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!