more walt whitman

The First Dandelion

simple and fresh and fair from winter's close emerging,
as if no artifice of fashion, business, politics, had ever been,
forth from its sunny nook of shelter'd grass - innocent, golden,
calm as the dawn,
the spring's first dandelion shows its trustful face.

spring is coming

there are many signs:
the snow-whites are poking their heads out of the ground
the chickens have been laying more eggs
the cats are quite excited and want to go out much more than a few weeks ago
sena and aiyana said that they feel something pulling at them to be outside
so, spring must be on its way.

peace

after finding our greenhouse damaged by high winds a few weeks ago, and watching the days go by when i should've been in there planting but wasn't, and feeling all kinds of anxiety about it, we finally got it all fixed again last friday and my onion blocks are in there now, nice and snug, and everything is ok. i really wasn't too late with the planting, but i didn't like not knowing when we'd be able to get the greenhouse back up and when i'd be able to get back in there. we had about $600 worth of damage, and some lessons learned.

so this week i'm finishing planting all the onions, and i'm also starting broccoli, cabbages, kale and parsley in soil blocks. very exciting to be back out there again. i guess the season has begun.
and our CSA is about 75% full, so that's going well.

here's something from Walt Whitman:

"hast never come to thee an hour,
a sudden gleam divine, precipitating,
bursting all these bubbles, fashions, wealth?
these eager business aims-books, politics, art, amours,
to utter nothingness?"

peace

winter, in shades of gray

snow blowing over our field

beautiful, ghostly trees border the edge of another field

picnic table after the storm

 sena and aiyana going out for morning chicken chores the day after the snow

winter, in color

ed took out the tractor to clear snow from our house and some of our neighbors' houses. look at that blue sky....

this morning, aiyana and her good buddy snowflake, were snuggling on the couch. that's pretty much as cozy as it gets, i think.

Aiyana's essay on what farmlife is like for her

My Cats and Chickens

My name is Aiyana.  I am 7 years old.  I live on a farm.  I am responsible for my chickens and cats.  I have four chickens and four cats.

In the winter the cats mostly sleep. They go out only at night time.  Since they don’t go out a lot, they grow fat.  We have four of them.  Their names are: Snowflake, Cookie, Midnight, and L.T.  The cat who is named L.T. is the mother of Snowflake and Cookie.  Snowflake is very loving.  Midnight is huge, but that is okay.  In the summer, they hunt voles and mice.  Sometimes they get chipmunks and birds.  We got them to hunt voles and mice.

We have four chickens. Their names are Cutiepie, Pegleg, Thankful, and Protector.  Protector is a rooster.  Pegleg’s name stands for her leg.  Pegleg has a leg that got turned over and it makes her so she cannot walk.  We don’t know, but we think that she was born like that, but, however, that’s okay.  There are some dangers for the chickens. The good thing is that we keep them in coops.  The dangers are: foxes, raccoons, hawks, and a lot of other stuff.  We move my chickens once a week.  In the winter we have to bring in the water at nighttime so that it does not freeze.  In the summer, we gather eggs from them.  Every day, in all seasons, my sister and I bring water to them and when their food runs out, we bring more food to them.

I saved my chickens because my Dad was going to butcher them.  Now I am responsible for taking care of them.  I really love my chickens and cats.

Aiyana Mocanu Wazer

February 7, 2013

Sena's essay on farm life

Sena, Aiyana and Ed are preparing for some talks they were invited to give for 2nd and 3rd graders from 3 different schools. The talks are next week, and the subject is farm life.
Coincidentally, we're working on essay writing as part of our home-schooling, so Sena wrote her essay on the topic of the presentation. Here it is (click on it to enlarge and it will be easier to read):

Aiyana's still working on her essay, which is very sweet. I'll post it when she's done.
Peace