance. I caught him just in time, he seemed a little surprised but didn't fuss a bit.

I wish it had scared him, though. Maybe he would be a little more willing to follow what he clearly understands I'm saying. Seriously, any suggestions for enforcing 'no' to a one year old?

Anyway, doesn't he look so grown up here??? These are his first two piece pajamas!

Funny kid

Timmy's favorite activities, aside from playing in the yard, are doing just what we're doing. He squeals in glee and runs to the closet when I say the word 'vacuum'. And what he wants to do is be in charge of the process. Notice the photo above--he was annoyed with me when I tried to do the vacuuming and he couldn't be fooled to have the attachment unattached from the vacuum. He wanted to be the one cleaning.

Today, when he was grumpy and I asked if he wanted to make bread, he stopped crying and nodded vigorously. He wants to put his hands in the dough, stir when necessary, add any additional flour. It is so cool watching his excitement with our daily activities.


A funny story from nap time this morning--he was rather quiet for a while and I thought he had fallen asleep when all of a sudden I heard a 'thump'. He has managed to grab a few things from his book shelf such as a picture frame that was too close to the crib and a few dust covers I had removed from books as the temptation to tear is quite high. When I heard him awake this morning, I discovered a couple books on the floor and he actually managed to get a large book inside his crib through the slat. This took some serious maneuvering and nimble finger work to say the least. I guess being able to entertain oneself is a good skill....

Hard work

While I finished planting tomatoes and additional squash and pumpkin today, Timothy did a lot of work of his own.


Surveying his domain, Timothy is mulling over what needs to be done next.

With a change of hats, he does some cruising around, very intent on crossing and recrossing the yard. And plowing the already planted garden....
Not quite sure what was so important that I needed to interrupt the loading of the dump truck, but obliging nevertheless.

Poor little guy worked so hard all day and then I had to go and bring him to the doctor's. Good news--he's healthy as can be and growing like crazy. He's evened out a little. Now, no longer inches about the 100th percentile, he is 95 for height and 90 for weight. Well, his head is still off the charts, but not so markedly as last time! Bad news--he needed three band aids to cover all of his wounds which is tough on several counts. Holding him down was quite traumatic for both of us; the needles really hurt; and boy, he does NOT like band aids. He was more ticked off about the snoopy bandage on his finger than anything.

So, tomorrow, more work, but hopefully no pain.

Firsts

It feels like months since I've last written on here--funny how much can be fit into three weeks. I've been working like crazy to get our garden planted, and in the process, got caught up in a lot of other dirt patches. We now have a little herb garden, a garden with our regular veggies like beans, peas, onions, tomatoes (the list is far too long to be all inclusive!), a separate garden with rhubarb, asparagus, corn, squash and 500 baby Christmas trees, another patch with sunflowers and zinnias, and then my three flower garden spots. All need to be mulched, all need to be weeded. It is a huge undertaking, but I am absolutely loving it!



Another hefty undertaking was preparing for this past weekend when we had several birthday celebrations for our little 1 year old! This cake was one of two--this was the pretty one, although both tasted quite scrumptious. I'm kicking myself for forgetting to take a picture of the cake from the previous weekend when my brother graduated from UVM--it might have been the best cake I've ever made--Lime and Coconut. Very, very tasty.



Timothy has certainly had a number of firsts in the last few days. This was his first ice cream--he really had no idea what to make of it and kept making these funny faces where he'd scrunch up his whole face and kind of laugh. He had no clue that he was supposed to lick the ice cream, and kept putting his hand in it.


This was Timmy's first birthday present--a radio flyer wooden wagon that he is absolutely in love with. It didn't take him long to figure out how to take the sides off and crawl in, but now he can get in even with the wagon intact. He stands in it and rocks his whole body, trying to get the thing to move forward. This was during Timothy's party--it was a beautiful day. This was the first time I really noticed Timothy actually playing with another baby. Oskar and he were digging in the dirt together for a long time--I'd love to know what each is thinking here.
Timmy's eating his first icing right here. Again, I'm not sure he knew what to do with the piece of cake that was sitting in front of him, but he was very intent for a while. He didn't eat a whole lot, which was probably better for all of us, but he did seem to enjoy what he had.


I'll try to not let so much time go by before writing again. I didn't think anyone would really notice, but I've been getting nudges, so here we go.

Oh, another first--Timothy and I met up with my friend Chris today and he played for a while at a playground. He went down the slide, swung in the swing, played on the see-saw. He was in heaven. He'd get a look of minor fear on his face at the top of the slide, and then all of a sudden it would turn to glee and as soon as he'd get to the bottom, he'd turn around and try to climb back up to do it again. It was harder for me to trust he was steady enough than it was for him, I'll tell you that. He had a blast. I can't believe how big he's gotten and how much changes in just one year. Just amazing.

Aero

Timmy and I went on a trip to the racetrack in Louden today. No, not to test our luck nor to try to race other wagoners, but rather to check out the alternative energy car that my brother helped design and build. Lame sister that I can be at times, I neglected to get any pictures of the car itself (that won 2nd place for design!), but I did manage to get some cute shots of the boys.



Notice Timmy's stance in this shot... he is pushing with all of his might and Megan has to give some resistance to keep Oskar and Timmy from going too fast. Axel is in the process of running back and forth to the grass and filling the wagon with lovely dandelions.



And check out Timmy's face in this last picture--he's giving me this look of 'how could you put me in here, Mom?" He much preferred pushing to riding.

It was a great day--really cool to watch a bunch of student-made cars cruising around a track and see how much work went into the whole thing.

Pretzel Morning

My fellow baker and blogger and stay at home mom friend suggested a pretzel bake-off for today. I've been really enjoying trying new recipes in the last many months, and it is particularly fun to experiment with goodies that you don't typically think to make at home.

I was a little worried at first because the dough didn't seem to rise much the first time around. For its second rise, however, I set it in a warm oven and it got to the desired doubled size. I managed to shape almost all of the pretzels during Timmy's nap, but anyone who knows him knows he doesn't sleep much, so he supervised for the last four.



We made 4 salty, 4 cheesy and 4 with cinnamon sugar. Sweet is definitely my preference, but all are tasty! I was a little surprised at how the crust turned out given their lovely golden color--they were chewy, not at all crusty. This is due to the baking soda in the boiling water, apparently.



Everyone seemed to enjoy! I think we'll have to make these again.

Spring

Well, it's the last day of April and it's snowing. You'd think I'd be upset about it, given the painfully long winter we've had. But, I feel better about it snowing the day before May than did in March because I know it won't last. We really are in spring. It doesn't hurt, either, that the last three weeks have been simply glorious and that I've had lots of time to work in the garden and get my hands in the beautiful brown earth.



The weekend couldn't have been better, actually. Shawn got to work on the chicken coop with his dad and we also got the gardens tilled. Yes, gardens. Due to the powerful growth of our pumpkins last year and the limited space for the amount of corn we want to grow, we have an entire garden dedicated to pumpkins and corn. That's not entirely true--I took half a row to start an asparagus bed and the other half of that row will be for baby Christmas trees to be transplanted in a couple years. In the main garden I got some onions and garlic planted and took some left over spinach, lettuce, beet and carrot seeds from last year to see what happens. Might be too early, but it's worth a shot! A biking partner told me she picked some spinach from her garden last week!



Although I feel a little inept in the landscaping department, I also started working on my flower beds. We had some brick left over from our chimney, so I thought it might work out okay as a garden border. It turned out pretty nice, albeit slightly crooked.

The end of it will be a small herb garden--the chives are already established, but I plan to plant oregano, thyme, dill and lavendar. Oh and coriander, too. While cilantro and I don't get along too well, coriander is quite useful. I have basil started, too, but I prefer to keep that inside in pots. I have fresh basil going throughout the entire winter and it is so easy to grow.



So, knowing that we have the entire summer still ahead of us, I can deal with a few more snow flurries. It is almost nice to have the excuse for a nice cup of tea, and well, apple turnovers to go along don't hurt either!