i've been so busy, i haven't had a chance to use the internet to write in a while...
it's been really warm over the past 2 weeks, and the plants went crazy. they grew so much and so fast - spinach, lettuces, radishes, etc.- and we've been harvesting and selling at our farm. then last night, the temperature got down in the low 20's. quite a change. i was really worried about the plants getting damaged, being so much larger than they normally are at this time of year, but we covered everything and they all seem to be fine. now if we only got some rain... it's been so dry, for too long. we barely had any snow this winter, and very little precipitation, and the soil is so dry...
we've been irrigating, but i don't know for how long the well will be able to sustain it. so i'm hoping for rain.

been listening to cohen's new album whenever i have a chance to be alone in the house, which is usually when i'm cooking lunch or washing dishes. can’t listen to any other music lately, only what truly reaches me, like him.

“o solitude of longing

where love has been confined

come healing of the body

come healing of the mind”

from “come healing”

 
peace

Happy Birthday Roxi!

today is my sister's birthday, and it was a beautiful, sunny day, quite a gift, quite fitting.

my sister is the most selfless person i know, and i am amazed that we're sisters. i struggle with selfishness and a whole bunch of other things, so i don't know how she got to be this way, but we are all better off for it.
i feel very lucky also that we're so close to each other, physically and otherwise. she really helps us a lot all year long, canning, cooking, making bread, yoghurt, cheese, jam, etc., and just generally feeding us especially when things get too busy and i can't pull it all together.

so a very happy birthday to you, Roxi, probably the most faithful reader of this blog (well, other than my mom, i guess)!

kitties

our new kitties are really sweet. right now they're still in the house, as we have to keep them in for 4 weeks to get them used to their new home. after that they'll be outdoor cats. in the meantime, we're enjoying their playfulness and friendliness. Mindnight has been very shy, but now he's more used to them and started to play with the babies. the mama cat, LT, is mostly doing her own thing, which i appreciate very much.

these are the two babies, Snowflake and Cookie. they're really nutty and cute, and they play together all the time. Snowflake is giving Cookie a bath here.

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snowflake found this basket and loved playing with it

a nap by the window

peace

our own maple syrup

sweet and delicious. very exciting to have made our own. we got a little over 1 qt so far, but that's ok considering that the sap needs to boil down 40 to 1 ratio to get the syrup. we're not really set up for it either, so we've been boiling on top of the woodstove and some on the electric stove. but it's been fun, and we're still going.

oh, and our CSA is full, which is very, very exciting!

peace

homeschooling and maple syrup

aiyana looking up words in the dictionary

 and working on her math

 ed setting up buckets and tubing by the maple tree

 sap is already coming through

setting up more taps

tasting the sap as it comes out of the tree