Preschool Co-op: Fire Safety

Today we joined our co-op friends for a morning of learning about fire safety. 

Here's a look at some of our fun...

Lara read Miss Mingo and the Fire Drill.

 Then we did a craft using a hand print as flames.

 

  

The kids practiced "Stop, Drop, and Roll." Lara would place "flames" on them and while they were rolling around she would remove them.

 

They got to practice dialing 911 (on a pretend phone).

 

Then to practice "Stay Low and Go," they got to crawl under a waving scarf (to represent smoke) and practice testing a door with the back of their hand.

  

I just can't get over the cuteness of these kids together! 

 They wanted to do all these activities over and over. The fire safety theme was a huge hit!

We have so much fun with our friends and love our days together!

Backyard Bounty: Sweet Potatoes

The sweet potato has taught us a lot this year. We learned what a sweet potato blossom looks like for the first time earlier this summer. We learned that we planted our sweet potatoes a tad too late. We learned that we should have planted the 35 slips in a very sunny spot. We did the best we could with our garden spot, but we'll know better for next year. We learned that digging for sweet potatoes is a bit trickier than digging for white potatoes. When we finally harvested our sweet potatoes yesterday, we had some tiny potatoes and some very large. The sunnier garden spots gave us bigger potatoes. The sweet potatoes will cure for about 10 days, and then we'll see how long they last.

{Gratitude} Lately

Every day I look around in amazement at all the 

beautiful, yet simple, things that I'm so thankful for.

Lately I've been grateful for...

a vintage lantern

 pawpaws and their creamy deliciousness

 a little green moth and how it took my breath away with its beauty

 a big brother that teaches a little brother how to make silly faces

 a hay party and new friendships formed there

smiling boys at the local Firehouse Festival

 and for inspirational farms and majestic animals

Local Bounty: Fresh Ginger

I absolutely adore ginger. So when it showed up in our CSA box from Rough Draft Farmstead last week, I was thrilled. We've already enjoyed it in an Asian beef dish and in juices. My favorite combination so far is swiss chard, apple, and ginger. I love the little zip it gives to the juice. This ginger is fresh, so it won't keep as long as the type you get in the store, so we're enjoying it while it lasts.

Pelly's Old Fashioned Farm Day 2013

This was our second year attending Pelly's Old Fashioned Farm Day. 

The boys loved playing in the kiddie pools of corn.

 I loved looking at all the pretty pumpkins, gourds, and antiques.

 

 

We shelled corn to feed to the goats.

We got to pet this huge horse, and then he got back to work pressing sorghum.

 

We visited baby calves.

 

We admired rabbits.

 
 

We also went through a corn maze, a hay maze, and posed for a picture in front of some pumpkins. (Pictures with both boys smiling are getting harder and harder to catch.)

 We love Pelly's and we love Old Fashioned Farm Day!

Fun at Jackson's Orchard with Granna and Papa

Papa and Granna came to visit us, so we headed up to Jackson's Orchard 

on Friday to enjoy some fall fun.

 

Our day included seeing lots and lots of pumpkins,

 

playing on the hay bales,

and feeding lambs, goats, and an alpaca.

We sipped on cider slushes.

 Silas took a ride on Papa's shoulders through the corn maze and

 did some sliding on the Cider Slider with Granna.

The boys enjoyed playing tag in the pumpkin picking patch and

 

and riding on the apple wagon.  

 

Thank you, Granna and Papa for such a fun day!

We Want a Homestead

In the documentary, To Make a Farm, a farmer talks about how if you farm for 30 years, you only have that many times to plant a particular crop. She was talking about planting potatoes and how she was already at a disadvantage for not starting to farm earlier.

It was not until this summer, that we learned what a sweet potato blossom looked like. This year was our first time planting potatoes, sweet potatoes, and butternut squash. We’re just now really understanding the seasons and what grows when. We’re really learning and understanding how to eat seasonally. We’re just now learning the art of preserving. We’ve only raised one flock of chickens.

I think I’ve feared going too public with these plans because I feel as if we are crazy. We’re city slickers and know very little about farming or homesteading or raising animals or anything involved with living off the land. All of our farmer friends know, because we’ve been asking for advice from the start and I’ve been hinting at the move to the country for a while now. But now is the time to actually make it happen. To get serious. To save every penny. To sell our house and move.

Our dream is to have a home on at least ten acres. We want a variety of animals like chickens, turkeys, sheep, pigs, and cows. We want a huge garden. We want fruit trees. We want lots of things that living in the city prevents us from doing. I’ve contemplated homes such as a Yurt, a bus, a shack, a tiny cabin, and a really cheap foreclosed house with holes in the walls in the last few months just to make it happen cheaper and sooner. Patience is definitely not my strong suit. Bryan had to talk some reason into me with some of those possible homes. Then I’ve been sucked into dreaming and have pondered the beautiful historic colonial homes and old farmhouses out of our price range.

Let me try to explain what’s been going on around here since the beginning of the year. I’ve been reading memoir after memoir about farm life and moving to the country. I’ve got a bad case of barnheart, just take a look at the sidebar. I’ve searched for great pyranees puppies on Craigslist while Bryan has had his eyes open for tractors. We admire barns while we’re driving. Bryan and I both have been reading how-to-farm books. We’ve been to discussions on chickens, beekeeping, gardening, and organic farming. We’ve toured and helped out on farms. We’ve noted breeds of pigs and cows and turkeys and sheep that we hope to someday have. I’ve got an awe inspiring Home Sweet Homestead board on Pinterest where my dreaming really gets kicked up a notch every time I look at it. I check the listings on LandWatch daily for houses with more than 10 acres. Bryan and I listen to podcasts about farming and about permaculture. We’re hooked to this docu-drama. We’ve got the passion and motivation, and hopefully the finances to make it all happen will catch up before too long.

So we want a family farm, a homestead, a place where we can grow and raise our own food. Are we nuts? Probably. Are we serious? Yes. We’re already several growing seasons behind. We’ve got to get started and as soon as possible.

5 lbs. of Muscadines

What do you do when a farmer friend gives you 5 pounds of muscadines? 

You make jelly, of course! 

Thank you, Mr. Steve Dolan for the gift of delicious fruit!

Read for the Record 2013: Otis

Yesterday was Read for the Record Day! You can see where we've participated in the world record breaking event since 2009 here, here, and here. (We skipped last year because I wasn't a fan of the book chosen.) This year's book was Otis by Loren Long.

  

We didn't dress up this year, but we did do some painting and tractor making. 

This kid gets so excited about doing the same thing as his big brother. 

 

Our tractors were nothing fancy, just paper and a painted toilet paper tube.

 We also retold the story and did some playing with our farm.

 If you haven't read Otis, it is such a cute story, and it's worth a read any time of the year.